Readers of Organize! and contacts of the ACF may well know of the revolutionary group Subversion with whom we have had a fraternal working relationship over the last decade. We have organized a number of joint day schools with Subversion, and in Manchester a number of public meetings were also jointly organized. We also co-operated on organizing a series of summer camps with comrades from Subversion. We share many of the political perspectives of this group.
So it is no surprise that we are saddened to hear that the group has decided to call it a day and disband.
In its ten years Subversion produced 24 issues of its magazine, an often thought-provoking and stimulating read. It attempted to get to grips with practical problems facing the r... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The following text is the official workplace strategy of the Anarchist Federation, adopted nationally in April 2009. Drawing on the experiences of AF members at the workplace, it aims to lay out the possibilities for anarchists in the here and now and open debate in the movement on workplace organization.
Preface
It is necessary to explain why we felt we needed to clarify and publish our workplace strategy. Given our stated position that unions are not revolutionary organs, and that they play an important role in the management of workers, many comrades have expressed puzzlement at the involvement of AF members in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Others, hearing these views on unions, did not understand why AF members often jo... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) ACF comrades from London and Woking attended the large Euromarch on June 14th in Amsterdam. The organizers of the march — unemployed organizations, trade unions etc. with an input from Greens, Trotskyists and social-democrats — put forward reformist slogans around full employment and workers’ rights, the protection of welfare provision, and talked about “basic human rights” and “the focus of a much wider campaign to stir the trade union movement in defense of the welfare state”. Labor lefts like Benn backed the appeal. However, there was a large presence at the 80, 000 strong march, of anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists, all of whom attempted to get over an anti-capitalist and revolutionary message... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Dear Organize!
We welcome the initiative that has been created by the formation of the Anti-Election Alliance. We feel that it is a real opportunity for the anarchist/libertarian movement to pull together for a change.
Group sectarianism ghas served only to stifle our movement, and while groups are valid for national action, this is limited in the absence of a nationwide, united, co-ordinated approach to class struggle.
Too often groups are just point-scoring over each other. All of the various groups have their own validities and shortcomings. It is time for us all to recognize what all individuals and groups contribute to the movement as a whole. Infighting and bickering serve only one purpose: the labeling and divisions that the State... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Dear comrades,
The current situation in the class struggle, whilst in many respects sobering, offers great opportunities for Anarchism. Whilst nearly every major struggle requires politicization and confrontation with the capitalist state in order to succeed the ‘revolutionary’ Trotskyist left has proved Itself to be bankrupt. The largest Trotskyist grouping, the Workers’ Revolutionary Party, has shattered into numerous sects; the Socialist Workers’ Party Is Incapable of responding to even the most basic movement of the working class. But in order not to squander this opportunity, class conscious anarchists must work out an effective program, which we can take to our class with confidence.
In 1926, the Organizati... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) World-wide as the crisis in capitalism deepens, handy scapegoats are looked for. Nationalist and extreme right political currents, along with religious fundamentalists are the instruments of this scapegoating and division of the working class. Anti-Semitism, anti-gypsy and anti-immigrant views are peddled, and physical attacks up to and involving murder are carried out by extreme right groups. This climate of fear has the added effect in Western Europe of strengthening the walls of fortress Europe. In France this has been helped by the actions of Algerian Islamic fundamentalists, allowing the State to increase its measures of repression against not only the immigrant population, but against the working class as a whole.
In Britain, the lar... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) ORGANIZE! HAS OCCUPIED a unique position among the many anarchist papers which have arisen in Britain by its consistent format and level of analysis. It has always been intended to sit between the agitational ‘in your face’ rag and the heavier theoretical journal. It is aimed at the reader who doesn’t need to be convinced how bad our life is under capitalism and the state, who is looking for more information and a closer view of the class struggle. This has allowed us to present both current news with in-depth analysis, and longer feature articles on a great range of topics including histories of events and political groups from around the world, and forays into anarchist-communist theory. The ACF does not exist in a vacuu... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Dear Organize!
JM IS RIGHT (see last issue of Organize!). To equate a “project that questions the totality” with “pacifists and gradualists, with no conception of class struggle or revolution” does indeed demonstrate that “the ACF’s understanding of anarcho-primitivism (exhibits) either willful ignorance or a desire to distort it”. It’s reminiscent of the ol’ Stalinist lie that all those more radical than themselves were fascists. Anarcho-primitivism doesn’t “mask capitalism” and deny class struggle. As John Zerzan has said, “it seeks to broaden and deepen our understanding” of it.
Which brings us to Bookchin. It is hard to believe you suffered “no... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The recent elections in Northern Ireland on May 30 showed the rifts and stresses that are growing within both Unionism and Republicanism.
The Unionists had insisted on these elections, and the Major administration, who depend on their support for keeping in power, readily agreed. The results showed that support for the Ulster Unionist Party, led by David Trimble, has fallen in practically every area. The combined Unionist vote, was now split between 11 different parties. This reflects the fragmenting unity among Protestants, where class interests are beginning to reemerge. The Protestant working class, was relatively cushioned economically, in comparison to Catholic workers, in terms of jobs and standards of living. But increasing levels o... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) POLL TAX: What will it mean?
The Poll Tax is, in essence, a tax on being alive
THE GOVERNMENT’S PLAN to replace the current system of domestic rates with a new flat-rate Poll Tax is bad news for working class people throughout Britain.
The Community Charge, or poll tax, will start to take over from the rates system in 1989 in Scotland, and in 1990 in England and Wales, and the poor will immediately feel the effect of the changes.
Under the current system, a ‘rate’ is levied on every building in a local authority’s area, based on the value of the property. People living in a four bedroom house on the outskirts of town pay a bigger rates bill than someone living in an inner city flat or bedsit.
But the new... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) We have had cause to mention the wildcat actions of postal workers a number of times in the pages of Organize! Recent struggles in Scotland and London have again shown that posties are lighting the way in organizing actions outside the control of the unions.
In Scotland, a strike that spread to many sorting offices started in Edinburgh in November at Portobello Delivery Office when Royal Mail attempted to downgrade 4 jobs to part-time positions. What this means, apart from the end of four full-time positions, is that the remaining full-timers were meant to cover the extra second deliveries(part-timers only do a first delivery). Management have been threatening to down-grade thousands of jobs to part-time. It is a plan high on their agenda ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Opposition to the Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) from inside the dole office is hampered by the idea that implementing the JSA is in the ‘interest’ of the workforce. This so called ‘interest’ is commonly known as Performance Related Pay (PRP). So how does PRP work? Firstly, objectives are set for the dole office on a national level, these objectives are then broken down into regional objectives, further divided into districts and divided again into office objectives, where finally the manager breaks the objectives down for individual workers.
Objectives Equal More Money
So how are those objectives used to improve pay? Each individual worker is set objectives, agreed with their line manager and in turn with their off... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This latest edition comes out in what is the run-up to a General Election (if Major hasn’t gone for an earlier date than May 1st). On the basis of the Wirral by-election results we can assume a majority for Labor. What Wirral has shown is that Labor have gained the votes of “Middle England”. In the working class, things are a little different. There is increasing cynicism and disillusionment with the Labor Party, especially among young people. Many unemployed people are conscious that Labor, if elected, will be just as vicious, if not more so , than the Tories, forcing them into ill-paid workfare and training schemes. Young people, never in work or in shitty jobs, know what Labor thinks about topics like “young offen... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) In the last year American anarchists have had the dissolving of Love and Rage, an upsurge in industrial action by workers, and continued state repression of members of Black Autonomy. So, what is going on, and what is the hope for anarchist organization in America? In this article we attempt a round up of some of the current anarchist organizations in the United States and Canada, based both on contacts that the ACF has built in the last few years, and from anarchist press and internet sources.
Love and Rage
Bringing anarchists together on a continent wide basis in North America has always been an uphill struggle, never mind the formation of robust organizations such as federations, but the late 1980’s saw several convergences, fi... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) As the ecstasy debate continues with the recent sensationalized Daily Mirror anti-Ecstasy campaign, and the ‘All about E’ Guardian discussion; the general emphasis as always, and not surprisingly , has been on the negative aspects of E — the consequences and the oft quoted statistics of between 50 and 60 casualties from E since 1988; (incidentally drink causes an estimated 28,000 fatalities in Britain per year [Melody Maker 8/6/96]). Even the so called progressive attitudes of the various drug information agencies and experts concentrate on possible harm and side effects. But what about the positives? Are there any? Can millions of people each week be wrong? Does raving /Ecstasy have any place within revolutionary politics... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The consolidation of the extreme right racist Front National continues with the capture of the municipality of Vitrolles in southern France. In the 1994 elections the FN gained nearly 20% of the votes cast in the presidential poll. Previous to the capture of Vitrolles, three other town halls had been taken by the FN. This dramatic rise is a result of years of Socialist rule under Mitterand where the working class became embittered and bewildered by the high hopes invested in a Socialist administration. These illusions had been reinforced by the Communist Party and by the extreme left. The fact that vicious anti-working class measures were carried out under Socialist rule was not something that the leftists were prepared to admit before the ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) With the continuous nearing of the referendum on Scottish independence, the nation’s future and heated debate on pros and cons of the topic have dominated the media and the everyday lives of those involved in politics. Particularly in regards to the rise of Alex Salmond’s government to power, it can almost be said that the political scene we are all used to –discussions on healthcare, education and international relations – has been put on the backburner for an indefinite amount of time. As the movement has gained momentum, the Scottish Left has been quick to ride the wave towards a more determinable future through the Radical Independence Conference.
The conference, which took place in Glasgow’s Radisson Blue... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) In Organize! 48, readers will have seen that the ACF was involved in an informational picket of the Italian State Tourist Office in London, drawing attention to the repression recently suffered by sections of the anarchist movement in Italy. This article attempts to offer a history of the repression and attempts to put in context the response of the anarchist movement.
Anarchism has a long history in Italy and deep roots in certain working class communities. Prior to the Fascist take-over of 1922, the anarchists constituted a major force in the Italian workers’ movement, particularly through the mass Unione Sindicale Italiana and the specific anarchist organization Unione Anarchicha Italiana. Anarchists were at the forefront during t... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Recent weeks have seen a large number of demonstrations called by a variety of groups on a number of issues. Here we report back on these events.
Picket of the Irish Embassy, London 23rd April
A request for solidarity demonstrations was sent over the internet by Irish anarchist groups the Workers Solidarity Movement and Organize/IWA. Marches were being organized in Ireland to protest against the racist treatment of refugees arriving in Ireland to protest against the racist treatment of refugees arriving in Ireland and anarchists were asked to picket outside Irish embassies all over the world to coincide with this. Organizing a picket simply involved London ACF contacting all the London anarchist groups and Irish newspapers in London and w... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Introduction
In this pamphlet, we explore different forms of resistance to Nazism in the 1930s and 1940s. Firstly, the Edelweiss Pirates, thousands of young German people who combined a thirst for freedom with a passion for street-fighting and satirical subversion of the Nazi state. Secondly, the story of the FAUD, German anarcho-syndicalists who went underground in 1932 and undertook a long struggle against fascism while continuing to develop networks and ideas aimed at a free society through the general strike against oppression. Finally, the Zazus, French counter-culturalists and alternative lifestylers – in our terms – who did much more than simply celebrate their difference and party. They fought as well. These stories r... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) On Sunday 5th May, 1996 a campaign calling itself The Land Is Ours organized a land occupation on thirteen acres of derelict land. Around 300 people arrived in two coaches. The land is situated on York Road in Wandsworth, South London and is owned by Guinness.
When the people reached the site they began to transform it into a ‘sustainable eco-village’. The name Pure Genius was decided on (it was previously called Gargoyle Wharf). They started off with building Octavia’s Love Nest, a large wooden octagonal building in which to have meetings, workshops, entertainment, temporary sleeping, etc. People constructed their own temporary homes in the forms of tepees, tents, and benders. For the first week there were over 100 peopl... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Ainriail (which means Anarchy in Irish Gaelic, incidentally) is the bulletin of the Frontline Collective, a class struggle anarchist group in Galway, Ireland. The lead article, which concerns the six county ‘Peace Process’,argues for a class perspective against a nationalist one and calls for the building of a “ Fighting working class movement...to make sure we don’t have a repeat of the past 25 years, which have left us no closer to a real solution.” With which sentiment we can only agree. Included are articles on anti-Traveler bigotry (a serious problem in Ireland, as elsewhere in Europe), the new Criminal Justice (Public Order) Bill (Irish version) and recent anarchist activities down Galway way, among other... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This book, edited and introduced by Vernon Richards, gathers together articles translated in full for the first time and intended to supplement Malatesta: His Life and Ideas also published by Freedom Press. Malatesta was an Italian anarchist agitator active for more than 60 year. He was a leading light in both the Italian and international anarchist movement. These writings are important because they cover the period of fascist reaction in Italy for much of which Malatesta was under house arrest. In this period the soaring hopes of the Italian anarchists with the occupation of the factories in 1919 were to be dismally crushed in the following years. The “preventive counter-revolution” as another outstanding anarchist communist, ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Marqusee is a rarity, describing himself as a deracinated american Jewish Marxist who follows cricket. This excellent book is similarly ground-breaking; a critical, political study of race, class and cricket. The game is used by the ruling class to maintain and promote class rule; society, like cricket, is a ‘level playing field’ where playing by the rules — those set by the rich and powerful — is all important. Similarly cricket is a potent metaphor for the new racism’s language of ‘mutually exclusive cultural identities’ — which just happen to coincide with race.
Class
Cricket’s origin myth is that of a single rural folk game which all classes-and both sexes, adults and children- p... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This is not a book for the weak stomached, being the story of one Black man’s struggle against his, and others, brutalization at the hands of the state and, in particular, the U.S. prison system. It pulls no punches and makes no excuses, Carr was not an archetypical ‘political’ prisoner and people looking for a black and white tale of Good Vs. Evil will find parts of this book somewhat...unsettling.
The important thing about this book, however, is Carr’s evolution, accelerated by his reading of Korsch, Lukacs and the Situationists, from someone with a criminal mentality to someone with a revolutionary mentality. This revolutionary perspective isn’t outlined until the Conclusion of the book but is all the more ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Dole Bondage — Up Yours! is a pamphlet in the form of an open letter of resignation by Stuart Bracewell as secretary of Wales Against the Job Seekers Allowance (WAJSA). It recounts the development of the group until late 1996. By then, as happens in many single issue campaigns, leftist domination of a broad front of activists first rendered the group irrelevant to those it had been formed to empower, in this case the unemployed. Then it sapped the group of the creative energy needed to publicize and fight the issue, by calling another boring demo with limited potential. Finally it destroyed the group as it stood by inactivity, by not building for or turning up for the march they had called, leaving unemployed activists demoralized and... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This excellent pamphlet consists of two essays. The first looks at the pivotal role of ecology in the ultra-Right and the Nazi Party; the second at how green ideas are helping contemporary fascism modernize. Ecological science originated in nineteenth century Germany. Earnest Hackle coined the term in 1867, synthesizing the naturalism and nationalism under the influence of anti-Enlightenment irrationalism (mysticism, occultism) of the romantic tradition. As a Social Darwinist he projected existing social structures such as hierarchy onto nature, where as ‘natural laws’/‘natural order’ they dictated how society must be organized. Thus ‘nature’ supported his promotion of Nordic racial superiority, oppositio... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This book is a collection of essays that have appeared over the years in various radical publications, including Freedom, Our Generation, Anarchy, and Anarchist Studies. Comrade Morris defines himself in the following terms:” ...following Murray Bookchin, I think that Socialist Anarchism is the only viable political tradition that complements ecology, and offers a genuine response to the social and ecological crisis that we now face.”
In his introduction, Morris indicates that the underlying orientation of the collection is to support three interlinked theoretical perspectives and social movements-radical humanism, social ecology, and socialist anarchism. So contained within the covers of the book are essays on Thomas Spence, s... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Ethel MacDonald was born in Motherwell in 1909, into a large working class family. Politically active from a very early age, she was intensely opposed to the political and economic domination of women. She joined the Independent Labor Party at 16. In 1931 she joined the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation (see Organize! 42 for account of the A-PCF). When the A-PCF split in 1934, she left with Guy Aldred to form a new group, the Workers Open Forum. This subsequently merged with a branch of the ILP to form the United Socialist Movement.
In 1936 the USM sent MacDonald to Barcelona with Jenny Patrick, representing the A-PCF, by hitchhiking across France. In Barcelona she became the English speaking propagandist for the Anarchist radio stat... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This pamphlet comes at a time when the struggle against the Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) is beginning to hot up. Indeed, this piece of legislation, the compulsive nature of which is written into its very name, symbolizes the question around which Finding time revolves: how our time is spent (or rather, squandered) in the service of the market.
Workhouse
Jope begins by noting how 70s talk of the Leisure Society has been abandoned. On one hand, there are many now who work excessively long hours and/or do unpaid overtime: in 1992, 15% of British workers toiled for 48 hours or more per week. On the other, for the millions unemployed, their rights to any kind of income or to go into a job of their choosing have been increasingly eroded and res... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)