From The Land of Proudhon
Social revolution is a term associated with anarchism. The ideological background is that a political revolution does not extend much beyond redecoration or reoccupation of institutional dominance. This is precisely what anarchists contest. The question is: to remain in the social struggle, even if it is the wrong direction as in Spain in 1938? Many anarchists would not have the heart to give up the fight. Dealing with the process towards the lost revolution is the book of Daniel Aïache , La révolution défaite , Les groupements révolutionnaires parisiens face à la révolution espagnole (The Lost Revolution , Parisian Revolutionary Groups With Regard to the Spanish Revolution , Paris, 2013).
What type of organization did Bakunin have in mind for the struggle for social change? He drew the lines in his ” Revolutionary Catechism ” (not to be confused with the ” Catechism of the Revolutionary” by Serge Netchaïev ). Revolutionary catechism is one of the two chapters of Bakunin’s Principles and Organization of the International Revolutionary Society (1866). The French edition (Éditions du Chat Ivre, 2013) is accompanied by a comprehensive introduction of the French philosopher and anarchist, Jean-Christophe Angaut. Continue reading
Who Cares? The Care UK strike, why it matters and what you can do about it.
A guest writer for Freedom takes a look at the current Care UK strike and asks the question: why is it important, and what can anarchists do to help?
Care UK workers in Doncaster, having already been on strike for 48 days, have just begun another three weeks’ worth of strike action, from 7am at Monday 25th August to Monday 15th September. A dispute of this length and intensity is almost unheard of in the context of present-day UK trade unionism, and so it’s worth taking a closer look at what’s going on, and what we can do to help
Services for people with learning disabilities in Doncaster, previously provided by the NHS, were flogged off to private provider Care UK earlier this year. As part of this process, care workers were told to accept a 35% pay cut, and new workers were brought in on £7 an hour. They responded by striking, demanding that the wages of the lowest-paid staff be brought up to a living wage of £7.65, and that more experienced staff should also be given a basic wage rise to keep them in line with NHS conditions. Care UK bosses have been unwilling to give ground, and so the workers have made a determined stand: they first voted to strike in February, and they’re still fighting on today after having lost nearly 50 days’ pay so far, in one of the longest-running strikes in the history of the healthcare sector. Continue reading
Notes from the US: July
Louis Further rounds up the news from the US you may have missed in the month of July.
Violence
Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan, on whose imprisonment Freedom has reported recently, was freed from Rikers Island jail in New York City in July. A short time afterwards a report by the ‘New York Times’ exposed the extent of brutal attacks by prison officers there. New York city’s health department carried out a secret study and found that abuse was widespread and routine. Over an 11-month period in 2013, ‘serious injuries’ were inflicted by staff on as many as 129 prisoners. In 77% of cases, the prisoner had a mental illness. (Rikers now houses approximately the same number of mentally ill people as all 24 psychiatric hospitals in New York state combined.) Typical seems to be one instance when jailers intervened to stop a prisoner from hanging himself. But he was forced to lie face down on the floor and punched so hard that he suffered a perforated bowel and needed emergency surgery. Another prisoner was beaten so badly that he nearly died. Continue reading
From the Land of Proudhon
Thom Holterman brings us the first of a regular series of news and book reviews from the French anarchist movement.
I. Tarnac affair
On the 11th of Novermber 2008 ten young people were subjected to early morning raids in the French village of Tanac, garnering widespread media attention. They were investigated under suspicion of sabotaging French railway lines and the Minister of the Interior at the time deemed it necessary to inform the country of a, “anarcho-autonomous clandestine structure,” that was,” focussed on committing violent acts.”
Now, nearly six years later, the police and other anti-terror organisations have failed to turn up any hard proof. The case appears stone cold and unsurprisingly clear records of police manipulating and falsifying evidence have come to light. The unmasking of undercover British cop Mark Kennedy has thrown the case into even further doubt as he stayed with some Tarnac activists during the summer of 2008. Continue reading
Abortion rights are under attack in Spain, and we must show solidarity with pro-choice struggle.
Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon: Justice Minister championing a law that will result in a brutal injustice to Spanish women’s rights.
The struggle for safe and legal access to abortion is an ongoing one. With many states constantly seeking to review or reduce women’s access to abortion, and in doing so police our bodies and our sexuality, Freedom’s regular contributor Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza highlights the recent attack on abortion rights in Spain, and why it is necessary to show solidarity and oppose this restrictive and deadly new Act.
Maybe you are a 40 year-old unemployed mother of 5 in the worst recession of our time, maybe you forgot to take the pill and went to bed with a few too many, or perhaps you have been raped. I know many stories of men who won’t put a condom on when you tell them to: from the cheeky student boy trying to trick you on a one night stand (do you think a vagina is too thick to notice you’re not wearing rubber?) to the abusive boyfriend who wants to control every inch of your body. It is very easy when you don’t have a womb (and don’t care about STIs?) The point is, whatever the reason or context, abortion should be safe, legal and accessible to all. Continue reading
Appeal for Sam Mbah
Sam Mbah is an anarchist activist from Nigeria who has, along with his political activism, written African Anarchism Continue reading
West Mids Antifa Collective On Britain First’s Vist To Coventry
After a weekend that saw demonstrations and actions across the country, West Mids Antifa Collective presents a first hand account of the pro-Gaza and anti-Britain First action in Coventry on Friday, and give an insight into the way WMAC operate.
Yesterday was both a success and a failure in many respects. For well over a month, WMAC have been organising against Britain First’s proposed visit to Coventry as part of their UK road show, which has hitherto been unsuccessful and ruined by antifascist action nationwide. We should add, any critical views of particular groups we have organised with come out of a belief in transparency and honesty in Left organising, and while we have those criticisms we also have deep respect for those who joined us in solidarity and helped to promote the event and build numbers, especially the Trades Council and Coventry Friends of Palestine.
After a few hours of online research we stumbled across a photo of party leader Paul Golding and some other sad looking characters standing on the staircase of a Coventry hotel. There was no information given but a Google search of the suite names on a plaque behind them provided the location. We later called the area manager of the hotel chain and expressed our concern, sending over information about their campaigns and mosque ‘invasions’. He informed us that not only was he unaware of their meeting, but as a Muslim himself he found it to be both offensive and disturbing. He assured us they would never be back again. We will keep this hotel anonymous.
Less Evil is Still Evil: Post-Gove Education and the New Morgan Era
Today’s cabinet reshuffle has seen the downfall of despised Education Secretary, Michael Gove. Here current education worker Daniel Dawson discusses Gove’s replacement, and the radical class conscious education they want to see in place of the current system.
Within less than a week of the largest public sector strike since November 2011, the Conservative Cabinet reshuffle sees the most gangrenous attachment to Education since trench foot, Michael Gove, demoted to Chief Whip. Schools across the nation rejoice! I myself allowed a moment of intense relief as I spread the good news among the staff of the mediocre academy where I work, before reminding myself the old adage: Never trust a Tory.
Nicky Morgan, Gove’s replacement is an unsurprising choice by Cameron, having expressed the desire to be rid of the ‘pale, stale and male’ image of the Conservative party. Affirmative action in practice! And I’m not even against affirmative action, but what I am in opposition to is the Tory Neo-liberalist take on Feminism which propels an equality minister, who famously opposed gay marriage, into a position she has no experience of just because Cameron wants more women in plain view for a pre-Election bid for support. Continue reading
Press release from Harmondsworth detainees protest 14/07/2014
At 9pm tonight (Monday 14th July 2014) 60 detainees at Harmondsworth mens immigration detention centre began an overnight demonstration, occupying the courtyard. They are demanding that all those on the now unlawful Detained Fast Track (DFT) system are taken off DFT and released.
Following last weeks High Court decision ruling the operation of DFT unlawful, detainees have been organising inside detention centres, gathering petition signatures on a petition as follows….
We are detainees in Colnbrook. The High Court has said the way fast track is operated is unlawful. That means the decisions in our cases are the result of unlawful treatment. We demand:
1. We are taken off fast track and released now
2. All decisions and removal directions in our cases are cancelled
3. We are able to bring new asylum cases under fair conditions, not in detention.
Over 200 detainees have so far signed the petition.
Tonights protest was sparked by the imminent charter flight that will see 270 people deported to Pakistan, the majority of whom are on DFT – this is a gross miscarriage of justice. There are two more charter flights in the coming two weeks.
Notes from the US: Economics, Violence and Environment
Louis Further rounds up the news from the USA you may have missed.
Environment
A review published in mid-June by the Associated Press found that the Obama administration does not inspect four out of every ten new high-risk oil and gas wells. It seems that The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been so overwhelmed by the current increase in fracking that it has not been able to keep up with the numbers of ‘regular’ oil wells still needing oversight; these include those near national forests and fragile watersheds. Even a former BLM field officer called the situation “a disaster waiting to happen”.
In mid July over a million gallons of saltwater from oil drilling operations in North Dakota leaked from a pipeline on a Native American reservation; the area covered is almost two miles. The leak by Crestwood Midstream Services has killed vegetation and may have reached a bay connected to a drinking water source for the Fort Berthold reservation. Continue reading
Recent Comments