Posted by Phil Dickens on 18/03/2011 · 1 Comment
During the election campaign that saw Labour sweep to power in 1997, Tony Blair boasted that his government “would leave British law the most restrictive on trade unions in the Western world.” And so it did, not only maintaining the anti-strike laws implemented by Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit but adding to them. Aside from … Continue reading →
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with anarcho-syndicalists, anti-strike laws, anti-trade union laws, Anton Pannekoek, blockades, CNT, collective decision making, direct action, firefighters dispute, fundraising, industrial action, Lindsey oil refinery disputes, Liverpool Antifascists, mandated delegates, Margaret Thatcher, mass assemblies, mass pickets, militancy, miners, Norman Tebbit, picket line, postal workers, printers, Public Order Act, rank-and-file control, sabotage, scabs, Seattle general strike, sell out, solidarity, strike, strike committees, strike funds, Tom Mann, Tony Blair, trade union bureaucracy, TUC, wildcat strikes
Posted by Phil Dickens on 13/02/2011 · 4 Comments
One statement that I quite often make is that I’m not a trade unionist. This can confuse those who know me, because I am a member and active rep within the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). However, though I believe in worker organisation as a part of class struggle and the challenge to capitalism, … Continue reading →
Filed under Anarchism · Tagged with anarcho-syndicalism, Anton Pannekoek, bottom-up organisation, bureaucracy, Capitalism, class unity, class war, closed shop, collective decision making, CWU, full time officials, industrial peace, labour power, leadership, mass participation, mediation, militancy, partnership with bosses, PCS, rank-and-file, reformism, regulating class conflicts, revolutionary unions, scab, self-organisation, SolFed, trade union, trade unionism, union reps, union scab, worker assembly, working class
Posted by Phil Dickens on 20/12/2010 · 9 Comments
The recent student protests – in particular the siege of Millbank Tower and the riots on the day of the tuition fees vote – have provoked an awful lot of debate. Among other things, it brought the boogeyman of anarchism back into the media spotlight and helped to reinvigorate the fight against the cuts. What … Continue reading →
Filed under Debate and discourse, The state · Tagged with Anarchists, Buenaventura Durruti Dumange, Day X, Demo 2010, direct action, Emmeline Pankhurst, graffitti, militancy, Millbank Tower, pacifism, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, police brutality, private property, property is theft, Rudolph Rocker, student protests, vandalism, violence
Posted by Phil Dickens on 07/03/2010 · 1 Comment
Following on from Exploring anarcha-feminism, the second in a series looking at anarchism as it relates to feminism, gender equality, and patriarchy. In her 1897 essay, The Status of Women, Past, Present and Future, American feminist Susan B Anthony proclaimed that “suffrage is the pivotal right.” This meant, in essence, that “there never will be … Continue reading →
Filed under Exploring anarcha-feminism · Tagged with Alexander Berkman, anarcha-feminism, Anarchism, Christabel Pankhurst, electoralism, Emma Goldman, Emmeline Pankhurst, Espionage Act, feminism, Freedom or Death, German Peril, Global Women's Strike, Imperialism, International Women's Day, militancy, No Conscription League, radicalism, reaction, Red Scare, suffrage, suffragettes, Susan B Anthony, women's liberation, Women's Social and Political Union, World War One, WSPU
Posted by Phil Dickens on 31/10/2009 · Leave a Comment
Following on from Black anarchism, the second in a series of articles discussing the anarchist movement as it relates to non-European peoples and cultures. The Middle East is, perhaps, a hub for the most oppressive injustices in the world today. Contained within this one region, you can find powerful examples of almost every evil that … Continue reading →
Filed under Anarchism, ethnicity & culture · Tagged with Afghanistan, Anarchism, armed resistance, Hamas, Hezbollah, Imperialism, Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Middle East, militancy, occupation, reaction, revolution
