Property is Theft! has moved…
It has now been over five months since I last updated this blog. This has been for a number of reasons, the main one being that I simply haven’t had the time to sit down and write a post of the length/depth typical for Property is Theft! I had for a while been looking to … Continue reading
On the trade unions and “boring from within”
I’ve written a number of pieces now on anarchist activity within the trade union movement. In particular, I’d point to Trade unions, worker militancy, and communism from below, What is anarcho-syndicalism: revolutionary unionism, Anarcho-syndicalism and the limits of trade unionism, and my most recent post on Building the rank-and-file. However, these have all focused primarily on the difference between … Continue reading
Building the rank-and-file
As we get closer to the possibility of coordinated public sector strikes on June 30th, debate continues to rage about how best to build for the event. In particular, on the libertarian left there has been much talk of the need to build a new rank-and-file. In a recent Truth, Reason & Liberty article on … Continue reading
The revolutionary general strike in an era of casualisation
In the present movement against government cuts, a lot of slogans (and from them leftist strategies) are invoking the idea of a general strike. As a tactic, there are a number of reasons this would not work. Chief amongst them being that a set-piece “one-day” strike is the limit of the left’s ambitions in this … Continue reading
The pros and cons of the black bloc
A black bloc, despite all the controversy around it, isn’t a complicated thing. It is simply the act whereby great numbers of people wear all-black clothing and cover their faces on demonstrations. They then come together as a unit, for both strength in numbers and anonymity. That’s it. It is not an organisation, as conspiracy … Continue reading
Standing on the picket line
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
Communism through the eyes of corpses
The somewhat poetic title to this post comes from a status update I put on Facebook last week; Best descriptor for Marxism and Leninism I’ve ever read has to be “analysing everything through the eyes of corpses.” Genius. This was a reference to the tendency of nearly all groups and currents (though far from all … Continue reading
Defeating the cuts – an anarcho-syndicalist strategy
The following is a draft text which I hope to incorporate into a pamphlet in the near future. The intention is to draw together the different strands of discussion and theory regarding the fight against the cuts and to provide a broader argument for an anarcho-syndicalist strategy in this struggle. As with every blog I … Continue reading
Anarcho-syndicalism and the limits of trade unionism
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
Fascism, fundamentalism, and the left
Originally published in issue 11 of Shift Magazine (Jan 11 – May 11) Since the May General Election, we have been witnessing the slow demise of British fascism as we know it. The British National Party’s spectacular failure tore open divisions and animosities that had been long brewing below the surface. Resignations, sackings, splits, and … Continue reading
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Truth, Reason & Liberty- The last post 04/07/2012
- Anarchists and trade unionists rattle Iain Duncan Smith in Bootle 29/06/2012
- A4e Liverpool feel the impact of another picket and communications blockade 27/06/2012
- Liverpool maintains the momentum against workfare 24/06/2012
- Anti-workfare activity at Bootle Jobcentre Plus 20/06/2012
