Surprise! Austerity is kicking in and, as predicted, the economy is continuing its downward trend. If anything, the speed is increasing with growth in 2010 falling from 1.2% in the second quarter, to 0.8% in the third quarter until, finally, negative 0.5% in the last quarter. Rest assured, though, there is a culprit at hand to explain the last set-back. To paraphrase Michael Jackson:
“don’t blame it on the banks,
“don’t blame it on the dogma,
“don’t blame it on the cuts,
“blame it on the weather!”
Needless to say, “the experts” in the City were both “surprised” and “shocked” by the announcement. The markets had been expectin... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Strange Case of Tory Anarchism, Peter Wilkin, Libri Publishing
What have we done to deserve this? Really, what is it about anarchism which makes non-anarchists think they can appropriate our names and attach it to the ideologies and systems anarchism developed in protest against? Thus we have an oxymoron like “anarcho-capitalism” inflicted upon us, despite anarchism’s well-known socialist credentials.
Now Peter Wilkin has produced a book on “Tory Anarchism.” All that really needs to be said of this book is quote Wilkin himself: “It needs to be stressed that Tory anarchists are not anarchists in the traditional sense of the term” (32) So why call them anarchists? After all, George O... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) “The atmosphere then, the feelings were very special. It was beautiful. A feeling of — how shall I say it — of power, not in the sense of domination, but in the sense of things being under our control, of under anyone’s. Of possibility. We had everything. We had Barcelona: It was ours. You’d walk out in the streets, and they were ours — here, CNT; there, comite this or that. It was totally different. Full of possibility. A feeling that we could, together, really do something. That we could make things different.” Anarchist militant Enriqueta Rovira [1]
The 19th of July, 2006, marked the 70th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Revolution. On this day in 1936, the people of Spain took ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Why is the Spanish Revolution important? Why should it be remembered today? Noam Chomsky summarizes why:
“over most of Republican Spain there was a quite inspiring anarchist revolution that involved both industry and agriculture over substantial areas [...] by both human measures and indeed anyone’s economic measures, quite successful […] production continued effectively; workers in farms and factories proved quite capable of managing their affairs without coercion from above, contrary to what lots of socialists, communists, liberals and others wanted to believe.”
This wide-ranging and inspiring social revolution – even today often ignored in histories of the Spanish Civil War – did... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Author’s Note: This is almost my chapter in the anthology Bloodstained: One Hundred Years of Leninist Counterrrevolution (Oakland/Edinburgh: AK Press, 2017). Some revisions were made during the editing process which are not included here. In addition, references to the 1913 French edition of Kropotkin’s Modern Science and Anarchy have been replaced with those from the 2018 English-language translation. However, the bulk of the text is the same, as is the message and its call to learn from history rather than repeat it. I would, of course, urge you to buy the book.
There were three Revolutions in 1917 – the February revolution which started spontaneously with strikes on International Women’s Day; the October r... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) What a bloody insane way to organize an economy. What other conclusion can be drawn from the panic that is sweeping the financial markets? Starting with problems in the US housing market, the credit crunch has spread across the world. A mere six months ago the chairman of the US Federal Reserve asserted that “the impact on the broader economy and financial markets of the problems in the sub-prime market seems likely to be contained.” The investors in the stock markets have confirmed that he was wrong. Fears of panic are in the air.
The bubble so many denied has burst. In America, for example, the Washington Post‘s main source on the housing market in its bubble years was David Lereah, the chief economist with the Na... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) These are two letters and part of a leaflet related to an article in the SWP’s Socialist Review by Pat Stack on anarchism. This article (imaginatively entitled “Anarchy in the UK?”) was an attempt to rubbish anarchism in the eyes of the “anti-globalization” movement at the time (around 2000). It had to be the worse article on anarchism I had seen (and there is stiff competition for that honor, usually from the SWP!).
The first letter was published in an edited form. That produced a reply from an SWP and I sent in the second letter, which was not published (no reason was given). I also used Pat Stack’s article in a leaflet handed out at one of the SWP’s Marxism events. In it I contrasted what ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Instead of trying to squeeze Marxism into syndicalism, it would be better to ask why so many “Marxists” rejected the legacy of Marx and embraced positions (revolutionary unionism, primacy of economic struggle, the general strike, unions as the structure of a socialist society, etc.) which were expounded by Bakunin and attacked by the founders of their ideology. Looking at what the syndicalists themselves said, the ideas of Bakunin and what Marx and Engels advocated, it quickly becomes apparently that Marxism was not one of the “core ideological elements” of syndicalism. In reality, syndicalism was simply, as so many syndicalists and others stressed, a new name for the ideas raised in the IWMA and for which Bakunin wa... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Technology has an obvious effect on individual freedom, in some ways increasing it, in others restricting it. However, since capitalism is a social system based on inequalities of power, it is a truism that technology will reflect those inequalities, as it does not develop in a social vacuum.
No technology evolves and spreads unless there are people who benefit from it and have sufficient means to disseminate it. In a capitalist society, technologies useful to the rich and powerful are generally the ones that spread. This can be seen from capitalist industry, where technology has been implemented specifically to deskill the worker, so replacing the skilled, valued craftperson with the easily trained (and eliminated!) “mass work... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) When I saw the headline on the front page of the Mail on Sunday that Thatcher could be having a state funeral, I was quite disgusted. That this story was published with the consent of No 10, it simply reinforced the obvious fact that New Labor really is the child of Thatcherism – and how bankrupt it is. However, when I thought about it I started to think that in a way it would be a fitting testimony of a bankrupt ideology which has failed, and failed big time. After all, as a firm advocate of privatization and “market forces” the fact that her funeral is to be nationalized is a shocking insult to her political legacy and memory. Surely, it should be privatized? Shares sold to raise funs for a private event, with private in... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The current period is marked by an increase in workers’ anger and action. Trade unions have started to reassert themselves. Strikes, while increasing, are nowhere near the levels of 20 and 30 years ago. However, it is still early days. What happens next depends on what direction trade union militants decide to take.
Currently, the various parties of the left, led by the SWP in England/Wales and the SSP in Scotland, are trying to get the more militant unions to break their financial links to New Labor. Anarchists cannot help but agree. Why fund your oppressors? Yet while agreeing on this, we radically object to the suggestion that unions should tie themselves to a new, “more leftwing,” party. To do so will simply rep... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Considering the attempts by the SWP to monopolize and colonize the anti-globalization movement, I thought that it would be useful to attend Marxism 2001. After all, given the events of the past few years (J18, Seattle, May Day, etc.) I thought that it may draw some real people rather than a bunch of party hacks. Armed with two leaflets and some copies of Black Flag and Freedom, I headed off to the event.
Day One
My first political discussion (if you can call it that) was with a Spartacus League member outside the registration building. I was handing out a leaflet (on why Leninism is most definitely not “Socialism from Below”) when she asked me what kind of anarchist I was and whether I thought that revolt by “dis... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) George Osborne, the Tory shadow chancellor, decided to show how much the Conservatives respect the intellect of the people. In “A blueprint for fairness” (The Guardian, 20/08/08) he asserts his party are now “developing a policy agenda that delivers fairness and social justice”! It is hard not to laugh.
He proclaims that it is shocking that “the gap in life expectancy between rich and poor now at its widest since the Victorian era” and that “there is nothing progressive about growing inequality, falling mobility and rising poverty.” Which is true, but what he failed to mention (never mind address) is that is precisely what happened under Thatcher and Major. So the real reason for Britai... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Big Ideas That Changed the World: Democracy, Tony Benn, Channel 5, 21st June 2005
Channel Five has produced a series of programs on “Big Ideas that changed the world.” Tony Benn presented the one of “democracy.” As would be expected, Benn came across well. The program was interesting and, rightly, did not dwell purely on political democracy. He rightly noted that democracy means “people power” (democracy comes from the Greek for “strength of the people” rather than demarchy which would be “rule by the people”). As such, he rightly broadened his discussion to bring in the trade unions and other popular movements rather dwell on elections, “majority rule” and other... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Voltairine De Cleyre Reader, A. J. Brigati (Editor), AK Distribution (ISBN: 1902593871), £10.00
Gates of Freedom: Voltairine De Cleyre and the Revolution of the Mind, Eugenia C. Delamotte, University of Michigan Press (ISBN: 0472098675), £17.95
Exquisite Rebel: The Essays of Voltairine De Cleyre – Anarchist, Feminist, Genius, Sharon Presley and Crispin Sartwell (Editors), State University of New York Press (ISBN: 0791460940), £15.50
Typical. The anarchist movement waits nine decades for a book of Voltairine De Cleyre’s writings to appear and three turn up at once! Was it worth the wait? Yes, most definitely.
In her short life, Voltairine de Cleyre distinguished herself as a leadi... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) As to be expected, the Weekly Worker used the events in Genoa as yet another opportunity to attack anarchism and anarchists. Sadly for them, the various articles in issue no. 394 present not only a distorted account of anarchism but also what anarchists did at Genoa.
The basic flaw in their argument and analysis is simple. They equate the Black Block with all anarchists. Indeed, such inaccuracy is to be expected as they also equate “Ya Basta!” with anarchism even though they are not anarchists. But facts are clearly the last thing the Weekly Worker cares about.
For example, Sarah McDonald stated that “the anarchists did not want to march with anyone,” so ignoring the majority of anarchists who did march... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Daily Mail (27th July 2009) got itself into a little bit of a frenzy recently when it reported that David Cameron suggested that “the better-off must share the pain of repairing public finances” and so “tax credits for households on £50,000 a year or more could no longer be justified.” This would mean 130,000 families losing an average £500 a year. Cameron is quoted as saying that “we’ve got to be able to demonstrate to people that this is fair and seen to be fair and that everyone is putting their shoulder to the wheel” and “that means the wealthy have to pay their fair share.”
This was presented as a “tax raid” on the middle classes by the Mail, as &l... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The SWP are at it again. Obviously trying to recruit from the anti-globalization movement, they yet again try to rubbish anarchism. Since libertarian ideas are perceived to be dominant in that movement, what better why to try and gain a foothold than attacking those ideas? Sadly for the SWP, they cannot do that accuracy or honesty. Nor can they do so with showing the bankruptcy of their own ideology.
In Socialist Worker (12 May 2001) Kevin Ovenden produced an article claiming to be about Bakunin entitled “Anarchist founder.” The article is so flawed that the only charitable thing that can be said of it is that at least it gets the dates right.
Ovenden argues that Bakunin, in the process of taking part in workers&rs... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Jonathan Aves, Tauris Academic Studies, I.B. Tauris Publishers
Published in 1996 by an academic publishers, Aves book is essential reading for anyone interested in the outcome of the Russian Revolution. For decades Trotskyists have been arguing that the Russian working class had been decimated during the Civil War period and was incapable of collective decision making and organization, so necessitating Bolshevik Party dictatorship over them. Workers Against Lenin provides extensive evidence to refute those claims.
In his work Aves provides an extremely well researched and readable account of labor protests during the period of 1920 to 1922. Rather than a working class which, according to many Trotskyists “did not exist,&... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) As part of our agitation in the student protests, anarchists have raised the necessity of direct action such as occupations. This has a wider application than students and anarchists have long argued that as part of any social revolution workers would need to occupy their workplaces.
In this, we are part of a long and glorious tradition of militant workers struggle. This can be seen from a recent SWP book on this subject imaginatively entitled Occupy! The book starts with the September 1920 Italian Occupations and, unsurprisingly, it forgets to mention that it was the Italian anarcho-syndicalists and anarchists (like Armando Borghi and Errico Malatesta) who suggested the tactic to begin with in March of that year (see section A.5.5 o... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The “free market” capitalist argument is that unemployment is caused by the real wage of labor being higher than the market clearing level.
The basic argument is that the market for labor is like any other market and as the price of a commodity increases, the demand for it falls. In terms of labor, high prices (wages) causes lower demand (unemployment). Workers, it is claimed, are more interested in money wages than real wages (which is the amount of goods they can buy with their money wages). This leads them to resist wage cuts even when prices are falling, leading to a rise in their real wages and so they price themselves out of work without realizing it. From this analysis comes the argument that if workers were allowe... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)