AS the campaign against the water charges approaches it’s second anniversary, it continues to go from strength to strength. We now have over 14,000 signed up members and there hasn’t been a disconnection of a campaign member since November 1994. The rate of nonpayment continues at a very high level in all areas. At a residents’ meeting in Cherryfield Fianna Fail’s Cllr. Sean Ardagh declared that only 17% of people in South Dublin had paid in full.
In the circuit court on June 20th lawyers for South Dublin Council declared that there were proceedings pending against 32,000 households. About 46,000 are eligible to pay so this puts the rate of nonpayment at 70%. Whatever the real rate it is now obvious that the charges... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Marxism and Anarchism have been the two major theories of revolutionary socialism since the middle of the last century. Yet since then they have constantly been at loggerheads. In this article Conor McLoughlin examines and compares the two to see do they, in fact, have anything in common.
Firstly it is essential to define both sets of ideas. What is anarchism? What is Marxism? For the moment I have decided to ignore all the latter-day disciples of both sets of ideas. So I will not talk about the various Stalinist, Leninist and social democratic developments of Marx’s ideas. These have already been well dealt with in previous issues of this paper. Instead I wish to concentrate on the basic ideas of Marx and Engels.
Back To Basics
... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) On the 26th of June 2000 researchers announced that they had finally created a rough map of the human genome — almost 3 billion DNA letters. In December 2000 British MPs voted to allow scientists to collect cells from human embryos and to substitute a nuclei from an adult cell into embryo cells for research purposes. These sorts of developments leave many people confused and frightened.
The BSE, and Foot and Mouth, crises have left people wondering are scientists and governments to be trusted in these areas. There has been a consumer revolt against Genetically Altered foods and activists have rushed to pull up genetically altered crops. So what’s all this about? Is it any use to anyone or just another example of big science and... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) “It was like being brothers and sisters. It had always annoyed me that men in this country didn’t consider women as beings with full human rights. But now there was this big change. I believe it arose spontaneously out of the revolutionary movement.”
Margorita Balagar quoted in ‘The Blood of Spain’ by Ronald Frazer, p.287
The position of workers and peasants in Spain in the 1920s and 1930s was bad. If you were female it was appalling. Conditions for Spanish women were oppressive and repressive in the extreme. The position of women in Spain in the 1930’s was similar to that in many Muslim countries today. They had no independence, could be “given away” in arranged marriages and single ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) There are many ways in which governments can prevent opposition. Some are more open and obvious than others. When police attack protests, when pickets are broken up, when opposition is imprisoned it is clear what the State is up to. However there are subtler tactics, one is the way in which opposition movements are ‘incorporated’ and made part of the system. This article looks at some examples, mostly from Ireland, but the same process can be seen at work internationally.
So what is incorporation and how does it happen? It is the process by which radical individuals or groups are integrated into the State structure thus neutralizing them as an effective opposition. Incorporation is integral to the operation of most advanced Cap... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) “Indeed how do these people propose to run a factory, operate a railway or steer a ship without having, in the last resort, one deciding will, without single management they do not tell us[1]
Engels
Since the Nineteenth century Marxism and anarchism have confronted each other as the two dominant strains of revolutionary thought. Some Marxists claim that in fact Marxism is not a statist or vanguardist ideology. Like all Marxists they also generally dismiss anarchism as utopian, marginal and nonscientific.
The aim of this article is to show that Marx and Engels were deeply ambiguous on the nature of the state and the party, and that the criticisms by anarchists of them were and remain valid.Far from being utopian anarchism has th... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Firstly it is essential to define both sets of ideas. What is anarchism? What is Marxism? For the moment I have decided to ignore all the latter-day disciples of both sets of ideas. So I will not talk about the various Stalinist, Leninist and social democratic developments of Marx’s ideas. These have already been well dealt with in previous issues of this paper. Instead I wish to concentrate on the basic ideas of Marx and Engels.
Back to basics
For the anarchist point of view I will use the writings of Bakunin. He was Marx’s consistent opponent and his basic arguments are accepted by most anarchists. Neither Marx or Bakunin were ever entirely consistent and the latter’s writings are very fragmentary, however this seems... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) ” Excellencies, gentlemen — members and those responsible in Europe. It is to your solidarity and generosity that we appeal for your Help in Africa. If you see that we have sacrificed ourselves and lost our lives it is because we suffer so much in Africa and need your help to struggle against poverty and war — Please excuse us very much for daring to write this letter”
Note found on the body of one of two teenagers from Guinea who were found in the landing gear of a plane when it arrived at Brussels airport in August 1999
I suppose it goes without saying that anarchists are opposed to all borders and frontiers. These things could never form any part of a free society. However every activist realizes there is... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Poll Tax Rebellion by Danny Burns.
AK Press.
£4.95 (available from WSM Book Service)
IN THE LAST issue of Workers Solidarity we discussed the proposed introduction of service charges in Dublin. We pointed out how they were a grossly unfair form of double taxation on ordinary PAYE workers. How can they be resisted? A refusal to pay campaign in Waterford, Dublin and Limerick beat the water rates in the 1980s we believe a don’t pay, don’t collect campaign can do so again. Conor Mc Loughlin examines a new book on how the Poll Tax was beaten in the UK.
This book was completed by Danny Burns in January 1992. He was secretary of the Avon federation of Anti-Poll Tax Unions and co-ordinated the campaign in the South ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) THE TREATY OF Brest-Litovsk concluded by the Bolsheviks in March 1918, which saw Russia get out of the bloodbath of World War 1, handed most of the Ukraine over to the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. Needless to say, the inhabitants were not consulted. Neither were they too pleased. Various insurgent movements arose and gradually consolidated. The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of the Ukraine led by Nester Makhno, an anarchist-communist from the village of Gulyai Polye, quickly won the support of the South for it's daring attacks on the Austro-Hungarian puppet, Hetman Skoropadsky and the Nationalist Petliurists.
This book is an extremely valuable eye-witness account from Peter Arshinov - one of the main participants and editor of their ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) For business, international solidarity is not a far off dream but an integral part of its day to day existence. In capitalism there is, of course, competition, but it is in all their interests to promote low wages, high unemployment, ease of movement of currency and so forth. These days production is located where it is cheapest and products are sold where they will make the most. They have access to communication and information exchange beyond the dreams of most people and they can move millions of pounds at the touch of a button. They make good use of their international banking ‘solidarity’ to maintain an impressively stable climate where the rich get more powerful and the vast majority become more dis-empowered. They are nu... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) FOR ABOUT TWO years from July 1936 huge parts of republican Spain were anarchist dominated. Millions were involved in collectives in cities like Madrid and Barcelona, on the land and in anarchist militias fighting Franco at the front. Factories, bus companies, hospitals, gas works and much more were taken over and run by the workers. In 1939 the republic fell and the movement was smashed. Anarchism, though a nice idea now remains little more then a historical curiosity- right??? Wrong!!!!
Puerto Real
In Spain there are two large syndicalist unions in operation today, the CNT and the CGT. Between them they organize tens of thousands of workers. Both unions have organized highly successful strikes and demonstrations. This pamphlet is base... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The earth Summit took place in Rio last June. In spite of the enormous cost ($123 million) and publicity (8,749 media people.) the final results were two weak treaties and the agreement of some “principles” on the environment. Even this was too much for America who refused to sign the Bio-Diversity Treaty, fearing for their bio-technology industry. In Rio itself an estimated 700 “street children” have been murdered since January (according to the Center for the Mobilization of Marginalized Populations) in an attempt to beautify the city.
Once again the capitalists proved unwilling to tackle the problems of under-development and environmental degradation. Given their past record this doesn’t come as much of a s... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) You feel that, had there been a documentary crew on the battlefields of Spain in the thirties this is what they would have brought back
So said ‘Hot Press’ about Ken Loach’s excellent film Land and Freedom. Yet the version of the conflict in Spain peddled by the school history books bears no resemblance to this ‘documentary’. The revolution in Spain is portrayed simply as a civil war fought between democracy and fascism.
Land and Freedom goes some way towards redressing this, but even here you have to look hard to see any evidence that there were anarchists in Spain at the time. In fact, the Anarcho-Syndicalist Confederation Nacional de Trabajo or CNT had almost two million members, and they had a profoun... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Max Stirner is a relatively obscure figure in anarchist and left wing thought. He has influenced many who regard themselves as anarcho-individualists such as the Americans, Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker and modern polemicists such as Bob Black. He also has some following among anarcho-communists, notably in Glasgow where a Stirnerist tradition has persisted to this day. Stirner was an egoist who railed against all doctrines and beliefs which demanded a subordination of the individual will to their leadership. So you might ask why I should be interested in trying to outline some of his ideas in the magazine of an organization committed to a collective anarcho-communist vision of society? I would say for two reasons.
Firstly Stirner&r... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) THE WAR in Spain (1936-1939) has often been portrayed as a simple struggle between Fascism and democracy. In fact it was anything but. A military coup launched in July 1936 was defeated by worker's action in most parts of Spain.
There then followed a wide ranging social revolution (see Worker's Solidarity 33). As many as 5-7 million were involved in the collectivization of agriculture and thousands in worker's control of industry. About 2 million of these were also members of the oldest union in Spain the anarcho-syndicalist; CNT.
As with all revolutions a counter-revolution followed quickly on the Spanish revolution. This was spearheaded by the Spanish Communist party. These were faithful adherents to Stalin's foreign policy of sucking u... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) “Liberal Interventionism” is the new buzzword for 1993. In every newspaper they are baying for blood. “US intervene in Bosnia”, “America sort out Somalia” scream the headlines. People who might have questioned American intervention in Nicaragua, Panama or the Middle East are raging that the marines didn’t go into Somalia sooner. Aid agencies who condemned America’s role in Central America are begging them to extend their mission in Somalia. It is time to look at how the crisis in that country is being used to justify America’s ‘big brother’ role in the New World Order.
Sending the marines in to “solve” the crisis in Somalia was rather like sending a pyromaniac wi... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) "The committee rooms buzzed and hummed all day and night"
(John Reed, 'Ten Days That Shook the World')
How many times on your job as the clock crawls towards closing time have you thought that you could do the bosses' job and, indeed, do it far better than them. Well not only have workers often thought this, they have occasionally even kicked the bosses out and given it a go. And guess what - it has worked and worked well.
Every good student knows that the Russian revolution took place on October 15th 1917. But this isn't exactly true. Like most revolutions the Russian one is best envisioned as a rolling process with workers gradually taking up more and more control at the expense of their bosses. According to Maurice Brinton in "The... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)