Posted by Phil Dickens on 23/12/2011 · Leave a Comment
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 … Read more
Posted by Phil Dickens on 10/04/2011 · 4 Comments
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 … Read more
Filed under Anarchism, Debate and discourse · Tagged with Adam Ford, Anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, anti-fascism, antifa, autonomism, black bloc, blockade, Capitalism, class war, demonstration, direct action, disaffected youth, March 26, March for the Alternative, mass action, mass participation, militant anti-fascism, Millbank Tower, neo-Nazis, occupation, Owen Jones, police violence, property damage, state repression, substitutionism, SWP, vandalism, vanguard, violence
Posted by Phil Dickens on 17/10/2010 · 6 Comments
There are innumerable hurdles in trying to build and maintain the momentum of a strong, libertarian, workers movement. From the fact that the first signs of success (or even visibility) with such a movement bring instant state attention and repression to the fact that there will always be far more people willing to sympathise with … Read more
Filed under Anarchism, Debate and discourse · Tagged with Alliance For Workers' Liberty, Anarchism, anarchist, Campaign Against Climate Change, Defend Council Housing, demobilise from above, educate agitate organise, Education not for Sale, FAU, Feminist Fightback, front groups, Globalise Resistance, heckling from the sidelines, Leninism, libertarian, Liverpool Antifascists, Love Music Hate Racism, Manchester AFA, marginalisation, No Sweat, No2EU, organising, Radical Workers Bloc, revolutionary leadership, Right to Work, Scottish Anti-Fascist Alliance, sectarian, Socialist Party, Socialist Workers' Party, Stop Racism and Fascism, Stop the War Coalition, tail-ending the left, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, Trotskyism, unite against fascism, Workers Climate Action, Youth Fight for Jobs
Posted by Phil Dickens on 30/08/2010 · 2 Comments
My article on anarcho-primitivsm, written in May, has of late sparked some quite interesting debate. In particular, a commenter called Cecil Curry has posted a lengthy response which has also appeared on his blog, Mysidian Dreams. Especially as it claimed to put forward an argument I had failed to address, I thought that this deserved … Read more
Filed under Anarchism, Debate and discourse · Tagged with Anarchism, anarchist communism, anarcho-primitivism, Capitalism, Cecil Curry, climate change, Fallujah, Hiroshima, housing, humanity, industrial civilisation, Jason Godesky, John Zerzan, markets, Mysidian Dreams, Nagasaki, population growth, sustainable alternatives, unsustainable, Vietnam, war
Posted by Phil Dickens on 27/06/2010 · 8 Comments
The fundamental difference between anarchist communists and any other kind of communist (Leninst, Trotskyist, Titoist, whatever) can be boiled down, ultimately, to two sentences from Karl Marx; Between capitalist and communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse, The state · Tagged with Alliance For Workers' Liberty, Anarchism, Bolsheviks, communism, democratic centralism, dictatorship of the proletariat, International Workingmen's Association, Josef Stalin, Karl Marx, Kronstadt, Leninism, Leon Trotsky, Mao Zedong, mikhail bakunin, Militant Tendency, Piotr Archinov, Pol Pot, POUM, revolution from below, self-organisation, Socialist Party, Socialist Workers' Party, Spanish Civil War, Stalinism, transitional state, Trotskyism, vanguard of the proletariat, Vladimir Lenin, workers party
Posted by Phil Dickens on 21/06/2010 · 10 Comments
On my other blog, I often write in defence of migrants against the repression of the state. Because of this, and my opposition to border controls, my opponents on the right often presume that I am in favour of multiculturalism and mass immigration. This is not the case. I have already explained, in The case … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with Anarchism, anarchist communism, assimilation, autonomy, Azal Nafisi, bigotry, border control, Clyde Kluckhohn, Culture, EDL, Esra Erdem, Fascism, Gay Imperialism, homophobia, integration, Iqbal Sacranie, Islam, Islamic Forum in Europe, Jin Haritaworn, Justin Podur, mass migration, moral relativism, moral universalism, multiculturalism, Muslim Council of Britain, Nationalism, normative multiculturalism, Peter Tatchell, polyculturalism, racism, separation, Socialist unity, Stiffkitten, Tamsila Tauqir, UAF, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Whitechapel Anarchist Group
Posted by Phil Dickens on 31/05/2010 · 17 Comments
Yesterday was Tax Freedom Day. That is, it was “the first day of the year that Britons work for themselves rather than the taxman,” at least according to the Adam Smith Institute. As such, it seems a rather apt time to discuss the right-wing libertarian notion of freedom. The basic goal of (right) libertarianism, according … Read more
Filed under Capitalism · Tagged with Anarchism, anarcho-capitalism, Chris Mounsey, Chris Wilson, Devil's Kitchen, feudalism, Hans Hermann Hoppe, homestead principle, John Demetriou, libertarian socialist, libertarianism, monarchy, murray rothbard, Philosophy of Liberty, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, private property, right-wing, Tax Freedom Day, The state
Posted by Phil Dickens on 27/04/2010 · 4 Comments
Emma Goldman, writing Anarchism: what it really stands for, pointed out that there were three main strands of hierarchy that anarchists opposed. “Religion, the dominion of the human mind; Property, the dominion of human needs; and Government, the dominion of human conduct, represent the stronghold of man’s enslavement and all the horrors it entails.” In … Read more
Filed under Religion · Tagged with An Anarchist FAQ, Anarchism, atheism, Bible, Budhism, Catholic Worker, Catholicism, child abuse, christian anarchism, coercion, Emma Goldman, faith, freedom of worship, hierarchy, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, Leo Tolstoy, libertarian, mikhail bakunin, organised religion, Pagan, Paganism, Peter Kropotkin, secularism, Starhawk, terrorism, theocracy, violence
Posted by Phil Dickens on 24/04/2010 · 4 Comments
Anarchists, particularly anarcho-syndicalists, are often highly critical of both the form and function of mainstream trade unions. Perhaps the most incisive critique comes from a postal worker, reflecting on the sell-out by the Communication Worker’s Union (CWU) for The Other Campaign; Because the leaders of the CWU are so remote from the daily lives of … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with Anarchism, working class, class war, trade unions, anarcho-syndicalism, CWU, Unite, PCS, Billy Hayes, Derek Simpson, bosses, bureaucracy, union reps, shop stewards, convenors, health and safety reps, revolutionary ghetto, workers' struggles, middle class socialists, Solidarity Federation
Posted by Phil Dickens on 17/04/2010 · 11 Comments
It is my experience that an awful lot of anarchists have cats. I, with two cats as well as a dog, am one of them. It is also my experience that a considerable amount of anarchists are vegetarians or vegans. I am not one of them. In the short term, this is of no consequence. … Read more
Filed under Anarchism · Tagged with Anarchism, animal holocaust, animal liberation, Animal Liberation and Social Revolution, animal rights, battery farming, Brian A Dominick, Capitalism, cruelty, Descartes, direct action, ecoterrorism, Elisee Reclus, farming, foie gras, fur, Halal, hunting, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Leo Tolstoy, Ligers, mass consumption, mass production, meat, meat is murder, PETA, Peter Kropotkin, Prizzly Bears, rights, RSPCA, sentient, speciesism, suffering, utilitarianism, vegan, veganarchy, vegetaruian, VIVA, vivisection, welfarism
