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 07/03/2011 · 5 Comments
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 … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with building the new world in the shell of the old, Capitalism, central committee, class consciousness, communism, democratic centralism, federalism, Karl Marx, Leninism, Mao, Marxism, Pol Pot, revolution, self-organisation, Soviet Union, Spain, Stalin, transitional stage, Trotsky, vanguard of the proletariat, Vladimir Lenin, workers party, workers' state, working class
Posted by Phil Dickens on 28/02/2011 · 8 Comments
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 … Read more
Filed under Anarchism · Tagged with anarcho-syndicalism, austerity measures, Capitalism, city councils, class struggle, community organising, cuts, economic blockade, electoralism, Emile Pouget, general strike, Government, grassroots, Green, industrial action, Labour, Lib Dem, Militant Tendency, occupation, PCS, Quintin Hogg, rank-and-file, self-organisation, sit-in, socialism, strategy, strike, the cuts, there is an alternative, Tory, trade unionism, winning the argument
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, … Read more
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 25/11/2010 · 2 Comments
Unemployment in Britain currently stands at roughly two and a half million. This is not far from the three million mark of the Thatcher era, which became a watermark for social discontent. With public sector job losses – and the private sector fallout – expected to claim another million people, it is unsurprising that people … Read more
Filed under Capitalism · Tagged with adam smith, Beyond Hypocrisy, Capitalism, casualisation of work, Conservative Nanny State, Dean Baker, economics, Edward Herman, Hugh Stretton, job security causing unemployment, Karl Marx, laissez-faire, Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, NAIRU, Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Employment, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, private feudalism, retail price index, trade unions, unemployment, wages
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 15/08/2010 · 4 Comments
Charity, defined biblically, is an unlimited loving kindness towards others. It’s a virtue, and one that is recognised far beyond the Christian faith. After all, who could argue that giving to those less fortunate is wrong? Anarchist communism would seem to be precisely the philosophy that encourages charity. The basic mantra of “from each according … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with abolish wage slavery, anarchist communism, Big Society, Capitalism, charity, community organisation, cooperatives, credit unions, CrimeThinc, David Cameron, fire your boss, Infoshop, IWW, LibCom, libertarian communism, Liverpool Solidarity Federation, Merseyside Anarchists, Molly McClure, mutual aid, PCS, politicians, radicalism, reformism, Rolling Thunder, self-managed exploitation, solidarity, Spanish Revolution, the Commune, vultures, workers collectives
Posted by Phil Dickens on 26/07/2010 · 10 Comments
The terms “capitalism” and “the free market” carry a lot of historical weight and baggage. For the right, they are basic neccesities for freedom and prosperity. For the left, they are the root of social and class inequality, the primary source of misery and injustice in the name of human greed. For the vast majority … Read more
Filed under Anarchism, Capitalism · Tagged with anarchist, anarchist communism, anarcho-syndicalism, Benjamin Tucker, Capitalism, communism, corporatism, Emma Goldman, free markets, Kevin Carson, libertarian, murray rothbard, mutualism, petty bourgeois, private property, scarcity, socialism, state-capitalism
Posted by Phil Dickens on 18/07/2010 · 1 Comment
Media pundits, politicians, and the outraged chattering classes often go on about the “underclass.” Faced with levels of crime, poverty, and social anger that they are neither willing nor able to understand, the term is one of blame and accusation. It’s a useful catch-all for the long-term unemployed, welfare recipients, the homeless, petty criminals, drug … Read more
Filed under Capitalism · Tagged with Abahlali baseMjondolo, ANC, BNP, Capitalism, chavs, Communist Manifesto, dregs of society, EDL, Fascism, Frederich Engels, Homeless Workers' Movement, immigrants, Independent Working Class Association, IWCA, Jade Goody, Jeremy Kyle, Karl Marx, Kerry Katona, Landless People's Movement, lazy workers, LCAP, Leon Trotsky, London Coalition Against Poverty, lumpenproletariat, middle class, mikhail bakunin, Movement for Justice in El Barrio, Raoul Moat, reactionary, scum, South Africa, Take Back the Land, The Daily Mail, The Sun, underclass, Western Cape Anti-Eviction campaign
Posted by Phil Dickens on 27/05/2010 · 17 Comments
Anarcho-primitivism, according to advocate John Moore, is “a shorthand term for a radical current that critiques the totality of civilization from an anarchist perspective, and seeks to initiate a comprehensive transformation of human life.” In essence, it is a form of anarchism that is against the very foundations of civilisation itself. It is for this … Read more
Filed under Anarchism · Tagged with anarcho-primitivism, Andrew Flood, Capitalism, civilisation, doomsday theories, Emily Schultz, genocide, Green anarchy, Jason Godesky, John Moore, John Zerzan, LibCom, lifestyle anarchism, mass die-off, mass society, mikhail bakunin, Murray Bookchin, nuclear war, Oklahoma bombing, peak oil, Robert Lavenda, technology
