Posted by Phil Dickens on 19/07/2011 · 2 Comments
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 … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with 4themembers, anarcho-syndicalism, Anton Pannekoek, association, boring-from-within, Buenaventua Durruti, building the new world in the shell of the old, CGT, CNT, DAM, direct action, Direct Action Movement, FORA, Independent Left, Joseph Kay, left unity, militant workers, PCS, rank-and-file organisation, representatives, revolutionary union, SF, SolFed, Solidarity Federation, trade union, Workers Solidarity Federation, Workers Solidarity movement, workplace committee
Posted by Phil Dickens on 22/05/2011 · Leave a Comment
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 … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with anarchist, anarcho-syndicalist, authoritarian, building from below, bureaucracy, control our own struggles, direct action, hierarchy, June 30th, libertarian, Militant, rank-and-file, revolutionary leadership, solidarity, strikes, unions, vanguard, workers, working class
Posted by Phil Dickens on 30/04/2011 · 2 Comments
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 … Read more
Filed under Anarchism · Tagged with anarcho-syndicalist, casualisation, CGT, CNT, direct action, Emile Pataud, Emile Pouget, general strike, Jimmy John's Union, organising, picket lines, revolution, self-management, Solidarity Federation, Spain, Starbucks Workers Union, unemployed
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 18/03/2011 · 1 Comment
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 … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with anarcho-syndicalists, anti-strike laws, anti-trade union laws, Anton Pannekoek, blockades, CNT, collective decision making, direct action, firefighters dispute, fundraising, industrial action, Lindsey oil refinery disputes, Liverpool Antifascists, mandated delegates, Margaret Thatcher, mass assemblies, mass pickets, militancy, miners, Norman Tebbit, picket line, postal workers, printers, Public Order Act, rank-and-file control, sabotage, scabs, Seattle general strike, sell out, solidarity, strike, strike committees, strike funds, Tom Mann, Tony Blair, trade union bureaucracy, TUC, wildcat strikes
Posted by Phil Dickens on 19/01/2011 · 1 Comment
On 26th March, the Trades Union Congress are calling a march in London against the government’s austerity measures. This has reignited one of the longest-running debates in activist politics: that of peaceful protest versus direct action. In particular, the line is drawn between those worried that a violent minority will hijack the event and distract … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with anarcho-syndicalism, Ben Ali, demobilisation, demonstration, demonstration of anger, direct action, FAU, Gilles Dauvé, International Workers Association, IWA, Liberal Conspracy, march, movement building, passive protest, PCS, peaceful protest, popular discontent, Public and Commercial Services union, reformism, revolt, revolution, safety valve, solidarity, Solidarity Federation, Subway sacked worker, Sunny Hundal, Topy Top sacked workers, TUC, Tunisia, Yarls' Wood, ZSP
Posted by Phil Dickens on 20/12/2010 · 9 Comments
The recent student protests – in particular the siege of Millbank Tower and the riots on the day of the tuition fees vote – have provoked an awful lot of debate. Among other things, it brought the boogeyman of anarchism back into the media spotlight and helped to reinvigorate the fight against the cuts. What … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse, The state · Tagged with Anarchists, Buenaventura Durruti Dumange, Day X, Demo 2010, direct action, Emmeline Pankhurst, graffitti, militancy, Millbank Tower, pacifism, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, police brutality, private property, property is theft, Rudolph Rocker, student protests, vandalism, violence
Posted by Phil Dickens on 29/11/2010 · 4 Comments
The sixth part of a series exploring anarcho-syndicalism, its aims and principles, and the practicalities of enacting them in the real world. In part five of this series, I examined how to rebuild the community consciousness and sense of solidarity that once defined the working class. Here, I want to look at building upon that … Read more
Filed under What is anarcho-syndicalism? · Tagged with Anarchist Federation, anarcho-syndicalism, Anton Pannekoek, community, community organisation, community unions, direct action, Don't Vote - Organise!, Glasgow Rent Strike, IWW, Lewisham Bridge occupation, libertarian, non-hierarchical organisation, Poll Tax rebellion, radical, rent strike, Seattle Solidarity Network, sit-in, solidarity, solidarity networks, squatting, strike, working class
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
Posted by Phil Dickens on 18/02/2010 · 4 Comments
I am, as those who read my articles regularly should be aware, an anarchist communist. I want to see a world where the workers control industry and communities manage their own resources, without the oppressive interference of the state, capital, or any other top-down structure. Perhaps less-known is the fact that I am also an … Read more
Filed under Anarchism · Tagged with Anarchism, anarchist communism, anarcho-syndicalism, direct action, factionalism, Howard Zinn, Murray Bookchin, Noam Chomsky, revolution from below, revolutionary unionism, Rudolph Rocker, self-management
