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 31/12/2010 · 3 Comments
The seventh and final part of a series exploring anarcho-syndicalism, its aims and principles, and the practicalities of enacting them in the real world. The basic foundation of anarcho-syndicalism is that ordinary people, through solidarity and direct action, have the power to improve our own lives. We do not need bosses, bureaucrats, or political parties … Read more
Filed under What is anarcho-syndicalism? · Tagged with activism, anarchist communism, anarcho-syndicalism, community organising, democratic centralism, dictatorship of the proletariat, from each according to his ability to each according to his need, Industrial Workers of the World, IWW, libertarian, mass participation, organisation, rank-and-file control, revolutionary leadership, revolutionary unionism, self-organisation, social centres, SolFed, solidarity, Solidarity Federation, solidarity networks, squatting, strike, trade unions, unions, vanguard of the proletariat, workers' assemblies, workers' self-organisation
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
