Posted by Phil Dickens on 23/01/2011 · 4 Comments
Originally published in issue 11 of Shift Magazine (Jan 11 – May 11) Since the May General Election, we have been witnessing the slow demise of British fascism as we know it. The British National Party’s spectacular failure tore open divisions and animosities that had been long brewing below the surface. Resignations, sackings, splits, and … Read more
Filed under Fascism, Religion · Tagged with Anjem Choudary, austerity, BNP, EDL, extremism, Fascism, hope not hate, Islam, Islam4UK, Islamism, Islamophobia, Luton, Muslims Against Crusades, political Islam, racism, SAS, shift magazine, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Socialist Workers' Party, statism, Stephen Lennon, Tower Hamlets, unite against fascism, Wootton Bassett, working class
Posted by Phil Dickens on 30/12/2010 · 2 Comments
This has been something I’ve been meaning to write for a long time. However, each time I have given up because I can’t find the words to articulate something which flowed brilliantly as a rant, but not so well as prose. So, you’ll have to forgive me if this post comes out more as a … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with Alex Callinicos, Alliance For Workers' Liberty, Anarchist Federation, AWL, Bill Bailey - The Ultimate Sectarian, class war, Coalition of Resistance, cockroaches, Communist Manifesto, criticism, Education Activist Network, Frederich Engels, hijacking movements, Laurie Penny, left unity, Leninism, Liverpool Antifascists, Militant, National Coalition Against Fees and Cuts, National Shop Stewards Network, On the history of Early Christianity, paper vendors, party building, political party, popular front, revolutionary leadership, Richard Seymour, Right to Work, sectarianism, sects, Socialist Party, Socialist Worker, Socialist Workers' Party, socialists, Solidarity Federation, SWP, The Life of Brian, vanguard of the proletariat, working class
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 21/08/2010 · 8 Comments
It is, perhaps, the most vague and ill-defined term in sociopolitical discourse. At the same time, it’s one of the most commonly used. It can be everything from a badge of honour to the most callous insult. Something which defines your economic status or destroys your street cred. The term I’m talking about is “middle … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with Anarchist Federation, Anarchists, bourgeois, class war, Daily Mail, Guardian, Howard Zinn, Ian Bone, Joseph Kay, left-wing, Libcom.org, liberal, Liberal Democrats, Marxist, middle class, middle England, Radical Workers Bloc, revolutionary leadership, Socialist Workers' Party, Solidarity Federation, splitter, student, Trotskyite, vanguard of the proletariat, Vladimir Lenin, working class
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
