Posted by Phil Dickens on 30/04/2011 · 3 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 … Continue reading →
Category 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 … Continue reading →
Category 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 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 … Continue reading →
Category 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, … Continue reading →
Category 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 06/12/2010 · 7 Comments
It is a long-established truism that anarchists are opposed to electoralism. A myriad of slogans such as “whoever you vote for, government wins,” “don’t vote, it only encourages the bastards,” and “if voting changed anything they’d abolish it” have entered the public psyche. So much so, that they are taken up by cynics and the … Continue reading →
Category Anarchism · Tagged with all parties as bad as one another, Anarchist Federation, austerity, capitalist system, democracy, direct democracy, don't vote - it only encourages the bastards, Don't Vote - Organise!, electoral abstention, electoral system, electoralism, green party, if voting changed anything they'd abolish it, labour party, new labour, old labour, parliamentary democracy, politics, socialist, Solidarity Federation, workers party
Posted by Phil Dickens on 22/10/2010 · 4 Comments
As I write this, I’m on a train to Sheffield, playing with WordPress on my phone. Which, I think, shows how far we’ve moved from the days of bearded radicals hand-writing pamphlets in a candle-lit basement. (I exaggerate somewhat.) It also offers me the flimsiest of excuses to write about the use of social networks … Continue reading →
Category Anarchism · Tagged with activism, blog, campaigning, email, face to face, facebook, grassroots, internet, life beyond the internet, medium for a message, organisation, phones, politics, social networks, taking over your life, Twitter
Posted by Phil Dickens on 17/10/2010 · 7 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 … Continue reading →
Category 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 · 5 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 … Continue reading →
Category 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 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 … Continue reading →
Category 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 27/05/2010 · 19 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 … Continue reading →
Category 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
