what is a city? cycles, structure, strategy

Sean Bonney presents the first of three papers to be discussed at Sunday’s Communist Theory Forum

“The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas: i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas; hence of the relationships which make the one class the ruling one, therefore the ideas of its dominance. The individuals composing the ruling class possess, among other things consciousness, and therefore think.”

el alto, bastion of social struggles in bolivia

by Bruno Miranda

Even if in the context of the 1952 revolution the centrality of mining workers was indisputable, today the shape of the working class has changed. It is true that manufacturing workers remain an important part of the Bolivian working class, but the casualisation of labour relations and informal economy have created a large majority of the working class facing unfavourable conditions for organising.

In Bolivia there have been at least seven important uprisings in the last decade, based on the struggle over the control of natural resources [1]. Among these it is worth mentioning the battle normally called the “Gas War” of September-October 2003, and the “Second Water War” in May-June 2005, both of them in the city of El Alto.

thou shalt vote labour: an eleventh commandment?

As many on the far left plan to call for a Labour vote in the general election, Clifford Biddulph looks at the historic roots of this slogan and the dogmas on which it is based.

An eleventh commandment for many on the left is to vote for New Labour as a lesser evil without illusions. But why? “The Labour Party is a  thoroughly bourgeois party, which although made up of workers, is led by reactionaries, and the worst kind of reactionaries at that, who act in the spirit of the bourgeoisie. It is an organisation of the bourgeoisie which exists to systematically dupe the workers”. These words seem an obvious description of New Labour.

communism, anarchism and the paris commune: bristol, 28th february

The second of The Commune’s Bristol reading group sessions will be on Sunday 28th February at 6pm in Cafe Kino on Ninetree Hill, Stokes Croft, Bristol. The session will discuss late nineteenth century ideas on communism and anarchism and the significance of the Paris Commune of 1871

All welcome – email uncaptiveminds@gmail.com for more info. Some background reading which may be of interest is posted below.

austerity cuts arrive in sheffield

by David Huckerby

Cuts in public services, jobs and wages have arrived in Sheffield even before the general election where the Tories, New Labour and the Liberals have all promised to take the axe to government spending to help solve the economic crisis at the expense of the working class.

The only significant difference between these parties of big business, representing the rich, are the tactics to adopt towards the timing and scale of the cuts. Don’t appear too gleeful as the Tories did initially, and don’t make the tone too harsh and negative, as the Liberal leader did. On the other hand don’t appear too positive, as Gordon Brown did at first, to the point of lack of credibility. The only certain thing is the cuts will become the deepest for decades irrespective of whether the axe is New Labour or Tory.

update – alberto durango sacked: mobilise for 12th february demo!

by Chris Ford, UNITE Clerkenwell & St. Pancras 0694M branch organiser

At a so-called disciplinary hearing Lancaster Cleaning Services have sacked UNITE shop-steward and leader of the Latin American Workers Association Alberto Durango. The company took over the contract for the Union Bank of Switzerland on Monday 1 February; they suspended him on the Tuesday and sacked him on Thursday 4 February. This premeditated act is part of their efforts to break the union at UBS.

Lancaster were hired by UBS to replace the company Mitie, despite this banking giant making profits of $14 billion they hired a notorious anti-union firm to ensure they pay even less to their cleaners. Ignoring the protection afforded by TUPE, workers were told they are to have their wages cut via a reduction in their hours! The workers lodged a grievance; in response they have sacked Alberto their shop-steward.

what choice is left in the general election?

Steve Ryan responds to recent debate over who – if anyone – we should vote for in the general election

So the general election is in May, probably on the 6th. As a left, what should be our position as regards voting? This question has always exercised the left and sometimes seen some strange conclusions.

This year is a very difficult one. Clearly the Labour party bears no resemblance at all to any kind of workers’ party. The memory of the minimum wage and tax credits is a very distant one as Labour ploughs on with cuts in the public sector , more privatisation than the Tories managed, war, the expenses scandal… the list grows each day.

urgent appeal for solidarity – defend alberto durango

by Chris Ford, UNITE Clerkenwell & St. Pancras 0694M branch organiser

In an act of vindictive union busting Alberto Durango, a leading activist in the campaign to achieve justice for cleaners in London, is facing the sack. Alberto, a leader of the Latin American Workers Association and member of UNITE, has been in the forefront of a series of campaigns to organise mainly migrant workers to challenge the exploitation and dire working conditions amongst cleaners.

two ’stars’ of british nationalism

by David Broder

“British workers target Gordon Brown”, screamed the Daily Star on January 19th. One year after Unite leader Derek Simpson posed with two Daily Star ‘glamour models’ holding ‘British jobs for British workers’ placards, the rag promised that thousands of angry construction workers would today “march on London claiming Gordon Brown has failed to honour his “British jobs for British workers” pledge”.

Meanwhile over at the Morning Star, the comrades were fuelling the flames of ‘working-class nationalism’ with a piece on yesterday’s demo over the Kraft-Cadbury deal. In true Communist Party of Britain tradition they almost seemed more concerned about standing up for the “historic British chocolate manufacturer” and “the national interest” than how to effectively resist redundancies.

However, at the construction workers’ demo today, all was not quite as we might have been led to believe…

the early russian revolution: laurat in wonderland

by João Bernardo
Passa Palavra

After the fall of the Berlin Wall – which did not ‘fall’, but rather was cut to bits and sold at graffiti and souvenir auctions – journalists and even many historians promoted the illusion that  the only critiques of the Soviet system were elaborated by the social-democratic left and the anti-communist right.