The next of our London discussion meetings on trade union theory and workplace organising takes place from 7pm on Monday 30th November at the Artillery Arms, 102 Bunhill Row, near Old Street.
The subject of the meeting is the shop stewards’ movement which emerged in Britain in the years following World War I. See questions framing the discussion, and recommended reading, below. All welcome, email uncaptiveminds@gmail.com for more details. Read the rest of this entry »
The next of The Commune’s London reading groups takes place from 7pm on Monday 16th November at the Artillery Arms, 102 Bunhill Row, near Old Street.
The meeting is on the question of trade union democracy. The questions around which the discussion is based, and recommended reading material, are posted below. All welcome. Email uncaptiveminds@gmail.com for more details. Read the rest of this entry »
The next of our London discussion meetings on workplace organising is to be held from 7pm on Monday October 26th at the Artillery Arms, 102 Bunhill Row, near Old Street. We will be looking at the questions:
- Why should unions remain independent from the state?
- What are the limitations of negotiating better conditions of employment?
- In what ways have unions become integrated into the administration of capitalist relations, and how can this be resisted? Read the rest of this entry »
The next of our London discussion meetings on workplace organising is to be held from 7pm on Monday October 5th at the Lucas Arms, near King’s Cross. We will be looking at the questions:
- Are unions an expression of the self-organisation of the working class, or bodies which seek to win improvements on their behalf?
- What is the difference between ‘trade unionism’ and the revolutionary class struggle?
The recommended reading material and a map of the venue appear below. Email uncaptiveminds@gmail.com or phone 07595 245494 for more details. Read the rest of this entry »
The next of our London discussion meetings on workplace organising is to be held from 7pm on Monday October 5th at the Lucas Arms, near King’s Cross. We will be looking at the questions:
- Are unions an expression of the self-organisation of the working class, or bodies which seek to win improvements on their behalf?
- What is the difference between ‘trade unionism’ and the revolutionary class struggle?
The recommended reading material and a map of the venue appear below. Email uncaptiveminds@gmail.com or phone 07595 245494 for more details. Read the rest of this entry »
An essay by David Broder on Marx’s understanding of wage labour drawing together notes for a recent meeting of our London reading group on workplace organising.
Capitalists pursue development to accumulate capital: they do not invest in the production of linen because they want lots of linen or in the extraction of oil because they want lots of oil, but because they believe that putting capital into the production process will allow them to accrue capital by selling the end product.
Although wealth exists in nature and not just thanks to human endeavour, capitalist development must depend on investment in a commodity which can itself produce further value – this means human labour, our mental and physical energies. In this framework our work must create some goods or services which satisfy some human desire or need (‘use value’) but also be sold as a commodity to those able to pay for it (‘exchange value’). Read the rest of this entry »
Monday 14th from 7pm at the Artillery Arms, 102 Bunhill Row, near Old Street station, London
The Commune’s next course of reading groups is entitled ‘Schools for communism?’ and is on the subject of workplace organising and theories of trade unionism.
Following a recent series on ‘communism from below’, this autumn we will look more closely at how the working class organises and the limitations of different means of struggle.
The first session will be on the themes:
- What relations underlie the exchange between capital and workers?
- What mechanisms do management use to try and get workers to produce more for less money?
- In what different ways have workers organised to resist this? Of what particular importance are trade unions as a means of organising? Read the rest of this entry »
- London: The Commune are at most major demonstrations in the capital and also have our own activities. We are running a new series of reading groups on the theory of trade unionism and workplace organising this autumn, as well as our monthly forums, the next of which will be on the rise of the Tories (September 21st – more details to follow).
Join our email announcements list at https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/thecommune-london. Phone David on 07595 245494 for more info.
- Bristol: The first meeting our network has held in the city will be a workshop at the Saturday September 12th anarchist bookfair, and is on the subject of ‘The spirit of utopia today’.
The event takes place at The Island, Bridewell St, Bristol, 10.30am to 6pm. Our session is from 5pm in Room 2 (first floor). Read the rest of this entry »
“The Trade union is not a predetermined phenomenon … ..it becomes a determinate institution , i.e. takes on definite historical form to the extent that the strength and will of the workers who are its members impress a policy and propose an aim that defines it.” (Antonio Gramsci)
The next of The Commune’s reading group series in London will be on the topic of workplace struggle and the theory of trade unionism. Following our recent series on ‘communism from below’, this series will look more closely at how the working class organises and the strengths and limitations of different means of struggle.
The autumn 2009 sessions’ details appear below – the appropriate texts will be uploaded shortly as well as venue details. We encourage free discussion and do not set down a ‘party line’ – the discussion is roughly based on the given questions and the reading material, but also its practical implications in the context of today. Indeed, the second part of the series, in early 2010, will look at the changed shape of the working class and such themes as casualisation, globalisation, migrant workers, gender division of the workforce and anti-union laws. Email uncaptiveminds@gmail.com for more details. Read the rest of this entry »
The next of The Commune’s London reading group series is on the subject of “‘Schools for communism?’: workplace organising and theories of trade unionism”. We will be looking at different conceptions of how unions are formed, their role in the structures of capitalism and their limitations, and then studying more concretely various aspects of organising in the 21st century. A full agenda will be published shortly. This piece from Prol Position is on the reading list, and takes an interesting view of the current brand of organising initiatives.
Militant Research, self-interviews, workers’ centres, campaigning and organizing: currently there is a part of the left that gets enthused by ‘undogmatic approaches’ which tackle the question of resistance within waged work. Study trips to the US, visits at workers’ centres and at organizing campaigns all give the impression that these new instruments of union struggle will shake up the rusty white-dominated union landscape in Germany because the target of these initiatives are principally young immigrant workers, women and employees in the service sector. Is a completely new and different union in the making? Or, to put the question differently: does the crisis of the institution “union” open up spaces for new forms of organising? Does the union apparatus provide help for opening new doors or do lefty activists let themselves be instrumentalised in order to provide the institution with a new and up-to-date outfit? Read the rest of this entry »
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