civil servants on strike: we can’t let the floodgates open

Ahead of civil servants’ walkouts this week and the June 30th strike day, Steve Ryan writes on the Con-Dem offensive against the whole working class

Members of the PCS civil servants’ union throughout a number of departments are taking industrial action over a range of issues, all of which have one theme, and that is government cuts. Department for Work and Pensions and Equality and Human Rights Commission workers are to walk out over office closures, and HMRC tax workers over attacks on sick leave.

con-dems want to crush the possibility of resistance

Also of course it is PCS that has been instrumental in pushing for co-ordinated action on June 30th.

Many on the left see this as something to be fully supported, and of course it is,. However the issues at stake are more complex and even more important than may at first appear.

italy reading group: class struggle during the second world war

The next of the London Commune’s reading group meetings on the class struggle in Italy takes place on Monday 30th May. This week we will be looking at the wave of class struggle unleashed by the events of World War II; the collapse of Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime; and the struggle over the post-Liberation social order.

The recommended reading is just two articles, even though each is fairly long. We have prepared a reading pack, including a timeline of events. Click here to download.

gaddafi in space

Jack Staunton reviews Suicide of the Astronaut by Muammar al-Gaddafi

Colonel Gaddafi is, without a doubt, one of the greatest science fiction icons of all time. Who could forget the 1985 Infocom game A Mind Forever Voyaging, where the Libyan dictator dies in a nuclear test predicted for 2011? Add to this the opening scenes of Back to the Future, released that same year, when Libyan gunmen shoot Doc Brown, angry that he has stolen Gaddafi’s plutonium to fuel his time-travelling DeLorean.

No less of a contribution to the genre is Gaddafi’s own sci-fi volume, celebrated 1998 collection Escape to Hell. The lion of Tripoli set pen to paper to lay bare the moral emptiness of our fast-paced, instant-thrills modern society.

“our time is coming again”

Sheila Cohen reviews New Trade Union Activism: Class Consciousness or Social Identity? Sian Moore, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Yet another pricey, “academic” book – but one with an interesting message. In New Trade Union Activism Sian Moore, who teaches trade unionists at London Metropolitan University’s Working Lives Research Institute, examines the increasing – and, to some of us, questionable – phenomenon of new forms of worker representation. By contrast to the staunch shop steward of the past, who simply took on whatever problems the daily toll of workplace exploitation threw up, the last ten years or so have seen the growth of specific “reps” for apparently every conceivable contingency – learning reps, equality reps, environmental reps, etc., etc.

italy reading group: fascism, anti-fascism and stalinism, 16th may

The next of the London Commune’s reading group meetings on the class struggle in Italy takes place on Monday 16th May. We will be discussing the rise of fascism, resistance to it and different ideas of ‘anti-fascism’, and the lessons for today.

The meeting takes place from 7pm at Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, near Aldgate East station.

We have prepared a reading pack (click here to see as one Word file). This includes an article on the Arditi del Popolo armed anti-fascist movement; short sections of two pieces by Italian Left Communist Amadeo Bordiga questioning the idea of anti-fascism and its interconnection with capitalism; and an article by David Broder briefly explaining the twists and turns of Stalinist policy. The aforementioned reading pack is much less reading than the whole text of the articles linked to above.

may 2011 issue of the commune

Issue 22 of The Commune is now available. It features articles on the aftermath of 26th March, the coming public sector strikes, the military intervention in Libya and much more.


Click the picture above to see PDF, or see below for list of articles as they are uploaded. Email uncaptiveminds@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing a printed copy, or in distributing The Commune.

30th june: the next step – editorial of The Commune

‘no to tesco’: the first funky riot in bristol – Oleg Resin reports on the 21^st April ‘riot’ in Bristol

diverse, colourful, joyful, but angry! – Alice Robson writes on her experience teaching, and campaigning in defence of, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

long live the free hetherington! – Liam T. of Scottish Socialist Youth reports on a stunning success for occupiers at Glasgow Uni

how can we beat austerity? – strikes and other action must be controlled by workers themselves, argues Tom Denning

disempowerment in front of the black bloc – Ellie Schling was concerned by the behaviour of the Black Bloc at the 26^th March TUC demo

military intervention in libya: a debate – an online debate between Commune members about our attitude to the rebels and the ‘no-fly-zone’ in Libya, from late March

from social rebellion to tribal civil war- Mark Ellingsen analyses the composition and aims of the Libyan rebel movements

the NHS plays but a part in the health of the nation – East London GP Jonathon Tomlinson looks at the government’s attacks on the health care and the ever-increasing pressures on the NHS

from recession to (clinical) depression – Adam Ford writes on the social causes of depression

“our time is coming again” – Sheila Cohen reviews New Trade Union Activism: Class Consciousness or Social Identity? Sian Moore, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

taking a step forward – David Broder explains our plans to increase our voice and the help we need from our supporters

reading group on class struggle in italy: starts 2nd may

The London Commune is organising a reading group on class struggle and the left in Italy. The country has a rich tradition of radical thought and mass movements, from which we can learn a great amount for today.

The first of the meetings is on the upsurge of 1919-20, and will take place on 2nd May. All of the discussions are on Monday nights, from 7pm, at Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, near Aldgate East tube. All welcome – contact uncaptiveminds@gmail.com for more info. The recommended reading will be posted online in good time for each meeting. See below for the timetable.

‘keynesianism, monetarism, and the crisis of the state’ by simon clarke reading group

The Commune is organising a reading group on ‘Keynesianism, monetarism, and the crisis of the state’ by Simon Clarke 

The communist critique challenges the capitalist separation of economics from politics, the market from the state and reveals that both the capitalist state and the power of the boss rest on the same class relation. While many Marxists are wrong to think that the state can be seized by the working class or can be used in service of the class struggle, equally many anarchists are wrong to think that the state is not a location of class struggle or that class struggle happens outside the state. The state is a product of capitalist class relations and as such is an area of class contestation.

disempowerment in front of the black bloc

Ellie Schling is a member of the Hackney Housing Group. Hackney residents self-organise in Hackney Housing Group to give and receive support on housing problems and campaign for better housing. The group is part of London Coalition Against Poverty, a coalition of groups which are based on the idea that through solidarity and direct action, ordinary people have the power to change our own lives.

I was marching with London Coalition Against Poverty (LCAP) on the March for the Alternative on Saturday 26^th March when the black bloc came down Piccadilly. I, along with the people I was marching with supported the actions taken against the banks and the Ritz. I wanted to write down my experiences to express what it was like to be on the other side of the block. I am not writing to condemn violence or property damage, but I hope that this could help those involved reflect on how the black bloc related to the other marchers that day.

from rebellion to reform in bolivia, 18th april, london

London Commune forum, 7pm on Monday 18th at the Lucas Arms, near King’s Cross.

The next of our public meetings in London will see at talk by Jeffery Webber, author of ‘Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia’. He will be speaking on social movements in Bolivia and how these interact with the ‘reconstituted neoliberalism’ of the Evo Morales government.

For an interview with Jeffery which appeared in the last issue of The Commune, see here.

sexism: from one prison to another

Latife Faydali writes on how the she was scarred by the twin sexisms of repressive ‘family values’ and sexual violence

As a working class girl born and raised in North London with a Turkish Cypriot background, I was always very aware of gender and the implications that being a Turkish girl had upon my choices. This would affect what clothes I would wear, the people I mixed with, the age in which I would be allowed out with friends, the boyfriends I had (but was not allowed to have!) and of course my sexual autonomy and sexuality.

upcoming commune events in london

Saturday 26th March

The Commune will be meeting at ULU outside Malet St at 11am sharp to join the feeder march for the main TUC anti-cuts demonstration.

Sunday 27th March

Open meeting for those interested in contributing, changing, developing the next issue of The Commune paper. Open to all sympathisers. (And therefore not open to non-sympathisers.) 4pm, The Pembury Tavern, Hackney. http://bit.ly/fqrgbU

Thursday 7th April

A forum on class struggles in China, in particular last summer’s strike wave. From 7pm on Thursday 18th at LARC, 62 Fieldgate Street, near Aldgate East tube. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=200367063325325

Monday 18th April

Jeffery Webber will be speaking on social movements in Bolivia and how these interact with the ‘reconstituted neoliberalism’ of the Evo Morales government. From 7pm on Monday 18th at the Lucas Arms, near King’s Cross.

bristol anti-cuts: in and for the state?

Oleg Resin asks if we can do more than make defensive arguments against the cuts

One afternoon towards the end of February, a bizarre scene unfolded in Bristol City Council’s main meeting room. While the local councillors were discussing the vote on the cuts of some £20 million, a small group of protesters was shouting at them from the public corner.

The ‘funny’ thing about this was that while dozens of thousands people work in the public services in Bristol, the only people who in an organised way actually stuck their heads out, and were therefore dragged out by the police, were pro-anarchist Industrial Workers of the World and a few ‘non-aligned’ radicals. Anti-state activists beaten up as a ‘vanguard’ of a pro-welfare state protest! (without a mass following)… If curious, this scene nevertheless captures something crucial to our condition in Bristol.

stalinism and fascism in 1930s italy

Pietro Tresso (pseudonym, Blasco) was one of the early leaders of the Italian Communist Party. He was forced into exile by the fascist régime in 1929, and then expelled from the party on 1930 on account of his critique of the Stalinist claim that social democrats should be treated as fascists. Tresso helped create the Nuova Opposizione Italiana but also joined the Trotskyists in France, where he was exiled.

In August 1938 Tresso wrote this article in Quatrième Internationale, explaining that the Stalinists were not anti-fascists, but rather manoeuvred to curry favour with the black-shirts to suit the USSR’s diplomatic interests. The dark warnings in Tresso’s article did indeed play out. In August 1939 Stalin signed a pact with Hitler, abandoning his previous anti-fascism. In 1944, liberated from the Puy-en-Velay prison camp in German-occupied France, Tresso was himself murdered by Stalinists.