for workers' power from below
john mcdonnell mp has confirmed that he will be speaking at the last of our uncaptive minds forums on class struggle in the 1970s.
the subject of the meeting, which will take place from 6:30pm on monday 8th december, is ‘where did it all go?’ john will be speaking alongside joe marino, general secretary of the bakers’ union, and steve hedley, lul regional secretary of the rmt.
for details of other meetings in the series see ‘events‘. email uncaptiveminds@googlemail.com for more information.
fringe at the tuc congress, 5:30pm, tuesday 9th september, meeting room 1 at the brighton centre. Continue reading “launch of new trade union co-ordinating group”
a reminder of the first in our series of discussions on working-class struggle in the 1970s, taking place from 6:30pm this evening (monday 1st september)
the subject of the meeting will be the upsurge 1968-74, with guest speakers sheila cohen, author of ramparts of resistance, and george shaw, a former vauxhall car worker and former member of solidarity.
we will also be showing a short film about the era, arise ye workers
the venue is in central london – contact uncaptiveminds@googlemail.com or 07595 245494 for details
today we have added three more links to the ‘ideas‘ page of the commune.
the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ in marx and engels, by hal draper, explains how marx and engels used the term ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ not to mean a specific form of government but rather to denote the class rule of the working class once it has overthrown the bourgeoisie. in this vein draper attacks the understanding of the term elaborated by plekhanov, who proclaimed “when we come to power, we will allow no freedom for anyone but ourselves”.
anton pannekoek’s world revolution and communist tactics, written for an organ of the comintern in 1920, effectively combats statist visions of working-class power and bureaucracy in the workers’ movement, and looks at the new organisational forms workers must use to re-shape society: “the formation by the workers of the soviets, their own organs of power and action, in itself signifies the disintegration and dissolution of the state. as a much more recent form of organisation and one created by the proletariat itself, the trade union will survive much longer, because it has its roots in a much more living tradition of personal experience, and once it has shaken off state-democratic illusions, will therefore claim a place in the conceptual world of the proletariat. but since the trade unions have emerged from the proletariat itself, as products of its own creative activity, it is in this field that we shall see the most new formations as continual attempts to adapt to new conditions; following the process of revolution, new forms of struggle and organisation will be built on the model of the soviets in a process of constant transformation and development”.
ubu saved from drowning: worker insurgency and statist containment in portugal and spain 1974-77, by loren goldner, is of particular interest in that focuses on the struggles of the portuguese working class rather than merely the history of the sects that aspired to lead it (much like mailer’s the impossible revolution). the fact that the portuguese revolution represented the end of an era of class struggle rather than the beginning of a new one, and that the onward march of state capitalism had also petered out by the end of the 1970s, by no means devalues the lessons of the portuguese revolutionary crisis, which saw mass working-class mobilisation, factory expropriations and efforts at workers’ self-management.
today we have added to the ‘ideas‘ section of the website…
the solidarity group’s pamphlet on the 1871 paris commune. this compares trotsky and tales’ insistence that the communards failed because of their lack of a party unfavourably to karl marx’s civil war in france, which makes no such argument; and furthermore celebrates this great display of working class insurgency from below.
we also feature an article by david broder on the organisation of education under capitalism and the alienation of students, and an essay by chris ford on the relevance of the theory of state capitalism in today’s globalised capitalist economy.
the website is now accessible at www.thecommune.co.uk as well as the wordpress address.
click here for a pdf of the leaflet for the forthcoming uncaptive minds series on class struggle in the 1970s.
the first session, from 6:30pm on monday september 1st, will be on the upsurge 1968-74, with sheila cohen, author of ramparts of resistance and george shaw, a former vauxhall car worker and former member of solidarity.
we have added more content to the ‘ideas‘ section of the commune.
first off is a piece on self-management in the struggle for socialism by michel raptis – also known as michel pablo and at one time a leading member of the trotskyist international secretariat of the fourth international – who in the late 1960s and early 1970s turned his focus towards workers’ self-management.
tamás krausz describes the struggle for workers’ self-management in action with his article on the workers’ councils in hungary in 1956, where workers mounted a revolution against the stalinist bureaucracy and tried to take power, only to be crushed by russian tanks.
then we reproduce kevin anderson’s essay on lenin’s engagement with hegelian philosophy during world war one, and his little-read hegel notebooks.
and in state capitalism or bureaucratic collectivism? chris ford introduces the debate in the united states workers’ party over the class character of the soviet union, and we republish speeches by raya dunayevskaya and max shachtman.
we have launched this website to spread the ideas of workers’ self-management and communism from below, as well as publicising our activities and forthcoming magazine.
the site is new but already features a set of theoretical and historical pieces (see ‘ideas‘), a draft where we stand statement (see ‘about us’) and will soon feature some news pieces.
