“we want to inspire other people to take a stand”: interview with a college student activist

Joe Thorne spoke to a student at Leeds City College who has been involved in the protests around education cuts and in the new Really Open Student Union.  The interview is followed by statements from a number of other young people, some of which are featured in this bulletin which you can print off and distribute to support students walking out on Wednesday.

How are the cuts going to affect you?

I’m worrying about my future.  I don’t know if I can stay in college.  This has cancelled out my hope of going to uni.  I’m living with my parents.  They’re both disabled and we’re living off disability allowance.  I don’t know how we’re going to get through the next few years, and bills are going up, especially electricity and gas.

where next for network x?

Daniel Harvey reports on the activist gathering in Manchester

Some members of The Commune joined a gathering of about 300 activists, anarchists and anti-capitalists at Manchester Metropolitan University to discuss ways forward in the struggle against austerity and cuts. Understandably, there was much enthusiasm for making connections with allied groups from around the country, finding ways of offering practical assistance, as well as moral support.

A large part of the gathering was taken up with discussions about what people thought Network X should be in terms of its organisation and aims. The facilitators gave an initial political basis in the form of the People’s Global Action hallmarks’. These rejected all forms of discrimination based on patriarchy and racism, but seemed to forget about class and disability (both of which became points of contention later on) as well as capitalism, imperialism and ‘feudalism’.

bulletin to build colleges walkout on 26 jan – print off and distribute

On 26th January, college students around the country will walk out.  The student movement which made such an impact in November and December will begin again.  A number of students and supporters around the country have worked together to produce a bulletin, which can be printed out and distributed in order to build the walk-outs.  Click here to download and print!

Introductory text follows

student occupations pamphlet: a call for contributions

The Commune is looking to produce a pamphlet about, and for, student occupations.  In our view, there are lessons to be learned, not only from the recent wave of occupations in November – December 2010, but from recent occupations at SOAS, Middlesex, Sussex, against the devastation of Gaza in Winter 2008-9, and many more besides.

We want the pamphlet to be based around contributions from occupiers recounting their experiences, and drawing some conclusions from them.  We therefore want to invite anyone with such experiences to get in touch with us and contribute something – be it a few paragraphs or a few pages.  Not all occupiers should have to begin at the beginning: there is a wealth of experience which future occupiers can learn from; it should not all be lost every three years as each generation of activists passes on.

feminism, organisation and class struggle

a day of mutual learning and exchange hosted by The Commune, 20th February, London

We believe that most of the left has a pretty poor record on gender. Even if overt sexism is less common than in the past, informal hierarchies and alienated, gendered relations run rampant. But this practice can –  and must – change if we are ever going to revolutionise society.

As against swallowing the old left traditions, we believe it is important that the left critically reappraise our theory, practice and organisation in the light of socialist feminist politics, as well as the experience of working women’s struggles more broadly.

This is not a day for The Commune to lay down any ‘party line’, but rather to create a space for discussion of the insights of anti-capitalist feminism and the inter-relation between class and gender struggles. We hope to exchange ideas in a participatory, un-dogmatic and inclusive manner. We have planned three workshops. 

issue 20 of the commune

The January issue of The Commune is now available. Click the image below to see PDF or use the list of individual articles as they are posted online.

Contact us at uncaptiveminds@gmail.com if you would like to buy a printed copy (£1 + 50p postage) or set up a subscription. (£12 a year UK/£16 EU/£20 international.

News

the truth about julian assange – Adam Ford writes on the WikiLeaks saga

tommy sheridan’s celebrity socialism – Allan Armstrong on the politics behind the perjury trial

Workplace

unite cans heinz strike – Alfred Stevens on the end of the Wigan Heinz dispute (updated/abridged in PDF)

PM: ‘striking never achieves anything’ – Sharon Borthwick didn’t think much of David Cameron’s advice to striking workers

‘no cuts?’ ‘no chance!’ – David Huckerby on Sheffield Homes’ cuts plans

an image of the big society? – ‘Lady Stardust’ looks at the cooperatively-run Woodberry Down Community Library

the global commune – 29th January Edinburgh meeting on trade unionism

Student movement

education: their vote isn’t the end of our struggle – editorial of The Commune

student occupations pamphlet: a call for contributions

can student struggles engage with campus staff? – students’ and workers’ struggles at Bristol university

build the movement or build the party? – Sinead Rylance saw sectarianism at play in the KCL occupation

LSE occupation: 1968 and all that – Jack Staunton saw more hope in the college students’ protests than the occupation at his uni

mobilisation versus representation – Joe Thorne looks at the conflicting dynamics of the November-December student movement and the role of the left

hope against hope: a necessary betrayal – Nic Beuret looks at the aspirations of the student movement beyond ‘freezing the fees’

Organising

where next for network x? – Daniel Harvey reports on the activist gathering in Manchester

feminism, organisation and class struggle – a day of discussion and mutual exchange, London, 20th February

issue two of the educator

our platform

our meetings

International

from celtic tiger to death by a thousand cuts – Ronan McAoidh on the economic and political crisis engulfing Ireland

a french thatcher? the rise of nicolas sarkozy – Noé le Blanc reports on the record of the new right in France

from palace coup to revolution – Camille Boudjak reports on the mass revolt in Tunisia

revolution in tunisia… just the beginning

Camille Boudjak reflects on the revolutionary movement in Tunisia

Ben Ali, the dictator who once terrorised the Tunisian population, was forced to flee the country on the evening of Friday 14^th January. Chief of state for 23 years, a kleptocrat and dictator, he spent six hours on a plane first trying to reach the France of his friend and supporter Sarkozy, then Malta and finally being welcomed by the reactionary Saudi monarchy.

At the time of writing the Tunisian population have still not won anything as regards their aspiration for freedom, nor the working-class demands against poverty and unemployment which in late December sparked the insurrection in the impoverished Sidi Bouzid region. The army patrols the streets and the cops of the Ben Ali regime continue to spread terror. No-one knows the future: the international history of our class is rich in betrayed and lost revolutions, but already the revolution in Tunisia represents a historic event.

trade unions – fit for purpose? edinburgh global commune, 29th january

In both the UK and Ireland today, the overwhelming majority of trade union leaders have signed up to social partnerships. These effectively reduce unions to a free personnel management service for the employers. However, the traditional Broad Left response of electing alternative leaders has shown itself unable to counter social partnerships. Indeed many current union leaders, who now accept social partnership, were themselves earlier Broad Left members.

The third Global Commune event, jointly sponsored by the Republican Communist Network and The Commune, asks the question – “Trade unions – Are they fit for purpose?” A number of different approaches to organising workers will be discussed in workshops over the day. All welcome: registration 10.30 for 11.00-16.30 meeting, at the Out of the Blue Centre, Dalmeny Street, Leith, Edinburgh.

leaflet for network x gathering: movement beyond ‘actions’

Some members of The Commune will be going to the Network X gathering on Saturday and Sunday.  We have produced this leaflet to distribute.  We are currently discussing a formal proposal for the gathering, along the lines suggested in our leaflet.  You can download it as a printable PDF here.

The cuts we're facing are slightly different... so a different approach is needed

Movement beyond ‘actions’: what we have been, what we can become

As the UK moves into times of potential mass unrest, how does our movement find a way of connecting with the people around us? What is the best use of our political time, energy and experience in this new, and maybe very exciting phase? We all know that deep social change is going to take a mass movement, not just a bunch of activists – but how can we best be part of and agitate for such a movement?

the educator, issue 2

Issue two of The Educator which is being distributed at Manchester Metropolitan University this week. Click below to see PDFs.

Print run = 850. More people are encouraged to get involved: ring 07976386737 or email manchestercommuniststudents(at)googlemail.com for details.

heinz beanz is being really meanz

by Alfred Stevens of Communist Students.

The 1,200 striking workers at Europe’s biggest food manufacturing plant, the Heinz factory in Kitt Green of Wigan, suffered the first defeat in their ongoing struggle against the management and owners of the company, as the senior stewards decided to call off the 24 hour strike that was planned for Wednesday January 4th. The workers had been planning to strike for the fourth time over management’s sub par offer of pay conditions, including the removal of the performance related bonus and restrictions on overtime.

In an unsurprising move, given Unite’s previous of trying to buy its members off cheaply, the shop stewards accepted management’s demand that the planned industrial action on the 5th be called off. The shop stewards argue that this was to allow the offer that management had called ‘final’ to be voted on by its members. The offer though is hardly better than the previous one, which the workforce voted overwhelmingly to strike against.

the truth about julian assange and wikileaks

by Adam Ford

Okay, beyond the provocative title, I’m as much in the dark as you are on this one. But I would like to start the article by listing the only things I hold to be self-evident in regards to the Julian Assange story.

One: WikiLeaks is a great thing, providing us with documentary proof of government collusion against the interests of the general public, in favour of the super-rich. Two: we cannot be sure that Julian Assange did not sexually assault either or both of the women at the centre of the allegations against him, because we were not there. Three: the criminal action against Assange is politically motivated, whether he assaulted the women or not. Four: WikiLeaks must be defended from those in positions of power who wish to shut it down and intimidate would-be whistleblowers.

the sheridan perjury trial

The split on the Scottish Left between celebrity populist and genuine socialist politics

On May 1^st, 2003 six Scottish Socialist Party members were elected to Holyrood. From December 23^rd, 2010, by far the best-known (former) member of the SSP, Tommy Sheridan, faces a jail sentence for committing perjury, following in the footsteps of Lord Jeffrey Archer and Jonathan Aitken. At a time of unprecedented attacks on the working class, led by a Tory-Lib-Dem government at Westminster, transmitted by an SNP government in Holyrood, and taken up by Labour, SNP, Lib-Dem and Tory councillors throughout Scotland, there is only one remaining socialist (SSP) representative – Jim Bollan, the councillor for the Leven ward in West Dunbartonshire.

How has this sad state of affairs come to pass, and is there anything socialists can usefully learn from all this?  Perhaps the most immediate lesson is the incompatibility of trying to build a socialist organisation through promoting a celebrity leader. Furthermore, this has been highlighted, in the UK, not only by the example of Tommy Sheridan, but also of Derek Hatton (CWI/Militant), Arthur Scargill (Socialist Labour Party) Ken Livingstone (one-time Left independent) and George Galloway (Respect).

However, the fact that the same mistake keeps repeating itself shows that a significant section of the Left in the UK is more attracted to populist politics, than to genuine socialist politics, where all members are treated as equals and are encouraged to think for themselves.

no support for labour: no support for the lrc

At a Communist Students’ Exec meeting on the 13th of December, a decision was made to affiliate to the Labour Representation Committee (LRC). This statement was issued by members opposed to this decision, and we republish it here in the interests of debate.

The driving force behind this was Ben Lewis of the Provisional Central Committee of the CPGB, which has recently adopted a set of theses on the Labour Party.[1] Some points of which would get support within the ranks of the LRC, for example the democratisation of the Labour Party.[2] Crucially important though for the issue at hand is the dangerous conception of a permanent united front between Communists and the Labour Party contained within the theses. Where the CPGB’s contradictory perspective of simultaneously organising a political force independent of social democracy and at the same time trying to transform the Labour Party into a “real party of labour” and putting the Labour Party into office in order to expose its leadership, is made.