The Midlands Discussion Forum was held on April 25th in Birmingham, bringing together delegates from a number of ‘left communist’ groupings, as well the commune and a number of unaffilated individuals. (See here for an interview, which provides an accessible introduction to the ideas of the left communists.) Comrades have been asked to circulate notes from their various presentations, which were to focus on the theme of How can the working class respond to the economic crisis? Presentations are also available from the Communist Workers Organisation, former Communist Bulletin Group and International Communist Current. Notes used for the presentation by the delegate from the commune follow. Continue reading “presentation of the commune to the midlands discussion forum, 25 april”
by Ernie Haberkern
The rise of a new bureaucratic ruling class in Russia in the thirties and forties of the twentieth century has artificially inflated the stock of several opponents of the social democratic movement who attacked it on the grounds that it was preparing a dictatorship of ‘intellectuals’ or men of ‘science’ over the untutored working class.
The subject of this study – Jan Waclaw Machajsky – is one such figure. Continue reading “jan waclaw machajsky: a prophet unhonoured in his own time (and rightly so)”
by Joe Thorne
Parents of pupils at Lewisham Bridge Primary School, together with supporters, have been in occupation of the school roof since 23rd April, in opposition to Lewisham Council’s plans to demolish the school building, and replace it with a school run by a shadowy guild of wealthy businessmen known as the Worshipful Company of Leather Sellers, which dates back to the beginning of mercantile capitalism in the 14th Century.
Continue reading “the lewisham bridge primary school occupation”
The next of The Commune’s London ‘uncaptive minds’ forums will take place on Monday May 11th.
As well as characterising modern-day imperialism and specific struggles, we will be discussing such questions as – why do we prioritise campaigning about certain national oppressions over others?; why are the tactics of the Stop the War Coalition so conservative, and how can we overcome them?; what is the relationship between international solidarity and our critical distance from particular national movements?
Speakers include the Israeli socialist Moshé Machover, a speaker from the Tamil cause and an activist involved in an anti-capitalist caucus in the Gaza solidarity movement.
The meeting will take place from 7pm on the 11th at the Plough, on Museum St, near Tottenham Court Road tube. Continue reading “imperialism today and the anti-war movement we need: may 11th”
The next of the protests organised by the sacked Mitie cleaners who had been working at Willis Group takes place this Friday, 1st May.
These migrant workers were unfairly dismissed after protesting when they were forced to work their shifts at night rather than during the day. Their campaign has been ongoing for over three months: for more details of the case and past demos see the page here, or Jake Lagnado’s article on the dispute which appeared in issue 4 of The Commune.
The workers have put up brave and sustained resistance in an inspiring struggle made all the more difficult by the Unite union bureaucrats’ refusal to help their fight.
This week’s demo is at 11:30am at the Willis building at 51 Lime Street, London EC3M (Bank/Liverpool Street). Note the change to the usual time, which is to avoid clashing with the May Day rally beginning at 1pm at Farringdon.
by Nathan Coombs
In reaction to the global economic crisis, in his cover story for the current issue of Prospect magazine Geoff Mulgan tantalisingly holds out the promise of what life would look like ‘After Capitalism’[i]. The only problem is that his hodgepodge of possible routes beyond capitalism – foremost the vague vision of “servant capitalism” – not only do not transcend capitalism, are not only being articulated by those with the greatest stake in promulgating capitalism (he even cites David Cameron as playing a part), but are even aspects of capitalism with us today: the same aspects to have played their part in inducing the global crisis that supposedly marks the beginning of a new epoch.
Amongst his suggestions of routes beyond capitalism he includes Keynesian investment in green industries, the pluralisation of company governance and the introduction of “personal welfare counts” (previously called the welfare state?) It does not take a whole lot of nous to work out that this is hardly a portrait of a world ‘after capitalism,’ but simply an extrapolation of contemporary trends within capitalism: precisely those trends that have historically prevented the possibility of any ‘after’. Continue reading “capitalism, keynes, socialism”
Because of refurbishment work to the usual venue (no doubt the result of the structural crisis of capitalism), the venue for the next of The Commune’s London reading groups on ‘communism from below’ has changed to the Lucas Arms, on Gray’s Inn Road, near King’s Cross.
The meeting will be focusing on the subject of so-called ‘Parliamentary socialism’ and its historic failure. We will be discussing the questions:
– What problems were created in the British labour movement when it separated into ‘parliamentary’ and ‘industrial’ wings?
– In what ways and for what reasons does parliamentary activity lead to the accommodation of the workers’ movement to the existing system?
– Should we refuse to participate in all elections and bourgeois parliaments?
The recommended preparatory reading for the discussion is this chapter of Communism and Society by William Paul and Modernisation as domination in the Chilean and British Left. All are welcome. Comrades will give lead-offs on the text, followed by general discussion.
The meeting takes place from 6:30pm on Monday 4th May. Contact uncaptiveminds@gmail.com or 07595 245494 to register your interest, request printed copies of the texts or find out more information. See below for map.
Dear friends and colleagues,
I wish to draw to your attention an increasingly worrying situation which is developing in Ukraine as regards repression of Anti-Fascist Action following the death of a neo-Nazi. These neo-Nazis have operated freely for years and been linked to numerous racist murders – this has provoked none of this hysteria which is been launched against the anti-racists.
Please express your concern and solidarity with AFA as best you can. I shall if necessary be organising a demonstration in London.
Chris Kane
Continue reading “repression of anti-fascists in ukraine”
by David Broder
On the evening of 22nd April the London branch of the Anarchist Federation and the NE & South London Solidarity Federation held a joint meeting on the subject of “World Economy in Crisis: Who Pays the Price? And How Can We Resist?”. Some 30 people managed to tear themselves away from Manchester United vs. Portsmouth and episode 5 of The Apprentice to make it to the Calthorpe Arms for the meeting.
The speakers leading off the discussion were Bonnie from AFed and Neill from SolFed. Bonnie’s talk was largely on the background to the crisis and how it had come about, and she delved a few times into Marxist analysis and Marx’s categories in order to tell the story of the movements in the world economy. She was near-apologetic for doing so, although it very much seemed to be the ‘meat’ of her talk’s theoretical underpinning: she said she was talking about Marxist economics rather than Marx’s politics, although I fail to see much separation between the two, whatever the state-socialists have done to poor old Marx… Continue reading “report: anarchist meeting on the capitalist crisis”
The next of The Commune’s London reading groups on ‘communism from below’ will be focusing on the subject of so-called ‘Parliamentary socialism’ and its historic failure. We will be discussing the questions:
– What problems were created in the British labour movement when it separated into ‘parliamentary’ and ‘industrial’ wings?
– In what ways and for what reasons does parliamentary activity lead to the accommodation of the workers’ movement to the existing system?
– Should we refuse to participate in all elections and bourgeois parliaments?
The recommended preparatory reading for the discussion is this chapter of Communism and Society by William Paul and Modernisation as domination in the Chilean and British Left. All are welcome. Comrades will give lead-offs on the text, followed by general discussion.
The meeting takes place from 6:30pm on Monday 4th May at [EDIT: The Lucas Arms, near King’s Cross]. Contact uncaptiveminds@gmail.com or 07595 245494 to register your interest, request printed copies of the texts or find out more information.
by Pavlo Shevchenko
On the 17th of April in Odessa 15 nazi-skinheads attacked 5 members of the anti-fascist movement with bottles and rocks. Nazis ran up to the antifascists sitting on a bench near the “Orech” club and started shouting threads and Nazis slogans and started a fight. “Antifa” activists were often before threatened by Nazi-skinheads; anti-fascists were victims of Nazi attacks. Therefore they realized that any conflict provoked by Nazis could be fatal. Protecting their lives one antifa had to use a pen-knife (a means of self-protection not prohibited by the law) and Nazi-skinhead Maksim Chaika -was wounded. He did not get proper medical aid and died. If the antifascists had not fought back to protect themselves they would have been in the morgue. The far right are trying to benefit from the incident by falsely presenting the facts and cynically lying to the public.
Far-right propagandists claim that the killing had a political subtext. Actually 5 antifa had to resist 15 aggressive Nazi-skinhead attackers. The police have confirmed what number of antifascists there were. Nazis are trying to present Maksim Chaika as our victim: however it was him and his friends who started the fighting. Continue reading “ukrainian fascist falls victim to own aggression”
Communards in Wrexham have been busy pushing a May day march and rally through the local trade council. The theme will be around May day as a workers movement day as oppossed to the racism and hate of the BNP, who are active in the area.
After the march a series of meetings are being arranged around the title “Storming the heavens – alternatives to capitalism”.
Paper sales will also be launched in and around the town centre. Contact Steve Ryan via uncaptiveminds@gmail.com
In the West Midlands we take part in the Coventry Radical Network, whose next meeting is on Monday April 27th from 7.30pm at Friends’ Meeting House, Hill Street, Coventry.
The topic of the meeting is Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs), with Dave Green (Northampton Save Our Services) on the fight against Schools PFIs in Northampton – the largest scheme in Europe and a speaker from Coventry Friends of the Earth arguing against the £1 billion PFI Incinerator scheme in Coventry. More info: call Dave Spencer on 02476-450027 Continue reading “update on the commune’s activities around britain”
by Chris Kane
The Police operation around the G20 was entitled “Operation Glencoe” – named after the massacre in Scotland in 1692 when the order was given that “the rebels, the McDonalds of Glencoe” were to be “put all to the sword”. Operation Glencoe lived up to its namesake resulting in the Police manslaughter of Ian Tomlinson returning home from work. The G20 summit was surrounded by an atmosphere of hysteria whipped up by the media, the Police and mad professor Chris Knight, the self-appointed spokesman for the protests. This was done in a way that made protest and violence almost synonymous. These events have posed anew the question of violence and of legality as they relate to the project of creating a new society.
Most working class people abhor violence, particularly anti-social crime. Contrary to the lies of capitalist politicians communists also abhor violence, we seek a society fit for human beings where the social conditions which give rise to forms of violence will be uprooted, the need to resort to violence will be vastly diminished and subject to the interests of humanity. But this new society will not be achieved without physical force: this may seem a paradox but it flows directly from the nature of the society we live in today. Continue reading “of policemen and mad professors: communism and physical force”
The first week of April saw the leaders of world capitalism converge on London for the G20 summit, which agreed to a version of Gordon Brown’s latest plan to “save the world”. The Prime Minister boasted that a “historic” $1.1 trillion programme of investment and new regulation for international finance would mean a “new world order”.
Such efforts at state support for the financial giants and Brown’s “quantitative easing” (printing money) may indeed serve to relieve some rather constipated markets. And yet the slogan of the London summit “Stability. Growth. Jobs.” and the grandiose speeches of our rulers ring hollow to the many millions who are being put out of a job and whose services are being slashed as a result of the capitalists’ crisis in the here and now. Continue reading “go forth and occupy! – editorial of the commune, part 1”
