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”
Tag: communism
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)”
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.
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.
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”
The fourth issue of our paper The Commune (May 2009) is now available. You can read the PDF online by clicking the image below, write to us at uncaptiveminds@gmail.com to request a printed copy, or look at the list of articles below as they are uploaded.
go forth and occupy! – editorial of The Commune, part 1
mitie cleaners resist city of london bosses – by Jake Lagnado
no to “no2eu”! – by Dave Spencer
we can defy the jobs massacre – editorial of The Commune, part 2
of policemen and mad professors: communism and physical force – by Chris Kane
workers occupy visteon factories – by Samantha O’Driscoll
dynamics of the struggle at visteon – by strike supporters at enfield
update on activities of the commune around the country
political parties and workers’ self-management – by Goran Markovic
the struggle for women’s emancipation today – by Liz Leicester
the g20 protests: the devil against the detail – by Nathan Coombs
leftist opposition gains ground in algeria poll – by Solomon Anker
(at The Bank of England, April 1st 2009)
by Nathan Coombs
First was the March 28th ‘Jobs, justice, climate’ rally: a quickly forgotten TUC organised trot through central London. Second was the April 1st protest at the Bank of England, where the four horsemen of the apocalypse descended on the Bank, against a fever pitch expectation set by the police and the media about the eruption of a ‘summer of rage.’ Something like 5,000 to 10,000 joined the protest at Bank, and conferring to a well recognised pattern the protest was not so much a unified event, as a conglomeration of events – in a similar vein to the ‘anti-globalisation’ movement of the 1990s and beyond.
In the sense of history repeating itself, Chris Knight, the ‘martyr’ of the G20 Meltdown movement, declared an impending “Velvet Revolution”[i] in the week running up the protest, and the media were quick to invoke parallels with the May Day riots and to label the assorted anarchists groups and hodgepodge of protestors as ‘anti-globalisation activists;’[ii] even in the absence of any anti-globalisation banners, chants or slogans. Needless to say, neither the revolution, nor the anti-globalisation protest materialised. Or in other words, the form of the protests might have stayed the same, but the content had not. Yet surveying the post-mortem commentary about the protest on the left, the blinkers still seem to be on those that only saw what they expected to see, nevermind what was simmering in a inarticulate bubble beneath the surface. Continue reading “the g20 protests: the devil against the detail”
The next of The Commune’s London reading group series on ‘communism from below’ is to take place on Monday 13th April. The subject of the discussion, taking place from 6:30pm at the Old Red Lion, near Angel tube, is “workers’ self-government vs. state socialism”.
We will be looking at the questions
– To what extent is it possible to use the existing state’s structures to force ‘socialist’ reforms?
– Should we refuse to make any demands on bourgeois governments?
– What arguments could be made for and against the slogan “nationalisation under workers’ control”?
– Does William Paul’s “industrial executive committee” reflect our idea of working-class power?
– How can self-managed workplaces relate to the needs of society as a whole?
– Does the idea of a “workers’ party” imply an elite counterposed to grassroots activism and workplace democracy, and does it really allow a broader programme of social revolution?
The suggested reading material is:
– William Paul – The State: Its Origins and Function, Chapter 11
– Marx – Critique of the Gotha Programme
– Hal Draper – The Two Souls of Socialism
All are welcome to come and take part in the discussion. Email uncaptiveminds@gmail.com for more info.
Rosa Luxemburg: Selected Political and Literary Writings
Guest Editor: Mike Jones
Mike Jones has edited August Thalheimer and German communism, and is a frequent contributor to the journal Revolutionary History.
Editorial Committee: Ted Crawford, Paul Flewers, Esther Leslie and John Plant
Rosa Luxemburg, perhaps the most remarkable and original figure among German Marxists thinkers and activists, was one of the earliest victims of fascism, murdered in Berlin, in 1919. This volume presents selected political essays, writings previously unavailable in English.
They reveal Luxemburg’s aversion to splits in the Labour movement, particularly in Germany and Russia, and aspects of her thinking about culture, nationalism and women’s rights. Each essay is annotated, introduced and placed in context. Continue reading “revolutionary history: rosa luxemburg issue”
On 9th March The Commune hosted a London forum on the subject of “women in the class struggle today”. The speakers were Liz Leicester (chair, Camden Unison); Sheila Cohen (author, Ramparts of Resistance), Mary Partington (Left Women’s Network) and Clara Osagiede (RMT cleaners’ grade rep). 21 people attended.
Seven videos of the introductory speeches are below. The end of the speeches and the ensuing discussion will appear shortly, and we aim to make such video recordings of our meetings a more regular feature of this website.
by David Broder
This weekend Birkbeck in central London played host to a conference “On the Idea of Communism”, featuring such luminaries of Marxist academia as Slavoj Zizek (the main organiser), Toni Negri, Michael Hardt, Alain Badiou and Terry Eagleton.
The conference attracted nearly a thousand people, reflecting both the notoriety of the speakers and the renewed interest in communism and Marxist philosophy resulting from the economic crisis. There was even a session on ‘communism from below’. And the registration fee for anyone who wanted to discuss the future communist project was a mere… £100.
Strapped for cash, I did seriously consider just buying a ticket for the World Cup final instead. Continue reading “report of conference ‘on the idea of communism’”
The March 2009 issue of The Commune is now on sale. £1 a copy, email uncaptiveminds@gmail.com to order. Click here for pdf.
The new paper features the following articles:
Don’t moan, organise! – editorial on the recession
Factory occupation in Ukraine – by a comrade in Kyiv
Unions and left parties let down Greek youth uprising – by Valia Kaimaki
Lessons of the oil refinery wildcat strikes – by Gregor Gall
The impossibility of class struggle in the mind of the BBC – by Joe Thorne
Occupations for Gaza: activism goes back to university – by Taimour Lay
More arrests in Iran – by Sam Parsa
School students get organised – interview with Tali Janner-Klausner
Lassalle’s state socialism – from Hal Draper’s Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution
Self-management and the environment – by Steve Ryan
The following article appeared in The Socialist, official organ of the Socialist Labour Party, No.18, May 6, 1920. The SLP was founded by Scots/Irish revolutionary James Connolly, and was influenced by the American Marxist Daniel De Leon. The SLP however was never as doctrinaire as the American SLP and they developed pioneering ideas of ‘communism from below’ and a strong critique of state-socialism that anticipated many of the problems of the 20th century and today. The following article is a contribution to the discussion on communist attitudes to elections and participation in institutions such as local authorities. The issues addressed in this revolutionary period are very much alive today, not least of all the familiar picture of rotten Labour councillors. This article also helps inform our own discussions on these issues in the 21st century.
Chris Kane
Continue reading “communists and elections”
We are pleased to announce the publication of our sixth pamphlet, “The meaning of communism today”.
The pamphlet, excerpted in the latest issue of The Commune, features a discussion document produced by supporters of A l’Encontre, l’Emancipation sociale, Carré rouge and A contre-courant looking at what alternative we can pose to the crisis-ridden capitalist system, including a focus on gender oppression, the coming ecological disaster and modern imperialism.
Arguing against the tried-and-failed statist and vanguardist conceptions of Stalinism and social-democracy, the piece puts forward the case for a self-managed society based on participatory democracy and collective decision making.
You can order the pamphlet for £1 + postage by writing to uncaptiveminds@gmail.com or The Commune, 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London EC1V 4PY.
