cuts to childcare in tower hamlets

Do you know any parents or child-care workers in Tower Hamlets who might have views on the cuts?  Please get in touch with feminist.fightback@gmail.com or call Laura on 07890 209479.  Click here to download the first Nursery newsletter as a PDF.

Feminist Fightback are producing a newsletter for child-care workers and parents whose children use child-care services in Tower Hamlets.  It is important that workers and service users communicate with each other and campaign together.  If you can help, please contact Laura on the details above.

meeting with workers’ initiative, poland (london)

7pm, Friday 15th April, Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street

Workers’ Initiative is a militant union in Poland with a revolutionary libertarian orientation.  They grew from a loose network of activists to include a number of active committees in workplaces around the country.  The union, which numbers around 500 to 1000 activists, is active in strikes, sit-ins, and other militant activity.  Come and hear from their International Secretary, who will be able to speak about the experience of Workers’ Initiative over the past decade, and the class struggle in Poland.

Click the flyer to view a full size version:

The meeting is organised by Polish comrades of Workers’ Initiative living in London.

meeting 14th april: class struggle in world war II

A meeting of the Birkbeck discussion group*, with a lead-off by David Broder.  From 7:30pm on Thursday 14th April at Room 254, Birkbeck, Malet Street (Goodge St. tube). All welcome.

The Second World War was the greatest crisis in the history of capitalism. For six years the system of states was in chaos as rival
imperialisms fought each other for control. Many communists hoped that the disaster of war and the discrediting of the ruling class would provide an opportunity for revolution. Yet the democratic bourgeoisie  emerged from 1945 stronger than ever.

what it would take to beat austerity

After seeing our leaflet for March 26th, Red Pepper got in touch and asked us to put together an article which put the argument in slightly extended form.  Here it is.  Strikes and other action must be controlled by workers themselves, argues Tom Denning.

A week on, the feedback from the TUC demonstration seems broadly positive.  To seasoned marchers, it might have seemed like just another trudge along Embankment – but for many it was their first demonstration, and the sheer weight of numbers carried some exhilaration with it.

imperialist intervention in libya: continuing the debate

This article by Mark was originally posted as a comment in our previous post.

'Topple the Tyrants' occupation at Saif al-Islam Gaddafi's house

I just want to say something about one of the reasons that has been used to advocate for either neutrality or support for western intervention and the no-fly zone. This justification is that by helping the rebels this will help the working class even if they are as yet unorganised, by creating a democratic space in Libya which can be used to further working class politics. However, after doing a little research, I’m sceptical that the rebels in the east of the country will allow much autonomy for working class politics.

A Debate on Imperialist Intervention in Libya.

Opposition to the military intervention in Libya has been muted in the UK, and positions on the left have been exposed by the tension between support for democratic struggle in the Middle East and a deep distrust of Western motives. This is an edited version of an online discussion between Commune members between 20-25 March, which aimed not at expressing a final position but exploring some of the contradictions.

risk of infection: the strike wave in china

Bristol members of The Commune are holding a public meeting, ‘Risk of Infection: The Strike Wave in China’. Details below.

6th April 19.00 – 21.00 @ Hamilton House.

In mid-2010 a strike wave rolled through China’s factories, the most widespread and militant expression of China’s internal migrant workers so far. Their struggle shook the Chinese regime and provoked a world-wide debate about the end of the low-wage-model that stands behind China’s rise to the “factory of the world” and provides Europe and other regions with cheap consumer products.

We will look at the social conditions that stand behind the militant outbreak – the situation and struggles of different groups of migrant workers, such as construction, factory, domestic and sex workers, before examining the strike wave and its implications and discussing the formation of a new working class
movement in China.

Reflections on the 26th of March

Steve Ryan reports on the TUC’s March 26 ‘March for the Alternative’ demonstration.

The 26th may well turn out to be a turning point in the anti cuts movement.

Firstly as an event it was an undoubted success. Up to half a million marched, sang and chanted their way in lively procession from Embankment to Hyde park. The march clearly attracted many thousands who had not been on a demo before, many who had pulled back from political activity and were pulled back in, in short this wasn’t the usual suspects.

‘this is only the beginning.’ but of what? leaflet for 26 march

This is our leaflet for 26 March.  Download a PDF here or read the front page article below.



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.

new organs of power: beyond calls for a general strike

David Broder gave this talk at the March 12 London Communist Forum, discussing calls for a general strike.  Mike Macnair’s talk at the same event can be found here.

But is it that simple?

Different sectors are all facing cuts and, of course, it makes sense to want to link up action against them so as to increase their impact – all public sector workers in a sense have the same employer. The government ultimately has some responsibility for keeping the privatised sector running too – railworkers, for example.

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.

risk of infection: the strike wave in china

London public meeting on the 2010 strike wave in China, 7th April

In mid-2010 a strike wave rolled through China’s factories, the most widespread and militant expression of China’s internal migrant workers so far. Their struggle shook the Chinese regime and provoked a world-wide debate about the end of the low-wage-model that stands behind China’s rise to the “factory of the world” and provides Europe and other regions with cheap consumer products.

We will look at the social conditions that stand behind the militant outbreak – the situation and struggles of different groups of migrant workers, such as construction, factory, domestic and sex workers, before examining the strike wave and its implications and discussing the formation of a new working class movement in China.