quarterly aggregate meeting: saturday 11th june

On Saturday 11th June, The Commune will hold our next quarterly aggregate meeting.  The meeting is open to all members and friends of the group who’re interested in organising with us, so if you’re interested in attending, drop us a line at uncaptiveminds@gmail.com.  The aggregate will be held at a central London location between 12 noon and 5pm.

At our last aggregate, the discussion allowed us to share and clarify our views on anti-cuts work, its current shortcomings, and how we might be able to do better.  This time we will be focussing on improving our organisation and paper.  We will be discussing the purpose of the paper, and a proposal to vastly increase its print run and free distribution.  Our decision will be based on a general consideration of how we see our role as communists, and the function of The Commune as an organisation.

italy reading group: fascism, anti-fascism and stalinism, 16th may

The next of the London Commune’s reading group meetings on the class struggle in Italy takes place on Monday 16th May. We will be discussing the rise of fascism, resistance to it and different ideas of ‘anti-fascism’, and the lessons for today.

The meeting takes place from 7pm at Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, near Aldgate East station.

We have prepared a reading pack (click here to see as one Word file). This includes an article on the Arditi del Popolo armed anti-fascist movement; short sections of two pieces by Italian Left Communist Amadeo Bordiga questioning the idea of anti-fascism and its interconnection with capitalism; and an article by David Broder briefly explaining the twists and turns of Stalinist policy. The aforementioned reading pack is much less reading than the whole text of the articles linked to above.

building for the june 30th strikes: discussion on monday 9th may

Time: 7pm, Monday 9 May
Location: Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street [Map] (near Aldgate East tube)

For the Facebook ‘event’ – click here

30th June 2011 may well turn out to be the most important step forward in a mass fight against public sector cuts.
Hundreds of thousands of workers could be involved in strike action, from as many as four or five different unions including NUT, PCS, UCU and ATL.

Even as we know the strike plans to be inadequate – at the end of term, and just one day (again) – if we want to do more than complain about the union leadership, we need to discuss how to build for the chance of something better happening in the future.

the unions and the fight against austerity

In an article commissioned by New Left Project for their May Day International collaboration with ZNet and others, Tom Denning considers the current position of the unions in relation to the fight against public sector cuts.

Teachers and school support staff strike together in Tower Hamlets in March: 3,000 filled the streets

On 30th June, up to 750,000 public sector workers, including many members of the UCU, NUT, PCS and ATL unions, perhaps along with Unite health workers, are expected to strike together [1].  The reasons given on the ballot paper will range from pensions to job losses.  But in each case, the root of the indignation is the cuts, which will crush pensions, jobs, pay, services, and the day to day experience of working life.  The strikes follow a demonstration of several hundred thousand in London in March, the first salvo in what promises to be a bitter battle. 

gurgaon, india: news from a special exploitation zone – article and talk at bristol anarchist bookfair

A member of The Commune who has spent time in the Gurgaon industrial zone near Delhi in India, will be talking about the position of the working class there at the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair.  The Anarchist Bookfair will be held at Hamilton House, 80 Stokes Croft, Bristol BS1 3QY on 7th May 2011.  The Bookfair lasts from 10.30am to 6.30pm.  Our comrade’s talk is from 11:30 to 13:00.  Please see the article below for an introduction.

Gurgaon, India: News from a Special Exploitation Zone

Gurgaon, a satellite town in the south of Delhi became the symbol of ‘Shining India’. Many people are dazzled by the glass-fronts of shopping-malls and corporate towers and fail to see the development of a massive industrial working-class behind the facade of ‘post-fordist’ display of consumerism. Together with industrial centres like the Pearl River Delta in China or the Maquiladoras in Northern Mexico the Delhi industrial belt has become a focal point of global working class formation.

diverse, colourful, joyful, but angry!

Alice Robson writes on her experience teaching, and campaigning in defence of, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

In December last year, I left my job as an ESOL teacher at a South London further education college. I had been at risk of redundancy for almost half of the year I had worked there. I was swapping this uncertainty for a permanent contract in an organisation where ESOL was expanding, and where the vast majority of courses had free childcare to enable women with young children to study- both very welcome differences from the situation at most Further Education (FE) colleges.

A few weeks before I started, the government published Skills for Sustainable Growth, which they described as ‘a radical reform of the skills system to support growth’. Though this document left open many questions, for example limiting ESOL provision to those from ‘settled communities’ (a category that was not then nor since defined) it was clear that the document represented a major attack on ESOL.

may 2011 issue of the commune

Issue 22 of The Commune is now available. It features articles on the aftermath of 26th March, the coming public sector strikes, the military intervention in Libya and much more.


Click the picture above to see PDF, or see below for list of articles as they are uploaded. Email uncaptiveminds@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing a printed copy, or in distributing The Commune.

30th june: the next step – editorial of The Commune

‘no to tesco’: the first funky riot in bristol – Oleg Resin reports on the 21^st April ‘riot’ in Bristol

diverse, colourful, joyful, but angry! – Alice Robson writes on her experience teaching, and campaigning in defence of, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

long live the free hetherington! – Liam T. of Scottish Socialist Youth reports on a stunning success for occupiers at Glasgow Uni

how can we beat austerity? – strikes and other action must be controlled by workers themselves, argues Tom Denning

disempowerment in front of the black bloc – Ellie Schling was concerned by the behaviour of the Black Bloc at the 26^th March TUC demo

military intervention in libya: a debate – an online debate between Commune members about our attitude to the rebels and the ‘no-fly-zone’ in Libya, from late March

from social rebellion to tribal civil war- Mark Ellingsen analyses the composition and aims of the Libyan rebel movements

the NHS plays but a part in the health of the nation – East London GP Jonathon Tomlinson looks at the government’s attacks on the health care and the ever-increasing pressures on the NHS

from recession to (clinical) depression – Adam Ford writes on the social causes of depression

“our time is coming again” – Sheila Cohen reviews New Trade Union Activism: Class Consciousness or Social Identity? Sian Moore, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

taking a step forward – David Broder explains our plans to increase our voice and the help we need from our supporters

time to build a new rank and file?

Meeting to discuss building for June 30th: called by the London group of The Commune.  7pm, Monday 9th May, Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High St.  Map here.  Public sector workers especially welcome!

PCS activist Steve Ryan proposes a new way forward for revolutionaries in the workers’ movement

So the dust has settled after the 26^th of March and the chattering classes on the Left now turn to June 30^th.

In the past few weeks, several public sector unions have voted to take coordinated strike action over attacks on pensions. Mostly teaching unions, including the usually moderate ATL, they will surely be joined by the PCS after their annual conference in May.

Politics in PCS: not as bad as this photo might suggest

The left is very excited, with talk of millions of workers out and the possibility of pushing the TUC to coordinate action, effectively leading to a general strike.  There is no doubt that the move towards coordinated action is welcome. It has, after all, been a long time coming, given, lest we forget, that the cuts in public services have been going on way before the Condems cosied up.

reading group on class struggle in italy: starts 2nd may

The London Commune is organising a reading group on class struggle and the left in Italy. The country has a rich tradition of radical thought and mass movements, from which we can learn a great amount for today.

The first of the meetings is on the upsurge of 1919-20, and will take place on 2nd May. All of the discussions are on Monday nights, from 7pm, at Freedom Bookshop, Angel Alley, near Aldgate East tube. All welcome – contact uncaptiveminds@gmail.com for more info. The recommended reading will be posted online in good time for each meeting. See below for the timetable.

‘keynesianism, monetarism, and the crisis of the state’ by simon clarke reading group

The Commune is organising a reading group on ‘Keynesianism, monetarism, and the crisis of the state’ by Simon Clarke 

The communist critique challenges the capitalist separation of economics from politics, the market from the state and reveals that both the capitalist state and the power of the boss rest on the same class relation. While many Marxists are wrong to think that the state can be seized by the working class or can be used in service of the class struggle, equally many anarchists are wrong to think that the state is not a location of class struggle or that class struggle happens outside the state. The state is a product of capitalist class relations and as such is an area of class contestation.

the first funky riot in bristol

Oleg Resin reports from last night’s riot in Bristol

The anger was simmering for quite some time among the Stokes Croft community in Bristol. The people had to put up with a couple of heavy-handed police evictions recently and the hated Tesco store was finally opened a week ago, despite a massive but peacefull campaign. The area is famous for its grafittis and night life now, attracting gentrification and yuppies moving in. Interestingly, the anti-Tesco sentiment became something like a broad resistance platform, uniting the remaining working class people, middle class bohemians and the student population.

the art of decadence: in east london

by Joe Thorne

I visited three exhibitions in a relatively small area of East London on Saturday.

The first, at Foto 8, was of photographer Robert Gumpert’s portraits from inside San Fransisco’s jails.  In their own right, the pictures are compelling: dark and confrontational.  Most prisoners square up to the camera blankly, bare chested and thick-muscled.  Tattoos loop around their arms and throats.  But if the pictures are dark, the social reality which they represent is darker.

 

disempowerment in front of the black bloc

Ellie Schling is a member of the Hackney Housing Group. Hackney residents self-organise in Hackney Housing Group to give and receive support on housing problems and campaign for better housing. The group is part of London Coalition Against Poverty, a coalition of groups which are based on the idea that through solidarity and direct action, ordinary people have the power to change our own lives.

I was marching with London Coalition Against Poverty (LCAP) on the March for the Alternative on Saturday 26^th March when the black bloc came down Piccadilly. I, along with the people I was marching with supported the actions taken against the banks and the Ritz. I wanted to write down my experiences to express what it was like to be on the other side of the block. I am not writing to condemn violence or property damage, but I hope that this could help those involved reflect on how the black bloc related to the other marchers that day.

from rebellion to reform in bolivia, 18th april, london

London Commune forum, 7pm on Monday 18th at the Lucas Arms, near King’s Cross.

The next of our public meetings in London will see at talk by Jeffery Webber, author of ‘Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia’. He will be speaking on social movements in Bolivia and how these interact with the ‘reconstituted neoliberalism’ of the Evo Morales government.

For an interview with Jeffery which appeared in the last issue of The Commune, see here.