DOCSLIB.ORG

Black Flag 2007

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Black Flag 2007 Price: £3.00 Issue: 226 Date: 2007 ice e pages: WWHHEENN YYOOUU DDOOWWNNLLOOAADD inton on Centr Maur Br cults SSAARRKKOOZZYY YYOOUUSSRREE DDOOWWNNLLOOAADDIINNGG TTHHAATTCCHHEERRIISSMM Obituary: The life of Murray Bookchin IainIain McKay McKay on on France’sFrance’s new new Also inside this issue... presidentpresident Editorial After a year off, Black Flag has returned! The good news is that we have a new collective, even if it is on the small side. Even better, we are working closely with the editors of Freedom (who we can thank for the new layout!). Now we are sure that is something Albert Meltzer would never have expected to see in Black Flag – which shows how much things have improved in the anarchist movement over the last ten years or so. So, what is in this issue? Lots of articles about dead people and the past! We have articles on the 1936 French factory occupations and a lengthy review of the new Durruti biography (which makes up for missing the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution). Then there are the obituaries for three important libertari- ans who have recently passed away – Murray Bookchin, Chris Pallis (better known as Maurice Brinton) and stalwart of the Glaswegian anarchist movement since the 1930s, John Taylor Caldwell. While there is an analysis of the recent WHY LADYBIRDS? Well, because they help rid the world of parasites, and they have a great French Presidential elections, there is a colour scheme. Photograph: Anya Brennan lack of articles on current events. This is to be expected from a magazine which has sadly been annual for the last few years. We are also dependent on people contributing articles, so if you want Black Flag to cover more recent events then please contact us and write some- thing! We aim to increase the regularity of the magazine, hoping to have two issues out next year, then three the fol- lowing one before going back to quar- terly (but we have said this before, and WHO failed). If you want to see this happen, then get involved – we are dependent on help of our comrades. If this is not forthcoming, neither will be Black Flag! WOULD It really is as simple as that. Finally, some may question whether the UK anarchist scene needs another anar- HAVE chist magazine. We have "Direct Action", "Organise!" and "A Touch of Class" – is there a need for Black Flag? We think so but we would be more GUESSED than happy to merge with other jour- nals to produce one good quality quar- terly magazine rather than four ade- quate ones. Whether this will happen THAT depends on numerous factors, but the benefits of so doing should sense on numerous levels. Perhaps if we concen- trate on what unites us rather than the ONE? ultimately minor issues in which we dif- fer, then perhaps the British anarchism could build on its many strengths and produce a media which people outside the movement will find of interest and so help our movement grow. Contents Ethos Black Flag is for a social system based on mutual aid and voluntary co-operation – against state control and all forms of n government and economic Cover story: Nicolas Sarkozy has the repression. To establish a share in the attitude, but does he have the strength? general prosperity for all – the Page 4 breaking down of racial, religious, national and sex barriers – and to fight for the life of one world. n Analysis: How the French Popular Front The Black Flag has been a worldwide symbol for anarchism of 1936 had the potential to be so much since the 1880s. It is at base a representative of the negation of more. Page 7 all oppressive structures. About n Obituary: Looking over the remarkable Contibutors/excerpts: life of Murray Bookchin, a founding father Richard Alexander of social ecology Page 13 David Berry Murray Bookchin Maurice Brinton Andrew Flood n Review: Andrew Flood lauds a long Iain McKay Alan Woodward overdue recognition of the contribution of Layout/design revolutionary Lucy Parsons Page 18 Rob Ray (Freedom Press) Printing n Centre spread: Maurice Brinton explains Clydeside Press, Scotland the pitfalls and parallels of sects and ( 0141-552 5519 socialism, followed by a review of the last Contact book he wrote before his death in 2004 : [email protected] - Black Flag Page 20 BM Hurricane, London, WC1N 3XX, United Kingdom, n Review/History: Richard Alexander Bulk Orders from AK Press takes an extensive look at the life and - AK Press (UK) PO Box 12766 times of Buenaventura Durruti, as told by Edinburgh EH8 Abel Paz Page 26 ( 0131 555 5165 - AK Press (USA) n PO Box 40862 Analysis: In the first of a two-part series, San Francisco CA Iain McKay delves into the Russian ( 94140-0682 Revolution. Page 35 : [email protected] 4 Analysis: Sarkozy Mandated for Analysis: He’s the darling of the right but can Sarko beat France’s workers? ONSERVATIVE politician Nicolas sad thing is that this programme is based ly similar in both countries, at least for the Sarkozy has won the French economics which are at deeply flawed and bulk of the population. Presidential election. He managed to which have little or no bearing to reality. This means that while France may grow convince 53% of the population that At best, it is impartial and incomplete, at more slowly, it benefits more than just the C ruling class. Then there are such factors as he represents change and this message has worse it has been debunked for decades and dutifully been repeated in the media over reflects a fantasy world of whatever unreal poverty and social mobility. here. assumptions are required to make the theory Child poverty is around 7% in France, but at Yet he is basically the chosen successor to come to the conclusion the economist seeks. 16% in Britain (double the rate for 1979) and the incumbent party so, surely, it makes far So the only group that needs Sarkozy’s at 20% in the USA. While poverty has risen, more sense to say the French were looking “reform” of the French economy is its very social mobility has fallen in the US and UK for “more of the same” rather than the Royal rich. since the 1980s neo-liberal revolutions. victory would have been the mandate for Do the French people really want to become Moreover, comparing France's income or “change.” like the UK and USA? Countries where the GDP per person to the U.S. fails to take into Failing to note that he had been a politician bosses are in the saddle and workers do what account the fact that French people work far for 20 years, he played the right-wing they are told? less than Americans. populist card of portraying himself as an Sure, the French bosses would love such a So while France may lag America ($30,693 outsider and attacking politicians (and trade regime but they do not make up 53% of the to $43,144), it cannot be said that working unions, immigrants and other usual population. class people are automatically worse off. suspects) for stealing the wealth of hard Part of the problem is Less hours at work and longer working French people. that many people holidays may impact on That this was reported seriously shows the accept the image GDP but only an idiot “objectivity” of the media and the fact some of France as would say that this people bought it shows the gullibility of many one inflicted means the economy is on the right. What can you expect, when you with eco- worse. have a worldview based on authority- nomic Economists cannot worship? stagna- say that one person What was significant in the reporting was tion, a is worse off than how a 3% majority was turned into a strong new “sick another if she mandate for his agenda rather than what it man” of has less was, a relatively small majority which showed Europe. income that a sizeable section of the French people The simply due reject it. source of to working It is doubtful that a Royal victory of 3% the fewer hours. would have been reported in quite the same “decline” of So GDP way. But, then, Bush’s 2004 “victory” of 1% France is per capita was dutifully reported as a landslide for con- usually linked may be servatism. to lower GDP higher in the So what to make of this demand for growth over the US, but only “change”? MEDEF, the French bosses past few years because association, was solidly behind Sarkozy. compared to coun- American This is unsurprising, as he promised to tries like Britain and workers work “reform” the tax on large fortunes and give the USA (both of more hours and tax breaks to big business and the rich while which are constantly not because making more cuts in the state-run national touted as models for they are more health system. France to follow). productive. In other words, to help the already- Yet this perspective fails to Like privileged classes retain and extend their take into account internal socio-economic position. income distribution. Both the “Reform” used to be associated with mak- USA and UK are marked by large ing things better. These days it is usually an (and increasing) inequality. This “economically correct” code word for means that GDP growth is not imposing a neo-liberal agenda (ie, “freeing” equally distributed. the labour market, weakening union power In America, for example, most of and state regulation of business, and reduc- GDP growth has been captured by ing taxes).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Libertarian Marxism Mao-Spontex Open Marxism Popular Assembly Sovereign Citizen Movement Spontaneism Sui Iuris
    Autonomist Marxist Theory and Practice in the Current Crisis Brian Marks1 University of Arizona School of Geography and Development [email protected] Abstract Autonomist Marxism is a political tendency premised on the autonomy of the proletariat. Working class autonomy is manifested in the self-activity of the working class independent of formal organizations and representations, the multiplicity of forms that struggles take, and the role of class composition in shaping the overall balance of power in capitalist societies, not least in the relationship of class struggles to the character of capitalist crises. Class composition analysis is applied here to narrate the recent history of capitalism leading up to the current crisis, giving particular attention to China and the United States. A global wave of struggles in the mid-2000s was constituitive of the kinds of working class responses to the crisis that unfolded in 2008-10. The circulation of those struggles and resultant trends of recomposition and/or decomposition are argued to be important factors in the balance of political forces across the varied geography of the present crisis. The whirlwind of crises and the autonomist perspective The whirlwind of crises (Marks, 2010) that swept the world in 2008, financial panic upon food crisis upon energy shock upon inflationary spiral, receded temporarily only to surge forward again, leaving us in a turbulent world, full of possibility and peril. Is this the end of Neoliberalism or its retrenchment? A new 1 Published under the Creative Commons licence: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works Autonomist Marxist Theory and Practice in the Current Crisis 468 New Deal or a new Great Depression? The end of American hegemony or the rise of an “imperialism with Chinese characteristics?” Or all of those at once? This paper brings the political tendency known as autonomist Marxism (H.
    [Show full text]
  • Class Wargames Class Class Wargames Ludic Ludic Subversion Against Spectacular Capitalism
    class wargames Class Wargames ludic Ludic subversion against spectacular capitalism subversion Why should radicals be interested in playing wargames? Surely the Left can have no interest in such militarist fantasies? Yet, Guy Debord – the leader of the Situationist International – placed such importance on his class invention of The Game of War that he described it as the most significant of against his accomplishments. wargames Intrigued by this claim, a multinational group of artists, activists and spectacular academics formed Class Wargames to investigate the political and strategic lessons that could be learnt from playing his ludic experiment. While the ideas of the Situationists continue to be highly influential in the development of subversive art and politics, relatively little attention has been paid to their strategic orientation. Determined to correct this deficiency, Class Wargames is committed to exploring how Debord used the capitalism metaphor of the Napoleonic battlefield to propagate a Situationist analysis of modern society. Inspired by his example, its members have also hacked other military simulations: H.G. Wells’ Little Wars; Chris Peers’ Reds versus Reds and Richard Borg’s Commands & Colors. Playing wargames is not a diversion from politics: it is the training ground of tomorrow’s cybernetic communist insurgents. Fusing together historical research on avant-garde artists, political revolutionaries and military theorists with narratives of five years of public performances, Class Wargames provides a strategic and tactical manual for overthrowing the economic, political and ideological hierarchies of early- 21st century neoliberal capitalism. The knowledge required to create a truly human civilisation is there to be discovered on the game board! richard ludic subversion against barbrook spectacular capitalism Minor Compositions An imprint of Autonomedia Front cover painting: Kimathi Donkor, Toussaint L’Ouverture at Bedourete (2004).
    [Show full text]
  • Anarchists in the Late 1990S, Was Varied, Imaginative and Often Very Angry
    Price £3.00 Issue 230 Late 2009 An end to the safety net Labour is stripping away the last of Britain’s social wage — is there anything left to stop them? Front page pictures: Garry Knight, Photos8.com, Libertinus Yomango, Theory: Reportage: Also inside After the How Oaxaca revolution, has learned this issue... what next? to wage war Editorial Welcome to issue 230 of Black Flag, the fifth published by the current Editorial Collective. Since our re-launch in October 2007 feedback has generally tended to be positive. Black Flag continues to be published twice a year, and we are still aiming to become quarterly. However, this is easier said than done as we are a small group. So at this juncture, we make our usual appeal for articles, more bodies to get physically involved, and yes, financial donations would be more than welcome! This issue also coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Anarchist Bookfair – arguably the longest running and largest in the world? It is certainly the biggest date in the UK anarchist calendar. To celebrate the event we have included an article written by organisers past and present, which it is hoped will form the kernel of a general history of the event from its beginnings in the Autonomy Club. Well done and thank you to all those who have made this event possible over the years, we all have Walk this way: The Black Flag ladybird finds it can be hard going to balance trying many fond memories. to organise while keeping yourself safe – but it’s worth it.
    [Show full text]
  • This Mess We're In
    scottishleftreviewIssue 55 November/December 2009 £2.00 This mess we’re in... scottishleftreviewIssue 55 November/December 2009 Contents Comment ........................................................2 Us swallowing their medicine ......................14 Root of this evil ...............................................6 Robin McAlpine Neil Davidson Fragments of truth .......................................16 Mark Hirst Work isn’t working ............................................8 Lessons for now ............................................18 Isobel Lindsay Bob Thomson Why we fight ..................................................10 Minimum isn’t enough ..................................20 Alan McKinnon Peter Kelly No such thing as failure ................................12 The English postman ....................................22 John Barker Tom Nairn stance (which is hard to argue with, other than that it appears to assume that the speculative bit is a necessary evil). There Comment is also the active state intervention approach which suggests t would be understandable if the regular Scottish Left Review that the retail banking bit should in fact be nationalised and Ireader gave a slight sign of resignation at the thought of yet run as a secure public service. And then there are those who another ‘what is to be done?’ issue. It’s not just that we’ve run a want to address some of the root causes of the whole thing few articles on the theme of ‘reforming the post-banking crash by tackling the way speculative financial capitalism works in world’. It’s not even that there have been enough column inches the first place (such as advocates of a Tobin Tax). What do we on the subject from which to build an airport rail link. It’s that you learn from all of this? Well, the majority of these proposals do may well feel that the totality of the suggestions you have heard not really appear to envisage a global financial system which and read in the last year may sound a little bit underwhelming.
    [Show full text]
  • Archives Solidarity (London) 1960-1988 (-1993)1960-1988
    Archives Solidarity (London) 1960-1988 (-1993)1960-1988 International Institute of Social History Cruquiusweg 31 1019 AT Amsterdam The Netherlands hdl:10622/ARCH01366 © IISH Amsterdam 2020 Archives Solidarity (London) 1960-1988 (-1993)1960-1988 Table of contents Archives Solidarity (London).............................................................................................................3 Context............................................................................................................................................... 3 Content and Structure........................................................................................................................3 Access and Use.................................................................................................................................4 PRELIMINARY LIST.........................................................................................................................4 Conferences................................................................................................................................ 4 Correspondence.......................................................................................................................... 5 Circulars...................................................................................................................................... 8 Groups and regional meetings................................................................................................... 9 Organisation...............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Accounts of Sitdown Strikes and Workplace Occupations in the UK and Around the World
    OH SIT DOWN! Accounts of sitdown strikes and workplace occupations in the UK and around the world Compiled by libcom.org - a resource for discontented workers Table of contents 2001: Brighton bin men's strike and occupation............................. 3 2000: Cellatex chemical plant occupation, France ....................... 10 2007: Migrant workers' occupation wins, France.......................... 14 2004: Strike and occupation of IT workers at Schneider Electrics, France .......................................................................................... 15 2008: 23 day long occupation of major power-plant in northern Greece ends in police repression................................................. 18 1992-4: The incomplete story of the University College Hospital strikes and occupations................................................................ 20 1972: Under new management - Fisher-Bendix occupation ........ 62 2003: Zanon factory occupation - interview with workers, Argentina ..................................................................................................... 72 Editors’ notes This booklet was compiled very rapidly* 2008 following a series of workplace occupations which workers have launched in response to redundancies. As employers use the financial crisis to make layoffs, attacked pensions, pay, and working conditions, an increasing number of workers are beginning to resist. As we go to press, hundreds of workers sacked with no notice or redundancy pay are occupying Visteon car part plants in London and Belfast to demand treatment in line with their contracts with Ford. Workers at the Prisme plant in Dundee have been occupying their workplace for weeks, demanding redundancy pay. This booklet reproduces accounts and analysis, some very short, some very detailed, of some workplace occupations by other groups of workers in the UK and elsewhere over the past 40 years. We hope that the experiences and lessons gained by workers in the past can be a small contribution to help inform and inspire our fellow workers today.
    [Show full text]
  • Anarch Fortnightly 131‘ Augzzst, 1 98.! Vol 42, No 15:7
    anarch fortnightly 131‘ Augzzst, 1 98.! Vol 42, No 15:7 _ OK ER 160 years ago now, Black -an Dwarf, in a pers'pica.cious inissive to his friend the Yellow Bonze. ren1arl~;e cl that. "in England, the great art is not to avoid tyranny, but to disguise it"."i"""‘“ The wave of riots across Britain this nionth, however, bearing in their walte serious threats about the hitroduction of rubber bullets. water cannon, even taiiltsz the re- instatement of the Riot act and the t;'.5i&l)llSl1I11€I‘rI oi special riot courts arid arniy camps for convicted riot- ers and ioote rs, shows just how poor that disguise really is. l\.»-'largare: Thatcher admitted as much when she said "The veneer of civilisation is very thin. It has to be cherished if it is to continue.Whateve r Marg- aret Thatcher actually n1ea.ns, it is certain that she was ft-3l?£3I’I‘ll1.§?",' to a certain scale of values guaranteed by the police - or at least that large section of them who subscribe to the views of the chief constable of Man- chester, James Anderton. These have predictably adopted the attitude that the riots were not caused by any social factor, but militarily organ- ised by masked guerrillas on motor bike s, with London accents and CB radios. This is l~;nown as the cons- piracy theory, or what Je re my Bentham once described as the ‘Hobgoblin Argument’ - i.e. using the claim that we are ‘close to anarchy‘ in order to sit tight and do nothing.
    [Show full text]
  • POINTS on YOUR FREEDOM Isquat MAYDAY!
    80 pH A N A R C H I S T NEWS AND VIEWS www.froodomprofts.orft.uk 5 MAY 2 0 9 7 Private Equity’s rise and pall Freeport workers fight back Anarchist seeds in the snow Exclusive social centres g u id d INSIDE ►► page 3 page 4 page 5 p a g e s ASDA: PART OF WAL-MART SPY RING ollowing mi admission front US stewards in the GMB have been supermarket giant Wal-Mart that expressing increasing unease over. Fthe company ho* employed aomc Gaudie explained, “They have cameras of its estimated 400 Investigators to everywhere, They have cashless snack spy on groups who stand against them, machines where they give you a card enquiries by Vnwdiva have uncovered and can monitor what you buy and a similar story at UK subsidiary Asda. how long you are spending buying it. During the most recent major conflict They have recently brought in ‘RF Pick*, between Asda and on outside body* a where they have co-ordinates of where dispute between the company and the everything is and feed it through to you GMB led to bug detectors being deployed via a headset. They can monitor every­ by unionists during negotiations to avoid thing their workers do. They even surveillance by managers. track the 10% discount cards - they The clash, which last year saw n major have tried to sack people for giving conflict over whether Asda would them to family. recognise the unionisation of its ware­ **1 was in tt meeting of over 40 shop house sector, was one of the most stewards from around the country and acrimonious of 2006 and saw Asda it's all the same.
    [Show full text]
  • Inside: an Antifascist's Memories of Internment; Book Reviews
    Number 49 50 pence or one dollar Jan. 2007 John Taylor Caldwell 1911•2007 With the death of John Taylor Caldwell aged 95 we have lost continued to be published until, in 1962, the Press was forced the last significant link with an anarchist anti•parliamentary to remove to Montrose Street. The George Street premises form of socialism/communism which flourished in the first were the heart of this anarchist oasis in Glasgow, as a few decades of the last century, and was part of a tradition of meeting•place, bookshop, printing press and social centre for libertarian socialism going back to the days of William a whole generation of Glaswegians. John managed to capture Morris and the Socialist League – a socialism based on this in an epitaph for the group’s old HQ written after it had working•class self•activity manifest in workers’ councils and been bulldozed for a new University of Strathclyde building: direct action rather than in reliance on political parties, When the meeting was over the chairs were replaced and whether social democratic or revolutionary. the audience meandered upstairs where books were bought This kind of anarchism is assumed to have become and fresh arguments broke out amongst small groups. The extinct during the inter•War period, crushed between the old man was tired… but he was loth to hurry them away. pincers of the Parliamentary Labour Party and the Commu• Some, he knew, went home to misery and loneliness. The nist Party. But in a few places, notably Glasgow, it continued evening in the old cellar was a rare feast of companionship to flourish, thanks to individuals like John and his mentor, for them.
    [Show full text]
  • Logue / Steadman / Connolly / Another Vietnam Mccarthy / Poverty / Capitalism Kills / the Queen
    Est. 1817 Vol. 13 Number 2 5 July 1968 FORTNIGHTLY 2s Logue / Steadman / Connolly / Another Vietnam McCarthy / Poverty / Capitalism Kills / The Queen Paris / Hull / RSSF / Tariq Ali 2 THE BLACK DWARF 1 3 . 2 The New Vanguard a n y a n a l y s is OF t h e s t u d e n t r e v o l t must start from one basic budget isn’t large enough to guarantee consideration: the university explosion. A new social grouping has all of you the university buildings, emerged from the very vitals of capitalism, from all that it considers professors and assistants, restaurants, dormitories and, above all, the high its essential ' achievement ’: the higher standard of living, the advances quality education you demand right in technology and the mass media, and the requirements of automation. away. You have to be satisfied with There are six million university students in the United States, two and gradually changing the existing situa­ a half in West Europe, and over a million in Japan. And it proved im­ tion, which we all agree is unsatisfac­ possible to integrate this grouping into the capitalist system as it tory. ’ And when the students are told this, they are a thousand times right functions in West Europe, the United States, or Japan. to answer: ‘ Stop this bilge about the The students have not found the rate among the youth in the black appropriation for education and the necessary material facilities for their ghettos of the United States exceeds resources of the public bodies.
    [Show full text]
  • Brothers in Arms
    The Anarchist Library (Mirror) Anti-Copyright Brothers in Arms Stuart Christie 2009 WRITING IN the preface to l’Espagne Libre, in 1946, the year of my birth, Albert Camus said of the Spanish struggle: “It is now nine years that men of my generation have had Spain within their hearts. Nine years that they have carried it with them like an evil wound. It was in Spain that men learned that one can be right and yet be beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, that there are times when courage is not its own recompense. It is this, doubt- less, which explains why so many men, the world over, regard the Spanish drama as a personal tragedy”. Stuart Christie On 1 April 2009 seventy years will have passed since General Brothers in Arms Franco declared victory in his three-year crusade against the Span- 2009 ish Republic. His victory was won with the military support of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, the moral support of the Roman Retrieved on 22nd September 2020 from Catholic Church and the covert diplomatic connivance of Britain https://libcom.org/history/brothers-arms and France, the prime movers in the Non-Intervention Agreement. Article by Stuart Christie in Scottish Review of Books, Volume 5, It brought not peace but the outbreak of a vengeful and prolonged Issue 1, 2009 forty-year war of vindictive terror, humiliation and suffering for the losers, the Spanish people. Apart from the victims of the war it- usa.anarchistlibraries.net self, between 1939 and 1951 at least 50,000 Spaniards paid with their lives for their support of the Republic while hundreds of thousands paid with their freedom.
    [Show full text]
  • Anarchism in Glasgow (Interview)
    Anarchist library Anti-Copyright Anarchism in Glasgow (Interview) Various Authors 14/8/87 In August 1987 the Raesides, who had been living in Australia for many years, returned to Glasgow for a visit. This provided a rare op- portunity to bring together some surviving members of anarchist groups in Glasgow during the 1940s for a public discussion on the history of that movement and the lesson which can be learned. Q: How did people come in contact with the movement and Various Authors how did the movement strike them at the time? Anarchism in Glasgow (Interview) JR: Well, the clothes have changed a bit! And the venue 14/8/87 — the anarchist movement would have had to grow Anarchy is Order CD quite a bit to get a room like this. Transcribed in November 1993 from a not-always-clear cassette MB: Yes… The “Hangman’s Rest”: when there wasa tape. A formerly inaudible section has now been transcribed with lull in the questions the rats used to come out‼ help from Charlie Baird Jnr. JR: Or street corners… en.anarchistlibraries.net JTC: The movement started in Glasgow in a way that’s buried in a certain amount of mystery because they haven’t been able to research it properly, but after the Paris Commune a number of Frenchmen came to Britain and one of these settled in Glasgow and be- came the companion of a woman called MacDonald who lived in Crown St. She had anarchist views and they organised the first anarchism movement in Glas- gow working from Crown St.
    [Show full text]