Red & Black

Revolution 1 No. 11 - 2006 ! A magazine of libertarian AUS. $6 UK £2 USA $4.50

insurrection

plus Gender under the spotlight * Privatisation * Precarity Contents About the Workers Solidarity Movement

The Workers Solidarity Movement was founded in , in 1984 following discussions by a number of local anarchist 3 Insurrection: and groups on the need for a national anarchist organisation. At Insurrectionalism that time with unemployment and inequality on the rise, there seemed every reason to argue for anarchism and for a revolu- tionary change in Irish society. This has not changed. Ireland’s Easter Rising of Like most socialists we share a fundamental belief that capital- 11 ism is the problem. We believe that as a system it must be ended, 1916 that the wealth of society should be commonly owned and that its resources should be used to serve the needs of humanity as a whole and not those of a small greedy minority. But, just as Privatisation - the rip off of importantly, we see this struggle against as also being 14 resources, but is nationalisa- a struggle for freedom. We believe that and freedom must go together, that we cannot have one without the other. As tion the answer? , the Russian anarchist said, “Socialism without freedom is tyranny and brutality”. 18 Independent Workers Union Anarchism has always stood for individual freedom. But it also stands for democracy. We believe in democratising the work- place and in workers taking control of all industry. We believe 19 Focus on Precarity that this is the only real alternative to capitalism with its ongoing reliance on hierarchy and oppression and its depletion of the Women are from earth (and world’s resources. 23 In the years since our formation, we’ve been involved in a wide so are men) range of struggles - our members are involved in their trade unions; we’ve fought for abortion rights and against the presence Review: Caliban and the of the British state in , and against the growth 28 of racism in southern Ireland; we’ve also been involved in cam- 2 Witch paigns in support of workers from countries as far apart as Nepal, Peru and South Africa. Alongside this, we have produced over 80 issues of our paper Workers Solidarity, and a wide range of pamphlets. Over the years we have brought many anarchists from abroad to speak in Ireland. These have included militants from Like most of the publications of the left, Red and Chile, the Czech Republic, Canada, the USA, Greece, Italy, and a 2006 - Black Revolution is not a profit making venture. It veteran of the anarchist Iron Column in the Spanish Civil War.

11 exists in order to spread ideas and contribute to the process of changing the world. As anarchists we see ourselves as part of a long tradition that has fought against all forms of authoritarianism and exploitation, a If you would like to help out in this work there tradition that strongly influenced one of the most successful and Revolution are a couple of things you can do. One option is far reaching revolutions in this century - in Spain in 1936 - 37. The to subscribe to the magazine. Another is to take value of this tradition cannot be underestimated today. With the a number of copies of each issue to sell. We are fall of the Soviet Union there has been renewed interest in our & Black always looking for bookshops or stalls that will ideas and in the tradition of generally. We

Red sell this magazine on a commercial basis. hope to encourage this interest with Red & Black Revolution. We believe that anarchists and libertarian socialists should debate Our time and resources are limited and at and discuss their ideas, that they should popularise their history times of busy activity our publications are often and struggle, and help point to a new way forward. delayed. So any help that you can offer would be a real help in getting our ideas out to a wider A couple of years ago our paper Workers Solidarity became a audience. If you want to help out, get in touch at free news-sheet, which appears every two months. With a print- the address below. run of 6,000, this means a huge increase in the number of people here in Ireland receiving information about anarchism and strug- Red & Black Revolution is published by the gles for change. As more people join the WSM, we are able to do Workers Solidarity Movement. Permission is more to promote anarchism. If you like what we say and what we given for revolutionary publications to reprint do, consider joining us. It’s quite straight forward. If you want to any of these articles. Please let us know and send know more about this just write or email us. us a copy of the publication. If you are publishing a translation, please send us an electronic copy We have also increased and improved our presence on the for our web site. Submissions are welcome. Internet. This move has been prompted by the enormous suc- cess to date of our web site and resources. The WSM site has been updated and moved to www.wsm.ie and we are adding Red & Black Revolution new material all the time. A large number of people are now looking at and reading PO box 1528 about our anarchist ideas on our site. Many Dublin 8, Ireland of our papers, magazines, posters and some on the internet: pamphlets are available inn PDF format - http://www.wsm.ie allowing for material to be downloaded in [email protected] pre-set format, to be sold or distributed free [email protected] right across the world. InsUrrection ANARCHISM & INSURRECTIONALISM replace the sovereignty of a national government viewed to be the corrupt Insurrection - the armed rising of the people - has always been collaborator of the hacendados.”1 In close to the heart of anarchism. The first programmatic documents Spain in the 1870’s, where workers’ of the anarchist movement were created by Bakunin and a group of attempts to form unions were met European left-republican insurrectionists as they made the transi- with repression, the anarchists were tion to anarchism in Italy in the 1860’s. This was not a break with involved in many insurrections, and insurrectionism but with left-republicanism. Shortly afterwards in the case of some small industrial Bakunin was to take part in an insurrection in Lyon in 1870. towns, were locally successful dur- ing the 1873 uprisings. In Alcoy, for by Joe Black European radical politics of the as something that the republican previous hundred years had been bourgeoisie would fight against dominated by insurrections, ever not for - alongside the old order if “The workers seized and since the successful insurrection in necessary. For Bakunin, it was the burned the factories, killed France of 1789 had sparked off the experience of the 1863 Polish insur- process leading to the overthrow of rection, where it became clear that the mayor and marched the feudal order across the globe. the bourgeois republicans feared a The storming of the Bastille on 14 peasant insurrection more than the down the street with the July 1789 showed the power of the Czar, that conclusively proved this heads of the policemen” people in arms, this insurrectionary point. So now the fight for freedom moment, which changed the history would need to take place under a of Europe, probably involved only new flag - one that sought to organ- around one thousand people. ise the working masses in their instance, after paper workers who interests alone. had struck for an eight-hour day Insurrection and Class Politics were repressed “the workers seized The early anarchists embraced the and burned the factories, killed the 1789 also set a pattern where, new forms of workers’ organisation mayor and marched down the street although the working people made that were emerging, and in par- with the heads of the policemen up the mass of the insurrectionists, ticular the International Workers whom they had put to death.”2 Spain it was the bourgeoisie who reaped Association or First International. was to see many, many anarchist the rewards - and suppressed the But, although they saw the power led insurrections before the most masses in the process of introduc- of the working class organised successful - that which greeted and ing their class rule. This lesson was in unions, unlike the majority of almost defeated the fascist coup of not lost on those who saw freedom the Marxists they did not see this July 1936. as something that had to involve as meaning that capitalism could the economic and social libera- be reformed away. The anarchists In Italy in 1877 Malatesta, Costa and tion of everyone, not the right of a insisted that insurrections would Cafiero led an armed band into two new class to carry on ‘democratic’ still be needed to bring down the villages in Campania. There they exploitation of the masses. old ruling class. burned the tax registers and declared an end to Victor Emmanuel’s reign In the republican insurrections that Early Anarchist Insurrections broke out in Europe in the century - however their that followed, and in particular in Anarchist attempts at insurrection hope of sparking 1848, the conflict between the spread with the growing movement. an insurrection republican, capitalist and small In fact, even before the Lyon attempt, failed and troops capitalist classes and the republi- the anarchist Chávez López was soon arrived. can masses became more and more involved in an indigenous insurrec- Bakunin had already pronounced. By the 1860’s this con- tionary movement in Mexico which, been involved in flict had led to the emergence of a in April 1869, issued a manifesto an attempt to spark specifically socialist movement that calling for “the revered principle of an insurrection in increasingly saw freedom for all autonomous village governments to Bologna in 1874. The Limits of Insurrections often these unions were themselves The Revolutionary Insurrectionary then involved in insurrections, as in Army of Ukraine fought the Austro Many of these early attempts at 1919 in both Argentina and Chile. Hungarians, anti-semitic pogro- insurrection led to severe state In Chile this included workers who mists, various white armies and the repression. In Spain the movement “took possession of the Patagonian Bolshevik controlled Red army over was forced underground by the mid town of Puerto Natales, under the red those years. 1870’s. This led into the ‘Propaganda flag and anarcho-syndicalist princi- by Deed’ period when some anar- ples.”3 Earlier, in 1911, the Mexican These platformists as they have chists reacted to this repression anarchists of the PLM, with the help come to be known wrote “the prin- by assassinating members of the of many IWW members from the ciple of enslavement and exploita- ruling class, including a number USA, “organised battalions …in Baja tion of the masses by violence consti- of kings and presidents. The state California and took over the town tutes the basis of modern society. All in turn escalated the repression. of Mexicali and the surrounding the manifestations of its existence: After a bombing in Barcelona in areas.” the economy, politics, social rela- 1892, some 400 people were taken tions, rest on class violence, of which to the dungeon at Montjuich where the servicing organs are: authority, they were tortured. Fingernails Insurrections and Anarchist the police, the army, the judiciary... were ripped out, men were hung Communists The progress of modern society: the from ceilings and had their genitals technical evolution of capital and the The anarchist communist organi- twisted and burned. Several died perfection of its political system, for- sational tradition within anarchism from torture before they were even tifies the power of the ruling classes, can be traced back to Bakunin brought to trial and five were later and makes the struggle against them and the first programmatic docu- executed. more difficult… Analysis of modern ments produced by the emerging society leads us to the conclusion Arguably the fatal theoretical flaw anarchist movement in the 1860’s. that the only way to transform capi- of this period was the belief that But these organisational ideas talist society into a society of free the working people were every- were not developed in any collec- workers is the way of violent social where willing to rise and that all the tive way again until the 1920’s. Still revolution.”4 anarchist group had to do was to there were individuals and groups 4 light the touchpaper with an insur- that advocated the key features of 5 rection. This weakness was not lim- organised anarchist communism: The Spanish Experience involvement in the mass struggle of ited to anarchism - as we have seen The next development of anarchist the working people and the need it was also the approach of radical communism once more involved for specific anarchist organisation republicanism. Sometimes, as in those at the centre of an insurrec- and propaganda. 2006 Spain or Cuba, the anarchists and tion - this time the Friends of Durruti - the republicans found themselves

11 group who were active during the fighting together against state forc- Barcelona insurrection of May 1937. es. Elsewhere the left sometimes “the only way to transform The FoD “members and supporters slotted into this role - the Easter were prominent comrades from the

Revolution society into a society of Rebellion of 1916 in Ireland saw a Gelsa battle-front.”5 military alliance between revolu- free workers is the way of & Black tionary syndicalists and national- violent social revolution”

Red ists.

However, the original organisa- tional approach of the anarchists Anarchist communism was clarified around Bakunin was not limited to in 1926 by a group of revolutionary making attempts at insurrection, exiles analysing why their efforts to but also included the involvement date had failed. This resulted in the of anarchists in the mass struggles publication of the document known of the working people. While some in English as the ‘Organisational anarchists responded to circum- Platform of the Libertarian stances by constructing an ideol- Communists’ which we have ana- lysed at length elsewhere. The FoD was composed of members ogy of ‘illegalism’ the majority start- of the CNT but was highly critical of ed to turn to these mass struggles. Here the relevance is to note that, the role the CNT had played in 1936. In particular, they started entering like their predecessors of the “The CNT did not know how to live and constructing mass unions on 1860’s, this grouping of anarchist up to its role. It did not want to push a revolutionary syndicalist basis. communists were trying to learn ahead with the revolution with all its In the opening years of the 20th from the anarchist involvement consequences. They were frightened century, anarchists were involved in insurrections and revolution of by the foreign fleets... Has any revolu- in or simply built most of the revo- the 1917-21 period. They include tion ever been made without having lutionary syndicalist unions that who had been the to overcome countless difficulties? were to dominate radical politics key figure of a massive anarchist-led Is there any revolution in the world, up to the Russian revolution. Very insurrection in the Western Ukraine. of the advanced type, that has been able to avert foreign intervention? to the quantitative practices typical been developing in the English … Using fear as a springboard and of waiting, for example organisa- language anarchist movement since letting oneself be swayed by timidity, tional projects whose first aim is to the 1980s, thanks to translations one never succeeds. Only the bold, grow in numbers before intervening and writings by Jean Weir in her the resolute, men of courage may in struggles, and who during this “Elephant Editions” and her maga- attain great victories. The timid have waiting period limit themselves to zine “Insurrection” ... In Vancouver, no right to lead the masses...The proselytism and propaganda, or to Canada, local comrades involved CNT ought to have leapt into the the sterile as it is innocuous counter- in the Anarchist Black Cross, the driver’s seat in the country, deliver- information.”7 local anarchist social center, and the ing a severe coup de grace to all magazines “No Picnic” and “Endless that is outmoded and archaic. In “As an ideology Struggle” were influenced by Jean’s this way we would have won the war projects, and this carried over into and saved the revolution... But it did insurrectionalism originates the always developing practice of the opposite… It breathed a lungful insurrectionary anarchists in this of oxygen into an anaemic, terror- in the peculiar conditions of region today ... The anarchist maga- stricken bourgeoisie.” 6 post-war Italy and Greece” zine “Demolition Derby” in Montreal also covered some insurrectionary Across much of the world anar- anarchist news back in the day.” 8 chism was crushed in the period As an ideology insurrectionalism up to, during and after World War originates in the peculiar condi- That insurrectionalism should Two. Anarchists were involved in tions of post war Italy and Greece. emerge as a more distinct trend partisan movements across Europe Towards the end of World War Two in English language anarchism at during the war, but in the aftermath there was a real possibility of revo- this point in time should be no sur- were repressed by eastern ‘com- lution in both countries. In many prise. The massive boost anarchism munism’ or western ‘democracy’. areas the fascists were driven out received from the summit protest In Uruguay, one of the few places by left partisans before the allied movement was in part due to the where a sizeable anarchist com- armies arrived. But, because of the high visibility of black bloc style munist movement survived, the Yalta agreement, Stalin instructed tactics. After the Prague summit FAU waged an underground armed the official revolutionary left of the protest of 2000, the state learned 4 struggle against the military dic- Communist Party to hold back the how to greatly reduce the effective- 5 tatorship from the 1950’s. Cuban struggle. As a result, Greece was to ness of such tactics. Soon after the anarcho-syndicalists, in particular suffer decades of military dictator- disastrous experience of Genoa tobacco workers, played a signifi- ship, while in Italy the Communist and a number of controlled blocs cant role in the Cuban revolution Party continued to hold back strug- in the USA, arguments arose that

2006 only to be repressed in its after- emphasised greater militancy and - gles. Insurrectionalism was one of math by the new regime. more clandestine organisation on 11 a number of new socialist ideolo- gies which arose to address these the one hand and a move away from The Ideology of particular circumstances. However, the spectacle of summit protesting on the other. Revolution Insurrectionalism the development of insurrectional- ism in these countries is beyond Alongside this, many young people There is a long tradition within the scope of this article. Here we & Black who were entering anarchist poli- anarchism of constructing an ide- want to look at the development of tics for the first time, often made Red ology out of a tactic. The long and an insurrectionalist ideology in the the incorrect assumption that the deep involvement of anarchists in Anglo world. militant image that had first attract- insurrections has, not surprisingly, ed their attention on the TV news given rise to an anarchist ideology Insurrectionalism in the was a product of insurrectionalism of insurrectionalism. Anglo World in particular. In fact, most varieties An early self-definition of insur- of class struggle anarchists, includ- rectionalism in English is found in ing anarchist communists and this 1993 translation: “we consider members of the syndicalist unions, the form of struggle best suited to had participated in black bloc style the present state of class conflict in protests at the summits. As these all practically all situations is the insur- see actual insurrections as playing rectional one, and this is particularly a significant role in achieving an so in the Mediterranean area. By anarchist society, there should be insurrectional practice we mean the nothing surprising in them being revolutionary activity that intends involved in a little street fighting to take the initiative in the struggle on the occasions when that tactic and does not limit itself to waiting appears to make sense. By the or to simple defensive responses to time of Genoa, when the state had One insurrectionalist has described obviously greatly upped the level attacks by the structures of power. how these ideas spread from Italy: Insurrectionalists do not subscribe of repression it could deploy, anar- “insurrectionary anarchism has chist communists were debating whether such tactics had a future in over, the free giving that burns all also seen by insurrectionalists as an the columns of this magazine and calculation ... No guerrilla group, important answer to the argument other publications. no matter how effective, can take the that the state can simply repress place of this grandiose movement of small groups. It is pointed out that 11 The Ideas of destruction and transformation.” “it is materially impossible for the state and capital to police the whole Insurrectionalism The insurrectionalist notion of social terrain.”14 attack is not one based on a van- It is probably useful to dispel a guard achieving liberation for the As might be imagined, individual couple of myths about insurrection- working class. Instead they are desires are central to insurrection- alism at the start. Insurrectionalism clear that “what the system is afraid alism but not as with the rugged is not limited to armed struggle, of is not these acts of sabotage in individualism of the ‘libertarian although it might include armed themselves, so much as their spread- right’. Rather, “the desire for indi- struggle, and most insurrectional- ing socially.”12 In other words the vidual self-determination and self- ists are quite critical of the elitism direct actions of a small group can realization leads to the necessity of a of armed struggle vanguards. Nor only be successful if they are taken class analysis and class struggle.”15 does it mean continuously trying up across the working class. This is to start actual insurrections, most a much more useful way to discuss Much of the insurrectionalist theory insurrectionalists are smart enough direct action than the more con- we have looked at so far presents to realise that this maximum pro- ventional left debate that polarises no real problems in principle for gram is not always possible, even extremes of ‘Direct Action crews’ anarchist communists. On the theo- if they are also keen to condemn who see their actions in themselves retical level, the problems arise other anarchists for waiting. as achieving the objective, versus with the organisational ideology revolutionary organisations that that insurrectionists have construct- So what is insurrectionalism? Do or ed alongside this. Much of this has Die 10 9 published a useful introduc- refuse to move beyond propagan- dising for mass action - and all too been constructed as an ideological tion with the title “Insurrectionary critique of the rest of the anarchist 10 often actually argue against ‘elitist’ Anarchy : Organising for Attack!” movement. Substantial quotes from this article small group actions. are used in the discussion that fol- 6 lows. Riots and Class Struggle The Organiser 7

The concept of ‘attack’ is at the Insurrectionalists often recognize The insurrectionist criticism of ‘the heart of the insurrectionist ideol- class struggle where the reform- organiser’, while a useful warn- ogy: ist left refuse to. Writing of Britain ing of the dangers that come with

2006 such a role, has expanded into an

- in the early 1980’s, Jean Weir “Attack is the refusal of mediation, ideological position that presents

11 observed that “the struggles taking pacification, sacrifice, accommoda- place in the inner city ghettos are such dangers as inevitable. We are tion, and compromise in struggle. often misunderstood as mindless told “it is the job of the organiser to It is through acting violence. The young struggling transform the multitude into a con- Revolution and learning to act, against exclusion and bore- trollable mass and to represent that not propaganda, dom are advanced elements mass to the media or state institu-

& Black that we will open the of the class clash. The tions” and “for the organiser... real

Red path to insurrection, ghetto walls must be action always takes a back seat to the although analysis b ro k e n maintenance of the media image.” and discussion have a role in clarifying Probably, most of us are familiar how to act. Waiting with left campaigns run by a par- only teaches waiting; in ticular party where exactly this has acting one learns to act.” down, not happened. But our experience is enclosed.” 13 that this is not inevitable. It is quite This essay drew from a possible for individuals to help number of previously pub- The idea that organise a struggle without this lished insurrectionalist such actions happening. A comrade has more works. One of these ‘At need to be time than anyone else so they take Daggers Drawn’ explained taken up on a number of tasks that need to further: a c r o s s be done - are they not therefore an t h e organiser? “The force of an insurrection is work- social, not military. Generalised i n g The problem with the apparent rebellion is not measured by the class blanket ban on ‘organisers’ is that armed clash but by the extent i s it prevents analysis of why these to which the economy is para- problems arise and thus how they lysed, the places of produc- can be prevented. tion and distribution taken In the case of media work there is to use those sections of the media action where they think this makes no mystery. Anyone doing media through which we might be able tactical sense. In reality this is also work for a controversial struggle to reach the millions of people that the judgement that insurrectional- will be bombarded with questions lack of resources otherwise cut us ists make - like everyone else they about the likelihood of violence - in off from. recognise the need to wait until media terms this is a ‘sexy’ story. If they think the time is right. They they are getting this day after day, And while the media likes to sim- recognise that tomorrow is not the week after week then they will start plify the story by reducing it to day to storm the White House. to try to shape the struggle to fol- binary choices, this does not mean low this media agenda. that everyone who gets information from the media accepts this divi- Critique of Organisation The solution is simple. This prob- sion. Many if not all people have Another place to find fault with lem arises because the left tends an understanding that the media is the ideology of insurrectionalism to have their ‘leader’ who is doing flawed and so tend not to accept its is where it comes to the question the key organising of a protest also binary divisions. of organisation. Insurrectionalism as the media contact for that pro- declares itself against ‘formal test. Our experience is that if you Waiting for the revolution? organisation’ and for ‘informal divorce the two roles so that the organisation’. Often quite what that organisers of a specific event are We are told the left in general and means is unclear as ‘formal’ organi- not the people who speak to the the rest of the anarchist movement sation is simply used as a label for media about it then the problem is in particular hold “a critique of all the things that can go wrong greatly reduced if not eliminated. separation and representation that with an organisation. The actual organisers are isolated justifies waiting and accepts the from the media but feed informa- role of the critic. With the pretext Insurrectionalists attempt to define tion to whoever is nominated as a of not separating oneself from the formal organisation as “permanent media spokesperson. That media ‘social movement’, one ends up organisations [which] synthesise all spokesperson, however, has no denouncing any practice of attack struggle within a single organisa- particular say about the organisa- as a ‘flight forward’ or mere ‘armed tion, and organisations that mediate tion of the protest. propaganda’. Once again revolu- struggles with the institutions of 6 tionaries are called to ‘unmask’ the domination. Permanent organisa- 7 The media and popular real conditions of the exploited, this tions tend to develop into institu- opinion time by their very inaction. No revolt tions that stand above the struggling is consequently possible other than multitude. They tend to develop a This leads onto the insurrectional- in a visible social movement. So formal or informal hierarchy and 2006

- ist description of the media. “An anyone who acts must necessarily to disempower the multitude ... The

11 opinion is not something first found want to take the place of the prole- hierarchical constitution of power- among the public in general and tariat. The only patrimony to defend relations removes decision from the then, afterwards, replayed through becomes ‘radical critique’, ‘revolu- time such a decision is necessary tionary lucidity’. Life is miserable, so and places it within the organisation Revolution the media, as a simple reporting of the public opinion. An opinion one cannot do anything but theorise ... permanent organisations tend to exists in the media first. Secondly, misery.”16 make decisions based not on the & Black the media then reproduces the opin- necessity of a specific goal or action, Red ion a million times over linking the “public opinion is produced but on the needs of that organisa- opinion to a certain type of person tion, especially its preservation. The (conservatives think x, liberals think as a series of simple organisation becomes an end in y). Public opinion is produced as a itself.” series of simple choices or solutions choices” While this is quite a good critique (‘I’m for globalization and free trade,’ of or Social Democratic or ‘I’m for more national control and forms of organisation, it doesn’t protectionism’). We are all supposed Here we see the chief weakness of really describe ongoing forms of to choose - as we choose our leaders insurrectionalism - its lack of seri- anarchist organisation - in particu- or our burgers - instead of thinking ous discussion of other anarchist lar anarchist communism organisa- for ourselves.” tendencies. We are led to believe that other revolutionaries, includ- tion. Anarchist communists don’t, This all sounds pretty good - and ing all other anarchists, favour wait- for instance, seek to “synthesise there is considerable truth in it. ing around and preaching about all struggle within a single organi- But this blanket analysis again the evils of capitalism rather than sation”. Rather we think the spe- prevents a discussion about how also taking action. There are some cific anarchist organisation should these problems can be overcome. very few groups for whom this is involve itself in the struggles of the Until the time we have our own true, but the reality is that even working class, and that these strug- alternative media - and in that case amongst the non-anarchist revolu- gle should be self-managed by the some of the problems above would tionary movement most organisa- class - not run by any organisation, still apply - we would be crazy not tions also engage in forms of direct anarchist or otherwise. Solutions to the Problems of for greater communication and Autonomous Base Nucleus Organisation increases the chance of victory. It is obvious that a successful liber- Far from developing hierarchy, our tarian revolution requires the mass The insurrectionalist Alternative constitutions not only forbid formal of the people to be organised. hierarchy but contain provisions Informal Organisation Insurrectionalists recognise this and have attempted to construct designed to prevent the develop- The method of organisation models of mass organisation that fit ment of informal hierarchy as well. favoured by insurrectionalists is within their ideological principles. For instance considerable informal guided by the principle that “the Autonomous Base Nuclei, as they power can fall to someone who is smallest amount of organisation are called, were originally based the only one who can do a particu- necessary to achieve one’s aims on the Autonomous Movement of lar task and who manages to hold is always the best to maximize our the Turin Railway Workers and the onto this role for many years. So the efforts.” What this means is small self-managed leagues against the WSM constitution says no member groups of comrades who know each cruise missile base in Comiso. can hold any particular position for other well and have a lot of time to more than three years. After that spend with each other discussing time they have to step down. out issues and taking action - affin- “a successful libertarian ity groups. These sorts of formal mechanisms revolution requires the to prevent the development of We are told “to have an affinity with informal hierarchy are common in a comrade means to know them, to mass of the people to be anarchist communist organisations. have deepened one’s knowledge of In fact, it is an example of where them. As that knowledge grows, the organised” formal organisation is a greater affinity can increase to the point protection against hierarchy. Our of making an action together pos- Alfredo Bonanno in The Anarchist formal method of organisation sible.”17 Tension described the Comiso allows us to agree rules to prevent experience: “a theoretical model informal hierarchies developing. Of course insurrectionalists know of this kind was used in an attempt Insurrectionalism lacks any seri- that small groups are often too to prevent the construction of the 8 ous critique of informal hierarchy small to achieve an objective on American missile base in Comiso 9 but, as anyone active in the anar- their own, so in that case they say in the early ‘80s. The anarchists who chist movement in the anglo world that groups can federate together intervened for two years built “self- knows, the lack of sizeable formal on a temporary basis for that spe- managed leagues.”19 organisation means that problems cific goal.

2006 of hierarchy within the movement He summarised them as follows: - are most often problems of informal There have even been attempts “these groups should not be com- 11 hierarchy. to extend this to the interna- posed of anarchists alone. Anyone tional level. “The Anti-authoritar- who intends to struggle to reach If you strip out the things that can ian Insurrectionalist International is given objectives, even circumscribed Revolution go wrong with an organisation, aimed at being an informal organi- ones, could participate so long as then the insurrectionalist concept sation... [It] is therefore based on a they take a number of essential con-

& Black of ‘formal’ organisation boils down progressive deepening of reciprocal ditions into account. First of all “per- to an organisation that continues to Red knowledge among all its adherents... manent conflict” that is groups with exist between and across struggles. To this end all those who adhere to the characteristic of attacking the Even here the distinction is clouded it should send the documentation reality in which they find themselves though, because insurrectionalists that they consider necessary to without waiting for orders from any- also see that sometimes informal m t h aactivity e knokwn... iwhereer else. Then the characteristic organisation may be involved in to the p r o m o t i n g of being “autonomous”, that is of more than one struggle or may g o .”18 r u not deppending on or having any move from one struggle to another. relations at all with political parties or trade union organisations. Finally, From an anarchist communist the characteristic of facing problems perspective, the major point of an one by one and not proposing plat- organisation is to help create com- forms of generic claims that would munication, common purpose and inevitably transform themselves into unity across and between strug- administration along the lines of a gles. Not in the formal sense of all mini-party or a small alternative struggles being forced into the one trades union.”20 program and under the one set of leaders, but in the informal sense of For all that they have ‘self-man- the anarchist communist organisa- aged’ in their title these leagues in tion acting as one channel of com- fact look pretty much like the front munication, movement and debate organisations used for linking into between the struggles that allows and controlling social struggles by This asks more questions than is answers - how can you plan without pre-determining something? If a group of people “think strategically about the future” is that group not a “committee or meeting” even if it chooses not to use that name. And who argues for plans that are not “adaptable to events as they unfold”?

From an anarchist communist per- spective, the point of thinking stra- tegically about the future is to use that thinking to plan for the future. Plans involve making decisions in advance - pre-determining them to at least an extent. And plans should be made and agreed formally, that many Leninist organisations. Why such a league into a creature to certainly involves meetings and so? Well the above definition is one be manipulated by a self-selected may well involve the meeting of a of an organisation that while seek- cadre of true revolutionaries sup- committee. Why deny any of this? ing to organise the masses does so posedly capable of grappling with along lines defined by the informal the issues that its other members Negotiation groups of anarchists. If it was truly cannot. This seems to fly so much in self-managed, surely the League the face of what insurrectionalists Like the more ideological anar- itself would define its method of say elsewhere that we should stop cho-syndicalists, insurrectional- operation and what issues it might and pause to wonder how they end ists take an ideological position like to struggle around? And from up with such a position. against negotiations. “Compromise 8 the start the leagues exclude not only makes the state and capital 9 only all other competing organisa- The Question of Agreement stronger” we are told. But this is a tions but even relations with politi- slogan that only works if you are a cal parties or trade union organisa- The reason lies in the fact that com- small group that has no influence tions. Again, any real self-managed mon action obviously requires a on a struggle. Short of the revolu-

2006 struggle would make the decision certain level of common agreement. tion, it will be unusual to win a - of who to have relations with for

11 The insurrectionalist approach to struggle outright. So, if our ideas itself and not simply follow the this is quite hard to get a grasp of are listened to, we will again and dictat of an organised ideological and is the reason why such odd again be faced with either a limited minority. contradictions open up in the self- and therefore negotiated victory or Revolution managed leagues they advocate. snatching defeat from the jaws of Another insurrectionalist, O.V., The problem is that reaching agree- victory because we advise fighting

& Black defined the leagues as “the ele- ment requires decision making and for more than we know can be won. ment linking the specific informal Red in the making of decisions you open Surely our aim should be to win anarchist organisation to social the possibility of a decision being everything that is possible, not to struggles” and said of them “these made by the majority that the infor- go down to glorious defeat? attacks are organised by the nucleii in mal cadre thinks is a mistake, collaboration with specific anarchist structures which provide practical The Do or Die article tries to define “compromise only makes and theoretical support, developing this obvious problem away as fol- the state and capital the search for the means required lows, “autonomy allows decisions to for the action pointing out the struc- be made when they are necessary, stronger” tures and individuals responsible for instead of being pre-determined or repression, and offering a minimum delayed by the decision of a commit- Apparently not. One insurrectional- of defence against attempts at politi- tee or meeting. This does not mean ist favourably describes how “the cal or ideological recuperation by to say however that we shouldn’t workers who, during a wildcat strike, power or against repression pure think strategically about the future carried a banner saying, ‘We are and simple.”21 and make agreements or plans. On not asking for anything’ understood the contrary, plans and agreements If anything this is worse - the specif- that the defeat is in the claim itself.” are useful and important. What is ic anarchist structures are given the 22 This obviously can only make emphasised is a flexibility that allows role of making pretty much every sense when the workers concerned people to discard plans when they significant decision for the league. are already revolutionaries. If this become useless. Plans should be This makes a nonsense of any claim is a social struggle for, say, a rent adaptable to events as they unfold.” to self-management and would turn reduction or an increase in wages, such a banner is an insult to the Towards an anarchist 3 Thanks to Pepe for information on these events in Argentina and Chile. needs of those in the struggle. communist theory 4 Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Short of the revolution, the issue Anarchist communists have adopt- Communists, Dielo Trouda (Workers’ Cause), should not be whether or not to 1926 online at http://struggle.ws/platform/ ed a different test to that of sanity plat_preface.html negotiate but rather who negotiates, when it comes to the question of on what mandate and subject to militant action. That is, if you are 5 Jaime Balius (secretary of the Friend of what procedures before an agree- Durruti), Towards a Fresh Revolution, online claiming to act on behalf of a par- at http://struggle.ws/fod/towardsintro.html ment can be made. The reality is ticular group, then you first need to 6 ibid. that if these questions are avoided, have demonstrated that the group then that vacuum will be filled by agrees with the sort of tactics you 7 For an Anti-authoritarian Insurrectionist authoritarians happy to negotiate propose to use. This question is far International-Proposal for a Debate, Anti- on their terms in a way that mini- authoritarian Insurrectionalist International, more important to anarchist prac- (Promoting Group), Elephant Editions mises their accountability. tice than the question of what some 1993 online at http://www.geocities.com/ group of anarchists might decide is cordobakaf/inter.html Repression and Debate an appropriate tactic. 8 Andy posting in respone to an early draft of this article on the anti-politics forum, Without going into the specifics of “if you can’t even critique see http://www.anti-politics.net/forum/ each controversy, a major problem viewtopic.php?t=1052 in countries where insurrectional- the most insane of actions, 9 It does however contain at least one basic ists put their words into deeds is error, it weirdly describe the synthesist then you can have no real Italian Anarchist Federation as a “platform- that this often means attacks that ist organisation” which suggests the authors achieve little except, on the one discussion of tactics at all” made little or no attempt to understand what hand, providing an excuse for state platformism is before moving to reject it. repression and, on the other, iso- As we have seen, anarchist com- 10 Do or Die 10, 2003, online at http:// lating all anarchists, not just those munists have no principled objec- www.eco-action.org/dod/no10/anarchy.htm involved, from the broader social tion to insurrections, our movement 11 Anon., At Daggers Drawn with the Existent, movement. has been built out of the tradition its Defenders and its False Critics, Elephant Editions Online at http://www.geocities.com/ Insurrectionalists claim to be will- of insurrections within anarchism kk_abacus/ioaa/dagger.html 10 and we draw inspiration from many 11 ing to debate tactics but the real- 12 Do or Die 10 , “Insurrectionary Anarchism ity of state repression means that of those involved in such insurrec- and the Organisation of Attack”. tions. In the present, we continue to in practise any critique of such 13 J.W., Insurrection, online at http:// actions is presented as taking the defy the limitations the state seeks www.geocities.com/kk_abacus/insurr5.html to put on protest wherever doing so 2006 side of the state. Nearly 30 years 14 Do or Die 10 , “Insurrectionary Anarchism - carries the struggle forward. Again ago Bonanno attempted to define and the Organisation of Attack”. 11 that is not just a judgement for us to all those who thought such actions 15 ibid. premature or counter productive as make - in cases where we claim to taking the side of the state when he be acting in solidarity with a group 16 Anon., At Daggers Drawn with the Existent, its Defenders and its False Critics, Elephant Revolution wrote in ‘Armed Joy’ that, “when we (e.g. of striking workers), then it must be that group that dictates the Editions Online at http://www.geocities.com/ say the time is not ripe for an armed kk_abacus/ioaa/dagger.html limits of the tactics that can be used & Black attack on the State we are pushing in their struggle. 17 O.V., Insurrection, online at http://

Red open the doors of the mental asylum www.geocities.com/kk_abacus/insurr3.html for the comrades who are carrying Insurrectionalism offers a useful 18 For An Anti-authoritarian Insurrectionalist out such attacks; when we say it is critique of much that is standard International, Elephant Editions 1993. not the time for revolution we are left practice. But it falsely tries to www.geocities.com/kk_abacus/ioaa/ insurint.html tightening the cords of the straight extend that critique to all forms of jacket; when we say these actions are anarchist organisation. And in some 19 Alfredo Bonanno, The Anarchist Tension, Original Title, La Tensione anarchica objectively a provocation we don the cases the solutions it advocates to white coats of the torturers.”23 Translated by Jean Weir, 1996, online at overcome real problems of organi- http://www.geocities.com/kk_abacus/ioaa/ tension.html The reality is that many actions sation are worse than the problems claimed by insurrectionalists are it sets out to address. Anarchist 20 ibid communists can certainly learn not above critique - and if work- 21 O.V., Insurrection. www.geocities.com/ ers are not allowed to critique from insurrectionalist writings, but kk_abacus/insurr2.html solutions to the problems of revo- such actions, are they not simply 22 Anon., At Daggers Drawn with the Existent, reduced to being passive specta- lutionary organisation will not be its Defenders and its False Critics, Elephant tors in a struggle between the state found there. Editions. www.geocities.com/kk_abacus/ ioaa/dagger.html and the revolutionary minority? If, References as Bonnano seems to imply, you 23 Alfredo Bonanno, Armed Joy, Translated by can’t even critique the most insane Jean Weir, Original title, La gioia armata, 1977 1 John M Hart’s “Anarchism and the Mexican Edizioni Anarchismo, Catania, 1998 Elephant of actions then you can have no real Working Class” Editions, London. www.geocities.com/kk_ discussion of tactics at all. 2 James Joll, The Anarchists, 229 abacus/ioaa/a_joy.html The Insurrection of Easter 1916 been tricked by the IRB and had orders printed in the newspapers At 11.30 in the morning on April 24 1916, Bugler William Oman cancelling the mobilisation order. - a member of a workers’ militia called the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) German support, which did see - sounded the ‘fall-in’ outside union headquarters1. This was the a diversionary Zeppelin raid on start of an insurrection in Dublin which was to see up to 1,700 London and a naval bombardment armed men and women seize key buildings throughout the city and of Lowestoft port5, would have also to hold these positions against thousands of British Army soldiers supplied a huge quantity of arms for almost a week. In the course of putting down the insurrection, had not they been intercepted at 1351 people were killed or severely wounded and 179 buildings in the last minute off the Irish coast. 2 the city centre were destroyed . The military preparations of the by Andrew Flood rebels were quite well made; It would be odd to write an article opportunity”. The struggle for they had studied street fighting 10 in Dublin on insurrections on what Home Rule that had dominated Irish and had seized and fortified well- 11 is the 90th anniversary of this rising politics for the previous 40 years chosen positions from which they without mentioning the Easter ris- had created a situation where, even ambushed the British army. Rather ing (it started on Easter Monday). before the war, hundreds of thou- than using the streets to move Despite the fact that there was no sands of Irish men were members around, they tunneled through

2006 walls of adjoining buildings and - known anarchist involvement, the of nationalist and unionist militias barricaded the doors and windows 11 rising does provide a useful exam- and tens of thousands of rifles had ple of what an insurrection can be. already been illegally imported. of their strongpoints. The units of Maybe a little over 15% of those the British Army deployed against In later generations it would be them seemed to have had little

Revolution who fought were members of the ICA which was in an alliance with largely accepted that the rising or no training for urban warfare nationalists. The ICA was created was a ‘blood sacrifice’. That is that allowing, for instance, a tiny force & Black in 1913 due to police attacks on the leadership knew all along that of around 17 rebels at the canal at Red members of the syndicalist Irish it was doomed to failure but that Mount Street to catch the Sherwood Transport and General Workers they had organised it to either - in Foresters in a cross-fire and inflict Union. It was only open to union Connolly’s case - make a statement over 240 casualties. Despite the members. against the imperialist war or - in vastly better equipment of the the nationalists’ case - keep “faith British army, including armoured The insurrection was planned by the with the past, and hand[ed] a tra- cars and artillery, their better medi- ICA leader James Connolly and the dition to the future”. But, as John cal facilities and the fact they out- nationalist leadership of the secre- A Murphy wrote, “it should be numbered the rebels 3 to 1, rebel tive Irish Republican Brotherhood remembered that up to the stage deaths were only 40% of those of who had successfully taken many of of the final confusion, the Military the British army and police. the leadership positions in the Irish Council believed the rebellion had Volunteers. From 1915, Connolly a real chance of success”3. The British knew something was up was publicly pushing for a rising, but they feared a premature move he had even converted part of the The First World War meant that against the rebels would only win union building into a munitions fac- the British army in Ireland “stood the rebels support. They had spent 4 tory which made bayonets, crow- well below full strength” . If all the the evening before the rising debat- bars and bombs. 20,000 Irish Volunteers had been ing moving against the rebel HQ at mobilized, they would have out- Liberty Hall but had concluded they The rising took place in the middle numbered the army around five to did not have sufficient forces to of World War One and, as with other one. It was only at the last minute hand. On the first day of the rising, Irish republican risings, “England’s that MacNeill, the Volunteer leader, Lord Wimborne could only regret- difficulty was seen as Ireland’s realised the depth to which he had fully write that “if we only had acted last night with decision and arrested the British were forced to sign a of conscription passed away with the the leaders as I wanted, it might have treaty and leave 26 of the 32 coun- European war. The numbers in the been averted.”6 ties. The 1916 insurrection almost Volunteer companies decreased and seems designed as a perfect case we had more opposition.”15 Part of the reason the British author- study of how an insurrection can ities felt secure was that they knew radicalise the population. But that too is only part of the story that the rebel cause was not that because, even according to the popular with the population. A huge Even during the insurrection James reckoning of Michael Collins, the number of Irish men were serving Stephens noticed that public opin- IRA never had more than around in the British army - 170,000 Irish ion was changing. He wrote that 5,000 active volunteers during the men had enlisted, which was 41% on the Wednesday “There is almost war while the British administration of the male population between a feeling of gratitude towards the built up a force of tens of thousands 10 and 44. Around half were from Volunteers because they are hold- of armed men. Yet, by 1921, the Ulster and many of these would ing out for a little while, for had they British ruling class was in a panic. have been loyalists but of the 40 to been beaten the first or second day Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson 50,000 killed in the war at least half the City would have been humili- recorded in his diary “18 May 1921. were Catholic7. Even the ITGWU, ated to the soul.”12 I said that directly England was safe, the syndicalist union from which the every available man should go to ICA had emerged, believed half of After the Ireland that even four battalions now its 1914 membership to have joined rising, the serving on the Rhine should ought the British army by 19168. B r i t i s h also to go to Ireland .. I was terrified establish- at the state of they country, and that The insurrection took place on the m e n t in my opinion, unless we crushed the first anniversary of the 2nd bat- made up murder gang this summer we shall tle of Ypes, in which the Dublin for their lose Ireland and the Empire.”16 Fusiliers, which many of these lack of ITGWU men would have joined, a c t i o n In Ireland, two things combined to had suffered very heavy losses. bef ore- create this panic. Across the world Eyewitness James Stephens noted h a n d . these years were years of revolu- 12 in his account written just after the 3 4 3 9 tionary struggle for the working 13 rising that “It is considered now men and class. In many countries work- (writing a day or two afterwards) 70 women interned, ers were defeated by the forces that Dublin was entirely against the 92 sentenced to death13. ‘Only’ 16, of law and order. The nationalist Volunteers... Most of the female including Roger Casement, were armed struggle which was largely opinion I heard was not alone unfa- executed but many observers directed at making it impossible 2006 - vourable but actively and viciously recorded public opinion changing to police the country created a ‘law 11 hostile to the rising. This was notice- as the executions were dragged and order’ vacuum. Into that vacu- able among the best dressed classes out. When they culminated with um the working class stepped. The of our population; the worst dressed, the execution of Connolly on May unique situation in Ireland meant in

Revolution indeed the female dregs of Dublin 12th, who was so wounded that he the southern 26 counties the forces life, expressed a like antagonism, had to be shot sitting in a chair, the of law and order were largely inef-

& Black and almost in similar language. The foundation was laid for the national- fective. view expressed was “I hope every ist myth that it was the insurrection, Red man of them will be shot.”9 and in particular the blood sacrifice There were 5 general strikes of the leaders, that ‘freed Ireland’. between August 1918 and August Max Caulfield wrote that as the 1923 and 18 general local strikes, rebel prisoners were being There is only room in this article to twelve of these in 1919. In the marched away at the end of the sketch out the reality. The executions course of these, workers took over street the poor working class certainly gave the public cause to the running of towns and cities women attacked them. “‘Shoot the think again but it was the slaughter across Ireland, most famously with traitors’ they cried .. the shawlies of World War One and the need the 1919 Limerick Soviet but this pelted them with rotten vegetables, for the British army to conscript happened even in the small town of the more enthusiastic disgorg- Irish men to fight its war that really Dungarvan in 1918 for one month. ing the contents of their chamber recruited for the IRA. According to “Nothing could be bought or sold pots”10. On a more measurable Kerry police estimates, “the rate of without a union permit. Nothing level Caulfield points out that “Not affiliation to the republican move- could enter the town without union a single trade, political or municipal ment was highest between October permission. People who tried society anywhere in Ireland had 1917 and November 1918 when the to break the blockade had their declared for the republic.”11 threat of conscription loomed larg- carts overturned and their goods est.”14 Ernie O’Malley who rose destroyed… The strike committee Despite this, within two years the to OC of the Second Southern, the set up its own rationing and distribu- republicans were to win the over- second largest division of the IRA, tion system.”17 whelming majority of seats in the was in Donegal at the other end of 1918 election and within five years the country. He recorded that “fear Pitched battles were fought between they led it into an uncritical alliance with the nationalists that went as far as opposing most of the 80 or so workplace occupations of 1922. Technically the ICA continued to exist until 1927 but Frank Robbins, imprisoned for 2 years after 1916, said of the ICA of March 1918 “the majority of the new members, strange as it might seem, did not hold or advocate the social and political views that had motivated those who fought in 1916.”24

The insurrection and the events that followed created a political vacuum that allowed a massive spontaneous workers’ struggle to emerge but this struggle was without ideology and without political leadership - workers and police, republican For the British and Irish capitalist nationalism filled that vacuum and police and even self styled ‘white class, Sinn Fein came to be seen as led the workers to defeat. guards’ set up by employers. Of a way of returning to business as the General Strike of April 1920, usual. The key event was probably References the Manchester Guardian noted May 17 1920 in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo “the direction of affairs passed dur- when the first public Arbitration 1. The Easter Rebellion, Max Caulfield, Gill ing the strike to these [workers’] Court was held by Sinn Fein. This and Macmillan, 1995, p4 councils, which were formed not on found against small holders who 2. ibid, p283 3. The Insurrection in Dublin, James R a local but on a class basis. In most had occupied a 100 acre farm. Stephens, 1916, Intro John A Murphy, p xv 12 places the police abdicated, and Although they defied the court 4. The Easter Rebellion, Max Caulfield, Gill 13 the maintenance of order was taken decision and remained in occupa- and Macmillan, 1995, p28 over by the local Workers Council... tion, in the words of a Dail pamphlet 5. ibid, p126 In fact, it is no exaggeration to trace “the Captain of the local company of 6. ibid, p94 a flavour of proletarian dictatorship the IRA descended upon them with a 7. A History of Ulster, Jonathan Bardon, The Blackstaff Press, 1996, p461

2006 about some aspects of the strike.” squad of his men - sons of very poor

- 8. in Ireland 1917 - 1923 Emmet farmers like themselves - arrested 11 In Jan 1919 the London Times wrote O’ Connor, Cork University press, 1988, p21 four of them, and brought them off to 9. The Insurrection in Dublin, James R of fear that the radicals would “push that very effective Republican prison Stephens, 1916, p36 aside the middle class intelligentsia - an unknown destination.”21 Ernie 10. The Easter Rebellion, Max Caulfield, Gill Revolution of Sinn Fein, just as Lenin and Trotsky O’Malley summarised what hap- and Macmillan, 1995, p281 pushed aside Kerensky and other pened: “there was land trouble in 11. ibid, p184 18 12. The Insurrection in Dublin, James R & Black speech makers.” The ruling class the South and West. The Dail, afraid really started to panic when the Stephens, 1916, p39

Red of the spread of land hunger, used loyalist workforce of started 13. Conor Kostick, Revolution in Ireland: the IRA to protect landowners; the Popular militancy 1917 to 1923, Pluto Press, using similar tactics during 1919. IRA who were in sympathy with those 1996, p23 Mutinies broke out in the Irish who wanted to break up estates car- 14. The IRA in Kerry 1916 - 1921, Sinead Joy, Regiments of the British army sta- ried out the orders of the Minister of The Collins Press, 2005, p32 tioned in India. 22 15. On another Man’s Wound, Ernie O’Malley, Defence.” Colour Books Limited, 1936, p88 16. The Real Chief: Liam lynch, Meda Ryan, When, even in Glasgow, pitched The 1916 insurrection remains battles were fought in George Mercier Press, 2005, p46p92 part of the story but, for the left, it 17. Syndicalism in Ireland 1917 - 1923 Square and 6 tanks and 100 lorry created the conditions by which Emmet O’ Connor, Cork University press, loads of troops with machine guns the nationalists could come to 1988, p30 19 were brought in to prevent rallies, power. The week before the rising, 18. Conor Kostick, Revolution in Ireland: it is not hard to see why the British Popular militancy 1917 to 1923, Pluto Press, Connolly warned the assembled 1996, p139 ruling class was in something of a ICA that “if we should win hold on panic. The Director of Intelligence 19. ibid, p56 to your rifles because the Volunteers 20. ibid, p55 at the Home Office Basil Hugh may have a different goal. Remember 21. ibid, p104 Thomson wrote “During the first we’re out not only for political liberty 22. On another Man’s Wound, Ernie O’Malley, three months of 1919 unrest touched but for economic liberty as well.”23 Colour Books Limited, 1936, p161 its high-water mark. I do not think But there was no organised left 23. The Easter Rebellion, Max Caulfield, Gill that at any time in history since the force that survived the insurrec- and Macmillan, 1995, p24 24. Conor Kostick, Revolution in Ireland: Bristol riots we have been so near tion and Connolly’s successors in 20 Popular militancy 1917 to 1923, Pluto Press, revolution.” the union were unchallenged as 1996, p175 the rip-off of public resources Privatisation but is nationalisation the answer? tion of school fees where there was previously free education has driven Throughout the world, public services have been under attack many poor families to withdraw their for the past twenty years. Forming a central plank of the capital- children from school, while hospi- ist globalisation agenda, ‘privatisation’ and ‘competition’ are the tal fees have put basic health care seemingly unchallenged dogma of modern capitalism. The levels beyond the reach of millions. of privatisation which have taken place worldwide are absolutely Although they acknowledge the mindblowing. During the 1990s alone over $900 billion of public harm which privatisation has brought assets were transferred into private hands. Globally this agenda to poor communities in the Third is pushed by the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation World, the World Bank and IMF still (WTO). The basic theory by which these bodies operate is that all insist on prescribing it as an eco- decisions should be made on the basis of profitability alone. nomic model. Water privatisation is by Gregor Kerr just one example. The World Bank

14 “water in Haiti’s capital 15 Port-au-Prince costs up to 10 times as much from the 2006

- private sector as it does 11 from the public supply”

Revolution notes that water in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince costs up to 10 times

& Black as much from the private sector as it does from the public supply, and that Red poor families in Mauritania now have Economies in the so-called ‘devel- waste management etc. This strat- to spend a fifth of their household oping’ world have been carved up egy is driven not in the interest income on water. under re-structuring deals called of the ordinary people of these “Structural Adjustment Programmes” countries but by the needs of inter- Yet both the World Bank and the IMF which have been like manna from national capital. David Hartridge, continue to force water privatisation heaven for international business. Director, WTO Services Division on developing countries. During The World Bank website1, for exam- put it quite succinctly: “Without 2000 alone, the IMF made water ple, “provides information on more the enormous pressure generated privatisation or full cost recovery a than 9,000 privatization transac- by the American financial services condition of loan agreements to 12 tions in developing countries from sector, particularly companies like African countries. The World Bank 1988 to 2003”. This information is American Express and Citicorp, has promised Ghana an extra $100 presented to highlight “revenue there would have been no services million in loans if it privatises its 3 generating opportunities” for inter- agreement and therefore perhaps water supply.” national capital. The current phase no Uruguay Round and no WTO.”2 of the WTO’s strategy for the impo- Lisbon Agenda sition of its privatisation agenda is This privatisation agenda has had the General Agreement on Trade disastrous consequences for many At EU level, privatisation is being in Services – which looks to sell off peoples and communities in the driven by what is called the ‘Lisbon such basic services as healthcare, developing world. According to agenda’. This refers to an agreement education, housing, water supply, journalist John Pilger “the introduc- made by EU governments in March 2000 to make the EU “the most com- after the privatisation of the British petitive and dynamic knowledge- water service in 1989, salaries and driven economy by 2010”. One of bonuses paid to the top direc- the most influential lobby groups tors increased by an average of which has pushed this agenda between 50 and 200 per cent behind the scenes is the European per annum. At the same time, the Round Table of Industrialists (ERT). water bills being faced by house- The ERT brings together approxi- holders soared – with an average mately 45 ‘European industrial increase of approximately 50% in leaders’. According to its website ‘Popular Capitalism’ the first four years. Indeed, water “ERT members are chief execu- bills in England and Wales are set tives and chairmen of major mul- Privatisation can take to rise by a further 13% over the tinational companies of European a number of forms. next five years. parentage…Individuals join at the It can involve the personal invitation of existing mem- direct selling off It is these consequences of privati- bers.”4 Members of the ERT include of state owned sation that is driving the current bat- Ireland’s Michael Smurfit and the companies to tle against the introduction of water CEOs of such companies as British the highest charges in the North. It is obvious Airways, BP, Renault, Fiat, Deutsche bidder or can to campaigners that the successful Telekom, Diageo, Royal Dutch Shell, be in the form introduction of a charge would be Heineken, Nestlé, Bayer, Nokia and of floatation the first step towards privatisation. many other household names. The on the stock Privatisation of the service is one ERT see “the higher cost of doing markets. The of the main driving factors behind business in Europe” as “a drain on best- k now n the attempts to introduce a bin tax competitiveness.” Current ERT pri- example of in the South as well (and will no orities as listed on their website the latter in doubt lead to attempts to re-intro- include “deadlines for full liber- the Republic duce domestic water charges in the alisation of gas and electricity mar- of Ireland was not-too-distant future). In 37 local kets and postal services”. The ERT the govern- authority areas in the South, the 14 has a direct line to the heart of EU ment’s selling bin collection service has already 15 decision-making, boasting that “at of the national been privatised. In all of these, an European level, the ERT has contacts telephone com- important precursor to privatisa- with the Commission, the Council of pany, Eircom, in tion was the successful implemen- Ministers and the European parlia- 1999. This privatisation was sold tation of a charge. After all, who was

2006 going to be interested in running

- ment…every six months the ERT to the Irish people as ‘popular the service unless they were going 11 meets with the government that capitalism’, whereby everybody holds the EU presidency to discuss supposedly had the opportunity to to be able to make money from it? priorities…At national level, each become a shareholder. A massive Once the last vestiges of resist- member has personal contacts with government propaganda campaign ance to the introduction of the bin Revolution his own national government and persuaded 575,000 people to buy tax is crushed, the service will be parliament, business colleagues and shares in Eircom. According to privatised throughout the state and & Black industrial federations, other opinion- Paul Sweeney’s book Selling out? householders’ bills can be expect-

Red formers and the press.” Privatisation in Ireland,5 almost ed to soar. a third of those who purchased It is this ‘personal contact’ which shares came from the skilled and Pay and Conditions drives EU economic policy and unskilled working class. However, which is fuelling the push towards within two years, Eircom was fully Another consequence of the pri- privatisation. One thing we can be in the hands of venture capitalists vatisation of the bin and water sure of is that when the ERT get with many ordinary shareholders services will be a major attack on together with their political cronies, losing up to 30% of their invest- the pay and conditions of workers. workers’ rights or defence of the ment. Privatisation of Eircom was In the post-privatisation economy welfare state doesn’t figure high successful for some however – the workers can look forward to the on their agenda. In fact they tend to top 4 managers earned a total of replacement of their jobs with ‘yel- see such things as minimum wages, !29 million between them in a 30 low-pack’ jobs. In late 2003/early workers’ holiday entitlements, month period between late 2001 2004 workers at the private bin- minimum safety requirements etc. and March 2004 – a staggering collection company, Oxigen, which as barriers to the god of competi- average monthly salary of !240,000 has the contract for collecting the tiveness, and when they talk about each! Obviously ‘popular capital- green recycling bins in the Dublin ‘liberalisation’ what they mean is ism’ works for some. City Council area, were forced to go the removal of any and all barriers on strike for 3 months to even win to their unfettered right to make The privatisation of the rail and union recognition. Working condi- unlimited profits. water services in Britain led to sim- tions and rates of pay for Oxigen ilar staggering wage rates for top workers are much worse than for managers. In the first seven years the workers directly employed by be 8 – 13 per cent higher than the One result of this lack of investment Dublin City Council. This is the traditional methods of funding - a is obviously a disimprovement in future which faces all workers in transfer of an extra !30million from the level of bus service. What better state-run services if the privatisa- the taxpayers’ pocket into that of way to prepare public opinion for tion agenda is successful. private business! the introduction of private buses? And this is exactly the government’s While privatisation is sometimes Transport infrastructural invest- plan – the privatisation of Dublin open and obvious, governments ment in the Bus by 2008 is stated government often have to be more circumspect over the last number of years has policy, starting with the hiving off of when the service being privatised been huge. Motorways which are 25% of the routes. is in politically sensitive areas built as PPPs are a licence to print such as health and education. This money for the private companies When the privatisation is success- is where scams such as Private involved. Of the !8 billion which fully pushed through, ‘uneconomic’ Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public will be spent on national roads up routes will be gone. People who Private Partnerships (PPPs) come to 2008, !1.2 billion will come from live in the suburbs can expect to into play. Private Finance Initiatives the private sector. As the motor- have a bus service at peak times are the ‘Trojan horse’ used by ways are built, these private com- when buses are busy but at off- the Blair government in the UK to panies will recoup their investment peak times no private company is introduce private capital to the through the imposition of tolls. And going to have half-empty buses on public sector, especially, but not they will collect massive profits! It the road. exclusively, in the National Health is estimated that over the next 30 Service (NHS). Under PFI, hospitals years !5.5 billion will be handed And, just in case it needs to be are built by the private sector and over in tolls by road users. National stated again, privatisation leads to then leased back to the NHS over a disimprovement in workers’ con- a period of between 20 and 30 “Bus drivers for Aircoach ditions of service. Evidence of this years. The private company is paid can be seen in the private company an annual sum for provision of the work a 12-hour shift, Aircoach which runs a coach serv- building and services in it, rather ice from Dublin city centre to the like a typical mortgage but with the they can only take a toilet airport and from Dublin to Cork. 16 provision of caretaking, security, break if they are ahead of Bus drivers for Aircoach work a 12- 17 maintenance etc. added on - most hour shift, they can only take a toilet likely at wage rates inferior to those schedule and they must break if they are ahead of schedule of direct employees. and they must pay for any damage pay for any damage to the to the buses they drive. The compa- ny refuses to recognise or negotiate 2006 buses” - Public Private Partnerships with any union. 11 In Ireland the government Toll Roads, the company which col- Privatisation of public services has embraced Public Private lects the tolls on the M50 motorway, – whether it is through the direct Partnerships in a number of areas, turned in a profit of !18 million in Revolution sale of utilities or through indi- most notably in the construction 2004. rect methods such as PFI and PPP of roads and other infrastructural – involves a massive transfer of & Black projects. These have inevitably Run Down of Services wealth from taxpayers to the pock- Red resulted in huge profits for the ets of private business interests. It private companies involved. For Quite often governments need to negates the concept of there being example, in 2000 the Department be even more duplicitous in order such a thing as ‘public service’ and of Education and Science (DES) to push their privatisation agenda. subjects everything to the bottom entered into a PPP agreement for Public services are deliberately line of profit. In other words it seeks the design and construction of five allowed to run down and become to maximise the profits of a few at new secondary schools. Sites for ‘inefficient’ in the hope that people the expense of wages and social the schools were provided by the will then welcome the intervention obligations. Furthermore, privati- State and contracts were awarded of private business. In the Republic sation inevitably leads to an attack to companies to build the schools of Ireland, this is most obvious cur- on wages and working conditions and to maintain and operate them rently in the area of public trans- – conditions which have been for 25 years. The DES trumpeted port. Dublin Bus, for example, has fought for through years of trade this as the new way forward and been starved of necessary invest- union agitation are done away with claimed an expected saving of ment for years with the result that at the scratch of a pen. 6% compared to the cost of direct the company is now at least 150 state provision. The truth, however, buses short of what they need, even ‘Nationalisation’? turned out to be somewhat differ- to provide what is already an insuf- ent. In June 2004 the Comptroller ficient service. In fact, Dublin Bus While anarchists oppose the priva- and Auditor General’s report found receives the lowest State subsidy tisation of state assets and services that the projected cost of the provi- of any public transport operator in for the reasons discussed above, sion of these 5 schools was going to Western Europe or North America. we do not call – as some on the left do - for the ‘nationalisation’ of services as a solution to problems. For example, during the recent Irish Ferries dispute, the put forward as one of the ways in which the workers’ demands could be met:

“Take Irish Ferries into democratic public ownership in order to safe- guard pay and conditions and to safeguard the shipping industry as a vital asset” 6

But the taking of Irish ferries into public ownership would in no way ‘safeguard pay and conditions’. We’d be expecting the same politi- revenues from the gas were still in among working class people. In cians who are busily implementing state ownership, spending it on such a scenario we are sold the lie the neo-liberal agenda to now take housing the homeless or reducing that the resource – be it gas reserves on the role of workers’ protec- hospital waiting lists would not top or whatever else – is ‘public prop- tors. While I’m not suggesting for the agenda of the government. erty’. The reality however is that far a moment that the Socialist Party from being in the ownership of ‘the Their being in state ownership are proposing this, it is important public’, ordinary people have no would, however, make more pos- to point out that the ‘nationalise it’ direct say in the allocation of these sible the type of political campaign or ‘take it into public ownership’ resources. Just as working class which might force them to spend slogan is far too often spun out by people are consistently alienated the moneys in the interests of the people on the left without their from the product of their labour, this working class. A nurses’ strike taking into account that there is a selling of the idea of ‘public owner- 16 massive difference between ship’ over which the public 17 state control/ownership and “state ownership does not equal have no real say leads to workers’ control/ownership. an increase in apathy and workers’ ownership. No-one would argue a sense of helplessness Of course that is not to say among ordinary people. It that nationalisation is of no that the fact that apartheid South Africa is much more likely that the 2006 - consequence. What I am try- had a very high level of state ownership political establishment who 11 ing to argue is that while we control the purse strings don’t see nationalisation as made it a workers’ paradise” supposedly ‘in the public the answer, it would of course interest’ will actually spend

Revolution be a significant development revenues generated from especially for the workers directly to demand the Irish government these ‘public assets’ on measures involved. In the Irish Ferries case, invest the proceeds of the Corrib that will have the long-term effect & Black for example, presumably if the Irish gasfields in healthcare would have of re-inforcing rather than alleviat- Red government was the employer it a much greater likelihood of suc- ing social division. Public policy would not have been as easy for cess than a similar action directed consistently results in an increase them to pull the legal ruse of pay- at the Shell management. in the gap between the well-off and ing the workers wages lower than Put simply, state ownership does the poor. the Irish minimum wage. So while not equal workers’ ownership. No- they might well have sought ways There are of course advantages one would argue that the fact that to drive down wages, their options for working class people in serv- apartheid South Africa had a very would have been more limited. ices and resources being in ‘public’ high level of state ownership made rather than private hands. In the Similarly, many on the left have it a workers’ paradise. Neither case of the Corrib gas fields, for called for the re-nationalisation would it be claimed – except by example, a ‘public’ company would of the Corrib gas reserves off the some died-in-the-wool stalinists be much more susceptible to public coast of Mayo. While it is an abso- – that Soviet Europe, where the political pressure in terms of both lute disgrace that the government ownership of all industry was in the safety issues and the distribution gave these reserves away to Shell/ hands of the state, was good for the of the gas. Because of the nature of Statoil for such a poor return7 and majority of workers. the deal done with Shell and Statoil that the billionaire owners of Shell, when they were given control of Statoil and Marathon stand to make Alienation the gas reserves, the community in a fortune from assets which should North-West Mayo are expected to be rightfully owned by the Irish It can actually be argued indeed take all the safety and environmen- people, we all know that even if the that state ownership can contribute tal risks associated with bringing to a heightened sense of alienation the gas ashore. But – because the ‘nationalisation’ or for the retention or through levying punitive taxes oil companies’ profit margins are of services etc in public ownership on the profits of the private com- the principal motivation involved only makes sense in the context of panies. At the end of the day, if - there is no intention of connecting a radically changed social set-up. either was to happen, it would the local community to the gas grid. In today’s world ‘public sector’ has indeed be a significant change. Instead it will be piped directly to come to mean ‘government’. It is References the existing Dublin-Galway pipe- only if ‘public sector’ can be made line where, incidentally, the state- to mean ‘people’s ownership’ in a 1. http://rru.worldbank.org/Privatization/ owned Bord Gais Eireann will buy real sense that the call for public 2. quoted on ‘globalissues’ website, http: the gas at market rates. ownership can be a truly radical //www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/ FreeTrade/GATS.asp one. In the absence of revolutionary It can certainly be argued that if the 3. see http://pilger.carlton.com/ change, what is important is not who globalisation/privatisation gas reserves had remained in ‘pub- owns the gas or the aeroplanes or 4. http://www.ert.be lic’ ownership the local community whatever. The truly important thing would be in a much stronger posi- 5. Paul Sweeney is economic adviser to the is how the profits made are spent Irish Congress of Trade Unions tion when it came to trying to exert and how the service is operated in 6. www.socialistparty.net political pressure to ensure that it is the interest of the public. This can 7. see the Shell to Sea website for details both brought ashore safely and put be done through state ownership www.corribsos.com to the benefit of the local people.

Trade union organisation Independent Workers Union Probably the biggest argument in favour of ‘public’ rather than private ownership of services and resourc- es is in relation to employment and conditions of service. Traditionally public sector workers have enjoyed stronger trade union organisation. 18 In recent years this has become 19 even more entrenched. According to official statistics published in September 2005, trade union mem- bership in Ireland rose by around

2006 20% from 1994 to 2004, to stand at -

11 521,400. However, union density as a proportion of all employees fell from 46% to 35%, with private sector union density now standing The Independent Workers Union the IWU and in assisting its work. Revolution at a mere 21%. Trade union organi- (IWU) is a new small Irish trade We have done so because we see union which stands outside the part- the work it is doing in recruiting and sation within the public sector is nership consensus and is attempting attempting to organise workers who & Black obviously much easier especially to build a radical trade union. At the are currently unorganised as being

Red in a climate where more and more WSM’s conference in the autumn of of crucial importance. Much of the private sector employers adopt a 2005 we added to our Trade Union IWU’s work is aimed at recruiting strongly anti-union stance. position paper: and organising people in ‘precari- ous employment’. This often consists Public sector workers as a rule tend “In recent years the Independent of taking cases for people to the Workers Union (IWU) has been to have a greater sense of job satis- Labour Court, Employment Appeals formed. It openly declares itself as faction especially in terms of civic Tribunal, Rights Commissioners etc. being anti-social partnership and – work that is far from glamorous pride etc. Workers in education and is actively working to recruit and but is of huge significance for the health, for example, can see a direct organise low-paid workers. We wel- individuals affected. The people benefit to the communities in which come this development and will do involved in the union want to recruit they live from the provision of the anything we can to assist them in this workplaces and want to re-build a service in which they work. This work. radical fighting trade union spirit. This can’t be done by a clicking of same level of direct benefit to the We encourage all WSM members to community is not always evident in the fingers but takes a hell of a lot become either full or associate mem- of work. private sector employments. bers of the Independent Workers Union with a view to working within We would encourage all revolution- To sum up, the arguments against and alongside the IWU to further the aries, radicals, anarchists and lib- privatisation of public services objectives of our Trade Union posi- ertarians in Ireland to join the IWU and assets are strong. Privatisation tion paper” and help in the task of building what More Precarity inevitably operates in the interest can become a new radical voice for Since then, a number of WSM mem- workers. of the wealthy and big business. On bers have been actively involved in the other hand, however, the call for www.union.ie for more on the IWU Precarity

Precarity is a term synonymous with precari- for the mass of society*. ousness. It is perhaps best conceived as chronic Some of the debate about precarity is driven by insecurity. In recent times, with the dismantling those who once identified industrial workers as the of the welfare state and the destruction of social vanguard of revolutionary change, and who now see security, workers’ existence is becoming more precarious workers as fulfilling this role. While this and more insecure. Precarity is a term that has may not be a particularly useful analysis, we should been developed to describe these changes and not ignore the question of how to organise these 18 the new form of working class existence that has workers. 19 developed from them. Here we offer a few samples of the issue that has The term is used in particular to refer to the demise been termed precarity. We open with an article by of the job-for-life and job security. In this sense it James Redmond on attempts by Irish libertarians to is closely linked to the process of casualisation. For engage with this issue. He discusses the ‘Get Up, 2006

- anti-capitalists, these changes has been significant. Stand Up’ campaign which attempted to direct some

11 The social-democratic/mass trade union model of of the anti-capitalist energy thrown up by the ‘anti- working class action does not seem fit to deal with globalisation’ movement into grassroots workplace this new situation. The level of union membership in organising. He also writes about the Polish Temp the working class is continuously on the decrease. Workers Defence Committee and the struggle in the Revolution This decrease in union membership is, unfortu- Tesco distribution centre and how our involvement nately, not being replaced with any new form of in organising solidarity with those workers raised & Black workplace organisation. issues about the content of the ‘Get Up, Stand Up’

Red campaign. We follow this with an article by a mem- The difficulties posed by organising precarious ber of the British anarchist group, the WOMBLES, workers have led the trade union movement to, for and a T&G (Transport and General Workers Union) the most part, abandon these workers. Precarious activist on the organising drive taken up by the workers, those who are most in need of protection T&G. He discusses both the potentials and limita- and organisation are today the least organised. tions of this model of union organizing for activists. This model is based on that developed by the SEIU As many anti-capitalist activists are precarious (Service Employees International Union) on the workers, the issue of precarity is one that has been States. The SEIU’s new attention to organising has widely debated within the international anti-capi- led to them being the major driving force behind talist movement. Some hold that it is a completely the Change to Win Coalition, which split from the new phenomenon, while other hold that it is a return AFL-CIO last September. The final article, by Alan to what existed before the exceptional period of Mac Simoin, a WSM member and SIPTU activist, dis- Keynesian capitalism, or social-democracy. Still oth- cusses this split, its significance and its limitations. ers question whether the ‘job for life’ ever existed by Oisín Mac Giollamóir *For a detailed look at work in the 21st Century see ‘The Nomad, the Displaced and the Settler: Work in the 21st Century’ in Red & Black Revolution 9, online at www.struggle.ws/wsm/rbr/rbr9/work.html

More Precarity http://www.chainworkers.org http://www.metamute.com/ http://www.prol-position.net/ http://www.euromayday.org/ http://noborder.org/ http://www.euromarches.org/ http://www.precarity.info/ http://www.eurotopiamag.org/ Focus on Precarity Ireland

much of the recent anti-capitalist era. It Over the past year there was at this level that the has been an emerging preoc- precarity discussions cupation among anarchists and were most influential, socialists with precarity - as an allowing ourselves as expression of a new work disci- activists to begin see- pline imposed by neo-liberalism. ing ourselves within Already there have been several the class relationship and start engaging precarity forums in European in forms of political cities aimed at etching out a work more closely sense of the identities formed related to our own through the shared experience everyday experienc- of the demands of job market es. To start speaking flexibility. of ourselves as part of a class, instead There have also been five successive of as an activist community and and the rights we relied on in years of Euromayday parades across develop coping mechanisms which the Get Up, Stand Up Campaign were Europe calling for “flexicurity.” None can strengthen and broaden the no longer relevant. Members of the of this escaped the notice of Irish appeal of our politics as a result of WSM provided solidarity, by helping activists. In Ireland, the WSM has so this recognition. to organise a protest outside a Tesco far been involved in two campaigns store on Baggot Street and calling for 20 that can be linked to the issue. Our Already there is a wealth of statutory solidarity elsewhere. This led to sev- 21 members were involved in provid- bodies who give out information on eral demos across the UK and Poland ing solidarity to a group of Polish workplace rights; equally the unions co-ordinated by activists in the liber- temp workers in an attempt to high- should be taking a much more tarian milieu and organisers in the light the exploitative use of agency proactive approach to this work. T&G. The protests garnered a huge staff by Tesco, and also in giving In a sense the campaign ended up degree of media attention within

2006 out information on workplace and substituting itself for these bodies, the new Polish media in Ireland and - union rights in the Get Up, Stand Up with no real sense of going beyond back in Poland. 11 Campaign. and developing a coherent and valid criticism of them. Eventually dia- For a time these two experiences The Get Up, Stand Up initiative logue within the campaign revolved were a healthy breakaway from the

Revolution emerged from discussions between around questions of what shopping sort of activity that is dependent members of the Workers Solidarity centre should be leafleted next. The upon mobilizing for the next big Movement, Irish Socialist Network, ability to learn from the activity we event, as well as a start to formu- & Black Independent Workers Union and were engaged in was sidelined for lating strategies of how we move

Red other individuals in order to spread the safety of a campaign of informa- towards workplace-geared activ- information on unions and work- tion dispersion, with the campaign’s ity. Equally, here were opportunities place rights to the largely unorgan- aesthetics speaking of one thing but to explore a political language of ised sectors of the main retail streets the form of the campaign remaining struggle based on how identities and malls in Dublin city centre. very much short sighted. are emerging in workplaces rather than having to rely on the baggage Starting off on Mayday 2005, the Later in the summer and independ- of an awkwardly represented archaic campaign distributed over 5,000 ently of Get Up, Stand Up contact was class struggle; a rhetoric that in the multilingual leaflets containing made with a group of young Polish long run only isolates us from those information on basic employment workers, who were facing into pro- who class struggle anarchists need rights and union contact details, tests with management of a Tesco to enter into dialogue with. directly to workers in high street distribution centre in Greenhills. shops and shopping centres. The Coming from a background in mili- The application of organizing skills campaign also played another role, tant politics, these workers took the which have developed in the anti- by attempting to revitalise the idea initiative to use their own experi- globalisation period, the use of that workers and bosses have noth- ences as temps - used to undermine subvertisements, the aesthetic sepa- ing in common. We argued that this the security of the workforce - as a ration from the corporate branding manifests itself most clearly in the propaganda vehicle to highlight an of mainstream unions, the success of need for distinctly worker based increasingly common work experi- internet based organisation in mobi- organisations like unions. ence. Tesco never breached a piece lising for the Tesco pickets can only of employment legislation; the work- be a positive addition to an organi- The campaign also offered an alter- ers’ direct employer was an agency sational vocabulary that can speak native to the spectacular and short called Grafton Recruitment. To Tesco to workers apathetic and distrustful term strategies that characterised they were immediately disposable of a politics and unions which to a Focus on Precarity large extent simply do not challenge there are weak unions or bullying boss- there is a need for the permanence of the reality facing increasing numbers es. There’s a lesson here that significant such a network within the movement. of people. organisational drives are needed. Get Up, Stand Up style initiatives and During the Irish ferries dispute, Irish Had Get Up, Stand Up retained a more ventures such as the Polish Temp unionism had a moment of brief res- self-critical awareness of the work it Workers Defence Committee have a pite. Contrary to the fears of many, huge was entering into, it might have been role to play in briefly sketching and numbers of workers left their employ- a forum where issues of workplace experimenting in how this can be ment and protested in solidarity with solidarity could have been raised and done both from within and outside the the workers of Irish Ferries. Listening to teased out separate to the capital politi- unions. For the moment though, many of popular chat shows and reading bulle- cal parties seek to gain from them. With those involved in these campaigns have tin boards left an impression that there the breakdown in democracy in many become active in the IWU, setting up a was a considerable popular desire to unions, and the recent Collen and Polish Workers Section and joining its mobilise in employment sectors where Delaney cases there’s no doubt that recruitment drives. by James Redmond

between organisers and the people they’ve unionised, indicating the pri- mary objective of ‘union organisers’ is to simply recruit new members. UK Plus this doesn’t bode well if we look at way the T&G handled the Gate Gourmet dispute, where the union stepped in to negotiate to get all In the UK, union member- the sacked workers reinstated only ship has been in steady to sell them out in a compromised decline for the past 25 deal. Ironically, the evening of a tube years, not least due to how peo- An organ- cleaners’ organisers meeting at T&G 20 ple are being employed - casual- ising team is typically made headquarters. there was a picket 21 ised labour, increased imposition up of a team leader, an organiser outside by Gate Gourmet workers of agency work, temporary, short and an organiser in training. These demanding their hardship pay be teams are usually from an activist or reinstated, having been withdrawn term contracts & contracts of ‘self- academic backgrounds (“because of by the union. Despite all the fine employment’, along with the gen- their political commitment & willing- words, activist commitment and

2006 eral lack of confidence in unions ness to work extra hours”) who go to workers’ militancy the union leader- - after years of complacency, com- workplaces to talk to and encourage ship will always have the last say. 11 promises and defeats. workers to join the union. The more militant workers are encouraged to The question then is can there be a One of the UK’s ‘big four’ unions, become organisers themselves who genuine model for grassroots rank the Transport and General Workers Revolution in turn organise in their respective and file political activity and organis- Union (T&G), has sought to address workplaces. ing within a union setting, and if not this by adopting the model created what are the alternatives? & Black by the American Service Employees The problem with this imposed struc- One initiative has emerged, on Red International Union (SEIU) with its ture is it is geared towards getting strategy of a national unit of profes- results. Essentially your energy and the back of the T&G tube cleaners sional ‘union organisers’ to target responsibility goes into meeting tar- campaign, called The Solidarity traditionally untouched areas of gets rather than meeting the needs of Collective – a group set up by people unionisation (precarious work in the workers (this is amplified when involved in the IWW, the Wombles, fragmented workplaces - most sig- you do not share the same common T&G organisers and other left groups nificantly in the UK, Polish immigrant conditions and problems at work). In to support ongoing workplace strug- labour in the north & cleaners on effect organisers become the tools of gles independently of any union London Underground and in the the union teaching workers how to hierarchy. How this develops is City). A lot of finances and resources organise rather than being the del- dependent on those involved but the have gone into ensuring this experi- egates of workers in the workplace. intention is to link up with, and sup- ment is a ‘success’. The model is on It is an artificially informal hierarchy port the development of, autonomous a 3 year probationary period and for that re-imposes the formal hierarchy and self organised workers struggles this year the organising unit should of the leadership, although a lot of (not reliant on unions or political par- have recruited 10,000 new members. effort is done on the ground to alle- ties) as a means to foster forms of viate the impression the members solidarity and collective strategies On the surface this looks an impres- answer to the union. sadly missing in the current political sive undertaking, especially the work climate. What is paramount is the rec- done around the Polish workers in What is retained though is the lead- ognition that we must work together Crewe, yet we need to look closely ership speaking on behalf of the in creating methods of confronting just how they are operating and how workers, as evidenced with work- capital together. These are our col- much they encourage solidarity and place grievances being dealt with lective struggles and we all have a militancy rather than compliance and directly by the ‘representation team’, part to play in them. acceptance of union leadership. sidelining any progressive dialogue by Dean (Wombles, UK) Focus on Precarity

There are no short- cuts to rebuilding USA our movement, and that it will take far more than a few mergers or spend- Last September ing more on recruit- saw a split in the USA’s ment to produce the Congress of Trade reversal in union for- Unions, the AFL-CIO. tunes that so many of us desire. After all, The Change to Win that’s what has been Federation held its done here by SIPTU founding convention and IMPACT, to name in St. Louis, Missouri, but two of our own where they set out big unions which their plans: cut down were formed through on bureaucracy, mergers. devote a lot more This is not to say resources to organis- that the heads of the ing the unorganised, organising tens of millions of workers new federation are and start building industry-wide who are without union representa- “sell-outs”, “traitors” or any of the super-unions. tion. We are shifting our resources other silly names that sometimes get into organising”, said Anna Burger, thrown at union leaders. By and large The seven founding unions were Change to Win Chair. Indeed the fed- they represent the general ideas the Teamsters (a general union and eration has put it like this: of the members who elected them. 22 the USA’s biggest), the Building When most workers see no alterna- 23 Labourers, Service Employees (third “1. Working people, including current tive to the conservative political par- biggest in the USA), UNITE-HERE union members, cannot win consist- ties, let alone to capitalism, we should (clothing and restaurant workers), ently without uniting millions more not be surprised that our unions are Farmworkers, Food workers, and the workers in unions. not some sort of revolutionary move- Carpenters. Together they made up 2006 ment. - about 35% of the AFL-CIO’s mem- 2. Every worker in America has the

11 bers. right to a union that has the focus, What is needed is not “better lead- strategy, and resources to unite work- ers”. We are not sheep who simply Literally from day one, we could see ers in that industry and win.” require a better or more farsighted this was not going to be some radical shepherd. Real change necessitates Revolution break from the undemocratic prac- Among their proposals to achieve the active participation of a lot of tices of the AFL-CIO. There was no these objectives are encouraging people.

& Black membership vote over affiliation to unions to organize on an industry- this new federation, the handful of wide basis, merging smaller unions All over the world we need to con- Red people on each union executive took into a few large unions, and spend- vince our work colleagues and fellow the decision themselves. ing more money on organising as union members that a militant fight opposed to electoral politics. for workers’ interests is a good thing, So, is this new formation simply an that ordinary member involvement attempt by a few discontented senior All well and good, but unions have to and control of our unions is a good union leaders to increase their power be seen to do more than merely hold thing, that a fundamental change in or do they have ideas that merit seri- the line against employer demands the way society is ordered is pos- ous consideration? Most of their lit- for cutbacks. They need to actually sible. erature has been long on describing spearhead a fight for higher wages, the problems faced by working peo- more job security, better healthcare, In our unions, whether in the USA ple, but short on offering solutions. shorter hours and improved pen- or Ireland, experience suggests that sions. There has to be a sense that we we need a programme that puts far Well, there are very real problems are going forward, that any sacrifices greater weight on political and social in the US trade union movement. or risks we are asked to take will be change, rank-and-file education and Whether you are a radical or a con- worth it. empowerment, and a commitment to servative, you can’t avoid the fact that reinvigorating collective bargaining the percentage of American workers Just as important, even a brief look as well as rebuilding membership. in a union has dropped to an all-time at labour history suggests that ideas, This was the experience of Connolly low of about 12%. And that’s an open politics, and grassroots worker and Larkin, of the US Congress of invitation to the bosses to stick the involvement are far more important Industrial Organisations in the 1930s, boot in, an invitation the bosses have than changes in organisationalstruc- and of every large-scale union move- been more than happy to accept. tures in the recipe for reviving union ment since. strength. “We are focusing our resources on by Alan MacSimoin In 1974 Maccoby and Jacklin ana- lysed the results from over 2,000 psychological studies on gender difference and in doing so they overturned many myths; girls aren’t men are from earth more social than boys, neither are they more suggestible, girls aren’t any better at learning off by heart, (and so are women) boys aren’t good at more abstract learning, girls don’t have lower self esteem and it is not true that girls lack motivation. ow different are men and women? Very, according to some. H In all they found only four areas John Gray’s book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, is where gender differences were based on the idea that there are fundamental differences between evident; verbal ability, visual-spa- the genders. It may be just another self-help book on relationships, tial ability, mathematical ability and but it has also sold over 30 million copies and been translated into aggression. Yet despite the fact that 40 languages. overwhelmingly their story was byAileen O’Carroll one of similarity, almost all reports of their work focused on the dif- Deborah Tannen’s book, You Just going to take the reins of this coun- ferences. So why if genders, in the Don’t Understand: Men and Women try as if it were a big house. She is main, behave similarly are they in Conversation, was on the New going to manage us well. Look at perceived to be different? York Times bestseller list for nearly us men, we do one thing at a time, four years and has been translated while the mom is cooking, talking on into 24 languages. Pope Benedict, the phone, feeding the children and Same Behaviour, Different 22 when still a cardinal (and an obvious listening to the radio!” Perceptions 23 expert on gender) in a statement on One explanation for this is that the the role of women wrote that wom- If you just listened to popular media meaning attached to the behaviour en’s characteristics were “listening, and general conversations, you varies depending on whether you welcoming, humility, faithfulness, would expect the genders to be are a man or a woman. So, for exam- praise and waiting” in the first state- worlds apart. Yet a study by Shibley 2006

- ple, if a woman isn’t good at map ment published by the Catholic Hyde found far more similarities

11 reading, this is seen to be proof that church on the role of women in a than differences. This article looks women are less spatially aware. If decade. In January 2005, the presi- at this research, and then asks in a man isn’t good at map reading, dent of Harvard argued that women the light of it why might the idea well it’s just one of those things that Revolution were underrepresented in science of gender difference be so popular he’s not very good at. I once asked because biologically they weren’t presently. a teenage boy what toys he played

& Black as capable at scientific thinking as with as a child. Like most boys, he men. During his time as President Red Mostly the Same played with action man. He went on the number of tenured jobs offered to say that he thought action man to women at Harvard fell from the Published in the journal American was ‘cool’, while Barbie was stupid. low 36% to the even lower 13%. Psychologists in September 2005, the research challenges the idea Despite the fact that both toys are While we may not care very much essentially the same – a piece of about the pope or pop-psychology, that men and women are very dif- ferent psychologically. Shibley plastic representing a person – to their ideas carry weight with large him the possibilities and meanings segments of the world’s population. Hyde reviewed the results from 46 surveys and concluded that men attached to the male toy were far The idea that men and women are and women are similar on most, but more positive than the female toy. fundamentally different can also not all, psychological variables. Mars and Venus are the same place, be found on the left. Some wom- they are just seen from different en’s peace groups, such as the Arguments about the roles that men perspectives. Greenham Common women, base and women play in society often their activity on women’s supposed revolve around whether these roles What Does it Mean to Come opposition to war and violence. are due to nature (our genetic make from Venus? Or to take a more recent example, up) or nurture (the type of society some of the supporters of the cen- we live in). The implication of this Society attributes different mean- tre-left President of Chile Michelle research is to overturn the idea ings to similar behaviours. In fact, Bachelet, argued that as a woman that male and female roles are con- even stranger, society is quite she is better able to multi-task and nected to particular characteristics happy to talk about very differ- thus more able for the job; “she is of men or women. ent behaviours as if they were all similar. So, for example, what do early 1970s that married women women are paid less than men and people mean when they say ‘wom- were allowed to continue working in order to attract cheaper female en’s work’? in the public sector. When women labour, women’s characteristics were in paid employment, it was are once more being re-defined as One certain thing that can be said in those sectors that mirrored their useful on the labour market. So, for about gender example, women roles, despite are argued to be the Mars/Venus good listeners clichés, is that and empathic, and they vary greatly so make good call between different centre employees, cultures, classes or women are and change over good at multitask- time. Venus seems ing and so suited to be a number to IT work; an arti- of radically dif- cle on Microsoft’s ferent planets. In webpage argues Ireland, nursing is that “Biology [and] a women’s profes- upbringing make sion, in southern women more flex- Italy most nurses ible and so they are men. This is are better manag- because in the ers.” south of Italy, labour market In fact there is a shortages were so certain irony that great, that one of as the workplace the few jobs available was nursing, role in the home such as domestic is becoming more female, the idea and as traditionally men were seen work, or caring work such as nurs- that genders are very different 24 as the major bread-owners, these ing. But the idea that women’s role seems to be gaining increasing 25 became seen as ‘male’. was in the home has been over- popularity (at least if the sales of turned at certain points. John Gray’s books are anything to The daughter of a manual labourer go by). on a poor Dublin housing estate is This happened most dramati- more likely to see her role in terms cally during World War Two when The idea of gender differences can 2006 - of motherhood and so will often propaganda extolled the virtues of be used to either exclude women 11 start her family early in life. In con- women working – in fact, the skills (as in the position of women in trast, the daughter of a doctor might they used at home were argued to Harvard) or to attract more women be expected to go to university, and be the same as the skills needed in (as in the call centre workers). The

Revolution establish a career before she has the workplace. Alice Kesser Harris malleability of the idea of differ- children. And on the other end of explains, “they were induced into ence, and the different political

& Black the scale, the role of Paris Hilton, the labour force with a rhetoric uses to which it is put, should make the daughter of a multi-millionaire, which played on their housewifely us very wary of arguments that take Red seems to be to be thin, shop and role. For example, they were told that difference as their starting point. act stupid. operating a drill press was just like operating a can opener; that wield- Mostly the Same, a Little Over time, the role women were ing a welding torch, for example, expected to play within capitalism was just like operating a mix-master Different, What Next? has varied. In the early factories might have been; that a drill press So far I’ve been arguing that the they were valued (as were children) was like an iron.” as a cheap form of labour. Then they similarities are far greater than the were moved to the home, where After the war, although in the US differences, but that doesn’t mean their role was to provide all the 75% of women said they would that differences don’t exist or that social care and support required to like to keep their jobs, about 90% they aren’t important. Women and keep the workforce ticking over. ended up being forced to leave. men are treated differently in soci- Once again women’s place was in ety and this different experience So for example, in the US during the home. affects the roles that women and the depression, working women men play. were accused of taking men’s jobs. Today women make up a greater Although the numbers of women part of the labour force than ever In her study, Shibley Hyde con- working outside the home increased before. In the west, manufacturing ducted a review of 46 studies, each gradually from the 1900s, in general has declined, while service indus- of which themselves was a review of this was acceptable only for single tries and knowledge industries other studies. Hundreds of reports women. In Ireland, it wasn’t until the have grown. Throughout the world were involved. She grouped her data into six categories and set about seeing if she could find any means that men are more likely to The result of this was that as you evidence of difference. The cat- help others when they are doing it look at the progression of girls egories were: those studies that in a public way that might be inter- throughout the education system assessed cogitative variables; that preted as heroic. The difference in they become progressively quieter. assessed verbal and non-verbal one trait ‘helping others’ can be In a typical US college classroom, communication; that assessed large, favouring males, or close to 45% of the students don’t par- social or personality variables; zero, depending on the social con- ticipate by asking and answering that assessed measures of psycho- text in which that trait occurs. questions, and the majority of those logical well-being (for example are women. In light of this study, the self-esteem); that assessed motor Similar differences were found behavioural findings on conversa- behaviour (for example, how far when looking at interruptions to tion interruptions don’t seem to be can you throw a ball) and finally a conversations – very little differ- that surprising. category of miscellaneous reports, ence were found in groups of two, such as ‘moral reasoning’. and small differences were found The Sadker study found that over in groups of three and more. Again time, due to their different experi- As with the earlier Maccoby and the social context affects the behav- ences growing up, boys and girls Jacklin study, she found gender ioural response – and the idea that acted in different ways within the differences in a few very specific there are fixed male and female classroom. The Hyde study also areas. The first area is, not surpris- responses, which we are all hard- found some differences in behav- ingly, throwing ability. Men can wired to perform, is undermined. iour but emphasised that these throw a ball further and faster than differences are not as great as the women. The second area was found Different Experiences, similarities. in some measures of sexuality Different Responses – men masturbate more and have Many Voices Make up the different attitudes to casual sex. The In those areas where men and Movement third and final area was in levels of women behave differently, it is in aggression, in particular in levels of large part because they are treated So where does this leave us – know- physical aggression. differently growing up. An example ing that genders are not as different of this different treatment can be as often described but also aware 24 Differences Aren’t Stable found in a study by Myra and David that gender (as do other cultural 25 Sadker in which they looked at the attributes) can colour the way in They also found that in some areas different ways boys and girls were which we perceive and act within there are little differences in child- treated in US high schools. After the world? hood, but differences develop in three years of classroom observa-

2006 the teenage years. So for example, A key starting point for any group, - tions, they discovered a hidden, movement or society who want 11 in high school, a small difference unconscious bias that neither teach- emerges favouring males in terms ers nor students were aware of. to mobilise the full potential and of solving complex problems. This creativity of humanity is to chal- small variation in differences over lenge the gendered nature of roles. Revolution time, Shibley Hyde argues, over- “Boys were asked more This begins when we challenge the throws ‘the notions that gender idea that the differences between & Black differences are large and stable’ questions, were praised the genders are based on biology, Red (p588), that men have permanently more, referred to more in rather than experience. set up camp on Mars which is a However, this doesn’t mean that great distance from Venus. class, girls were less often we are all the same - men, women, The study also highlights the called on, often ignored” old, young, city dweller, country importance of context in deter- person, black, white – rather that mining gender differences. So, for our different experiences have cre- Boys were asked more questions, example, averaging out over all ated a diversity of characteristics, were praised more, referred to the studies, it was found that men attitudes, values and identities. The more in class, girls were less often helped more. But if the studies movements and the society we are called on, often ignored, to the were separated into those where trying to build have to allow a voice extent that teachers would stand the helping occurred when onlook- to this diversity. with their back to the girls while ers were present, and those where talking to the boys. In addition, in Women are under-represented in onlookers were absent, it was found the text books given to the stu- anarchist groups throughout the that a large gender difference only dents, women’s contribution to world, and this means our move- occurred when onlookers were society was often absent, ignored ments are considerably weaker. present. or hidden. Finally there was a tol- as we are losing the point of view, This difference, she argues, can be erance of sexual discrimination of the experiences, the skills and explained by looking at social roles girls by other children or indeed understandings of a large portion – in western society ‘heroism’ is incidences of sexual discrimination of humanity. seen as a masculine attribute, which by teachers. One of the few groups who seri- that some are best suited to revo- Libres automatically gave women ously and successfully faced up lutionary organisation, while others a space where they knew, by vir- to this problem was the anarchist are not. tue of their gender, that they were group Mujeres Libres, who fought welcomed and needed. From that during the Spanish Civil War. They It does mean however that we try starting point, the women involved recognised that the problem of as revolutionaries to look beyond undertook work that was more usu- incorporating women into the anar- our own world-view (and of course ally done by men; they organised chist movement operated on many this doesn’t apply just to gender, it meetings, they spoke at meetings, different levels. On one hand there holds true for race, nationality, and they travelled around the country. was the obvious sexism of part of all the other aspects of culture). In the anarchist movement, which the pages of their papers and at Mujeres Libres also had the advan- needed to be combated. their meetings, Mujeres Libres gave tage that they were working in revo- voice to women’s experiences. lutionary times, and so the fight for In a less obvious way, many women’s liberation became men in the anarchist movement part and parcel of the new were and are, gender blind. society that was being built. That is they do not realise that Today’s anarchists operate their own way of seeing the in less optimistic times and, world is coloured by their own though for women things are gender and aren’t aware of or a lot freer than they were in interested in understanding 1930s Spain, the problem of other perspectives. While we how to create revolutionary all naturally make sense of the organisations which reflect world from the point of view the full diversity of society of our own experiences, we have yet to be solved. also need to be able to realise that our experiences aren’t universal. Where those other Mujeres Libres also worked to chal- References voices are in the minority, we need lenge restrictive gender roles. It is 26 to actively go out and seek those generally true that you cannot do A woman’s place is to wait and listen, 27 alternative perspectives. what you haven’t dreamt. If a woman says the Vatican never imagines herself taking part John Hooper and Jo Revill, Sunday This is different from saying, as John in an anarchist organisation, if she August 1, 2004, The Observer Gray does, that women and men doesn’t see a role for herself within Interview with Alice Kessler Harris: are so different they need a self- 2006 that organisation, it is very unlikely http://www.pbs.org/fmc/interviews/ - help book to be able to understand kesslerharris.htm

11 that she will ever feel motivated to each other. This doesn’t mean that join one. Sadker, M and Sadker, D (1994) Failing we believe that men and women at Fairness: How America’s Schools occupy different spheres of life, As a women’s only group, Mujeres Cheat Girls, Scribner. Revolution

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Send Cash or cheques to WSM, PO box 1528, Dublin 8, Ireland. If you are in Ireland and can take copies of our newspaper to distribute in your area, please let us know. were being persecuted as witches. Secondly there was the introduc- tion of science, the redefinition of the body and the interest in anat- Caliban and the witch omy which changed the body to a continued from back cover machine that can be modelled into a worker. as the central example of how men and women. Silvia concen- women’s bodies were targeted in trates on the prevalence of women Women’s knowledge was destroyed a counter-revolutionary strategy to being targeted. She importantly by the transition into capitalism. facilitate primitive accumulation, genders and classed the witch tri- Women’s knowledge whether it i.e. the historical process of divorc- als by looking at who was being was midwifery or medicine was ing the producer from the means of prosecuted and why. The witch demonized since it didn’t work production. trials were an exemplary per- within the confines of science and formance used to discipline other intellectualism. This intimate knowl- The period which saw the trans- unruly subjects through example. edge of the body was passed on formation from feudalism to capi- It is interesting to note that neither over generations through oral tra- talism involved what Marx termed dition. So the process of primitive accumulation. In alienation from produc- Europe this saw the work- tion occurred alongside ing population (serfs) of an alienation from repro- Europe being deprived of duction. The witch trials the ‘means of production’ were a hunt to erase any e.g. land. Primitive accu- form of women’s con- mulation also involved trol over their bodies, the enslavement of some such as knowledge of of the population of Africa birth control, abortion, and the Americas and midwives and medicine the use of this enslaved women. She argues that labour to extract gold and the witch trails in Europe 26 silver from the new world. 27 and the Americas have a All together this primi- very similar root; anyone tive accumulation created who was using other both the capital and dis- forms of knowledge and possessed workforce on

2006 understanding that chal- - which capitalism was built. men nor women stood up to stop or lenged the capitalist, imperialist 11 challenge the witch trials and sub- One of Federici’s main arguments sequent burnings. goal was targeted either as a witch is that the transformation to capital- or a savage. ism of primitive accumulation was She places the witch trials into a Revolution This understanding of women’s not just the economic relationship historical context to understand work gives insight to the root of to labour and production but also why women were being prosecut-

& Black what is called the feminisation of includes reproduction and the ed. Two things happened in this poverty. This is the fact that the Red alienation from the body through time. First of all, they banned cer- majority of the world’s poor are science and wage work. tain ways of life and secondly sci- ence and intellectualism provided women. According to the UN, even In Federici’s overview of the serfs’ a way of understanding the world today women earn about half of struggle and the heretical move- that legitimised this change. It was what men earn. ment in the first part of her book, she a change of culture from a time of The book itself, although full of says that it was their struggle and living on commons and communal insightful and captivating ideas, the failure of feudalism that brought living to a time of capitalism and is plagued with an academic lan- along capitalism. She included the guage and style. Those interested importance of women’s role during in engaging with her work will find this time, where women were less “women’s knowledge was her examples and theoretical anal- dependent on men economically ysis very interesting. For those who and socially and where they treated destroyed by the transition would rather learn in other ways, I on a more equal basis. This is not to into capitalism” encourage you to listen to her talk say that there was any form of femi- on the book at Fusion Arts in New nist utopia. Saying that, this was the York City on November 30, 2004 first women’s movement in several the individual. Those affected most which is hosted on Interactivist European countries as well as the by this change were elderly women Exchange. She gives a detailed first proletariat international. who no longer were taken care of through the “moral economy” and overview of her thesis and the rea- Unlike the American witch trials, had to steal from private land to sons she finds her work important the European ones included both survive. It was these women who now. Red & Black Revolution Caliban and the Witch women, the body and primitive accumulation

to show how the body is a place of struggle and Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch; Women, The Body and Primitive resistance. Federici continues to do Accumulation does a fantastic job of taking the feminist analysis of the this without disregarding class strug- body and re-conceptualizing it within a class struggle understanding of gle as fundamental. Instead she gives history. She fills in the blanks that a traditional left analysis has missed, an argument for how the body and including the concepts of difference, women, race and the body. This female sexuality, reproduction and work is very important, allowing feminists and socialists alike to realize knowledge have been systematically that identity and class struggle are not polar opposite theoretical under- targeted in order to break solidarity standings. of working class struggle. She gives examples of its use in destroying the reviewed by Tobie rebellious serfs: “efforts were made Federici’s background comes from move from communal living to that of by the political authorities to co-opt Italian Autonomous , from capitalism. This book is her project to the youngest and most rebellious male her comrades in the Midnight Notes express an understanding of women’s workers, by mean of a vicious sexual Collective on the US East Coast, and position in our society and the effects politics that gave them access to free past influences include Maria Rosa of globalisation and . sex, and turned class antagonism into Della Costa - author of The power an antagonism against proletarian of Women and the Subversion of the “Feminists have always women” (pg. 47). As anarchists this is Community (1971) and Selma James very important, realizing the feminism author of Sex, Race and Class (1971). critiqued Marxist theory is not individualist but involved in complex power structures. She was in the wages for housework for not acknowledging the movement that discussed how capital The book jumps back and forth in both was dependent on domestic labour reproductive role of women time and place so the reader should and developed the understanding that and the importance of the either have good knowledge of feudal- patriarchy worked alongside capital- ism or get ready to be a bit confused. ism to enslave women. She also spent body in production” It goes from looking at the serfs’ strug- time in Nigeria working on issues of gle for land and the heretical use of development and feminism which religion to challenge hierarchies and Feminists have always critiqued resulted in her writing many works power, then moves onto the coloniza- Marxist theory for not acknowledg- on globalization, structural adjust- tion of the Americas and demonisa- ing the reproductive role of women ment and the IMF. These experiences tion of aboriginal cultures. The main and the importance of the body in put her in a good position to have an argument focuses on the witch trials insight on a society that was forced to production. Feminists have taken time continued overleaf...

Freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice, socialism without freedom is tyranny and brutality