Oxford Globalise Resistance Conference
ZeroZero | 15.05.2001 16:18
"Globalise Resistance Counter Conference"
5-8 pm, Wednesday 16th May @ Ruskin College, Dunstan Road, Headington,
Oxford.
Speakers include: George Monbiot, Lindsay German, David Hillman;
Groups include: Oxford Global Action, New Internationalist, People and
Planet, CND, Trident Ploughshares, Ilisu Dam Campaign, Close Down
Campsfield Campaign, Corporate Watch, Dudley Hospital strikers,
Oxfordshire Campaign Against Privatisation, Voices in the Wilderness,
Labour Behind the Label, Oxford Socialist Alliance, Green Party, Labour
Party. Supported by Ruskin Students Union.
Talks about: J18, Seattle, Prague - the way forward, the media, etc;
Palestinian Uprising; Combating Climate Change; the Missile Defence
System AND MORE!
Workshops and Rally are : £5 waged, £3 waged.
Rally only: £2 waged, £1 unwaged
5-8 pm, Wednesday 16th May @ Ruskin College, Dunstan Road, Headington,
Oxford.
Speakers include: George Monbiot, Lindsay German, David Hillman;
Groups include: Oxford Global Action, New Internationalist, People and
Planet, CND, Trident Ploughshares, Ilisu Dam Campaign, Close Down
Campsfield Campaign, Corporate Watch, Dudley Hospital strikers,
Oxfordshire Campaign Against Privatisation, Voices in the Wilderness,
Labour Behind the Label, Oxford Socialist Alliance, Green Party, Labour
Party. Supported by Ruskin Students Union.
Talks about: J18, Seattle, Prague - the way forward, the media, etc;
Palestinian Uprising; Combating Climate Change; the Missile Defence
System AND MORE!
Workshops and Rally are : £5 waged, £3 waged.
Rally only: £2 waged, £1 unwaged
ZeroZero
e-mail:
oxfordresist@hotmail.com
Comments
Hide the following 19 comments
More Swerp Bullshit
15.05.2001 17:50
Leon
whats the point
15.05.2001 19:25
peace.
terrorist
Replace this with something nice
15.05.2001 19:38
Bat
e-mail:
eviltwistedgenius@hotmail.com
Questions.
15.05.2001 19:56
Ever heard the Arab phrase?
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"
Peace & unity! Ya Basta!
Mr Peachy.
Who is Lindsey German?
15.05.2001 21:57
xpose
building the movement against capitalism
16.05.2001 09:56
To get rid of Capitalism and live in a world where people can live with dignity and control their lives, work and communities...
How do we get there?
By getting as many people involved in the struggles that are going on against Capitalism and spreading the word.
To do this requires building united fronts between different orgsanisations/political perspectives so that we can achieve the maximum amount of unity against the ruling class and their hired thugs. If Lindsey German stands on a platform as a member of the Socialist Alliance (which of course she is) rather than the SWP thats because the SWP wants to build the Socialist Alliance so that it becomes a REAL force in left wing politics in this country, within this the SWP will be a minority because not everyone agrees with revolutinary socialism, so we actually put building the movement above building our organisation, although we'll do that too.
Similarly with Globalise Resistance, of course the SWP has been central to getting it set up, but so what - if GR gets thousands of people out to Genoa to make that protest a success, if GR brings people from different backgrounds together to talk and argue about what we need to do then that can only be a good thing.
There seems to be a presumption particularly among some anarchists that they own the movement, which in itself contradicts their politics.
The time for sectarianism is OVER.
We face a system hell bent on destroying the world, if we don't start to talk to each other and work out ways to work together, then were fucked.
in solidarity,
noel
noel
e-mail:
noel@desiderium.org
GR and the Swerps
16.05.2001 10:48
Anyone reading the 'Socialist Worker' at the time of the Poll Tax dispute would have witnessed the complete disdain the SWP showered on the direct action, non-payment campaigns set up by local people in the community (ie non-members of the SWP) until such time that these campaigns proved successful and they quickly changed their tune.
As regards the SA, and their attempt to establish themselves as a REAL voice in British politics, I have absolutely no interest except to say that if they do get anyone elected, they will be corrupted and ultimately reformed by the system they naively hope to change via electoral means(like the trade unions and the Labour Party before them). Besides, who asked you to represent us in the first place? The point of anarchism is that we can manage things for ourselves -thanks anyway.
Finally, to answer the charge of sectarianism. Class struggle anarchists do not presume to 'own' the anti-globalisation movement. I myself will work with anyone genuinely interested in directly challenging capitalism, either through anti-WTO demos are in local campaigns. To get back to my particular problem with the SWP, last autumn I went to a carefully SWP stage-managed GR meeting in east London during which myself and other anarchists were prohibited a platform from which to speak. Talk about the kettle etc...
Leon
It might be worth going...
16.05.2001 11:38
Lemming
e-mail:
leming@grandtheftcyber.com
Unite for what ?
16.05.2001 12:03
Firstly, the direct-action movement is not just AGAINST capitalism. The reason why we resist capitalism is because we are FOR something else. Many groups in the movement, RTS, EF ! etc.. are mostly FOR social ecology / eco-anarchism, or something pretty similar. The SWP however, by definition and practice, are AGAINST what groups like RTS, EF ! etc.. are FOR. Subsequently making alliances with the SWP and its cronies would not be a rational way foward - at best such an alliance would only ever be cynical in addition to unworkable.
Secondly, the experiences of the SWP that many people in the 'direct-action movement' have had (myself included) have been totally negative. The response of the SWP to J18 is just one example. Add to this the actions of the SWP, Globalise Resistance etc.. since J18 - i.e. fairly transparent attempts to co-opt the success the movement has achieved without their help (and despite their frequent criticism and obstruction), and claim it for their own authoritarian hierarchical programme.
Nick
e-mail:
n.woolley@city.ac.uk
overcoming sectarianism
16.05.2001 12:26
The movement against capitalism is not owned by anarchists or RTS, yes J18 was important we were all there, Socialist Worker reported it and pointed out quite rightly that great as the demo was, if you want to challenge Capitalism you have to involve the working class- yes the SWP as an organisation missed it, but not as individuals -but Seattle was qualitively different the involvement of the labour movement aided the success of the demo, and this is beginning to happen more regularly (Quebec for instance). This is why nited fronts are important they allow people with different perspectives to work together on what the agree on to maximise there effect.
This is the key to success it is the working people of this planet who make Capital it is they who can smash it. This is why we need to unite workers with direct action activists, greens etc......the idea the the SWP as a revolutionary organisation has not supported and intiated direct action (whether its the poll tax or anything else) in the last 40 years is ridiculous!
Maybe someone in RTS who supports the Zapatistas can explain to me why, as they are are hierachical organisation, with commandates and sub-commandates?
Maybe someone can explain why Indymedia UK never post there meetings so that people can get involved?
Every group has a hierarchy whether declared or undeclared because there are always people who will put more effort in to action than others, the problem is not with having 'leaders' but with whether there is accountability, something I see very little of in anarchist organisations.
And Leon, I'm sorry you feel you had a bad experience with GR, but if you don't represent anyone why should you be given a platform?
Time to move on....
fraternally,
noel
noel
e-mail:
noel@desiderium.org
swp/gr...anti worker
16.05.2001 13:26
help!
ruskincollege oxford
16.05.2001 13:34
help!
new direction for anti-capitalism
16.05.2001 14:24
It's particularly exciting, for instance, to see the Labour Party involved in these meetings because it's a very big party and we shouldn't exclude it just because it's the government. In fact I agree with the SWP that the best way of fighting this government is to vote for it in marginal seats, but that'll be too subtle and clever for those anarchist, sectarian, stuck-in-the-mud types who probably didn't even go to university and no doubt mask up and attack property on actions, which is just so unnecessary and confrontational.
You see, there is another way. The SWP were brilliantly successful at it in the 80s and early 90s when they would build for meetings that would build for marches which would (get the picture?) always have a labour MP speaking. Then there was all that direct action stuff which was all very well meaning - but, well, not ideal for educating people by selling them papers, because they were too busy just doing things. Anyway, lets hope we can get back to the old ways now, because people were beginning to break the law and that is really going a bit far.
Apart from replacing actions with meetings and self-organisation with voting for the government, it's the unity thing that really attracts me to the SWP way of working. Globalise Resistance, which of course isn't an SWP front or anything, had a piece by George Monbiot in its first newsletter calling for just such unity, where all of us can agree to not attack each other and join globalise resistance. You know, the same George Monbiot who called Reclaim the Streets part of the problem and joined in the media/police attack on the mayday protest this year. Obviously unity can't involved everyone, and if it excludes rts and the like, well, its a price worth paying to build a proper working class movement that will continue to have bigger and bigger meetings at oxbridge colleges at which greater and greater amounts of papers will be sold.
Go for it!
whoever
e-mail:
whoever@wherever.com
OH NO ! HELP !
16.05.2001 15:01
Right, Ive heard and seen enough ! Now I know what it must have been like for all those Soviet dissidents. !
The Globalise Resistance meeting I went to in London waS APPALLING. A Scotsman was laughed at for his 'odd' accent. ( whereas a speaker from Italy, with an equally 'difficult' accent, was treated with good grace), a person who looked like a worker was threatened by SWP creeps and told to shut up when he tried to speak. The truth is, GR doesnt feel right. it is full of what Murray Bookchin called the PIOUS BRAHMINS [#], concieted little sons and daughters of the ruling elite (note the meeting they had in OXFORD for Gods sake!) who only see workers when they give the dustman a tip at Christmas... this is the new FABIAN SOCIETY.
[#] The Third Revolution, 1993.
The number of Christians in GR is no small matter, for they have alway represented a bourgeois defect in the movement. I always look for the Nietzschean, Antichristian principle in my politics, and it was nowhere to be found here.
HELP !
What's more...
16.05.2001 15:54
One question arises : if Globalise is reducing the aspect of free speech in their meetings , should Indy permit it to them here ?...
I say YES, for we thereby can watch them collapse on their own platform.
My emotions were running a little strange after that meeting I went to. I felt slightly sick from it, in fact. Going home, I took a red bus, for its a bit cheaper than the tube, and also on board were some young black workers, talking about their unrewarding, ill paid jobs and their unsymapthetic surroundings. I wanted to give them a Globalise leaflet, and say, here is an organization that will fight for you and will respect your contribution... but how could I ? For I knew that they would be unwelcome, that they would find not comrades in Globalise but rather the same kind of elitist managerial types who are making their lives unpleasant already.
HELP !
The last word.
16.05.2001 16:03
Seriously though, I think the SWP are a bunch of middle-class tossers who patronise anyone not in total agreement with themselves - but then I think that some anarchists are bunch of kids who've never been punched in the mouth before, and therefore think that if they're cool everyone else will be cool.
The point is that no one's perfect (although nobody's close to perfect!). Learn to give a little. If you don't like XXXX then don't go near them. Let them do their thing and you can do yours. If someone tries to hijack you, tell 'em to fuck off, but that's enough.
I hate socialists / I hate anarchists -
LISTEN TO THE CAPITALISTS LAUGHING IN THE WINGS!!!
Divide and conquer is their method. Unite and win should be ours.
:-) lighten up.
Miss Ing (the picture)
We need an "iron broom" of our own!
16.05.2001 16:51
Going back to unity, sectarianism, etc. Doesn't sectarian imply we're on the same side to begin with? Anarchists and trots are no "comrades" (though we may through necessity have to work with each other). Throughout history, anarchists have been repeatedly imprisoned and murdered by marxist leninists (this still happens with 3 Turkish anarchos killed by marxist leninists). Trotsky was proud to declare he"d swept the anarchists out of Russia with an "iron broom" (read murdered our comrades in their thousands). Swerps I've spoken too actually don't seem to have a problem with this and think Trotsky was right to do this. Well, it's about time we got our own iron broom, I reckon.
Re: recruiting. Actually, I don't have a problem with this. There's nothing wrong with recruiting to your group, organisation, etc. However, the trouble with the SWP and their ilk is that they are actually recruiting machines. The class struggle to them is actually irrelevent compared to building the party. For anarchists, the struggle takes priority and recruiting comes second.
Anyway, on another note, why do so many RTSers, alternative types support the zapatistas? Balaclava/AK47 chic, that's why. People wet themselves over these images and then suddenly seem to lose all their critical faculties.
By the way Leon and other anarchos, you might be interested in the Anarchist Federation' website (recruit! recruit!) at www.afed.org.uk
ANARCHIST COMMUNISM OR DEATH!
Afedista
Experience
17.05.2001 16:34
Needless to say, my talk didn't really go down very well because I was very critical of people like the SWP trying to hijack the movement. I was also critical of the SWP in Prague - wankers!
We had an anarchist book sale present, and sold a couple of books/mags to trots, though most trots didn't dare even look at our books : I guess they might be expelled from the party by their comrades (ha) if they're seen to be *thinking*.
Anyway, GR has potential, but its packed full of annoying SWP/Marxist types. IT IS A RECRUING GROUND for the SWP/SA - my housemate even fell for it!
They don't like anarchists, or else treat them like a joke. Having seen how they're running roughshod over Oxford Global Action (actually setting up a rival organisation and claiming that the PGA is sectarian) and how they even got one of my mates to set up a rival stall at our Universities freshers fair (trying to oppose our non-hierarchical group with a SWSS one - talk about taking the piss) I'm seriously pissed off with the entire bunch of them. I guess my time with OGA is kindof over, so I'll be spending more time at Uni, making sure that the SWP doesn't attempt any sneaky tricks trying to push their dogmatic, ranting nonsense on everyone. I can't believe people pay 6 quid a month to be members of the SWP - people should be paid 6 quid for putting up with them.
From experience: be wary, and keep your distance. These people ARE against what anarchism stands for, though we can stand side by side with them in demos. Experience shows that anarchism has potential, and with new ideas constantly being developed, anarchist/ecologist/some libertarian socialism will be the eventual product of our struggles. Most importantly, we want to smash the state, they simply want to create a new state.
Be wary, but be pragmatic.
Signing out! (phew)
ZeroZero
e-mail:
zerozero@pcworks.demon.co.uk
Homepage:
http://www.pcworks.demon.co.uk
stop it just stop it
30.05.2001 12:05
badger