Thanks for your post. I've added an ICAL to your TACT to make it TACTICAL because I think we need to Include Communities And Labourers instead of, as you say, having just a few hundred core activists.

It's just not true that the trade unions are not part of the anticapitalist movement. The brilliant strikes in South Korea, Argentina, Peru, France and the brilliant community uprisings in Bolivia against privatisation of H2O are part of the fantastic MASS resistance to globalising capitalism. And, I disagree entirely that the anticapitalist movement has peaked. Genoa showed it is growing! If you include all those taking solidarity action across the globe as well some have said that 1.5million demonstrated against the G8!

As for the UK unions, yes they're bloody-minded elephants hard to get moving. But the point is they are moving (yes at snail's pace for now). Last year 80,000 marched in Birmingham against the Rover sell-offs, the resistance and solidarity in support of the Liverpool Dockers, Hillingdon and Dudley Hospital workers. But the best news is that several of the big gun unions have or are in the process of pulling out of automatically funding the fucking Labour Party. At last they have broken the historical link realising that the Labour Party is a business party.

It's going to take rooted and consistent activism in union branches - bringing members along to direct actions and news of direct actions back to members in reportbacks to forge the UK Teamster-Turtle alliance. So in short I want to say dont ignore the unions, revolutionise them. Anarchists don't preach against socialists and socialists don't preach against anarchists. But anticapitalistas get to work!!!!!!!

Sincerely

Michael Taylor
Bristol

I presume this is from the SWP - it has that slightly patronising youth worker tone saying 'These people haven't realised yet that you need to join the SWP and a union to achieve anything at all, but lets pretend to be friends with them for a while so we can explain to them how we're right and they're all wrong'.

I didn't notice any mention in the first excellent, thoughtful and timely posting of unions in the south not being anti-capitalist. What was being stated was that in Britain the trade union movement does not at this time play any sort of anti-capitalist role. The Liverpool dockers came to us for help and solidarity precisely because they were not getting it from the trade union movement - and didn't the Hillingdon workers occupy their own union's offices at protest at the complete lack of support from the union for their actions? The British trade union movement is dominated by middle class managers and professionals (half the membership) and excludes the worst off workers in Britain (4% of workers under 20 are in a union). Until you break out of your unions=workers=anti-capitalist (they just need our party to wake them up to their real interests) dogma and look at the real, mixed up battles taking place you're not going to have much to contribute and you're going to be very, very boring.

Maybe this isn't from the SWP, though - they vote for "the fucking Labour Party" (without announcing it much in 'anti-capitalist' circles). Maybe someone can explain.

I like your program though it sounds like a theraphy session-would be good for moles not the revolutionary activists.