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Anti-Capitalism at the crossroads

AWIP | 06.09.2002 07:52


anti-cap in britain has divided into 3 groups,
1)People who want build a respectable mass movment relying on support from the labour movment
2) Those who reject this kind of policy as selling out the creativity and direct nature of anti-capitalism and wont work with anyone they suspect of this or anything else they don't like.
3) the rest of us

groups 1 and 2 seem to be quite happy to have divided everything up between them, one building a media friendly mass movement close to unions and socialist parties and the other continuing with interesting autonomous actions and pockets of resistance.
But what about the rest of us?.
the real battle should be between the politicans / fat cats who think everything is going pretty well in the world and those of us who know that it isn't. If given the chance most people in Britain would say that things are not going well - for them or for the world, but still things continue to get worse.
I know what kind of world i want to see, and i know that others also do, but i don't really care at the moment - top priority is to build a consensus that this can't go on, that's why the social forum slogan ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE is so powerful - let's put aside our differences for now and break down the disasterous belief that there is no alternative. Get involved in the AWIP campaign - all it asks it that you say that you believe that ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE. when this is the dominant consensus it will be time to get down to the details.




send an email to  awip@a16.org.uk to engage in further discussions

AWIP
- e-mail: awip@a16.org.uk

Comments

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this slogan is meaningless

06.09.2002 15:22

First came "Globalise Resistance", a phrase which was plagiarised from another smallish group, then this. "Another World Is Possible" is meaningless ! In fact, i put it to you that a better, if flawed world was already there until it collapsed in 1989-91. What ? The old Soviet bloc was better ? Indeed so, and the malaise spreading across eastern Europe through Russia and central Asia rather proves it.
Never mind. If this new initiative suggets a split with the old SWP dominated GR, it cant be so bad, but I really would want a better descrpition of what this possible world entails (besides platitudes) and also how its to be achieved.

Tory B. Liar


Another Kind of Global Resistance is Possible

07.09.2002 13:38

I think that your analysis of the situation is very perceptive. My experience of the first type of group like Global Resistance and the Trade Justice Movement is that they attracted large numbers of people who want to get involved in resisting Globalisation. Unfortunately these numbers quickly dwindled. I don’t know the reason why other people were put of but I felt that the organisers of these groups were using peoples desire for change to further their own party or organisational agendas. I think that this was a missed opportunity to empower people to explore divers ways of resisting Globalisation and neo-liberalism.
I was initially exited by the ideas of the Global Social Forum in creating a space to explore alternatives to Globalisation. However in practice it appears that this endeavour is in danger of being co-opted by the vested interests of the bureaucrats with in NGO’s, political parties and trade unions.
I’ve also found that the second more anarchic groups you mention have difficulty in engaging wider participation in this struggle.
This brings me to the third group you mention the rest of us. How can we engage in this struggle against Globalisation? We could retreat into individualistic lifestyle politics and try and live a virtues life appalled by the wickedness of the world. We could try to democratise and open up the agendas of Globalise Resistance, World Social Forum, Trade Justice Movement and the like. Or we could retreat in to cynical smearing and nay saying.
I feel that an alternative to these unpalatable options is to remain engaged in the struggle at what ever level we feel able, to be open to different approaches and above all to try and engage other in resistance to Globalisation and neo-liberalism. I don’t think there is any one solution to this problem there are many forms of resistance some will be successful others will be a complete disaster the only thing that is certain is that if we don’t engage then Globalisation will continue to destroy the lives of billions of people including toughs closest to us.

Tim