Anarchist Federation statement on June 30th

Anarchist Federation | 13.06.2011 15:09 | J30 Strike | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements

Anarchist Federation on the upcoming strikes and actions on June 30th

AF Statement on June 30th

ANARCHIST FEDERATION STATEMENT ON THE JUNE 30TH STRIKES
Nearly a million workers will be striking and demonstrating on June 30th- workers in education, the civil service and the London underground. This is a further sign of widespread anger within the working class at the package of austerity measures unleashed by the government. We have already had the student demonstration which ended with the Millbank occupation, the huge turnout on March 26th as well as many local actions including strikes, blockades, marches.
These austerity measures are hitting us , the working class, through cuts in the NHS, fast rising unemployment rates, rounds of redundancies, whether so-called “voluntary” or compulsory, wage freezes, cuts in disability benefits, and cuts in local services as well as an attack on pensions, which is a major reason for the June 30th actions. People will have to pay more for their pensions, will have to work longer , and at the end, get a smaller pension .
It seems exciting that so many workers are coming out at the same time. However, union leaders will not go far enough, and will seek to channel our anger and dissent into weak and tokenistic forms of protest. Those of us in the striking unions have been balloted for discontinuous action - giving us the option to stage multiple strikes. We need to make sure this happens, and that these strikes are as far reaching and militant as possible including further strike action in October. But not all public sector workers are striking, and the private sector is out of the equation.
This should not be an occasion to let this go by passively. The day of action can be made more effective by
• Strengthening the strike pickets as much as possible. Everyone should support these by going to their nearest picket. This means not just workers in that sector but everyone who is affected by the cuts- other workers, school students, FE and HE students, pensioners, the unemployed
• Refusing to cross picket lines
• Joining the strike even if you are not a paid up member of a union
• Organising meetings in the workplaces in the run up to June 30th to get maximum support for the strike
• School students and further education students ( where they are still at school because many terms will be ending) should turn out to support teachers and lecturers and organise their own actions
• Most university students will have finished their academic year. However, where possible they should support the strike pickets and demonstrations where they can
• The widest possible solidarity has to be reached between teaching staff and support staff. In all sectors, whether education, the civil service or transport the greatest involvement of those not “officially “ on strike
• Encourage those who feel they cannot take part in supporting the strike including workers in other sectors to phone in sick on the day
• On June 30th delegations from picket lines to visit other workplaces to encourage solidarity action. The organisation of local marches and assemblies where possible
June 30th has the potential to be a huge display of anger at the cuts that are being imposed. The more successful, the more who turn out to strike and to support, the greater the encouragement to carry on ongoing actions that don’t just involve one token day.
We have no faith in the trade union leaders to successfully “lead” the fight against these austerity measures. Neither should we place trust in the Labour Party. They were the ones who started many of the measures that this government has carried on. Where Labour runs local councils it implements the cuts packages . Labour tells us that cuts are necessary, it’s just that they will do it in a “kinder “ way. How many Labour MPs have you heard justifying austerity measures?
No, we have to rely on ourselves, on our own organisation. We can carry on the fight through mass assemblies where everyone can put over their view, where any delegates are mandated and subject to recall. We can win this fight against these austerity measures. All over the world we have the example of ordinary working people suddenly discovering their own self confidence and their own ability to organise and to resist , no matter what the odds.
WE CAN WIN!

Anarchist Federation
e-mail: info@afed.org.uk
Homepage: www.afed.org.uk

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13.06.2011 16:55

Successful protests

14.06.2011 00:12

Public opposition has seriously limited the Coalition's ability to push through their outrageous NHS reforms, and, while that fight isn't over yet, there have been so many U-turns on government policy in the last 6 months it's getting hard to keep up, so the signs are very promising. Successfully wrecking Andrew Lansley's plans was a BIG success and we need to use that success to convince more people that protest works.

Public opposition forced the government to abandon plans to increase tuition fees and to cut the EMA in Scotland and Wales, protest forced the govt to drop plans to privatise forests, forced the partial reinstatement of the EMA in England, forced the NHS listening exercise, and forced big concessions from the Coalition over NHS reform and privatisation etc. I'm not saying these compromises are anywhere near enough, but we need to use these successes to help pro-actively engage the public with messages that show how protest is working.

I'd also recommend activists soft-pedal on overtly ideological statements, as there's a real risk of throwing the baby out with the bath-water. Radical movements stand to make huge political capital out of successful anti-cuts protests IF those protests succeed, but radical movements will be marginalised for generations if those protests fail, so we need to approach campaigning from a realistic and pragmatic point-of-view, we need to strategise carefully and not frighten people off with overly confrontational radical symbolism.

As a case in point the theoretical basis of most anarchist ideas is not disruptive protest per-se but co-operation and mutual aid, which are not ideas the general public immediately associate with anarchism. However the on-going debate about the importance of co-operation and collaborative practices in public healthcare is in that sense effectively anarchist propaganda that's writing itself, and this kind of PR is all the more effective for NOT being seen to emanate from radical political scenes. It's also important to stress that the class war is being waged by the government and the rich against the people, because, if nothing else, the current state of the group called Class War shows what pitiful results ultimately came from their approach to trying to engage working class people.

Bench Press

anarchists v socialists

14.06.2011 10:52

I find it intriguing that as the state cuts back services anarchists (who don't believe in a state) get alarmed. I thought anarchists wanted a society where everyone stood on their own two feet (survival of the fittest dreadlock type of affair!).
How does the organisation around 'mass assemblies' differ from how local council are organised -how is this really any different to a state -which I think is a good idea -if organised for the benefit of people. A state can plan the economy, work out how many schools and hospitals are needed for the good of the country.
Anarchists have a good analyse of capitalism but really poor analysis of how power works. How on earth do anarchist propose to defend revolutionary process from war mongers and right wing media. Their naive belief that 'absolute power corrutps absolutly' is misguided. We need some kind of a state system to provide for the mentally ill, to plan ahead for the economy etc etc. The anarchist solution that 'we' can always look after ourselves is idealistic. When I am depressed, can't work and unable to get out of bed -anarchists are nowhere to be seen. What I mean is we need a fail safe in the system -which for want of a better word I would call The State. Socialists and communists have a much more realistic answer to the problems of capital and such groups would be better place to defend revolutionary processes.

Anarchists are actually harming the chance for revolutionary change.

ummm

I think

14.06.2011 12:16

That your simplifying anarchism as a political philosophy quite alot and actually misunderstanding what is it anarchists want. I mean to even talk about 'anarchism' is too vague really there is a whole spectrum of ideas and philosophies that are considered under the banner 'anarchism' that range from what you seem to be describing, an entirely individualist stand on your own too feet approach, a kind of Libertarian anarchism that is concerned primarily with personal liberty as a principle. Then there are a the left wing anarchist ideologies that want a more communally based bottom up structured society based around voluntary association rather than state coercion. I for do think absolute power corrupts absolutely, prior to the rise of the Soviet Union and it's subsequent descent into a bureaucratic nightmare state, anarchist thinkers were discussing the fact that the type of social revolution that occurred in Russia would only go that way. Most anarchists don't want no social structures that could be called government, most clearly oppose states as nationalistic and damaging entities, but many come from a left wing socialist consideration that has evolved into an anarchistic perspective given what they see as the states in ability to manage the emancipation of the working classes and the liberation of people from repression and coercion, and from the corruption of power. Either way there are principles and there is pragmatism, just because anarchists would eventually want to remove the state doesn't mean that they can't support a more left wing form of the state on the way, in fact I think it's essential to have a variety of voices on the left showing solidarity with each other but having different demands, the homogenising of the revolution was a past time of the totalitarian communists and should be avoided at all costs, we have to stand together against, solidarity first.