The recent protests at st Pauls have been both inspiring and desultory. They are inspiring because people have got involved, but desultory because they have no real understanding of class politics and the nature of the state. I therefore recommend to activists involved with the campaigns to educate themselves. The biggest left wing party, the SWP, has been slow to get involved in these movements, and many of the activists are suspicious of the SWP and its clunky style, its bad leadership and its tendency to act parasitically. There is an alternative however, in Counterfire, an exiting new project that can provide the theory and direction the movement so badly lacks. I urge all serious activists to check out the counterfire website, and particularly the important and groundbreaking work by John Rees on 'strategy and tactics, how the left can organise to transform society.' Without ideas like these, i dont see how the left can win.

 http://www.counterfire.org/

 http://www.counterfire.org/index.php/theory/37-theory/6092-strategy-and-tactics-how-the-left-can-organise-to-transform-society