theory

Video: Introduction to Platformism

Mick — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 11:10:43 -0800

This is a three part video presentation on platformism by the Revolutionary Students Union, a non-tendency, anti-capitalist student club at Utah Valley University.

It's a good summery and presentation on The Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists which was authored by a group of exiled Ukrainian and Russian revolutionary anarchist in 1926 based on their experiences in the Russian revolution and subsequent civil war. This is one of the key documents of the platformist tradition in anarchist-communism that Common Cause identifies with. Well worth a watch for people interested in platformism and Common Cause's revolutionary tradition.

Hilarious Lecture On Marx The Man.

timmybauld — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:45:21 -0800

Mark Steel is a British comedian with some links, I believe, to the SWP. Some time ago he was behind a TV show where every week on the BBC he'd swan through the life and ideas of various classical philosophers and historical individuals. His lecture on Marx is devastatingly funny, presenting a man who as a student "misses his lectures, hates god and gets pissed." In rescuing him from right wing detractors, Steel churns out some hilarity too.

Karl Marx - The Mark Steel Lecture.

Ottawa's anarchist bookshop a spot for 'fringe' thinkers to gather

timmybauld — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:32:17 -0800

You won't get any Starbucks coffee at Exile Info- shop, Ottawa's first anarchist bookstore. And don't try to pay with your capitalist credit cards, either.

Chapters, this is not.

The new Ottawa bookstore opened this week to "provide access to alternative media and resources."

Read on..

Irish WSM Published Red and Black Revolution 13

timmybauld — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 22:16:51 -0700

The Irish based Workers' Solidarity Movement has just published the 13 edition of their theoretical journal Red and Black Revolution.

Common Cause comrades might be able to pass on copies to those interested.

The first article to be published online is on Prospects for the left in Turkey

Quote:

Turkey has been under the spotlight this year, due to the threats of the Army against the possibility of an Islamist party taking the presidency. This move came to pose a number of questions to the European establishment, as Turkey has been negotiating its entry to the EU. The apparently uneasy two alternatives of government in Turkey are political Islam or the old fashioned authoritarian Kemalist secularism, which has the army as its vigilante sector of the ruling block.

Read on..

New Book: The Abolition of the State: Anarchist & Marxist Perspectives

timmybauld — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:19:17 -0700

Interesting to see that Wayne Price of NEFAC NYC has a new Book coming out called The Abolition of the State: Anarchist & Marxist Perspectives.

Many might be familiar with Wayne's writings from his monthly columns at Anarkismo and according to promotional material floating around the net his new book covers

Victories in the New Economy For the New Labour Movement

timmybauld — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:22:31 -0700

Via Libcom I came across this article from the San Francisco Chronicle on an organisation called Young Workers United, and its founder called Flocks - as the title suggest the group enters terrains of employment where traditional unions have had little luck, concious of shifting patterns in employment the organisation aims to develop a working methodology suited to the conditions its members find themselves in. For them this strategy is the workers centre,something I'd always assumed was had more of an expression among migrant communities.. Damn nice website they have too.

[i]Changes in the economy, decline of union representation and turmoil within organized labor have allowed new groups with radical organizing strategies to develop and take the place of traditional labor organizing in some areas.

Some more interesting material recently on the Mute Site

timmybauld — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 13:36:19 -0700

Mute which I drew attention to on this blog before also tends to publish some quality articles that don't make it into the print version, here are some recent ones..

In the Bowels of the Fun Palace
By Mark Crinson

Architect Cedric Price's designs were seldom realised but his vision
inspired 'fun palaces' from the Beaubourg to the Millenium Dome. Mark
Crinson looks at two recent publications which deal in different ways
with Price and his legacy

French Banlieues and Urban Guerrillas
By Yves Coleman

Mute recently published Italian sociologist Emilio Quadrelli’s long
text
on the 2005 riots in the French banlieues, ‘Grassroots Political
Militants: Banlieusards and Politics’. Here, Parisian activist Yves
Coleman responds to the claims and arguments made by Quadrelli and the

an “I owe you” left off the table

Rev — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 07:36:45 -0700

this is something I am trying to beef up, any suggestions?
I want it to be as little theory as possible, keep basic.

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an “I owe you” left off the table

Money

There are very few people really asking for what they deserve in this land. You have many cases of people demanding way more than they deserve, usually this is your boss, your manager or your foreman; generally it is the people who tell you what to do without asking you what you think. These are the people that already have more than you; they think they are entitled to even more. It is the way professional hockey players and owners act as if one million isn't enough.

Chew on the Credit: New MUTE Out

timmybauld — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:26:23 -0700

Mute has been a journal I've being getting my jollies from since I came across it over two years ago. Always accessible, both meaning it always wings its way into my path and just weighty enough to remain readable - its become something of a critical ground for teasing out various themes around developments in capitalism, from multiculturalism, through precarious labour, web 2.0 production and environmental disaster. The new issue on the credit crunch is out now for reading online, though its nice to have it arrive in your letter box unexpected. Dubstep fans might also be interested in the fact that Kode9 occasionally writes for it.

Response to Lamb's letter (New Socialist Magazine)

Rev — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:19:02 -0700

For those of you that read new socialist, you might have read Sebastian Lamb's letter and the article by Simmons that came before it, this is a response I sent them by email.
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Salut NSG,

I'm kinda disappointed in Sebastien Lambs letter to a magazine he himself
is part of the editing group for. Its really disrespectful way to do
things, especially since Day has contributed beforehand to NSG. I think
when speaking with people whom we should be comrades with it is important
to try and stay respectful. I found the last line to itself be
"regurgitation of reactionary mysticism"; however this type was of the
positivist-communist variety.

I also find it regrettable that their was such a misinterpretation of
Foucault. Both Day and Foucault are activist/intellectuals who work for or
did work of social change. What in the hell would be the point if you
thought it was doomed to failure?