A sideways look: Bob Crow
Submitted by svartfrosk on Apr 15 2014 23:22
A look at the recently deceased union leader, Bob Crow.
I was as shocked as many at the untimely death of Bob Crow at the age of 52 a few weeks ago. That is a very young age and will be a big loss to his family. Crow was very much a “character” who relished his role as RMT General Secretary and was happy to play up to media stereotypes.
The strange case of the Huddersfield Two
Submitted by Glimmer on Apr 13 2014 09:27
A belated report regarding the arrest and trial of two Huddersfield anarchists at a bedroom tax protest last year.
THE BATTLE FOR BARCLAYS & the HUDDERSFIELD 2 exonerated.
On a clear spring morning on the 6th of April 2013 sixty or so people gathered in Market Cross to poorest against the Bedroom Tax, the Tory governments latest attempt to pauperise further poor people on benefits.
AngryWorkersWorld - Spring/Summer Wanderings 2014
Submitted by AngryWorkersWorld on Apr 7 2014 19:47
Short introduction to our spring/summer wandering around the UK - Hope to see somewhere...
AngryWorkersWorld - Wandering Spring/Summer 2014
Dear Friends and Comrades,
We've got itchy feet and we'd like to spend a weekend in your town/city sometime this spring/summer!
The idea would be to link up with other like-minded groups and individuals so that we can:
English language discussion bulletin - DAM, WSA and ASF
Partial online archive of issues of a bulletin produced by the UK, US and Australian sections of the anarcho-syndicalist International Workers Association, the Direct Action Movement, Workers Solidarity Alliance and Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation respectively, from 1988.
English language discussion bulletin #01
The english language discussion bulletin of the IWA for the year 1988. Courtesy of the WSA archives.
Leadership and the myth of apathy
Submitted by Phil on Apr 4 2014 20:42
Why aren't we rising up? Whether the 'we' in question is young people, the British people, or the poor, this is a question asked an awful lot by both mainstream and leftist commentators. Austerity, job cuts, pay freezes, workfare, poverty, food banks, police brutality, political corruption - it's all the rage, so why aren't we all enraged?
There are two standard answers on the left: apathy and the lack of leadership. Either people are too engrossed in their own little world of X Factor, I'm a Celebrity and 'I'm alright Jack,' or they just don't have the right hero to lead them into battle. The left wing rabble rousers of the past are dead and gone and we need people to replace them and rally the workers.
The NHS pay freeze and the end of Agenda for Change
Submitted by mcm_cmc on Mar 31 2014 19:51
This article looks at these changes and the ways in which successive years of 0% or 1% pay rises in the NHS have undermined the national Agenda for Change pay structure, paving the way for localised and potentially privatised pay agreements.
The recent announcement by the government of a pay freeze pay for NHS workers in England and Wales earning below the top of their pay band was the latest attempt to ‘get tough’ on public sector workers.
Nothing in common: unions as bosses
Submitted by Phil on Mar 31 2014 18:25
Some cursory thoughts on the contradictions created by trade unions, as the collective voice of organised workers, also being employers.
On the 26 March, when the National Union of Teachers was taking strike action, members of the GMB were also out on strike. The reason that this action received less attention, particularly from trade union sources, is that it represented a rather unusual situation.
How do you award radicalism? A sympathetic critique of the Bread and Roses award - Luigi Russi
The traditional format followed by the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Writing is problematic in its tolerance for hierarchies, of pedigree and knowledge, especially given its progressive aspiration to showcase radical political non-fiction. Perhaps, it's time for a radical rethink of this new book award.
One way of being a radical is to stay awake to the contradictions of the everyday, as you live through them. And let those speak in a way that makes them apparent and open for scrutiny and conscious decision-making.
Industrial Worker newspaper
Partial archive of articles from the newspaper of the revolutionary union, the Industrial Workers of the World.
Originally the voice of the IWW in the Pacific Northwest during the 1910s and 1920s, the Industrial Worker eventually became the main official publication of the union, which it continues to be today.
[i]For paper subscription info, please visit iww.org
Can comment on articles and discussions