class struggle
Articles about mass working class struggles and the theory of class struggle.
Working-class activity and councils - Germany 1918‑1923 - Peter Rachleff
A survey of the main events and the limits of working class activity during the Revolution.
"[i]Without being conscious of it, the working class had conquered power in November of 1918. It had gone in its actions far beyond its explicit demands ‑‑ and far beyond the consciousness it had of its own activity and desires.
The Explosion Point of Ideology in China - Situationist International
The Situationists analyse the Chinese Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. The Maoist regime was confronted with both faction fighting within its ruling bureaucracy and with a massive wave of class struggle challenging its power. Written with an unfulfilled optimism typical of its times.
The international association of totalitarian bureaucracies has completely fallen apart.
Class conflicts in the transformation of China
Aufheben's excellent account of the development and transformation of China and the Chinese working class from the time of Mao until today.
In PDF format. Plaintext version coming soon.
For workers' control! - Lessons of recent struggles in the UK
A leaflet compiled by members of the Solidarity Federation to share with workers in struggle - making the case for workers' self-organisation with practical examples from recent disputes. Download a print-ready pdf here.
Recent years have seen promising signs of a working class fightback, after decades of attacks on working class living standards.
The backward workers - Noel Ignatiev
This article by Noel Ignatiev appeared in the US magazine Urgent Tasks #11, Spring 1981 and looks at how the left have viewed the working class as a passive and backward force.
In a medium-sized metalworking plant in the Midwest, it is time for the annual election of union stewards. In one department, the man who has been the steward for many terms and who now faces for the first time in recent memory an opposition candidate not selected by himself campaigns by telling the workers he represents, "Listen, you know we've got things pretty good over here.
Archaic and bearer of communism: the class struggle in Ulster - J. Yves Bériou
Analysis of the national liberation movement in 1970s Northern Ireland, its relation to capitalist restructuring, and the possibilities this allows for class struggle.
The recent events in Northern Ireland simply demonstrate by themselves to what extent all lies stand together. The avatars of rotting modern thought flaunt themselves quite openly in the eyes of "public opinion". The barbarism of the British army of occupation is denounced for the benefit of the barbarism of the IRA and its terror inflicted on the backs of the proletariat.
20 years ago… In China democracy disarmed and slaughtered the proletariat!
Draft translation from our central review in French “Communisme” N°30, January 1990.
1. Introduction
Ten years since the establishment of the State of Kazakhstan
A look at how capitalist restructuring has effected class struggle in Kazakhstan, following the collapse of the USSR.
“My children, soon I will have to join Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. When I’m with them you’ll have to carry on my struggle.” (Ho Chi Minh to young partisans on death)
The defeat of the old workers movement and the failure of the revolutionary minorities - Antagonism
A look at the level of defeat in the proletariat of mid-90s Britain.
This article was written in Britain in the early 90's, in the wake of the Gulf War (which the proletariat in Britain was largely apathetic to and which the radical minorities were unable to oppose) and at which point workplace struggles had reached an all time low.
Class analysis for anti-capitalist struggle - Antagonism
Article on the use and necessity of class analysis in the struggle for human community.
This article is an attempt at communication with individuals and groups involved in subversive activity. The background of all present radical struggles is an attack on the social relation of capital, whether or not this is realised by the participants.
