Joseph Kay
Articles by Joseph Kay, an unemployed recession victim and future bearded weirdo. Also a member of the libcom collective and the Solidarity Federation.
Pragmatism as ideology
Whenever I get into a political discussion these days I find myself accused of ‘dogma’, ‘ideological blinkers’, ‘detached ultra-left purism’ and so on. Now maybe that’s true.
But the accompanying charge is usually one of ‘doing nothing’ and thus not subjecting my ‘sterile’ ideas to the test of practice.
Bailouts, co-operatives or class struggle - a debate
A debate between Iain McKaye and the libcom group about an adequate workers' response to the credit crunch - should we advocate nationalisation, co-op's, or struggle?
The initial two articles were published simultaneously in Freedom newspaper, the latter responses were published online.
Anti-militarism: an anarcho-syndicalist perspective
A discussion document from the Brighton Class Struggle Forum 18/08/09.
A participatory society or libertarian communism?
A debate over 'anti-capitalist vision' between the Project for a Participatory Society, proponents of Parecon, and the libcom.org group.
The debate is also available as a pdf and a print-ready pdf pamphlet.
Beyond good and evil: the Gaza massacre
The left's response to Israeli atrocities in Gaza provides a case study in ressentiment. If we want to stop such slaughters rather than participate in the spectacle of them, we need to stop fetishising distant victims and start trying to exercise power over our own lives so that meaningful solidarity becomes possible.
A tentative peace reigns in Gaza, if you can call a devastated open prison, surrounded by one of the most powerful militaries in the world, where "Hamas fighters stride confidently down the road with rifles slung across their shoulders" as at peace.
Reproduction; social and sexual
This blog is partially the product of ongoing discussions within the Solidarity Federation over the relationship of 'Anarchy, Sex and Freedom,' but also the reliance among the wider left on dated theories from the 1960s whenever the question of sexuality is raised. The following is a speculative attempt to fill in some of the gaps.
Anti-semitism and the left - redux
This has been a hot topic on the forums of late, prompted in part by the spate of discussions in relation to Israel's assault on the Gaza strip. Here I'll try to pull together some of the arguments and provide a bit of background to try and understand the phenomenon.
Discussion of anti-semitism and the left is frought with difficulty, not least because of the efforts of right-wing groups like the Anti-Defamation League to paint all criticism of Israel as anti-semitic, and thus silence dissent.
A brief history of the crisis
A concise background to the current financial crisis and recession.
However it may seem, the current crisis didn’t come out of nowhere. Following WWII, the government and employers were keen to appease a population weary from years of war and rationing.
What recession means for us
An analysis of the likely impact of the coming recession on workers' lives and a rallying call for collective action to mitigate that impact.
The recession is here. We're told to tighten our belts and brace ourselves for redundancies, wage and service cuts. Politicians and business leaders are united in saying we should pay for a crisis not of our making [see box for a brief history of the crisis]. A recession is simply when the economy shrinks for 6 months in a row.
The politics of affirmation... or the politics of negation?
What is it that defines communist politics from the politics of the rest of the left? This blog argues that communist politics are a politics of negation; a movement to abolish the present state of things.
Political debate often tends to quickly polarise into simple binaries. This is perhaps even more so online. Mainstream politics has its liberals/conservatives and left/right; radical politics has its anarchist/Marxist and reform/revolution.
