libcom.org
Articles by the group which runs libcom.org, and its members. Check out the website, yeah? It's well fuckin' futile.
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.
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.
Oh sit down! Accounts of sit down strikes and workplace occupations
A pamphlet produced to distribute to workers involved in occupations, with accounts and analysis of other occupations and sitdown strikes by workers around the world.
2nd Edition including squatters rights and analysis of the Visteon dispute uploaded July 2009, with a print-ready PDF and editable Word document.
Class struggle and hip-hop: interview with Comrade Malone, 2009
Hip-hop has seen artists with social and political awareness. Rarely, however, has there been hip-hop fused with unashamedly class struggle, libertarian politics. 22-year-old Comrade Malone attempts to buck that trend with his album The Spontaneous Revolt LP.
Ed Goddard from libcom.org caught up with him to talk about life and politics in music.
Tell us a bit about your life growing up and how you got into politics.
Tea Break 3 - oil refinery strikes, February 2009
A PDF of the February 2009 issue of the irregular workers' bulletin Tea Break, written and designed by users of libcom.org, for general distribution. The freesheet focuses on wildcat strikes at refineries across the country, addressing issues raised by the conflict.
Cost of living pay increase struggles interview, 2008
An interview between Freedom newspaper and Steven Johns, libcom editor, local government worker and UNISON convenor analysing the UK pay disputes of 2008.
This year's big public sector pay disputes seemed to be gearing up for a fight, then fizzled out. What happened?
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.
Pay: what went wrong in 2007?
Libcom's analysis of what went wrong with the industrial disputes over the rising cost of living in 2007, and how to do things better in 2008.
A 'Summer of Discontent', Gordon Brown preaching pay restraint, union leaders talking about 'co-ordinated strike action', sound familiar? It should, because exactly the same things were being said last year.
Inflation: rising prices and the 2% pay ceiling
An analysis of the use of inflation to attack workers' conditions.
If the government were to announce that it was cutting the wages of all workers - public and private sector - there would presumably be uproar. And yet this is exactly what they have done by calling for ‘pay restraint’ and insisting all wage rises are capped at 2%. Make no mistake, a sub-inflation pay ‘rise’ is a pay cut. No amount of statistical trickery changes this simple fact.
