Has PCS been outflanked to the left by a bosses’ union?
Submitted by Phil on Oct 21 2013 17:20
A look at two of many attacks faced by workers in HM Revenue & Customs. The contrasting responses from clerical grade union PCS and senior grade union ARC are worth noting, but not for the reason you might guess.
Listing all of the ongoing issues and disputes within HMRC at present would be an essay in itself. Suffice to say, there are a lot. In this post I want to talk about two in particular; the imposition of detrimental new terms and conditions for staff and the quotas in the new performance management system which are aimed at making it easier to sack the “bottom 10%” of staff from the job.
Shotgun organizing - John O'Reilly & Juan Conatz
John O'Reilly and Juan Conatz talk about 'shotgun organizing' which they define as an individualized way of thinking every problem needs to be solved in the most intense and forceful fashion possible, regardless of whether or not it can be handled differently or of the effects on a workplace organizing committee.
About a year or so ago, one of us was having a one-on-one conversation with a member of the union involved in a campaign that was not public at the time.
On the question of reforms
Discussing the question of support for reforms against opposition to reformism.
Quote:
I have no idea what's awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing. Later on, perhaps, they'll think things over; and so shall I. But what's wanted now is to make them well. I defend them as best I can, that's all.
Rieux, from Camus' "The Plague".
Not one nor two: political organization, syndicalism, and thought
Submitted by s.nappalos on Sep 10 2013 16:09
A piece exploring an experience organizing with transportation workers and the connections between political ideas, action, tactics, and radical potentials. Militant forms of reformism is explored along the way.
“We would like to thank these activists and the lawyer who won this fight for us. Before we met them we fought for 15 or more years with nothing. We were powerless, but thank god we have people to help us now do what we couldn’t do on our own”.[1]
On spontaneity and organisation - Murray Bookchin
A lecture given by Bookchin at a conference in November 1971.
It was published in Liberation (New York) (March, 1972) and Anarchos (No. 4 1973). Solidarity (London) reprinted it as a pamphlet in December 1975. (Solidarity pamphlet 49).
Introduction (Solidarity London)
Revolutionary organisation - Maurice Brinton
'Revolutionary Organisation' was published by Solidarity (Clydeside) in July 1969. (Clydeside pamphlet No. 2). It reprinted three articles published in early issues of the London Solidarity group journal. Although unsigned the articles were by Maurice Brinton.
For the Clydeside pamphlet the articles were retyped. As a result there are some very minor differences between the two versions. The only corrections made to this version are a couple of places where words had been omitted in error.
INTRODUCTION
Rules of engagement - Antifa
Tactics and organisational rules adopted by the militant London Antifa group which had a number of successes against the far-right through the mid-noughties.
Our tactics and our organisational rules are the product of long experience. We believe that to be an effective direct action force some basic ground rules need to be laid down – and adhered to.
Toward the human community - La Guerre Sociale
A 1982 article first published in the journal La Guerre Sociale on the prospects for a communist movement, with discussions of politics, opportunism, bureaucracy, organizational fetishism, economic determinism, ideology, the adaptability of capitalism, and the limitations of the concept of self-management.
Toward the Human Community – La Guerre Sociale
I
Social revolution and revolutionary organisation: The FORAist alternative - Vadim Grayevski
Machine translation of a short article by Vadim Grayevski of KRAS-IWA, on the FORAist method of revolutionary organizing.
The organization isn`t an objective in itself but only a means for achievement of setting objective- An old anarchist truism
Against friendship – Part I
A short piece from Aragorn! of Little Black Cart and assorted other fame, about the development of an indistinction between the friendship and comrade form in North America.
Herein we will begin to argue against the revolutionary importance of friendship. Will not argue that friendship isn’t a fine and wonderful thing for daily life, for the eating of brunch, or the consumption of beverages. This is all well and good, do what one will, live your life.
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