terrorism

Charge of the New Red Brigade - The Independent on Red Action

Submitted by libcom on Jan 15 2006 02:20

Article from The Independent on Sunday about socialist group Red Action, anti-fascism, the IRA and the bombings of Harrods and a Network Southeast train in 1993.

By Matt Seaton, The Independent on Sunday, January 1995

By global standards, 20th Century Britain has been remarkably free from political violence. Red Action hope to change all that. Angry, ruthless and close to the IRA, they preach socialism through terror.

'Terrorism': bad language?

Submitted by libcom on Dec 19 2005 11:08

Mairtin O'Cathain reflects on uncritical use of the word terrorist by many on the left, including anarchists and libertarian communists (and Organise! for that matter) and examines the meaning of the words Terror and Terrorism.

From a term applied to the exercise of violence by the state to one that is used to identify the enemies of the state these are now among the most politically loaded words in the English language.

On September 11 and "Against the Double Tragedy"

Submitted by redtwister on Nov 27 2005 18:51

Chris Wright on the September 11 attacks and the statement "Against the Double Tragedy" put out by News and Letters.

[Note: Looking back over this, I regret only one phrase, which I think is survivable as this was written immediately after the establishment of the suicide bombers as members of al-Qaeda. Even so the phrasing is poor. Chris Wright, November 29 2005.]

Grey September - Gilles Dauvé, Karl Nesic and J-P Carasso

The underpaid washer-up and the overpaid white collar who both died in the World Trade Center died as footsoldiers of a system that exploited their death (treating them as heroes of free trade and the free world) as it had exploited their life. They had little time to appreciate the much vaunted security they'd bought in exchange for their submission.

"As usual, nothing will ever be the same again" (The Press)1

  • 1. This is a slightly modified and shortened version of the 1st Lettre de troploin, written by J.-P.Carasso, G.Dauve and K.Nesic, October 2001, available on the Troploin website.

Statement against London bombings

Submitted by libcom on Aug 7 2005 11:07

Anarchist statement on the 7 July 2005 London public transport bombings, initiated by libcom.org.

[i]Translations available here: Dutch/Nederlands, Italian/Italiano, Polish/Polski, [url=/other-languages/el-anarquismo-ingles-ante-los-atentados-de-londre

The Personal Act - Pannekoek

Submitted by libcom on Jul 28 2005 11:16

Anton Pannekoek writes on the burning of the Reichstag by council communist Marinus Van Der Lubbe (and other possible accomplices) - and discusses what value there is in the tactic of destroying products of bourgeois culture.

From "Persmaterial Van de Groep van Internationale Communisten" #7, March 1933

You can't blow up a social relationship - the anarchist case against terrorism

A clear explanation of why anarchists oppose terrorism, and why terrorism or propaganda by deed can be of no benefit to the working class, as capitalism is a social relationship, not a group of bad individuals.

This essay was was published as a pamphlet around late 1978 or 1979, in the aftermath of the Sydney Hilton Bombing. The black humour of the time around the anarchist movement was that the police and security forces framed Ananda Marga because they came before Anarchism in the alphabet.