An article about Labour's attack on the social contract from issue number 34, April 1977 of the Anarchist Worker. Scanned by and gratefully taken from The Sparrows' Nest.
Ah, memories. i think i wrote the front page article, among other articles in this issue.
Coolio, were you part of an anarchist group?
Errmm,sorry I was in the Anarchist Workers Association at the time. What an odd question.
No it's just I didn't know who published the newspaper.
The Anarchist Workers Association
At the beginning of 1975 ORA changed its name to the Anarchist Workers Association, which it was felt implied more of a class committment, although others criticised this change as a mistake, implying workerism, and a too narrow obsession with the workplace. It was true that most of the membership in this period were heavily involved in workplace activity.
By 1976 the AWA had 50 members, most of them active, with 3 groups in London, groups in Oxford, Yorkshire, Leicester, and Scotland. The paper now called itself Anarchist Worker, was a regular monthly with sales of 1,500-2,000, mostly street sales. It was to some extent ‘a libertarian version of Socialist Worker’ but the coverage was wider, for example covering the struggles of claimants and squatters and provocatively questioning the work ethic.
I saw a couple of these on the Sparrow's nest website, however unfortunately they didn't seem good enough quality to have in the library. Now I don't know if I'm missing anything, but this only seems to have half of some of the pages. Is that right?
Ah, memories. i think i wrote the front page article, among other articles in this issue.
Coolio, were you part of an anarchist group?
Errmm,sorry I was in the Anarchist Workers Association at the time. What an odd question.
No it's just I didn't know who published the newspaper.
http://libcom.org/library/anarchist-communism-in-britain-1870-1991
Anarchist Worker was the monthly of the AWA.
I saw a couple of these on the Sparrow's nest website, however unfortunately they didn't seem good enough quality to have in the library. Now I don't know if I'm missing anything, but this only seems to have half of some of the pages. Is that right?
Yes, that's right. I uploaded it, because it refutes the argument put forth by the labour left that the attack on workers began in '79 with the Conservative government and social democracy wasn't also undermined by a portion of the w/c. Feel free to delete the entry though.
No Keep it. It's cool.