Online archive of the newsletter and journal of the UK communist group Wildcat, published in the 1980s and 1990s.
The Wildcat group had various phases.
Early 80s: A free 2-sided Bulletin produced by a temporary collective made up of dissident members of the autonomous Manchester Solidarity Group and similar dissident members of the Manchester local ICC (World Revolution) group plus a couple of local anarchist communists.
Mid 80s: a large format newspaper. (Issues 1-10: 1984-1987)
A text dated March 1988 about a split in the group appears in Communist Bulletin #13 (p33). Some members of Wildcat then formed Subversion.
Late 80s: Issues 11-14 were produced in London. The "anti-democracy" phase.
1990s: From issue 15 onwards Wildcat developed an anti-civilisation ("primitivist") position which culminated in an "abandonment of Marxism" in issue 17.
2000s: After the publication of the final issue (#18), Wildcat was based in America. The online texts by the remaining member became increasingly controversial and reactionary (for example promoting the work of Gilad Atzmon and David Irving).
(The group were internationalists and called Wildcat and not "Wildcat UK". There is another, different, internationalist communist group called Wildcat which is based in Germany and known for convenience on Libcom as Wildcat (Germany).)
Attachments
Wildcat-Bulletin-1.pdf
(3.67 MB)
Wildcat-Bulletin-2.pdf
(3.19 MB)
Wildcat-Bulletin-3.pdf
(1.79 MB)
Wildcat-Bulletin-4-1982.pdf
(3.23 MB)
Wildcat-Bulletin-5-April-1982.pdf
(4.35 MB)
Wildcat-Bulletin-6-June-1982.pdf
(1.47 MB)
Wildcat-Bulletin-7-Oct-1982.pdf
(786.31 KB)
Comments
Fozzie, Thanks for putting up
Fozzie, Thanks for putting up these issues and the useful linked material which fills in some of the missing items in my hard copy library.
You are very welcome Mike - a
You are very welcome Mike - a bit of scanning is quite therapeutic on a hangover ;-)
I also have #17 and #18 and will reread them eventually and see if they are worth scanning and including here.
If anyone can do a better job then me in describing the various phases of Wildcat above, please edit and amend...
I'm not sure where we stand on linking to the wildcat.international site as some of the later (post- #18) articles are pretty dodgy...
How's that for serendipity?
How's that for serendipity? Just popped over to Libcom to find a link for the Wildcat magazine 'cos I just cut and pasted an article from the January 2018 issue of the Socialist Standard which is based on an old Wildcat article, and this is the first thing I see.
Socialist Standard article: Feed the World: Overthrow Capitalism
Cheers for making it easy for me.
OK I've updated the summary
OK I've updated the summary of the group/publication above and added the later issues too - with disclaimers where necessary.
A good summary Fozzie even if
A good summary Fozzie even if it can't fully explain the various more subtle differences of opinion within each phase. Personally I think that ''..remaining member..'' was an unreliable 'loose cannon' all along! but then I'm sure some would have their criticism of my past role in all that as well.
Edit: Also there are still some of the earlier Wildcat bulletins, papers and pamphlets on line (together with other related left/libertarian communist journals) here:
https://splitsandfusions.wordpress.com/left-communists-and-libertarians/
Good spot Mike. I think they
Good spot Mike. I think they have added some scans since I last checked that site.
Spikymike wrote: A good
Spikymike
Aye, that's a dead good link. I haven't seen many of the Careless Talk stuff since we ran them off on the Roneo in Bob Miller's front room.
This might be complete now? I
This might be complete now? I just added the PDF of #16. It depends how many Bulletins there were though and if #7 was the final one in that format.
I remember going to the
I remember going to the Midlands Anarchist Get Together in Nittingham in 1986 as a sheltered newly professed Anarchist.At a Green Anarchist meeting a long haired comrade who allegedly was from Wildcat railed against what he was hearing from all the Liberal rubbish by Richard Hunt .
I was always impressed by Wildcat.
Along with early Direct Action,Workers Solidarity,Black Flag I thought they put forward a coherent view of Anarchist/Libertarian Communism unlike all the other rubbish
Fozzie wrote: This might be
Fozzie
this is brilliant, thanks!
Amazing to find this, as one…
Amazing to find this, as one of the original members of the group in Manchester. I have paper copies of one or two issues but had assumed the rest were lost in the mists of time.
I look forward to exploring what the rest of the site has to offer.
Rather than treating these…
Rather than treating these archives as Dead "C" Scrolls it would be useful to take a critical look at aspects of their content to better achieve their professed goals.
The abolition of the nation state is not the task of the working class, of communism. That job is achieved by the bourgeoisie in its development as a class as a reaction to the political supremacy of the working class of each nation state.
Just as the working class cannot simply lay hands on the state apparatus and wield it for its own purpose but must violently oppose that apparatus and destroy it, so the working class cannot simply lay its hands on the world's resources, i.e. its means of production/distribution, and control those resources democratically but must entirely revolutionise the mode of production.
Common ownership is indeed the communist objective but the ultimate form of society entails ownership in any form, private or common, being eradicated:
Marx, from the third notebook of the seven, 1844.
Andrew wrote: Amazing to…
That's very cool to hear. Enjoy!