Prep-Meeting: Transatlantic Conversations, London, 4th of March

The USA Today: Some trans-atlantic conversations.

We want to hold a series of meetings to put ourselves in touch with comrades in the USA to discuss the hot topics of the day. We would invite speakers to present on a topic, either in person or over skype, and prepare some input from our side also.

Why the interest in the US?

The left, the right, the front pages and conversations across the globe have been chewing over the election of Trump and what this signifies. The shift towards this mix of ‘anti-authoritarian’ and reactionary politics is a phenomenon not just confined to the States. We think it would be useful and interesting to speak directly with comrades in the States about recent developments in order to understand the similarities and differences. This might also have a mobilising effect on how and where to centre our political activities over here.
Historically, in times of global crisis and political/economic/social shifts, revolutionaries from Europe have been able to learn a lot from developments in the US: Marx's orientation towards the US during the civil war and 1870s crisis; the links between KAPD and the IWW during the upheaval post WW1; the engagement of Italian Marxists such as Tronti or Bologna with the US situation in the 1960s, the influence of the Black Panthers etc.
Since the 2008 financial crisis the main social dynamics (economic trends, government changes, working class actions) either precede those in the EU or are more pronounced.Therefore, a lot of theoretical and practical efforts made by comrades in the US seem a step ahead from what we see around us - from IWW organising to Viewpoint Magazine’s theoretical work.

Possible topics

Here is a brainstorm of topics or aspects of working class struggle we could focus on - perhaps people have other ideas too? We would also have to think about who we want to invite to present. We’d have to narrow down to around 6 probably to make the series manageable to organise.

- Organising in the rural hinterland : Social conditions in small town America
What is the social landscape that underpins the massive levels of inequality in the world’s richest country? The Rust Belt switched from voting from Obama to Trump so a more detailed look at the composition of the working class in these areas is necessary to avoid fall into the trap of seeing this right-wing turn as just ‘history repeating itself’. It might be good to look at initiatives in the rural or socially more remote areas; people like 'red neck revolt' might be interesting to talk to; how do they see the difficulties of bridging the gap between metropolitan and (white) hinterland proletarians?

- Struggles within the low wage sector
Would be good to look at both the more official campaigns (fast food workers; 15now) and individual disputes (various IWW conflicts). The main question could be how these struggles relate to e.g. the question of migration and (racist) police violence or the different types of organising strategies in modern and precarious workforces.

- Workers self-defence / anti-police organising
Various Black proletarian groups, the IWW and other initiatives like pro-choice groups have started to organise structures of militant resistance against fascists (Christian anti-abortionists etc.) and state attacks - would be good to discuss how they do this practically and how they see it connected to wider working class organising.

- Resistance against the migration regime
We are in touch with some comrades from Houston, Texas, who have researched the conditions in the US - Mexican border region and deportation centres. There has been all kinds of militant actions against police raids and within the deportation centres recently so it might be good to have a closer look at the differences between US/Mexican and UK/Eastern European labour migration.

- Development within the logistics sector
What’s going on in the logistics sector, which has become a buzzword for interconnected and interdependent workers with a potential for mass struggles across borders. We could look at how supply chains are organised globally (through contacts in Empire Logistics in California) and also look at more recent logistics workers’ struggles (from railway workers to dockers to walmart workers to Warehouse Workers for Justice).

- Reproductive rights and the right-wing ascendancy
One of Trumps’s first measures as President was the enactment of the Global Gag rule. Abortion rights are even more under threat and the Women’s March got millions onto the streets. How can we understand these developments and what options do we have to resist them?

- Prison organising
We already had an interesting presentation by IWW comrades about prison organising in the US and UK recently - would be good to speak to some US comrades directly.

- Developments and strikes in the (industrial) working class
There have been bigger strikes recently (oil workers, Verizon, Chicago teachers etc.), would be good to have a closer look at these disputes and how they are related or not to the other more street-based protests of the class. There are various good people to talk to, e.g. from Labornotes US.

- Community / housing / solidarity networks
There have been various experiences with solidarity networks and 'community organising' (e.g. the Flint water dispute etc.); would be good to see what worked and what didn't, as well as what role the more 'NGOised' sector plays in that regard.

- Experiences from the past
Would be good to talk to comrades from Sojourner Truth Organisation or from League of Revolutionary Black Workers and how they see the current struggles from a more historical perspective.

- University organising
CUNY dispute and other stuff that went down at universities recently

- Theory and organisation in the current phase
Some comrades are trying to 'collectivise' reflection on practical experiences and propose some strategical orientations; this could be more a 'general debate' about the situation and about the revolutionary left; could be with Insurgent Notes, Unity and Struggle and/or Recomposition comrades..?

So if this series sounds interesting to you and you want to be involved in organising it, get in touch! The timeframe we have in mind is that the first one will be held in late April so we’d need to get cracking. Anyone interested in discussing this further, please email and come along to a meeting on Saturday 4th March at midday at the Wetherspoons on Mare Street, Hackney.

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