Report on the nature and impact of socialist and anarchist groups during the 1984-85 miners' strike. Written in a personal capacity by Dave Douglass, an anarchist and the coordinator of the Doncaster NUM Strike Committee, in June 1984. Originally uploaded onto the Sparrows' Nest Archive.
Comments
What a terrible piece of…
What a terrible piece of crap; DD's critique actually makes the left/Trot groups seem good compared to his positions. Eg, he says the Labour Party must be defended against Tory attacks, USSR, China, Cuba & Vietnamese states must be defended against US imperialism, those who criticise union leadership are counter-revolutionary, the Sparts have good analysis etc. All this from a proclaimed 'anarchist'. Is there any point to posting such garbage here? At least tag it as part of the 'best of the worst' section.
I mean, I didn't agree with…
I mean, I didn't agree with everything in the report, but I don't think that is a pre-condition for posting it. In the past admins have added caveats about not agreeing with the sentiments of things I posted, but kept them up anyway.
I have no idea if Dave Douglass was an anarchist when he wrote this, or if he adopted that position afterwards. I certainly disagree with lots of his writings when he was an anarchist, and also find some of them quite interesting/informative.
I think this pamphlet clearly it gives you an insight into how parts of the NUM viewed socialist groups attending the pickets, and some concrete information about their activity. I also think Dave Douglass became a somewhat important figure in anarchism, and so it's worthwhile to consider his viewpoints when looking into that, even if we disagree with some of them.
DD must have been a…
DD must have been a different man in his youth. Not long ago he was criticising fellow workers for re-founding Northumbria IWW (North East GMB) and claiming he hadn't been informed or invited - which was odd because he had been asked to come to our first meeting, i guess he had better things to do, like preparing his speech alongside Corbyn at the Big Meet.
Sad considering many of us looked up to him and admired the role he had played in the miners strike. Edit: thank you for posting this!
According to his…
According to his autobiography and his Weekly Worker column DD holds similar views today.