Keith Nathan (1948-2023) A critical assessment

Mention of Harlow anarchists, does anyone else remember the Maoist-style street wall poster they produced in the mid-60s? Well-laid-out slogans and quotes useful for graffitists, including "Tower blocks are the English Sierra Maestra" and my own favourite, " Provincial but not horse-drawn". I would love to see a copy.

"Quite correctly, Libertarian Struggle gave extensive coverage to both industrial struggles and struggles outside the workplace, including tenants struggles, squatting, women’s liberation and gay liberation. "
Well no. This content would most likely alienate many militant workers outside the leftist milieu - which we need to win over but in line with oppression mongering and guilt tripping associated with the outlook of the radical student and middle class leftist milieu.(1) And also in line with recruitment for sect/party building informed by the contemporary Trot groups and the Stalinist legacy. My impression is that these social layers would particularly inform the social base of such groups as the ORA/AWA etc. In contrast to the mostly blue collar social base of the anarchist groups in the years around WWI and the syndicalist upsurge and in the Clyde in the 30's 40's. Keith Nathan and his coterie would certainly fit in the above sociological context. His background in the Trot groups - would lead him to see anarchist activity/organisation through the prism of the Trot groups in terms of the big emphasis on recruitment and numbers games and getting into all manner of issues/activity and going all with emerging the above 'identity politics' for recruitment. (In contrast to the 'ultra liberalism' and alternative lifestylism of many in the Anarchist Federation of those years influenced by the Freedom Press/Colin Ward's Anarchy publications but with a similar social base.) Also according to the above article he was adopting their manipulative ways of the Trot groups/Stalinist legacy. (In Australia and elsewhere in the Anglo world today - there is this disturbing "unconscious Stalinism" which seems hegemonic in most the student/middle class leftist milieu. Particularly associated with adopting of navel gazing 'political correctness displays' safe spaces policies and in Oz 'indigenous welcomes' etc and setting up poor photocopies of the Trot groups. This malady has manifested with the crop of Anarcho-Stalinist poisonous toad stools heavily informed by identity politics which has mushroomed in Oz in recent years. (2)
A more appropriate approach re the revolutionary project and breaking the power of the union bureaucracy and the influence of the British Labour Party (and for anarcho-syndicalists mass syndicalist unions via major splits from the bureaucratic/corporate unions) would be the focus on one strategic sector linking up via salting with militant networks to initiate the strike wave phenomena. The problem in those days -70's would be the particular predominance of Marxist Leninist groups in many of these sectors marginalising and erecting major obstacles to such an initiative and work place paper influence.
Battlescared has in a previous post many years back re the ORA that he bemoaned it only ever had 73 or such members . Again the numbers game and presumably rivalry with the Trot and other Marxist Leninist groups. However in the context of the fall of the Berlin Wall and over the years demoralisation and major splits in M-L groups and rightward shift- space would open up for the above initiative but obviously in much harsher conditions - particularly demoralisation following various Thatcherite victories on the industrial front, new surveillance techniques etc. However such numbers in this radically different situation could play an important role in getting the above industrial strategy going via intensely assisting militant networks activity. Particularly via editing/ production of an industrial paper/s and getting the periphery around the 73 to help out with distro or even do interviews with workers in the context of the periphery members normal daily routines. In contrast to the Angry Workers World activity in West London factories some years back involving unsustainable work place paper distro and psychologically wearing out the periphery and themselves eg distro very early in the morning and over committing themselves with activity in the local community.
Another problem I see with the move by ORA/AWA for formal organisation on a national level along Arshinov Platform lines - is the problem of cop/deep state infiltration. This occurred with the AWA.
So if they were focusing on strategic industrial organising - in the context of major space opened on the industrial front their efforts are likely also to be stymied - due to militants targeted for the sack etc. This has occurred with those Trot groups which engaged in the 'industrialisation' approach in the 70's, prior to the much later rightward shift . For example in Australia the SWP(Socialist Workers Party now DSP/Socialist Alliance) had many of its members it 'salted' in the auto industry in the lead to major restructuring/plant closures prior to the close down of the auto industry in the 70's sacked due to infiltration by ASIO (Oz political cops). (3) So the conducting of this strategic industrial organising would need to involve a radically different organisational approach based on informal/networks avoiding formal organisation and adopting such security approaches : "need to know", compartmentalism and vetting.
Notes
1. See Report on the Workers Control Conference re outlook of middle class layers on capitalist society on archive section www.rebelworker.org
2. see google search: New Orgs in Sydney on Libcom.org
3. See John Percy's History of Resistance and DSP volume 2.

I'm not saying that at all - But I am looking at based on my experience the impression given to certain layers in strategic sectors I certainly don't mean all workers - particularly in the context of low morale - and the need to avoid alienating them - in the context of raised morale and strike movement, the emergence of mass syndicalist unionism or like the NSW BLF in the late 1960's early 1970's- things would be different -certainly the Trot press here which would have similarities to ORA/AWA newspapers gives a very bad impression amongst these layers.

asn's narrow workerist position would most likely alienate those working class gays, squatters, tenants & women whose housing, gender & sexuality issues were deemed irrelevant by him. If your economic reductionism blinds you to the obvious – at least to most workers if not this syndicalist ideologue – link between wages and housing costs then maybe stand down from your self-appointed role as judge & jury of ‘legitimate’ working class interests.

I feel the assessment above is a fair reflection of my opinion of Keith. I remember him as a very committed individual, who sometimes made crap decisions (a fault I no doubt share). I always found him friendly and sometimes displaying an impish sense of humour.

I smiled at asn’s concern regarding ORA/AWA and the problem of ‘cop/deep state infiltration’. This was discussed inside the ORA and if memory serves, the prevailing attitude was, “If you’re doing worthwhile stuff you’ll get known anyway – class war is not a conspiracy”.

Several years ago a comrade told me that Billy Connolly, the Glasgow comic, had been asked if he’d met any anarchists in Glasgow. He said only students. Well at least twice I had tried to sell him a ‘Libertarian Struggle’ in ‘The Old Scotia Bar’, where I used to drink on the weekend. He didn’t buy one. At the time the ORA didn’t have a single student member in Glasgow. Those student anarchists at the time preferred the hippy druggy culture, and were unsurprisingly known to the Glasgow drug squad. At the time, Billy, dressed in his bell bottom suit didn’t look like a banjo playing welder, just goes to show appearances are deceptive.

But in the NSW BLF - workers had won an important victory re bread and butter issues re the margins dispute - using direct action and in this context of 'raised morale' - this was the key back drop - went on to support other groups on the environmental front re green bans etc. Yes the union officials like Jack Mundey argued for this action but it was preceded by this major direct action victory on issues re workplace situation. (1)
Today we have low morale in these strategic groups - particularly elite groups which the union hierarchy/corporate media etc via smoke and mirrors techniques, industrial campaigns set up to fail and exhaust etc - strive relentlessly to maintain this low morale and large groups in these elite groups are likely to be put off by some of the stuff in ORA/AWA and Trot press- However in the the context of raised morale via victories achieved with direct action on issues of immediate bread and butter concern - they would be likely or open to agitation to help other groups and not put off by much in the above press. Also I'm referring to certain elite groups - well paid, most own their own homes and have a lot in super - so they would not see the issue of squatting, homelessness and people unable to afford rising rents of major concern to them - many in this groups - a certain large group - won't see all this as very relevant to them and certainly would not see the urgency of taking direct action to help them out. In relation to certain such elite group - which the ASN tirelessly and relentlessly agitates amongst for many decades - many of them in the context of low morale - were quite willing to cut the throats of co workers in another grade to get a pay boost - but we were able to avert it via clever agitation and raising their morale. You would have the same situation in the UK amongst these sectors.
(1) See 'Green Bans Red Union' by Merideth and Verity Burgmann and review
in achive section - www.rebelworker.org

Worth noting that the 1960s-70s UK squatting movement was initiated by members of the Solidarity libertarian socialist group when they helped homeless working class families stuck in poor temporary council accommodation to squat empty houses. This in turn was partly inspired by the movement at the end of WWII when returning rank’n’file soldiers responded to a massive housing shortage by squatting vacant army camps.

In the 1970s a proposed UK Criminal Trespass Law, which would have made illegal both residential squatting and workplace occupations, was opposed by an alliance of squatters, trade unions and others. No doubt ORA would have written about this. They could see the connections even if asn can’t. In typical dogmatic leftist style, asn thinks he can project his rigid dogma onto any situation or period and magically understand all. So he misses the particularities and inter-connections of each individual historical moment.

In the Anarcho and Anarcho-Syndicalist milieu in the Anglo world for many decades in the 20th Century and subsequently we are talking about very slim numbers of people capable of serious industrial work and associated resources so it needs to be strictly focused in strategic sectors and involving often these elite groups - involving a strategy such as getting the strike wave movement involving provoking major splits from the corporate unions in the context of the space occurring for it. These are very tough areas where you would be facing constant union hierarchy and management counter attacks. There is nothing dogmatic at all re the approach I'm advocating - its based on extensive experience across numerous industries, extensive study of historical precedents and constant interaction and debate with highly experienced industrial militants and via contacts/industrial paper - feedback from the grass roots - so we find out what we are doing wrong and do right so we can make appropriate changes - a dialectical relationship and scientific processes. Its led to many important defensive victories for workers in a certain sector which have flow on effects in other sectors slowing the tempo of the employer offensive and in a few cases came close to igniting the direct action strike wave. In the case of the 70's I do recognize that with groups like ORA/AWA and the SWF (Syndicalist Workers Federation) they were facing certain insurmoutable obstacles eg the predominance of M-L groups in various sectors - precluding the space for the approach I'm advocating and working at in the harsh real world of today. They were blocked from anywhere much on the industrial front.

Most leftist groups in the Antipodes are absolutely hopeless on the industrial front achieving anything positive of major significance in the class struggle - mostly acting as handmaidens of the union bosses/ALP (making things a bit worse) seems similar to what you have in the UK and USA- but we have been doing has been working with positive effects but of course not all we want - see above.