Are we growing?

Submitted by evgeni5150 on October 2, 2017

Hey. Are we growing? I follow the discussions in this forum in the last couple of months and i see a lot of people that are part of social struggles from a long time and maybe have a better idea than me . By "we" i mean all the libertarian, anarchist and anti authoritarian leftist movements (the ones that 'we like' and the ones thar we don't) around the world. And as a time frame - the last 20-30 years(or other relatively close period that is more adequate). I know its a dynamic process that differs on different places but i hope someone will try to give a more general answer .

Im asking because when i do propaganda talks, write articles etc i always try to sound optimistic (and in my area things are actualy optimistic now) and speak about "communism on the rise" but i like to get a more realistic picture .

Thanks

Rob Ray

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Rob Ray on October 3, 2017

Are you talking globally or just Britain? If the former then it's hard to say — multiple languages and folks don't exactly take a census. Fwiw the amount of media coming out of the US has spiked dramatically, and in some Latin American countries there does seem to be an uptick. Europe's got a lot going on, maybe more than when I first got involved in some places I guess?

With Britain, there was a fairly dramatic decline in the mid 2000s when the green direct action movement collapsed, a rise in the early 2010s and an (actually milder than I expected) downturn since Corbyn went all Leftie Messiah on us.

Broadly though the picture probably is positive atm. Earth First! has recovered substantially in the last three years on the green end, (partly to do with fracking), we're back to having libertarian-leaning conferences and such (Fast Forward, talks about doing one for social centres), new co-op projects have gotten off the ground and there's been more radical media about again, which are encouraging signs. On the other hand, last year's London Bookfair was down on previous years, though that's likely geographical as it's moved out of the city centre.