Symbolic protest or strike to fight

Wednesday November 30th heralds the most widespread strike action for many years in the UK. With 24 public sector unions all striking on the same day, it is very welcome to see unions taking concerted action in this way.

However, it's worth remembering that it will require much more than one day strikes to be sure of a real victory and the 30th's action will definitely need to be built on. But whether the trade unions are capable of doing this, especially given the weak, legalistic tactics that trade unions are entrenched in remains to be seen.

But aren't the unions tactics already having an effect?

True there has been some movement from the government and employers in response to positive strike ballots but this is just conciliatory noises, a ploy to make the unions look inflexible while obscuring the fact that the government and employers are actually offering us nothing. The unions long ago surrendered to anti union legislation and other oppressive employment laws and have got used to doing everything 'through the proper legal channels' and they are now virtually incapable of fighting to win.

But we can't do everything by the book because it's not our book;
these laws were enacted to specifically hamstring effective industrial action.

If we want to be sure of a real victory, then we'll need to:

• Intensify strike action in spite of the anti-trade union laws and the reluctance of union high-ups to engage in action beyond anything purely symbolic.
• Spread the dispute- it's essential that we take our struggle beyond the single issue of pensions. The way the unions have mobilised makes it seem as though it is indeed our pensions that are the central concern. This is far from the truth. The point is to show that workers reject the idea that we all have to make 'sacrificies' and to do so in solidarity with the whole  working class, including unwaged people and service users. Instead, the way the unions have mobilised makes it seem as though it is indeed public sector pensions that are the central issue. We cannot unite with the rest of the working class on the basis of a one day strike over public sector pensions.
• Unite with other workers - that means broadening our aims to include private sector workers over a range of issues other than pensions.
• Go wildcat - in recent years, a number of disputes have by-passed trade union bureaucrats and we have seen a rise in forms of direct action that defy the unions reluctance to break the law. From wildcat strikes to workplace occupations, from blockades to technically unlawful secondary action, we have seen workers refusal to submit being expressed in ways that the state and the employers have not been able to stifle.
• Establish local strike committees between workers form different unions and workplaces - controlled from below rather than trade union bureaucrats above.

What we as anarchists are talking about is not only winning this particular dispute but also building an effective, militant and autonomous workers movement that will set us up for future battles and future victories.

Meanwhile the best way to guarantee any degree of success over pensions, privatisation, attacks on services, attacks on any section of the working class, is to make this strike as strong and effective as we can, to widen the issues and spread the dispute to other sectors.

So lets get to it and fight to win!!!!

To be governed

To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated, regimented, closed in, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, evaluated, censored, commanded; all by creatures that have neither the right, nor wisdom nor virtue........ To be governed means that at every move, operation, operation or transaction one is noted, registered, entered in a census, taxed, stamped, priced, assessed, patented, licenced, authorised, recommended, admonished, prevented, reformed, set right, corrected. Government means to be subjected tribute, trained, ransomed, exploited, monopolised, extorted, pressured, mystified, robbed all in the name of public utility and the general good. Then at the first sign of resistance or word of complaint, one is repressed, fined,despised, vexed, pursued, hastled, beaten up, garroted, imprisoned, shot, machine gunned, judged, sentenced, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed, and to cap it all ridiculed, mocked. outraged and dishonoured. That is government, that's it justice and its morality.
These words were written by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1853 over 150 years ago yet all the above is still relevant and we are still allowing it happen in the mis-lead belief in western democracy. Think again and RISE UP!!!!

Infil-traitor

Last night on channel 4 in the UK was a documentary on Mark Kennedy. The undercover cop that infiltrated the protest movement in the UK and Europe. We saw how the state uses arseholes like Kennedy to gather information on those who actually care about their community and the injustices that the capitalist system continues to perpetuate. We heard how he joined different groups across Europe and once in a position to obtain information about various actions he passed them back to to the enforcement agencies. This was entrapment. All time he was living a lie he wasn't that nice activist people thought he was but an instrument of the state. We heard how he has now lost his job, has no family  and no prospects and spends his days racked with guilt. He should have thought about that before he he did what he did. His actions led to protesters being jailed, his actions led to people losing their liberty, his actions led to people being hurt. He deserves every thing that happens to him we should have no sympathy, he's lucky that he's still in one piece. For every action there is an equal and opposite re-action.

This week we also learnt that former prime ministers Thatcher, Major and Blair have claimed over £1.7 million in expenses in the last five years. Under rules set up by Major in 1991 the ex PMs are able to claim a public duties costs allowance (as if they don't earn enough).How has Thatcher, given that she is nearly dead been able to claim £535,000 from the fund is a joke!! Blair who earns millions from speaking engagements, consultation to dictators and his memoirs since leaving office in 2007, has claimed £273,000 from the public purse ( yours and my money) and who says the world is fair!! Hang them!!

Plastic bullets

Tomorrow there is to be a demonstration in London concerning the issues of student fee and the cuts. This action is being taken by students and school kids in the main.
 The press would have you believe that its going to be hijacked by Anarchists (if only there were that many). Everything that happens where there happens to be a display of force against the state is blamed on "Anarchists and Anarchy. It's about time that people realised that Anarchy isn't about violence and destruction but it is about bringing down the capitalist system of greed and exploitation clearly the rich don't want this. As a result it has now been revealed that police chiefs have been allowed to use baton rounds (plastic bullets) for "extreme measures". What constitutes "extreme measures" a broken window for example. Armed police to deal with minor disturbances such as demonstrations is very frightening. This country is fast becoming a dystopian society ( a repressive and controlling state) similar to the one created by George Orwell in 1984. You are currently being watched by the largest number of CCTV in the world (1 for every 14 people) and now you will be controlled by armed police.
The use of baton rounds has been highly controversial since that tory twat Teresa May allowed police to deploy them in response to the London riots earlier this year. The president of the Association of Chief Police Officers sir Hugh Orde who deployed plastic bullets whilst serving in Northern Ireland spoke out against the use of baton rounds and water cannons and said that they should only be used in extreme circumstances and certainly not on the streets of  London.
This all ties in with the last blog about Oakland. BAe systems and Design Technologies create weapons for controlling people and that is what we see starting to be deployed here. The condems and other puppets of the ruling classes are creating the biggest open prison in the world,its called the UK. Any form of dissent will be stamped on and this is happening now. We must oppose the ruling classes and smash their capitalistic, greed motivated, dystopian society now before its too late!!!!

Oakland Police

Now we see the true face of capitalism in the USA with the violence that has been metered out on the anti capitalist campaigners by the Oakland police. The level of violence that has been used by the Oakland police with its armoury of 'non lethal' crowd control weaponry against unarmed protesters shows the true colours of the capitalist business elite , the state, its apparatus of government and their law enforcers.

The fact that Defence Technology boasts of specialising in less lethal technology and other crowd management products whilst conceding that 'information is somewhat difficult to obtain' on the damage its products cause should be enough to raise alarm bells in any right minded people.

It should also be noted that Palestinian demonstrators on the West Bank have also been subjected to Defence  Technologies rambo style products.

We should all be aware that what happens in the states will soon be on our shores.  We  should be actively pursuing BAE systems and Defence Technology to stop the use of these weapons and the assault on the right of freedom to protest. What we are seeing is the rich / capital using force to protect itself, it has to be defeated, it cannot be allowed to control us!

Gaddafi is dead

To brutality and torture he was wed 

To torture, prison and death

his dissenters were led

to the west his lies were fed

but his punishment was swift

a bullet to the head

He thought he was an Arabic narrator

but he was just another fucked up dictator

but worse than that

whilst brutality was planned

the west in the shadows
did stand

The west knew of the pain 

but Blair thought there was political gain

there should never be 

a dictator like him again

but if its interest of the west

then in brutality they will invest 

What a week

What a brilliant week. Unison, that massive undemocratic machine has finally managed to get off its arse and agree to take some action we've actually won a vote to strike. On the other hand it's quite sad as only 30% of the membership bothered to vote yet it's there pension we are stiking to protect. One day Unison might elect someone who an element of fight in them instead of the week labour lettuce that we have now. Most of the unison full timers are unelected, thats a democratic union for you.We activists will fight what ever the Union says (do it yourself) better to die fighting than give up Who says the British aren't apathetic.

On a brighter note it looks like greece is going down the pan and italy isn't that far behind it. It just goes to show how undemocratic these countries are. Greece was going to have a referendum on whether or not to stay in the euro, it was quite clear that the majority of the greek people wanted this and were gonig to vote to leave however the other member states decided that this isn't in the best interests of the country and put pressure on the country to drop the referendum. Germany had said a referendum would essentially be a vote on whether Greece wanted to be part of the EU and that the stability of the eurozone was more important than Greek membership. So basically up yours Greece! what a sad state of affairs.It's clear that all these bail out packages don't work and won't work capitalism is in state of free fall. As some of the people in Greece have said pull out of the euro now, let the country collapse and then rebuild rather than waiting for an agonisgly slow death with bail outs they have no possibilty of paying back. The country needs to take a leaf out of spains book and become an anarchist republic, fuck the euro and the euro zone!