We seem to have irked someone at Freedom Press

[Fozzie Bear]

Against anarcho-smugness - Freedom News

As Corbyn’s suspension from the Labour Party occasions yet another wave of anarcho-smugness, Anna K. takes aim at the strange self-satisfaction of our politically irrelevant movement. On December 13th 2019, the day after the General Election, I had the grave misfortune of being behind the till...

freedomnews.org.uk

Anna K is irritated by some anarchists hanging around a bookshop being pleased about the defeat of Corbyn at the last election. She goes on:

“One might have hoped that anarchists would have had something useful to say following the defeat of the first mass movement for socialism this country has seen in decades. Sadly, with one or two minor exceptions, all we seem to have produced are some rather tiresome Urban 75 posts about how we’re so wise and everyone else is pathetic and naïve.”

The article concludes:

“My contention is that we in the British anarchist movement are way overdue such a period of radical reassessment. Capitalism is in crisis, fascism is in the ascendency and yet we have never been more politically irrelevant. Now is not the time for smugness or schadenfreude. It is time for us to turn our “ruthless criticism” back upon ourselves.”

Hopefully Anna will join this thread and ruthlessly criticise the specific posts on here she finds so objectionable. Perhaps then we can improve significantly before our next quarterly “radical reassessment” meeting.

 

[emanymton]

some rather tiresome Urban 75 posts about how we’re so wise and everyone else is pathetic and naïve.

Sounds like she Urban about right to be fair.

 

[two sheds]

"these bilious has-beens represent a particularly grotesque extreme of anarchist opinion ..."

 

[chilango]

How do they determine which tiresome posts are Anarchist and which aren't?

That's a mammoth task.

This, OTOH, is a mammoth tusk.

 

[kenny g]

The actual article is worth a read, although the selective quotes do make it seem like it is proposing Maoist style re-education classes for self defined anarchists. An appealing prospect in terms of high drama although unlikely to have many takers.

There is a good point that self defined Anarchist's shouldn't be revelling in the defeat of what for many was perceived to be the only bulwark against self interested, inefficient, corrupt political rule, but should be wondering how it came to pass that the only effective opposition appeared to be an unappetising political fossil.

Having said that I can fully appreciate the temptation to scream, "I told you so" at people who handed over their politics to Labour and have seen it come to nought.

 

[Yossarian]

Hopefully Anna will join this thread and ruthlessly criticise the specific posts on here she finds so objectionable. Perhaps then we can improve significantly before our next quarterly “radical reassessment” meeting.

I don't think he's allowed to post here anymore.

 

[maomao]

Probably still posting on Turbo Island.

 

[TopCat]

Charlie and his little band nailed.

 

[andysays]

Against anarcho-smugness - Freedom News

As Corbyn’s suspension from the Labour Party occasions yet another wave of anarcho-smugness, Anna K. takes aim at the strange self-satisfaction of our politically irrelevant movement. On December 13th 2019, the day after the General Election, I had the grave misfortune of being behind the till...

freedomnews.org.uk

Anna K is irritated by some anarchists hanging around a bookshop being pleased about the defeat of Corbyn at the last election. She goes on:

“One might have hoped that anarchists would have had something useful to say following the defeat of the first mass movement for socialism this country has seen in decades. Sadly, with one or two minor exceptions, all we seem to have produced are some rather tiresome Urban 75 posts about how we’re so wise and everyone else is pathetic and naïve.”

The article concludes:

“My contention is that we in the British anarchist movement are way overdue such a period of radical reassessment. Capitalism is in crisis, fascism is in the ascendency and yet we have never been more politically irrelevant. Now is not the time for smugness or schadenfreude. It is time for us to turn our “ruthless criticism” back upon ourselves.”

Hopefully Anna will join this thread and ruthlessly criticise the specific posts on here she finds so objectionable. Perhaps then we can improve significantly before our next quarterly “radical reassessment” meeting.

"the first mass movement for socialism this country has seen for decades"?

Is someone professing to be an anarchist really claiming that for Corbyn's Labour party...

 

[SpookyFrank]

I too must have overslept on the day when there was a mass movement because I have no recollection of that at all.

 

[ska invita]

I too must have overslept on the day when there was a mass movement because I have no recollection of that at all.

unfair, hundreds of thousands joined up, went to rallys, knocked on doors etc - by modern uk standards it was a revolution

 

[tim]

unfair, hundreds of thousands joined up, went to rallys, knocked on doors etc - by modern uk standards it was a revolution

Exactly, a slightly less energetic version of the Ramblers' Association.

 

[Idris2002]

Sounds like she Urban about right to be fair.

Classic urban.

 

[ska invita]

" Anti-capitalist social movements and Left organisations have been in crisis for a decade or more; old strategies and tactics don’t work any more; "

....when did they last "work"?

 

[killer b]

1917

 

[JimW]

Oh no, not Freedom Press, they may set their dozens of readers on us!

 

[magneze]

"these bilious has-beens represent a particularly grotesque extreme of anarchist opinion ..."

"bilious has-beens" - could be a new t-shirt?

 

[two sheds]

"grotesque extreme
of anarchist opinion"

might be a bit long

 

[Pickman's model]

unfair, hundreds of thousands joined up, went to rallys, knocked on doors etc - by modern uk standards it was a revolution

Corbyn's win was as astonishing as the amount of bile released against him from within his own party where the right showed clearly they would kick him till he broke even if it damned the labour party to two election defeats in a row. As a vehicle for social change I don't think a Corbyn government,elected against all the odds, would even under the most generous circumstances have delivered the change many people hoped for. But the lesson from the last five years is that the labour right will fight tooth and nail against even the most watered-down version of socialism. That was the revelation

 

[LDC]

Exactly, a slightly less energetic version of the Ramblers' Association.

Poor dress sense, meet up in quiet pubs, enjoys activities where you start somewhere, put in some effort, then end up back at the start but tired out?

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

Oh no, not Freedom Press, they may set their dozens of readers on us!

Outnumbered then?

 

[Pickman's model]

Against anarcho-smugness - Freedom News

As Corbyn’s suspension from the Labour Party occasions yet another wave of anarcho-smugness, Anna K. takes aim at the strange self-satisfaction of our politically irrelevant movement. On December 13th 2019, the day after the General Election, I had the grave misfortune of being behind the till...

freedomnews.org.uk

Anna K is irritated by some anarchists hanging around a bookshop being pleased about the defeat of Corbyn at the last election. She goes on:

“One might have hoped that anarchists would have had something useful to say following the defeat of the first mass movement for socialism this country has seen in decades. Sadly, with one or two minor exceptions, all we seem to have produced are some rather tiresome Urban 75 posts about how we’re so wise and everyone else is pathetic and naïve.”

The article concludes:

“My contention is that we in the British anarchist movement are way overdue such a period of radical reassessment. Capitalism is in crisis, fascism is in the ascendency and yet we have never been more politically irrelevant. Now is not the time for smugness or schadenfreude. It is time for us to turn our “ruthless criticism” back upon ourselves.”

Hopefully Anna will join this thread and ruthlessly criticise the specific posts on here she finds so objectionable. Perhaps then we can improve significantly before our next quarterly “radical reassessment” meeting.

I would have hoped to see some critique of the British electoral system in such an article rather than a tepid adoption of mainstream assumptions. For example barbarism's landslide was nothing of the sort. The votes of about 29% of the eligible population secured a majority in the house of commons - rather a peculiar state of affairs.

For me, I think the road forward looks to the past - a past where anarchists actually did fun and exciting things. I don't expect the auld may protests, stop the city or bash the rich marches to be resurrected - I'd hope new and attractive projects which drew on the foundations of the past but took us in new directions would enthuse existing anarchists and inspire new ones

 

[JimW]

Outnumbered then?

Always outnumbered, always out-gunned

 

[tim]

Oh no, not Freedom Press, they may set their dozens of readers on us!

Are there any who don't boost here already?

 

[ska invita]

There does seem to be a lack of good strategy talk around these days.... At least the pile in behind Corbyn felt strategically argued and with some meaningful concrete potential gains to be made. And as to the narrative of utter failure of Corbynism its worth remembering that despite all the force against it (especially from Labour HQ &own benches) 2017 election was a close run thing - 2% in it on the popular vote. There were a lot of moving pieces, and the failure wasn't inevitable (though it was by 2019). Personally I dont see any short term contradiction with anarchism from below & democratic socialism in parliament

Going back to the article:
"In the 1890s the anarchists had reached a dead end and they were cut off from the world of the workers which had become the monopoly of the social democrats .............................. On Guérin’s account, anarchism was able to revivify itself through its (re)engagement in mass trade unionism " <---------which also doesn't exist now...so where then?

I was reading some late 80s anarchist thing the other day and it mentioned how there was a big debate at the time across the wider (Trot/Leninst) left as to whether the working class even "existed" anymore, or had been "bought out" by the Tories. Interesting topic for conversation, could do with reviving - the situation even more mixed up now than then.

The problem with a 19th/20th century view of revolutionary class struggle is class composition is so radically different and more complex in the UK now. It might still apply in say industrial China (?), but in the UK it can be inaccurate and ineffective <not wholesale redundant of course, the fundamentals remain. Graeber managed to really strike a chord with Bullshit Jobs for example, lots of workers could really relate to that, across the fractured class landscape.

I'm waffling on here, my point really is that considering how much the left likes to write/think/talk, there probably is a lack of future-looking strategic thinking going on as to how to be effective, despite small numbers. That Angry Workers initiative was good, though in my mind its an addition to the wider base union movement, which has been one of the few areas of real success in the last decade.

Despite all that i expect history will be the engine, the next few years look like a massive spanner in the gears of smooth running capitalism - huge opportunity incoming

 

[LDC]

Posted this from Chuang on the worldwide coronavirus news thread about China and people organizing under the pandemic there.

Worker organising under the pandemic: reflections from China

The impact of job losses and declining incomes on workers’ lives is much greater than before. This has repressed the beginning of a renewed period of struggle. However, this has not affected the wi…

chuangcn.org

 

[Red Sky]

Somebody at least seems to be facing up to the moribundity of the Big A anarchist movement. Strange that the revelation comes from behind the counter at Freedom bookshop though.

 

[smokedout]

I think what's missing in this discussion is the acknowledgement that Corbyn's election to Labour leader killed the (admittedly floundering) anti-austerity movement stone dead. And it showed, through the Corbyn years mass protests, riots, widespread strikes, civil disobedience and direct action, all of which had been a feature of the previous four years, and which in fact drove the movement which led to Corbyn, stopped almost overnight. Perhaps that would have happened anyway, or perhaps those hundreds of thousands of young people who knocked on doors and handed out leaflets would have put their energy into something more interesting. But knocking on doors and canvassing for elections is no way to build an anarchist movement and it's little surprise it withered away to nothing during that period.

We've been here before though. 2003-2009 was bleak as fuck. I think it was the student protests, not least Millbank being stormed, that brought things back to life. As Pickman's said, anarchism has to be fun, and confrontational and on the streets, and when that starts to happen all the other informal infrastructures like social centres start to emerge out of necessity and a desire for shared social space. But it also has to try and have some tangible grounding in working class lives, it can't all be about getting trashed and chucking stuff at coppers because we've seen how easily that slips into becoming an isolated subculture that may well punch above its weight until the nickings and the burn out gets too much when it inevitably collapses. The shift to Corbynism, whilst doubtless born out of frustration and desperation in many cases, I suspect was a misguided attempt to do more grown up politics with one eye on the failure of the 90s movement. But it went too far in the other direction. No-one won a thing under Corbyn's reign, least of all an election. And radical left politics became as dreary and dull as the man himself.

I think any resurgence will come from the working class itself, and perhaps always did. There are traces of it within BLM, although no sign of it at all in XR beyond a bit of hippy peacenickery. My big worry is that any energy will get sucked into both a culture and a street war with a resurgent far right - although even that in it's way may lead to a resurgence in radical movements, it seems to be doing so in the states. Whatever the case we're entering a period of massive potential political instability and next year could well be a game changer. If bottles start flying through the air then just watch anarchism come storming back. We'll probably still manage to fuck it up again. But we do only have to be lucky once.

 

[stethoscope]

Lots of things to reflect on there @smokedout - it's your posts that help me to keep the faith.

 

[Red Sky]

Followed up with this slightly bizarre piece that treats the EHRC report as if it were gospel.

Corbyn does not deserve our solidarity - Freedom News

When Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the Labour Party, a broad section of leftists saw an opportunity to shift British politics away from neoliberalism. Everyone from anarchists to trade unionists saw the opportunity and knew that the new leadership would need all the support they could get. They...

freedomnews.org.uk