We seem to have irked someone at Freedom Press

[redsquirrel]

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.

And where did those that proposed that idea go? Their Retreat From Class led them to sidestep the key fight of their time.

“The supreme irony is that, while many on the left have been busy announcing the death of class politics and denying the ‘privileged’ position of the working class in the struggle for socialism, the Conservative government has been conducting a policy whose first – and last – premise is that an organized working class represents the greatest threat to capitalism. If the ‘New Right’ in Britain has a single overriding characteristic, it is a perception of the world in terms of the class opposition between capital and labour and a willingness to prosecute class war with no holds barred. Among the decisive moments in the creation of this newly militant class consciousness and spirit of determination were the miners’ strikes of 1972 and 1974. In the words of one of the right’s most popular journalistic spokesmen: ‘Old fashioned Tories say there isn’t any class war. New Tories make no bones about it: we are class warriors and we expect to be victorious.’
And so, one project has dominated – obsessively so – the Thatcherite programme: the use of the state to destroy the power of organized labour. To this end, all the weapons of the state have been deployed, from the law[…]”

If socialists/communists/anarchists are to replace class with something else what is it? And how can one remain a socialist when the working class is not the basis for political action?

“The declassing of the socialist project represents not only a redefinition of socialist goals, which can no longer be identified with the abolition of class, but also a rejection of the materialist analysis of social and historical processes. It should be evident that the logic of the whole argument requires a relegation of material production to at best a secondary role in the constitution of social life.”

“Class struggle is the nucleus of Marxism. This is so in two inseparable senses: it is class struggle that for Marxism explains the dynamic of history, and it is the abolition of classes, the obverse or end-product of class struggle, that is the ultimate objective of the revolutionary process. The particular importance for Marxism of the working class in capitalist society is that this is the only class whose own class interests require, and whose own conditions make possible, the abolition of class itself.”

All excerpts from Ellen Meiksins Wood's The Retreat from Class: A New ‘True’ Socialism. Wood was absolutely, devastatingly right in in 1986 and she is still correct today.

 

[campanula]

I admit to being almost relieved that I have (again) been reminded that establishment politics are a busted flush...and the numbers are on our side. In less than a generation, we have gone from 70% home-ownership to around 50%...along with the utter evisceration of social housing. Essentially a huge incentive for the propertied while homelessness is no longer a minority 'choice' (yep, have heard this fucking shite about choices only too frequently). A tipping point for sure...and we have to not petition, march and pamphleteer but actually occupy and take back what is ours. The housing bubble, and HB, tax credits and other feeble bribes (ie.subsidies to landlords and employers) are redundant. All that aspirational bullshit which drives consumer capitalism is being exposed for woeful and useless rubbish...not least in it's pernicious greenwash mode...so yep - time to hit the streets, squat any empty property, set up mutual aid and self-help organisations (childcare, libraries, self-driven education opportunities, free food, cafes, entertainment subversion and delight. Oh no, I don't think we are defeated yet.

Does this count as some sort of anarchy? I sorta hoped so cos I have been politically homeless for some time now, but find I am perfectly happy to be a Saturday 'demander' at my local renters actions without getting entangled in the minutiae of political theory (cos I am thick).

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

(cos I am thick).

Good spelling though.

 

[ManchesterBeth]

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.

I think anarchists who through their lot in with a man promising 10000-20000 more coppers on the streets deserved to be mocked ruthlessly until kingdom come. Talk about not being able to walk the walk!