As part of getting volume 2 of An Anarchist FAQ, sections G and H have been revised. This invoked fixing typos, although quotes by Proudhon are now sourced (when possible) to the new anthology of his writtings Property is Theft! (AK Press, 2011). The revised sections are:
Archives: Blog entry
A <em>blog entry</em> is a single post to an online journal, or <em>blog</em>.
In a surprise legislative maneuver last month, Republican legislators in Madison, Wisconsin, passed a bill which severely limits the collective bargaining rights of most state workers.
One of my ongoing ‘I really should write on..’ projects is an article on the Fenian’s and the land League period in particular. Back in November I blogged notes I had done for an internal WSM branch talk on the topic and in the talk I did ‘at’ the Toronto anarchist bookfair last Saturday I mentioned them again. Then as it happened on Monday Fin, another WSM member, did another internal talk on the Land League in particular which touched on a numbers of areas / facts / perspectives that I had not considered to date. So below is a segment of my Toronto notes on the Fenian’s followed by some of what I took from Fin’s talk. Fin had the accompanying image in his talk which I found afterwards though google, its yet another British press propaganda image from the time which captures something of the alarm felt by the British state when faced with this mass militant movement.
Property is Theft! seems to have got its first review – James Tansey’s “Marx, Proudhon and political struggle”. Well, I say review. It is not really a review, rather it is an extended commentary on my discussion of Proudhon and Marx plus various arguments on why mutualism is capitalist. My book is, in short, utilised as a means of explain why Marx was right. Shame, then, that in so doing the author has to deny various explicit and awkward comments by Marx.
I’ve got a bit slow with blogging of late mostly because I’ve been doing a lot more news writing for the WSM site which tends to fill the slot a lot of my blogs were in. As well as writing I do a fair amount of activist photography, some of which I use with articles but I’ve realised it would make sense to at least blog the photos of events even if I don’t have time to post up a report. So here are some images from a 1% Network press stunt / protest back in March.
Time has not been kind and I’ve not been able to work on my planned release of a new chapter of Property is Theft! and blog on “Proudhon and Market Socialism”. I have, however, decided to expand the Supplemental Material (online only), specifically material about Proudhon and his ideas.
Within the last months a number of the UK’s celebrity TV chefs have launched "Fish Fight", a campaign to address the rapidly increasing crisis in declining fish stocks that threaten the continues supply of fish for the dinner table. The campaign’s aims are worthy and laudable and the sincerity of the celebrity chefs involved is unquestionable. But much as they understand food and the threat of the collapse of fish stocks, their limited understanding of the economic forces behind capitalism’s inability to sustainably manage limited natural resources, guarantees that this well-intentioned campaign is ultimately doomed to failure.
As a fundamental perspective we can see the principle task of the revolutionary movement is to aid in the process of the recomposition of an antagonist class subject.
However, those who focus on the aspect of antagonism to the detriment of the class aspect, are guilty of the voluntarist (& sectarian) conception of antagonism as belief or ideology.
For us antagonism is neither a belief nor form of consciousness, but an immanent characteristic of the capitalist dynamic. If we focus on the recomposition of the class subject, capitalism will provide the antagonism free of charge.
Well, I was on strike twice this week (over attempts to gut our pension scheme). Lots of leaflets and union membership forms were handed out. It did not seem that busy (good sign, but hard to tell as I normally don’t hang around outside my work!). It did reinforce why management always seem to have enough money for contractors (they were more than happy to cross our picket line). One member of another union refused to cross, which was nice.
March 18th 2011 marks two key revolts in working class history. First, it is the 140th anniversary of the start of the Paris Commune. Second, it is the 90th anniversary of the final day of the Kronstadt Rebellion against the Bolshevik regime. Both events are important to anarchism. The first, obviously inspired by Proudhon’s mutualist ideas, influenced the revolutionary anarchism which was supplanting it both in the libertarian wing of the First International and as the main form of anarchism .