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Dead Dogma Sketch (apologies to Monty Python)

Monty Python meets the SWP… Inspired by attending Marxism 2001.

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Politics and Industrial Relations in the Media: A Guide for the Perplexed

What the media really means when it comments on industrial action….

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If voting could change anything … it would be illegal

What do we say to people in the reformist parties? They can not (and should not) be ignored. We say look at the record of your party in government or to the Workers Party when you supported the 1981 minority Fianna Fail government. Look at what your party stands for. Look at the record of your party in the trade union bureaucracy. Look at the historical role reformist parties have played in other countries. Reformism has had it’s test and failed one hundred times.

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Prospects for anarchism after the 1991 collapse of ‘socialism’

Article from 1992 looking at the prospects for a growth in anarchism following the collapse of socialism. The tradition in which the anarchists stand is one that socialists need to identify with. For many on the left this will be a difficult process. They were weaned on a diet of slander when it came to anarchism, either being told that anarchists were police agents or that they were not real socialists at all and wanted a return to feudalism. We must resist the temptation to avoid this problem by going "beyond anarchism". The state has been the Achilles heel of 20th century socialism, it is not an issue to be fudged.

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Legalise it

Article from 1994 arguing that possession of small amounts of all drugs should be de-criminalised. Anti- social drugs like heroin should be available on prescription from doctors at low cost to prevent junkies turning to crime to finance their habit. What is needed is a real debate on the control of the other drugs. It seems reasonable to say that the maximum of restrictions should be similar to those applying in relation to drink or tobacco and this should be medically based and enforced rather than state controlled.

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Review: I Couldn’t Paint Golden Angels

There is a long tradition of personal autobiographies written by ageing activists in the anarchist movement about their experiences and motivations. This is the recently published autobiography of Albert Meltzer, a British anarchist whose life has taken him from the fights against Mosley and support for Spain in the 1930’s through fringe involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler, the Cairo mutiny after WWII, supporting the Spanish resistance, to the Angry Brigade trials and fighting the National Front in the 1970’s.

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Colombia 3 – wrong people in the dock

The trial of the Colombia 3 has produced a frenzy of speculation in the Irish media about whether they are guilty or not, and how this might effect the ‘peace process’. What is all too lacking, however, is any background to Colombia itself. This is not too surprising. Andrew looks at the situation there and argues that it is the Colombian state that should be in the dock.

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Review: Bakunin: The Creative Passion

A review of an excellent new biography of Bakunin.

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The Revolutionary Ideas of Bakunin

An introduction to the ideas of Bakunin, one of the founders of anarchist thought and movement.

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Will the real Bakunin please stand up?

A reply to Leninists distortions about Bakunin. Includes a summary of his key anarchist ideas and anarchism’s key difference with Leninism.