A-Infos (en) Britain, Aanarchist journal Direct Action #41 Winter 2008 + Editorial

CONTENT: * Direct Action; Inside this issue; * The Aims of the Solidarity 
Federation * Editorial - Politicians - Don’t Ya Just Hate ’Em * Letters - Al 
Bangura, Watford FC and the Asylum System; Mujeres Libres * Organising - Silent 
Nightingales: Karen Reissmann, the NHS and the ‘Threat of a Good Example’ * 
Comment - Death by Superbugs: The scandalous legacy of NHS funding cuts, 
performance targets and privatisation * The ‘Caring’ Face of New Labour - part 
2: How modern social policy exploits unpaid carers and the elderly * Organising 
- Casualisation Kills * Comment - Safety First * Lackeys of the Rich * A Load of 
Hot Air: Why treaties and other reformist ‘solutions’ to global warming are a 
waste of time * Gaining Respect?
     * Supermarket Sweep: An everyday tale of global capitalism and it's 
devastating impact * Our history - The International Workers Association
     * Class - No such thing as class?; Gap between rich and poor 'widest in 40 
years'; Stating the bleedin’ obvious
     * International - CNT Grows in Seville
     * International strikes - CNT in the Madrid Metro Strike; On yer Strike 
Bike; Strikes ’n Struggles in Russia
     * International - Indigenous Struggles in Venezuela
     * Reviews - The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Movements and 
the Decolonization of Everyday Life (Georgy Katsiaficas)
     * Reviews: kate sharpley library - Anti-Fascist Action: an Anarchist 
Perspective by an ex-Liverpool AFA member; Emilio Canzi: An Anarchist Partisan 
in Italy and Spain by Paolo Finzi & others
     * Reviews - Got no Time: Drowning Dog & Relive: Deletist; Monarchy: 
Politics of Tyranny and Denial (William Gladys); Realizing the Impossible: Art 
against Authority (Josh MacPhee and Erik Reuland)
     * A closer look - Capitalism is Boring!!!! a closer look at Situationism 
and why it is more relevant than ever
     * Solfed/IWA contacts
     * Friends & neighbours

Download PDF http://www.direct-action.org.uk/DA-SF-IWA-41.pdf

Inside this issue:

     * 3: Editorial - Against all politicians
     * 5: Letters - Al Bangura / Mujeres Libres
     * 6: Silent Nightingales - Karen Reissmann, the NHS and the threat of a 
good example
     * 9: Death by Superbugs
     * 10: The Caring Face of New Labour - Part 2
     * 11: Casualisation Kills / Education Workers Network
     * 12: Safety First / Lackeys of the Rich
     * 13: A Load of Hot Air - reformist ‘solutions’ to global warming
     * 14: Gaining Respect? - Galloway & co split
     * 16: Supermarket Sweep - the impact of global capitalism
     * 18: The International Workers Association - the founding of the 
anarcho-syndicalist International
     * 22: No Such Thing as Class?
     * 23: International - Spanish CNT / Germany / Russia / Venezuela
     * 27: Reviews - the subversion of politics / anti-fascist action / Emilio 
Canzi / drowning dog / deletist / monarchy / art against authority
     * 32: Capitalism is Boring!!!! a closer look at situationism
     * 35: Contacts Directory

Solidarity Federation IWA

The Aims of the Solidarity Federation

The Solidarity Federation is an organisation of workers which seeks to destroy 
capitalism and the state. Capitalism because it exploits, oppresses and kills 
working people and wrecks the environment for profit worldwide. The state 
because it can only maintain hierarchy and privilege for the classes who control 
it and their servants; it cannot be used to fight the oppression and 
exploitation that are the consequences of hierarchy and the source of privilege. 
In their place we want a society based on workers' self-management, solidarity, 
mutual aid and libertarian communism.

That society can only be achieved by working class organisations based on the 
same principles - revolutionary unions. These are not Trades Unions only 
concerned with “bread and butter” issues like pay and conditions. Revolutionary 
unions are means for working people to organise and fight all the issues - both 
in the workplace and outside - which arise from our oppression. We recognise 
that not all oppression is economic, but can be based on gender, race, 
sexuality, or anything our rulers find useful. Unless we organise in this way, 
politicians - some claiming to be revolutionary - will be able to exploit us for 
their own ends.

The Solidarity Federation consists of Locals which support the formation of 
future revolutionary unions and are centres for working class struggle on a 
local level. Our activities are based on Direct Action - action by workers 
ourselves, not through intermediaries like politicians and union officials; our 
decisions are made through participation of the membership. We welcome all 
working people who agree with our Aims and Principles, and who will spread 
propaganda for social revolution and revolutionary unions. We recognise that the 
class struggle is worldwide, and are affiliated to the International Workers' 
Association, whose Principles of Revolutionary Unionism we have adopted.


editorial editorial editorial editorial editorial editorial editorial

Politicians - Don’t Ya Just Hate ’Em

Among working class people there exists a healthy level of mistrust in and 
disrespect for career politicians. One visible sign of this is the declining 
interest in the whole electoral process in recent years. Even so, and despite 
the seemingly never ending string of reports about MPs’ and ministers’ 
wrongdoings, you don’t yet get the impression that parliament is going to be 
swept aside any time soon.

<image> Mandelson - dodgy politician #666

The recent (and not so recent) revelations have come so thick and fast that a 
mere quarterly magazine like Direct Action cannot hope to comment on every case. 
But behind each instance of lost data and dodgy funding, behind every passport 
scandal and failed or vastly over-budget project, there lurk the lies, deceit, 
arrogance and downright incompetence of one of those chinless wonders who’s 
managed to con enough people to vote them into Westminster.

lies and deceit

And it’s not just a simple case that these incidents reflect the human failings 
of only a few isolated individuals. No, the whole institution of parliamentary 
democracy is laced through and through with lies and deceit. And it could not be 
otherwise for, after all, it is a system that is totally geared towards 
upholding the privileged positions of the elite, a system that is built on a 
series of empty promises that we hear repeated every four or five years at 
election time.

These pages have consistently pointed out how social and financial inequality 
has continued to grow under the present regime; how casualisation and 
deregulation in the workplace has continued to eat away at our pay and 
conditions; and how New Labour is just as adept as the Tories, if not more so, 
in ensuring that the rich have continued to get richer. In this issue we look at 
some of these themes again, both in general (see Casualisation Kills, p.11; 
Lackeys of the Rich, p.12; No Such Thing as Class?, p.22) and with a particular 
emphasis on events in the health and care sector (see Silent Nightingales, p.6; 
Death by Superbugs, p.9; The Caring Face of New Labour part 2, p.10).

against all parties

<image> Archer - dodgy politician #667

But what is it going to take to bring about a new society of freedom and 
equality? Of course there are many out there who advise the working class to 
ditch New Labour in favour of building a ‘new socialist’ party. While we 
certainly agree with the view that our class has nothing whatsoever to gain from 
continuing to support the likes of Brown and co, we do take serious issue with 
the idea that any other political party, whether or not it calls itself 
‘socialist’ or ‘revolutionary’, is the answer for the working class.

For members of Solidarity Federation, the notion of organising as a political 
party has two major downfalls which have been consistently pointed out by 
generations of anarcho-syndicalists before us (see The International Workers 
Association, p.18). Firstly, the political party is a form of organisation that 
artificially draws a dividing line between ‘economic’ activity in the workplace 
or union on one hand and political activity in the party on the other hand. For 
more than a century, this division has meant that, in Britain, class struggle 
based on the direct action of the working class has played second fiddle to the 
illusion of parliamentary action carried out on our behalf by the aspiring 
careerists in the Labour Party.

working class politics

Blunkett - dodgy politician #668

To SolFedders, economic and political activity are actually inseparable. It is 
the capitalist economic organisation of society that forms the bedrock of the 
current unequal system, a system which is further guaranteed and protected by 
the political and repressive organs of the state. However, to say that political 
parties ultimately have no useful part to play in the class struggle is not the 
same as denying that working class organisations should be involved in politics. 
Far from it. Anarcho-syndicalists argue that political issues are part and 
parcel of the struggles we face wherever we work and live. This is a view of 
politics – working class politics – as something independent of political parties.

Hamilton - dodgy politician #669

In fact, we go further than this. The second major flaw in the idea of the 
political party, especially the kind of party that sees itself as leaders of the 
working class, is that they are basically the new ruling class in waiting. This 
observation is as true now as it was when anarcho-syndicalists were first 
confronted with the likes of the British Labour Party and the Russian Bolshevik 
Party. While these parties have travelled different roads, one thing they share 
is their absolute failure as vehicles for the emancipation of the working class. 
As such, our attitude to political parties includes not only the need to act 
independently of them, but extends to actively opposing their goal of capturing 
state power. The bottom line, as articulated by the First International, is “the 
emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves”.

Not that the ‘new socialist’ party is likely to be with us any time soon, at 
least not judging by the recent goings on in the ‘Galloway gang’ (see Gaining 
Respect?, p.14).

also in this issue...

Besides all this, we also take a look at the failing efforts to address climate 
change (see A Load of Hot Air, p.13) and at the effects of supermarket expansion 
(see Supermarket Sweep, p.16). There are also the usual international and 
reviews sections, while we round off with a ‘closer look’ at situationism and 
its relationship to anarcho-syndicalism (see Capitalism is Boring!!!!, p.32). 
Enjoy your read and we hope it gives you food for thought. At least it’ll give 
you a break from the virtually non-stop sychophantic coverage of U.S. 
presidential hopefuls – don’t ya just hate ’em!
_________________________________________
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