A-Infos (en) UK, ACG, # 8 - New Stormy Petrel Now Out! (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

This is the 8th edition of our theoretical magazine in which we discuss 
issues in more depth. Articles include: Dossier on AI, Work in the 
Future Society, Age Verification, the General Strike, Mujeres Libres, 
and a letter from a reader on veganism.
Editorial
Now and tomorrow
Now: Hope in Every Heart or Business as Usual?
Andy Burnham's accession to power doesn't mark any radical change in the 
direction of the Labour Party. He backs the Home Secretary Shabana 
Mahmood's immigration reforms, increasing the wait for indefinite leave 
to remain from five years to between 10 and 20 years. He supports 
expanding the use of detention centres. He wrote recently in The Times 
that "Increasing our national security, in every sense, will be my first 
priority," and that arms manufacture would be central in "regenerating 
and reindustrialising the country." He threatened that he would "not be 
squeamish about cutting welfare" to invest more in the arms industry.

He intends to proceed with the £31bn Dreadnought-class boats and with 
the building of Trident nuclear submarines. He urged EU countries to 
supply Ukraine with Patriot missiles. He signed a military AI deal with 
Ukraine, accessing Ukraine's Avengers AI Labs database. This huge AI 
database holds data collected by thousands of daylight cameras and 
infrared sensors across the war zone in Ukraine. They capture footage of 
millions of objects and the data is then fed back to the Avengers Lab to 
train new AI models. This will be used to protect military bases from 
"protesters and hostile actors trying to gain intelligence." The Burnham 
administration also will work with Ukraine to explore the development of 
next-generation low-power AI chips to power drones and robotics.

Burnham appointed Kanishka Narayan as the first AI minister, signalling 
Labour support for AI, whilst coming out with rhetoric about 
independence from US Big Tech.

He continues to back Israel and its genocidal policies. Whilst we have 
experienced the hottest summer on record, Burnham talks about new 
drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea, exhibiting a complete 
unconcern about the connection between fossil fuel and climate change. 
He talks about a "business-friendly socialism", as if such an obscene 
coupling was either possible or desirable.

The Future Society

"A map of the world that does not include Utopia, is not even worth 
glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is 
always landing... Progress is the realisation of utopias."

Oscar Wilde

The theme of this issue is 'The Future Society'. This came about because 
of our experience of people asking questions about what an anarchist 
communist society will be like, such as 'How will it be possible?', 
'What about crime?', 'What about jobs that no one wants to do?' When 
many Marxists, and others, envisage a future society it usually involves 
automation and advanced technology, including AI. While we reject 
'anarcho-primitivism' (see Issue 7 of Stormy Petrel), we take a critical 
approach to technology, especially AI. We need to ensure that it will 
actually enhance our lives as well as be compatible with environmental 
and resource concerns.

In order to address some of the questions about an anarchist communist 
society, in each topic we first address the reasons why the status quo 
is a disaster, both for the working class and the planet. We then also 
look at the struggles going on today. The attacks on workers' 
organisation, surveillance, the insidious insertion of AI into all areas 
of life, the environmental effects of resource plundering, war, and the 
drive for growth at any cost, not only have tragic consequences today, 
but will make it harder for us to create the future we want. We will 
only be able to collectively create an anarchist communist future if we 
overthrow capitalism and begin to establish a vision and the foundations 
for this society.

We have to envision a different future. There has been an ideological 
onslaught over the past few decades with the capitalist slogan of 'There 
Is No Alternative' advanced over and over again. Any idea of an 
alternative future is mocked and laughed at. The 19th century vision of 
a stateless, classless and free society shared by socialists and 
anarchists is rarely addressed, and dull grey reformism is the order of 
the day. This was apparent at this year's Tolpuddle event, where an 
array of trade union speakers on AI failed to voice any real opposition 
to it, but just talked about tinkering with it and applying a few 
cosmetic measures. Any radical vision of a different future is sorely 
lacking in today's discourse.

We need the attractive concept of a different and better future, rather 
than just disgust and despair at the present. This will act as an 
inspiration to struggle in the present, to give time and effort to fight 
for social justice, knowing of the possibility of a better world. If we 
do not have a clear alternative, we surrender territory to those who 
peddle 'No Alternative', or who posit ghastly dystopian futures.

We have included a text from William Morris in this issue, because he 
exemplifies those 19th century revolutionaries who had an optimistic 
vision of an alternative future. As he said, "At the risk of being 
considered dreamers therefore it is important for us to try to raise our 
ideals of the pleasure of life; because one of the dangers which the 
social revolution runs is that the generation which sees the fall of 
Capitalism, educated as it will have been to bear the thousand miseries 
of our present system, will have far too low a standard of refinement 
and real pleasure. It is natural that men (sic) who are now beaten down, 
by the fear of losing even their present pitiful livelihood, should able 
to see nothing further ahead than relief from that terror and the 
grinding toil under which they are oppressed."

Burnham has realized in a perverted way that there is a thirst for 
social justice among many, lacing his speeches with talk of "hope in 
every heart" and "a redistribution of power". Of course, just like 
Starmer, his promises will be proved to be empty. Time then to advance 
an authentic vision of a different society built on that social justice.

This issue of Stormy Petrel contains two historical articles, on the 
1926 General Strike and on the Spanish women's organisation Mujeres 
Libres. This is not out of some fusty notion of nostalgia, but because 
inspiring lessons from the past can help power our ideas of a future 
society.

https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2026/10/06/new-stormy-petrel-now-out-2/
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