On “anarchist” bombs

Just before Christmas, bombs went off in two embassies in Rome, injuring staff in both. I immediately tweeted “#Anarchism has nothing to do with injuring innocent mailroom staff #Rome”  and I absolutely stand by that point.

Right now, across Europe and perhaps across the world, thousands of people are being introduced to anarchist ideas. Governments and politicians of all kinds have failed their people and are stealing from their populations to keep bankers and financial traders happy. Police have shown their true role as defenders of privilege with increasing levels of violence against protesters.

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Make the Post public

A few months ago, I wrote a comment piece for the Guardian’s website outlining an alternative plan for Royal Mail. Instead of privatising it or keeping in its current hierarchical nationalised form, I argued that it should be put into true public ownership with the workers in control.

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Off your knees, comrades

Trade union banners beside Parliament Square during demo
Trade union banners beside Parliament Square during demo © Donnacha DeLong

I’ve given a couple of talks to student occupations recently and I’ve reused a line John McDonnell used at an NUJ meeting recently. The trade union movement has been on its knees, the students are showing us how to stand up. They are an inspiration.

Many trade unionists have said similar things – in official statements like the NUJ National Executive did – or in person at events or meetings. But what are we seeing on the ground?

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A day on the picket line

I got the train down to Brighton today to show solidarity with striking colleagues at the Argus who are fighting plans to move their subbing operation to Southampton.

After a quick diversion to pick up a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts for the strikers, I hopped in a cab and headed to the Argus offices.

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And so the fight-back starts…

Demonstrators on the roof above Tory HQ
Student atop Millbank ©Donnacha DeLong

The fight-back against the Tory* government finally started in London yesterday. A large group of people finally recognised that walking down the road and listening to some speeches is no longer enough.

Condemnation has predictably started to flow, not just from the right-wing press, but hand-wringing liberals and many parts of the “leadership” of the student movement. That’s “leadership” in the sense of “people who want to go into politics when they finish” and is about as connected to their membership as the Labour Party was to theirs before they lost most of them.

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A tiresome level of certainty

“Belief is the death of intelligence. As soon as one believes a doctrine of any sort, or assumes certitude, one stops thinking about that aspect of existence.” – Robert Anton Wilson

The on-going debate between a number of atheist intellectuals and their religious equivalents fills me with a large amount of disinterest. I haven’t gone so far as to read any of the books, whether by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens or any of the long list of respondents [there’s a good list here, but the page is a mess]. Life’s too short.
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Meeting: Bringing syndicalism back into the mainstream

Public meeting on syndicalism - 20 May, 2010Last year at the Anarchist Conference, there was general consensus that a proposal to do something big to mark 2012 was a good idea. No, not because of the Olympics, but because it’s the centenary of the Jewish tailor’s strike in London’s East End that was the high point of anarcho-syndicalist Rudolf Rocker’s influence in the UK.

As I thought about it, I looked into the period between 1910 and 1914, known as the Great Unrest, when syndicalism was a major force for change in the UK. I realised how ignored this part of the history of these islands (Ireland, at the time, still being part of the UK) has become.

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