Case Study: Organising in a community mental health team
A member of the Bristol Care Workers Network reflects on their experiences organising in healthcare.
I work in a community mental health team in a large town north of Bristol. Morale in my team was low and this was being made worse by staff lacking access to training and supervision; supervision is important in mental health work because the emotional strain can be very high and because staff must sometimes… Continue reading
Case study: Charity chugging in the north-west
A Plan C member in Manchester writes as part of the group’s Worker Enquiry series of articles…
The job was simple. Working as a member of a major hospice and nursing charity street team my role would be to sign people up for regular monthly payments to the charity. These ranged from “as little as 4 pounds a month” to the tenner a month we were trained to open… Continue reading
Grenfell: Because they were poor
A member of the Anarchist Federation writes on guilt and the ever-rising death count in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire.
“The people who died and lost their homes – this happened to them because they are poor” ~ Akala, rapper and poet, local resident.
“Regeneration is a euphemism for ethnic and class cleansing” ~Kensington resident and writer Ishmahil Blagrove.
Guilty: Boris Johnson. When Mayor of London Johnson… Continue reading
John Bull believers face a rude awakening
Iain McKay writes on the collapse of the Tory economic plan and its dire “solutions” to the looming troubles of Brexit
On every level Thatcherism is recognised to have failed, from the broken housing market, to railways unfit for purpose, a dysfunctional labour market etc. Or more correctly, the reality is being admitted but the root causes are being carefully avoided.
But how have the electorate acted? Though there has… Continue reading
Anti-democratic values: Making the case for consensus
In this essay written for the June C4SS Mutual Exchange Symposium, Derek Wittorff argues that the left’s focus on democracy and a falling off of interest in consensus-based approaches is short-sighted, and pushes even anarchists down paths of hierarchical control.
Democracy: the universal war cry of justice. We’re told by the left — both moderate and radical — that all socio-political problems almost always arise from… Continue reading
Notes on the 2017 General Election Campaign
In his latest column, Jon Bigger muses on one of the weirdest general election spectacles in living memory.
This has been a remarkable general election, whatever the result (I’m writing this the day before the UK votes). In my adult lifetime there hasn’t been such a difference between the two main parties and there hasn’t been such an exciting election. I feel amazed and dismayed by my adoration at… Continue reading
Case study: A campaign over insecure work
Liverpool Solfed writes about its campaign against as the firm attempts to ape companies like Deliveroo and Uber in casualising jobs into a self-employed “gig economy” model
At Easter, Liverpool-SolFed made a call out to protest against working conditions at Sandemans, a company which offers “Free Tours” in Liverpool and across Europe.
“Free Tour” does not mean that guides are volunteers. In Sandeman’s case they are ‘self-employed workers’… Continue reading
Anarchists analyse Brazil’s political earthquake
In the following essay members of Coordinación Anarquista Brasileña, a member group of the Anarkismo network, analyses the series of mass protests, riots and rebellions which have rocked the State and its elites in recent months.
Brazil is experiencing a political earthquake, exposing the rottenness of the country’s elite and further weakening the bonds that hold them in power. The orchestrated operation that led to a recording between… Continue reading
Why I’m not voting – I represent myself
Jon Bigger reflects on his experiences, as a voter, non-voter and even Class War candidate, with general elections
Two years ago today (May 7th) I turned up at a polling station in Croydon and put a cross next to my name. This time round I’m not even on the electoral register. I’ve had an odd relationship with the ballot box and at a time where I see anarchists discussing voting… Continue reading
Forget the Judge Led Inquiry – Grenfell Needs a People’s Inquiry
The Grenfell Tower disaster shows British capitalism up for what it is. It is brutal slavery masked up with the grey, smiling face of liberal democracy. The mask slips sometimes and we get to see the full horror of our rich and powerful masters clamouring desperately to put it back straight as quickly as possible before riots break out.
The toffs at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea were… Continue reading →