These brief comments update the line I argued in April 2010 in which I
outlined how to apply the old American SWP prior to Barnes of a
Leninist-Trotskyist strategy of what they called a combined revolution 3rd
American Socialist revolution (see appendix which has the original April
document) to the British situation before May 2010's general election.
>
>
> It would be useful if other women comrades could write other reports about the
London Feminist Network (LFN) conference in London held on October 23rd 2010.
From the limited reading (I have only read Julia Long's report) the main
discussion was how to organise to stop Sexist violence against women. Due to
British Capitalism's decay all the old oppressions are coming to the surface.
During the 1970s, Britain's ruling class were able to buy off a layer of middle
class women which weakened the social movements. It is very positive that there
is a beginning of a sizeable Feminist movement of middle and working class women
are emerging. The varied demands being raised by Feminists ranging from
opposing violence against women to fighting against cuts which is going to hit
working and middle class women hard are signs of a profound radicalisation
against a Capitalist society which is making their oppression worse.
>
>
> April's document dealt with how to apply the combined revolution strategy to
Britain. All I add here is there should be campaigns like the LFN which bring
together women fighting oppression in general and single issue campaigns which
unite women and their allies around one or two issues. Trotskyists have to
respect and argue why at this stage there should be women-only meetings because
it is only by developing confidence of how they fight their oppression, will
working/middle class women be able to unite with male workers and middle class
men eventually to overthrow Capitalism. If British Capitalism is going to be
overthrown male workers have to be broken from Sexism and won to fight for a
specific programme to liberate working and middle class women from their
oppression. One contradiction revealed in Long's report is that all the
panellists on the domestic violence workshop opposed campaigning for Sexist
hatred laws. We should campaign for Sexist violence to be criminalised. By
waging such a struggle you build a mass movement by the oppressed and their
allies in the working class which begins to challenge Capitalist rule. Even if
the ruling class makes concessions outlawing Sexist violence Trotskyists point
out it is mass action which achieved this.
>
>
> Since the general election working class and middle class women are facing a
massive onslaught through cuts. 70% of these women are going to suffer the most
from these attempted cutbacks. A lot of working class women are on low incomes
already. Social benefits (different categories of unemployed) on top of this
are being slashed. Middle class women are being attacked with child benefit
being reduced and with top-up University fees increasing.
>
> Trotskyists see other aspects of the middle class and women workers fighting
their oppression by campaigning against Sexist violence and withdrawing licenses
for lap dancing clubs which make super-profits by treating women as sexual
objects. Long correctly sees the need to link up with ethnic minority women who
suffer both Racism and Sexism. This started to happen at last Saturday's
conference. One major difference I have with Long is when she argues women from
all classes can unite against Women's oppression. It is class society which
causes women's oppression. Within this framework Trotskyists recognise specific
social oppressions, and by fighting around a specific programme of demands for
oppressed groups win them over to a workers struggle for power. Ruling class
women while being oppressed as women will very mostly put their class interests
first against an incipient Socialist revolution. Despite that difference of
opinion with Long she is correct to praise the Dagenham film. This shows the
potential of the oppressed and workers coming together to challenge Capitalism.
>
Here's a copy of Julia Long's report of Feminist conference:-
http://www.ukfeminista.org.uk/blog/80-reportonfilworkshop.html
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Why Manouvres of Royal Wedding has largely failed!
WHY THE MANOUVRES OF BRITISH ARISTOCRACY/CONSERVATIVE WING OF THE BOURGEOISIES AND OTHER ELEMENTS OF INTERNATIONAL RULING CLASSES THROUGH THE ROYAL WEDDING WILL NOT HAVE THEIR DESIRED EFFECTS? BY ANTHONY BRAIN
The British Royal wedding reflects two major contradictions within Britain’s Aristocracy and Conservative Bourgeois elements. On the one hand and this is why other ruing class layers are trying to do is salvage the Monarchy. If the British Monarchy was overthrown in a revolutionary upheaval in the context of the North African and Middle East uprisings could deepen the world revolution. This is the motivation behind Astronauts sending live greetings to the wedding. By populist demagogy of Aristocrats loving anybody the Monarchy are trying to salvage themselves.
The ruling class snobbery was on display. This was so obvious that columnists in Conservative Bourgeois publications such as the Mail and Telegraph makes criticisms of the upper Aristocratic titles given; that Monarchy looks outdated because they cannot explain the relevance of tradition; and that black people were sidelined during the wedding ceremony. These criticisms are from Conservative Bourgeois publications who are the biggest backers of Monarchy. This is because the Monarchy so blatantly reinforcing ruling class privileges that they are making themselves and their wing of the ruling class venerable to serious challenge.
Fay Schlessinger in an article in today’s Mail quotes middle class elements who were upset she got a Duchess rather than a Princess. Britain’s middle class is like all classes are in its worse crisis due to the global crisis of Capitalism. Their crisis manifests itself both socially and as individuals. Trotsky argued in periods like this mass and individual psychology can turn into its dialectical opposite rapidly. Layers of the middle class are drawing conclusions that can only survive by fighting the ruling class. There are some middle class elements who think they can marry into the Aristocracy. Schlesinger’s motivation for Middleton receiving princess and not Duchess is that it sends an insensitive message to this layer that very few of them will be accepted and will use it to entrench the ruling class particularly against the lower middle class.
Utopian dreams like this of considerable middle class as individuals marrying into the ruling class will not last for long. Even among that layer there are some of them saying they are minions. This was the middle class slogan during the 1960s when they rebelled (they are on Mandel videos which I posted on my Facebook in the last few days). Liberal Bourgeois publications like the Guardian are terrified that those middle class elements radicalizing could influence millions of workers.
Already according to Aljazeera 10 million people in Britain want the Monarchy overthrown. Even Conservative Bourgeois Telegraph columnist Charles Moore says that tradition maybe challenged. He expressed worry in his article that BBC Historian Simon Schama and BBC host Huw Edwards could not offer any effective defence of Constitutional Monarchy while they were commenting on the live wedding. Trotsky said in his preface to “History of the Russian Revolution” that until periods of major crisis like now outdated institutions lasting hundreds or thousands of years can survive. In times of revolutionary upheaval they can be swept away in weeks and months. We are already seen the beginning of this process in Tunisia and Egypt. It was the middle class who rebelled in both countries which led to the workers entering centre stage challenging those ruling classes.
Behind these criticisms of the Monarchy is the fear among the ruling class were alienating sizeable middle class layers. There could behind the scenes a civil war going on within the ruling class between the Liberal Bourgeois and Conservative Bourgeois/Aristocratic wings. A glimpse of this is in Polly Toynbee’s article in the Guardian when she argues that the ruling class elements most determined to implement cuts were out in force at the wedding. She said Cameron saw this as an effective way to promote his “Big Society” policies. The Guardian and Independent are making criticisms of the Monarchy in order to control middle class elements radicalizing. Liberal Bourgeois publications such as the Mirror are more openly pro-Monarchist because they think millions of workers are not yet beginning to organize against the Monarchy.
The British Royal wedding reflects two major contradictions within Britain’s Aristocracy and Conservative Bourgeois elements. On the one hand and this is why other ruing class layers are trying to do is salvage the Monarchy. If the British Monarchy was overthrown in a revolutionary upheaval in the context of the North African and Middle East uprisings could deepen the world revolution. This is the motivation behind Astronauts sending live greetings to the wedding. By populist demagogy of Aristocrats loving anybody the Monarchy are trying to salvage themselves.
The ruling class snobbery was on display. This was so obvious that columnists in Conservative Bourgeois publications such as the Mail and Telegraph makes criticisms of the upper Aristocratic titles given; that Monarchy looks outdated because they cannot explain the relevance of tradition; and that black people were sidelined during the wedding ceremony. These criticisms are from Conservative Bourgeois publications who are the biggest backers of Monarchy. This is because the Monarchy so blatantly reinforcing ruling class privileges that they are making themselves and their wing of the ruling class venerable to serious challenge.
Fay Schlessinger in an article in today’s Mail quotes middle class elements who were upset she got a Duchess rather than a Princess. Britain’s middle class is like all classes are in its worse crisis due to the global crisis of Capitalism. Their crisis manifests itself both socially and as individuals. Trotsky argued in periods like this mass and individual psychology can turn into its dialectical opposite rapidly. Layers of the middle class are drawing conclusions that can only survive by fighting the ruling class. There are some middle class elements who think they can marry into the Aristocracy. Schlesinger’s motivation for Middleton receiving princess and not Duchess is that it sends an insensitive message to this layer that very few of them will be accepted and will use it to entrench the ruling class particularly against the lower middle class.
Utopian dreams like this of considerable middle class as individuals marrying into the ruling class will not last for long. Even among that layer there are some of them saying they are minions. This was the middle class slogan during the 1960s when they rebelled (they are on Mandel videos which I posted on my Facebook in the last few days). Liberal Bourgeois publications like the Guardian are terrified that those middle class elements radicalizing could influence millions of workers.
Already according to Aljazeera 10 million people in Britain want the Monarchy overthrown. Even Conservative Bourgeois Telegraph columnist Charles Moore says that tradition maybe challenged. He expressed worry in his article that BBC Historian Simon Schama and BBC host Huw Edwards could not offer any effective defence of Constitutional Monarchy while they were commenting on the live wedding. Trotsky said in his preface to “History of the Russian Revolution” that until periods of major crisis like now outdated institutions lasting hundreds or thousands of years can survive. In times of revolutionary upheaval they can be swept away in weeks and months. We are already seen the beginning of this process in Tunisia and Egypt. It was the middle class who rebelled in both countries which led to the workers entering centre stage challenging those ruling classes.
Behind these criticisms of the Monarchy is the fear among the ruling class were alienating sizeable middle class layers. There could behind the scenes a civil war going on within the ruling class between the Liberal Bourgeois and Conservative Bourgeois/Aristocratic wings. A glimpse of this is in Polly Toynbee’s article in the Guardian when she argues that the ruling class elements most determined to implement cuts were out in force at the wedding. She said Cameron saw this as an effective way to promote his “Big Society” policies. The Guardian and Independent are making criticisms of the Monarchy in order to control middle class elements radicalizing. Liberal Bourgeois publications such as the Mirror are more openly pro-Monarchist because they think millions of workers are not yet beginning to organize against the Monarchy.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
What student protests against Royal wedding represents? (A radicalization but fight Anarchist Ultra-Left tactics to win masses to overthrow the Monarchy!)
INITIAL TACTICAL REACTION TO STUDENT ANTI-MONARCHY PROTESTS BY ANTHONY BRAIN
The deepening radicalization of the middle class youth within Britain is deepening over calling for a republic is a sign of them really moving leftwards which could potentially influence millions of workers in a revolutionary direction. This has to be starting point for Trotskyists. We will have major tactical disputes especially with the Anarchists over moving prematurely which could play into the British state’s hands of losing democratic rights.
Tactics are important. The state is going to be fully prepared for any protests a week on Friday. Unless you have a mass reaction in support of anti-wedding protests it may seriously weaken the struggle for a republic. Trotskyists while recognising the importance of this middle class radicalization also understand if they make major tactical mistakes it could demoralize them and positive moves towards mass action could reverse into despair. That is one sort of mistake to avoid.
Another major mistake would be conservative with a small c and not recognise we are not in normal times. If the state overplays its hands the masses reaction is unpredictable. The best tactical way of handling massive police repression is that the state is attacking democratic rights to protest. By doing this you are trying to win the masses over. This process of radicalization through those sort of correct tactics as millions of workers and sizeable middle class elements go into struggle to defend our material conditions against Capital’s attempts to seriously erode them is the best way to bring them into struggle against the ruling class.
I am preparing a longer document of how Marxists have developed their strategies and tactics in the past of how to link the anti-Monarchy struggles to combine it with a Socialist revolution.
The deepening radicalization of the middle class youth within Britain is deepening over calling for a republic is a sign of them really moving leftwards which could potentially influence millions of workers in a revolutionary direction. This has to be starting point for Trotskyists. We will have major tactical disputes especially with the Anarchists over moving prematurely which could play into the British state’s hands of losing democratic rights.
Tactics are important. The state is going to be fully prepared for any protests a week on Friday. Unless you have a mass reaction in support of anti-wedding protests it may seriously weaken the struggle for a republic. Trotskyists while recognising the importance of this middle class radicalization also understand if they make major tactical mistakes it could demoralize them and positive moves towards mass action could reverse into despair. That is one sort of mistake to avoid.
Another major mistake would be conservative with a small c and not recognise we are not in normal times. If the state overplays its hands the masses reaction is unpredictable. The best tactical way of handling massive police repression is that the state is attacking democratic rights to protest. By doing this you are trying to win the masses over. This process of radicalization through those sort of correct tactics as millions of workers and sizeable middle class elements go into struggle to defend our material conditions against Capital’s attempts to seriously erode them is the best way to bring them into struggle against the ruling class.
I am preparing a longer document of how Marxists have developed their strategies and tactics in the past of how to link the anti-Monarchy struggles to combine it with a Socialist revolution.
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Song Number 4 - No going back by North Staffordshire miners - why they support womens struggle against Sexist oppression
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYx--_Dtp1Q&feature=related
Song number 3 - Version 3 - North Staffordshire Miners
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzwZfn_jn6s&feature=related
Song number 3 - version 2 - Nottingham Clarion Choir
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1cvze_4jTE&feature=related
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)