Category Archives: Analysis
Marxism’s anarchist theory of exploitation
Jonny Ball (Freedom, vol. 71, no. 12) asks whether Marx’s analysis of capitalism is still valid. He argues that in “Marxist theory, the profit of the bourgeoisie is based on the theft of surplus value from the proletariat” and so capitalism “creates inequality and class antagonisms since the working classes are paid less than what [...]
Uniting for racism
A report on union collusion with the bosses against a political activist Photo courtesy Phil Wilson Yunus Bakhsh a psychiatric nurse from the North East has won a four year battle for unfair dismissal against his former employer Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS trust. Yunus had a twenty three year unblemished record in nursing. His [...]
The Stuart Christie Case
Originally appeared in Freedom August 29th 1964 Stuart Christie, a member of the Glasgow Federation of Anarchists and the Scottish Committee of 100, was arrested in Madrid on Tuesday the 11th August. This information was not released to the British consulate by the Spanish authorities until the following Saturday. Stuart’s mother, in Scotland, was informed [...]
Anarchist responses to sexual violence
Calling yourself a “feminist” is great, but doesn’t tell us what you’re doing to dismantle patriarchy (and white supremacy/other hierarchies) at the same time as capitalism. The Women’s Liberation Movement taught us that “the personal is political”. Consciousness-raising led to many making radical changes in their personal lives. We can all individually change: we can [...]
World Cup 2010: Whose Party?
A South African comrade reflects on the impact of the World Cup industry on ordinary South Africans. Whether 2010 is the “best World Cup ever” (according to FIFA President, Sepp Blatter) remains to be seen. However, it will certainly go down as one of the most interesting, which may have less to do with drama [...]
Zomia and the history of state-making
As children, we all studied ‘history’ in school. Initially we studied national ‘history’, and later on as we moved up the intellectual ladder we studied international ‘history’. When we weren’t studying the glories and achievements, and the development of our particular nations, we were studying ‘ancient history’. Things were made to appear quite cut-and-dry. At [...]
Social Festival of Anti-fascist Culture, Bologna 2010
A report back from the international anti-fascist festival in Italy Freedom were invited to attend the annual “Festival Sociale delle Culture Antifasciste”, Bologna, an initiative that started in 2009 and organised predominately by “Ex-Mercato 24″ a social centre based in Via Fourivanti, a popular working class neighbourhood in central Bologna, in the process of mass [...]
The English Defence League
Who are the EDL, what motivates them and why are we unable to connect with the very people they are attracting – the disenfranchised working class. Once again working class kids are out on the streets, kicking back at authority, attacking conservatives and the cosy status quo, standing up for freedom, ridiculing religion and battling [...]
Deep Economy
A two part analysis by John Griffin exploring the contradictions between green economics and radical ecology PART I: ecology economics and culture in relation to anarchist theory The recent Copenhagen talks on climate change showed the huge gulf between what most ecologists say, and the behaviour of most people and their governments. Most appear to [...]
Under the Volcano
Freedom takes a look at response by the airline industry to the recent volcano eruption in Iceland and questions the economic motivations behind it. Within the past week, increasingly serious concerns have been raised over the motivations that reopened UK airspace to commercial flights after Eyjafjallajökull’s ongoing eruption spewed a cloud of fine volcanic ash [...]
