Category Archives: Opinion
A sideways look
One of the few things that all sides of the political divide agree on is that administration is something that can be easily cut. Administration as a function is conflated with bureaucracy, and no one would defend that, least of all me. But is it the same thing? I don’t believe it is and will [...]
What is anarchism?
Well that depends on who you ask. But most anarchists would agree it is an ‘anti-capitalist’ and revolutionary political philosophy that rejects the state and all forms of institutional authority. Anarchists therefore have developed anti-statist responses/interpretations of communism, unions, property, collectivism, gender and issues surrounding all forms of power. Anarchism has its origins in the [...]
A Sideways Look
The demonstration called by the TUC against cuts on March 26th promises to be one of the biggest for a long time. It is also likely to be quite militant. For many people, there will be specific reasons. For others it will be a general sense of unease at what the government are planning. However, [...]
Wot? No Government?
‘Anarchy’ is a word that has a very bad reputation these days. The mere mention of it causes most people to imagine nothing but rows of burning cars, roaming gangs of looters and senseless violence in the streets. Anarchy, we are told, means nothing but the very breakdown of social order itself. Yet is it [...]
Storm warnings from the right
In this time of deepening economic recession, where people are openly questioning the role of government and capital, we are provided with a rare opportunity to engage the population with ideas that challenge the status quo and offer new forms of social organisation. To that end we feel confident that our ideas are finding new [...]
Happy in the ghetto?
Iain McKay reminds us there’s more to anarchism than simply turning up I attended the last of the student demos against the tuition fees increase on the 9th of December. It was a well attended march, with students and workers across the country protesting their anger. Many of the student marchers came straight from their [...]
Reclaiming The Night
On 27 November an estimated 2,000 women and girls marched through central London on the Reclaim the Night march, an annual women only event seeking to bring women together to highlight the endemic problem of violence against women.
Militant atheism – yes please
Pope Benedict XVIs visit to the UK is thankfully over and despite mainstream media blanket coverage, relatively small numbers of ordinary Catholics attended. The widespread anger felt at perpetration of child abuse by priests within the Catholic Church didn’t discourage the Queen however who greeted him on arrival in Scotland; nor the Archbishop of Canterbury, [...]
40 Years of Black Flag
2010 is a year of anniversaries. It is 170 years since Proudhon proclaimed himself an anarchist and that “property is theft!” It is twenty years since the poll-tax riot. It is 40 years since Black Flag first came out. Originally associated with the Anarchist Black Cross, Black Flag has been an independent magazine for some [...]
Light trim, sir?
Born to lead? Aaron Porter, NUS president, New Labour lackey and son of a copper is, if anything, a warning to us all The radical left has always clung mercilessly to the coattails of official forms of power. The anti-war movement could only be legitimised when the likes of Tony Benn (government cabinet minister during [...]
