The Anarchist Communist Group sends its revolutionary best wishes and solidarity
for 2022 to all our supporters, readers of our website and publications, and toall those who we have collaborated with in various activities over the past year.----- The bad old days must end ---- These are dark days indeed but we remaincautiously optimistic that things can start to change for the better. But anypossible change will require a degree of commitment to working towards makingthis happen. That means greater involvement in social and political struggles,whether as members of the ACG or as workers with revolutionary views outside ofthe ACG. The point is, we help to build those struggles and work together withothers with compatible aims. It also means spreading the revolutionary idea thatfundamental change will only occur when the wider working class has the politicalwill to discard the ideology of capitalism and make that necessary transformationto a better world.However, if we look at where we are now and where we want to be, then this isundoubtedly a tall order. We are living under the shadow of Covid, with theomicron variant causing yet another threat, and with a UK government that placesbusiness and profits over public health and protecting the most vulnerable.Humanity and the very planet we live on is also threatened by climate change andthe destruction of the environment, a destruction mostly brought about by thecontinuing use of fossil fuels by industrial capitalism in the name of profit.We live in a time of increasing poverty. The charity, Oxfam, pointed out that"the world's richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as 6.9 billionpeople" and "almost half of humanity is living on less than $5.50 a day."According to Action Against Hunger, "around the world, we produce more thanenough food to feed the global population - but more than 810 million still go tobed hungry every night." The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the damagedone by corrupt, self-serving, inept and ideologically-driven political leadersacting in the interests of the capitalist class, has only increased this misery.Here in the UK, the Child Poverty Action Group notes that "there were 4.3 millionchildren living in poverty in the UK in 2019-20." And that last statistic wasfrom before the impact of the Johnson government's brutal £20 Universal Creditcut and before the massive increases in gas and electric bills.We have a benefits system that mainly subsidises bosses who are paying povertywages that working people cannot possibly live off; a benefits system that goesstraight into the pockets of unscrupulous money-grabbing landlords chargingextortionate rents (often paying off their own mortgages in the process). And forthose "lucky" enough to be in work, many are on increasingly precarious contractsand zero-hours is often standard. For those younger people just enteringemployment, then zero-hours is generally the rule. Meanwhile, for those who havebeen around a bit, and have half-decent contracts, pay and conditions, then thebosses' drive to fire-and-rehire on worse terms and conditions is all the rage.And let's not forget the legacy of the whole Brexit shambles, the subsequentrising prices and occasional scarcity of goods, the increase in levels of racism,the rise in right-wing populism and the potential for going back to "thetroubles" in the north of Ireland.But just to make it that little bit harder to fight all this misery, we now havethe Johnson regime's Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill well on its way tobecoming law, plus the Nationality and Borders Bill, as well as several otherdraconian bills based on pure state repression and racism. So in this way, evenpeaceful protest and civil disobedience could now land people in jail for a longstretch.Meanwhile Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition in the form of Sir Keir Starmer'sLabour Party seems to have pretty much missed all this draconian stuff, being fartoo focussed on purging the party of any remotely left-wing and Corbyniteremnants to make a fuss over any Orwellian and authoritarian policies from theJohnson clique. The increasing criminalisation of protest does indeed make anyresistance more difficult.But fight we must!Because it's what we do! As Bertolt Brecht once said, those who fight cansometimes lose... but those who don't fight have already lost. However, as thelevel of class consciousness is generally low, this fight needs to be partlyeducational. That means spreading and reinforcing the idea that, as working orunwaged people, we have nothing in common with those who rule us, of whateverpolitical stripe; that we have nothing in common with those who employ us andultimately profit from our labour. Fundamentally, we have to rely on ourselvesand each other as working class people, and not trust intermediaries orrepresentatives to do things for us.But it's one thing to write and talk about such pro-working class andpro-revolutionary views... and another for people to take any notice. So all suchideas need to go hand-in-hand with practical and direct action. Working classaction, struggle, fighting together and rising together will be the trueuniversity of revolutionary ideas.Recent resistanceIn spite of the low class consciousness in the UK, we have seen a flurry ofstrikes and other industrial actions, often by smaller non-TUC unions such asUVW, IWGB, CAIWU and IWW, as well as by members of the more established tradeunions. And many of these actions have been successful, with direct actiongetting the goods. We also saw the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement,the toppling of the Colston statue in Bristol, the people of Pollokshieldspreventing deportations, protests against violence against women, demonstrationsagainst the Police Bill, plus numerous protests over climate change and at theCOP26 conference.Where to fight?In 2022, it's essential that we continue to challenge any impact from the PoliceBill, but this will most likely be as part of other campaigns and activities inwhich the law is applied to prevent protest or dissent, or as part of a wider‘right to protest' movement.In the workplace, we need to be building strong rank and file initiatives,building power from below; whether that is as members of mainstream TUC unions oras members of the smaller independent unions. We need to help to build campaignsagainst fire and rehire and to tackle the normalisation of zero-hours contracts,and maybe even drag the big unions, screaming and kicking into a fight againstthe anti-union laws.We need to be involved in or helping to build grassroots anti-poverty campaigns,such as those fighting for the reinstatement of the government's £20 UniversalCredit cut; we should be helping to set up local tenants' campaigns againstunscrupulous landlords, and fighting for affordable housing; working with othersto organise a general campaign to oppose the rises in gas and electricity pricesand to fight fuel poverty.With regards Covid 19, we encourage involvement with the No Safety No Workcampaign to protect worker safety. We also encourage involvement with the variousmigrant support organisations and campaigns - whichever of these is more activein your locality. Likewise with climate change, it is worth being involved in anyclimate action initiatives near to where you live.But be selective!Obviously, we're not suggesting that you should be involved in every singlecampaign! The last thing we want to see is good people burning-out. So choosewhat you can do realistically, do what you feel most strongly about, and what (inyour locality) has the most scope for meaningful and self-organised activity.Then stick with that.Remember, we're not asking for super-activists, just for comrades who in theirown small way (and given their own real time constraints) can help towardsbuilding the resistance. Nor are we looking for people to submerge themselvesinto a particular campaign or single issue. Remember, it's not only aboutsolidarity, it's also about spreading revolutionary ideas within the class, andif there's no scope to do that, then you're really just doing radical social work.Get involved with the ACGSo to help you from falling into the "radical social work" trap, we encourage youto join (if you haven't done so already) the Anarchist Communist Group! The ACGbelieves that, while we need to be involved in social struggles like thosementioned above, we also see the importance of the political struggle to helpbring about a wider and more deep-rooted class consciousness within the workingclass and to build a strong national (and international) class struggle anarchistcommunist movement that is dedicated to the eventual overthrow of capitalism andthe State.Right now, we're a long way from building such a movement, but involvement insocial struggles and joining the ACG in 2022 can take us a few baby steps further.So here's to a revolutionary New Year for 2022! Let's build a movement together!https://www.anarchistcommunism.org/2021/12/31/new-year-message-from-the-acg/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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