Progressive activism is alive and well in Melbourne today, but is
working class politics? ---- Israel's genocidal escalation on the
people of Gaza is now over a year old. In Melbourne, tens of thousands
of people have marched on the streets in weekly demonstrations.
Thousands have been involved in community blockades, protests against
the arms industry, and in student encampments. ---- "Palestine" has been
the largest and most sustained social movement in Australia for a number
of years. One year on, protests continue, but the prevailing sentiment
in the movement is demoralisation. Protests, student encampments and
community blockades have failed to shift government policy. This is
because the Palestine movement has, so far, been unable to hurt the
ruling class where it really matters.
We argue for a working class strategy, because it is the working class
that can hit capitalists where it hurts. To win, we need to make
Palestine a crisis for the ruling class.
The problem we face is that organised working class power has been on
the decline for four decades - not only in Australia, but across much of
the industrialised world. Union density (the percentage of workers who
are members of a union) has fallen to 12%. Most workers have never gone
on strike, let alone over political issues, and most unions lack the
genuine democratic structures that would even enable us to raise the
argument for strikes. Today, one of the last bastions of genuine
militancy in the Australian workers' movement, the CFMEU, is under attack.
Faced with this dire situation, many activists now grasp for any
strategy that could substitute for the loss of organised working class
power.
Some point to the student movement, student strikes, and university
encampments. Others think that all we need to do is get enough people
out in the streets; smashing stuff and fighting with the cops. Instead
of strikes, activists organise boycotts. Instead of workplace pickets,
we get community blockades. Where demonstrations once saw crowds
chanting "the workers united will never be defeated" we now hear "the
people united..."
Organised students can cause some disruption. But student movements are
limited in their reach, difficult to sustain, and lack the ability to
apply sufficient pressure where it really counts. Students should
organise on their campuses in solidarity with wider working class
struggles, but these actions cannot substitute for working class power.
And needless to say, we have no objection to confronting the police when
necessary! But a fight with the police on the streets does not seriously
threaten capitalist profits. The limits of simply getting "more people"
on the streets are also plain to see. A protest should be a
demonstration; a demonstration of the numbers of workers prepared to
take further action if their demands are not met.
"The community" is also a poor substitute for working class
organisation. Community blockades of manufacturing sites, ports and
other infrastructure correctly identify the importance of disrupting
production but they lack the power to achieve what they set out to do. A
community blockade (unsupported by workers at the blockaded site) lasts
as long as it takes the police to break it up. The costs these actions
have imposed are insignificant compared to the profits the arms industry
reaps from this war.
The Palestine campaign faces demoralisation because in the main, it has
failed to grapple with the task before us. It is not enough to simply
demonstrate a moral objection to the unfolding genocide.
Rebuilding organised and militant working class struggle is essential if
we are to build any successful fightback against the depredations of
capitalism. We need to make this our task.
The bosses have power in capitalist society because they are the ones
that own the land, the machinery, and the equipment necessary for
production to take place. Governments exist to maintain that power and
are compelled to keep the capitalists happy, or else face capital
flight, disinvestment, and the wrath of the capitalist media.
Capitalists and governments rely on the value that workers create.
The working class has unique power because of our position in relation
to capital. Capitalists might own everything, but it is workers who
actually do the work. When workers get organised and walk off the job,
things grind to a halt. When our work is being put to destructive use,
we can refuse to take part. If we so choose, we can even kick the boss
out and continue working in our own interests. No group other than
workers, organised on the job, can so effectively cut off the ruling
class from their profits or the ultimate source of their power: control
over production. This is why rebuilding working class organisation is
crucial to winning the struggles we face today and towards building a
revolution.
Students and community activists may be able to win victories here and
there, but no other group is capable of fundamentally transforming how
we produce and distribute the things that people need and want. No other
group has the knowledge or skills required to take over the various
industries now controlled by corporations and the State, and to
repurpose them in service of human needs.
This knowledge, spread throughout the working class, will be necessary
if we want to ever abolish this rotten capitalist system. To get rid of
bosses, landlords, and politicians once and for all; to build a free
community of equals, where no one is compelled by a fear of poverty to
work for a boss; we need to build workers' power. Without it, revolution
is impossible. And only through revolution can we finally be free to
choose our own paths in life, without fear of hunger, war, or the
destruction of the natural world.
https://melbacg.au/anarchism-101-why-the-working-class/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
working class politics? ---- Israel's genocidal escalation on the
people of Gaza is now over a year old. In Melbourne, tens of thousands
of people have marched on the streets in weekly demonstrations.
Thousands have been involved in community blockades, protests against
the arms industry, and in student encampments. ---- "Palestine" has been
the largest and most sustained social movement in Australia for a number
of years. One year on, protests continue, but the prevailing sentiment
in the movement is demoralisation. Protests, student encampments and
community blockades have failed to shift government policy. This is
because the Palestine movement has, so far, been unable to hurt the
ruling class where it really matters.
We argue for a working class strategy, because it is the working class
that can hit capitalists where it hurts. To win, we need to make
Palestine a crisis for the ruling class.
The problem we face is that organised working class power has been on
the decline for four decades - not only in Australia, but across much of
the industrialised world. Union density (the percentage of workers who
are members of a union) has fallen to 12%. Most workers have never gone
on strike, let alone over political issues, and most unions lack the
genuine democratic structures that would even enable us to raise the
argument for strikes. Today, one of the last bastions of genuine
militancy in the Australian workers' movement, the CFMEU, is under attack.
Faced with this dire situation, many activists now grasp for any
strategy that could substitute for the loss of organised working class
power.
Some point to the student movement, student strikes, and university
encampments. Others think that all we need to do is get enough people
out in the streets; smashing stuff and fighting with the cops. Instead
of strikes, activists organise boycotts. Instead of workplace pickets,
we get community blockades. Where demonstrations once saw crowds
chanting "the workers united will never be defeated" we now hear "the
people united..."
Organised students can cause some disruption. But student movements are
limited in their reach, difficult to sustain, and lack the ability to
apply sufficient pressure where it really counts. Students should
organise on their campuses in solidarity with wider working class
struggles, but these actions cannot substitute for working class power.
And needless to say, we have no objection to confronting the police when
necessary! But a fight with the police on the streets does not seriously
threaten capitalist profits. The limits of simply getting "more people"
on the streets are also plain to see. A protest should be a
demonstration; a demonstration of the numbers of workers prepared to
take further action if their demands are not met.
"The community" is also a poor substitute for working class
organisation. Community blockades of manufacturing sites, ports and
other infrastructure correctly identify the importance of disrupting
production but they lack the power to achieve what they set out to do. A
community blockade (unsupported by workers at the blockaded site) lasts
as long as it takes the police to break it up. The costs these actions
have imposed are insignificant compared to the profits the arms industry
reaps from this war.
The Palestine campaign faces demoralisation because in the main, it has
failed to grapple with the task before us. It is not enough to simply
demonstrate a moral objection to the unfolding genocide.
Rebuilding organised and militant working class struggle is essential if
we are to build any successful fightback against the depredations of
capitalism. We need to make this our task.
The bosses have power in capitalist society because they are the ones
that own the land, the machinery, and the equipment necessary for
production to take place. Governments exist to maintain that power and
are compelled to keep the capitalists happy, or else face capital
flight, disinvestment, and the wrath of the capitalist media.
Capitalists and governments rely on the value that workers create.
The working class has unique power because of our position in relation
to capital. Capitalists might own everything, but it is workers who
actually do the work. When workers get organised and walk off the job,
things grind to a halt. When our work is being put to destructive use,
we can refuse to take part. If we so choose, we can even kick the boss
out and continue working in our own interests. No group other than
workers, organised on the job, can so effectively cut off the ruling
class from their profits or the ultimate source of their power: control
over production. This is why rebuilding working class organisation is
crucial to winning the struggles we face today and towards building a
revolution.
Students and community activists may be able to win victories here and
there, but no other group is capable of fundamentally transforming how
we produce and distribute the things that people need and want. No other
group has the knowledge or skills required to take over the various
industries now controlled by corporations and the State, and to
repurpose them in service of human needs.
This knowledge, spread throughout the working class, will be necessary
if we want to ever abolish this rotten capitalist system. To get rid of
bosses, landlords, and politicians once and for all; to build a free
community of equals, where no one is compelled by a fear of poverty to
work for a boss; we need to build workers' power. Without it, revolution
is impossible. And only through revolution can we finally be free to
choose our own paths in life, without fear of hunger, war, or the
destruction of the natural world.
https://melbacg.au/anarchism-101-why-the-working-class/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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