Tories Out!
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Cleary an issue of importance to the workng class. What do socialist have to say on such an important matter?
Austerity? Do we love it? Oppose it it?
Or could we give a fuck?
i can't imagine any socialist not caring about the imposition of wage cuts, the worsening of working conditions and employment contracts, or the claw-back on the already meagre state benefits of vulnerable and the unfortunate fellow- workers.Nor can i envisage any socialist not endorsing opposition and resistance to such acts and i can't believe any socialist would not be full-heartedly supporting those who make a stand and fight back either by industrial action or merely protests and demonstrations, or, where they can, even by resorting to legal procedures and using the law against the law-makers.If people cannot organise against austerity and have the courage to take action to resist it, just where will they acquire the the cooperation and valour needed to achieve socialism?Sure they are not yet demanding socialism, that is our task in the Socialist Party to educate, agitate and organise so that people understand the cause of our misery and realise what the solution is and how we alone can end our deprivation. Perhaps we should concentrate our attention on how we fail to communicate that message effectively and stop berating our fellow-workers for their failure to comprehend why the economic system does not operate in their interest…after all, from cradle to coffin, they are told capitalism works…when they discover that isn't quite the truth, that is the opening for ourselves to explain why and how we can change things. Meantime, i applaud positive action by my fellow workers to maintain or improve their lives, even if they still have a bit to go to acquire socialist consciousness even if it is simply tens of thousands of them marching from A to B to make a collective statement of "enough is enough…no more"…They'll learn how better to express their views and how more effective they can demonstrate their determination to protest…after all
Quote:"That the emancipation of labour is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society exists, and depending for its solution on the concurrence, practical and theoretical, of the most advanced countries"Just to add by quoting Wilhem Reich –
Quote:“Question: If two human beings, A and B, are starving, one of them may accept his fate, refuse to steal, and take to begging or die from hunger, while the other may take the law into his own hands in order to obtain food. A large part of the proletariat, often called the lumpenproletariat, live according to the principles of B. Which of the two types has more elements of class consciousness in him? Stealing is not yet a sign of class consciousness but a brief moment of reflection shows, despite our inner moral resistance, that the man who refuses to submit to law and steals when he is hungry, that’s to say, the man who manifests a will to live, has more energy and fight in him than the one who lies down unprotesting on the butchers slab …we have said that stealing is not yet class consciousness. A brick is not yet a house, but you use bricks to build a house” – SEX-POLalanjjohnstone wrote:Alterbnatively, fight austerity the anarchist wayI don't think so. Emma Goodman was a vanguardist and certainly not a role model. Here's what the September 1924 Socialist Standard wrote about her:
Quote:Emma Goldman in her book Anarchism and Other Essays says the majority is always wrong. The Anarchists, therefore, will either rule with a minority or be wrong if they become a majority. She further states the great mass of the people never were and never will be the ones to progress. Just the intellectual few. Such views mean that the great body of people will depend upon the kindness and wisdom of the Anarchist intellectuals to guide and mother us.The offending article can be found here, particularly in chapter 2 "Minorities Versus Majorities" and its concluding sentence:
Emma Goldmann wrote:In other words, the living, vital truth of social and economic well-being will become a reality only through the zeal, courage, the non-compromising determination of intelligent minorities, and not through the mass."Emma Goodman was a vanguardist"There was an actual anarchist magazine called The Vanguard published in the 30s in America of which she was a regular contributor, or at least they published a number of her articles. https://libcom.org/library/vanguard-libertarian-communist-journal
If there are are willing members why can't we join marches like this, after all we want to 'end austerity' don't we?What about a placard with something like "End Austerity through Democratic revolution- SPGB"We support our fellow workers against austerity and for revolution.
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