Libcom

div class=field field-type-filefield field-field-photo div class=field-items div class=field-item odd div class=filefield-fileimg class=filefield-icon field-icon-image-jpeg alt=image/jpeg icon src=http://libcom.org/sites/libcom.org/modules/contrib/filefield/icons/image-x-generic.png /a href=http://libcom.org/files/images/library/00 - Croix Cover.jpg type=image/jpeg; length=2261700 - Croix Cover.jpg/a/div /div /div /div div class=field field-type-text field-field-introduction div class=field-items div class=field-item odd p This text is a challenging work on ancient history and should be of interest to historians of the Greco-Roman world. It combines sociological acumen with solid historical craftsmanship, to provide an insightful account of the major institutions, social groups and historical developments of some 1400 years of Graeco-Roman civilization. /p /div /div /div

div class=field field-type-filefield field-field-photo div class=field-items div class=field-item odd div class=filefield-fileimg class=filefield-icon field-icon-image-png alt=image/png icon src=http://libcom.org/sites/libcom.org/modules/contrib/filefield/icons/image-x-generic.png /a href=http://libcom.org/files/images/blog/Picture 13.png type=image/png; length=997055Picture 13.png/a/div /div /div /div div class=field field-type-text field-field-introduction div class=field-items div class=field-item odd p Check out this interview with Noam Chomsky about the growing housing justice movement, the future of Occupy, and how direct action can play into all of this. /p /div /div /div p As a commentator, educator, public intellectual, and one of the best-known anarchist voices in the U.S., Noam Chomsky has become a defining perspective as social movements develop. His analysis of the shift in global capitalism, and our own role in its flux, has seen a recharge of importance as we entered the “new normal” of the post-2008 economy. /p div class=field field-type-text field-field-key-quote div class=field-items div class=field-item odd You never know when it’s going to take off. You couldn’t have predicted that in Greensboro, North Carolina. You couldn’t have predicted it with Rosa Parks. You couldn’t have predicted it with Zuccotti Park. -Noam Chomsky /div /div /div pa href=http://libcom.org/blog/direct-action-occupy-wallstreet-future-housing-justice-interview-noam-chomsky-17042013 target=_blankread more/a/p

div class=field field-type-filefield field-field-photo div class=field-items div class=field-item odd div class=filefield-fileimg class=filefield-icon field-icon-image-jpeg alt=image/jpeg icon src=http://libcom.org/sites/libcom.org/modules/contrib/filefield/icons/image-x-generic.png /a href=http://libcom.org/files/images/library/phoca_thumb_l_spanien108.jpg type=image/jpeg; length=43877phoca_thumb_l_spanien108.jpg/a/div /div /div /div div class=field field-type-text field-field-introduction div class=field-items div class=field-item odd p Libcom.org's reading guide on literature with a focus on work and accurate representations of working class life, culture and resistance to power. /p /div /div /div h2a name=AmericanAmerican/a/h2 pspan style=font-weight:boldAlfred Bester/span/p ul class=bb-list style=list-style-type:circle; li a href=http://libcom.org/library/stars-my-destination-alfred-bester class=bb-urlThe Stars My Destination/a - In a world where transportation is possible with a thought, prisoners break free, economies crash and the slums emptied. Gully Foyle is marooned in space with a material that could destroy the universe. He has to give it away, but to who?/li /ul pa href=http://libcom.org/library/working-class-literature-reading-guide target=_blankread more/a/p

div class=field field-type-filefield field-field-photo div class=field-items div class=field-item odd div class=filefield-fileimg class=filefield-icon field-icon-image-jpeg alt=image/jpeg icon src=http://libcom.org/sites/libcom.org/modules/contrib/filefield/icons/image-x-generic.png /a href=http://libcom.org/files/images/library/congresfora.jpg type=image/jpeg; length=41602congresfora.jpg/a/div /div /div /div div class=field field-type-text field-field-introduction div class=field-items div class=field-item odd p This piece has a number of intriguing ideas that were circulating in the FORA. Lopez Arango counterposes a static view of unions and anarchism to one inherently grounded in trajectories of struggle, and puts the dynamics of change in struggle at the core of revolutionary work. Though this is only fragmentary, it provides a rare insight into another side of anarchism and unions, and one that gives a refreshing departure from more schematic and purely moralistic or ideological orientations. /p /div /div /div p From the weekly supplement of La Protesta, July 13, 1925br / Emilio López Arango (translated by SN Nappalos) /p div class=field field-type-text field-field-key-quote div class=field-items div class=field-item odd quot;What interests us is not the object pursued by the proletariat... but rather the way they express their discontent... and the means used to secure their conquestsquot;. /div /div /div div class=field field-type-text field-field-kq-attribution div class=field-items div class=field-item odd Emilio Lopez Arango /div /div /div pa href=http://libcom.org/library/syndicalism-anarchism target=_blankread more/a/p

div class=field field-type-filefield field-field-photo div class=field-items div class=field-item odd div class=filefield-fileimg class=filefield-icon field-icon-image-jpeg alt=image/jpeg icon src=http://libcom.org/sites/libcom.org/modules/contrib/filefield/icons/image-x-generic.png /a href=http://libcom.org/files/images/blog/11_0.jpg type=image/jpeg; length=30936511.jpg/a/div /div /div /div div class=field field-type-text field-field-introduction div class=field-items div class=field-item odd p In this article, Madaline tells the story of how she fell into organizing and the IWW – pushed both by terrible bosses and by amazing solidarity among her coworkers. /p /div /div /div p If the first week of work at Artistry Bakery and Cafe was any indication, there was no way this four-month experience should ever have resulted in two of the strongest friendships in my life. I was introduced on the first day to a group of men and women, mostly about University age, who were also going to be working with me at the restaurant. /p pa href=http://libcom.org/blog/working-artistry-bakery-cafe-13042013 target=_blankread more/a/p

div class=field field-type-filefield field-field-photo div class=field-items div class=field-item odd div class=filefield-fileimg class=filefield-icon field-icon-image-png alt=image/png icon src=http://libcom.org/sites/libcom.org/modules/contrib/filefield/icons/image-x-generic.png /a href=http://libcom.org/files/images/news/welfare-spending.PNG type=image/png; length=20617welfare-spending.PNG/a/div /div /div /div div class=field field-type-text field-field-introduction div class=field-items div class=field-item odd p Excellent document from the New Economics Foundation debunking government and media rhetoric about benefit quot;skiversquot; and showing that only 2.6% of welfare spending is on the unemployed. /p /div /div /div h3 id=execSummaryExecutive Summary/h3 div class=vertical-margindiv class=product-bodyh2strongThe myth/strong/h2p‘Strivers versus skivers’ purports to sums up our welfare state, and why, therefore, the benefits system should be reformed./p /div/divpa href=http://libcom.org/news/mythbuster-strivers-v-skivers-13042013 target=_blankread more/a/p

div class=field field-type-filefield field-field-photo div class=field-items div class=field-item odd div class=filefield-fileimg class=filefield-icon field-icon-image-jpeg alt=image/jpeg icon src=http://libcom.org/sites/libcom.org/modules/contrib/filefield/icons/image-x-generic.png /a href=http://libcom.org/files/images/library/photo (20)_0.JPG type=image/jpeg; length=84065photo (20).JPG/a/div /div /div /div div class=field field-type-text field-field-introduction div class=field-items div class=field-item odd p In 2012, workers at a small moving company in New York City rose up against bad pay and dangerous work conditions. In the course of the struggle, much was revealed about how exploitation operates; how the enticements of #039;self-expression#039; and a #039;laid back#039; atmosphere serve to weaken consciousness and collective action. At the same time, this history reveals the opportunities and limits that workers face within self-organized struggles in a small business format. This is an updated version with a new 2013 afterward by the original author. /p /div /div /div p In the Summer of 2012 the exploited workers at Rabbit Movers autonomously organized our shop and began the fight for control over the conditions of our lives. This is one worker’s account of how it all went down. /p pspan style=font-weight:bold“They Just Run Us Into The Ground...”/span /p div class=field field-type-text field-field-key-quote div class=field-items div class=field-item odd Rabbit Movers will not be under the tyranny of a union. I do this because I love it. Because I believe in it. As soon as the architecture of this company is dictated by a union - I will stop loving it... Save Rabbit Movers. Tell [the organizers] to Fuck Off. /div /div /div div class=field field-type-text field-field-kq-attribution div class=field-items div class=field-item odd Rabbit Movers Owner, Shawn Lyons /div /div /div pa href=http://libcom.org/library/moving-story-afterward target=_blankread more/a/p

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A critique of liberal conceptions of 'intersectionality' and an outline of an anarchist, class struggle approach.

We need to understand the body not as bound to the private or to the self—the western idea of the autonomous individual—but as being linked integrally to material expressions of community and public space.

Systemic oppressions such as white supremacy cannot be understood without an analysis of how those systems are gendered, sexualized, classed, etc. Similarly, this kind of analysis can be extended to understanding how all human relations of domination function. Abbey Volcano & J. Rogue

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Examinations of four different periods of struggles in the US, from the depression to the civil rights movement, suggesting formal organisationalism led them to fail.

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Full scanned version of the definitive grassroots history of the mass working class movement which defeated Margaret Thatcher's poll tax. 17 million people refused to pay the tax, which defeated it and brought Maggie's time as Prime Minister to a premature end.

This book tells the gripping inside story of the biggest mass movement in British history, which at its peak involved over 17 million people.

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An essay on the Soviets published in 1932 by the co-founder of the Spanish POUM, sympathetic to Lenin and critical of the “profound errors committed, after the death of Lenin, by the leadership of the Communist Party”, that characterizes the Soviets as “a system of government that is infinitely more democratic than the freest bourgeois republic”.

The Soviets: Their Origin, Development and Functions – Andreu Nin

The origin and nature of the Soviets

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This article aims to explain, from an anarchist / syndicalist perspective, the rapid rise and fall of Julius Malema, the controversial and corrupt multi-millionaire leader of South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) “youth league” (ANCYL). It is demonstrated that Malema’s posturing as radical champion of the black poor was simply a means to an end: rising higher in the ranks of the ANC, in order to access bigger state tenders and higher paying political office.

Introduction

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Some updates on a recent IWW campaign in Minneapolis, in which 5 workers were fired for organizing.

From The Organizer:

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A number of us have begun work on a pamphlet/online text which seeks to offer advice to those who suffer from depression. While the bulk of the text is complete, we’re still looking for submissions from those who’ve dealt with depression, how it’s affected their involvement in class politics, and what strategies folks have found useful for managing mental health in general.

It’s no secret that depression is common in the class struggle community. Coming out of a libcom discussion thread, we realized there was a need for a simple text to which those who are suffering from depression could be directed.

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The Public and Commercial Services Union has responded to threats of legal action by removing one section of its membership from the strike action due to take place on the 5 and 8 April. This shows the limits of legal trade unionism. It also underlines the urgent need for strong rank-and-file movements in the UK.

We’ve been here before. At the end of 2011, Balfour Beatty threatened to get an injunction against Unite the Union to stop the industrial action it had called for its members in construction. Unite responded by instantly capitulating.

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A blog about welfare reform from a social care worker's perspective, and the creation of the "welfare addict" as a recession-era scapegoat. Inspired largely by today's Novara show, and the people I work with.

I've got a personal grudge against a colleague of mine. I know this is bad for workplace solidarity. A month ago I sat in the office filling out a service user's DLA1

• 1. Disability Living Allowance – a non-means-tested benefit intended to cover the additional costs of having long term care or mobility needs.

The present waking nightmare of welfare reform divides the “deserving poor”, or “people incapacitated through no fault of their own”, from the “undeserving”, with a particular emphasis on the drug and alcohol dependent. Ramona

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An exhaustive article by Scott Nappalos on the Leninist conception of 'democratic centralism'. In this piece, Nappalos examines everything from what Lenin and Gransci said on the subject, to what it looked like in practice in organizations such as the Communist Party USA and Socialist Workers Party UK, among others.

The terrain is changing beneath our feet. Since the collapse of the majority of the “official Communist” regimes, the world has witnessed both events and ideas that have undermined the former dominant thinking within the left.

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Adam Weaver reviews Ron Taber's 1988 book, A Look At Leninism, which is available in PDF format here.

From Theory to Practice, Taking a Critical Look at Leninism
A Look At Leninism by Ron Taber. 104 pp. New York , New York : Aspect Foundation, 1988

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Belford Bax's 1899 history of the peasants war in Germany: the largest popular uprising in Europe besides the French revolution.

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An analysis of a major 1970s highpoint of class struggle in the UK; its character, implications and consequences.

Discontents

Preamble and Introduction:
History & Class Consciousness in the UK: Now Is The Winter Of Our Discontent

1: Preparing the fire: The period up to the Winter of Discontent
2: The spark that lit the prairie fire: The Ford Strike (Autumn 1978)

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