STATEMENT ON CALL OUTS FOR A RADICAL WORKERS’ BLOCK ON 26 March 2011.

As part the working class fight back against the ConDem government and local authority cuts, the Anarchist Federation supports all anarchist and libertarian communist call-outs for a radical workers’ block on the TUC demo in London on March 26th. We should all be visible as a distinctive and critical part of a labour movement, as a counter movement to the tried, tested and discredited strategy of the trades unions to bargain with the state in our interests. This bankrupt approach is exemplified by the TUC’s summoning of a ‘March for the Alternative: Jobs, Growth, Justice’, misses the points about what is wrong with capitalism. It cannot be fixed by the state; it is caused by the collaboration of the state and capitalism that the trades unions do nothing to undermine.

This will be the largest workers’ demonstration in years. As well as opposing the present government it is vital that we show other workers that there is a coherent movement opposed to trade union leaders that sold us out to the Labour government. Calls for workers’ unity with the Labour Party are a slap in the face for those people. We need to define ourselves against such political opportunism and be able to draw towards us workers interested in social anarchism/libertarian communism. Disillusionment and discontent with the system has never had so much potential, so being visible is vital.

We need to expect attacks by police and to be targeted by demonstration stewards. Private security hired by the TUC will be collaborating with the police in containing anger in the crowd.

But many anarchists are finding our ideas having more and more resonance in our communities and workplaces/places of study and many are involved in a process of organising with non-anarchists locally. Because our colleagues, friends and families, our class-mates, our fellow-claimants and also our local anti-cuts groups are attending and also want to be visible and coherent. So some class-struggle anarchists will want to march with the people we work, live and organise locally with, to build solidarity with the people we are experiencing the cuts alongside.

So this makes it all the more important that we have excellent propaganda that goes beyond rhetoric and relates the experiences we are sharing with people around us to a clear analysis of why this is happening and what has to be done in our home towns.