Co-operatives or class struggle?

Every so often the question of co-operatives is raised in the revolutionary socialist movement. Optimistic positions suggest that co-ops can form the basis for replacing capitalism with a new economy based on solidarity and labour where workers have ‘control’ and even suggest they are a vital part of revolutionary strategy. […]

Fictitious splits over the Spanish Revolution

David Glanz, a member of the Trotskyist organisation Solidarity, recently gave a talk on the Spanish Revolution, offering it as evidence of the ‘failure of anarchism’. The talk is reasonably representative of the standard Leninist position, and therefore follows the same tendency to misrepresent both the events in Spain and […]

UKRAINE: No war but the class war

First published as ‘The Ukraine War’, in The Anvil Vol 12 No 3. After the fall of the USSR in 1991, Ukraine became independent. The United States promised Russia that NATO would not expand eastwards, but it didn’t take long for Uncle Sam to renege. Without a global rival to […]

Iraq and afterwards — 20 years on

Originally published in The Anvil, vol. 12, no. 2. Iraq On the 20th of March 2003, the United States, at the head of a “coalition of the willing”, in which both Britain and Australia were prominent, invaded Iraq. The main justification offered was the need to destroy Saddam Hussein’s supposed […]

Black and white image of three men standing in a road. One is offering a range of newspapers to the other two.

In defence of paper sales

In the aftermath of anti-Trans bigotry and violence in Melbourne and Sydney some progressive activists have focused their wrath on socialists rather than the bigots, police or the state. Attacks on the right of socialists to openly organise and proclaim their politics only strengthens the powers that be and undermines […]

Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation

Anarcho-Syndicalism and Dual Organisation

How should anarchists, concerned with rebuilding a fighting movement of the working class, organise today? As anarchists, we recognise that our fight against the bosses isn’t made through elections, or in parliament, but at work. We have power when we organise with our co-workers, take action which disrupts the ability […]

Chinese workers fight back

This article first appeared in The Anvil, Vol 11 No 6, published 31 December 2022. What is the significance of the recent protests in China and what should we take from them here in Australia? The capitalist press have mostly stuck to a simplistic explanation based purely on opposition to […]

Build movements not elections

First published as “Victorian Election 2022”, in The Anvil, Vol. 11, No. 5, September-October 2022. The Victorian State election will be held on 26 November.  The Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group is not participating, of course, but the occasion provides an opportunity to reflect on capitalist democracy, on how to build a […]