Library

Welcome to the occupation

Published February 2012. Written for Shift's Precarity series, the Introduction to which can be read here.

What are the meanings of ‘occupation’ today? How might the word’s different uses relate to each other, specifically in the context of the UK’s current political situation?

Precarity and the workplace: an account of organising at an FE College

Published online in February 2012. Written by Siobhan as part of Shift's Precarity series, the introduction to which can be read here.

This is a personal account of an anti casualisation struggle where I work. Frustratingly, we are right in the middle of our struggle and bogged down in the bureaucratic mud at the moment, so I won’t be able to tell you if we won or not!

“Real Democracy”: an interview with Michael Hardt

Published online, October 2011.

On October 15th, hundreds of squares were occupied worldwide by activists united by the slogan ‘real democracy now’. Here, Shift Magazine editor Raphael Schlembach interviews Michael Hardt, author (with Toni Negri) of Empire, Multitude, and Commonwealth.

[b]In the latest print issue of Shift Magazine [issue 13], John Holloway argues that “real democracy is and must be a frontal assault on the power of money”. He implies that the demand ‘real democracy now’ is not enough in itself, but must be connected to a movement against the rule of money-capital-state-abstract labour.

Occupied London: revolt and crisis in Greece

Published online July 2011. Review of the book "Revolt and Crisis in Greece: Between a Present Yet to Pass and a Future Still to Come", edited by Antonis Vradis and Dimitris Dalakoglou: an Occupied London Project (published by AK Press, 2011).

“We feel that what is being played out in Greece poses some enormous questions that reaches far beyond the place itself, or the people that live there.”

Greece: "We are drowning, let's sink the rotten boat"

Published online August 2011.

One month after the 48-hour general strike in Greece, with the austerity package passed, and after the extreme police terrorism unleashed on protesters (involving 2860 teargas canisters thrown indiscriminately even at first-aid centres, inside the metro station, and into cafes 1.5km away from the demonstration; beatings of everyone including men and women of old age; extensive rock-throwing at pro

Review of Fighting For Ourselves

A review of the Solidarity Federation's booklet Fighting For Ourselves in issue 80 of the Anarchist Federation's magazine Organise!

Fighting for Ourselves: Anarcho-syndicalism and the class struggle.

Solidarity Federation. 2012. 121pp. Availability & pricing: http://www.selfed.org.uk/read/ffo

At your service: tales from community service part 2. Faggot till I die

Article about being queer and on community service in the UK, written by a participant.

The Raven 02

Issue 2 of The Raven journal from August 1987 with articles from Colin Ward on self-help in urban renewal, Geoffrey Ostergaard on Indian anarchism and Vinoba Bhave and more.

At your service: tales from community service

An article written by a contributor who is currently serving a 120 hour community payback order, in which they are required to do a program of unpaid work for the terrible “community”1. This article forms the first part of a short series detailing different aspects and analysis of the community payback program, from thinking about the actions being performed and their implications to offering a kind of insight into what this shit is actually like.

Part 1: Honor amongst thieves.

China in revolt

Eli Friedman on some of the recent strikes in China.

The Chinese working class plays a Janus-like role in the political imaginary of neoliberalism. On the one hand, it’s imagined as the competitive victor of capitalist globalization, the conquering juggernaut whose rise spells defeat for the working classes of the rich world.