Rethinking class: from recomposition to counterpower - Paul Bowman
In this article Paul Bowman draws a line between revolutionary class analysis and universalist utopianism and goes on to explore the history of different ideas of class and the elusive revolutionary subject. After exploring the intersecting lines of class and identity, he poses the challenge that we as libertarian communists face as we strive to create “cultural and organisational forms of class power [that] do not unconsciously recreate the... hierarchies of identity and exclusion” that are the hallmark of the present society.
Against universalism, against utopianism
The term class divides people into two camps. One which seems to uphold its validity with an almost cult-like intensity, and a much larger camp that is at best undecided, but mostly turned off entirely by it – and especially so by the apparently religious fervour of the small minority in the first camp.
Pope embraces the No Choice March in Rome
Submitted by StrugglesInItaly on May 13 2013 22:13
Pro-life supporters march in Rome on Mother's Day (March 12); meanwhile a hundred of left-wing activist also rallied to remember Giorgiana Masi, the 18-year old who was killed in 1977 during a rally celebrating the anniversary of the victory of the divorce referendum.
Straight into the arms of Francis I, the new Pope: the pro-life march held in Rome on May 12 (Mother’s Day) couldn’t have asked for a better ending.
Response to the views of Mia Freedman on sex work
Submitted by bounce on May 7 2013 18:16
A sex worker's response to columnist Mia Freedman's blog in which implied that she does not respect the right of women with mental illness to become sex workers.
A few weeks ago both Dr Brooke Magnanti and Mia Freedman appeared on an all women panel on Q and A. Quite a few topics were discussed, one being sex work.
The Combahee River Collective statement
A 1977 statement by a black feminist group which is widely considered a foundational text of the 'intersectional' approach to identity politics, which emphasises multiple, simultaneous forms of oppression.
We are a collective of Black feminists who have been meeting together since 1974.1 During that time we have been involved in the process of defining and clarifying our politics, while at the same time doing political work within our own group and in coalition with other progressive organizations and movements.
- 1. This statement is dated April 1977.
The work/energy crisis and the apocalypse - George Caffentzis
1980 essay by George Caffentzis examining capitalist society following the 1973 energy and economic crisis amidst the widespread refusal of work by women and the young.
Anagrams - Lorrie Moore
Benna leads different lives, English teacher, nightclub singer, aerobics instructor. She's a mother and she's never had children. The stories and settings shift around but all are a darkly comic look at being a 30 something woman in America.
“Ironies of the saint” Malcolm X, black women, and the price of protection - Farah Griffin
Submitted by wojtek on Apr 16 2013 17:20
Farah Griffin's black feminist critique of Malcolm X and the "promise of protection".
As seen in Chapter Twelve of Sisters in the Struggle: African-American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement by Bettye Collier-Thomas and V.P. Franklin, pages 214-229.
Insurrections at the intersections: feminism, intersectionality and anarchism - Abbey Volcano and J Rogue
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.
Steve Hedley: not “cleared of domestic violence” with a case still to answer - Andy Littlechild
Submitted by libcom on Apr 9 2013 15:13
Steve Hedley was not cleared of domestic violence and still has a case to answer according to the RMT rep representing his former partner in her complaint of physical, emotional and verbal abuse.
I’m writing the following statement as the RMT rep representing Caroline Leneghan in relation to her complaint of physical, emotional and verbal abuse by Steve Hedley RMT Assistant General Secretary.
Toward a cybernetic communism: the technology of the anti-family - Nina Power
Nina Power's critique of Shulamith Firestone's classic radical feminist text, 'The Dialectic of Sex'.
In 'The Dialectic of Sex' Shulamith Firestone declares her version of communism to be the most radical yet, incorporating and extending the vision of hitherto existing revolutionary thought through the inclusion of two often-ignored components of human and social life: the unconscious and the family. In her own words, ‘[i]f there were a word more all-embracing than revolution we would use it’.
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