These articles are an introduction to the militant wing of the workers’ movement – starting from experiences of daily life, rather than academic theories. It begins with the practical question we all face as working class people: how do we improve our lives? We talk about a little theory and a little history, but it always comes back to this: what we can do and how can we do it?
Most syndicalists or militant trade unionists or working class activists started out this way – we learned on the job, as we struggled and saw radical ideas play out around us. We didnt learn from the academics texts first of all, but from other people who had come before us and shared the spirit of the workers’ movement. That’s why this text is needed – to try and pass on some of those lessons and that fighting spirit, in a way that is accessible to more people, and maybe without going through all the mistakes and false starts we went through to get here ourselves.
But for all that, please remember that THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING. This text doesn’t have all the answers. There is still work to be done, and I’m sure plenty of mistakes for others to make right. Not only that, but we haven’t won yet and we will have to do a lot more than we’ve ever done before if we are going to take the struggle forwards. That’s your job now. Build on what is written here, but don’t take it as dogma. It’s the job of all of us, every single one, to figure out how to beat the exploiters. WE are the ones we’ve been waiting for!
The series so far…
- Why we Fight the Class War
- Direct Action: HOW we Fight the Class War
- Class and Oppression: an injury to one is an injury to all
- Class and the State
- Social Revolution: What it Really Stands For
- Organisations: what are they good for?
The featured image on this post comes from Tintin: Breaking Free. An anarchist take on the Tintin comics, subverted to talk about militant class struggle and revolution. It’s good and you can read it here: https://libcom.org/article/adventures-tintin-breaking-free