New on the blog: Tommy reviews Ted Reese's book on Grossman.
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2022/10/17/review-ted-reeses-the-end-of-capitalism-the-thought-of-henryk-grossman/
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2022/10/17/review-ted-reeses-the-end-of-capitalism-the-thought-of-henryk-grossman/
Red and Black Notes
REVIEW: Ted Reese’s ‘The End of Capitalism: The Thought of Henryk Grossman’
Ted Reese’s ‘The End of Capitalism: The Thought of Henryk Grossman’ sets out to introduce the ideas and life of Henryk Grossman, an important if somewhat little known Marxist economist. …
On 100 years of the IWA
"December 2022 marks the centenary of the International Workers Association (IWA). Founded by a range of ‘syndicalist’ unions as an alternative to the Communist International, the IWA once organised millions of workers. Syndicalist unions had been leading organisations in social revolts across Latin America and Europe. The Confederación Nacional Trabajadore (CNT) in particular was the leading organisation of the Spanish revolution where the limits of anarcho-syndicalism were put to the test.
Many material and political factors played into the rapid rise, and fall, of revolutionary syndicalism. Today, the IWA still exists, but is but a shell of its former self. The IWA and the history of syndicalism however remain important points of reference for the workers movement."
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2022/12/28/a-century-of-the-international-workers-association-iwa-1922-2022/
"December 2022 marks the centenary of the International Workers Association (IWA). Founded by a range of ‘syndicalist’ unions as an alternative to the Communist International, the IWA once organised millions of workers. Syndicalist unions had been leading organisations in social revolts across Latin America and Europe. The Confederación Nacional Trabajadore (CNT) in particular was the leading organisation of the Spanish revolution where the limits of anarcho-syndicalism were put to the test.
Many material and political factors played into the rapid rise, and fall, of revolutionary syndicalism. Today, the IWA still exists, but is but a shell of its former self. The IWA and the history of syndicalism however remain important points of reference for the workers movement."
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2022/12/28/a-century-of-the-international-workers-association-iwa-1922-2022/
Red and Black Notes
A Century of the International Workers Association (IWA) 1922-2022
“The myth of Nin or Durruti is of no use to us at all, whereas their shortcomings and mistakes are useful, because they teach us something. The myths of yesterday are the chains of today; to reveal…
Recent articles on Red and Black Notes
Anarcho-Syndicalism and Dual Organisation
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/02/07/anarcho-syndicalism-and-dual-organisation/
Some comments on a recent article regarding operaismo and “autonomism”
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/03/29/some-comments-on-a-recent-article-regarding-operaismo-and-autonomism-steve-wright/
In defence of paper sales
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/04/05/in-defence-of-paper-sales/
Iraq and afterwards — 20 years on
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/05/18/iraq-and-afterwards-20-years-on/
Anarcho-Syndicalism and Dual Organisation
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/02/07/anarcho-syndicalism-and-dual-organisation/
Some comments on a recent article regarding operaismo and “autonomism”
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/03/29/some-comments-on-a-recent-article-regarding-operaismo-and-autonomism-steve-wright/
In defence of paper sales
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/04/05/in-defence-of-paper-sales/
Iraq and afterwards — 20 years on
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/05/18/iraq-and-afterwards-20-years-on/
Red and Black Notes
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…
New article from the Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/07/16/ukraine-no-war-but-the-class-war/
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/07/16/ukraine-no-war-but-the-class-war/
Red and Black Notes
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 exp…
Responding to David Glanz of Solidarity (AU) on Spain and Anarchism.
And really, responding to the same lazy talking points that the descendants of the Socialist Workers Party (UK) have been trotting out for decades.
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/07/23/fictitious-splits-over-the-spanish-revolution/
And really, responding to the same lazy talking points that the descendants of the Socialist Workers Party (UK) have been trotting out for decades.
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/07/23/fictitious-splits-over-the-spanish-revolution/
Red and Black Notes
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 repres…
New stickers up at Garage Press: https://garagepressdistro.bigcartel.com/product/anti-transphobia-action-sticker-10pk
Garage Press and Distro
"Anti-Transphobia Action", sticker 10pk
"Anti-Transphobia Action" 60mm circle. Vinyl sticker, die cut. Standard order is a 10 pack of stickers. Use the options drop down to...
The Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group has issued the following statement on the situation in Palestine
https://melbacg.au/statement-on-gaza/
The Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group extends its solidarity to the Palestinian resistance against Israeli apartheid.
Contrary to statements made by Israel’s apologists, the attacks by Hamas militants in Southern Israel were not ‘unprovoked’. Palestinians have been provoked, ethnically cleansed, imprisoned, tortured, murdered, and subjected to daily humiliations for decades.
Where the attacks by Hamas (a thoroughly reactionary organisation) have targeted civilians, we totally reject them. The majority of the working class in Israel is certainly complicit in apartheid, and we don’t expect Jewish-worker solidarity with Palestinians to be a significant force in the near future. It remains the case, however, that such a development will ultimately be necessary, and that this is not encouraged by unjustifiable attacks on civilian Israeli workers. It is also important to recognise that the crimes of Hamas, though real, are merely a pale echo of Israel’s. The graveyards of Gaza overflow with the civilian victims of Israeli violence.
Armed resistance against the Israeli State, and the fascism it fosters, is another story. The people of Gaza — inhabitants of the world’s largest open air prison — have every right (whatever one thinks of the strategy) to break free of the hell the apartheid regime has imposed. Gazans are being poisoned by their water supply, economically strangled, and are subjected to routine bombardment. No war was launched by Hamas — war is the everyday reality for the Palestinian people.
The response by the far-right government in Israel will almost certainly be more savage than anything we have seen in the past two decades of ‘special operations’. There is a real danger of the military committing a monstrous act and presenting the world with a fait accompli .Moreover, the fascist movement in Israel increasingly speaks in terms of outright genocide — a final solution to the Palestinian problem.
To take their enormous courage and translate it into a defeat for the apartheid regime, the workers of Palestine have to act independently of their self-appointed leaders. The explosion of self-organisation and popular participation demonstrated in the First Intifada must be repeated.
Meanwhile, the workers of Israel must take up a position of No War But Class War. The settler colonial mentality, class collaboration, and fascism must be defeated. The apartheid State must collapse. Realistically, this will not occur without meaningful international working class solidarity. This will require struggle against the various dictatorships in the region, as well as a movement in the United States to end the vital support that sustains the status quo. Though the importance of Australia’s support for Israel isn’t comparable to that of the US, we must also have the same fight here.
The formation of a single binational State would not address the root causes of State conflict, racist nationalism, and exploitation. Only a movement of the entire class, united against bosses and politicians, both Arab and Jewish, can eliminate these poisons, and free every human being who currently resides Between the River and the Sea, in the land of Palestine.
DOWN WITH APARTHEID
NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR
https://melbacg.au/statement-on-gaza/
The Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group extends its solidarity to the Palestinian resistance against Israeli apartheid.
Contrary to statements made by Israel’s apologists, the attacks by Hamas militants in Southern Israel were not ‘unprovoked’. Palestinians have been provoked, ethnically cleansed, imprisoned, tortured, murdered, and subjected to daily humiliations for decades.
Where the attacks by Hamas (a thoroughly reactionary organisation) have targeted civilians, we totally reject them. The majority of the working class in Israel is certainly complicit in apartheid, and we don’t expect Jewish-worker solidarity with Palestinians to be a significant force in the near future. It remains the case, however, that such a development will ultimately be necessary, and that this is not encouraged by unjustifiable attacks on civilian Israeli workers. It is also important to recognise that the crimes of Hamas, though real, are merely a pale echo of Israel’s. The graveyards of Gaza overflow with the civilian victims of Israeli violence.
Armed resistance against the Israeli State, and the fascism it fosters, is another story. The people of Gaza — inhabitants of the world’s largest open air prison — have every right (whatever one thinks of the strategy) to break free of the hell the apartheid regime has imposed. Gazans are being poisoned by their water supply, economically strangled, and are subjected to routine bombardment. No war was launched by Hamas — war is the everyday reality for the Palestinian people.
The response by the far-right government in Israel will almost certainly be more savage than anything we have seen in the past two decades of ‘special operations’. There is a real danger of the military committing a monstrous act and presenting the world with a fait accompli .Moreover, the fascist movement in Israel increasingly speaks in terms of outright genocide — a final solution to the Palestinian problem.
To take their enormous courage and translate it into a defeat for the apartheid regime, the workers of Palestine have to act independently of their self-appointed leaders. The explosion of self-organisation and popular participation demonstrated in the First Intifada must be repeated.
Meanwhile, the workers of Israel must take up a position of No War But Class War. The settler colonial mentality, class collaboration, and fascism must be defeated. The apartheid State must collapse. Realistically, this will not occur without meaningful international working class solidarity. This will require struggle against the various dictatorships in the region, as well as a movement in the United States to end the vital support that sustains the status quo. Though the importance of Australia’s support for Israel isn’t comparable to that of the US, we must also have the same fight here.
The formation of a single binational State would not address the root causes of State conflict, racist nationalism, and exploitation. Only a movement of the entire class, united against bosses and politicians, both Arab and Jewish, can eliminate these poisons, and free every human being who currently resides Between the River and the Sea, in the land of Palestine.
DOWN WITH APARTHEID
NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR
New on the blog:
Juan Verala Luz reviews Anarchist Popular Power: Dissident Labor and Armed Struggle in Uruguay 1956-1976.
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/10/09/lessons-in-struggle-from-uruguayan-anarchists/
Juan Verala Luz reviews Anarchist Popular Power: Dissident Labor and Armed Struggle in Uruguay 1956-1976.
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/10/09/lessons-in-struggle-from-uruguayan-anarchists/
Red and Black Notes
Lessons in Struggle from Uruguayan Anarchists
Juan Verala Luz reviews Anarchist Popular Power: Dissident Labor and Armed Struggle in Uruguay 1956-1976. This review began as opening remarks at a recent book launch for Anarchist Popular Pow…
Also, Join Red & Black Notes and Troy Kokinis, author of Anarchist Popular Power: Dissident Labour and Armed Struggle in Uruguay,
on 22nd October at 3pm AEST for an online book talk!
Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83718001382#success
on 22nd October at 3pm AEST for an online book talk!
Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83718001382#success
Zoom Video
Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting
Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution…
New on the blog, "Palestine, platitudes and silence"
Tony Lawson speaks up on anarchists staying silent.
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/11/16/palestine-platitudes-and-silence/
Tony Lawson speaks up on anarchists staying silent.
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2023/11/16/palestine-platitudes-and-silence/
Red and Black Notes
Palestine, platitudes and silence
‘In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.’ Martin Luther King Jr. It is no secret that the history of Palestinian resistance is deeply intertw…
The following statement has been collectively published by Geelong Anarchist Communists, Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group and Anarchist Communists Meanjin.
"On the 1st of May, 1886, unions in Chicago influenced by the American anarchist movement went on strike for the eight hour day. A worker was shot dead by a cop, leading to a protest on the 4th. An unidentified person threw a bomb and the police started shooting. Eight Anarchists were convicted for the bombing in a kangaroo court. The State killed four, while one committed suicide. The labour movement started a campaign for the exoneration of the Haymarket Martyrs and eventually succeeded. In the process, May Day became the day of the international workers’ movement."
https://geelonganarchists.org/2024/05/01/may-day-statement-2024/
"On the 1st of May, 1886, unions in Chicago influenced by the American anarchist movement went on strike for the eight hour day. A worker was shot dead by a cop, leading to a protest on the 4th. An unidentified person threw a bomb and the police started shooting. Eight Anarchists were convicted for the bombing in a kangaroo court. The State killed four, while one committed suicide. The labour movement started a campaign for the exoneration of the Haymarket Martyrs and eventually succeeded. In the process, May Day became the day of the international workers’ movement."
https://geelonganarchists.org/2024/05/01/may-day-statement-2024/
Anarchist Communist Federation - Geelong
May Day Statement 2024
The following statement has been collectively published by Geelong Anarchist Communists, Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group and Anarchist Communists Meanjin. On the 1st of May, 1886, unions in Chi…
New on the blog from Sam Murray
"So there are no shortcuts. No ‘one weird trick’, whether electoral opportunism, Leninist putschism or insurrectionary individualism. The crackpots building bunkers in the hills will be waiting a long time with their beans. The environmental struggle is much like any other struggle. Reforms can be won and progress made, but there can never be a green capitalism, and final safety for the planet requires the victory of our class over capitalism."
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2025/05/26/how-much-is-the-planet-likely-to-warm-this-century/
"So there are no shortcuts. No ‘one weird trick’, whether electoral opportunism, Leninist putschism or insurrectionary individualism. The crackpots building bunkers in the hills will be waiting a long time with their beans. The environmental struggle is much like any other struggle. Reforms can be won and progress made, but there can never be a green capitalism, and final safety for the planet requires the victory of our class over capitalism."
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2025/05/26/how-much-is-the-planet-likely-to-warm-this-century/
Red and Black Notes
How much is the planet likely to warm this century?
An exploration of climate futures for working class militants. Modelling the future of global warming is a deeply difficult exercise. There are two main sources of uncertainty. One is uncertainty i…