Photo: Neil Jackson
SEE OUR SISTER WEBSITES: RESIST26.ORG and BATTLEOFBRITAINMARCH26.ORG
‘An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory’ (F. Engels)
WHAT’S THE PLAN?
The TUC are calling a huge march for
SATURDAY MARCH 26
‘March for the Alternative’
But what IS the alternative?
We doubt the TUC bureaucrats have much idea, but the people of who have been in direct action on the streets at Millbank, in Vodaphone and Topshop, in university and college occupations, against tuition fee rises and the EMA cuts, and local government cuts at Town Halls across the country -- they have the right idea!
We need to seize the spaces where people can gather into direct democracy decision-making bodies -- Peoples’ Assemblies. We need to challenge the legitimacy of this feeble and hated Con-Dem government by establishing alternative sovereignty in as many key locations as possible.
We think by March 26, with the galvanic student movement, and the looming Eurozone crisis, a strong majority of rank-and-file trade unionists will NOT be satisfied by a march from A to B, or footprints going round in circles, as the TUC march logo has it!
We propose a map of direct action targets for March 26 (media, education, local and national government buildings, bank branches, courts, police stations, libraries) to be seized and occupied as seats of the sovereign populace, including any places, space or agencies that should be held accountable to their local communities. We, the people, should be making the decisions about how to share our commonwealth.
http://www.tuc.org.uk/theme/index.cfm?theme=alltogether
http://www.strongerunions.org/2011/01/17/stewards-wanted-for-march-for-the-alternative/
http://www.tuc.org.uk/alltogetherfor/stewarding.cfm
HOW TO SET UP A PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY IN YOUR AREA
Pick a local issue. Book a room in a well-known local building. Better still, just occupy the place anyway. Put up notices everywhere, hold your meeting and proceed from there. Remember: no law is valid without popular consent. Do the authorities lack credibility? Did they lie to the electorate? Did they gain power through electoral fraud? Then don’t just confront them with demands -- take action in their place. That’s what Peoples’ Assemblies are for. Don’t hate the media -- BE the media! Don’t hate the authorities --
BE the self-governing authorities!
Note: The most powerful People’s Assemblies
will be strike committees formed to maintain
and extend industrial action across London,
across the U.K. and across Europe. Some
groups in Britain are calling on the TUC to
‘call a general strike.’ But why rely on bureaucrats
to do what everyone knows they won’t?
Our demand to the TUC is backed by an
ultimatum: Call a General Strike --
OR MAKE WAY FOR THOSE OF US WHO WILL!
The Trades Union Congress should be
co-ordinating the class struggle across
Britain. They should be co-ordinating industrial
action to bring this hated government down. But
don’t hate your union when it won’t do its
job -- after all, the union is its membership. You ARE the union. In the same way, don’t hate the
TUC -- BE the TUC. Then we can call that general strike ourselves....
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: What exactly is ‘dual power’?
A: The Arab states in early 2011 provide an example. It’s a situation in which alternative regimes uneasily co-exist -- the old state machines face to face with their revolutionary replacements gaining confidence in neighbourhoods, workplaces and on the streets.
Q: Are you serious about triggering such a situation in London on March 26?
A: Yes. Check out on the morning of March 27: the political landscape will have changed.
Q: But won’t that just mean the return of a bunch of Labour politicians? What difference would that make?
A: Having toppled one government we can topple the next. Bringing down the Con-Dems by direct action in our workplaces and on the streets would undermine not just the Tories but their whole system -- the bankers, the oligarchy, the state.
Q: Still, we’d end up with some kind of Labour Government?
A: If by ‘Labour’ you mean the self-organised working class -- a government pledged to bash the rich -- you could say yes. ‘Labour’ in the original sense. Self-government by our class, for our class, of our class! But a ‘Labour government‘ in the discredited parliamentary sense -- whether ‘Old Labour‘ or ‘New Labour‘ -- that entire tradition has to go.
Q: Am I expected to do something illegal?
A: Assembling in the street, talking to your friends, putting up posters, sitting down on a demonstration -- these things may be deemed ‘illegal’ by the other side. As against that, we say everything THEY do is illegal. Our task is to launch a crack-down on crime, starting at the very top. We need to ask, for example, ‘Why aren’t the bankers behind bars?’
Q: Isn’t it best to avoid revolution if we possibly can? Isn’t it likely to be bloody?
A: Not if it’s properly organised. During the Russian October Revolution of 1917, fewer people were killed than in a normal day’s traffic accidents.
Q: Most people I know don’t want any violence at all. How can we avoid it?
A: By acting decisively at the right moment, when the enemy class is split and paralysed by indecision.
Q: Suppose the Government brings in the army?
A: That would give us an opportunity to talk to the soldiers.
Q: Suppose the troops just shoot into the crowd?
A: History tends to show that’s not such a brilliant idea. The January 2011 Tunisian ‘jasmine revolution’ passed the point of no return from the moment troops started firing live rounds.... in London as anywhere else, if they start shooting they’ll live to regret it.
Q: And what about the police?
A: As we saw in Tunisia, there comes a point when even they start thinking for themselves -- and opt to join the winning side. In Britain, many police are already threatening to join the protests. Click here for more on this...
In Russia during the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, Peoples’ Assemblies were called ‘soviets’:
http://www.laborstandard.org/New_Postings/1905.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1930/hrr/ch11.htm
Ian Bone’s blog http://ianbone.wordpress.com/ Network X http://networkxuk.wordpress.com/
Indymedia March 26 call-out https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/01/472428.html
Arts against the cuts http://artsagainstcuts.wordpress.com/ Conflict http://neil2445-conflict.blogspot.com/
W.A.G. http://whitechapelanarchistgroup.wordpress.com/
