In yet another good article, you write: 'we have to strengthen the voice of those of us who can see a revolutionary alternative to capitalism.' I totally agree. But how can we do it? In the face of all the media led news that flogs relentlessly the bourgeois view of everything, and the persistent dumbing down which provides the setting for this, apart from taking over the news-media (which will need to be an early act of a conquering proletariat) what can anyone do? Perhaps revolutionary militants will show us the way, by finding what they have in common, rather than shitting endlessly over each other about the use of words like 'decomposition', and who has succeeded best at firing the latest insult. But we love you all anyway.

Dear Cleishbotham, thank you for your response.I'm glad you are not competitive about the only thing that matters. I thought about joining a group in 1978, but I was very politically immature then and concluded that they wouldn't want me and that I wouldn't be able to stand the heat. But it's I curious that you make the point about the 'freedom to criticize': it's always struck me that someone, or some group,has to be able to do that from a point slightly removed from the totally committed view of those who've joined. This is probably a continuation of my immaturity at an advanced age. Or is it a sort of fear that highly centralized groups - whether currents or tendencies - could get it wrong again, and go on relentlessly steaming ahead in the wrong direction, convinced they'd got it right and with the best of intentions. This could be a left-over from what happened to the Bosheviks. Or it could just be my suspicions about conclusions reached together by people who are a bit special (like revolutionaries), and who maybe are a bit and unknowingly, elitist, and who maybe want to agree with each other in a phony solidarity. About ideas for action coming out of a mass meeting of striking workers, which can include revolutionaries, I'm happy. The workers can be trusted, as Luxemburg has shown. So, finally, I agree with your suggestion that in joining a group, in some people, their ability to criticize may well be threatened.

Dave

Wholeheartedly agree. It was March 1921 when the Bolsheviks formally banned factions - this did not stop factions coming into being (that is the nature of the process of arriving at class consciousness) but the formal ban could be used as an a priori criticism of any dissent from the proposed line (and Stalin used this to the full in 1924-8). We have to learn fromthe past espericen ofthe class both postive adn negative (and the Bolsheviks were both). We have formal provision for faction rights in our statutes. I don't see how we can have a healthy organisation in any other way.

However (adn here I reply also to Kinglear) if an organisation is to function as part of the class it is inevitable that we all have to occasionally go along with things we might not fully agree with in order to arrive at a coherent action. Obviously this can only happen from time to time or esle you would find yourself at odds with everyone else and thus end up leaving the organisation. Curently though when the class as a whole is not struggling at the level demanded by the crisis it would be a rare issue which would create profound differences over immediate activity.

Dave

I don't know what COR is (or if I do i don't get the acronym).

Dave Now I know why the acronym escaped me! We are in total and direct opposition to the COR's first line of their basic document "The Coalition of Resistance’s aim is to force the ConDem government to abandon its cuts programme." We campaigned in the March 26 demo specifically against that line (touted by everyone else except the communist left and the anarchists) - though I personally did not see any other paper but ours carrying the slogan that "to fight the cuts you have to fight capitalism" (but then I did not meet all our comrades on that day given the size of the demo!). We need to be able to reach the same people that the COR are trying to reach (and some of us have been trying to get to local union meetings to see how far this extends) but a the moment this is a union cum capitalist left body with little support in the wider working class.

Dave

Sorry not to reply earlier but that is because I largely agree with what you are saying. The way in which the cuts are being brought in is a bit like salami tactics (some cuts will only hit us in 2012). The bosses papers are full of arrogant articles bsically pointing out how unmilitant the class is but this is partly because the new generation has no idea what the battles of the past were like. We have to make revisiting the best of these as part of our work. What might be more dangerous from the point of view o the demoaralisation of young workers is that the unions and capitalist left are demobilising resistance before it has even begun.

Our comrades in Italy just issued a leaflet with the title "When are we really going to fight. It was given out to striking workers all ove Itlay in a general strike (wait for it) of 4 hours (which had been announced two months earlier by the unions). We are at a "phoney war" stage were the forces of capital are invading working class existence bit by bit whilst we are still hoping that by keeping our heads down the worst will not ahppen or we'll cling to our jobs (under any conditions at any pay rate). It will take some time yet before experience demonstrates that you cannot appease capitalism. And then we'll see ....

All this talk of waiting, appeasement, phony wars, uncertainty, demobilizing the struggle, the bosses tittering at our lack of militancy and dumb acceptance of increasing poverty, has got me so pissed off I don't know what to do with myself. Thank god for the aggravated militancy of our Italian comrades with their provocative: WHEN ARE WE REALLY GOING TO FIGHT?

Dave Of course we can get some individual RPs to you. I'll contact you via pm. To cheer Kinglear up I attach the text of a leaflet written by one of our comrades who is participating in a struggle against job cuts at Barnsley College. We need to be realistic about where the class stands (Dave's genuine concern I think) but we also don't let that realism paralyse our activity.

Massive compulsory redundancies -This barbaric attack must be resisted – Our response must be real! Barnsley College Management has decided to throw a third of staff onto the dole queues, and shut down whole areas. We knew the attacks were coming, the Union has already voted to strike over any compulsory redundancy, only the scale of the attack is a shock, a full frontal slap in the face. This attack must not be allowed to succeed. The stakes could not be higher. On our knees and accept, on our feet and resist. There is no room for a ritual, no games of 1 or 2 day strikes. The management has drawn a liner in the sand, and we must cross it, there can only be one outcome –no redundancies, no erosion of conditions. We must do whatever is necessary to ensure that our colleagues, fellow workers are not abandoned. Unemployment, cuts, poverty - that is not a future we can accept. Strike indefinitely until the threat is retracted! Escalate the struggle!

On our feet and resist, no union rituals or games, attacks must be resisted. Excellent stuff. But to strike indefinitely is difficult: better to escalate the struggle quickly to other workers, and establish an expanding solidarity. So, we are really stating to fight at last. Thank you Cleishbottom for some good news. You've eased my paralysis a bit.