A-Infos (en) Britain, Ipswich Anarchists are a collective dedicated to this area

We plan to replace the faltering left wing with a political ideology that is 
more sound, sensible, and able to combat the dominance of right wing dogma than 
previously. ---- What has happened to the left? ---- The traditional left is 
dying. UK politics are dominated by three parties who argue only about how 
people's hard work should be distributed to the rich. Old style trade unions 
often refuse to fight because they rely on state backing to keep their funds and 
influence. The communists and socialists are totally discredited, hiding secret 
agendas and wanting change only for their own power base. 		
The left has relied for decades on a partnership with big business, where each 
side listened to the other and came to an agreement. Now big businesses have 
expanded to every corner of the globe, and no longer rely on their employee's 
support. They don't gain anything from listening any more, so they have simply 
stopped doing so. 		
	  			
	  	Wages are dropping, jobs are going overseas, pensions are disappearing, 
water and heat provision are already controlled by companies who are hiking the 
prices. The NHS, education, transport and even the roof over your head are being 
sold off as we speak. 		
	  			
	  	Instead of getting tough and fighting these attacks on our living standards, 
Labour have become New Labour, and have actively encouraged them. Traditional 
trade unions whine, but in the main they do nothing to stop their supposed 
political wing's Thatcherite policies. When they are supposed to fight our 
corner in wage disputes or working conditions, they condone only 'official' 
strikes which take 2-3 months to go through the proper legal channels, and 
routinely undermine even those. The socialists jump on every bandwagon going to 
try and pick up a few votes, sell a few papers and increase their personal 
power, as do the communists. 		
	  			
	  	The poor get poorer, the rich get richer, and not one of these so-called 
protectors of the majority are doing what they promised. How can they? When they 
are part of a system they can't attack it without losing their own position. 
They don't fight, and they don't win any but the smallest of victories. 		
	  			
	  	What is the alternative? 			
	  			
	  	The world-wide Anarchist movement was born from the inability of Social 
Democratic and Marxist-Leninist groups to consistently challenge or replace 
Western capitalism. 		
	  			
	  	Although not well-known today in the UK, Anarchism is influential on the 
continent, where Anarchist trade unions have a reputation as extremely effective 
militants. Wheras traditional unions are structured around a central committee 
with closer ties to the bosses than their members, Anarchist unions have no 
central authority figures. Instead of having negotiations between top union 
bosses and managment, with a decision being handed down, recallable delegates 
with no authority to negotiate outside of their membership's wishes simply 
deliver a message to be accepted or rejected. All decisions go through the 
various groups who make up the union. 		
	  			
	  	Alongside this method of organisation runs a total rejection of our current 
political system. Political groups, be they the Tories, Labour or Liberals, 
operate not on behalf of voters but on behalf of the system that keeps us in 
place. Political decision making depends on what will bring more stability for 
business and their own ambitions. This is why the Tories helped introduce the 
NHS (to allow for centralised, efficient and stable growth after the war), and 
why Socialist Labour are preparing to sell it off again now (to appease their 
lenders, who no longer need centralised growth). 		
	  			
	  	No political party will ever change this reliance on the money men. In their 
place should be the same kind of truly democratic control asked for in our 
industry, with every street having direct influence over its funding and 
affairs, and every community co-operating with all the others to cut down on the 
work we need to do to make this country tick. 		
	  			
	  	You're all about bombs and violence. 			
	  			
	  	It is a myth, one based in a very real fear big business has that the aims 
and tactics of Anarchism will weaken them. The threat Anarchists pose to the 
status quo is such that the best known definition of Anarchism - chaos, violence 
and bombs - was specifically created by European governments at the end of the 
19th century. The Anarchist movement has been subjected to some of the most 
chilling misrepresentations of any group in history. Wrongful arrests, military 
interventions and police brutality have been par for the course. 		
	  			
	  	Anarchist organisation does not rely on the authority of business leaders 
and governments. It is based in the activism of workers and local communities, 
not in the boardroom and backroom deals made by bosses and professional union 
chiefs. Alone among all the forms of organisation today it cannot be subverted 
or corrupted by buying off a few key figures to control dissent. Instead it has 
to be broken through constant slander and violence, and widescale use of 'divide 
and conquer', splitting the entire working class into false conflicts over race, 
gender and job description. 		
	  			
	  	Why isn't it better organised? 			
	  			
	  	At the moment Anarchists divide into dozens of different factions from 
traditional class aligned anarchists interested in workplace and community 
organising, to activist anarchists who believe in constant direct action against 
all and any injustices in society, to different conceptions of how to approach 
'the working class' and even whether there is a working class at all. Attatched 
to this is the presence of a small minority of people who cause trouble for the 
sake of it, rather than for direct defence against a threat from bosses or 
government. 		
	  			
	  	This fracturing of anarchism into dozens of different attitudes, coupled 
with our poor media image and lack of a mass of committed anarchists willing to 
correct that image, along with a general shift to the right, has massively 
weakened us here in the UK. In France, Spain and other countries this isn't the 
case, and it is possible here to build a comparable movement, but it will take 
hard work over a long period. Anarchist organising is not an easy option with 
such a huge variety of opinion. 		
	  			
	  	Do you get around that? 			
	  			
	  	Ipswich Anarchists aims to be very much an umbrella group. Our members come 
at it from every angle, from those focussed on feminism and animal rights to 
those focussed on class and community. What unites us is the awareness that our 
society is based on keeping some people down at others' expense. We don't do 
direct action frivolously, we concentrate on local issues and we don't condemn 
people for not sharing our politics. 		
	  			
	  	We are big fans of social justice, less government interference, less 
selling-off of public facilities and more free space in which we can meet and 
socialise - not just private buildings where you don't get in without buying a 
coffee or a beer or a ticket. We'd like the education system to stop hammering 
kids with information they don't need, making them jump through hoops that mean 
nothing for qualifications which won't get them a job. We'd be delighted if the 
government stopped mucking the NHS about and cut the number of administrators 
while upping the number of cleaners and nurses. We'd be ecstatic if the buses 
were taken out of the hands of profit-making companies who cut the service and 
charge twice the price and put back in the hands of the community they serve. We 
want safer streets, less fear and more community. 		
	  			
	  	The list of sensible suggestions goes on and on… 			
	  			
	  	But what we want most of all is for our community, our county, to stand up 
for itself. We want the people who don't get a say because they don't sit on 
council seats to start organising and putting pressure on governments and 
businesses who exploit us to think and act as sensibly as we do. They'll only do 
it if we force them. It's not in the interests of the council to give us power, 
just as it's not in the interests of Arriva or One rail to charge only what it 
costs to get us from A to B. We can't rely on officials to do things for us, 
they are paid by the very people we need to defend ourselves against. It is up 
to us, it always has been.
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