Re: AUT: IWW on Wharfies (EN)

[Antagonism <mrnobody@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris wrote:

> this reply is no different from most e-mail leftists...

I don't identify myself as a "leftist" but I do use email. Are you saying that you don't?

Or are you trying to imply that I do nothing else and therefore my points can be
discounted? Either way you're a liar.

> those who use the
> internet to circulate and not exhaust all that can be said are much further
> ahead than this in seeing the reality for all the discourse...

I responded with one paragraph criticizing the IWW. How does that exhaust all discourse?

> we need
> more intelligent conversations if we want to communicate constructively

Is this a conversation. It seemed more like you replied just with 'intelligent' insults.

> sure, the IWW could have said "Point One: 'Fuck You Bosses'/'All Power To
> The Autonomous Workers' " but would this be so much more effective than
> beginning with "Fellow Workers in Australia want us to stop the transport
> of scab cargo and we are with them"?

This is the same sort of smear that leftists have been using for decades against those
who disagree from a more radical standpoint.

I raised some criticisms of the IWW. I referred to
    1) The IWWs proposed tactics
    2) The similarity between these tactics and those proposed by other unions without
revolutionary pretensions.
    3) The similarity between these tactics and those that resulted in defeat for the
Liverpool dockers.
    4) The actual tactics used by workers recently in Australia...
    5)...which were more radical than those the IWW propose, and have been more
successful than the Liverpool Dockers'... so far.

Chris ignores all these points, all of which are based on the real situation, and mostly
on the real experience of the working-class, and instead tries to imply that I'm merely
putting forward abstract extremist slogans against his supposed down to earth realism.

That's exactly the method that Lenin used in "Left Wing Communism: An Infantile
Disorder". Here he attacked people who he called "Anarchists", "Lefts" and
"Semi-Syndicalists", and advocated joining the unions and the Labour Party, at a time
when workers had already set up workers councils and started armed struggle.

> If the IWW is not revolutionary for
> you, maybe you need to converse with others about what revolution means

As always, any criticism results in an attempt to silence. In any case, I would hope that

Chris is not representative of IWW members.

> I'll see you on the picket line,

Not if I see you first.

Does anyone want to actually discuss the strengths & weaknesses of the dock workers
struggle in Australia? I think a couple of the posts from people in Australia (eg
Steve's) were quite informative. There was also quite an interesting, and extremely
critical, article in the latest issue of World Revolution.
--

web:  http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill//Lobby/3909/
email:  mrnobody@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
post:  BM Makhno, London WC1N 3XX, UK





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