The coming to power of a radical right Tory administration will mean direct assaults on the NHS, further austerity measures, increasing moves to a police state, and a widening gap between the super-rich and the mass of the population. They will wage class war against us and we must respond with the strengthening of our networks of mutual aid and solidarity, with the growth of social movements independent from political parties, based on mass assemblies and mandating of delegates.
We must develop activity in the workplace, among tenants and renters, with anti-eviction actions, with migrant solidarity with mobilisations against deportations, to protect our services, whether the NHS or local services under threat from councils. Remember, in France, a vast strike movement has developed under the Macron regime. Like Johnson, Macron has launched ferocious austerity measures against the working class and anger against his rule is on the rise.
Alongside and intimately connected to these social movements, must be the development of a culture of resistance, of inclusive social centres and food networks. We have seen the power of the billionaire press in the last month or so, as well as the blatant bias of the BBC. We must develop our own media, that means not just our social media, which can often operate in a bubble, but the development of street agitation with the production of widely distributed news sheets and other printed propaganda.
The new Johnson administration seems powerful and now deeply entrenched. But remember, the British ruling class is divided like never before. On one hand, we have social democratic nationalists like Plaid Cymru and the SNP looking towards the exit from the United Kingdom, increasing problems in Northern Ireland, and a Conservative Party seriously damaged by Brexit. As well as this there are continuing problems for the monarchy, a cornerstone of the system.
Not only has Labourite social democracy has been hit below the waterline, but the project by factions within the ruling class to construct a new centrist party made up of the LibDems, One Nation Tories, and the Labour right and centre has ended up wrecked on the reefs. In this scenario, we should look towards developing a response in the spheres mentioned above. This will not be an easy fix but will require determined action and propaganda over the coming months and years.
Convened by the London Anarchist Communist Group. Speakers from the ACG, Angry Workers of the World and South Essex Radical Media. Other speakers to be confirmed.
2pm, Sunday, January 19th at MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH, Nearest tubes St Paul’s, Blackfriars.
