What hopes for 2019?

One year ago, a handful of libertarian communists left the Anarchist Federation and went on to found the Anarchist Communist Group. Our aim has been, and continues to be, the building of an outward facing class struggle anarchist communist organisation that looks towards the wider working class rather than inwards to a small, fractious anarchist scene.
Since then, we have welcomed a number of comrades, old and new, into the ACG and have doubled our membership since our founding conference in February 2018. We manage to produce a regular bulletin, Jackdaw, have produced a number of pamphlets and podcasts and members have been active in various campaigns, including that around Universal Credit.

This is all highly positive but we are still an embryonic organisation with a long way to go. And let’s not mince our words, the task for pro-revolutionaries inside and outside the ACG is massive.

Currently, our class is divided and demoralised in these uncertain times of pre-Brexit Britain. The level of class consciousness and any sense of class unity is low, while racism and xenophobia are sadly on the rise. Ongoing austerity, poverty, the housing crisis and homelessness barely register a blip in the media (and consequently in many people’s minds) compared to the insecurity of Brexit. Meanwhile, the global tendency towards right wing populism is almost as strong in this country as it is in others where populist leaders have come to the fore. And the supposed ‘antidote’ of a Corbyn led Labour Party is just more placebo, a palliative and ultimately a dead end for the working class and for any hope of moving in a revolutionary direction.

Despite all that, we in the ACG remain positive. We see examples of struggle such as the work done by members of some of the newer ‘base unions’ in this country. We also see positive examples overseas, such as the strikes in Sudan, protests against the far right Orbán government in Hungary, as well as elements of the Yellow Vest (Gilets Jeaunes) movement in France – although we are still mindful of that movement’s more reactionary aspects.

Our aim for the coming year then, is to continue the spreading of pro-revolutionary ideas and propaganda within our class and the building of an active, vibrant revolutionary anarchist communist organisation.

Are you with us?