What Historical events inspire/inform your politics?

[ViolentPanda]

In English:

Some of us don't do the broadband-necessary youtube thang.

 

[Groucho]

For me the events that most inspired my politics were:

Personal involvement:

The Miners Strike 1984-5. I was a teenager and for or against the miners defined who you were - which side are you on. Being for the miners really opened you up to debate on the left - reform or revolution, the centrality of workers struggle, the role of the police and media, the trade union bureaucracy, the role of cultural struggle. Enthused throughout these debates were the Greenham Common/peace/feminism, anti-racism/anti-apartheid, lgbt liberation stance of the left.

Wapping 85/86 brought me to first hand witnessing of police violence, the blatant media lies and vaciliation of TU bureaucracy and the powerlessness of Parliament and kind of won the argument for revolution rather than any illussion in Parliament and the LP.

The Poll Tax rebellion, not just but including the riot, showed what was possible in terms of mass rebellion, whilst a local TU issue proved to me at around the same time how much and how quickly people change in struggle even of a limited loocal nature.

The anti-war movement.

As far as history is concerned:

The Bolshevik revolution, the bravery of Rosa Luxemburg but importantly the lessons from failure, as with the Spanish Civil war - bravery but lessons to ge learnt, the Paris Commune, the Chartists, Cable Street and the ANL/RAR.

 

[JoePolitix]

Because

My grandmother was a Ukrainian Jew and an anti-Bolshevik communist. when I was going through my "schoolboy commie" phase in the mid 1970s she encouraged me to read communist and anarchist literature, and to make up my own mind as to whether the october revolution had served the interests of the masses.
The "Makhnovists" kept two forces of reaction (the Whites and the Bolsheviks) at bay for as long as they could. Why wouldn't I draw inspiration from them?

With clashes between peasants and landlords on the one hand, and clashes between peasants and workers on the other, Makhno was pressed to institute policies that were far from “libertarian”. The real conditions of life for the peasants of the Ukraine from 1919-1921 were cruel and repressive. The cities in Makhno’s territories were not ruled by Soviets. Instead, they were ruled by mayors drawn from Makhno’s military forces. Makhno’s movement was severely centralized, with the leadership in the RevCom deciding everything. Makhno even established a police-security organization (!) led by Leo Zadov (Zinkovsky), a former worker-anarchist who was to become notorious for his brutality. Incidentally, in the early 1920s Zadov returned to the USSR – to join the GPU! He was rewarded for his services with his own execution in 1937. In the Ukraine, we see clearly that the anarchists were committing the same crimes that they accused the Bolsheviks of.

In September of 1920, Ivanov V. (representative of the Southern Front Revolutionary Soviet) visited Makhno. He later wrote this description of Makhno’s camp: “The regime is brutal, the discipline is hard as steel, rebels are beaten on the face for any small breach, no elections to the general command staff, all commanders up to company commander are appointed by Makhno and the Anarchist Revolutionary War Council, Revolutionary Military Soviet (Revvoensovet) became an irreplaceable, uncontrollable and non-elected institution. Under the revolutionary military council there is a ‘special section’ that deals with disobediences secretly and without mercy.” (2) Jakovlev J. op. cit.

http://www.marxist.com/makhno-anarchists-kronstadt-russia-3.htm

And lots of other stuff aswell.

 

[JoePolitix]

Some of us don't do the broadband-necessary youtube thang.

Sorry comrade, don't have a transcript on me.

 

[ViolentPanda]

http://www.marxist.com/makhno-anarchists-kronstadt-russia-3.htm

And lots of other stuff aswell.

An interesting alternative point of view.

However, being one of those awkward "non-aligned" people, I have to say that the analysis strikes me as a little partisan in places.

I'm not deluded enough to believe that the "Makhnovists" were perfect, Joe, but neither am I going to change my point of view merely by reading a single article that cites a handful of untranslated sources that I'd have to satisfy myself by reading before thinking of doing so, and one that appears to attempt to absolve the Bolsheviks of any guilt.

 

[JoePolitix]

Hey VP,

I've been trying to write a response to this ^ for about 20 mins now but for some reason it just aint happening today.

The sun's out, its a lovely day. I wanted to go for a jog and let off some steam but my back's a little tender right now.

Cabin fevor.

Writer's block.

Starring vapidly at the computer screen for hours.

I am Joe's wasted life.

I'll sought a response of some kind within the next week or so.

 

[JimPage]

Culloden
The Clearances
The Spanish Civil War

 

[Trouble]

A Partial List

Events that I have experienced directly that have inspired/informed my politics.

The miners strike - I remember not being allowed to show a picture of Arthur Scargill to my class mates, whilst the week before a class mate (and we were 6 had been proudly showing off one of her meeting the queen).

the unsuccessful defence of free education in 1998 - cause that was when I first got active

Reclaim the Streets/J18 - cause it was chaotic, frightening and a formative moment.

And the biggey - Seatle / Geneova -

The anti-war movement.


In terms of historical events:

The Peasant's Revolt - taught me that the other side are always ruthless bastards.

The Luddities - taught me that the other side will not be reasonable.

The Chartists - taught me that inspiring and powerful movements often lose. But the impact can have the desired effect years later.

The New Unionism - taught me that things sometimes come from seemingly no-where.

The unofficial WW1 Truce - that even in absolute barbarism people's good sense, rather than commonsense, can come through.

The German Revoultion - that those who half make their revolution, will die by it.

The Great Strike - That Trade Unionism can be powerful, the rank and file strength is the vital element for success.

Stalin's purges - that the east was a mirror image of the west.

hhhmmm could go on, but its getting late, and I keep changing my mind...

Good thread.

 

[N_igma]

30th January 1972.

 

[jonH]

the slave trade
the rise of the industrial war machine
the agricultural revolution

 

[Andy the Don]

The Liberal Government Reforms 1906 - 1911
1928 Universal Sufferage Act
The Clapham Sect 1790 - 1830
Roy Jenkins first period in office as Home Secretary
FDR's New Deal
LBJ's Great Society
The European Enlightenment
Family History

 

[lights.out.london]

As books go, would include -

Jack Black - You Can't Win

Albert Metzger - I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels

Daniel Guérin - No Gods, No Masters

Karl Marx - The Communist Manifesto

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon - Le manuel du spéculateur à la bourse

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon - Of the Political Capacity of the Working Class

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon - Principle of Federation

Hobbes - Leviathan

Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf (know your enemy)

 

[Badger Kitten]

Magna Carta
Bill of Rights
Suffragettes
Civil Rights movement
Vietnam & the anti-war movement
Feminism
Stonewall
Poll tax
CJA
SOCPA
9/11 & 7/7