Getting on the offensive

[bricolage]

While trying (and failing) to make a poster for an upcoming anti-cuts meeting at my University I started thinking that it seems we are always on the defensive. For example we organise a campaign here where cuts are happening, but what about when cuts are not happening? Education is still commercialised and University treated as a stepping stone to capitalist social relations. Workers strike when they are going to get wage cuts or lose jobs but the rest of the time everyone is still exploited and humiliated in the workplace on a day to day basis. When bombs are dropped people march but no one marches against the hidden violence of the system, why is a war more violent, or even worse, that the daily oppression of vast swathes of the globe? Furthermore it seems that by acting on the defensive when things return to the status quo it's seen as a victory, and it is of sorts, but things haven't necessarily got better. I suppose in this case it can go one of two ways, either people are spurred on by the victory or they are tired out by it, I'm not sure

What ways do people think there are to move from the defensive to the offensive?

[Lyev]

That's a bloody good point. I never thought of it terms of: defense-offensive, only that the government is severely cutting public spending; the working class are suffering; capitalism is in decay; so now we need to immediately address these issues, in the present. I suppose "not thinking ahead", if that's what you want to call it, is due to the left (almost globally) being very fragmented and disorganised. It's fantastic for my branch if we get say 6 or more at a bi-weekly meeting. Also, capitalism (and then obviously the time-consuming jobs people have) mean that everyone is so bloody busy. There's simply not enough time for "thinking ahead" at the moment, in my opinion.

I would say, realistically, capitalism is winning. Perhaps, after the general election in the UK people will realise that the endless, mechanical cycle of bourgeois politicians is hopeless, and that it's impossible for someone to "represent" the best interests of a certain class or group. Real change comes from "the people", the masses, the proletariat and middle-class.

Our ideas need to be popular and we need to educate, agitate and organise in all the right areas. The problem is, what with Thatcherism in the 80s and 70s (in the UK) the working class movement, trade union movement, and the broad, Marxist left have been totally split up and chopped up into tiny little bits; I'm sure this is a similar story in most western, developed countries today (although in France there's quite a prevalent, trade-unionist sentiment).

Another point; capitalism is very oppressive at the moment due to the financial crisis. It's a fact that oppression breeds resistance. Therefore us leftists just need to be in the right places at the right time to channel this anger and resistance, so it doesn't disipate into lazy, right wing racism. It's an uphill climb at the moment. I think these are the reasons (and lots more, f.e cultural hegemony) that the left is on the defensive. Perhaps, in some cases, we need a tactical retreat, to just gather up our troops, so to speak. Anyway, those are some general ramblings for a start.

[The Ungovernable Farce]

While trying (and failing) to make a poster for an upcoming anti-cuts meeting at my University I started thinking that it seems we are always on the defensive. For example we organise a campaign here where cuts are happening, but what about when cuts are not happening? Education is still commercialised and University treated as a stepping stone to capitalist social relations. Workers strike when they are going to get wage cuts or lose jobs but the rest of the time everyone is still exploited and humiliated in the workplace on a day to day basis. When bombs are dropped people march but no one marches against the hidden violence of the system, why is a war more violent, or even worse, that the daily oppression of vast swathes of the globe? Furthermore it seems that by acting on the defensive when things return to the status quo it's seen as a victory, and it is of sorts, but things haven't necessarily got better. I suppose in this case it can go one of two ways, either people are spurred on by the victory or they are tired out by it, I'm not sure

What ways do people think there are to move from the defensive to the offensive?
I think part of it's just the general historical era you live in. We've seen the working class lose most of the major fights of the last three decades or so, that's inevitably gonna have an impact. I think any defensive struggle has the potential to go on the offensive, though - specifically on the anti-cuts stuff, I think the Really Open Uni (http://www.reallyopenuniversity.org/) lot and the "Strike-Occupy-Transform" slogan is a attempt at trying to go beyond just defending the status quo and starting to think about what we'd like to actually positively demand (some of their stuff is way too academic/jargony, though). Also, any defensive struggle necessarily makes the implicit claim that our class and not the bosses should be able to make the decisions, which is a pretty vital starting point for going on the offensive. I suppose the Lucas Industries plan (http://libcom.org/history/1976-the-fight-for-useful-work-at-lucas-aerospace) is pretty much the ideal example of a defensive struggle turning to an offensive one (well, except for the fact that they lost, but then we always do).

[Saorsa]

Barrabas, I think the only danger with what you're saying is the potential to move into hyperactivism, always treating each campaign as the 'next big thing' and expecting your comrades to devote extremely large amounts of time and energy (and even money) to an endless series of campaigns. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that in a period where class struggle and political consciousness are still both very low (at least in a country like New Zealand), we can't manufacture a movement through willpower and hard work. An army cannot constantly be on the offensive, it'll outdistance it's supply lines and get disorientated and burned out. The same applies to revolutionary organisations.

I know that you're not suggesting insane levels of activism, but I think the false dichotomy between defensive struggles and offensive struggles can often lead to an assumption that the only reason we're not leading militant struggles against the system is not because there just aren't many of these struggles to get involved in, but is instead because we're not trying hard enough. You can't just throw yourself at the university administration, the company management or the government over and over again without having the strength to decisively smash them.

We need to find a balance between defensive and offensive, and we need to mix up organising against budget cuts etc with political education, organisation of protests, strike support, trade union work etc. I'm very wary of the idea that we should try and launch an all out offensive struggle against the powers that be in a period where I doubt any of us could name more than fifty to a hundred people in their immediate area who are keen on the idea of communist revolution.

I don't mean to sound pessimistic. But I think to some extent we just have to wait until the struggle heats up. Mass struggles emerge around fault lines in society, and sometimes you can't tell what these fault lines will be until they explode. The class struggle *will* heat up, masses of people *will* begin to question the system and open up to our ideas, this is inevitable and we know it. But until that happens I think all we can really do is survive as best we can. We need to build revolutionary organisations of the working class, support the struggles of workers to organise and fight wherever we can, and so on. But we can't force the class to move, and frankly in my country the working class doesn't even know it exists - class consciousness has *never* been this low. It will change, I'm 100% confident of that, but until it does what we can achieve is limited.

That was a bit of a stream of consciousness, but I hope you understand the points I was trying to make.