For centuries we have been, through struggle and negotiations, teasing minimal improvements in our conditions from the system of capitalism. However we should never forget that, under the system of capitalism, these crumbs of comfort that we have struggled so hard for, are not permanent benefits. The system will always be involved in claw-back operations. Sometimes this is done in a slow kind of piecemeal manner, different types of legislation and rule changes, such as flexible working conditions, zero hours contracts, changing the pension age, workfare and benefit sanctions and so on. Other times it is the system itself that hits one of its inevitable and frequent “crises” that force it, for its own survival, to claw-back in a savage and vicious fashion. Two major claw-backs that spring to mind is what is now know as the 30’s and the 2008 financial crisis. In both these instances the system’s financial centres went bust and to get it back up and running, there had to be a massive claw-back of all or most of the meagre benefits from the public, that we had won through years of struggle. This was done in a similar manner in both cases, a policy of “austerity”, involving a savage and vicious destruction of the social fabric of society, resulting in a tsunami of poverty, deprivation, and mass unemployment, with no regard to the suffering of the ordinary people. The system first and foremost, this ensures that those with the wealth and power remain in control and hold onto their wealth and power.
When do we accept that we have been pursuing a failed policy of subservience by continually accepting the false legitimacy of this system, and asking, “Can we have some more please”. Exploitation, injustice and inequality can have no legitimacy, and any system that perpetuates those qualities must be the target of our anger, not to plead for more, but to eliminate the system completely, and replace it with a system based on mutual aid, co-operation, and sustainability, a system that sees to the needs of all our people. For freedom and justice, there is no other way.
The following is an extract from ATTACK, a Pistols Drawn Publication:
You can read the entire ATTACK PDF for free HERE:By permanent conflictuality we mean uninterrupted struggle against class domination and those responsible for bringing it about. By self-management we mean independence from all parties, trades unions or patronage, as well as finding the means necessary for organising and carrying out the struggle on the basis of spontaneous contributions alone. By attack we mean the refusal of any negotiation, mediation, reconciliation or compromise with the enemy.
Nevertheless, the final aim of these intermediate struggles is always attack. It is however obviously possible for individual comrades or affinity groups to strike at individuals or organisations of Capital and the State independently of any more complex relationship
Sabotage has become the main weapon of the exploited in their struggle in the scenario we see extending before our very eyes. Capitalism is creating conditions of control and domination at levels never seen before through information technology which could never be used for anything other than maintaining power.
Alfredo M. Bonanno
The Insurrectional Project
