I have read with interest — and some amusement — Sean Matgamna’s history of the “Irish debate” in IS and elsewhere on the left in the period from the late 1950s to (presumably) the early 197

Joining the AWL: why and how

Women’s Fightback is a paper produced by women in the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty. We hope it stimulates debate, but whether you agree or disagree please get in touch, and contribute articles, reviews and letters to this paper. Here is a brief explanation of who we are and what we stand for.

Download as pdf (see "attachment" below), or read on.

By Paul Hampton

“The attempt of the bourgeoisie during its internecine conflict to oblige humanity to divide up into only two camps is motivated by a desire to prohibit the proletariat from having its own independent ideas.

By John O'Mahony

For most of the 20th century, the common image of "socialism" was the USSR and the other states modelled on it, China, Cuba, and so on.

If you are an AWL member and want to make sure your website username has "AWL member" status, send an email to antiSPAMwebaccounts@workersliberty.org after removing the anti-spam prefix.

Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) was a revolutionary in his teens and until
after the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1920s he became
the key leader of that section of the Bolshevik Party who, under
pressure of isolation, exhaustion, and the extreme poverty of Russia,
were abandoning their socialist ideals and joining up with the state
bureaucrats inherited from the old regime.

The AWL and its predecessors campaigned for solidarity with workers'
movements in the Eastern Bloc. We've always backed workers against
bureaucrats - for example in the early 1980s we made solidarity with
Polish workers and supported their call for a boycott of Polish goods
when others on the left hesitated.

Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-67) was born into a well-off family in
Argentina, became a medical student, and then, after travelling round
Latin America, committed himself to a revolutionary group working to
overthrow the corrupt Batista dictatorship in Cuba, which at the time
was backed by the USA. He became a leader of the guerrilla movement
that took power in Cuba in 1959.

Socialism is probably the most misunderstood word in history. Many
describe the murderous Stalinist regimes in Russia and Eastern Europe
that collapsed in 1989-91 as socialist. Others describe the tyrants
now ruling China, North Korea and Cuba as socialist. But those states
have nothing to do with socialism.

By Mick Duncan

No Sweat, the British anti-sweatshop campaign, became a national
network in 2001. Since then the organisation has extended the breadth
of its work, which includes drives to pinpoint against sweatshop
bosses in the UK and overseas.

Antoinette Konikow (1869-1946) was a founder of the communist
movement in the USA, and of the Trotskyist movement too (she led a
group in Boston which was expelled before Cannon and Shachtman, and
soon joined up with them).

Capitalism is a system of exploitation
Capitalism is defined by the production of
commodities for profit. Employment levels and
living standards depend on the profitability of
private firms.
Businesses and capitalists make profit by
paying workers less than the value they produce.

Socialism can only be the act of the working class, conscious of its
own interests. Working class struggle is collective struggle. Its
power of numbers gives the working class huge economic and political
strength.

Respect was set up in 2004 as a coalition
consisting of George Galloway, some mosque
leaders, the Socialist Workers Party, and its
friends, including some people from the Muslim
Association of Britain (MAB).

A strike wave began in Durban in 1973 involving nearly 100,000
workers. It shook the racist apartheid regime (where only the white
minority could vote). Students played an important role, assisting
and doing research for workers.

Karl Marx's daughter Eleanor (1855-1898) was an important figure in
her own right. Active in Britain, she joined the Social Democratic
Federation (SDF) in the early 1880s. When it split in 1884, Eleanor
Marx, with William Morris and others, formed the Socialist League.

We work to reorganise and reorient the labour movement around a fight
for the objective of a workers' government, a government based on,
accountable to, and serving the organised working class.

Why does Workers' Liberty always talk about class? Are people not oppressed in other ways too? By sexism, racism, homophobia and other prejudices?