AWL
Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to another, the capitalist class which owns the means of production. Society is shaped by the capitalists' relentless drive to increase their wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, unemployment, the blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the environment and much else.
Against the accumulated wealth and power of the capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity.
The Alliance for Workers' Liberty aims to build solidarity through struggle so that the working class can overthrow capitalism. We want socialist revolution: collective ownership of industry and services, workers' control and a democracy much fuller than the present, with elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to bureaucrats' and managers' privileges.
We fight for the labour movement to break with "social partnership" and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses.
Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, supporting workers' struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping organise rank-and-file groups.
We stand for:
• Independent working-class representation in politics.
• A workers' government, based on and accountable to the labour movement.
• A workers' charter of trade union rights - to organise, to strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action.
• Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education and jobs for all.
• A workers' movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Black and white workers' unity against racism.
• Open borders.
• Global solidarity against global capital - workers everywhere have more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist rulers.
• Democracy at every level of society from the smallest workplace or community to global social organisation.
• Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all nations, against imperialists and predators big and small.
• Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate!
If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell - and join us!
Workers' Liberty Australia
Submitted on 1 October, 2006 - 04:05
Workers' Liberty Australia
About WL Australia | How to contact us | Recent bulletins and leaflets. For more, click on "read more".
Workers' Liberty logo
Submitted on 25 June, 2006 - 09:16
Workers' Liberty logo for use on leaflets, etc.
Join the fight for solidarity!
Submitted on 12 November, 2005 - 17:23
Why you should join the AWL
In Britain today, one child in three grows up in poverty, in a household with less than half the average income. In 1968, the figure was only one in 10.
AWL versus SWP
Submitted on 11 November, 2005 - 22:55
Material for an AWL day school, November/ December 2005, and other stuff on the political differences between AWL and SWP.
AWL London Trade Unionists Meeting
Submitted on 2 April, 2008 - 21:46
Lucas Arms, Grays Inn Road, Kings Cross, London
London AWL meeting for trade unionists to help coordinate our trade union work better across London.
Letter: The Irish Workers’ Union and the Catholic Church
Submitted on 20 March, 2008 - 16:21
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
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What is Women’s Fightback?
Submitted on 12 October, 2007 - 09:39
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.
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AWL basic education programme
Submitted on 2 October, 2007 - 00:25
Download as pdf (see "attachment" below), or read on.
Workers’ Liberty and the “Third Camp”
Submitted on 7 August, 2007 - 22:02
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.
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The Lies Against Socialism Answered
Submitted on 28 June, 2007 - 12:29
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.
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AWL day school on the history of the AWL
Submitted on 2 October, 2006 - 22:26
You can download the reading and discussion points from this page if you log in to the website. If you don't have a username, or have forgotten it, click on "create new account" in the left-hand menu bar.
Sebbon St Community Centre, Sebbon St, London N1
AWL dayschool on the history of the AWL
Submitted on 25 September, 2006 - 14:27
You can download the reading and discussion points from this page if you log in to the website. If you don't have a username, or have forgotten it, click on "create new account" in the left-hand menu bar.
Swarthmore Centre, Woodhouse Square, Leeds
Become an AWL member online
Submitted on 14 July, 2006 - 17:59
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.
Who was Joseph Stalin?
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:27
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.
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What we do - solidarity
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:25
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.
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Who was Che Guevara?
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:24
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.
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The socialism we fight for
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:22
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.
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Help build No Sweat!
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:17
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.
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Who was Antoinette Konikow?
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:15
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).
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Why the working class is the key
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:13
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.
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Can the labour movement be transformed?
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:07
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.
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Respect - a terrible blind alley
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:04
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).
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South Africa - workers defeat apartheid
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:03
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.
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Who was Eleanor Marx?
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:02
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.
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Fight for a workers' government
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 12:00
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.
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Festival of the oppressed
Submitted on 5 March, 2006 - 11:55
Why does Workers' Liberty always talk about class? Are people not oppressed in other ways too? By sexism, racism, homophobia and other prejudices?
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