Reclaim The Streets, etc., are not the new revolutionary vanguard, no-one is suggesting that we drop our class perspective to chase after the environmental movement. However, large numbers of youth are becoming, to one degree or another, politicised by actions like the June 18 and November 30 protests against capitalism. The fact that we can now discuss ideas like the nature of capitalism, class, privatisation, globalisation, etc, with significant numbers of youth without them thinking we are just weird is hugely welcome.

The gains to be made from an orientation to this movement are modest-it is not a short cut to a mass party or the revolution but we should gain some influence and make some contacts and recruits. We should also learn some useful lessons about methods of organising youth and making political protests successful.

Some problems we have

1. There is not a 'movement', in the sense that there is not a coherent, permanent, organised force, that holds conferences, has organised structures and so forth that we can easily send delegates to, propose motions to, etc.

2. There is an exceptional spread of political attitudes among the people who get involved in these actions, from an eager willingness to buy the paper and discuss what we have to say about the world to an outright hostility to the Marxist left.

3. The 'green' movement has traditionally been a cross-class movement and as such has inevitably developed many reactionary conclusions alongside progressive ones. Obviously some of this hangs over into the 'new anti-capitalist movement'.

4. We do not have ready mass working-class activity to propose. If there was a big LPYS still, we could propose that these groups and individuals we meet get involved. Or if there was a big miners' strike on we could propose regular picket line and more general strike support work.

However:

1. In most big towns there will be some kind of activity or group of activists of this kind that we can approach, do some joint work with and try to meet political people through. Even if this is not readily possible, everyone can attend a demo or street party and do a sale/set up a stall.

2. Whilst some people, especially probably those most centrally involved, will be hostile to us, many others will be excited by what we have to say about how to get rid of capitalism and what socialism means.

3. We have managed to work in movements such as the student movement and the women's movement without losing sight of our class perspective and have found an audience for what we say.

4. There are still occasional strikes, and RTS, etc., seem very ready to support workers in struggle (eg, the dockers and tubeworkers). We do have a big influence in the student movement and many of the people getting involved in these protests are students. We have a youth publication that should be readily accessible for people involved in this sort of campaigning and that we should be able to organise people around.

Practical conclusions

1. Every branch should check out and send someone to meetings of local RTS-type groups.

2. Where we can, we should help organise street parties and other local protests. We should propose political speakers, inviting a striker, etc. We should set up a stall and sell Bolshy and our other publications. Think about how to relate to the event-maybe set up a stall with a few secondhand books alongside our literature, put out a few old/blow-up chairs, sell cheap coffee (not Nescafe), make the stall approachable to the people we expect to turn up. Propose the setting up of stalls in advance of the day, there is no point in unnecessarily getting up people's noses by looking like we are trying to nick their action.

3. Do sales of Bolshy and the environment pamphlet outside Further Education colleges.

4. Try to organise a joint meeting: RTS and Workers' Liberty/Bolshy, on Transport/Mumia/What's wrong with capitalism: whatever will get the best response. This will probably require doing some joint work, building a bit of mutual confidence and so on beforehand. It may also be useful to invite speakers from other organisations to help create a broader impression. We should not approach a meeting like this in a formulaic way as part of our rituals, but should plan well ahead, prepare properly and work bloody hard to ensure that we get the best results, flyposting, leafleting, calling and emailing each group's contacts, etc.

5. We should make sure that we have regular coverage of these sort of issues in our publications. In particular we should use Bolshy. We should attempt to sell it and to persuade people to volunteer to help us organise sales, write for it, build a local Bolshy group that would have a bit of independence from the AWL branch, be a bit looser, provide a means for meeting new young contacts who aren't involved in the CFE.