29 lines
1.5 KiB
Plaintext
29 lines
1.5 KiB
Plaintext
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On Monday, 31st of January, 1994, Glasgow Anarchist Group organised a meeting
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cum social to celebrate the 75 years of Black Friday.
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Black Friday was a police provoked riot of 30 000 Glasgow Strikers who
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had attended a meeting in George Square. The strike was for a 40 hour
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week. The police baton charged the crowd (using the excuse they were
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blocking a tram) but the strikers stood firm and fought back. The police
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ran for it with the strikers in hot pursuit.
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Around 40 people attended the meeting, hearing how the strike had been
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organised by shop stewards committees (made up of mandated delegates from
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workplaces) against the wishes of the trade union officials. The Trade unions
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tried to stop the strike spreading and succeeded in isolating the militant
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areas. The unions played their usual role of controllers, not organisers.
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Speakers pointed out the role of anarchists and syndicalists in these events
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and how the conclusions drawn from these and earlier struggles were anarchist
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in content (ie anti-parliamentarian, direct action, decentralisation, anti-
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leader and so on) and were echoed across the world in the other revolutionary
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struggles going on at the time (eg the politics of the German Communist Workers
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Party, the rise of the syndicalist unions and anarchist groups in Spain and
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Italy and so forth). In addition, they showed how the influence of Lenin
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and the Bolsheviks side tracked the revolutionary movement into the dead
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end of Leninism and the Communist Parties.
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In addition they was discussion, music and poetry. A good night was had by
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all.
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