I think the Anarchist FAQ is good but difficult to read.
So I am translating it to simpler English. Thoughts and suggestions are welcome.
https://marnanel.github.io/simple-afaq/a1.html
What is anarchism?
There are three big problems in society:
social breakdown, such as poverty, hunger, homelessness, crime.
war, and its weapons.
the destruction of our natural environment.
@marnanel In 1997 a combination of factors collided to result in the Blair nuLabour victory.
Then as now, the Tories were doing incredibly badly. The John Major government was weak, and lurched from scandal to scandal. Their election campaign was lacklustre and the Tony Blair "demon eyes" posters with the motto "new labour new danger" which they deployed were ridiculed (although years later turned out to be prophetic).
Blair did obtain the blessing of Murdoch. That was a significant factor, but not the only one.
At least as important as getting the tabloids "on-message" was that during the beginning of his leadership Blair had moved the Labour party significantly rightwards. He re-branded as "New Labour", and pledged that if elected that for the first two years of office his economic policy would be identical to that proposed in the Conservative manifesto. "Old Labour" (meaning socialists) were out and this was the newer, cooler, britpopier, version.
@bob @marnanel Another significant factor in the 1997 election - now largely forgotten by history - was that in the final few days Blair had a "save the NHS" campaign. The idea - which was probably not entirely fictitious - was that if the Tories won then they would privatise the NHS just like they had recently privatised rail and other public services. The countdown-style slogan was "N days to save the NHS", and this was somewhat successful in generating a sense of urgency.
Starmer fans say Corbyn couldn't have won because he's too left wing
Blair didn't win in '97 because he was Tory lite. He won because the Sun endorsed him
As long as the UK media remains this way, we will never have democracy, or freedom
This one thing holds back so much
But it occured to me just now that it also frees up time. Capitalism wants to work us to death partly so we won't have time to talk about revolution. If you free up food prep time, people have time to think.
Providing childcare is revolutionary activity in the same way.
David Cameron introduced "the age of austerity" to the UK in April 2009. There are now teenagers who don't remember anything else.
Soon it will always have been this way.
What are we going to do about that?
/end
I was thinking about how a coup that lasts a couple of decades becomes the accepted norm. People forget there was ever a time before it.
Of course this was true of Thatcherism. It's becoming true of political austerity. I had a couple of other examples.
Someone was saying that anti-monarchists should not accept knighthoods. Now, maybe in practice they shouldn't, but I was interested by connection of ideas.
ABOUT THE ANGST
This is the diary I kept as a teenager. It was written in pencil in a cheap spiral-bound notebook, using a cipher I’d made up specially so that if my siblings or parents found it I’d have a chance to retrieve it before they worked out the code and started reading it. I am editing it lightly to alter names and so on.
the dreams I plant in someone's mind
may bloom as hope for humankind