Opinions

This will be a long campaign. But how did it come to this? How and when might the cuts end? Many different opinions and perspectives will come in to play. We are a diverse campaign and we’ll need to discuss ideas and not always agree either. This is a page for those opinions. We’ll need your ideas too! Free free to add your opinions as comments.

Opinions – most recent first

Text of leaflet at People’s Assembly, June 22nd, London AF. 26th June 2013.

Margaret Thatcher death party – Trafalgar Square, London, 13 April 2013, Indymedia UK, 14th April 2013.

Bedroom tax and Council Tax campaigning takes shape in Nottingham – an anarchist viewpoint, Notts Black Arrow website, 11/4/2013.

Why we need a political campaign to reinstate the NHS, Allyson Pollock, Left Foot Forward blog, 25/3/2013.

The Anarchist Federation and May Day in Nottingham, Nottingham AF, Notts Black Arrow website, 11/5/2012. See also related article The Anarchist Federation in Nottingham.

Anarchism, the anti-cuts movement and working class politics: a reply to the Anarchist Federation, Workers Liberty website, 6/5/2012.

Nottingham May Day – one anarchist’s perspective, Nottingham Indymedia, 5/5/2012.

Alan Meale should not speak on May Day, by Autonomous Nottingham and Anarchist Federation (Nottingham), 13/4/2012.

The NCAFC, the student left, student unions and NUS: what the 9 November demo tells you about the state of our movement, article by National Coalition Against Fees and Cuts on anti-cuts.com website, 22/12/2011.

Notts Save Our Services statement on the August Riots, 31/8/2011.

The notion of Britain as a property-owning democracy is in tatters, The Guardian website, Comment is Free, 31/8/2011.

These riots reveal some unpalatable home truths, The Guardian website, Comment is Free, 12/8/2011.

Anarchists are under attack because their ideas are gaining ground, opendemocracy.net, 3/8/2011.

30 June and after: rank-and-file must control, Workers Liberty, Solidarity 3/208, 15/6/2011.

J30 – A STRIKE MEANS NOBODY AND NOTHING WORKS, Anarchist Federation (Nottingham group), Notts Black Arrow, 14/6/2011.

Anarchist Federation statement on the June 30th strikes, AFED website, 13/6/2011.

New NCIA papers on privatisation and ‘big society’, National Coalition for Independent Action, 6/5/2011.

VICTORY – The GMB Dissociates Itself from the Kennedy Scott Report Urging Further Privatisation of Job Centres, Tony Greenstein’s Blog, 23/05/2011.

Join UK Uncut’s Emergency Operation to defend the NHS, The Guardian website , Comment is Free, 11/5/2011. See also: Ignore his denials: Cameron, like Blair, wants to turn ‘NHS’ into a kitemark, George Monbiot, The Guardian website , Comment is Free, 16/5/2011. See also: Former Labour ministers rushing to take private sector jobs, report finds. The Guardian, 17/5/2011.

Government Con-Demned at ballot box, Socialist Party, 8 May 2011.

Anarchism, direct action and class struggle, Workers’ Liberty, Solidarity 3/202, 4 May 2011. Debate about direct action starting here: Open letter to a direct-action militant.

UK Unmasked and the New Kids on the Bloc, Analysis by a member of the Anarchist Federation on the “March for the Alternative” (March 26th 2011) and the political trends expressed within it, especially UK Uncut and the Black Bloc, in relation to the growing anti-cuts movement in the UK, 2 May 2011. See also: http://libcom.org/tags/uk-against-austerity

30 June: we must seize opportunity for a mass strike, Socialist Worker, Issue: 2248 dated: 23 April 2011.

Saving the NHS, by Nottingham AF on Notts Indymedia, 22/04/2011. See also: Nottingham Mobilises to Save NHS feature.

Black bloc: ‘Only actions count now’. Two participants in the black bloc protest at Saturday’s anti-cuts rally tell Stephen Moss why they’re the true face of protest, Guardian website, 31/3/2011.

Why we marched on 26 March, various readers’ views edited by the Guardian website, 28/3/2011.

Protesters can’t disown the ‘violent minority’, Guardian, Comment is Free, 28/3/2011.

A letter to UK Uncutters from the ‘violent minority’, Solidarity Federation website, 28/3/2011. And a reply from Brighton uncut, 31/3/2011.

Everything we’ve won: they want it back!, Nottinghamshire Black Arrow blog, 6/3/2011.

Rights not Charity: Letter to Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary, Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) – concerning the inaccessible coach drop-off at Wembley for the March for the Alternative on 26th March, 19/02/2011

Tax Justice – by PCS Union TV. Video about tax collection and HMRC job losses.

Top Down or Bottom Up? – How we Rep may influence the direction of the NSSN, IWW Industrial Union 620, Education Workers, 1/2/2011.

Unison: alternatives to proposed Nottinghamshire service and job cuts, 20/12/2010.

Introducing a new economic comparator: Pudsey. Ministers say charities can step into the gap caused by cuts to services. So how many Children in Need appeals would it take to fill the gap? False Economy blog. 20/12/2010.

More on NSSN Steering committee vote to launch an All-Britain Anti-Cuts Campaign. Letter by Dave Chapple and others against the Steering ctte decision and reply by NSSN Officers Linda Taaffe and other, “representing the majority of the Steering Committee”. [OPINIONS ON NSSN FORMATION OF ANTI-CUTS CAMPAIGN – PDF format] [OPINIONS ON NSSN FORMATION OF ANTI-CUTS CAMPAIGN – Word format]

Unity against the cuts and Turmoil in the NSSN, Socialist worker print edition, No. 2231, p4. Support by the SWP’s ‘Right to Work’ campaign for Coalition of Resistance conference on 12th Feb 2001 if it can be opened up to other speakers/groups ‘not just the RMT’. Criticism of Socialist Party winning vote to form a ‘All-Britain Anti-Cuts Campaign’ through the National Shop Stewards Network and aim to try and reverse this decision before the NSSN conference on 22nd Jan 2011. 11/12/2010

Notts students cave in, Notts Indymedia, opinions about the ending of the occupation at University of Nottingham on 3rd December 2010. See also an earlier comment A challenge to the occupiers.

Lewisham Council Lobby – Report & Thoughts. Interesting ideas about how to deal with local councils and thoughts on calls for alternative budget setting and alternatives to those!. Save Catford blog. 20/11/2010.

Eric Cantona’s call for bank protest sparks online campaign, “We don’t pick up weapons to kill people to start the revolution. The revolution is really easy to do these days. What’s the system? The system is built on the power of the banks. So it must be destroyed through the banks.”, The Guardian, 20/11/2010.

The left in the anti-cuts movement, Solidarity 3/185, 18/11/2010

Tories! Tories! Tories! Have we seen it all before? : New Conservatism and the Big Society, from Organise! magazine, 17/11/2010.

We need councillors who will fight the cuts! The Socialist newspaper, 17/11/2010

Tuition fees, Left Lion, discussion forum, started 4th November

Vodafone protest shows tweets can get people on the streets, by Sam Baker of #UKuncut on The Guardian website ‘Comment is Free’, 1 November 2010, and Can organisation make us less effective?, in Socialist Worker, Issue: 2227, 13 November 2010. Update: some further thoughts about the power of social media and activism: Gladwell Still Missing the Point About Social Media and Activism, Mathew Ingram, GigaOM, 3/2/2011.

Direct action tax collection?, by Class Worrier, Posted on Nottingham Indymedia, 7 November 2010.

Is polarisation stifling proper debate?, by Alan-a-dale, Nottingham Graffitti blog, 7 November 2010.

County Hall anti-cuts protest, by Working Class Heroine, Posted on Nottingham Indymedia, 24 October 2010.

No excuses for not fighting cuts, by the Socialist Party. Page from The Socialist, 7-13 October 2010.

Aren’t Labour as much to blame as the Tories?, by the Anarchist Federation, Nottinghamshire Group. Leaflet, September 2010.