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!

Help raise money for our work for Vestas and other struggles

A year ago the Alliance for Workers' Liberty set itself an £18,000 fundraising target. This month, as our fund drive comes to an end, we have just about met it. However, we are always short of money - and never short of things to do! In the last couple of months, the AWL has played a crucial role initiating and then supporting the Vestas workers' struggle . We have been central to the mobilisation against the BNP's Red, White and Blue 'festival' . We have produced a fortnightly paper with unparalleled coverage of these struggles, as well as unparalleled theoretical material and debate about...

AWL gears up to face crisis

On Saturday 21 March 60 people, including many young workers and students, attended the Workers’ Liberty day school on “Capitalist Crisis, Workers’ Response” in London. In the school’s opening session a RMT comrade talked about London Underground's plan to slash jobs and the tube and about how militant trade unionists can leading a fight back against these kinds of cuts (see back page). Sean Matgamna outlined why he thought all those who see themselves in the tradition of Marx, Lenin and Trotsky will need to sharpen and intensify our socialist intervention into the political movements thrown...

Shaping up for the crisis

If you tell a man that he’s going to be hanged in the morning, then, as someone once said, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. The British National Party is expected to make serious electoral gains in a number of different elections over the coming period. It will most likely win more council seats. It may win a seat in the European Parliament. It may gain representation in Parliament in the next General Election, a year or so from now. It already has a seat in the London Assembly. The serious left needs to sound the political alarm bells. One of the main reasons why this is happening is the...

Guides to internet chat

For some webchats, we use IRC. For this you need a small bit of software: Pidgin - or, if you have a Mac, Adium - or, if you're connecting by smartphone, IRC for Android (for Android) or IRCCloud (for iPhone). It is also possible to connect to IRC via a web browser at http://webchat.freenode.net . It takes you to the IRC service irc.freenode.net by default. You type in a nickname (of your choice) and captcha text (which is there to fend off spammers), and select chatroom, or channel, #wlsite. This is a technically more complicated way of connecting - like using a helicopter to go to the...

£25,000 fund drive: help us expand and grow

The AWL has launched a new fund drive – to raise £25,000 by the end of 2010. You value the political work of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty on this website and in our printed publications. You appreciate our contribution as socialist activists in the unions, environmental movement, in anti-fascist campaigning. You will therefore want to make a contribution to a fund to help us expand our work. We have no rich backers, we constantly rely on our supporters and our readers to help us. Can you help us? Support us by taking a few copies of our paper to circulate at work or college (contact our...

Fund drive for £18,000: Help support the fight for Workers' Liberty!

The financial crisis which is rocking the capitalist system and destroying the ideas that have sustained the capitalists during the latest phase of globalisation is opening up new possibilities to explain unfalsified Marxism to a wider audience. The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, through our paper Solidarity, has a unique voice on the British left. On key domestic and international political questions we advocate a clear working-class perspective. We produce a paper to provide a working-class antidote to the lies, poison, tittle-tattle and trivia which is the daily diet provided by the...

Capitalist crisis - working-class socialist answers

Questions and Answers On The Crisis The Capitalist Mystique Shatters Privatizing Gains and Socializing Losses? Socialize The Gains! What do we mean when we talk about socialism? A Workers' Answer To The Food Crisis A Workers' Response To The Crisis: Fight For A Workers' Government! A Workers' Plan For The Crisis For A Workers' Government! Why We Need A Workers' Government! Tories and Labour Converge: Fight For A Workers' Government! Why Won't The Unions Fight For A Workers' Party? Why You Should Be A Socialist What Is The Alliance For Workers' Liberty? AWL: Who We Are, What We Do, Why We Do it...

What the Alliance for Workers' Liberty is for

"It is necessary to find the particular link in the chain which must be grasped with all our strength in order to keep the whole chain in place and prepare to move on resolutely to the next link." V I Lenin .[1998] "Can the (socialists) be against reform? Can we counterpose the social revolution, the transformation of the existing order, our final goal, to social reforms? Certainly not. The daily struggle for reforms, for the amelioration of the condition of the workers within the framework of the existing social order, and for democratic institutions, offers to the [socialists] the only means...

The roots and history of British Trotskyism and of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty: London study course 2008-9

A study course, led by Sean Matgamna. The Marxist movement in Britain before World War 1. Click here to hear the talk (mp3) . The Communist Party, the Labour Party, and the trade union movement: World War One to the 1930s. Click here to hear the introduction (mp3) and here to hear the summing-up (mp3) Reading: Brian Pearce: Early Years of the CPGB Brian Pearce: Some Past Rank and File Movements Sean Matgamna: The Labour Party in Perspective Brian Pearce: Marxism in Britain 1881-1920 is also worth reading for dates, and the brief summary at the end of how the CP was formed, though in the first...

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