Last October Class War launched its new magazine, A Touch of Class. It was good to see a new magazine coming out, especially as Black Flag didn’t make it for the bookfair. The first article is a useful contribution about ethics which is a central part of the author Ben Franks’ book Rebel Alliances (see full review in this issue). Its main point is to show that prefiguration - means foreshadowing ends - is a central aspect of contemporary class struggle anarchism, although this should perhaps be a problem for Class War who have traditionally been fond of using the phrase 'by any means necessary' - an ends based perspective which Franks relates to Leninism!
Apart from this, the sniping at 'other' anarchists in the rest of the magazine is really tiresome. For example, the public order policing article will be useful for many activists, but why do the editors feel the need to criticise other anarchists for only having had a 'cursory glance' at this. Have they forgotten about the work people were doing only recently to defend G8 arrestees, which stems from accumulated knowledge of legal monitoring and advice about police tactics on demonstrations and actions? Over the years we have all had to learn about Section 60s and yes we need to spread the message wider, but there seems to be no justification for a holier-than-though attitude.
In the next article, the magazine complains about the current anti-war movement which is obviously not stopping the war. Fair comment, but the SWP stranglehold on the Stop The War coalition was perhaps only able to succeed due to a lack of a decent anarchist ‘no war but the class war’ position about NATO bombings over Kosovo - that is, before Sept-11 and the war on terror (and before Bush). The truth of the matter is, Class War seemed to have nothing to say about this at the time (see Organise! 52). Then, local anti-war groups were less dominated by one party and some even managed to oust the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty for their support of the Kosovan Liberation Army who were calling on NATO 'actions'. Members of the Socialist Workers Party were there but they couldn’t always dominate. The point is it is a bit ripe for CW to have a go at others for attending what might look like ineffectual demonstrations when they don't seem to have any alternative ideas. Acting together, the AF and Solidarity Federation probably managed to reach 5-10% of the September 2006 Manchester anti-war march with anarchist/NWBTCW viewpoints on the war. Young 'Asians' were queuing up for anarchist leaflets and bulletins and we can only hope that more people will become influenced by some of this rather than the viewpoints of radical imams. What does CW think we should be doing to build an anti-war movement?
Then there is a reasonable piece on CCTV cameras, especially on the facial recognition threat, but the self-importance comes across again in dispelling ID card propaganda as 'verbiage' compared to the more important issue of CCTV, in Class War’s opinion. But there is nothing in this article that gives an idea about what to do about it. At least anti-ID campaigners are coming up with tactics as well as information and analysis. Local groups are meeting and working hard to produce information in order to help empower local people and are organising actions. In any case, anti-ID activists continually mention CCTV and ASBOs as part of the problem and are aware of the potential use of ID databases for law enforcement through facial recognition. A much more interesting criticism, if you wanted to make one, would be of parts of the environmental movement who are very in favour of national expansion of congestion charging in cities (mentioned in the article) and also road pricing which could involve the creation of a digital camera network across the UK.
Finally, Class War shouldn't get too excited about the BNP's apparent success for a small organisation, as they state in their editorial. They have a right-wing tabloid press backing up their racism that reaches millions of people a day. If CW thinks a 'repositioned' anarchist magazine is going to make a huge dent in that on its own, then we think this is mistaken. Solidarity please, comrades!
You can read A Touch of Class issue no.1 on the web [large PDF].