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Title: Obituary: Subversion Author: Anarchist Communist Federation Date: 1999 Language: en Topics: obituary, Organise!, magazine Source: Retrieved on May 13, 2013 from https://web.archive.org/web/20130513043413/http://www.afed.org.uk/org/issue50/sub.html Notes: Published in Organise! Issue 50 — Winter 1998/99.
Readers of Organise! and contacts of the ACF may well know of the
revolutionary group Subversion with whom we have had a fraternal working
relationship over the last decade. We have organised a number of joint
day schools with Subversion, and in Manchester a number of public
meetings were also jointly organised. We also co-operated on organising
a series of summer camps with comrades from Subversion. We share many of
the political perspectives of this group.
So it is no surprise that we are saddened to hear that the group has
decided to call it a day and disband.
In its ten years Subversion produced 24 issues of its magazine, an often
thought-provoking and stimulating read. It attempted to get to grips
with practical problems facing the revolutionary movement and this was
often due to Subversion comrades actually being involved in these
struggles. Such was the case with their coverage of the Poll Tax
struggle, the Liverpool Dockers, the Job Seekers Allowance, the
anti-roads movement and Earth First! activities, as well as workplace
activities. It is no idle claim to say that Subversion, through its
magazine, pamphlets and spoken contributions had a far larger influence
on the British revolutionary movement than its membership, no more than
8 at its largest, would imply. There was often a fruitful exchange of
ideas between Subversion comrades and ACF comrades and other
revolutionaries.
We know that Subversion attempted to avoid the pitfalls of rigid
ideology often seen in both the Marxist and anarchist camps. In doing
so, they admit that “ they bred some suspicion” among those who they
think preferred their “cosy comforts”. Their description of themselves
as libertarian communists, which is unquestionably what they are, should
have been more insistent and sustained, rather than clever sophistries
of self-description as seen in one issue of Subversion where they
described themselves as anti-left communists. We know that means they
are opposed to the left, as much as we are, but this led to confusion
and puzzlement in some quarters.
The signing-off statement of Subversion claims that they had nothing new
to say which they regarded as the most compelling reason to wind up the
group. But surely revolutionaries will always have something new to say
about the twists and turns and the new developments of capitalism. The
essential message of revolution is a fresh today as it ever was,
precisely because state and capitalism, hierarchy and oppression, still
exist. We feel sure that as individuals, the ex-members of Subversion
will continue to have something to say. We hope that they continue to be
active in the class struggle. We can do nothing but applaud their past
activities within the Northern Anarchist Network, the Revolutionary
Socialist Network and the Class Struggle Anarchist Network.
In line with a willingness to continue to work with the ex-Subversion
comrades, the last National Delegate Meeting of the ACF decided that the
pages of Organise! should be opened up to them. Indeed contributions
from these comrades and other revolutionaries are welcome in Organise!
As Subversion noted, their bulletin “provided an organised framework for
revolutionaries to debate new issues arising in the class struggle”. We
hope that to some extent we can continue to do this in Organise! Of
course all contributions would be subject to the same editorial
framework as articles written by ACF members (length etc.).