Angry Workers Collective, "Insurrection and Production" (2016)

"This at a time of general political disorientation (of which we see Corbyn-mania as an obvious sign!) in the wake of defeats and containment of the upsurges we have experienced and witnessed around the world in recent years. In short, we hope that in the course of the following text we put some basic assumptions about a communist revolution into a more concrete context."

Hello readers! Join us November 27th for another instalment in our Thursday night series. For this one, we're marking the approach of 2026 by jumping very far forward in time relative to our last few with a text from 2016. Ten years ago is a long time, especially in politics, and at first glance this text may not seem all that more up-to-date or relevant than our Lenin readings. You can be the judge - but our intent in reading Insurrection and Production from the Angry Workers Collective is to open up a conversation about what's changed and what hasn't from that moment in British and global politics which seemed so pregnant with possibility at the time.

Find the text here: https://www.angryworkers.org/2016/08/29/insurrection-and-production/

A decade on, this piece remains a timely meditation on revolutionary strategy, the limits of "left populism", the changing nature of the revolutionary subject (global working class or surplus, lumpenised, precarious population?), and the social/class composition of British society in detail. It provides a realistic, frank, not un-humorous look at the prospects for revolution during what was being called an "era of riots" which few other writers dare to, then or now. Much has changed, but much has also stayed the same. In our discussion we'll explore these questions and maybe even take baby steps towards designing an approach to analysing our conditions today through the same revolutionary materialist lens.

Take care and see you there!