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Ideas & Action - A new movement magazine

category ireland / britain | anarchist movement | press release author Tuesday January 06, 2009 18:00author by Ideas & Action editorial group - WSM Report this post to the editors

In the world today there is no body of revolutionary theory that provides a fully convincing picture of where we are or a program for the future. The left is trapped in a cycle of state ideology and reactions to state ideology.
Our old publication - one more to come
Our old publication - one more to come

For the past 14 years Ireland's Workers Solidarity Movement has published 14 issues of our theoretical journal Red and Black Revolution as an attempt to break this cycle and develop a contemporary anarchist understanding of the world we are in. It was sold at anarchist bookfairs in London and Dublin but otherwise faced the same problems as many other non-commercial publications, notably the closure of independent bookstores and an increased use of online media. This has meant that sales of the magazine shrunk while online readership of the articles soared. As we publish in order to be read rather than to be sold we embraced rather than shrunk from online distribution even though it cut further into sales.

The WSM Autumn conference concluded that the production for sale model of our magazine was over. We also wanted to make significant changes in the look and feel of what we produced and to explore new methods of getting contributions. So we have 'killed' Red & Black Revolution and will be producing a new printed publication, 'Ideas and Action', which will be distributed for free at all major 'hubs' of movement activity and discussion in Ireland and Britain. We are also currently looking at methods of distribution both online and in printed form elsewhere in the world with a particular focus on countries where English is the main language.

Our initial print run will be 5,000 and we'd expect online access to be at least as successful as that for Red & Black Revolution, some of whose articles have been downloaded by more than 100,000 people.

This new magazine aims to document contemporary struggles that will have bearing on how future movements take shape. We also want to engage with the best impulses of traditions other than our own in order to develop a coherent contemporary anarchist analysis that builds on the best the movement has to offer. With this in mind the editorial staff is keen to solicit articles from people other than our members in order to develop our anarchist politics through engagement with fellow travellers in the struggle against capitalism.

So, if you have any suggestions for articles or if you have unpublished book reviews lying around please email ideasandaction AT gmail.com

DISTRIBUTORS WANTED

The impact of good political literature is greatest when people get to talk and share their reaction to what they read. One of the chief aims of Ideas and Action is to generate discussion and action within both the wider working class and the existing social movement networks. Free distribution will help with this but we need your help.

The editorial staff of the journal is looking for organizations, institutions and individuals to contact us if they are interested in distributing this journal. Can you leave copies at your local social centre or union hall? Are you and your friends interested in distributing it at movement events in your locality? Do you and your friends read and discuss political material together?

While we are some time off our first issue, it will appear Summer 2009, we are also calling on potential distributers at home and abroad to organise launch events and discussions as each new issue comes. In this way we hope each issue will be a tool of collective political development not only for the editorial group but for a large network of individuals and organizations.

If you are interested in becoming a distributor of our new journal please contact us at ideasandaction AT gmail.com

Related Link: http://www.wsm.ie/rbr
author by mitch - WSA (personal capacity only)publication date Tue Jan 06, 2009 23:24author email wsany at hotmail dot comauthor address author phone Report this post to the editors

Comrades,

As much as I respect the WSM, I think a bit of originality would be in order.

Back in 1981 a network of comrades founded ideas & action as an independent anarcho-syndicalist magazine. After Workers Solidarity Alliance was founded in November, 1984, ideas & action became the magazine of WSA (with issue #5). Due to a number of factors we suspended the magazine.

An archive of some of the article can be found at: http://workersolidarity.org/?page_id=263

Since its suspension WSA discussed reviving it.It has always been our hope that once WSA completed a period of rebuilding we would seek to re-launch our journal. The problem with WSM taking the same name is that it will create confusion at the point WSA re-launches the original "ideas & action".

While I can appreciate and respect the fact that the name of our journal has been used many times over, in educationals, in others journals in a doctored form and so forth. I would hope that due consideration will be given to the origins of the title and the fact that the Workers Solidarity Alliance has merely suspended the journal with the hopes of reviving it as the journal of the Workers Solidarity Alliance.

As a founding member of the ideas & action collective, I would ask that our WSM comrades reconsider the name of their intended journal.

Thank you for the favorable consideration and action.

Respectfully and comradely,

mitch

Related Link: http://workersolidarity.org
author by Tom - WSApublication date Wed Jan 07, 2009 02:00author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I'm the former editorial coordinator of the WSA's magazine ideas & action. The magazine was "suspended" in 1997 due to a period when people power and funds were lacking. But I would point out to the comrades of WSM that the WSA has always had in mind re-viving ideas & action. It seems to me that you all should have consulted with WSA before making the decision to adopt the name of our publication.

author by Alan MacSimoin - WSMpublication date Fri Jan 09, 2009 08:42author address author phone Report this post to the editors

There is no problem here. I'm sure the WSM will take this on board, and come up with an alternative title.

The choice of 'I&A' by the WSM, in so far as it was linked to anything else, probably came from a series of public 'day schools' we ran some years back under the title "Anarchism: Ideas & Action".

With the WSA's magazine being on another continent and not having appeared in eleven years I honestly don't think it entered anyone's head that you might still want to use that title.

author by mitch - WSA publication date Fri Jan 09, 2009 22:28author email wsany at hotmail dot comauthor address author phone Report this post to the editors

Greetings & thanks Alan. A private comradely email will be sent to WSM.

Continued good luck to the WSM and good health to you in the new year.

 
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