We decided as an organisation to put this publication together during our 2024 Plan C gathering in Bristol The meeting itself was the first of its kind since the pre-pandemic period, and although Plan C has remained active in one way or another throughout the past years, this meeting was seen as something of a reboot moment for our organisation It was here that we not only took the decision to work together on a physical publication, but also developed many of the ideas that would eventually be contained within it.
So why this publication and why now? 2025 marks a decade since the last print run of our short-lived BAMN magazine. Although Plan C has published many other articles and printed materials in the meantime, serving both as a platform for our own members to share political reflections, and as a venue for the ideas and reflections of others, it seems to us that what has been missing from all of this activity is a tangible collection of a wider range of perspectives and experiences from within the organisation itself. Our gathering in Bristol last year proved beyond all doubt that almost every one of us has some insight or refl ection that they want or perhaps even need to share. But what crucially connects all of these interventions is the fact that they amount to more than a mere statement of political opinion. Instead, they are refl ections from the point of view of struggle, be it in the context of everyday life, that of the organisation and political environment we exist within, our place within society, or even how we face up to and try to organise against transnational capital and the logic of war. The purpose of this publication is to try and capture a sample of the material struggles we are engaged in: political struggles we carry out as part of Plan C or other organisations we are connected to, but also social and personal struggles which our life as members of a revolutionary organisation helps us to make sense of without turning to dejection and despair. In these pages you will find accounts of workplace struggle, struggle against the arms industry and genocide, struggle within our own organisations and movements, struggle against a rising tide of racism, feminist struggle, struggle against closure and the impoverishment of political imagination And at the same time there are many political projects we are engaged in, organisational and theoretical refl ections, and personal perspectives which do not appear in these pages, a fact which for us most clearly indicates that this will be the first in what we hope to be a longer-running series.
The 10 or so years that have elapsed since our last printed publication also aff ord us an opportunity to see how the organisation has developed, how its composition and outlook has changed, how the political realities we relate to and try to intervene in have changed. What have we learned about ourselves as an organisation in that time, and what does it mean for the future? In some ways, the questions we ask ourselves now arent altogether diff erent to the ones we were asking then: questions about social reproduction, the politics of everyday life, the rise of the far-right and fascism, what it means to be a revolutionary organisation in the context of a complex world. All of these remain as relevant today as they did 10 years ago. On the other hand, one could argue that the stakes and defi ning characteristics of many of these problems have changed. Environmental politics have shifted from a peripheral position on the fringes of the left to one that is central to almost every revolutionary question. The shared experience of a global pandemic has opened up new and important questions around care, the democratisation of technology and science, and the very possibility of political organisation under conditions of catastrophe verging on social collapse. As we write, the Russia-Ukraine war has entered its third year and the creep of militarisation seems impossible to ignore. Far-right ideologues bray for the return of military service and increased arms budgets in every corner of Europe. Trump has begun his second term as US President and isolated himself within a conclave of Peter Newell, Peter Newell, techno-fascists, one which includes the supposed richest man in the world. The grotesque clarions of reactionary nostalgia bleat their cries for war: war on women, war on the left, war on trans and queer people, war on the disabled, war on migrants, race war, trade war, land war, war against war wherever convenient, but war against those who cry for the war to end wherever not. Anything but class war, of course.
The ongoing genocide in Palestine has already left an indelible scar on our political consciousness that will not stand as a matter of historical responsibility ought not be forgotten for the rest of our lives. We have borne witness to the stark contrast between images of an almost impossible brutality and the glib statements of world leaders, the press, and parts of civil society, even including some on the left, as they continue to lend moral and material support to Israel. We have been faced with the challenge of how to organise politically against such things when protest no longer seems to be enough, when the asymmetries of state and capitalist power seem too overwhelming to recoup the ambitions of revolutionary politics from the last century. In the face of these conditions, it can seem even absurd to speak of the timeliness of a printed publication such as this one. Nonetheless, we see the need for such a thing to exist. Partly as a means of further developing our own political understanding and outlook by consolidating it for ourselves in a written format and by letting it stand to the test of public opinion. Partly in the hope that some of our own ideas and reflections can be of service to others who continue, in spite of everything, to struggle. No matter how hopeless our situation may at times seem, there remains the simple and constant truth that we must struggle, however we can, not simply as a matter of consoling ourselves that we are doing something, but with a genuine hope of winning. This publication, in the same vein, is not simply the outlet for a pent up and frustrated political scream. It is a call to action, to continue engaging in material struggle and to continue learning from the inevitable failures of that struggle so that we can learn to fail better. The words contained here are all meant, in one way or another, to provide something of practical import, to give a multitude of diff erent readers from diff erent backgrounds some material to reflect upon, to challenge, or to identify with.
With this goal in mind, we tried very consciously to put together a range of material, pitched at various levels of interest, some parts more theoretical, others concerned with the very practical matters of ongoing political projects and struggles. Some of the material is more literary and personal, whilst other contributions seek to engage not only through the written word, but also via images. This wide variety in both the style and substance of interventions refl ects our organisation, which in the past number of years has increasingly sought to diversify the range of approaches and perspectives within itself, whilst at the same time maintaining something of its enduring identity which we all in one way or another continue to believe in as a meaningful political project. Some of these articles and essays will be more accessible, whilst others can be destabilising on entry but, we hope, worth the eff ort of engagement. Whilst we do not and have not ever as an organisation sought to shy away from complex questions and at times concepts that diverge from the language of the everyday, we have on the other hand spoken in ways that are always informed by the material and practical questions of political struggle and organisation. These are not in any sense esoteric interests, but rather the outcome of a very real set of refl ections about what it means to think, act, and exist as a political militant in the 21st century. The number of issues and questions that urgently need discussion is far greater than what we were able to address in these pages. In the process of putting this publication together, we sought to give each author the freedom to express their thoughts in whatever level of detail and specifi city they felt necessary. This is something we hope to continue in future editions, aiming for a depth of experience and insight instead of seeking breadth by ticking every box, but never quite allowing room to say something that has not yet been said on a subject.
The process of getting this publication to print was a lengthy one. Whilst we hope and expect that future editions will come to fruition with relative ease, now that we have managed to break the path with this fi rst Unknown Artist, Correcting a Multipage Form 7 edition, it is worth refl ecting a little here on the amount of logistical, organisational, and ultimately also reproductive labour that goes into such an undertaking. The price of the publication aims to cover some of the costs of printing, distribution, and various other overheads with a view to making this publication self- sustainable as a long-term project. The labour of organising all of these things, from the writing, to editing, to design, production, and all the other logistical and practical work involved on our part was done for free and from a sense of political necessity. We would like to pay our contributors, and especially those people in the process who have sacrificed enormous amounts of time and effort to bring this physical object into being, many of them living precariously, scraping by on low-paid jobs and social welfare, or others in full-time jobs who have sacrificed a great deal of their personal lives to continue this and other important forms of political work. None of these people expect to be paid, all of them have made such sacrifices unthinkingly and in the knowledge that the necessity of political work insists upon itself, with or without remuneration. As in all of our political work, we hope nevertheless that it can, in one way or another, eventually serve in some way that helps us to live, to reproduce ourselves through a form of production which we believe has value. Until then, being assured of the value that a publication such as this one might have for our comrades everywhere is enough to keep us going.
Guillotines Editorial
Editors: Enda O, Alessio L, Olly B, Ben H, Sophia L, Neil O, Andrew X
Proofreading: Briar P, Neda G, Enda O
Design: Flann D
