So we have the above gem from champagne socialist and chattering class extraordinaire Leah Borromeo. I guess that it is hardly surprising she is hostile to Class War, Class War is against everything that she is. She is the type of person who likes their safe and comfy activist sphere and then goes to live her middle-class life and perpetuating her middle-class privilege. Having your cake and eating it is what comes to mind. Well guess what Leah, most of us do not have that luxury and we do not need to be lectured from your ivory tower by someone who is a part of the enemy class.
I am glad that Class War are ruining anarchism for them (Middle/upper-class trendy lefty/hipster activists) because it is not for them. Leah Borromeo knows NOTHING of anarchism as is partly evident when she ridiculously claims that anarchism is ‘for all social classes’. Well I can tell you that it is not ‘for all social classes’, anarchism’s very basis is class struggle and you can not have class struggle if all classes are so superficially united and in such a deluded way. The middle and upper-class derive their political, economic and social power solely from capitalism and the perpetuation of capitalism. Whereas as working-class people seeking emancipation from and the destruction of capital, our interests are in the destruction of that system which hands the middle and upper-classes their political, social and economic power. The world can not do without our labour power but the world can do without the idle middle and upper-classes. I suppose doctors and engineers for example (Some of whom are from working-class backgrounds themselves) are the exception but in a classless society they will lose their class status. The position of a doctor or an engineer does not depend upon the perpetuation of the class system, we will always need them regardless. It is the middle and upper-classes as a class that we need rid of. Can we have ‘middle-class allies’? Well yes, but they are VERY few and far between and Leah Borromeo is certainly not one of them. Some of my closest mates and ‘comrades’ are from middle-class backgrounds but they have renounced as much as they can (In the hear and now) their social status. But again they are very few and far between and they are the exception. Most of us are working-class so it is not an absolute must for us to have true (Or false) allies from middle and upper-class backgrounds, we can do without their support but it is always nice to have it.
She is part of the gentrification process herself. She probably sits in her office/studio on Commercial Road and pontificates to the rest of us. She frequents gentrifying establishments (https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xaf1/t50.2886-16/12015793_767439106736335_2024067885_n.mp4 and https://instagram.com/p/8T8hJtuPmB/) and is very much a part of the chattering class i.e. the enemy.
Also Leah Borromeo uses the term “anarcho-syndicalist” as if all anarchists use that label or adheres to the specific analysis of that set of ideas and principles. I am an anarchist, most of my political ‘comrades’ are, but only a few of them identify as anarcho-syndicalists. Personally I identify as either an anarcho-communist (I suppose the difference between anarcho-communism and anarcho-syndicalism is marginal but still different) or simply an anarchist. I also sometimes identify as an autonomous socialist or an industrial unionist. I am not an anarcho-syndicalist and not many in Class War are.
Above: Leah Borromeo and her 5 minutes of proledom at the controversial anti-homeless spikes. She had this to say: “Because like yah, I soooo feel what the homeless feel now, you know? Yah, OK, that is enough of that. Shall we go for champagne tonight chaps or a chic coffee or cocktail?”.
P.S. There is a sound reason why Class War had the highest membership numbers of an anarchist organisation between the early 1980s and 2010 (When it folded as a group). There is also a reason why Class War as a paper had the highest circulation in Britain of any anarchist publication (15,000 a week at its height). There is even a reason why since 2013/2014 Class War has once again taken off. Such reasons are because people like you Leah do not and can never appeal to the majority of society, that majority being the working-class. I am not saying that every prole in the land is pinning hopes on Class War, that is delusion typical of cause tourists like yourself. All I am saying is that Class War speaks to the average working-class person far better than most other anarchists ever could.