'Left unity' could be happening, but needs to be inclusive.

There's some hope for ordinary people in the People's Assembly. Elspeth, a lay preacher from Merthyr, present at the meeting, asked the room "Where are all the existing community groups of Cardiff? Why don't we ever see in our meetings those actually struggling to make ends meet? Where are the black women's groups, the community centres, the refugees, the wider community?"
She had a timely point for everyone who considers themselves an activist today.

The room agreed that more could be done and that we had a responsibility to invite people to the meeting, without expectation that they are in a trade union or ready to join a socialist party. It got better. The proposal for a Cardiff and the Vale People's Assembly was rejected, as this would have made it difficult for single parents, anyone on low income, and those without means of transport to get to. This was a rare sign of different-from-the-usual 'centralisation' that we expect from most of the left.

The road to freedom

It was in mid 1971 that I purchased my still-possessed copy of Bertrand Russell’s “Roads to Freedom” for the princely sum of 60p, helpfully also priced at 12/- for those who had not yet fully adapted to decimal currency.  It was one of a number of books which influenced my political development.

Russell set out (in the terms of the age; he wrote it in 1918, and I doubt that anyone would use some of his words and phrases in more modern times) his analysis of three alternative roads to freedom, and then concluded with some highly idealistic views of his own as a synthesis of sorts. Socialism, Anarchism, and Syndicalism – three alternative ways of building a utopia.

The relationship between Marx and Bakunin had its moments, of course, but whilst the routes to achieve freedom and the structures of the desired free society might look very different, the essential nature of the freedom which underpins them does have some broad similarities.  Freedom from the tyranny of capital, and the replacement of competition with co-operation as a means of sharing resources are two of the essential pillars of my own political philosophy.