LM network

The LM network or LM group is a loosely constituted network of individuals and organisations sharing a libertarian and anti-environmentalist ideology. It is led and largely comprises individuals associated with the now defunct Revolutionary Communist Party and its principal publication, also defunct, Living Marxism. The network itself has no public presence or acknowleged existence, although associated organisations have overlapping personnel, themes, views and techniques and promote each other.

Many of the techniques used are characteristic of the RCP, including: the creation of a range of organisations without apparent formal links; the launching of multiple campaigns; the preference for extensive and extended debate; the adoption of contrarian and controversial positions; the use of martial terminology; and the early adoption of leading edge communication techniques.

A defining characteristic of the network is the positioning of its organisations as catalysts for debate, while in reality the debates are intended to promote the network's views. The principal underlying themes of support for economic development and freedom from regulation objectively benefit corporate interests and the larger and more established organisations seek corporate sponsorship, either directly or via PR companies or free enterprise think tanks. Several of the organisations explicitly target young people.

Many of those involved have past or current links with the Universities of Kent, Sussex and East London. Higher education is the most common occupational sector, followed by the media. For details of leading personnel, click on LM network at the bottom of this page.

Associated Entities

• Academics for Academic Freedom - Free speech
• Audacity - Construction
• Big Potatoes - Innovation
• Future Cities Project (together with ManTownHuman) - Planning/ architecture
• The Great Debate - Debating forum
• Institute of Ideas (together with Battle of Ideas, Culture Wars and Debating Matters) - Debating fora
• Manifesto Club - Anti-regulation
• Novo Argumente - German online magazine
• Salons (Regional) - Debating fora
• Spiked (together with Young Journalists Academy) - online magazine
• Trasna An Domhain Go Leir - international analysis
• Voltaire - Swedish online magazine
• WORLDwrite (together with WORLDbytes) - international analysis

The LM network appears to have some influence with the Genetic Interest Group, Progress, the Science Media Centre and Sense About Science.

Defunct Associated Entities

• Africa Direct
• Campaign Against Militarism
• Campaign for Internet Freedom
• Channel Cyberia
• Families for Freedom
• Feminists for Justice
• Freedom & Law
• Global Futures (dormant)
• Internet Freedom
• Irish Freedom Movement
• Libero
• London International Research Exchange
• Modern Movement
• Transport Research Group
• Workers Against Racism

Resources

• Andy Beckett, 'Licence to rile', The Guardian, 15 May 1999.
• James Heartfield 'Dave Hallsworth' Obituary, Guardian, 20 December 2007
• John McVicar, The Scoop that Folded a Magazine Punch, 29 May 2000.
• Don Milligan, Radical Amnesia and the RCP, Reflections of a Renegade, January 8, 2008.
• Dave Renton Living Marxism, spiked online and the RCP Temporary Hoarding, 4/8 March 2006.
• Mike Small, 'The Faction That Fools the World' Variant Issue 24, Winter 2005, version placed in web archive 20 April 2007
• Dave Walker Libertarian Humanism or Critical Utopianism? The Demise of the Revolutionary Communist Party New Interventions, Vol.8 No.3, 1998