History

José Pellicer – Miguel Amorós

Submitted by Alias Recluse on Apr 18 2013 20:50

A biographical sketch of the martyred Spanish anarchist and co-founder of the Iron Column, José Pellicer, by Miguel Amorós.

José Pellicer – Miguel Amorós

The day they killed José Pellicer – Miguel Amorós

Submitted by Alias Recluse on Apr 18 2013 20:38

An encomium to the martyred Spanish anarchist, co-founder of the Iron Column, José Pellicer, by Miguel Amorós.

The Day They Killed José Pellicer – Miguel Amorós

The class struggle in the Ancient Greek world - G. E. M. de Ste. Croix

Submitted by welshboy on Apr 18 2013 10:38
The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World book cover

This text is a challenging work on ancient history and should be of interest to historians of the Greco-Roman world. It combines sociological acumen with solid historical craftsmanship, to provide an insightful account of the major institutions, social groups and historical developments of some 1400 years of Graeco-Roman civilization.

Eyes to the South: French anarchists & Algeria

Submitted by wojtek on Apr 18 2013 10:29

'Eyes to the South' studies the currents of the Algerian revolution alongside the development of French anarchist thought from the 1950s to the present. The book presents a fluid mosaic of actions, writings, and theoretical positions as it follows the shifting contexts of Algerian politics and society and the evolving consciousness and organising of French anarchists in all their diversity. The result is an engaging and fresh approach to both transnational politics and anarchist ideas.

Available for purchase at AK Press here.

“Ironies of the saint” Malcolm X, black women, and the price of protection - Farah Griffin

Submitted by wojtek on Apr 16 2013 17:20

Farah Griffin's black feminist critique of Malcolm X and the "promise of protection".

As seen in Chapter Twelve of Sisters in the Struggle: African-American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement by Bettye Collier-Thomas and V.P. Franklin, pages 214-229.

Poll tax rebellion - Danny Burns

Submitted by Steven. on Apr 10 2013 22:30

Full scanned version of the definitive grassroots history of the mass working class movement which defeated Margaret Thatcher's poll tax. 17 million people refused to pay the tax, which defeated it and brought Maggie's time as Prime Minister to a premature end.

This book tells the gripping inside story of the biggest mass movement in British history, which at its peak involved over 17 million people.

"To delightful measures changed..." - Reflections on the 1978-79 Winter of Discontent

Submitted by Red Marriott on Mar 17 2013 15:06

An analysis of a major 1970s highpoint of class struggle in the UK; its character, implications and consequences.

Preamble and Introduction:
History & Class Consciousness in the UK: Now Is The Winter Of Our Discontent

1: Preparing the fire: The period up to the Winter of Discontent
2: The spark that lit the prairie fire: The Ford Strike (Autumn 1978)

Queens, hookers, and hustlers: Organizing for survival and revolt amongst gender-variant sex workers, 1950-1970

Submitted by wojtek on Mar 13 2013 15:30

A selection from Mack Friedman’s Strapped for Cash: A History of American Hustler Culture.

From the Introduction:

The Industrial Workers of the World and the unemployed In Edmonton and Calgary in the Depression of 1913-1915

Submitted by wojtek on Mar 11 2013 12:55

A paper by David Schultz studying the IWW's efforts to organize the unemployed of Edmonton and Calgary during the economic depression of 1913-15: most were transient, unskilled workers, and many had just arrived from railway construction camps in the interior where the IWW had led massive strikes.

Labour /Le Travail Vol. 25, (Spring, 1990), pp. 47-75.

SWP 'expulsions' for discussing rape - not for the first time!

Submitted by hedgehog on Mar 9 2013 20:36

For the Socialist Workers’ Party, rape is now a big issue. Under very different circumstances – when it was more of a theoretical topic – rape was also a big issue twenty years ago.

The document reproduced below was written in association with the Radical Anthropology Group. It summarizes debates during the SWP’s Marxism event in 1991 – debates triggered by the marxist anthropological theory that the prohibition against rape, enforced through struggle thousands of years ago, was the foundational rule of early human society and culture.

[b]After months of lively discussion – including a well-attended debate between RAG member Lionel Sims and SWP leader Duncan Hallas at ‘Marxism’ – around 20 SWP comrades, including virtually all the party’s anthropologists, were summoned by the leadership to a kangaroo court at which they were told to discontinue the debate on pain of immediate expulsion.