Selections from Perspectivas Antidesarrollistas – Miguel Amorós
Six short texts from a book published in 2012 (Anti-developmentalist Perspectives) largely based on talks given in 2009-2010 on the topic of the need for a transition from the economically, environmentally and spiritually unviable city-centered system of globalized capitalism to a new territorial dispersal of human society and productive activities, attaining a higher synthesis of the restoration of the liberating aspects of the city (freedom, public space) and the traditional virtues of the “territory” (local production, self-sufficiency) that can only be brought about by an anti-capitalist revolution.
Translated in January 2014 from the Spanish original as published in: Miguel Amorós, Perspectivas Antidesarrollistas, Editorial Germinal, Valle Maipo Bioregion, Winter 2012.
The above book is available online (January 2014) at: http://editorialgerminal.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/amorc3b3s.pdf
A brief explanation of the concept of territory and its implications - Miquel Amorós
An explanation of the meaning of “territory”, illustrated in its historical, social, economic and political context from the times of Cleisthenes to today’s pathological “anti-cities” and mutilated rural areas, as the dynamic unity of humanity as transformative agent and nature as abstract totality, and its significance for the “anti-developmentalist critique” that seeks to reunify the these two aspects of the world in a two-pronged struggle to restore the emancipatory nature of the city (the agora, “city air makes one free”) and the salutary aspects of rural life (the commons, etc.), a struggle that goes by the name of “territorial defense”, the pivot of the modern social revolution.
A Brief Explanation of the Concept of Territory and Its Implications – Miquel Amorós
I. The Concept
The Chinese mountain Lushan is often enveloped in clouds and it is often hard to get a good look at it. Su Dongpo, a poet of the Song Dynasty, said, in verse:
“How could one tell what Mt. Lushan really looks like
when one is in the midst of the mountain all along?”
The Bagaudae: history's first revolutionaries? - Pablo Romero Gabella
Submitted by Alias Recluse on Dec 6 2013 01:52
A brief introduction to the Bagaudae, the social and historical context of the late Roman Empire, and the modern debates over the meaning of the revolts generally included under this rubric.
The Bagaudae: History’s First Revolutionaries? – Pablo Romero Gabella
“I doubt if all the philosophy in the world can succeed in suppressing slavery; it will, at most, change the name. I can well imagine forms of servitude worse than our own … [that would] transform men into stupid, complacent machines, who believe themselves free just when they are most subjugated….”
The revolutionary program of communist society eliminates all forms of ownership of land, the instruments of production and the products of labor - Partito Comunista Internazionale (Amadeo Bordiga)
In this 1957 text drafted for the Partito Comunista Internazionale, Amadeo Bordiga, with his usual acerbic wit, restates some of the “invariant” principles of Marxism, denounces the idea that communism means collective or individual “property” or “ownership”—terms he subjects to historical analysis as transitory juridical forms—argues in favor of social usufruct as the concept most adequate for the future classless society, ridicules the “metaphysical and idealist” error of the “immediatists” who hold that “socialism is a struggle for the individual liberation of the worker” and, just to rub it in, condemns drinkers and smokers as “usufructuary traitors” against the health of the species.
[b]The Revolutionary Program of Communist Society Eliminates All Forms of Ownership of Land, the Instruments of Production and the Products of Labor1
- 1. Turin Meeting, June 1-2, 1958.
The peasants war in Germany 1525-1526 - Ernest Belfort Bax
Belfort Bax's 1899 history of the peasants war in Germany: the largest popular uprising in Europe besides the French revolution.
Report from autonomous peasant congress in Indonesia
Submitted by kontinum on Feb 10 2013 15:53
Short reportage from Indonesian Autonomous Peasant Congress
Dozens of peasants from various organizations in several cities in Indonesia, joined in Forum Komunikasi Masyarakat Agraris (Agriculture Community Communication Forum) or FKMA, gather in Yogyakarta to hold 2nd Autonomous Peasant Congress, 8-10 February 2013.
Q - Luther Blissett
Set in the time of tremendous religious and political upheaval caused by the Reformation in Europe, Q begins with Luther nailing his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg cathedral -- a historical flash point which would completely disrupt European society. The novel traces the adventures and conflicts of two central characters as they travel across Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. One is an Anabaptist, a member of the most radical Protestant sect. These are the anarchists of the Reformation who revolted against Catholicism and the emerging Reformation church. The other is a Catholic spy and informer.
Prologue
Out of Europe, 1555
On the first page it says: In the fresco I’m one of the figures in the background.
The meticulous handwriting, no smudges, tiny. Names, places, dates, reflections. The notebook of the final fevered days.
The yellowed and decrepit letters, the dust of decades.
Ancient utopia and peasant revolts in China - Ngo Van Xuyet
The last essay completed by the veteran Vietnamese council communist, written in 2004 when he was 91 years old, is a brief introduction to the history of peasant revolts in China, with special emphasis on their Taoist origins and utopian and libertarian inspirations, and features many interesting quotations from historical and religious texts.
Ancient Utopia and Peasant Revolts in China – Ngo Van Xuyet
About the Author
Ngo Van Xuyet (Born in Tan Lo, 1913; died in Paris, 2005)
With the peasants of Aragon - Augustin Souchy
Submitted by ites on Aug 24 2012 11:57
Augustin Souchy describes the experiments in workers control and self-management of production he witnessed when travelling around the liberated parts of Spain during the revolution.
Introduction
The struggle of migrant workers in Castelnuovo Scrivia
Submitted by StrugglesInItaly on Jul 13 2012 15:29
Forty migrant workers have been protesting in Castelnuovo Scrivia (in Piedmont, in the district of Alessandria) since June 22.
The workers, who originally came from Morocco and were employed for the harvesting of zucchini, pumpkins and other seasonal products at the agricultural firm Lazzaro, had been reportedly working 14-hour days, and were being paid 1 euro per hour. Part of their pay was also being deducted as “dues” towards their immigration documents.
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