Agrarian class structure and economic development in pre-industrial Europe - Robert Brenner
Submitted by Joseph Kay on May 9 2012 07:14
Robert Brenner's influential essay on the origins of capitalism, arguing that the balance of class forces in the countryside was crucial to the rise and dominance of capitalist wage labour relations.
General interpretations of the processes of long-term economic change in late medieval and early modern Europe have continued to be constructed almost exclusively in terms of what might loosely be called "objective" economic forces, in particular demographic fluctuations and the growth of trade and markets. A variety of models have been constructed centring on these forces.
Don’t you f*****g threaten me Francis Maude
Submitted by working class s... on Nov 20 2011 18:00
I am getting a bit sick of Francis Maude continually making not so 'thinly veiled' threats against the working class.
Francis Maude is a revolting man. I loathe him with every ounce of my being. He seems to be hell bent on becoming the most hated man in Britain.
Whilst preaching to the unions about the importance of on-going negotiation and saying we have shared interests, all in it together, and all that other bullshit. He then constantly keeps goading and making threats to the working class.
A marriage made in the gutter
Submitted by working class s... on Nov 19 2011 21:27
Rumours of Tommy Robinson leaving the EDL for the British Freedom Party have been premature. In a meeting this evening Robinson officially 'endorsed' the BFP. The details of what this means are not yet clear, but it appears to point to a merger between the two groups. One will be the political arm, whilst the other will be the 'street' organisation.
It appears that the rumours about Tommy Robinson leaving the EDL have been slightly inaccurate. At an EDL meeting in Birmingham this evening Tommy Robinson has endorsed the British Freedom Party, but insisted that he is not leaving the EDL.
Where has all my money gone you vile insidious woman?
Submitted by working class s... on Nov 19 2011 14:56
The great privatisation swindle has meant that we are indirectly paying twice for some services. Successive governments has trousered trillions from the legalised thievery that was made popular by 'that woman'. Where has my money gone, and can I have it back please?
The issue of privatisation is a contentious issue for many. I constantly ask myself why I want the state to control a variety of services when I actually want to abolish the state. For me the answer is two-fold. Firstly, the society that I want to see is not about to arrive any time soon, although you never known.
Spanish anarchists in the Welsh valleys
Submitted by Battlescarred on Jan 25 2011 09:05
A short account of the Spanish miners in South Wales and their relationship - sometimes positive, sometimes strained - with the local mining population.
Just as the Franco-Italian anarchist miner Lawrence Storione imported revolutionary ideas to the Fife area of Scotland, so too did Spanish anarchist and socialist miners and steelworkers to South Wales in similarly little known circumstances.
Dole Bondage? Up Yours! An account of Wales against the JSA
Submitted by Juan Conatz on Feb 4 2010 08:09
Originally a pamphlet written by a comrade who resigned from Wales Against the JSA. It chronicles the rise of the left in WAJSA and the consequent decline of that campaign. From Subversion #22 (1997)
"There was stunned disbelief at the Wales TUC organised 'Right to Work' rally in Cardiff on Saturday when an anarchist strolled from the crowd and hurled a custard pie at their deity on the stage - Tony Benn. It was almost worse than Pieing the Pope at the Vatican.
Letters of Emma Goldman and James Colton
Submitted by anarchol on Jan 17 2010 21:11
Letters 1 – 4 and 6, by Emma Goldman. Letter 5, by Jim Colton.
Letter 1
Redland, Bristol
Nov 4th 1925
My Dear Jim,
I found your letter on my return from Birmingham Monday, but as I had to lecture here in the evening I could not possibly write to you.
Emma Goldman – The Queen of Anarchy: The Carmarthenshire Connection
Submitted by anarchol on Jan 17 2010 20:41
In June 1925 Emma Goldman married a coal miner from Carmarthenshire called James Colton in order to obtain British citizenship .
In December 1885 a small band of Lithuanian Jews emigrated to New York. At that time Lithuania formed part of the Russian Empire, and like so many emigrants from Eastern Europe in the last quarter of the nineteenth century these Jews were seeking refuge from oppression in America.
Sam Mainwaring and the Autonomist Tradition
Submitted by anarchol on Jan 17 2010 20:03
Next year (1987) marks the centenary of the first, August 1887, Socialist propaganda tour of Pontypridd, the Rhondda Fach, Aberdare and Merthyr by Samuel Mainwaring, a London based engineer.
Among the subsequently published recollections of him is that in Tom Mann’s Memoirs:
Syndicalism in South Wales: The Origins of The Miners’ Next Step
Submitted by anarchol on Jan 14 2010 17:01
This article was written in 1987 to mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Miners’ Next Step.
Three quarters of a century ago the celebrated syndicalist manifesto The Miners’ Next Step was published. Written by a group of young socialists from the Rhondda, nearly all of whom were themselves working miners, the pamphlet occupies a prominent place in the revolutionary traditions of the British labour movement.
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