World War I

Mollie Steimer, 1897-1980 - Paul Avrich

catch — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 09:10:08 +0000

Mollie Steimer: An Anarchist Life
By Paul Avrich

Memoirs of the I.W.W. [Australia] - Bill Beattie

Ret Marut — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:29:59 +0000

MEMOIRS OF THE I.W.W. [Australia]

Bill Beattie

The Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919: The Forgotten Revolution - Alan Woods

catch — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 21:14:25 +0000

November 12, 1979

Glasgow and the Wobblies

Ret Marut — Sun, 20 May 2007 02:21:58 +0000

"It was perhaps a natural development that one of the strongest branches of the Advocates of Industrial Unionism should be in the Singer Sewing Machine Works at Kilbowie, Clydebank, which employed some 12,000 workers. Singers was primarily an American firm, but it had established itself in Europe, and exerted an effective monopoly in the manufacture of sewing machines.

War is the health of the state - Randolph Bourne

daniel — Wed, 16 May 2007 14:50:34 +0000

To most Americans of the classes which consider themselves significant the war [World War I] brought a sense of the sanctity of the State which, if they had had time to think about it, would have seemed a sudden and surprising alteration in their habits of thought.

1915-1920: Red Clydeside and the shop stewards' movement

Steven. — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:47:44 +0000

Although unemployment decreased slightly in the few years immediately preceding the beginning of hostilities, inflation rose dramatically, increasing the prices of foodstuffs, rents and fuel, but decreasing workers’ wages by 15%. While conditions at work were fairly miserable, workers had to return to bad housing where overcrowding was not uncommon and disease rampant.

1895-1921: The CGT, France

Steven. — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:48:39 +0000

Revolutionary Syndicalism in the French CGT

1915: The Glasgow rent strike

Steven. — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 10:06:16 +0000

During the First World War, rent increases across Glasgow provoked massive working class opposition, mainly from women organised in tenants’ groups. Their struggle against profiteering landlords during extremely difficult circumstances is a valuable example of how collective action really gets results.

1919: The Calais mutiny

Steven. — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:21:19 +0000

As the end of World War I was nearing, the British Army was being used more extensively in France, as the French military had largely disintegrated due to widespread mutiny. However, as time progressed, British soldiers were proving equally unwilling to fight and to obey.

1919: The RAF Biggin Hill mutiny

Steven. — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:16:42 +0000

1919: The Southampton mutiny

Steven. — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:10:59 +0000

1918-1930: Mutiny and resistance in the Royal Navy

Steven. — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:06:01 +0000

Whilst the mutinies in the German and French Navies in the First World War have been well documented little information is available concerning the British Royal Navy. There was, however, considerable talk of mutiny at Portsmouth, in the summer of 1918.

1917: The Etaples mutiny

Steven. — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 12:00:19 +0000

Etaples, about 15 miles south of Boulogne, was a notorious British Army base camp for those on their way to the front. Under atrocious conditions both raw recruits from England and battle-weary veterans were subjected to intensive training in gas warfare, bayonet drill, and long sessions of marching at the double across the dunes.

1919: The Luton riots

Ed — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 10:05:17 +0000

Peace comes to Luton!

In the summer of 1919, as the local Council launched extravagant celebrations of the war’s end, angry ex-servicemen demanding work took to the streets.

14. War Is the Health of the State

Steven. — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 11:17:08 +0000

"War is the health of the state," the radical writer Randolph Bourne said, in the midst of the First World War. Indeed, as the nations of Europe went to war in 1914, the governments flourished, patriotism bloomed, class struggle was stilled, and young men died in frightful numbers on the battlefields-often for a hundred yards of land, a line of trenches.

Sharpley, Kate, 1891-1978

Steven. — Mon, 15 May 2006 15:37:09 +0000

Albert Meltzer first met Kate Sharpley on the day of the Lewisham anti-National Front riot in 1977 when he got into an altercation with some racists on the train home. One of the passengers was a frail lady in her eighties, going up to Guy's & St.

Mutinies - Dave Lamb

libcom — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 13:49:07 +0000

MUTINIES

by Dave Lamb

Origins of the Movement for Workers' Councils in Germany

libcom — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 20:25:40 +0000

Written by the Dutch Group of International Communists (GIK), with an introduction by Dave Graham.

Why past revolutionary movements have failed

libcom — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 22:22:08 +0000

Thirty years ago every socialist was convinced that the approaching war of the great capitalist powers would mean the final catastrophe of capitalism and would be succeeded by the proletarian revolution. Even when the war did break out and the socialist and labor movement collapsed as a revolutionary factor, the hopes of the revolutionary workers ran high.