Libcom library archiving to do list

Sadie

Steven.

wojtek

This?
https://anarchasteminist.wordpress.com/2017/12/17/transphobia-is-a-class-issue/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

yes, if you or someone could post that up that would be great!

Hi there, author of that article here, happy to post it if you want.

hey, that would be great, thanks! You now have posting permissions so please pop it up in the library. Also if you could post up your other article about data gathering that would be great as well!

If you are going to be writing about stuff semi-regularly, we could set you up with a blog on here. What do you reckon? Is that something you would be interested in maybe?

complete run of the German-language anarchist theory magazine "Schwarzer Faden" (1980-2004): https://archive.org/details/SchwarzerFaden

It's pathetic I know but help from someone else more IT savvy than me to get the two texts I referred to and linked from another site at the end of this thread would be appreciated as they should really be included in relation to the other long UK Solidarity library of material. Here:
https://libcom.org/history/wow-may-day
Obviously not a priority but I suspect the site I linked to might go at some point.

Just found this fantastic blog posting original source material and analysis on the 1974 Ethiopian revolution: http://abyotawi.blogspot.co.uk/ Posted one up but there's a lot here and the first year or so before Mengitsu consolidated power and crushed any independent organisation is very under-documented especially online.

https://libcom.org/library/class-character-ethiopian-revolution

Entdinglichung

complete run of the German-language anarchist theory magazine "Schwarzer Faden" (1980-2004): https://archive.org/details/SchwarzerFaden

I grabbed the torrent, if someone with better German then me would write up a brief introduction to the magazine or knows where I can copy one I'll start adding it to the library.

Reddebrek

Entdinglichung

complete run of the German-language anarchist theory magazine "Schwarzer Faden" (1980-2004): https://archive.org/details/SchwarzerFaden

I grabbed the torrent, if someone with better German then me would write up a brief introduction to the magazine or knows where I can copy one I'll start adding it to the library.

can do it probably today or tomorrow

Awesome guys! Red, for a German language thing I would feel free to upload it the easy way by adding all PDFs to one single page, rather than adding each issue separately (I would save it every few uploads, rather than do all of them at once just in case something goes wrong so you don't lose all your work)

Entdinglichung

Reddebrek

Entdinglichung

complete run of the German-language anarchist theory magazine "Schwarzer Faden" (1980-2004): https://archive.org/details/SchwarzerFaden

I grabbed the torrent, if someone with better German then me would write up a brief introduction to the magazine or knows where I can copy one I'll start adding it to the library.

can do it probably today or tomorrow

That'll be great, thank you. My German was never great but writing in it was my weakest point. Feel free to let me know when your done and I'll start adding them when I have some free time.
Sorry for the late reply btw.

I've made a start on Midnight Notes here http://libcom.org/library/midnight-notes-journal

The first issue is also here, with an introduction by Alfred Bonnano that doesn't appear in the actual Midnight Notes version http://libcom.org/library/strange-victories-midnight-notes

I'm not sure if anything should be done about that? I assume it's OK to have the two versions live.

That's great Fozzie, thanks! Yeah fine to leave the two versions

'The Class Strikes Back: Self-Organised Workers' Struggles in the Twenty-First Century'
I haven't read it so not sure if it's worthwhile:
https://library.memoryoftheworld.org/b/XMCJFIbQqQIpX0xpmPrQYsTS1gStxuan-_7fHSLFiTLFtYyI

Is there anything that needs uploading/adding to the library?

It's not a straight archive-to-library job, but I was looking for information on the 1965 'March Intifada' in Bahrain - which was a strike of hundreds of oil workers, followed by suppression by British police and a general strike.

There is almost nothing in English online, and the Arabic sources from the wikipedia entry are dead.

The best I could find was this from archive.org, which would need to be run through google translate then tidied up: https://web.archive.org/web/20110911051221/http://www.alwaqt.com/art.php?aid=101780

There's what I guess could be called an 'online historical novel' here about it, the novel can be skipped but the photos look genuine: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/tliad-the-triumph-of-the-march-intifada.283654/

Another one would be this PDF on the Mau Mau uprising. The first link in the PDF goes to a malware site now, so it would be better to scrub it from the PDF, but I guess we could also just post it with a warning. http://www.socialiststories.com/liberate/Mau%20Mau,%20A%20Revolution%20Betrayed%20-%20Maina%20wa%20Kinyatti.pdf

Also afaik we don't have any archives of Base Publication yet. There are PDFs, and also individual articles online: http://www.basepublication.org/

wojtek

Is there anything that needs uploading/adding to the library?

yeah in addition to the stuff Mike mentions, any of the stuff in the "higher priority" section of the OP would be great as well!

Hmm the OP is from 2011, do we want to put a 'valid as of date' note on it and/or strike through anything that's been done?

Mike Harman

Hmm the OP is from 2011, do we want to put a 'valid as of date' note on it and/or strike through anything that's been done?

I thought I have kept this post up to date, and put everything that has been done in the "done" section at the bottom…

Could you not gather together the issues of SWF's 'Direct action', please? All tagged Syndicalist Workers Federation but otherwise no listing

https://bibliothekderfreien.de/lidiap/eng/index.html

There's an archive of texts about the 1848 Revolutions that is interesting.

https://www.ohio.edu/Chastain/contents.htm

I've added some of them about France and Germany using the tags for both, and I guess I could create on for Italy if the texts about the revolt in the Italian states has any useful information about workers movements, but the problem is that a lot of the uprisings and political events happened in the Hapsburg Empire which is a nightmare to map using modern geography.

So I don't really know how to archive stuff about them.

After listening to the working class history podcast on the Aussie IWW I went looking for stuff on Monty Miller, and some biographies and some of his writing on this site http://www.takver.com/history/indexbooks.htm

Which also host a lot of stuff from the Aussie labor movement from many different groups and individuals, it goes back at least to the 1910s and despite the really old site layout seems to have been updated as late as 2009.

Kate Sharpley

Could you not gather together the issues of SWF's 'Direct action', please? All tagged Syndicalist Workers Federation but otherwise no listing

Now here: http://libcom.org/library/direct-action-world-labour-news-1960s

It would be good if someone could do an introductory blurb and check the title I have given it.

Hey, so this isn't really a request to archive new stuff but more helping us out with older stuff in the archive. I noticed again that a lot of our older anarchist entries (like this page from our Malatesta tag, but more or less true for any of the texts that got added 10+ years ago) don't have images or introductions.

Would anyone be up for editing those in? It wouldn't have to be too involved; just one line about what more or less the articles are about, vaguely related image. Just feel it would make the pages look better, be more likely to be shared on social media, etc.

Ed

Hey, so this isn't really a request to archive new stuff but more helping us out with older stuff in the archive. I noticed again that a lot of our older anarchist entries (like this page from our Malatesta tag, but more or less true for any of the texts that got added 10+ years ago) don't have images or introductions.

Would anyone be up for editing those in? It wouldn't have to be too involved; just one line about what more or less the articles are about, vaguely related image. Just feel it would make the pages look better, be more likely to be shared on social media, etc.

I'll see if I can edit a few

edit:

Maybe delete this duplicate article?

http://libcom.org/library/democracy-anarchy-errico-malatesta

Unpublished it for now (some recent comments about different versions of articles being on the site, some with missing paragraphs, has combined with my general hoarding mentality to make me reluctant to delete anything!).

Thanks so much for helping with this. It's much appreciated!

New translation of Munis here that'd be good to add https://www.workersoffensive.org/single-post/2019/01/30/Revolutionary-Class-Political-Organization-and-the-Dictatorship-of-the-Proletariat-Part-1

would this be worth adding to the library?

https://ia801603.us.archive.org/8/items/in.ernet.dli.2015.264093/2015.264093.The-Economic.pdf

If anyone has the time, we'd really appreciate someone adding all the stuff from New Syndicalist and generally keeping us updated with their new stuff. We've already got some but it'd be great to have the rest as it is, imo, some of the best libertarian writing/media being produced in the UK atm.

https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/browse#workersdreadnought

Be worth adding Pankhurst''s Woman's/Workers' Dreadnought to the library? I could make ocr pdf's from the images.

something like this maybe

https://easyupload.io/7d1omd

For what it's worth, just to plug that the Sparrow's Nest has a great collection of scanned PDFs, it's where I've been getting all the old ORA/AWA stuff from... and looking at their site, I see they've just recently added a big set of 80s Direct Actions if anyone wants another project to take on.
Other archives I'm thinking of trying to back up are the Anti-Fascist Archive, and then there's the Irish Anarchist History archive, again if anyone feels like taking that on it'd be very welcome.
EDIT: oh, and the 1 in 12 Publications Library as well.

Some bits here of interest like Careless Talk, Red Menace (UK), Libertarian Communist Review etc.

Some but not all of this seems to be taken from here, Sparrow Nest etc - but to my nerd eyes some of it only exists as scans there:

https://splitsandfusions.wordpress.com/left-communists-and-libertarians/

https://splitsandfusions.wordpress.com/anarchists/

Blimey Fozzie how did you dig that up, my personal political history on line (via a Trot site!) from just before leaving/being expelled from the spgb via the discussion journal eventually titled 'Libertarian Communism' up to 'Subversion' and including most of the other left/council communist groups we had links with. Some continuity but more positive evolution from shaky beginnings I'd claim. I've never wanted to see it all reproduced myself since couldn't really recommend most of that early stuff and some maybe plain embarrassing. Still it does remind me of old friends and comrades many no longer around.
PS; Does still have gaps of course especially missing all the better printed Social Revolution magazines which did have some good articles including a few from John Crump.

Well I am sure we all have embarrassing skeletons in our closets, Mike - a sign of a misspent youth and also subsequent development :)

I found that site while looking for something else whilst cooped up in bed with very mild symptoms of the currently fashionable virus...

If anyone feels in need of another archiving project to take on, I had planned to get around to tackling the Sparrow's Nest collection of scans of Direct Action, 80s paper of the Direct Action Movement, at some point, but looking into it a bit more, I see they also have scans of Direct Action, 40s-50s paper of the Anarchist Federation of Britain, and Direct Action, 60s paper of the Syndicalist Workers' Federation, although they haven't got around to scanning their collection of Direct Action, 90s/2000s SolFed mag yet... bloody anarchists and their unimaginative naming habits.

a friend showed me this http://cedall.org/Documentacio/Castella/cedall203502000_Tierra%20y%20Libertad.htm

The complete archive of the FAI newspaper, shame I don't read Spanish, but some users may find it interesting.

If anyone wants yet another archive to look around and maybe duplicate, check out Leftovers: https://leftove.rs/tmp/#about - looks to have copies of everything from the Commonweal to WSA documents to anti-Poll Tax stuff to d-beat zines, from looking around for about a minute.

That’s quite cool - quite hard to navigate but I guess that will improve. Some good stuff in there I’d not seen online.

Some of the documents scanned by the LSE are not in the best condition (chunks of text missing, pages torn, etc.). British newspaper archive seem to have better scans but they're behind a paywall (not sure what book or source they're digitizing from). I'll continue uploading from LSE unless I find something better.

I've put my archiving on hold for the moment because there's more interesting stuff going on, but if things slow down enough that archiving seems a reasonable use of time again, just to mention that there's a more-or-less full set of Love & Rage up here - the archivist's full collection is a bit hit-and-miss insurrecto-maoist, but would be good to get some of the old ARA On the Prowl stuff and the Anarchist Labor Bulletins in the library as well.

Does anyone read the stuff i upload or use this website? Seems like a waste of time.

wojtek

Does anyone read the stuff i upload or use this website? Seems like a waste of time.

I'm sure people do sooner or later; there's lots of content hosted here without comments. Not sure what all they're introducing/removing in the site upgrade but I imagine a re-design would attract more people. I mean technically for stuff hosted on other sites, I think you could archive all of it from the command line (wget something something?) and make it available here somehow, but poring through communist stuff and uploading it manually can be fun/rewarding, and makes it available to others.

I read that PDF you uploaded about Obi Egbuna and early UK black power stuff just this week. It was cool but I didn’t think “this is cool” was a useful contribution to the site.

Yeah, for better or for worse this site seems to be largely dead as a place for discussion, but as an archive/library I think it still serves a useful purpose that definitely can't be met by social media sites.

I've been re-reading Negroes with Guns given the present circumstances, and I'm sure I have read more or added it to the queue. I think one of the limitations of the site is if people don't comment its almost impossible to see if what you've uploaded is making an impact. The twitter and facebook plugins don't always seem to work and I think edits to the page resets them?

wojtek

Does anyone read the stuff i upload or use this website? Seems like a waste of time.

Definitely! People don't normally comment any more, as most people use social media instead of website comment sections. But we continue to get as much/more traffic than ever, with hundreds of thousands of people reading articles every month. So please do continue the fantastic work!

Am I right in thinking there isn't a libcom Love & Rage archive yet? If so, would probably be worth getting these copied over: https://issuu.com/randalljaykay/stacks/b16cbabfba624530abe8e1eee29445ec
The Dragonfly Archive looks interesting too: https://issuu.com/dragonflyarchive Various ones I've heard of like News & Letters, Zero, Social Revolution, Black Flag, and then loads of others that are new to me.

There are few things on there of interest (Zero and Black Flag are already on Libcom). But also a lot of nationalist / insurrectionist bits that should probably be avoided...

Another one to add to the to-do list, I'd like to get around to it soon but certainly won't complain if anyone beats me to it: Anarchist Black Dragon, a late 70s/early 80s publication produced by anarchist-communist prisoners at Walla Walla State Penitentiary. Might also be worth doing a gallery for Carl Harp's art, he had quite a nice visual style.

R Totale

Am I right in thinking there isn't a libcom Love & Rage archive yet? If so, would probably be worth getting these copied over: https://issuu.com/randalljaykay/stacks/b16cbabfba624530abe8e1eee29445ec
The Dragonfly Archive looks interesting too: https://issuu.com/dragonflyarchive Various ones I've heard of like News & Letters, Zero, Social Revolution, Black Flag, and then loads of others that are new to me.

yes definitely! There is no archive as yet, other than this tag containing the book about them: https://libcom.org/tags/love-and-rage

Do people think it'd be worth adding an archive of Insurrection Magazine?

R Totale

Do people think it'd be worth adding an archive of Insurrection Magazine?

It's probably of historical interest but is not really my thing so I haven't read it?

I guess the question is: how awful are the politics?

Dunno, I haven't really read it either. From a quick glance, it looks very Bonnano/Weir/Elephant, so depends what you think of that stuff I suppose. Issue #0 has a lot of stuff about the struggle against the missile base in Comiso, Sicily, which is kind of interesting in that I'm sure I remember seeing some insurrecto texts that were just kind of like "people should organise like they did in Comiso" without giving that much more context. (Having had a quick look, it comes up in the Do or Die! insurrection article, and in Miguel Amoros' critique of Bonanno). Mind you, it was late September that I decided I should probably archive Love & Rage and Anarchist Black Dragon and I've not got around to starting on those yet, so if anyone's really really desperate for this stuff to be added to the library then they're probably best off not waiting for me to do it.

None of this is especially pressing ;)

I'm a bit worried about the fate of the contents of Stuart Christie's website now that he's passed away. https://christiebooks.co.uk/

Does anyone know if he had any friends or colleagues helping run the page? Since it doesn't even have a memorial entry I'm guessing it doesn't. I mostly used the massive film archive and bought the odd very cheap e-book, but the front page regularly featured translations and interviews.

The music and talk section is already riddled with dead links and my attempts to contact using the two e-mail addresses linked to the site have bounced back.

Sparrow's Nest have just digitised a load of new old stuff, including a lot of Solidarity: https://thesparrowsnest.org.uk/index.php/14-news-and-events/223-new-additions-to-the-digital-library-december-2020

I'm not an expert on the various ins and outs of Solidarity so idk if there's anything that isn't on here already, but I think the 80s stuff is new, at least for a certain value of new?

There is a complete online archive of Earth First UK's Do or Die here:
http://thetalonconspiracy.com/2014/04/do-or-die-earth-first/

I remember later issues of this being pretty great. Earlier ones slightly lumbered with ALF/ELF stuff. Probably good to include here.

Do or Die indeed was a great publication, and yes would be good to have here.
On this:
Reddebrek

I'm a bit worried about the fate of the contents of Stuart Christie's website now that he's passed away. https://christiebooks.co.uk/

Does anyone know if he had any friends or colleagues helping run the page? Since it doesn't even have a memorial entry I'm guessing it doesn't. I mostly used the massive film archive and bought the odd very cheap e-book, but the front page regularly featured translations and interviews.

The music and talk section is already riddled with dead links and my attempts to contact using the two e-mail addresses linked to the site have bounced back.

on this, I was worried about this as well, and have spoken to various people and be reassured that the website and film archive is being looked after.

Would anyone be able to salvage some of the more interesting bits from this Radical Manchester blog?

There's lots of interesting stuff on it but it hasn't been updated since 2013 and wordpress blogs have a tendency to just disappear occasionally

Might be some things worth copying over from the South Side Chicago Anarchist Black Cross zine collection here:
https://chewy.cat/abc/

Got a few WSM-related things I want to archive, would be good to get a full set of Red & Black Revolution in the library: http://www.wsm.ie/rbr

R Totale wrote: Do people think it'd be worth adding an archive of Insurrection Magazine?

I have recently started reading this and thought it was a lot better than I expected until I got to the piece on the miners strike in issue 2:

So that has gone some way down my list of priorities to get up here now...

R Totale wrote: Looks like the Revolt Against Plenty site is down, not sure how much of that is archived but would be good to get the rest of it preserved if anyone has the time?

Yep that is gradually and haphazardly happening as well as some newer things like the Dave Wise XR article.

R Totale wrote: Oh yeah, have now belatedly spotted that you first pointed that out about 8 months ago. :O

No worries!