The personal memoirs of syndicalist Tom Mann. While we disagree with much of his politics, such as his support for the Stalinist Communist Party, we reproduce this text is an important addition to the history of the workers' movement in the UK.
Original introduction
The first secretary of the Independent Labour Party, the President of the dockers' union, the first General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union: a mere roster of the positions he held in the Labour Movement, of which this is a tiny fraction, would establish Tom Mann as a Pioneer. But what he did was always more impressive than the positions from which he did it. He was an initiator, a catalyst, a goad to action. Whenever a real crisis came, his stature found its true proportions, and again and again Tom Mann became a pivot for the actions of downtrodden people
Attachments
tommannsmemoirs00mannuoft.pdf
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Comments
Way cool. I've been wanting
Way cool. I've been wanting to read this for long time.
Yeah, introduction fails to
Yeah, introduction fails to mention he was a slavish supporter of the Communist Party and Stalinism for a large part of his life.
we all got skeletons
we all got skeletons battlescarred!
some bigger than others.
some bigger than others.
Battlescarred wrote: Yeah,
Battlescarred
So was a number of early marxist syndicalists who took the ugly turn.
Knowing this, of course, an enlightened reader takes this into account. Like reading early
Foster's crap-ass "Syndicalism" or Monatte's syndicalism's.
Have added a critical
Have added a critical introduction
I thought some people may be
I thought some people may be interested in this footage of Mann addressing a save Sacco and Vanzetti demonstration in Trafalgar Square, 1927.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/tom-mann/query/demonstrations