History

Ten Days That Shook The World

John Reed

A new edition of John Reed's classic eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution, 100 years since its first publication.

Revolutions

Michael Lowy

Revolutions is a unique collection of rare photographs documenting some of the most important revolutionary upheavals, from the 1871 Paris Commune to the Zapatista rebellion of the 1990s.

Rosa Luxemburg. The Incendiary Spark

Michael Lowt

Renowned Marxist scholar Michael Löwy offers an indispensable assessment of an enduringly fascinating revolutionary. Vibrant, insightful, and wide-ranging, Löwy's essays illuminate the heroic, tough-minded idealist and martyr, Rosa Luxemburg. Active in the labor and socialist movements of Germany, Poland, and Russia, Luxemburg had international standing as an original and sharp-minded theorist during her life and remains one of the most admired and studied revolutionaries in the Marxist tradition. Löwy follows Luxemburg in blending diverse intellectual disciplines--philosophy, history, political science, sociology, anthropology, and economics--to make sense of global realities in her time and our own. Luxemburg's creative intellectual endeavors were shaped by her genuine devotion to the free development of all people, and her fierce opposition to all forms of tyranny and authoritarianism. These commitments guided her analyses of exploitation and mass struggle, the dynamics of trade unions and of bureaucracy, the origins and impacts of economic crisis, the nature of war and imperialism, and the interconnections of reform and revolution. In accessible and stimulating prose, Löwy explores Luxemburg's many political and theoretical contributions, as well as her links to revolutionaries including Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Antonio Gramsci, Georg Lukács, José Carlos Mariátegui, and Leon Trotsky. Through Löwy's expansive engagement with Luxemburg's political trajectory and influence, we are able to see her wrestle with political problems that remain relevant today.

Reform, Revolution and Direct Action Amongst British Miners. The Struggle for the Charter in 1919

Martyn Ives

In this riveting monograph, Ives offers a new perspective on one of the most volatile periods in British labor history.

Race to Revolution. The United States and Cuba During Slavery and Jim Crow

Gerald Horne

The histories of Cuba and the United States are tightly intertwined and have been for at least two centuries. In Race to Revolution, historian Gerald Horne examines a critical relationship between the two countries by tracing out the typically overlooked interconnections among slavery, Jim Crow, and revolution. Slavery was central to the economic and political trajectories of Cuba and the United States, both in terms of each nation’s internal political and economic development and in the interactions between the small Caribbean island and the Colossus of the North. Horne draws a direct link between the black experiences in two very different countries and follows that connection through changing periods of resistance and revolutionary upheaval. Black Cubans were crucial to Cuba’s initial independence, and the relative freedom they achieved helped bring down Jim Crow in the United States, reinforcing radical politics within the black communities of both nations. This in turn helped to create the conditions that gave rise to the Cuban Revolution which, on New Years’ Day in 1959, shook the United States to its core. Based on extensive research in Havana, Madrid, London, and throughout the U.S., Race to Revolution delves deep into the historical record, bringing to life the experiences of slaves and slave traders, abolitionists and sailors, politicians and poor farmers. It illuminates the complex web of interaction and infl uence that shaped the lives of many generations as they struggled over questions of race, property, and political power in both Cuba and the United States.

Riot! Civil Insurrection From Peterloo to the Present Day

Ian Hernon

Lively account of how people power has shaped British history -- from Peterloo to the Poll tax and beyond.

Organized Labor and the Black Worker 1619-1981

Philip S. Foner

In this classic account, historian Philip Foner traces the radical history of Black workers' contribution to the American labor movement.

How Revolutionary Were the Bourgeois Revolutions?

Neil Davidson

An abridged version of the author's 2012 work of the same title, limited to the last part, "The Specificity of the Bourgeois Revoltuion."

Set the Earth on Fire. The Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902 and the Birth of the Police.

David Correia

An eye-opening narrative of the Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, showing how the strike--and the violent backlash that ensued--reveal the genesis of modern policing. In the early years of the 20th century, in the coalfields of eastern Pennsylvania, nearly 150,000 miners took part in one of the most critical events in the history of US labor organizing. The brutal response by the state of Pennsylvania-as well as the federal government-inaugurated the structure and power of policing that we know today. In this gripping account of the Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902, scholar and activist David Correia takes readers through the story of the United Mine Workers of America, their struggle against systems of private policing--which were present in practically every industry in the US--and the development of public, professionalized, state-sanctioned and state-serving police. The demands of their strike included shorter work days, higher wages, and safer conditions in the deadly mines. However, their labor was crucial to westward expansion, colonial occupations in the Caribbean and the Philippines, and many burgeoning industries in the US. To keep the fires of capitalism burning, industrialists prodded the state and federal governments to intervene. Together, they established the first uniformed police force of its kind, a model soon emulated in other states.

Tony Benn presents A Common Treasury

Gerrard Winstanley

At the end of the English Civil War, Gerrard Winstanley and his comrades, known as Diggers, went to St. George’s Hill, to farm the common land and to distribute the food for free amongst themselves. Winstanley’s extraordinary writings from this period have remained a huge influence for many on the Left and are cited as some of the earliest examples of communist thought. Legendary voice of the Left Tony Benn examines Winstanley’s work and argues that, as we face an ever greater enclosure of the commons, he can still inspire us to turn our world upside down.

Lucy Parsons an American Revolutionary

Carolyn Ashbaugh

Marxism and the Oppression of Women. Toward a Unitary Theory

Lise Vogel

Lise Vogel revisits classical Marxian texts, tracking analyses of the woman question" in socialist theory and drawing on central theoretical categories of Marx's Capital to open up an original theorization of gender and the social production and reproduction of material life. Includes Vogel's article, Domestic Labor Revisited" which extends and clarifies her main theoretical innovations.

Workers Councils

Anton Pannekoek

The blueprint for worker control and new community sustainability.

Anti-Capitalist Britain

John Carter & Dave Moreland (eds)

"Anti-Capitalist Britain is an account of the state of left and radical politics in the UK, delivered through a study of recent anti-capitalist protests and movements. The book is a collaborative project involving writers from various universities in the UK and recent participants in anti-capitalist actions."--BOOK JACKET.

Luigi Galleani: the Most Dangerous Anarchist in America

Antonio Senta. Andrea Asali & Sean Sayers (trans)

The first English biography of a neglected anarchist revolutionary who was wanted by governments on two continents.

Anarchy in the USSR. A New Beginning

Philip Ruff (ed)

Seventy years after the death of Kropotkin, the massacre of the Kronstadt Commune and the rout of Makhno, the Party which outlawed anarchism in Russia has itself become a banned organization. But anarchy in the USSR has made a new beginning. Might anarchism now fill the ideological vacuum left by the collapse of Marxism? Here, with commentaries from some of their West-European comrades, the new Russian anarchists speak for themselves about their ideas, and of how anarchy may bring a new order, based on freedom, to the chaos of the USSR. Edited and with an introduction by Philip Ruff.

Anarchist Popular Power: Dissident Labor and Armed Struggle in Uruguay 1956-76

Troy Andreas Ariaza Kokinis

A Cold War-era study of Latin American anarchism in action. Araiza Kokinis's study of the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU) broadens our understanding of the Cold War-era political landscape beyond the capitalism-communism and Old Left-New Left binaries that dominate the historiography of the epoch. Arguably the most impactful anarchist organization globally in the Cold War era, the FAU viewed everyday people as revolutionary protagonists and sought to develop a popular counter-subjectivity through accumulating experiences directly challenging the market and the state. The FAU argued that everyday people transformed into revolutionary subjects through the regular practice of collective direct action in labor unions, student organizations, and neighborhood councils. Their slogan was "create popular power," and their praxis differed from nationalist strains of Marxism at the time. The strategies and tactics promoted by FAU, ones in which everyday people took on roles as historical protagonists, offered the largest threat to maintaining social order in Uruguay and thus spawned a military takeover of the state to dismantle and deflate their vibrant popular revolt. With less than 80 militants, FAU played a key role both sparking and networking popular protagonism in workplaces, neighborhoods, and on campuses. The FAU worked in coalition with the Communist Party (PCU), MLN-Tupamaros (MLN-T), and other Left organizations to support a unified Left project while simultaneously challenging hegemonic strategies, tactics, and discourses. Unlike other anarchist groups worldwide, which took to individualism and counterculture in response to Marxism's popularity throughout the sixties, the FAU embraced Third Worldism and a class struggle strategy that made them a relevant force amongst popular social movements. Throughout the constitutional dictatorship (1967-73), the Tendencia Combativa, a coalition of dissident labor unions spearheaded by FAU, controlled one-third of the nation's unions in some of the most lucrative industries, especially in the private sector. By the time of June 27, 1973, military coup, a majority of Uruguayan industrialists recognized organized labor as the most serious threat to national security. Moreover, communications between US Ambassador to Uruguay Ernest V. Siracusa and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, showed the dictatorship's primary concern was to repress the surging labor movement rather than confronting a waning Tupamaro guerrilla movement. The FAU's anarchist activism within this broader climate of worker revolt threw a wrench in the 1970s neoliberal experiments in Latin America that later migrated north to impoverish American workers from the 1980s until today.

Anarchism: From Theory to Practice

Daniel Guerin

The author examines both the theory of anarchism and its practice and influence through the Bolshevik Revolution era, the Spanish Civil War, the Italian factory councils, and its role in workers' self-management in Yugoslavia and Algeria.

Anarchy Alive! Anti-Authoritarian Politics from Practice to Theory

Uri Gordon

Anarchist politics are at the heart of today’s most vibrant and radical social movements. From squatted social centres and community gardens to acts of sabotage and raucous summit blockades, anarchist groups and networks are spreading an ethos of direct action, non-hierarchical organizing and self-liberation that has redefined revolutionary struggle for the 21st century.Anarchy Alive! is a fascinating, in-depth look at the practice and theory of contemporary anarchism. Uri Gordon draws on his activist experience and on interviews, discussions and a vast selection of recent literature to explore the activities, cultures and agendas shaping today’s explosive anti-authoritarian revival. Anarchy Alive! also addresses some of the most tense debates in the contemporary movement, using a theory based on practice to provocatively reshape anarchist discussions of leadership, violence, technology and nationalism. This is the ideal book for anyone looking for a fresh, informed and critical engagement with anarchism, as a mature and dynamic political force in the age of globalisation.

Anarchism and the City. Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Barcelona, 1898-1937.

Chris Ealham

A dramatic study of working-class urbanism and the fight for control of Barcelona.

We, The Anarchists! A Study of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) 1927-1937

Stuart Christie

In 1964, at the age of 18, Stuart Christie was sentenced to 22 years in prison for attempting to assassinate the Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco. He shares the fascinating history of one of Spain's most radical political organisations, that acted through small, loose knit groups of militants. Christie's intimate knowledge of the FAI provides an essential historical correction of this much maligned and misunderstood group.

Anarchism in Latin America

Ángel J. Cappelletti. Gabriel Palmer-Fernández (trans)

An accessible introduction to anarchism's history and influence from Mexico to Argentina. First English translation.

The Spanish Anarchists: the Heroic Years 1868-1936

Murray Bookchin

The Heroic Years 1868-1936 A long-awaited new edition of the seminal history of Spanish Anarchism. I have learned a great deal from this book. It is a rich and fascinating account.' - Howard Zine'

A History of the French Anarchist Movement 1917-1945

David Berry

The first English-language evaluation of the French anarchist movement between World War One and World War Two. Using an impressive array of archival sources and personal interviews, Berry's original research explores the debates and growing pains of a large, working class movement facing great obstacles. Focusing on the organised wings of the movement - the syndicalist and anarcho-communist group - it offers a ringside seat to the legacy of the First International, the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Bolshevik treachery, as well as the fight against fascism.