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American Labor's First Strike

Henry P. Rosemont. Charles H

Alexandra Kollontai. A Biography

Cathy Porter

Kollotai was a brilliant and passionate defender of the ideals of the Russian revolution and women's liberation.

Zapata of Mexico.

Peter E. Newell

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.

The Making Of The Black Working Class In Britain

Ron Ramdin

A classic history of the role of Black working-class struggles throughout the twentieth century In this pioneering history, Ron Ramdin traces the roots of Britain’s disadvantaged black working class. From the development of a small black presence in the sixteenth century, through the colonial labour institutions of slavery, indentureship, and trade unionism, Ramdin expertly guides us through the stages of creation for a UK minority whose origins are often overlooked. He examines the emergence of a black radical ideology underpinning twentieth-century struggles against unemployment, racial attacks and workplace inequality, and delves into the murky realms of employer and trade union racism. First published in 1987, this revised edition includes a new introduction reflecting on events over the past four decades.

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.

The Bauxite Strike and the Old Politics

Eusi Kwayana

Work. The Last 1,000 Years.

Andrea Komlosy

Tracing the complexity and contradictory nature of work throughout history Say the word “work,” and most people think of some form of gainful employment. Yet this limited definition has never corresponded to the historical experience of most people—whether in colonies, developing countries, or the industrialized world. That gap between common assumptions and reality grows even more pronounced in the case of women and other groups excluded from the labour market. In this important intervention, Andrea Komlosy demonstrates that popular understandings of work have varied radically in different ages and countries. Looking at labour history around the globe from the thirteenth to the twenty-first centuries, Komlosy sheds light on both discursive concepts as well as the concrete coexistence of multiple forms of labour—paid and unpaid, free and unfree. From the economic structures and ideological mystifications surrounding work in the Middle Ages, all the way to European colonialism and the industrial revolution, Komlosy’s narrative adopts a distinctly global and feminist approach, revealing the hidden forms of unpaid and hyper-exploited labour which often go ignored, yet are key to the functioning of the capitalist world-system. Work: The Last 1,000 Years will open readers’ eyes to an issue much thornier and more complex than most people imagine, one which will be around as long as basic human needs and desires exist.

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.

A Walk Through Paris. A Radical Exploration

Eric Hazan

A walker’s guide to Paris, taking us through its past, present and possible futures Eric Hazan, author of the acclaimed Invention of Paris, takes the reader on a walk from Ivry to Saint-Denis, roughly following the meridian that divides Paris into east and west, and passing such familiar landmarks as the Luxembourg Gardens, the Pompidou Centre, the Gare du Nord and Montmartre, as well as forgotten alleyways and arcades. Weaving historical anecdotes, geographical observations, and literary references, Hazan’s walk guides us through an unknown Paris. With the aid of maps, he delineates the most fascinating and forgotten parts of the city’s past and present. Planning and modernization have accelerated the erasure of its revolutionary history, yet through walking and observation, Hazan shows how we can regain our knowledge of the city of Robespierre, the Commune, Sartre, and the May ’68 uprising. Drawing on his own life story, as surgeon, publisher and social critic, Hazan vividly illustrates the interplay and concord between a city and the personality it forms.

1968 on Edge of World Revolution

Philipp Gassert & Martin Klimke

Philipp Gassert teaches modern history at the University of Heidelberg in Germany and is DAAD visiting Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. Formerly a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., Martin Klimke is the associate dean of humanities and associate professor of history at New York University, Abu Dhabi.

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."

Radical Unionism. The Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Syndicalism

Ralph Darlington

Traces the entwined international legacy of revolutionary syndicalism and the communist movement. --From publisher description.

The Five Hundred Year Rebellion. Indigenous Movements and the and Decolonization of History in Bolivia

Benjamin Dangl

How history--spoken, written, visual, broadcast, and shared--has supported five centuries of indigenous Bolivian resistance.

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

Labor Power and Strategy.

John Womack Jr

What would it take to topple Amazon? To change how health care works in America? To break up the media monopolies that have taken hold of our information and imaginations? How is it possible to organize those without hope working on the margins? In Labor Power and Strategy, legendary strategist, historian and labor organizer John Womack, speaks directly to a new generation, providing rational, radical, experience-based perspectives that help target and run smart, strategic, effective campaigns in the working class. In this sleek, practical, pocket inspiration, Womack lays out a timely plan for identifying chokepoints and taking advantage of supply chain issues in order to seize and build labor power and solidarity. Interviewed by Peter Olney of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union--Womack's lively, illuminating thoughts are built upon by ten young labor organizers and educators, whose responses create a rich dialogue and open a space for joyful, achievable change. With stories of triumph that will bring readers to tears this back-pocket primer is an instant classic.

Struck Out. Why Employment Tribunals Fail Workers and What Can Be Done

David Renton

Organizing Insurgency. Workers Movements in the Global South

Immanuel Ness

Workers in the Global South are doomed through economic imperialism to carry the burden of the entire world. While these workers appear isolated from the Global North, they are in fact deeply integrated into global commodity chains and essential to the maintenance of global capitalism. Looking at contemporary case studies in India, the Philippines and South Africa, this book affirms the significance of political and economic representation to the struggles of workers against deepening levels of poverty and inequality that oppress the majority of people on the planet. Immanuel Ness shows that workers are eager to mobilise to improve their conditions, and can achieve lasting gains if they have sustenance and support from political organisations. From the Dickensian industrial zones of Delhi to the agrarian oligarchy on the island of Mindanao, a common element remains - when workers organise they move closer to the realisation of socialism, solidarity and equality.