Snips

Two links on radical history in the northwest of England: Sarah Irving at MAFA on fascism and anti-fascism in 1930s Manchester and Phil Dickens reflecting on the rhythms of class struggle in Liverpool history.

For anti-fascists of an archival bent, see also these scans of AFA’s Fighting Talk.

From across the pond, here’s Stuart’s latest round-up of the democratic left, featuring David McReynolds, Michael Walzer, Alan Johnson, and David Osler. All good stuff.

Entdinglichung recasts the Arab spring as a Mediterranean revolt, including Spain and Greece. He has links to multilingual material on it, including the Fundacio Andreu Nin in Spanish. Here’s Carl Packman in English.

Finally, the Socialist Labour Party, Arthur Scargill’s vanity vehicle and personality cult, has taken a further step in its degeneration, depressing to those of us who saw Arthur as a hero during the miners’ strike, or who honour the memory of the original SLP, one of Britain’s most important, unsung radical movements.

Advertisements

Today in 1937: George Orwell shot

George Orwell Wounded by a Fascist Sniper
The Spanish Civil War, near Huesca
20 May 1937

I have been about ten days at the front when it happened. The whole experience of being hit by a bullet is very interesting and I think it is worth describing in detail.

Two round-ups

Democratic left round-up

Some good reads from blogs and websites on the democratic left, at Stuart’s place. Includes:

Marc Cooper blasts  the “worst of both worlds” in Cuba.

Right Wing Watch notes “Historians Agree: David Barton Is No Historian”

Christopher Hitchens reviews the letters of Rosa Luxemburg More evidence that those who think Hitch has become a rightist are, to put it gently, wrong.

The week in links

A round-up by my companero Martin. Includes:

Another great column from Hitch (long may he flourish): reviewing Rosa  Luxemburg’s letters, and musing on how different history might have been, had her vision of socialism won out against the Leninist version. And on the subject of insurrectionary leftists, Julie Burchill is in blistering form, attacking the ‘Toytown Trots’ who think smashing shop windows is a revolutionary act, as well as the use of similar bullying tactics against Ahava for selling Israeli goods, so that ‘ we have now seen the first forced closure of a Jewish shop for QUITE A LONG TIME – give yourself a pat on the back for carrying on Hitler’s work so well, gang!’

Related articles

Poumastica

A Zionism/anti-Zionism special:

James Bloodworth: Trotskyists and the State of Israel

Eric Lee: Israeli ‘apartheid’ and the ghost of Bayard Rustin

M Ezra: Stalinist Roots of Left-Antisemitism

Unrelated:

Max Weber: Can anarchists be legal scholars?

Brandon Storm: Dying Breeds: Moderate Republicans and Spanish Socialists

Musical accompaniment:

Marxist Dia-tonic?

Related articles [automatic]

Poumtative

Green Grundrisse – Graffiti Joan Miro style

Should The Great Gatsby really be called Drink Responsibly? – on Orwell in the bookshop

Notes from the Steam Room – phrases tangled up in purple passages – Orwell and prose style

Reviewed: Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941–1968

TROTSKYGRAD ON THE ALTIPLANO – Bolivia’s “Permanent Revolution”- by Bill Weinberg, NACLA Report on the Americas

Poumiliciousness

Daniele Archibugi and Marina Chiarugi: Wilson, Trotsky, Assange: lessons from the history of diplomatic transparency.
Carl Packman: Reflections on May Day, London.
Andrew Coates: Syria, the Arab Spring and the Western Left.
Bob From Brockley: George Galloway, national socialist.
Bob From Brockley: Jewish hero or Israeli criminal (with an interesting comment thread on militant v liberal anti-fascism).
Arthur Bough: Why We Need A Tomb Of The Unknown Worker.
Bobi Pasquale: Anarchism, direct action and class struggle.

And some music:

Don Cherry does Andre Breton
Aaron Copland/Alfred Hayes: Into the Streets May First

Related Articles [auto-generated]

Music Mondays: Mayday

Merle Haggard: Working Man’s Blues

(Reposting this, as I messed up the link.)

Johnny Cash: Working Man’s Blues

Travis Tritt: Lord have mercy on the working man

John Lennon: Working Class Hero

Related Articles

From the archive of struggle: Haymarket and May Day

Here, some recent additions to the digital commons. Below the fold, Some links from Rosemary Feurer’s Labor History Links site:

From the archive

Rassembler, diffuser les archives des révolutionnaires (RaDAR):

* Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (POUM):Révolution espagnole, 18. November 1936; Révolution espagnole, 15. Januar 1937; Révolution espagnole, 18. Dezember 1936 (mit einem Nachruf auf Buenaventura Durruti); Révolution espagnole, 15. Februar 1937

* Jeunesses socialistes révolutionnaires (JSR):Révolution !, März 1935; Révolution !, November 1937; Révolution !, Dezember 1937; Révolution !, Januar 1938

* Parti ouvrier internationaliste (POI): A bas la répression contre-révolutionnaire en URSS (1936) [includes letter from Antje Ciliga]

* Pierre Frank: La révolution espagnole (1959)

La Bataille Socialiste:

* Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB): Le Mouvement Travailliste en Angleterre (1931)

Big Flame 1970-1984:

* Sexuality and Fascism (1979)

LibCom:

* Edward P. Thompson: The making of the English working class (1966)
* Midnight Notes: Policing Us (1985)
* Echanges et Mouvement: The summer strikes in Poland, 1980 (1980)
* Steven Jones: A communist critique of some aspects of early CrimethInc. (2005/2006)
* W: Rethinking CrimethInc. (2006)
* Denis Authier: The Beginnings of the Workers’ Movement in Russia (1970)

* Tom Goyens: Beer and Revolution: The German Anarchist Movement in New York City, 1880-1914 (2007)
* Karl Korsch: Evolution of the Problem of the Political Workers Councils in Germany (1921)
* Armenian history: an anarchist perspective (2007)
* Loren Goldner: Preface to the Swedish edition of Communism is the Material Human Community: Amadeo Bordiga Today (2002)

* Chris Ealham: Class, Culture and Conflict in Barcelona, 1898-1937 (2005)
* Simon Pirani: The Russian Revolution in Retreat, 1920-24: Soviet Workers and the New Communist Elite (2008)
* Oskar Anweiler: Party Dictatorship or Workers Democracy: Introduction (1968)
* Claudio Pozzoli: Paul Mattick and Council Communism (1976)
* Colin M. Anderson: The Industrial Workers of the World in the Seattle General Strike (?)
* G.Masi: Anarchism in Tunisia: Nicolò (Nicolantonio) Converti, 1855-1939 (2003)
* About anarchist history in the Philippines (2004)
* Herman Gorter: Historical Materialism (1920, Vorwort von Karl Kautsky)
* El Libertario: Anarchism in Venezuela, past and present (2008)
* Scotland’s Libertarian Left (2007)

* Anton Pannekoek: Class Struggle and Nation (1912)

Marxists Internet Archive (MIA):

* Socialist Party of Kansas: The Workers World, Nr. 1-35 (1919)
* Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (POUM): The General Policy of the Workers Party of Marxist Unification (1936)
* Victor Serge: Den Gamle (1942)
* Raya Dunayewskaya: New Turn To The “Popular Front”, (1955)
* Raya Dunayewskaya: New Stage of Struggle Against Labor Bureaucracy (1955)
* Erich Fromm: Marxism, Psychoanalysis and Reality (1966)
* Natalia Sedowa: Bagaimana itu Terjadi (1940)

* Henk Canne-Meyer: Herman Gorter -Obituary (1927)
* Henk Canne-Meyer: THe Rise of a new Labour Movement (Excerpt) (1935)

* Amadeo Bordiga: Espace contre ciment (1953)

Collectif Smolny:

* Bénjamin Peret: Le déshonneur des poètes (1945)
* Anton Pannekoek: State Capitalism and Dictatorship (1937)

Workers’ Liberty:

* Wladimir Iljitsch Lenin/James Connolly: The Dublin Labour War of 1913 (1913)

* Workers’ Liberty 1, May 1985. Starved, Battered, Defiant: Magnificent Miners. The Story of the 1984-5 Strike
* Workers’ Liberty 3, September 1985. Breaking The Chains (South Africa)
* Workers’ Liberty 4, Spring 1986
* Workers’ Liberty 6, April-May 1987
* Workers’ Liberty 9, January 1988
* Workers’ Liberty 15, February 1992. Socialists answer the new right
* James Connolly: Glorious Dublin/A titanic struggle (1913)
* Sean Matgamna: „Our Lady of the Jungle Sings the Blues“? (1988)

Archive.org:

* Libertarian Socialist League (LSL): Proceedings of the founding conference of the Libertarian Socialist League, summer 1949 (1949)
* Karl Radek/August Thalheimer; Gegen den Nationalboschewismus!: zwei Aufsätze (1920)
* Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Spartakusbund) (KPD): Der Weg der Revolution (1919)
* F. Brandt: Syndikalismus und Kommunismus (1919)
* Petr Kropotkin: Khlieb i volia. S predisl. lize Rekliu; perevod s frantsuzskago (1919)
* Morris Hillquit: Yhdysvaltain sosialismin historia (1912) [A Finnish translation of History of socialism in the United States (1910), published in Fitchberg, Mass. Was that a centre of Finnish socialism?]
* Socialist Party of America (SPA): Socialist Call, 10. April 1953

* Art Lowe: Draft statement on work in the Stalinist arena (1956) [Young Socialist League (US)]
* Petr Kropotkin: Di anarkhisishe filozofye (1907) [London : Arbayer fraynd]

* Ber Borochov: In kampf far Idishe rekh : a blik in der Idisher rekhlozigey un in der geshikhe fun der Idisher emantsipatsions bewegung(1916) [N : Aroysgegeben fun Idish nats[yonaln] arbey[t]er ferband fun Ameri[c]a

* Albert Norden: The Thugs of Europe (1942) Book published in 1942 by a German Communist who fled Germany when the Nazis rose to power.

Labournet Austria:

* 19.4.1943: Beginn des Warschauer Ghetto-Aufstands – Marek Edelmann erzählt (Film)

Rustbelt Radical:

* Karl Marx: The North American Civil War (1861)

Luxemburger Anarchist:

* Benjamin Tucker: Anarchism and Crime (1926)

Radical Socialist:

* Leo Trotzki: The Question of the United Front (1922)

Wobblies:

* Industrial Workers of the World (IWW): One Big Union (1908/2001, pdf-Datei)

Climate and Capitalism:

* James Connolly: We Only Want the Earth (1907)

Signalfire:

* Prometeo: Marking out the Foundations (1946)

Obituaries and appreciations

Hazel Dickens (1935-2011), troubadour, feminist, class struggle warrior

Eliahu Itzkovitz, soldier, criminal, anti-fascist

John Watson, solider, deserter, working class hero

Music

Pino Masi