Anarchist reading room

I. Especifismo

From Machete 408:

An informal reader has been put together on especifismo, the anachist tradition and practice from Latin America that speaks for the need to form specifically anarchist orgnaization and for ’social insertion’ within social movements. With similarities to the currents of Anarchist-Communism and Platformism, the especifists argue for a particular understanding of the charactor of anarchist organization and relationships with social movements. With roots going back to the period of dictatorships in the 1980’s, knowledge of the especifist tradition has only reached North America within the last several years.

The reader can be found here and begins with introductory articles (though I think the second one it could do without) and is followed with a series of interviews and translated documents and theory peices. Other projects to translate and gather documents and history related to this tradition are underway.

Contents:

Introductions

1. Especifismo: The anarchist praxis of building popular movements and revolution organization in Latin America – Adam Weaver

2. Building a Revolutionary Movement: Why Anarchist Communist Organization? – Adam Weaver

The organizations

1. The Social Question: Latin American Anarchism and “Social Insertion” – Michael Schmidt (Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation, South Africa)

2. NEFAC Interviews The Federacao Anarquista Gaucha (FAG Brazil) – Red Sonja (North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists-Boston)

3. Who We Are, What We Want, The Path We Follow – Coletivo Comunista Anarquista (Brazil)

4. Anarchist Advances in Uruguay and Brazil -from Rojo y Negro (CGT, Spain)

5. The Principles of the Forum of Organized Anarchism -Fórum do Anarquismo Organizado (Brazil)

Theoretical discussions

1. The Need of Our Own Project – Libertarian Socialist Organization (Argentina)

2. The Specific Organization – Jaime Cubero (Centro de Cultura Social, Sao Paulo)

3. Materialism and Idealism – Anarchist Collective of “Zumbi dos Palmares” Forum of Organized Anarchism (Brazil)

Theory, Ideology, and Historical Materialism – Internal Education Secretary of Libertarian Socialist Organization (Brazil)

II. Anarcho-syndicalism

I’ve been poking around the website of the anarcho-syndicalist Workers Solidarity Alliance. They’ve got quite a good library, with some classic stuff, although mostly available elsewhere:

• Workers Power & the Spanish Revolution (pdf) by Tom Wetzel
• The American Labor Movement: A New Begining by Sam Dolgoff (@  IWW.org)
• Anarcho-Syndicalism (html) by Rudolf Rocker
• Anarchism and Power in the Spanish Revolution (html) by Murray Bookchin
• Bolsheviks and Workers Control by Maurice Brinton (@ Spunk Press)
• The Founding of the First International (html) by Mikhail Bakunin
• Marxists and Spanish Anarchism A reply to various Marxist criticisms of Spanish anarchosyndicalism, compiled by Iain McKay. (@ flag.blackened.net)
• Soviets and Factory Committees in the Russian Revolution (html) by  Peter Rachleff
• Towards a Fresh Revolution by the Friends of Durruti Group, 1938.  (@ WSM, Ireland)

Members of the IWW Agricultural Workers Organization take a vote in the early ’20s.