The Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci once wrote that "to tell the truth is a communist and revolutionary act." If we apply this maxim to most of the left, we would draw the obvious conclusion that it is neither communist nor revolutionary.
This work, volume 11 of The Collected Works of Peter Kropotkin, is in two parts. The first part is Kropotkin's classic book "Modern Science and Anarchism." The second part is concerned with his thoughts on the latest theories and experiments in biology and evolutionary thought. As will become clear, the combining of these two very different works is not as contradictory as it first seems.
On Fire: The Battle of Genoa and the anti-capitalist movement (One-Off Press: ISBN 1 902593 54 5)
This is an excellent book, crammed full of useful (and disgusting) "McNuggets" of information on the whole process of producing "fast food." From the industrialisation of farming, to the monopolisation of food processing, to the standardisation of food consumption throughout whole sections of North America, Schlosser's book exposes the horrors of modern corporate capitalism. He documents the impact of the rise of fast food on almost all aspects of North America, from farming to health, from working practices to landscape, and beyond.
When Labour announced a 50% tax rate on those earning more than £150,000 there was a whole spate of gnashing of teeth from the right-wing media.
Let us put this in context: less that 2% of the British population earn more than £100,000, a mere 10% over £40,000. Britain is an extremely unequal society, with a few owning the bulk of income and wealth.
Carlo Tresca is one of those rebel workers whose memory deserves to be honoured and Pernicone's excellent biography does just that. Pernicone's has previously produced an excellent history of the Italian anarchist movement ("Italian Anarchism: 1864-1892", Princeton University Press, 1993) and this work is of equal quality and of interest to anarchists. He obviously understands anarchism and writes with sympathy and knowledge about it. Such historians are rare.
An account of the first anarchist-feminist group in Argentina in the 1890s.
A review of the film Charlie Wilson's War, discussing what the film did not mention and how the activities of the USA in Afghanistan started before the Soviet invasion and its unintended consequences.
An article on anarchism and unions, written in an attempt to build support for the Anarchist Workers Network (AWN). The AWN aimed to create a libertarian presence in the trade unions, but after a period of interest it disappeared. An article written to learn some lessons from the AWN is attached at the end.
Three letters to the US-based Anarchy magazine in response to an issue it did on "Platformism" pointing out the mistakes made -- as well as the irony of Bob Black attacking the Platformists as vanguardists while repeating some of Lenin's arguments from What is to Be Done?
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