The new issue of Black Flag: Anarchist Review is now available:
This issue includes articles on or by Tom Mann and British syndicalism, Émile Pouget and his contribution to French syndicalism, libertarians at the 1896 London Congress of the Second International, fighting fascism in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, the anarcho-feminist Mujeres Libres group and more.
This issue’s editorial and contents are:
Editorial
Welcome to the third issue of the relaunched Black Flag!
Originally, we planned to be at least bi-annual but happily we have managed to exceed our hopes and produce three issues this year. This issue has taken on a syndicalist theme, marking as it does the anniversaries of the deaths of both Tom Mann and Émile Pouget. The former is inextricably linked to the Great Unrest of 1910 to 1914 and we take the opportunity to discuss Mann’s ideas as well as British Syndicalism. As well as an in-depth account of his syndicalist ideas, we include many of his pamphlets and articles along with articles from Freedom discussing industrial unionism. Hopefully there are lessons to be learnt from both for today’s activists. From a leading British Syndicalist, we turn to Pouget who was a leading French one. We reprint all but one of his most famous pamphlets, including a new, complete, translation of Le Syndicat (The Union) and his 1898 article on Sabotage. Again, we hope that these will be of use to current activists. We start and end with some passages by Bakunin indicating his syndicalist ideas.
This year also marks the 125th anniversary of the 1896 Congress of the Second International in London. Here we recall the attempt by anarchists to gain access to the new socialist International, which resulted in definitive expulsion of libertarians from the organisation. We also mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Arditi del Popolo with an article discussing the lessons to be gained from fighting fascism in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.
Finally, we mark the founding in 1936 of the Spanish anarcha-feminist group, Mujeres Libres (“Free Women”). This important organisation fought not only against the sexism of capitalist society but also that of their male comrades, who all too often combined a theoretical opposition to all forms of hierarchy with a distinctly patriarchal practice. They are an important reminder that fighting economic and political hierarchy is not enough and that all social hierarchies need to be destroyed in order for a free society to exist.
If you want to contribute rather than moan at those who do, whether its writing new material or letting us know of on-line articles, reviews or translations, then contact us:
Contents
Protest of the Alliance (Michael Bakunin)
Émile Pouget: Proletarian Pamphleteer, Syndicalist Theorist and Organiser (Constance Bantman)
- Sabotage (Almanach du Père Peinard, 1898)
- The Basis of Trade Unionism (1903)
- The Union (1904)
- The Party of Labour (1905)
- Direct Action (1910)
Socialists and Workers: The 1896 London Congress (Davide Turcato)
- Should Anarchists Be Admitted to the Coming International Congress? (Errico Malatesta)
- The Forthcoming Congress (F. Domela Nieuwenhuis)
- On the Congress (Louise Michel)
- International Congresses and the Congress of London (Peter Kropotkin)
- The International Socialist Congress in London (Rudolf Rocker)
Tom Mann and British Syndicalism (Iain McKay)
- The Way to Win: industrial unionism (1909)
- From The Industrial Syndicalist
- Prepare for Action (July 1910)
- All Hail, Industrial Solidarity! (October 1911)
- A Twofold Warning (April 1911)
- The Railwaymen (May 1911)
- From The Syndicalist
- What we Syndicalists are after (January 1912)
- Syndicalism at Work (March-April 1912)
- Syndicalism and the State (March-April 1913)
- From Mother Earth
- In Appreciation [of Peter Kropotkin] (December 1912)
- Mother Earth and Labour’s Revolt (March 1915)
- War and the Workers (September 1915)
- Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Cotton Operatives Get an Advance by Direct Action (December 1915)
- Miscellaneous
- Report of the Holborn Town Hall Meeting (August-September 1896)
- Tom Mann Quits Politics (July 1911)
- Tom Mann In New York City (3 August 1913)
- Tom Mann Writes from Mid-Atlantic (September 1913)
- Foreword [to How we shall bring about the revolution] (1913)
- A Plea for Solidarity, The International Socialist Review (January 1914)
- Freedom on Industrial Unionism
- The Future of the Labour Struggle (June 1910)
- Tom Mann and the Industrial Union Movement (November 1910)
- Anarchist Methods in Revolutionary Syndicalism (November 1911)
- Industrial Unionism (March 1912)
- Correspondence: Industrial Unionism and Anarchist Communism (March 1912)
Lessons from the Historic Fight Against Fascism (Wayne Price)
Lessons from Spain’s Mujeres Libres: Anarchism & the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women (Martha Ackelsberg)
- The Place of Women in Society (Emma Goldman)
- Controllers and Controlled (Lucía Sánchez Saornil)
- Women In The Revolution (Spain and the World, 25 August 1937)
- Report from the Madrid Group of Mujeres Libres
- Slogans of “Free Women”
- New Education
- Mujeres Libres
Parish Notices
Review: Bob Holton’s British Syndicalism 1900-1914 (Albert Meltzer)
Open Letter to British Soldiers