There is a long tradition of personal autobiographies written by ageing activists in the anarchist movement about their experiences and motivations. This is the recently published autobiography of Albert Meltzer, a British anarchist whose life has taken him from the fights against Mosley and support for Spain in the 1930’s through fringe involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler, the Cairo mutiny after WWII, supporting the Spanish resistance, to the Angry Brigade trials and fighting the National Front in the 1970’s.
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The trial of the Colombia 3 has produced a frenzy of speculation in the Irish media about whether they are guilty or not, and how this might effect the ‘peace process’. What is all too lacking, however, is any background to Colombia itself. This is not too surprising. Andrew looks at the situation there and argues that it is the Colombian state that should be in the dock.
A review of an excellent new biography of Bakunin.
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The Revolutionary Ideas of Bakunin
An introduction to the ideas of Bakunin, one of the founders of anarchist thought and movement.
A reply to Leninists distortions about Bakunin. Includes a summary of his key anarchist ideas and anarchism’s key difference with Leninism.
A review of Imagine by Tommy Sheridan and Alan McCombes, the (then) leaders of the Scotish Socialist Party. An attempt by Trotskyists to become libertarian sounding are not very convincing.
A lengthy critique of the SWP’s attempt to rewrite the history of the resistance to Italian fascism in the early 1920s as well as the revolutionary Red Years after World War I. An important, if not well known, bit of anarchist history.
Part of a debate on the Russian revolution from 1994. The revolution was one of the most important events of the 20th century until the 1990’s the most important debate on the left was whether or not it had failed. Now with the collapse of the USSR a far more important debate is uncovered, why did it fail.
We have been insisting on the need for the far left to re-appraise the tradition of the Russian revolution and in particular the role the Bolsheviks played in destroying that revolution. One of the most detailed responses to the anarchists critique of Bolshevism was published in the winter issue of International Socialism the journal of the Socialist Workers Party (the largest Leninist group in England).
While something to oppose, suggestions of a state funeral for Thatcher seem fitting as neo-liberalism implodes around us. Nationalising her death seems an ideal insult. It also shows how bankrupt and Thatcherite New Labour is — as if we needed more evidence!