Acknowledgments
This book began as a panel on “Anarchism and Anarcho-syndicalism in the Global South: Latin America in Comparative Perspective” for the European Social Science History Conference held in Amsterdam in 2006. Subsequent to the conference, we solicited papers from Geoffroy de Laforcade, Edilene Toledo and Luigi Biondi, Aleksandr Shubin, Anthony Gorman, and Emmet O’Connor. We wish to thank all the contributors to this volume for their patience and dedication to this project. The editors are grateful to Marcel van der Linden for making possible the publication of Arif Dirlik’s article. We also extend our gratitude to other colleagues who provided invaluable ideas, critical comments, and encouragement: Be...
Preface
Benedict Anderson
Cornell University
If one decided, in a frivolous moment, to sketch a Borgesian version of Esop’s Fable of the Rabbit and the Tortoise, one would need only to extend their race over the horizon to an ever-receding winner’s tape. The rabbit, even after many naps, would speed past the tortoise again and again. But a rabbit has a short life while a tortoise lives long and will in the end rumble-stumble past his rival’s corpse. Where to? Does he think with Beckett: “I can’t go on, I’ll go on”?
Today it is not difficult to find very energetic, even if usually (but not always) small, self-described anarchist (or syndicalist) groups around the world, mostly in urban areas. A... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Rethinking Anarchism and Syndicalism:
The Colonial and Postcolonial Experience, 1870–1940
Lucien van der Walt
University of the Witwatersrand
Steven J. Hirsch
University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg
This volume examines the history, influence, aspirations, and actions of anarchism and syndicalism in the colonial and postcolonial world from the 1870s until the 1940s. By ‘colonial and postcolonial world’ we mean those regions of the world under the formal control of external powers, as well as the ex-colonies, that were ostensibly independent social formations, but remained subject to a significant degree to informal imperial power influenced by colonial legacies. The case studies presented in this volume are drawn fro... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
Part One: Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial World
“Diverse in race, religion and nationality ... but united in aspirations of civil progress”:
The Anarchist Movement in Egypt 1860–1940
Anthony Gorman
University of Edinburgh
Anarchism first appeared in Egypt among Italian political refugees and workers during the 1860s. Nurtured by a developing international network of labor, transport and communications across the Mediterranean, it expanded beyond Italian circles to attract members from across Egypt’s diverse ethnic and religious communities over the following decades. Though heterogeneous in character, different anarchist trends shared a discourse of radical social emancipation that in its propagan...
Part Two: Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Postcolonial World
Peruvian Anarcho-Syndicalism:
adapting transnational influences and forging counterhegemonic practices, 1905–1930
Steven J. Hirsch
University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg
At first glance early 20th century Peru would seem an unlikely setting for anarcho-syndicalism to flourish. A predominantly agrarian society with a large and economically marginal indigenous population, Peru scarcely resembled a nation in the second stage of industrial manufacturing. Despite significant capitalist growth in Peru’s export sectors (chiefly mining, sugar, cotton, wool), vast areas of the nation were largely unaffected by capitalist change. With the exception of Lima-Callao, Peru&... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)
