After the New Economy, Doug Henwood, The New Press (ISBN 1-56584-770-9), 2003
This is an excellent book and is highly recommended. It cuts through the crap of the hype associated with the excesses of rhetoric produced during the US bubble of the 1990s. It exposes the various claims of the “new economy” to the harsh like to reality, showing that while they were taken dreadfully seriously at the time in the media they reflected little more than wishful thinking.
The book is broken into five main sections. Novelty covers whether the “New Economy” was, in fact, that new. As Henwood recounts, capitalism experiences similar hype-fests whenever it goes into an extended boom. Indeed, you know when a crash is co... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Anarchist Past and Other Essays, Nicholas Walter, David Goodway (editor), Five Leaves Publications, 2007 (£9.99)
This is an excellent collection of articles by the late Nicholas Walter. As can be gathered by its title, it is about anarchist history and covers (in a roughly chronological order) most of key events and people of anarchism – Godwin, Proudhon, Bakunin, the Paris Commune, Kropotkin, the Russian Revolution, Goldman, Bookchin,Ward as well as other, less famous anarchists, like Joseph Lane and Charlotte Wilson. The articles are drawn from many sources, such as Freedom, Anarchy and The Raven.
All anarchists will gain something from this collection. His reviews of Paul Avrich’s The Russian Anarchist... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Anarchists of Casas Viejas, Jerome R. Mintz, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1994
This is a wonderful book. For those who do not already know, Casas Viejas was an Andalusian village whose CNT branch rose in revolt in January 1933. Two civil guards were killed in the course of the uprising and, after a few hours, assault guards arrived to retake the village. Using torture, they discovered a family implicated in the uprising and a siege soon occurred at their house, in which one assault guard and eight villagers died (two of whom were gunned down trying to escape the house after the Assault Guards had set it on fire). Most of those involved in the uprising fled the village in the face of these superior forces — includi... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This is an excellent, if flawed, little pamphlet. Written by a group of people in the Solidarity Federation, the UK section of the International Workers Association, it is an attempt to explain how a libertarian communist society could work. The aim of such a society is “to guarantee liberty and equality” for all and, unsurprisingly, these principles are at the heart of both their model and their criticism of capitalism.
The pamphlet itself is split into three parts. They present a good, if condensed, critique of capitalism, contrasting the “free market” economic ideology used to justify capitalism with its reality. As they note, the modern economy is far from the idyllic picture painted in the economic textbo... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Bakunin: The Creative Passion
Mark Leier
Thomas Dunne Books
At last! A biography of Bakunin by someone who knows what they are writing about. I have long despaired at the utter ignorance and lack of commonsense when academics and others have approached anarchism, particularly Bakunin. Whether the product of ignorance or maliciousness, they seem intend on misrepresenting Bakunin’s ideas and life. Leier refutes such accounts and sets the record straight. He does this with flair and knowledge, making his book highly recommended.
Informal, yet informed, Leier presents an excellent introduction to the life and ideas of Bakunin. Even the biggest Bakunin fan (and I admit to being one!) will find something new or of inte... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Bloody Brilliant! This pamphlet does a remarkable job in summarizing the basic ideas of Bakunin, the founder of revolutionary anarchism. It covers his analysis of modern class society, the state, bourgeois democracy and Marxism. On every count, Bakunin has been vindicated.
This new edition also contains a new section on Bakunin’s views on religion. Moreover, it gives a good account of his ideas on how to create an anarchist society and what that society could look like. Bakunin’s ideas on revolutionary unionism and the role of the anarchist organization are explained extremely well in a short space. It exposes Marxist claims that Bakunin rejected collective class struggle and organization as the nonsense they are.
... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd, Alexander Rabinowitch, Indiana University Press, 2007, ISBN: 0-253-34943-5
This is an important book. It describes in great detail the evolution of the Bolshevik regime over the first year of its existence. It recounts how during that time it went from a relatively popular government to, in effect, a party dictatorship (the revisions of the party ideology to incorporate the reality of the regime came shortly after this period). It makes good use of the archives which the fall of Stalinism has made available to scholars across the world.
Rabinowitch continues his account of the Revolution started in Prelude to Revolution (about the July Days revolt in 1917) an... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This is the English translation of the principle piece of evidence in an anti-terrorism case in France. Nine people were arrested in 2008, mostly in the village of Tarnac, under the charge of sabotaging overhead electrical lines on the French railways. With only little circumstantial evidence available, the French Interior Minister has associated them with a ultra-left insurrectionary movement and singled out this book as a “manual for terrorism.” It is not that, but is it a manual for revolution?
There is something I like to call “Daily-Mail-Land”, in which “political correctness” has gone mad, an Englishman’s castle has been squatted by gay asylum seekers in burkas claiming benefits from &l... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Conscience of a Liberal, Paul Krugman (W.W. Norton & Co., 2007)
“economists who continue to consider economic forces alone ... without taking into account the ideology of the State, or the forces that each State necessarily places at the service of the rich ... remain completely outside the realities of the economic and social world.” (Peter Kropotkin[1])
This is both an interesting and a frustrating book. It is interesting because of its evidence on rising inequality in America and its causes as well as the vigorous defense of unions. It is frustrating because its ideological framework ensures that obvious conclusions (at least to an anarchist) are avoided and its suggestions on what to do are so l... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) In science, the validity of a theory is generally proven by its predictive abilities. A theory suggests certain outcomes and if those predictions come to be then it becomes accepted as valid. Strangely, while proclaiming itself “scientific socialism” (something, like so much else, appropriated from Proudhon), Marxists refuse to apply that criteria to the socialist movement.
Wisely, for Marxism has simply proven Bakunin’s analysis of it correct. Against Marx, he argued, firstly, that socialists standing for election would produce reformism, not revolution, and, secondly, that the “dictatorship of the proletariat” would be simply a dictatorship over the proletariat. Both came to pass.
If the left we... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences, Steve Keen, Zed Books (ISBN: 1864030704)
To paraphrase Nietzsche, economics is dead we have killed it with our disbelief. To see why, Steve Keen’s excellent book is essential reading (as is his webpage: www.debunkingeconomics.com). It is an important work and recommended for any one interesting in finding out about the limitations of mainstream economics.
And what limitations they are! Keen goes into the crazy assumptions, methodology and contradictions of neoclassical economics in some detail, debunking key aspects of the dogma and showing not only when they contradict reality but also when they are logically inconsistent and contradict itself. Keen argues t... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) 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.
“Modern Science and Anarchism” is Kropotkin’s attempt to place anarchist theory in the scientific tendencies of 19th Century thought. In doing so, he stresses the importance of the inductive-deductive method, “the method ... of natural sciences,” namely the analysis of everyday society and the basing o... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This is an excellent book, crammed full of useful (and disgusting) “McNuggets” of information on the whole process of producing “fast food.” From the industrialization of farming, to the monopolization of food processing, to the standardization 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.
Like the “fast food” economy he dissects, Schlosser’s work is far ranging, covering such notable scum bags as Walt Disney (whose father, ironically, was a ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) How we shall bring about the revolution: Syndicalism and the cooperative commonwealth, Emile Pataud and Emile Pouget, Pluto Press
This book was written in 1909 by two leading French revolutionary syndicalists. Originally translated into English and published in 1913 by two British anarchists, it can be considered as representative of the ideas of the then syndicalist French union, the CGT. Successfully applying the ideas of Bakunin and the libertarian wing of the First International, the activism, militancy and ideas of the CGT had inspired many across the globe, including many of those active in our own “syndicalist revolt” of the 1910s.
The work itself is a novel in which the two Emile’s present a summary o... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Imagine: A Socialist Vision for the 21st Century, Tommy Sheridan and Alan McCombes, Rebel Inc., £7.99
For the few that do not know, Tommy Sheridan is the Scottish Socialist Party’s leader and sole Member of the Scottish Parliament. He reached public awareness during the poll tax revolt, playing a leading role in the Strathclyde, Scottish and British Anti-Poll Tax Federations. Back then both he and McCombes were leading members of Militant. With the expulsion of that group from Labor, it split and the largest faction subsequently became an independent party. In Scotland, undoubtedly due to their activity against the Poll Tax, they have managed to form a viable, if small, political party which has had some impact in electio... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This is an impressive addition to anarchist history. The reports, debates and motions of the International Anarchist Congress held between August 24th and 31st 1907 are available for the first time in English. This meeting, held in Amsterdam, attracted the leading lights of the international libertarian movement – Errico Malatesta, Emma Goldman, Pierre Ramus, Christiaan Cornelissen and a host of others (Peter Kropotkin being an notable absentee). A long list of subjects was to be discussed: syndicalism, anti-militarism, the 1905 Russian Revolution, organization, co-operatives and much more. Most of this is still relevant and so this book is not just for those interested in anarchist history, it is of interest to modern activists.
... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Kronstadt 1917–1921: The Fate of a Soviet Democracy, Israel Getzler, Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 0-521-89442-5
Originally published in 1983, this excellent study of revolutionary Kronstadt has been reprinted. While most accounts of Kronstadt tend to concentrate on the 1921 revolt against the Bolshevik dictatorship, Getzler’s book spans the whole period of “red” Kronstadt. Starting in February 1917, he discusses the ups and downs of the revolution. By focusing attention on Kronstadt between March 1917 and July 1918, when actual soviet power and democracy flourished there, he presents important context with which to evaluate the Kronstadter’s “Third Revolution” of March 1921.
Getzl... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) On Fire: The Battle of Genoa and the anti-capitalist movement (One-Off Press: ISBN 1 902593 54 5)
This is an excellent book. It contains sixteen eye-witness accounts and analyzes of the protests at Genoa earlier this year. All shades of opinion within the libertarian wing of anti-capitalist movement are contained in it and so it is a diverse but always interesting (and at times, moving) account of ordinary people doing extra-ordinary things in difficult circumstances. That is in itself enough to recommend it. These are the accounts of the people who want to make history rather than the interpretations of journalists (mainstream or so-called “revolutionary”) and the specialists in ideology (again, mainstream or “revo... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Pluto Press, 1989 (Translated by John Beverly Robinson (1923))
This year marks the 200th anniversary of Proudhon’s birth, the person who first used the word “anarchist” in a positive light. This was in his 1840 book What is Property? so making anarchism as a named socio-economic theory and movement 170 years old next year.
While not as famous as he once was, Proudhon was during his lifetime and for sometime after one of the world’s leading socialist thinkers. Kropotkin became a socialist after reading Proudhon, while Bakunin was a friend and proclaimed his anarchism as simply “Proudhonism widely developed and pushed ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Proudhon’s work is a classic for many reasons. Not only did it put a name to a tendency within socialism (“I am an Anarchist”) and raise a battle-cry against inequality (“Property is Theft!”), it also sketched a new, free, society: anarchy.
The bulk of the book contains Proudhon’s searing critique of property. This rests on two key concepts. Firstly, property allowed the owner to exploit its user (“property is theft”). Secondly, that property created authoritarian social relationships between the two (“property is despotism”). These are interrelated, as it is the oppression that property creates which ensures exploitation while the appropriation of our common heritage by the... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The rise of fascism in Italy is a subject of interest to anarchists as Mussolini’s rise cannot be detached from the biennio rosso, the two red years of 1919 and 1920. Italy was on the verge of social revolution, reaching a peak with the factory occupations of 1920. Fascism was a response to this, a “preventive counter‑revolution” (to use Luigi Fabbri’s expression).
Unfortunately, there are few decent books on this period in English. This made Tom Behan’s “The Resistible Rise of Benito Mussolini’ (Bookmarks, 2003) potentially very important. It claims to be the about the “Arditi del Popolo “ (AdP), the world’s first anti‑fascist movement which, while managing to d... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The CNT in the Spanish Revolution: Volume 1, Jose Peirats, The Meltzer Press
The Meltzer Press should be congratulated on producing Peirats classic history of the CNT. It is a wonderful book and a vital resource on the history and politics of the CNT. While its cost may put people off buying it, all I can say is that it is worth the money. It is a goldmine of useful information and facts, presenting an honest and comprehensive account of the CNT from its founding in 1911 to approximately the end of 1937.
In this classic work you will find in full the CNT’s concept of libertarian communism as agreed at its congress in May, 1936. It is a truly beautiful document and, regardless of the claims of Liberal and Marxist historia... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Spanish Civil War, Antony Beevor
Originally published in 1982, this work has obviously been re-published to take advantage of the success of Antony Beevor’s later work Stalingrad. It is a good thing that it was. Beevor has produced an exceedingly good, if short, work on the Spanish Civil War. Unsurprisingly, his account is primarily a military history, but do not let that put you off — he clearly understands the role of the revolution in Spain and how it impacted on the course and nature of the war (and in the conflicts in the Republican side).
Beevor attempts to analysis the Spanish Civil War from three angles: class interest, centralism versus regionalism and authoritarian rule versus libertarian instinct. Un... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) We, the Anarchists: A Study of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) 1927–1937, Stuart Christie, The Meltzer Press
This is an important book. Christie has done a great service in producing this study of the FAI. One of the most famous and most misrepresented anarchist organizations of all time, this book is essential for refuting these misrepresentations and for understanding the successes and failure of revolutionary anarchism in Spain during the 1930s.
The main aspect of this work is its demolition of what can be called the “bullying militant” analysis of the FAI and its influence in the CNT. Basically, so this myth goes, the FAI (usually a “highly centralized and secret” FAI at that) managed t... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) What is Anarchism? Alexander Berkman, AK Press
Alexander Berkman’s “What is Anarchism?” is simply one of the best introductions to the ideas of what is often called class struggle anarchism (or communist anarchism, as it was called in 1927 when the book was originally written). Berkman had been an active anarchist militant in America for over 25 years and this book summarizes the ideas and ideals which drove that activism.
Drawing upon his experiences in the labor and unemployed movements as well as his time in revolutionary Russia, Berkman’s book is an excellent and very readable account of the basics of anarchism. Despite being nearly 80 years old, his work is remarkably undated. His account of the in... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Undoubtedly, Bakunin is one of the key anarchist thinkers and activists of the 19th century.
Building upon the federalist and libertarian socialist ideas of his friend Pierre-Joseph Proudhon as well as those in the European labor movement, Bakunin shaped anarchism into its modern form. His revolutionary, class struggle based anarchism soon became the dominant form of anarchism in the First International. He combated the state socialism of Marx and Engels and laid the foundations for both communist-anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism. His predictions about Marxism have been confirmed and his critique of capitalism, the state and religion as just as valid as when they were first expounded. Both the Russian and Spanish revolutions have co... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) This is a very interesting and useful work. It takes you back to when Lenin and Trotsky were unknown and how this changed as the British left tried to understand developments in the Russian Revolution. Inspired by C.B. Macpherson's claim that the USSR while not a democratic system of government could be viewed as representing a "Non-Liberal Democracy" as it aimed to eliminate classes, Ian Bullock's book utilizes an impressive array of primary sources to show "the myth of soviet democracy in the early appeal of the Russian Revolution." (5) As such, it should be of interest for libertarian socialists as well as scholars, particularly as it is full of interesting facts: for example, the Scottish section of the Independent Labor Party (ILP) vot... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The laissez-faire ideological defenders of capitalism are very forthright in their support for “privatization.” Many of these are also keen to argue that Hitler was a left-winger. Rather than look at the business backers and role of the Nazi regime as provider of serfs to said capitalists, they simply note that “Nazi” stood for “National Socialist.” Such are the intellectual times we live in.
Given this, it comes as a surprise that a recent issue of the “Journal of Economic Perspectives” shows how the first use of the term “privatization” was by the Nazi regime rather than, as previously, thought by Peter Drucker. According to Germa Bel, the term seems to have been first int... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Since the 1970s, capitalist economic policy has been rooted in “fighting inflation,” an euphemism for “crushing the workers.” This policy is rooted in the notion of the “Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment” (or NAIRU) and, like most of the silly and/or nasty ideas in modern economics, has its roots in the works of Milton Friedman.
It is this dogma which drove Brown’s decision to make the Bank of England “independent” of political control back in 1997 and so allow it to meet inflation targets by any means it sees fit. How turning policy decisions on the economy over to unelected and unaccountable technocrats based on a specific (right-wing) interpretation of how inflati... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Since the 1970s, capitalist economic policy has been rooted in “fighting inflation,” an euphemism for “crushing the workers.” This policy is rooted in the notion of the “Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment” (or NAIRU) and, like most of the silly and/or nasty ideas in modern economics, has its roots in the works of the late and unlamented Milton Friedman.
The NAIRU is based on the idea that there is some rate of unemployment below which inflation starts to rise. The problem is, it is invisible. There is no way of determining what that rate is beyond looking at what actually happens to the inflation rate. So the economic policy across much of the world is based on a group of technocrats t... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)