A review of a book by a leading Trotskyist which shows his ignorance of anarchism. It shows the flaws within his account of Bakunin and Kropotkin plus discusses the roots of a mentality which allows someone to write about a subject (anarchism) which they clearly known next to nothing about. It appeared in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review No. 90 (Fall 2024)
(more…)Category: Anarchist History
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The London Dock Strike of 1889
An account of the London Dock Strike of 1889 written to mark its 125th anniversary and discusses its impact on the anarchist movement. It appeared in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review No. 63 (Winter 2015) and includes a translation of one of Kropotkin’s articles on the striking written whilst it was happening.
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Review: Anarchist Perspectives in Peace and War, 1900-1918
A review of a useful book on Anarchist views and responses to war. It appeared in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review No. 77 (Fall 2019)
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Another View: Syndicalism, Anarchism and Marxism
This is the published version of a reply to an article by Marxist Ralph Darlington in Anarchist Studies (vol. 17, no. 2). Darlington’s original article appeared in Volume 17, Number 1 of Anarchist Studies and discusses the anarchist origins of syndicalism and refutes attempts to include Marxism as one of its influences. It discusses Bakunin’s syndicalist ideas and shows how Marx and Engels explicitly rejected them. Ralph Darlington declined to reply
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Kropotkin: Class Warrior
This is a write-up of the notes of a talk made at the 2014 London Anarchist bookfair. I have made a few slight changes/additions. On the day I skipped the section of “small-scale” production (“Kropotkin the Medievalist?) and covered the differences between communist-anarchism and syndicalism in the discussion period. It is based, of course, on the work I did for Direct Struggle Against Capital: A Peter Kropotkin Anthology.
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