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Texts :: critics |
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The Labour Movement and Anarchism |
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by Errico Malatesta |
02 Sep 2005
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"It can happen - indeed, it often happens - that the founders of workers' associations are men of ideas about radical social change and who profit from the needs felt by the mass of the people to arouse a desire for change that would suit their own goals. They gather round them comrades of like mind: activists determined to fight for the interests of others even at the expense of their own, and form workers' associations that are in reality political groups, revolutionary groups, for which questions of wages, hours, internal workplace regulations, are a side issue and serve rather as a pretext for attracting the majority to their own ideas and plans. But before long, as the number of members grows, short-term interests gain the upper hand, revolutionary aspirations become an obstacle and a danger, 'pragmatic' men, conservatives, reformists, eager and willing to enter into any agreement and accommodation arising from the circumstances of the moment, clash with the idealists and hardliners, and the workers' organisation becomes what it perforce must be in a capitalist society - a means not for refusing to recognise and overthrowing the bosses, but simply for hedging round and limiting the bosses' power." |
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Texts :: culture |
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The Origins and Ideals of the Modern School |
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by Francisco Ferrer Y Guardia |
29 Aug 2005
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"We can destroy whatever there is in the actual school that savours of violence, all the artificial devices by which the children are estranged from nature and life, the intellectual and moral discipline which has been used to impose ready - made thoughts, all beliefs which deprave and enervate the will. Without fear of injury we may place the child in a proper and natural environment, in which it will find itself in contact with all that it loves, and where vital impressions will be substituted for the wearisome reading of books. If we do no more than this, we shall have done much towards the emancipation of the child. " |
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Texts :: theory |
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The Origins of the Union Shop |
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by Tom Wetzel |
03 Sep 2005
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"American leftists typically assume that the "union shop" is definitely a valuable asset to workers. It could be argued that this position implicitly accepts the bureaucratic outlook. For, it assumes that the union has a value independent of its usefulness to the workers themselves and that it should be maintained no matter whether the workforce is sufficiently motivated on its own to keep it going. Moreover, the favorable view of the union shop ignores the role that it played in converting the unions into organs of employer discipline over the workers." |
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Texts :: theory |
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The Party of Labour |
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by Emile Pouget |
03 Sep 2005
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"The Party of Labour is what it says it is, the banding together of the workers into one homogeneous bloc; the autonomous organisation of the working class into an aggregate operating on the terrain of the economy; by virtue of its origins, its essence, it shuns all compromise with bourgeois elements . . . The Party of Labour is a party of interests. It takes no account of the opinions of its component members: it acknowledges and co-ordinates only the interests - be they material or moral or intellectual - of the working class. Its ranks are open to all of the exploited regardless of their political or religious views." |
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Texts :: theory |
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The Policy of the International |
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by Mikhail Bakunin |
03 Sep 2005
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". . . there is still too great a difference in the level of industrial, political, intellectual, and moral development among the working masses in various countries for it to be possible today to unite them around a single political, anti-religious program. To suggest such a program for the International and to make it an absolute condition for admission to that Association, would be to establish a sect, not a worldwide association, and it would destroy the International. |
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Texts :: history |
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The Principles of Anarchism |
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by Lucy E. Parsons |
29 Dec 2005
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A Lecture by Lucy Parsons |
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Texts :: theory |
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The Relevance of Anarchism |
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by Sam Dolgoff |
27 Sep 2005
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"Meaningful discussion about the relevance of anarchist ideas to modern
industrialized societies must first, for the sake of clarity, outline the dif-
ference between today's "neo-anarchism" and the classical anarchism of
Proudhon, Kroptkin, Malatesta and their successors. With rare exceptions one
is stuck by the mediocre and superficial character of the ideas advanced by
modern writers on anarchism." |
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Texts :: theory |
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The Revolutionary IWW |
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by Grover H. Perry |
03 Sep 2005
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"The Industrial Workers of the World are laying the foundation of a new government. This government will have for its legislative halls the mills, the workshops and factories. Its legislators will be the men in the mills, shops and factories. Its legislative enactments will be those pertaining to the welfare of the workers . . . These things are to be. No force can stop them. Armies will be of no avail. Capitalist governments may issue their mandates in vain. The power of the workers--industrially organized--is the only power on earth worth considering--once they realize that power. Classes will disappear, and in their place will be only useful members of society--the workers." |
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Texts :: analysis |
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The Revolutionary Pleasure Of Thinking For Yourself |
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by Anonymous |
29 Aug 2005
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"This is a manual for those who wish to think for themselves, a manual for creation of a personally (rather than ideologically) constructed body of critical thought for your own use, a body of thought which will help you to understand why your life is the way it is and why the world is the way it is. More importantly, as you construct your own theory, you will also develop a practice: a method to get what you want for your own life. Theory, then, must be either practical-a guide to action-or it will be nothing, nothing but an aquarium of ideas, a contemplative interpretation of the world. The realm of ideas divorced from actions is the eternal waiting room of unrealised desires. Forming your own practical theory, what could be called "self-theory," is intimately connected to achieving the realization of your desires." |
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