Anarchism, Racism and the Class Struggle

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Anarchism, Racism and the Class Struggle by the WSFAuthor: Workers’ Solidarity Federation [South Africa]  |  PDF file size: 289 KB

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Racial oppression remains a defining feature of the modern capitalist world. It is manifest most spectacularly in violent attacks on immigrants and minorities by fascist gangs. More important to the fate of these communities has been the systematic and increasing discrimination by capitalist states, manifest in attacks on the rights of immigrants, cuts in welfare services, and racist police and court systems.

This pamphlet shows how capitalism gave birth to racism; how racism is the enemy of all working and poor people; it describes how racism can and must be fought; and what the role of anarchists in that fight should be…

Against the Racist Delirium

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Against the Racist Delirium by Camillo BerneriAuthor: Camillo Berneri  |  PDF file size: 305 KB

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Fascism, the triumph of the irrational, has taken the most discredited myths of pre-scientific ethnology to its bosom. … “The age of ‘pure reason’, of ‘science for the sake of science’, of ‘disinterested science’, is over. Any science that has an active contribution to make towards a broad objective becomes political, and thus, like politics, has its principles and its accomplishments alike, imbued with racism, nationalism and National Socialism.” … It is absolutely plain from the racist delirium (an out-and-out collective psychosis) that Hitlerism represents a great eclipse of German intellect and culture. On 25 March 1933, Goering, the then Reich minister of the Interior, told foreign press representatives: “Plainly, anti-semitism is part of the official program of the National Socialist Party and the manner in which the latter has moulded its storm troops makes it plain that today every member of the storm troops looks at Professor Einstein with a feeling of racial superiority.”

The World Crisis and an Anarchist Response

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The World Crisis and an Anarchist Response by Wayne PriceAuthor: Wayne Price  |  PDF file size: 263 KB

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Facing an economic crisis of world historical proportions, the worst since the Great Depression, the United States has already responded with striking political changes, particularly the election of the first African-American president. What is likely to happen in the future and what should be the response of revolutionary class-struggle anarchists?… Economically, what has begun is either a deep, lengthy, world-wide, recession — or a collapse into a second Great Depression, possibly worse than the first. Either way, large numbers of workers and their families are suffering and will face more suffering, from unemployment, under-employment, losses of their homes, the loss of the equity they had in their homes, and an inability to afford healthcare (a life and death matter)….

Anarcho-Syndicalism, Technology and Ecology

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Anarcho-Syndicalism, Technology & Ecology by Graham PurchaseAuthor: Graham Purchase  |  PDF file size: 219 KB

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In an anarchist society, the absence of centralised state authority will permit a radically new integration of nature, labour and culture. As the social and ecological revolution progresses, national boundaries will become cartographical curiosities, and divisions based upon differences in geography, climate and species distribution will re-emerge. This essay addresses the question of what role unionism will play in these changes.

Technology, Capitalism and Anarchism

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Technology, Capitalism and Anarchism by AnarchoAuthor: Anarcho  |  PDF file size: 246 KB

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Technology has an obvious effect on individual freedom, in some ways increasing it, in others restricting it. However, since capitalism is a social system based on inequalities of power, it is a truism that technology will reflect those inequalities, as it does not develop in a social vacuum. No technology evolves and spreads unless there are people who benefit from it and have sufficient means to disseminate it. In a capitalist society, technologies useful to the rich and powerful are generally the ones that spread. This can be seen from capitalist industry, where technology has been implemented specifically to deskill the worker, so replacing the skilled, valued craftsperson with the easily trained (and eliminated!) “mass worker.”

Bakunin vs. the Primitivists

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Bakunin vs. the Primitivists by Brian Oliver SheppardAuthor: Brian Oliver Sheppard  |  PDF file size: 276 KB

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The pamphlet is a critique of so-called “primitivism,” an anti-technological current mainly based in Western countries. It has a degree of influence amongst a sector of anarchists, but the author is incorrect to use the term “anarcho-primitivist,” as this suggests “primitivism” is a form of anarchism. It is not. As the author himself notes, Bakunin’s ideas are the key reference point for anarchism, and radically at odds with “primitivism”

“Separate and Equal”?: Mujeres Libres and Anarchist Strategy for Women’s Emancipation

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“Separate and Equal”?: Mujeres Libres and Anarchist Strategy for Women’s Emancipation by Martha A. AckelsbergAuthor: Martha A. Ackelsberg  |  PDF file size: 665 KB

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In May 1936, a group of anarchist women founded Mujeres Libres, the first autonomous, proletarian feminist organisation in Spain… Its goal was to end the “triple enslavement of women, to ignorance, to capital, and to men.” While some of the founders were professional or semi-professional women, the vast majority of its members (who numbered approximately 20,000 in July 1937) were working-class women. The women of Mujeres Libres aimed both to overcome the barriers of ignorance and inexperience which prevented women from participating as equals in the struggle for a better society, and to confront the dominance of men within the anarchist movement itself….

Give Up Activism: A Critique of the Activist Mentality in the direct action Movement

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Give Up Activism by Andrew XAuthor: Andrew X  |  PDF file size: 343 KB

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In 1999, in the aftermath of the June 18th global day of action, a pamphlet called Reflections on June 18th was produced by some people in London, as an open-access collection of “contributions on the politics behind the events that occurred in the City of London on June 18, 1999”. Contained in this collection was the article ‘Give up Activism’ which has generated quite a lot of discussion and debate both in the UK where it first appeared and internationally, being translated into several languages and reproduced in several different publications.

Here we republish the article together with a new postscript by the author addressing some comments and criticisms received since the original publication.

Give Up Activism is an important critique of the activist mentality in the direct action movement.

[Leaflet] The Need of Our Own Project: On the Importance of a Program in the Libertarian Political Organisation

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The Need of Our Own Project: On the Importance of a Program in the Libertarian Political OrganisationAuthor: Organisación Socialista Libertaria (Argentina)  |  PDF file size: 87.3 KB

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We that believe in the construction of a libertarian political organisation, of an anarchism that as a revolutionary project has real impact in the class struggle, see the need of adopting a clear program of action that is the fruit of collective discussion and express our principles and revolutionary objectives and that determine the tasks to be realized in each step taken. The importance of anarchists having such a program is expressed by Bakunin when he stated that “one should never renounce the clear established revolutionary program, not in what concerns to its form, not in what concerns its substance”….

[Leaflet] Less Talk, More Regroupment: A Piece on Revolutionary Strategy and getting organised

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Less Talk, More Regroupment: A Piece on Revolutionary Strategy and getting organisedAuthor: Jasper Conner  |  PDF file size: 85 KB

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Platformists and especifists have made their point, it’s been written a million different ways. Its time to move beyond advocating for the anarchist organisation, and get to it. The task of this tendency is not to convince others with words, the task is to actually build the organisation and develop its politics… most people in this debate have given little time to what would actually be the strategic orientation of such an organisation, other than it’d be an especifist/platformist organisation…. Its time we got our shit together and actually started discussing the ins and outs of an anarchist organisation that has real strategic and tactical unity.

[Leaflet] Moving to Action: Workplace Organising beyond Recipes

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Moving to Action: Workplace Organising beyond Recipes by Scott NappalosAuthor: Scott Nappalos  |  PDF file size: 89.5 KB

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When a revolutionary begins organising in a shop, the first step is typically to agitate one’s co-workers. In our minds we see a step-by-step process wherein our agitation leads to other opportunities, recruitment, committee building, until we have power and an organisation. The problem is that for most workplaces, this way of thinking gives the wrong impression. In some workplaces, particularly in production, there’s a state of constant agitation and actions burst out before committees ever get built. In other workplaces agitation just never seems to take hold. What do we do in these situations? What do we do when agitation takes years without much visible result, or in places where workers are clearly in the retreat or a passive state?….

[Leaflet] End Poverty and Unemployment

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Leaflet - End Poverty and Unemployment - SOSAuthor: Soundz of the South [South Africa]  |  PDF file size: 71.2 KB

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The reason why millions and millions of people, especially young people, are unemployed and live in poverty around the world is because of the capitalist and state systems. Capitalism and the state lead to all sorts of problems including unemployment, inequality and the oppression of workers, women and people of colour….

Announcement about this site

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Welcome to the new website of the Zabalaza Books publishing project.

We are an anarchist communist publishing project linked to the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front.

The views within our publications are not necessarily shared by the ZACF as a whole.  They are published  for self-education, raising awareness, initiating discussion, for use by study groups, for tabling and outreach, etc.

All our publications are available free for download from the links in the categories on the right.  Any requests, comments etc. can be made via the Contact form at the top of this page.