Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870-1940

international | history of anarchism | press release Saturday January 15, 2011 13:30 by Steven Hirsch and Lucien van der Walt

The Praxis of National Liberation, Internationalism, and Social Revolution

Narratives of anarchist and syndicalist history during the era of the first globalization and imperialism (1870-1930) have overwhelmingly been constructed around a Western European tradition centered on discrete national cases. This parochial perspective typically ignores transnational connections and the contemporaneous existence of large and influential libertarian movements in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Yet anarchism and syndicalism, from their very inception at the First International, were conceived and developed as international movements. By focusing on the neglected cases of the colonial and postcolonial world, this volume underscores the worldwide dimension of these movements and their centrality in anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles. Drawing on in-depth historical analyses of the ideology, structure, and praxis of anarchism/syndicalism, it also provides fresh perspectives and lessons for those interested in understanding their resurgence today.

Series: Studies in Global Social History, 6
ISBN-13: 978 90 04 18849 5
ISBN-10: 90 04 18849 5
Cover: Hardback
Number of pages: lxxiv, 434 pp. (10 illustrations)

Narratives of anarchist and syndicalist history during the era of the first globalization and imperialism (1870-1930) have overwhelmingly been constructed around a Western European tradition centered on discrete national cases. This parochial perspective typically ignores transnational connections and the contemporaneous existence of large and influential libertarian movements in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Yet anarchism and syndicalism, from their very inception at the First International, were conceived and developed as international movements. By focusing on the neglected cases of the colonial and postcolonial world, this volume underscores the worldwide dimension of these movements and their centrality in anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles. Drawing on in-depth historical analyses of the ideology, structure, and praxis of anarchism/syndicalism, it also provides fresh perspectives and lessons for those interested in understanding their resurgence today.

With a foreword by Benedict Anderson.

Table of contents

“Diverse in race, religion and nationality… but united in aspirations of civil progress”: the anarchist movement in Egypt 1860-1940, Anthony Gorman
Revolutionary syndicalism, communism and the national question in South African socialism, 1886-1928, Lucien van der Walt
Korean Anarchism before 1945: a regional and transnational approach, Dongyoun Hwang
Anarchism and the Question of Place: thoughts from the Chinese experience, Arif Dirlik
The Makhnovist Movement and the National Question in the Ukraine, 1917-1921, Aleksandr Shubin
Syndicalism, Industrial Unionism, and Nationalism in Ireland, Emmet O’Connor

PART TWO: ANARCHISM AND SYNDICALISM IN THE POSTCOLONIAL WORLD

Peruvian Anarcho-Syndicalism: adapting transnational influences and forging counterhegemonic Practices, 1905-1930, Steven J. Hirsch
Tropical Libertarians: anarchist movements and networks in the Caribbean, Southern United States, and Mexico, 1890s-1920s, Kirk Shaffer
Straddling the Nation and the Working World: anarchism and syndicalism on the docks and rivers of Argentina, 1900-1930, Geoffroy de Laforcade
Constructing Syndicalism and Anarchism Globally: the transnational making of the syndicalist movement in São Paulo, Brazil, 1895-1935, Edilene Toledo and Luigi Biondi
Final Reflections: the vicissitudes of anarchist and syndicalist trajectories, 1940 to the present, Steven J. Hirsch and Lucien van der Walt

More at http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=210&pid=28985

* Please note that this is the hard cover edition. Please consider ordering for your library. It is intended that a paperback follows at some point.