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Recent articles by Edward McKenna
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Recent Articles about Iberia History of anarchism«Ο Ντουρούτι σ&... Aug 02 23 Neno Vasco por Neno Vasco: fragmentos autobiográficos de um anarquista Mar 21 23 Σαμπατέ: Aντίσ&... Mar 13 23 Ready for Revolution : The CNT Defense Committees in Barcelona, 1933-1938. [Book Review]
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history of anarchism |
review
Friday September 05, 2014 18:49 by Edward McKenna
A review of Agustin Guillamon's "Ready for Revolution" on the Spanish anarchist defence committees, assessing its relevance to today's revolutionaries. When I received Ready for Revolution from AK Press, my heart sank. The voluminous literature on the Spanish Revolution did not, I felt, need expansion. I placed it on my ‘to read’ pile, then thought little more of it until a chance conversation returned it to my mind. Despite my initial misgivings, I was pleased to be reminded of it, as I soon found this little volume to be one of the best books about revolution – let alone the Spanish Revolution – I have encountered. It may not have the immediacy of the action of Tom Barry’s Guerrilla Days in Ireland, nor the style of Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia: but what it does have, what makes it in my mind a very important book, are its revelations about the role and organization of the CNT’s Defence Committees in Barcelona. Narratives by protagonists like Barry, like Orwell, and like Arshinov are, in their way, excellent. They are necessary. They pass on the energy and emotions of a time when desires could easily become reality and the bounds of normal, workaday life were burst for thousands of men and women. But these works, the narratives of revolution, show the swan gliding on the water, not the frenetic movement beneath the surface which propels the bird. Revelations about this unseen motor, the organization which facilitates revolution, are rare, and frequently appear only many years after the events. This delay can mean that the context in which they occurred has been lost, and technology or social change prevents them being of other than historical interest. |
Front pageSupport Sudanese anarchists in exile Joint Statement of European Anarchist Organizations International anarchist call for solidarity: Earthquake in Turkey, Syria and Kurdistan Elements of Anarchist Theory and Strategy 19 de Julio: Cuando el pueblo se levanta, escribe la historia International anarchist solidarity against Turkish state repression Declaración Anarquista Internacional por el Primero de Mayo, 2022 Le vieux monde opprime les femmes et les minorités de genre. Leur force le détruira ! Against Militarism and War: For self-organised struggle and social revolution Declaração anarquista internacional sobre a pandemia da Covid-19 Anarchist Theory and History in Global Perspective Capitalism, Anti-Capitalism and Popular Organisation [Booklet] Reflexiones sobre la situación de Afganistán South Africa: Historic rupture or warring brothers again? Death or Renewal: Is the Climate Crisis the Final Crisis? Gleichheit und Freiheit stehen nicht zur Debatte! Contre la guerre au Kurdistan irakien, contre la traîtrise du PDK Meurtre de Clément Méric : l’enjeu politique du procès en appel |