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

Name: Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870-1940
Author: Lucien van der Walt & Steven Hirsch
ISBN: 9004188495

by Lucien van der Walt & Steven Hirsch

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I wanted to show the breadth of anarchism, and of the work that’s now being done on it. This is an incredibly important book, in terms of correcting some of the myths about anarchism as a movement that schematically had its glory in Spain, was crushed, came back in 1968, and constantly goes through these waves. One of the very persuasive arguments that they make is that it’s problematic to perceive anarchism like this within a European context, but it’s definitely misleading and incorrect if you look at anarchism in a global context. They’re interested not only in highlighting areas of the world outside Europe where anarchism had a huge presence in both urban and rural movements, but also in building up a picture of the networks through which anarchism has operated. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . If you read this book, you’ll get a much better idea of how small groups, and sometimes handfuls of individuals, actually built significant movements in areas where perhaps people don’t normally think that anarchism had any presence. Argentina, Cuba, China, Egypt, South Africa, are all mentioned and studied. This is a network of labour movements that were feeding from common ideas, and organising in local contexts to fight local struggles in particular ways. In this way it’s possible to see anarchism as a much more significant force for change than is typical in Europe today. Anarchism isn’t just a phenomenon of the past; the book shows how it continues to resonate in the present. The example that people are talking about now is Rojava, the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, where the ideas of American social theorist Murray Bookchin have been taken up to think about alternative, non-state relationships within an incredibly diverse ethnic population. It’s in a similar situation as Spain in a sense, because there are so many enemies of this revolution that it has its back against the wall. But, nevertheless, it has worked. It has an incredibly dynamic feminist strand within it, it’s horizontalist, it’s complicated, it’s anarchist. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter It’s always tricky to talk about examples, because although these instances and moments are important, one of the points that Hirsch and van der Walt make is that what anarchism really does is maintain a constant pressure on the ground, to organise struggles and movements differently. These local movements were a deliberate attempt to maintain the power within the collective, and not give it up for a set of deals with politicians, particularly for worker groups. It’s a much broader type of struggle, one which takes into account the ways in which the local communities of those workers need to operate, and want to operate. Yes, it has, and it’s partly because of the way academic study works. It’s difficult to find a space for anarchism within a university system, and the few people who have the privilege to work on those issues are more likely to first look at their own movements. There have been local studies of anarchist movements for a long time, but what’s unusual about this book is that it not only thinks about different national histories, but also about transnational movements. The group of multilingual scholars who wrote it were able to share their experiences and understandings to build up a picture of what anarchism is throughout the world. And it makes sense, because in a way, how can you understand a movement that wants to abolish borders and states, if not globally?

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Ruth Kinna

"I wanted to show the breadth of anarchism, and of the work that’s now being done on it. This is an incredibly important book, in terms of correcting some of the myths about anarchism as a movement that schematically had its glory in Spain, was crushed, came back in 1968, and constantly goes through these waves. One of the very persuasive arguments that they make is that it’s problematic to perceive anarchism like this within a European context, but it’s definitely misleading and incorrect if you look at anarchism in a global context. They’re interested not only in highlighting areas of the world outside Europe where anarchism had a huge presence in both urban and rural movements, but also in building up a picture of the networks through which anarchism has operated. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . If you read this book, you’ll get a much better idea of how small groups, and sometimes handfuls of individuals, actually built significant movements in areas where perhaps people don’t normally think that anarchism had any presence. Argentina, Cuba, China, Egypt, South Africa, are all mentioned and studied. This is a network of labour movements that were feeding from common ideas, and organising in local contexts to fight local struggles in particular ways. In this way it’s possible to see anarchism as a much more significant force for change than is typical in Europe today. Anarchism isn’t just a phenomenon of the past; the book shows how it continues to resonate in the present. The example that people are talking about now is Rojava, the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, where the ideas of American social theorist Murray Bookchin have been taken up to think about alternative, non-state relationships within an incredibly diverse ethnic population. It’s in a similar situation as Spain in a sense, because there are so many enemies of this revolution that it has its back against the wall. But, nevertheless, it has worked. It has an incredibly dynamic feminist strand within it, it’s horizontalist, it’s complicated, it’s anarchist. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter It’s always tricky to talk about examples, because although these instances and moments are important, one of the points that Hirsch and van der Walt make is that what anarchism really does is maintain a constant pressure on the ground, to organise struggles and movements differently. These local movements were a deliberate attempt to maintain the power within the collective, and not give it up for a set of deals with politicians, particularly for worker groups. It’s a much broader type of struggle, one which takes into account the ways in which the local communities of those workers need to operate, and want to operate. Yes, it has, and it’s partly because of the way academic study works. It’s difficult to find a space for anarchism within a university system, and the few people who have the privilege to work on those issues are more likely to first look at their own movements. There have been local studies of anarchist movements for a long time, but what’s unusual about this book is that it not only thinks about different national histories, but also about transnational movements. The group of multilingual scholars who wrote it were able to share their experiences and understandings to build up a picture of what anarchism is throughout the world. And it makes sense, because in a way, how can you understand a movement that wants to abolish borders and states, if not globally?"

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