Revolt Library : The Written Word to Help You Revolt!

There are some who would say there is no point in discussing the Russian revolution today. It happened nearly 80 years ago, the world has moved on, capitalism has changed, and the situation in Russia in 1917 is simply too different, too far in the past to have lessons for us today. I would disagree, if for no other reason than that the Russian revolution was one of the defining moments for the left. Most groups on the left, whether consciously or not, have antecedents in the Russia of 1917, and all of us can find inspiration in the speed with which the working class pressed forward, and in the scale of the changes that occurred - or at least some of them. This talk will concentrate on just one part - though an important part- of that change ; the question of workers control - the relations between the factory committees, the trade unions, and the various parties, and what workers control meant (if anything) for each of them. Also, to narrow the focus even further,... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

To write a biographic sketch of even an ordinary man within the limited space at my disposal would be difficult. But to write about one whose personality is so complex and whose life so replete with events as that of Alexander Berkman, is almost an insurmountable task. To do justice to such a rich and colorful subject one must not be so limited by space as I am. Above all, one should be removed, in point of time and distance, from the life to be portrayed. Which is not the case in the present instance. I shall therefore not attempt a biography at the present time. I shall merely joint down a few outstanding features in the life and activities of our Comrade, which may serve as an introduction to something bigger yet to be written. Perhaps it may lead the reader to acquaint himself with Alexander Berkman's own story, the "Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist", which portrays the various phases of his life and his ideal much more forcefully and intimately than any biograp... (From : Anarchy Archives.)

Invasion Day, 26 January, is now the largest day of Left wing mobilization in Australia. Attendances are much greater than those at May Day and are only exceeded by set piece events organized by the unions. Increasing numbers of both indigenous and non-indigenous people are turning out on this day and their demands are increasingly radical. These are welcome indicators of the growth of a movement which rejects the racism on which Australia is founded. The capitalist media in Australia have been campaigning for over thirty years to generate Australian nationalism and focus it on an officially designated “Australia Day”. Indigenous people have never accepted this and have pushed back. In the face of this resistance, it has become increasingly difficult for the capitalist class to maintain their myth of a happy and united society that celebrates its nationhood. Constant reminders from indigenous people about the invasion of this land and the genocide and disposses... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Source: Letter to Sylvia Pankhurst in Workers’ Dreadnought, 30 September 1922. Transcribed: by Adam Buick. Dear Comrade I have read with much satisfaction your article on the program of the Irish Communist Party, and I think you are perfectly right in calling it a non-Communist program. Indeed, the essence of Communist thought is that the great transformation of society from Capitalism to Communism can only be accomplished by the common efforts of the workers themselves, all of them acting where they stand in the process of production. The belief that some foreign power, the State, may accomplish it for the workers by decrees and laws is a social-democratic belief — nay, only the most narrow-minded social democrats believe it; most social democrats in former times knew quite well that the chief force of transformation must come from below. The state is not a supernatural being; it is the organized host of politician... (From : Marxists.org.)

(EDITOR'S NOTE: We are herewith reprinting a portion of a somewhat larger article of the martyred comrade Erich Muehsam on the nature of worker's Soviet and our attitude towards it. This is done not only for the purpose of rehabilitating comrade Muehsam against the imputation of adhering to purely communist views made by a number of prominent leaders of the Communist Party. This imputation is quite in line with the general policy of the Communist Party: persecuting the living anarchists and exploiting for their own party purposes the martyrdom of those who have suffered for the cause of the working class. The reiteration of such a policy hardly needs special rebuttal. What is important in this connection is to point out the realistic approach of comrade Muehsam which, as the article proves, is not done at the price of derogating the idea of Soviet itself. Therein lies the lesson of the system of ideas expressed in this article.) As far as the structure, general i... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

(2008 - ) ~ Revolutionary, Urban Guerrillas of the Greek, Anarchist Scene
The Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei (Greek: Συνωμοσία Πυρήνων της Φωτιάς, romanized: Synomosía Pyrínon tis Fotiás, abbrev. SPF), also translated as Conspiracy of Fire Cells or Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, is a anarchist urban guerrilla organization organization based in Greece. The SPF first surfaced on 21 January 2008, with a wave of 11 firebombings against luxury car dealerships and banks in Athens and Thessaloniki. Monthly waves of arson have been followed by proclamations expressing solidarity with arrested anarchists in Greece and elsewhere. In September 2009, following an escalation to the use of crude time bombs, four suspected members of the group were arrested. In November 2010 two more suspects were arrested while attempting to mail parcel bombs to embassies and EU leaders and organizations. (Source: Wikipe... (From : Wikipedia.org / DW.com.)

(1947 - ) ~ Earth First Revolutionary and Environmentalist of Passion
David Foreman is an American environmentalist and author, he is a co-founder of Earth First! and a prominent member of the radical environmentalism movement. David Foreman, was born in October 18, 1947 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His father was an United States Air Force sergeant. Foreman attended San Antonio Junior College and University of New Mexico, where he majored in History. In his early life he was active in conservative politics, campaigning for Barry Goldwater and forming the Young Americans for Freedom conservative youth chapter on his junior college campus. In 1968, Foreman joined the Marine Corps' Marine Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia and received an undesirable discharge after 61 days. After his experience with the Marine Corps, he worked as a teacher at a Zuni Indian reservation in New Mexico and would shoe horses. Between 1973 and 1980, he worked for The Wilderness Society as Southwest Regional Representative in New... (From : Wikipedia.org.)

(1961 - )
Ruth Ellen Kinna (born March 1961) is a professor of political philosophy at Loughborough University, working in the Department of Politics, History and International Relations. Since 2007 she has been the editor of the journal Anarchist Studies. Kinna holds a BA in history and politics from Queen Mary University of London and a D.Phil in politics from the University of Oxford. She began working at Loughborough University in 1992. Her subsequent work focused on the socialist thought of William Morris (1834–1896). She is the author of the book Anarchism - A Beginners Guide, an in depth study into the political concept of anarchy (ISBN 1-85168-370-4, Oneworld Publication Ltd.). (Source: Wikipedia.org.) BA History and Politics Queen Mary University of London DPhil 1991 Nuffield College, Oxford (Source: lboro.ac.uk.) Ruth Kinna is a member of the Anarchism Research Network at Loughborough University UK (where she has worked since 1992)... (From : Wikipedia.org / lboro.ac.uk.)

(1853 - 1942) ~ IWW Founder, Anarchist Activist, and Labor Organizer : In addition to defending the rights of African-Americans, Lucy spoke out against the repressed status of women in nineteenth century America. Wanting to challenge the notion that women could not be revolutionary, she took a very active, and often militant, role in the labor movement... (From : IWW.org.)
• "...concentrated power can be always wielded in the interest of the few and at the expense of the many." (From : "The Principles of Anarchism," by Lucy E. Parsons.)
• "I learned by close study that it made no difference what fair promises a political party, out of power might make to the people in order to secure their confidence, when once securely established in control of the affairs of society that they were after all but human with all the human attributes of the politician." (From : "The Principles of Anarchism," by Lucy E. Parsons.)
• "...were not the land, the water, the light, all free before governments took shape and form?" (From : "The Principles of Anarchism," by Lucy E. Parsons.)

After graduating with a BA (Hons) in Ancient History from the University of Sydney in 1982, Dr Anthony Gorman took a break from study and traveled the world for a number of years, including two years in the Middle East. On returning to study in Australia he took up a more contemporary focus on the Middle East and graduated with a PhD on modern Egyptian historiography from Macquarie University, Australia. Dr Gorman then took up a Greek Postdoctoral Fellowship (IKY) in Athens, Greece, where he carried out research on the Greeks of modern Egypt and gained a Modern Greek language qualification. In 2000/01 he taught in the Department of Political Science at the American University in Cairo, and then took up the post of Lecturer in the Department of History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. From 2003 to 2005 he was an AHRB Research Fellow working on the ‘Cultures of Confinement’ project, an examination of the... (From : Research.ed.ac.uk.)

With Strictures On Political And Moral SubjectsAfter considering the historic page, and viewing the living world with anxious solicitude, the most melancholy emotions of sorrowful indignation have depressed my spirits, and I have sighed when obliged to confess, that either nature has made a great difference between man and man, or that the civilization, which has hitherto taken place in the world, has been very partial. I have turned over various books written on the subject of education, and patiently observed the conduct of parents and the management of schools; but what has been the result? a profound conviction, that the neglected education of my fellow creatures is the grand source of the misery I deplore; and that women in particular, are rendered weak and wretched by a variety of concurring causes, originating from one hasty conclusion. The conduct and manners of women, in fact, evidently prove, that their minds are not in a healthy state; for, like the flowers that are planted in too rich a soil, strength and usefulnes...

It has been suggested that to create one genius nature uses all of her resources and takes a hundred years for her difficult task. If that be true, it takes nature even longer to create a great idea. After all, in creating a genius nature concentrates on one personality whereas an idea must eventually become the heritage of the race and must needs be more difficult to mold. It is just one hundred and fifty years ago when a great man conceived a great idea, Robert Thomas Malthus, the father of Birth Control. That it should have taken so long a time for the human race to realize the greatness of that idea, is only one more proof of the sluggishness of the human mind. It is not possible to go into a detailed discussion of the merits of Malthus’ contention, to wit, that the earth is not fertile or rich enough to supply the needs of an excessive race. Certainly if we will look across to the trenches and battlefields of Europe we will find that in a measure his pr... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Paris, February 15, 1793.         My dear friend, It is necessary perhaps for an observer of mankind, to guard as carefully the remembrance of the first impression made by a nation, as by a countenance; because we imperceptibly lose sight of the national character, when we become more intimate with individuals. It is not then useless or presumptuous to note, that, when I first entered Paris, the striking contrast of riches and poverty, elegance and slovenliness, urbanity and deceit, every where caught my eye, and saddened my soul; and these impressions are still the foundation of my remarks on the manners, which flatter the senses, more than they interest the heart, and yet excite more interest than esteem. The whole mode of life here tends indeed to render the people frivolous, and, to borrow their favorite epithet, amiable. Ever on the wing, they are always sipping the sparkling joy on the brim of the cup, le... (From : Gutenberg.org.)

As it was now harvest time, the new scene, and the fine weather delighted the children, who ran continually out to view the reapers. Indeed every thing seemed to wear a face of festivity, and the ripe corn bent under its own weight, or, more erect, shewed the laughing appearance of plenty. Mrs. Mason always allowing the gleaners to have a sufficient quantity, a great number of poor came to gather a little harvest; and she was pleased to see the feeble hands of childhood and age, collecting the scattered ears. Honest Jack came with his family; and when the labors of the day were over, would play on a fiddle, that frequently had but three strings. But it served to set the feet in motion, and the lads and lasses dancing on the green sod, suffered every care to sleep. An old Welsh harper generally came to the house about this time of the year, and staid a month or more; for Mrs. Mason was particularly fond of this instrument, and interested i...

Why do you clothe me with scarlet of shame? Why do you point with your finger of scorn? What is the crime that you hissingly name When you sneer in my ears, "Thou bastard born?" Am I not as the rest of you, With a hope to reach, and a dream to live? With a soul to suffer, a heart to know The pangs that the thrusts of the heartless give?" I am no monster! Look at me -- Straight in my eyes, that they do not shrink! Is there aught in them you can see To merit this hemlock you make me drink? This poison that scorches my soul like fire, That burns and burns until love is dry, And I shrivel with hate, as hot as a pyre, A corpse, while its smoke curls up to the sky? Will you touch my hand? It is flesh like yours; Perhaps a little more brown and grimed, For it could not be white while the drawers' and hewers', My brothers, were calloused and darkened and slimed... (From : Anarchy Archives.)