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Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870–1940 the Praxis of National Liberation, Internationalism, and Social Revolution

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Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870–1940 the Praxis of National Liberation, Internationalism, and Social Revolution Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870–1940 The Praxis of National Liberation, Internationalism, and Social Revolution Steven J. Hirsch, Lucien van der Walt 2010 Contents Acknowledgments ...................................... 6 List of Contributors ..................................... 6 Preface 7 References cited in text .................................... 17 Rethinking Anarchism and Syndicalism: The Colonial and Postcolonial Experience, 1870–1940 18 The framing of this volume .................................. 19 Anarchism and syndicalism ................................. 21 Taking anarchism and syndicalism seriously ........................ 22 Taking a global view of anarchist and syndicalist history . 23 African, Asian and European cases ............................. 26 Provincialising Spanish anarchism ............................. 28 The class character of anarchism and syndicalism ..................... 28 Anarchism, syndicalism, and transnational networks .................... 31 Race, nation and imperialism ................................ 34 Internationalism, anti-colonialism, and national liberation . 37 Three major anarchist and syndicalist approaches to independence struggles . 39 A Note on the Volume’s Organisation and Scope ...................... 42 References cited in text .................................... 43 Part One: Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial World 49 “Diverse in race, religion and nationality … but united in aspirations of civil progress”: The Anarchist Movement in Egypt 1860–1940 50 Origins ............................................ 50 The international network .................................. 51 The local scene ........................................ 53 Addressing the East ...................................... 55 Propagating the Idea ..................................... 57 Popular education ...................................... 60 Competing orientations .................................... 64 The postwar order ....................................... 65 Anarchists and Egyptian nationalism ............................ 67 Conclusion .......................................... 68 References cited in text .................................... 68 2 Revolutionary Syndicalism, Communism and the National Question in South African Socialism, 1886–1928 70 Background: the national question, labour and the left ................... 73 Labourite and Communist approaches to the national question . 76 The Communist school analysis of the early left ...................... 78 Emergent anarchism and syndicalism in South Africa, 1886–1913 . 79 Across the colour line: the SDF achievement ........................ 84 Syndicalism on the Witwatersrand ............................. 86 The IWW, the SLP and the national question on the Witwatersrand . 91 The stormy years, 1913–1914 ................................. 92 Red, black and white: the ISL and One Big Union amongst people of colour . 95 The ISL and the reform of the existing unions ........................ 98 Black revolutionaries in the ISL ............................... 100 The general strike movement of 1918 ............................ 103 Syndicalism in the Cape ................................... 104 Echoes and legacies ...................................... 107 In conclusion ......................................... 108 References cited in text .................................... 109 Korean Anarchism Before 1945: A regional and transnational approach 115 Korean Acceptance of Anarchism: national consciousness and transnational concerns . 118 Korean anarchists in joint activities ............................. 124 Korea anarchists in educational and popular militia projects . 129 Conclusion .......................................... 135 References cited in text .................................... 137 Anarchism and the Question of Place: thoughts from the Chinese experience 141 Anarchism in Eastern Asia: an overview . 142 Chinese anarchists and the question of culture . 148 Anarchism and places .................................... 150 References cited in text .................................... 151 The Makhnovist Movement and the National Question in the Ukraine, 1917–1921 152 Social and ethnic foundations ................................ 152 The beginnings and rise of the anarchist movement . 154 The rise of the Makhnovischna ................................ 156 The formation of the nationalist Ukrainian state . 158 Brest-Litovsk, German occupation and anarchist resistance . 160 The national liberation struggle, anarchism and the Makhnovist territory</em> . 163 The alliance with the Bolsheviks, and the issue of anti-Semitism . 168 Partisan war in the rear of the Reds and Whites . 174 The last alliance and the last skirmish ............................ 178 Conclusions .......................................... 182 3 References cited in text .................................... 183 Other important works .................................... 184 Syndicalism, Industrial Unionism, and Nationalism in Ireland 185 Transport and general unionism ............................... 187 Larkinism ........................................... 189 The 1913 Dublin Lockout ................................... 194 The Citizen’s Army and the Easter Rising . 196 The ‘red flag times’ ...................................... 197 Syndicalism falters ...................................... 202 An industrial unionist postscript ............................... 204 Conclusion .......................................... 204 References cited in text .................................... 205 Part Two: Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Postcolonial World 208 Peruvian Anarcho-Syndicalism: adapting transnational influences and forging counterhegemonic practices, 1905–1930 209 The Origins of Anarcho-Syndicalism in Lima-Callao . 210 The war of position ...................................... 214 The Peruvian variant of revolutionary syndicalism . 222 Anarcho-syndicalism in Peru’s southern highlands . 226 Conclusion .......................................... 238 References Cited in Text ................................... 239 Other Important Works .................................... 242 Tropical Libertarians: Anarchist movements and networks in the Caribbean, Southern United States, and Mexico, 1890s–1920s 243 Cuba: the hub of the Caribbean anarchist network . 245 South Florida: the northern link in the Caribbean network . 252 Puerto Rico: The eastern link in the Caribbean network . 255 The Panama Canal Zone: the western link in the Caribbean network . 259 Anarchism in Mexico and the Southwestern US: The Trans-Mexican Network ............................. 263 Conclusion: transnational anarchist networks in tropical North America . 272 References cited in text .................................... 275 Straddling the Nation and the Working World: Anarchism and syndicalism on the docks and rivers of Argentina, 1900–1930 277 Anarchism: extraneous to the Americas? . 278 Argentina: locating protest on the littoral . 279 Anarchism’s port of entry in the Americas . 281 4 Anarchists and Catholics: cosmopolitanism vs. nativism . 283 The emergence of syndicalism ................................ 288 Labour insurgency confronts nationalism after the European War . 291 The defeat and resurgence of anarchist and syndicalist unions . 300 Solidarity and Federalism: an antidote to atavistic nationalism . 302 References cited in text .................................... 304 Constructing Syndicalism and Anarchism Globally: The transnational making of the syndicalist movement in São Paulo, Brazil, 1895–1935 307 The emergence of Brazilian anarchism and syndicalism . 307 Immigration and working class unity ............................ 311 The anarchist press, and the debate over syndicalism . 315 The debate on syndicalism .................................. 316 Anarchist and syndicalist activities in São Paulo . 320 Anarchist and syndicalist involvement in the great São Paulo strikes . 322 References cited in text .................................... 327 Other important works .................................... 328 Final Reflections: The vicissitudes of anarchist and syndicalist trajectories, 1940 to the present 330 A “new anarchism”? ..................................... 331 Recuperation: the richness of classical anarchism and syndicalism . 332 Foundations: the past in the present ............................. 333 Retreats and Rearticulations: Anarchism and Syndicalism, 1939–1989 . 334 Conclusions: the future in the present ............................ 340 References cited in text .................................... 340 5 Acknowledgments This book began as a panel on “Anarchism and Anarcho-syndicalism in the Global South: Latin America in Comparative Perspective” for the European Social Science History Conference held in Amsterdam in 2006. Subsequent to the conference, we solicited papers from Geoffroy de Laforcade, Edilene Toledo and Luigi Biondi, Aleksandr Shubin, Anthony Gorman, and Emmet O’Connor. We wish to thank all the contributors to this volume for their patience and dedi- cation to this project. The editors are grateful to Marcel van der Linden for making possible the publication of Arif Dirlik’s article. We also extend our gratitude to other colleagues who provided invaluable ideas, critical comments, and encouragement: Bert Altena, Kim Clark, Carl Levy, Thad Metz, James Pendlebury, Michael Schmidt, Nicole Ulrich, and Marcel van derLinden. In preparing this book,
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