Syndicalists in the Russian Revolution.

       This month Spirit of Revolt's choice for "Read of the Month" is a pamphlet taken from our KM Collection. It is one of a group of 11 Direct Action pamphlets produced by Syndicalist Workers Federation. It is called Syndicalists in the Russian Revolution, by G. P. Maximoff, written around the 1950's. We are sure it will be of interest to all syndicalists/libertarian-socialists/anarchists, and those associated with that grouping and many more outside that grouping. We hope this little taster will encourage you to delve deeper into the wonderful collections held in our archive. Enjoy and learn.

Read on line:

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The State Can Never Be A Vehicle For Freedom.

         Anarchists are, at least consistent in one thing, the state can never be a vehicle to freedom. Be it a "socialist" state, Communist" state, a "representative democracy" state, they all walk the same road, control of the people in the hands of the few. For this consistency, many anarchists have paid with their lives, "revolutionary" state after "revolutionary" state, has hounded, exiled, imprisoned and murder anarchist, whose crime has been the belief that the people should control their own lives.

    Crimethinc has produced a excellent article highlighting some of those anarchists from the past, who paid dearly for their continuing struggle for freedom in the face of "revolutionary" states.

Restless Specters of the Anarchist Dead

A few words from the undead of 1917.

          This year is the centennial of two revolutions in Russia: one in which the people toppled the Tsar and another in which the Bolsheviks seized state power. Within twenty years, the Bolsheviks had executed or imprisoned most of those who carried out the revolution. Today, as the hashtag #1917live trends on twitter, we should remember the #1917undead, the anarchists who strove to warn humanity that statist paths towards social change will never bring us to freedom. Some of them, like Fanya and Aron Baron, were murdered in cold blood by authoritarian communists in the Soviet Union. Others managed to survive, betrayed by their supposed comrades, to witness the totalitarian results of the Bolshevik coup. Their voices cry out to us today from the grave. Let’s listen.

Read the full article HERE:

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Workers Know Your History, Communist And "Communist".

      To some people looking at the political split in the left here in UK, communist and "communist", it may seem as if it was always so, but in our not so distant past, anarchist, socialist and communist all stood under the anti-parliamentarian banner.  It was the formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain around 1921 that caused the damaging split that we are still suffering from today. It was because of this that the Anti-parliamentary Communist Federation, APCF was formed in 1921. For those who are not familiar with the history of that era there is a very good article in The Free Communist:

      It was hoped to create a Communist federation out of these remaining groups. The principle of federation — a federation of Communist groups developed voluntarily from below rather than an imposed centralisation from above — was always an important and consistent part of the anti-parliamentary movement’s proposals for unity. Aldred summarised the position in The Spur:
       I have no objections to an efficient and centralised party so long as the authority rests in the hands of the rank and file and all officials can be sacked at a moment’s notice. But I want the centralism to be wished for and evolved by the local groups and not imposed on them from a centre. . . . The Communist party, the real party, must be evolved through a federation of local groups, a slow merging of them into one party, from the bottom upwards, as distinct from this imposition from the top downwards. (August 1920)
     The idea of federation was coupled with a demand for self-determination — the British revolutionaries should determine their own policy in relation to British conditions, irrespective of what Lenin and the Bolsheviks might say. Lenin was faced with different circumstances, Aldred argued, and might be forced to compromise to save the Russian Revolution, but in Britain there was no such excuse for compromise:
       Lenin’s task compels him to compromise with all the elect of bourgeois society whereas ours demands no compromise. And so we take different paths and are only on the most distant speaking terms.
Or, more directly, we should stop ‘chasing the shadows of the great man [Lenin]. . . . It is not he who is running the British Revolution, but “ourselves alone”. The policy of looking to him to mind our business is hindering and not helping the revolution.’ But increasingly such advice from Aldred and a few others was ignored, as the move to join the CPGB gathered pace.

Read the full article HERE:

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.

   
     In spite of the way that Russia end up after the revolution, we should not forget that it started as a social revolution and was hi-jacked by the bureaucratic Bolsheviks. There are lessons to be learnt, the revolution must stay with the people and not be allowed to be controlled by a bureaucratic party mechanism under the control of a handful of party hacks. Horizontal organisation, not hierarchic.



More workers history  films HERE.

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INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY, PAGE 6.

  Here is the next page in the wee Teapot Collective's Introduction to Anarchy, page 6. Page 5 can be found HERE. It's a wee book, so it only has wee pages, but a great wee book.

      The Mexican revolution at the turn of the 19/20th century was the result of traditional communally worked land around the villages being seized by large landowners in a military dictatorship. With Emiliano Zapata as its most prominent figure a revolutionary peasants' army was formed under the rally, "Land and liberty!" reclaiming the land. Zapata was offered the presidency but declined, preferring to live and fight with the people.

      In the Russian revolution of 1917, there was hope in the often spontaneous formation of soviets (workers councils), many of which practised direct democracy until the Bolsheviks installed their centralised state apparatus and crushed any free federation.

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - WILLIE MCDOUGAL, GLASGOW.

Glasgow has many who have dedicated their lives to the working class cause and Willie McDougal stands tall among Glasgow's many working class fighters for justice and a fair society.

WILLIAM C. McDOUGAL 1894-1981.

EARLY YEARS.

        Born on the 22nd. of January 1891 in the district of Partick in Glasgow, William C. McDougal spent nearly seventy years actively promoting Libertarian non-sectarian Socialism. He joined the Glasgow Anarchists around the age of nineteen. Willie served as secretary to the Glasgow Anarchist Group and held Sunday meetings at the foot of Buchanan Street. At this time anarchists groups were growing in number in and around Glasgow.

PRISON.

       Prior to the first world war anarchist groups received relatively little interference from the police. The war changed all that, with meetings being disrupted by police and patriotic groups. At one such meeting in Botanic Gardens, Willie was speaking and referred to the King as a parasite. A crowd rushed the platform and threatened to throw him into the nearby River Kelvin. In 1916 Willie was arrested for refusing the call-up, he was beaten by the local police and handed over to the Military. He refused military orders, was put on trial and sentenced to two years imprisonment. He was sent to Wormwood Scrubs Prison, then on to Denton Camp, eventually ending up in Dartmoor. While at Dartmoor he was involved in prison disputes and tried to organise a strike. He then decided to slip out of the camp by means of the camp bicycle, cycling part of the way he eventually reached Glasgow where he resumed his anti-war and anarchist propaganda. This activity also included holding classes on economics in the rooms of the Herald League and speaking at open-air meetings.

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION.

       After the war the Russian Revolution considerably increased political activity on the streets of Glasgow. Most anarchists were enthusiastic about the Revolution, some of Willie’s meetings indicate this with titles like, “Lenin’s Anarchy”, “Revolution of Necessity”, and “Dictatorship, democracy and Government”. It was not long before Willie and the Anarchists lost faith in “Lenin’s Anarchy”, by 1920 it had turned to hostility.

At this time the Glasgow Anarchist Group became the Glasgow Communist Group, in 1921 it changed to the Ant-parliamentary Communist Federation, this group was kept alive right through the 1930s by Willie McDougal, Guy Aldred, Jenny Patrick and other anarchists. Guy Aldred left in 1933, Willie kept it going until 1941.

GLASGOW GREEN FIGHT.

       Willie was also involved in the fight for freedom of speech and assembly on the Glasgow Green. This struggle came to a head in 1931 by the arrest and imprisonment of the Tramp Preachers. The major players in this struggle to repeal the bye-law forbidding public speaking on the Green were Guy Aldred, Willie McDougal, Harry McShane, and John McGovern. Willie was among those arrested and tried for speaking on the Green without a permit, many other activists played a part in this important Glasgow struggle. The bye-law was repealed in 1932 thanks to the excellent case put by Guy Aldred.

SPANISH CIVIL WAR.

        1936 to 1939, the years of the Spanish Civil War, saw a remarkable rise in the activity of Glasgow Anarchists. During this period Willie’s public speaking activities were to peak, the events in Spain also drove Willie to print, publish and edit a number of papers. The first to appear was “Advance”, 1936, then came “The Fighting Call”, 1936-37, “The Barcelona Bulletin” 1937, followed, next came the “Workers Free Press”, 1937-38, and then, “Solidarity”, 1938-40. Apart from trying to give an anarchist view point on the Spanish Civil War, these papers were trying to provide an open forum for anarchist and other voices of the left.

WORKERS OPEN FORUM.

       During the 2nd. world war Willie McDougal with Dugald Mackay formed the Workers Revolutionary League to follow on from the Anti-parliamentary Communist Federation. Later on with others he formed the Workers Open Forum, this was again an attempt to provide a platform for all the views from the left and try to create unity. The “Form” rented rooms at 50 Renfrew Street and continued until the late 1950s. The end of the Workers Open Forum marked the end of an era, an end to regular working class political meetings in dingy little halls dotted about the city.

PROPAGANDIST TO THE END.

      After this period Willie McDougal continued his struggle to spread anarchist views by publishing papers. In 1970s there was the “Industrial Republic”, and the year up to his death, “Sense”. Along with these he produced many pamphlets, among them, “Marxism Made Easy”, “An Open Letter to Mr Callaghan”, and “Anthology of Revolt”.

        Willie McDougal continued his propagandist activities right up to his death. The last issue of “Sense” being at the printers at the time of his death. He always tried to put his ideas in the simplest form possible. Willie never lost faith in the belief that the struggle to end the insanity of capitalism could and would develop towards Socialism. William C. McDougal together with other Socialist activists kept alive the Anti-parliamentary Libertarian Socialism that demands real change in society not the tinkering reforms of Party Politics within the framework of Capitalism. His life was an advancement of that cause, his death a loss to the fight for human liberty.

MORE OF GLASGOW'S WORKING CLASS HISTORY HERE.

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