A Biography of Luisa Capetillo

Short biography of Puerto Rican anarchist, feminist and labor agitator.

This month we celebrate the Discovery of Puerto Rico on November 17. It is important to celebrate not only our culture, music and food, but also to remember those who came before us, without whom we might not be where we are. Among those historical figures is a Puerto Rican woman who could very well have lived in modern times. Her name is Luisa Capetillo.

Puerto Rican Cigar History

Description of some of the conditions Puerto Rican cigar makers worked under.

A Voice Through the Window

"When I was a boy in Cayey, my hometown in Puerto Rico, we lived in a house in back of which was a big cigar factory. Every morning, starting around ten, a clear, strong voice coming from the big factory came through my window. It had a tinge of the oratorical in it.

Brazilian Anarchist Chronology 1823-1937

Timeline of anarchist history in Brazil. From Against All Tyranny : Essays on Anarchism in Brazil.

1823 The Ypiranga Declaration declares Brazil independent of Portugal and the former Portuguese Regent becomes Pedro I of Brazil.

1840 The French engineer Louis Léger Vauthier arrives in Recife, Brazil to work. He spreads the ideas of Fourier, influencing intellectuals such as Antonio Pedro Figueiredo.

Rebel violence vs. hierarchical violence, UK 1985-86

A chronology of anti-hierarchical violence in mainland UK, July 1985 - May 1986. A bit of nostalgia and/or a lesson in over-optimism? A text from that epoch that covers some of the contradictions of the social movements in the period after the miners strike.

Includes a look at riots in Liverpool, Notting Hill, Birmingham, Brixton, Peckham, Tottenham, and lots of smaller riots, plus riotous strikes in mining areas, at Wapping and prison riots. Also a look at some of the contradictions of football hooliganism, drug taking and other stuff.

Some of it has not come out very clearly, but almost all of it is readable.

Capitalist Democracy: The Illusion of Choice

Libertarian communist critique of representative democracy. Produced by Organise! in response to 2010 Australian election.

Supporters of capitalist democracy generally claim that it is the best—if not the only—way of organising a free society. Capitalist democracy provides the conditions, they claim, under which each of us can determine the course of our own destiny and enjoy all the benefits in terms of creative autonomy and individual self-development that accrue to a truly free people.

The university, the car factory and the working class

A text on class conflict in Oxford and the Blackbird Leys riots of the early 90s.

AN (UN)FRESHER’S GUIDE TO OXFORD’S CLASS WAR

At its very outset Oxford University was established to tie together the hegemony that would run dear old Albion for ever more. In Oxford science, religion and the aristocracy pooled their resources to deepen, mystify and finance their power. The presence of the working people of Oxford was permitted essentially only in order to facilitate all this cerebral masturbation.

First published probably in autumn 1991.

The university, the car factory and the working class


A text on class conflict in Oxford and the Blackbird Leys riots of the early 90s.

AN (UN)FRESHER’S GUIDE TO OXFORD’S CLASS WAR

Oxford's Class War and the Blackbird Leys Riots of the Early 90s

AN (UN)FRESHER’S GUIDE TO OXFORD’S CLASS WAR

A text on some of the history of class conflict in Oxford, concentrating on the Blackbird Leys riots of the early 90s, and written shortly afterwards.

At its very outset Oxford University was established to tie together the hegemony that would run dear old Albion for ever more. In Oxford science, religion and the aristocracy pooled their resources to deepen, mystify and finance their power. The presence of the working class in Oxford was permitted essentially only in order to facilitate all this cerebral masturbation.

First published probably in autumn 1991.

Social Knowledge - An Essay on the Limits of Social Science - Paul Mattick, Jr.

Mattick Jr - 'Social Knowledge' cover

"This book deals with a fundamental question of social science - how is scientific knowledge of social life possible? And with a related problem - why does such knowledge still seem impossible, despite 200 years of intellectual effort?

[i]Through a critical discussion of the work of Peter Winch, in particular his critique of Max Weber and orthodox sociology and Evans-Pritchard's classic study of Azande witchcraft, the author claims that it is possible to develop a critical understanding of social processes.

2. The Problem of the Programme

As anarchism is a social doctrine it makes itself known through an ensemble of analyses and proposals which set out purposes and tasks, in other words through a programme. And it's this programme which constitutes the shared platform for all militants in the anarchist Organisation.

Jaime Semprún has died

Claude Roy & Jaime Semprún

Jaime Semprún: (26th July, 1947-Aug 3rd 2010)

Jaime Semprún was born in Spain and was the son of the writer Jorge Semprún and the actor Loleh Bellon, but lived most of his life in France. He was a radical essayist, a translator and a French publisher.

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