Living Anarchism. José Peirats and the Spanish Anarcho-Syndicalist Movement by Chris Ealham, AK Press, £15.00. Reviewed by Stuart Christie.

 Anarchism in Spain  Comments Off on Living Anarchism. José Peirats and the Spanish Anarcho-Syndicalist Movement by Chris Ealham, AK Press, £15.00. Reviewed by Stuart Christie.
Mar 302016
 

Peirats1Living Anarchism. José Peirats and the Spanish Anarcho-Syndicalist Movement by Chris Ealham, AK Press, ISBN 978-1-84935-238-3, £15.00.

In August 1989, José Peirats — anarchist militant, brickmaker, baker, propagandist and chronicler of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT labour unions — ended his intensely lived span of eighty-one years by walking into the sea at Burriana beach. A multitude of deteriorating health issues including Parkinson’s disease meant he could no longer face life— or death — with dignity. As his biographer, Chris Ealham, observes: “As a lifelong activist, existence had little meaning without action — this had been the principle that guided him in his struggle for a better Spain.”

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Libertarian Communism by Isaac Puente Amestoy (Kindle edition £1.30)

 anarchism, Anarchist ideas  Comments Off on Libertarian Communism by Isaac Puente Amestoy (Kindle edition £1.30)
Jan 212013
 

LibComcoversmallLibertarian Communism by Isaac Puente Amestoy. First published in 1932 under the title El comunismo libertario. First English-language translation (by Paul Sharkey) published in The Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review (No. 6, 1982),  Over the Water, Sanday, Orkney, KW172BL This eBook (Kindle) edition published 2013 by ChristieBooks,  PO Box 35, Hastings, East Sussex, TN341ZS. ISBN 978-1-873976-11-1

UK : £1.30p ; USA : $2.07 ; Germany : €1,54 ; France : €1,54 ; Spain: €1,54 ; Italy : €1,54 ; Japan : ¥ 180 ; Canada : CDN$ 1.98 ; Brazil : R$ 4,08

Puente

Dr. Isaac Puente Amestoy (3 June 1896 – 1 September 1936)

‘Economic pressures compel the individual to co-operate in the economic life of the locality. These same economic pressures ought to be felt by the collectives, obliging them to co-operate in the economic life of the nation. But to accomplish this needs no central council or supreme committee, which carry the seeds of authoritarianism and are the focal points of dictatorship, as well as being nests of bureaucracy. We said that we have no need of an architect or any ordaining authority beyond the mutual agreement between localities. As soon as each and every locality (city, village, or hamlet) has placed its internal life in order, the organisation of the nation will be complete. And there is something else we might add concerning the localities. Once all its individual members are assured that their needs will be met, then the economic life of the municipality or of the federation will also be perfected. . .’

This seminal anarchist text defining the term ‘libertarian communism’ was first published in 1932 by the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist unions of the National Confederation of Labour (CNT), with many subsequent editions. The first English translation, by Paul Sharkey, appeared in ‘The Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review‘ #6 Orkney, 1982.

The Second Death of José Peirats … or how Enric Ucelay-Da Cal, academic, invented, in a prologue to the Memoirs of José Peirats, a new method of intellectual murder …

 Article, Biography, CNT, Historical, PDF, Reportage, Reviews, South and Central America, Spain, Spanish Revolution/Civil War  Comments Off on The Second Death of José Peirats … or how Enric Ucelay-Da Cal, academic, invented, in a prologue to the Memoirs of José Peirats, a new method of intellectual murder …
Aug 312010
 

Click on image to read article in English

In 2009 the previously unpublished memoirs of José Peirats (1908-1989), former CNT general secretary and anarchist historian (author of The CNT in the Spanish Revolution, 3 Vols, edited by Chris Ealham, ChristieBooks), were published in Spain in abridged form. They were accompanied by a controversial prologue from Catalan-based historian Enric Ucelay da Cal. While Peirats’ original text was cut, Ucelay’s prologue weighed in at over 100 pages. There are two hallmark’s to Ucelay’s work: his inability to synthesise his ‘ideas’ and his pronounced hostility to anarchism. Peirats, who died in 1989, is unable to respond to this calumny. Instead, we have a rejoinder, in Spanish, to Ucelay from Freddy Gómez Pelaez, editor  of  the French anarchist journal A contretemps, who knew Peirats personally from his time in exile in France. We hope to post an English-language translation of Freddy’s article very soon. PAUL DAVIS

The Second Death of José Peirats at the Hands of Enric Ucelay-Da Cal (PDF in English)

La segunda muerte de José Peirats (PDF)

La segunda muerte de José Peirats (ISSUU)