1900s

The Historical Place of the SPGB

SPGB rally Trafalagar Square 1967

Transcript of the opening remarks of a talk by Steve Coleman (for the Socialist Party of Great Britain) taking place on 1 June 1980 in London. Full audio recording also available online.

The Industrial Union Bulletin: an introduction and appraisal - Melvyn Dubofsky

Submitted by Juan Conatz on Jun 2 2015 04:21

A short history of the Industrial Union Bulletin, an early IWW newspaper.

Anarchy in Puerto Rico

Occupation of Porto [i.e. Puerto] Rico.Towing United States troops ashore, 8-7-1

A review by Rod Jackman of Black Flag Boricuas: Anarchism, Antiauthoritarianism, and the Left in Puerto Rico, 1897-1921.

“I never met a man I admired more”: Vincent St. John (1876-1929)

A short biography written by Juan Conatz of Vincent St. John, who was a hugely important and influential member in the IWW's early years.

International Socialist Review

Archive of the International Socialist Review, a magazine published by Charles Kerr Publishing Cooperative that was supportive of the direct action oriented 'left-wing' of the Socialist Party and the Industrial Workers of the World. ISR's antiwar stance eventually caused problems with the U.S. government, which revoked its mailing privileges, causing ISR to go defunct.

Civilization in Southern Mills

Two boys working on textile loom

An article by Mother Jones on the working conditions of the South.

The anarchist movement in North Africa: 1877-1951

Submitted by wojtek on Aug 26 2013 00:17

Normally eurocentric, Lucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt sketch out the anarchist movement in North Arica until the mid-twentieth century.

The Charter of Amiens

The Charter of Amiens was adopted by the Confédération Générale du Travail in 1906. It marked a watershed in the development of French anarcho-syndicalism and of the French labour movement more broadly (later reversed of course) by underlining the independence from and opposition to political parties and the state. It is a defining document of the revolutionary and anarcho-syndicalist movements, no less so than the IWW Preamble is for anglophone anarcho-syndicalists.

Rebel Girls and Union Maids: the woman question in the journals of the AFL and IWW, 1905-1920

Submitted by Juan Conatz on Aug 29 2012 06:08

An article by Ann Schofield which contrasts the differences and examines the striking likenesses between the AFL and the IWW approaches to the woman question through their treatment of important women's issues of the day.

Revolutionary unions and French labor: The rebels behind the cause; or, Why did revolutionary syndicalism fail?

Submitted by Juan Conatz on Aug 29 2012 05:46
Speakers from the C.G.T. at the Meru strike (1909)

Rejecting the conclusions reached by author Peter Stearns that French revolutionary syndicalism never gained worker support and American economists John R. Commons and Selig Perlman that conservative unionism was the only unionism workers would accept, the author provides statistical evidence disproving both. Rather, the author suggests that the failure of the CGT to create cross-class alliances contributed to its isolation and eventually, the decline of revolutionary syndicalism. We do not agree with some of the article, but reproduce for useful information.