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neonbronze's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of those theory texts that shifts your entire perception of how political change can and should be affected. I found myself on several occasions stopping at the end of a passage and processing it for a couple minutes before continuing, because there's such a richness of information contained within.
teresacmcm's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
“The peoples owe all the political rights and privileges which we enjoy today in greater or less measure, not to the good will of their governments, but to their own strength. Governments have employed every means that lay in their power to prevent the attainment of these rights or to render them illusory. Great mass movements among the people and whole revolutions have been necessary to wrest these rights from the ruling classes, who would never have consented to them voluntarily. One need only to study the history of the past three hundred years to understand by what relentless struggles every right has had to be wrested inch by inch from the despots.”
“If the enforced sale of the workers labour power was the cause of their slavery, then their organized refusal to work must be the means for their liberation.”
Os métodos do anarco-sindicalismo: Greve. Greve geral. Boicote de consumo. Boicote de produção. Sabotagem, sob o mote “para um mau salário, um mau trabalho”. “The policy of go slow was the first and most effective form of sabotage. There are a hundred means by which the workers can seriously disturb production. The railway workers in France and Italy threw the whole system of transportation into disorder by doing nothing more than to adhere to the strict letter of the existing transport laws, and thus making it impossible for any train to arrive at its destination on time.”
Quando nas condições mais desfavoráveis, a greve não é possível, há sempre outra maneira, que passa pelo cumprimento estrito do que está patente na lei/contrato. E a nossa geração bem sabe, como se vê pelo boicote às horas extraordinárias levado a cabo pelos Médicos em Luta, ou pelo movimento de Quiet Quitting que tanto perturba a entidade patronal.
“If the enforced sale of the workers labour power was the cause of their slavery, then their organized refusal to work must be the means for their liberation.”
Os métodos do anarco-sindicalismo: Greve. Greve geral. Boicote de consumo. Boicote de produção. Sabotagem, sob o mote “para um mau salário, um mau trabalho”. “The policy of go slow was the first and most effective form of sabotage. There are a hundred means by which the workers can seriously disturb production. The railway workers in France and Italy threw the whole system of transportation into disorder by doing nothing more than to adhere to the strict letter of the existing transport laws, and thus making it impossible for any train to arrive at its destination on time.”
Quando nas condições mais desfavoráveis, a greve não é possível, há sempre outra maneira, que passa pelo cumprimento estrito do que está patente na lei/contrato. E a nossa geração bem sabe, como se vê pelo boicote às horas extraordinárias levado a cabo pelos Médicos em Luta, ou pelo movimento de Quiet Quitting que tanto perturba a entidade patronal.
franchenstein's review against another edition
3.0
Lately I have been trying to educate myself on different schools of leftist ideology. From what I have read so far, Anarcho-Syndicalist theory is the one I liked the most. Voluntary organization of workers into syndicates that would take care of distribution of tasks and the products in a federation of communities where everyone would have a voice in a real democracy. All of this backed by the story of the glorious fight of the CNT in the Spanish Civil War.
Actually, the book is very well researched and shows the development of these ideas both by the theoretical line starting with Proudhon and then analyzing Bakunin and Kropotkin but also taking a look into the history of the labor movement and how labor unions and syndicates operated in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and elsewhere outside of Europe.
Analyzing both history and theory and denouncing the evils of authoritarianism both from the Fascist right but also from the Communist left and encouraging a feeling of community and solidarity it was a great read.
But it was written during the days of the Spanish Civil War and I could see how optimistic it was. I would have given 4 stars if it was just that. But the Epilogue, written 9 years later, that only focus on the reconstruction of the anarcho-syndicalist movement without even a word of self-critic trying to analyze why the revolution failed made me give it just 3 stars.
I know that an in-depth analysis would require a book dedicated just to the history of the Spanish Civil War, but it was a point that I was interested in seeing addressed at least slightly and not just by saying that the communists betrayed the anarchists. I have a lot of issues with the authoritarian left but they do have the point that only their revolutions worked and for that centralism is required. Federalist anarchist revolutions lack the organization to fight back against the reactionaries and that is an issue that I would have liked to see being argued in the epilogue.
Apart from that, I hope to read more on the topic and try to see if there are ways that could make this idea work.
Actually, the book is very well researched and shows the development of these ideas both by the theoretical line starting with Proudhon and then analyzing Bakunin and Kropotkin but also taking a look into the history of the labor movement and how labor unions and syndicates operated in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and elsewhere outside of Europe.
Analyzing both history and theory and denouncing the evils of authoritarianism both from the Fascist right but also from the Communist left and encouraging a feeling of community and solidarity it was a great read.
But it was written during the days of the Spanish Civil War and I could see how optimistic it was. I would have given 4 stars if it was just that. But the Epilogue, written 9 years later, that only focus on the reconstruction of the anarcho-syndicalist movement without even a word of self-critic trying to analyze why the revolution failed made me give it just 3 stars.
I know that an in-depth analysis would require a book dedicated just to the history of the Spanish Civil War, but it was a point that I was interested in seeing addressed at least slightly and not just by saying that the communists betrayed the anarchists. I have a lot of issues with the authoritarian left but they do have the point that only their revolutions worked and for that centralism is required. Federalist anarchist revolutions lack the organization to fight back against the reactionaries and that is an issue that I would have liked to see being argued in the epilogue.
Apart from that, I hope to read more on the topic and try to see if there are ways that could make this idea work.
jpowerj's review against another edition
5.0
Such a great introduction to Anarcho-Syndicalism. This is really what I was looking for when I read Guerin's "Anarchism". Literally covers all the bases that someone interested in AS would be interested in learning about: organizational precepts, a history of movements across the world, in-depth descriptions of how syndicalism differs from other socialist tendencies, and all along written with such an incredible passion for what he's describing that it's hard not to become excited about the possibilities of the movement, even today almost 80 years since he wrote it. Really my only issue with the book is it can seem to be redundant in parts and perhaps in some parts it can feel like he's harping on the same ideas over and over again, but that's actually probably a good thing in retrospect, since there are some very deep ideas here that I personally probably benefited from mulling over for a while. All in all, this is the book I'd recommend to people interested in learning about Anarcho-Syndicalism as a tendency separate from other general left-libertarian and socialist tendencies.
slippysliver's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
3.75
While I’m still learning about anarchism, marxism, etc. this was surely an interesting read. Despite the name “theory and practice,” the book delves more into the history of anarcho-syndicalism rather than the theory of it. If you’re fine with that, give it a read, and read some other books for theory, otherwise you’ll be sorry. Not a bad book, just a little misleading so to say.
hampton_reads's review against another edition
4.0
Written 80 years ago, with a lot of contemporary value. An interesting history of resistance to fascism, labor syndicalism, and the relationship between the left and parliamentary democracy.
freschne's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
ostrava's review against another edition
What is the relevancy of Anarcho-syndicalism?
This is not a rethorical question, I'm genuinely clueless.
The book itself was a great introduction to it, but a bit bloated in history that's irrelevant for the average reader. So... skip chapter 6.
I'm still not sure what I am, though I do seem to find modern anarchists like Graeber more useful by and large. Rocker had vision, but the working class as we know it has changed quite a lot, and I'm not sure if experience has proven to us that counterrevolutionary movements can be stopped through the anarchist social structure. Personally, I still have a lot to study and learn but the anarchist movement is sort of dead at the moment...and I usually define myself as a "democratic socialist" anyway.
Either way, I desire a democratic workplace as much as the next guy so... call me a syndicalist too if you want? I don't know.
But Rocker had some right ideas for his time.
This is not a rethorical question, I'm genuinely clueless.
The book itself was a great introduction to it, but a bit bloated in history that's irrelevant for the average reader. So... skip chapter 6.
I'm still not sure what I am, though I do seem to find modern anarchists like Graeber more useful by and large. Rocker had vision, but the working class as we know it has changed quite a lot, and I'm not sure if experience has proven to us that counterrevolutionary movements can be stopped through the anarchist social structure. Personally, I still have a lot to study and learn but the anarchist movement is sort of dead at the moment...and I usually define myself as a "democratic socialist" anyway.
Either way, I desire a democratic workplace as much as the next guy so... call me a syndicalist too if you want? I don't know.
But Rocker had some right ideas for his time.