From Anarcho-Syndicalist Review
Editorial: An Economy Built On Cruelty
Wobbles: Falling Wages, Climate Catastrophe
Syndicalist News: FoodPanda, Alternative Unions, AIT Centenary compiled by Mike Hargis
Articles: Profits of Doom: Green Syndicalism and Tar Sands Worker Deaths by Jeff Shantz
Labor Resurgence in Maine by Lisa Feldman
Is the Labor Movement Blowing It? by Alexis Buss
Shorter Hours, Everywhere But Here?
Workers’ Resistance to the Russia-Ukraine War by John Kalwaic
(R)Evolution in the 21st Century: Reflections on Syndicalist Strategy by Rasmus Hästbacka
The General Strike: Past, Present & Future by Jon Bekken
Curious Saviors of the Spanish Revolution: Myths of the POUM by Jeff Stein
Reviews: Wild Socialism by Martin Comack
American Autocracy by Jeff Stein
A Passion For Work? by Jon Bekken
Redwashing Stalinism by Shelby Shapiro
Anarchist Women in Mexico by Jon Bekken
Letters: Ukraine, Rebellion in Iran
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ASR 86 is, at long last, at the printer. Copies should begin arriving next week. This issue explores the opportunities facing the labor movement and the dangers of squandering them if U.S. unions continue down the same path that has led to 19th century unionization rates, examines the role of general strikes, looks at the dangers both to the earth and to workers in Tar Sand exploitation, and reviews recent books on American autocracy, women in the Mexican revolution, Stalinism in the United States, and the demand that we become passionate about our work.
Frequent ASR contributor Wayne Price has written an essay comparing anarchist responses to the invasion of Ukraine, the Spanish Revolution and the U.S. invasion of Vietnam that is well worth reading. "Some important lessons may be learned ... One is not to participate in capitalist states, parties, or administrations, or support such forces (including states and parties which claim to be “socialist” or “communist” but are really state-capitalist). Instead, we struggle for a non-state radically-democratic federation of workers’ and popular councils and assemblies. So long as the people cannot overthrow the state and capitalism, anarchists should participate in the military struggle against fascists or imperialist invaders ... [while] simultaneously engag[ing] in a political struggle against the dominant regime."
ASR editorial collective member Jon Bekken has published a review of a book on the role of the Spanish anarchist press in the movement from the 1890s through the establishment of the CNT, which offers a useful overview of this early period and the diverse responses in the anarchist press as workers struggles to sustain their movement in the face of regular bouts of fierce repression. Rasmus Hästbacka has another contribution on syndicalist strategy, and also recently published a piece with the Industrial Worker calling for class unions. A piece he published in Arbetaren on the struggle for economic democracy was recently translated into English.
We have long argued that the struggle for shorter hours is central to rebuilding a strong labor movement, and an economy built around human needs and ecological sustainability. But the U.S. is moving in the opposite direction, and a New York Times column deplores the trend of creating titles like bathroom manager and customer experience professional in an attempt to evade paying overtime to workers increasingly ordered to put in 10- or 12-hour days.
The anarchist library has transcriptions of several articles from our early years as Libertarian Labor Review. We are continuing work on rebuilding our website, identifying and fixing broken links (the search engine works fine if you know something used to be there), and cleaning up the ecommerce page, which is working again despite a recent denial of service attack from a site in the Philippines. And we are gathering material for ASR 87, which should hit the mail in May. As always, we welcome responses to pieces we've published, analyses of recent labor struggles, explorations of syndicalist strategy, and much more. Drop us a line if you're interested.
We'll be updating the ASR subscriber database in the next couple of days, and sending out renewal emails to those whose subscriptions have expired. But if you're not a subscriber, why not subscribe today? 3-issue Subscriptions are just $15 ($17 overseas), though we'll have to raise the price soon given the 3rd round of postal increases in the past year and rising paper costs.
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