Dario Azzellini (ed.), An alternative Labour History. Worker Control and Workplace Democracy

Abstract. This book covers a wide variety of proletarian struggles to take control of the workplace from capitalists. This extends over a century - from the Austrian revolution in 1919 to recent events in Greece. It also covers theoretical questions (such as Pannekoek's council communism) to the practical issues faced by workers' cooperatives attempting to compete in the market place. The geographical spread from places as far apart as Brazil, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, Italy, and Uruguay presents a little known history. Although the numerous authors do not offer a single perspective, the book posits both an alternative to parliamentary social democracy and those who ignore the working class as a factor in social transformation. Inevitably these experiences have succumbed to the surrounding capitalist environment but they point both to the persistence of striving for direct democracy and its potential as a real alternative to the current system.Keywords. Democracy, Labour history, Worker control, Revolution.JEL. C91, E20, F66, J60

A People's History of the Second World War

A People's History of the Second World War unearths the fascinating history of the war as fought 'from below'. Until now, the vast majority of historical accounts have focussed on the conflict between the Allied and Axis powers for imperialist mastery. Donny Gluckstein shows that in fact between 1939 and 1945 two distinct wars were fought – one ‘from above’ and one ‘from below’. Using examples from countries under the Nazi heel, in the colonies and within the Axis and Allied camps, Gluckstein brings to life the very different struggle of the people's and resistance movements which proliferated during the war. He shows how they fought not just fascism, but colonialism and empire, and were betrayed by the Allies at the war’s end. This book will fundamentally challenge our understanding of the Second World War – both about the people who fought it and the reasons for which it was fought

Re-evaluating syndicalist opposition to the First World War

It has been argued that support for the First World War by the important French syndicalist organisation, the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) has tended to obscure the fact that other national syndicalist organisations remained faithful to their professed workers’ internationalism: on this basis syndicalists beyond France, more than any other ideological persuasion within the organised trade union movement in immediate pre-war and wartime Europe, can be seen to have constituted an authentic movement of opposition to the war in their refusal to subordinate class interests to those of the state, to endorse policies of ‘defencism’ of the ‘national interest’ and to abandon the rhetoric of class conflict. This article, which attempts to contribute to a much neglected comparative historiography of the international syndicalist movement, re-evaluates the syndicalist response across a broad geographical field of canvas (embracing France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Britain and America) to reveal a rather more nuanced, ambiguous and uneven picture. While it highlights the distinctive nature of the syndicalist response compared with other labour movement trends, it also explores the important strategic and tactical limitations involved, including the dilemma of attempting to translate formal syndicalist ideological commitments against the war into practical measures of intervention, and the consequences of the syndicalists’ subordination of the political question of the war to the industrial struggle

A People's History of the Second World War

A People's History of the Second World War unearths the fascinating history of the war as fought 'from below'. Until now, the vast majority of historical accounts have focussed on the conflict between the Allied and Axis powers for imperialist mastery. Donny Gluckstein shows that in fact between 1939 and 1945 two distinct wars were fought – one ‘from above’ and one ‘from below’. Using examples from countries under the Nazi heel, in the colonies and within the Axis and Allied camps, Gluckstein brings to life the very different struggle of the people's and resistance movements which proliferated during the war. He shows how they fought not just fascism, but colonialism and empire, and were betrayed by the Allies at the war’s end. This book will fundamentally challenge our understanding of the Second World War – both about the people who fought it and the reasons for which it was fought