Preface by Benedict Anderson.
Brill 2010. lxxiv, 434 pp. (10 illustrations). ISBN: 978 90 04 18849 5

Narratives of anarchist and syndicalist history during the era of the first globalization and imperialism (1870-1930) have overwhelmingly been constructed around a Western European tradition centered on discrete national cases. This parochial perspective typically ignores transnational connections and the contemporaneous existence of large and influential libertarian movements in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Yet anarchism and syndicalism, from their very inception at the First International, were conceived and developed as international movements. By focusing on the neglected cases of the colonial and postcolonial world, this volume underscores the worldwide dimension of these movements and their centrality in anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles. Drawing on in-depth historical analyses of the ideology, structure, and praxis of anarchism/syndicalism, it also provides fresh perspectives and lessons for those interested in understanding their resurgence today.

SUMMARY

PART ONE: ANARCHISM AND SYNDICALISM IN THE COLONIAL WORLD
“Diverse in race, religion and nationality… but united in aspirations of civil progress”: the anarchist movement in Egypt 1860-1940, Anthony Gorman
Revolutionary syndicalism, communism and the national question in South African socialism, 1886-1928, Lucien van der Walt
Korean Anarchism before 1945: a regional and transnational approach, Dongyoun Hwang
Anarchism and the Question of Place: thoughts from the Chinese experience, Arif Dirlik
The Makhnovist Movement and the National Question in the Ukraine, 1917-1921, Аleksandr Shubin
Syndicalism, Industrial Unionism, and Nationalism in Ireland, Emmet O’Connor
PART TWO: ANARCHISM AND SYNDICALISM IN THE POSTCOLONIAL WORLD
Peruvian Anarcho-Syndicalism: adapting transnational influences and forging counterhegemonic Practices, 1905-1930, Steven J. Hirsch
Tropical Libertarians: anarchist movements and networks in the Caribbean, Southern United States, and Mexico, 1890s-1920s, Kirk Shaffer
Straddling the Nation and the Working World: anarchism and syndicalism on the docks and rivers of Argentina, 1900-1930, Geoffroy de Laforcade
Constructing Syndicalism and Anarchism Globally: the transnational making of the syndicalist movement in São Paulo, Brazil, 1895-1935, Edilene Toledo and Luigi Biondi
Final Reflections: the vicissitudes of anarchist and syndicalist trajectories, 1940 to the present, Steven J. Hirsch and Lucien van der Walt
Index
Readership
All those interested in left and labour history, anarchism, syndicalism, radicalism, Marxism, nationalism, labour unions, race and nation, and anti-colonial struggles.
About the author(s)
Steven J. Hirsch, PhD (1997) in Latin American History from The George Washington University. Currently is associate professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg. Researches and writes on the history of anarchism and working-class politics in Peru.
Lucien van der Walt, Ph.d. (2007) in Industrial Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand, is senior lecturer in Sociology at that institution. Winner of the 2007 Labor History thesis prize, and the 2008/2009 CODESRIA Africa thesis prize, he is co-author of Black Flame: the revolutionary class politics of anarchism and syndicalism (AK Press. San Francisco), volume 1 of Counter Power: new perspectives on global anarchism and syndicalism (with Michael Schmidt).

Contributors are Luigi Biondi, Arif Dirlik, Anthony Gorman, Steven Hirsch, Dongyoun Hwang, Geoffroy de Laforcade, Emmet O’Connor, Kirk Shaffer, Aleksandr Shubin, Edilene Toledo, and Lucien van der Walt.
With a foreword by Benedict Anderson