September 19, 2020
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George Woodcock (1912-1995) was a historian, political biographer, essayist, poet, and anarchist. He wrote biographies of such anarchist thinkers as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, William Godwin, Oscar Wilde, and Peter Kropotkin. Throughout his life, Woodcock was given numerous awards for his work, but he refused several awards from the government of Canada on the grounds that he only accepted awards granted by his peers.
In this chapter, Woodcock recounts the most successful anarchist experiment of the twentieth century: Revolutionary Catalonia in Spain from 1936 to 1939. The anarchists successfully collectivized agricultural, factory work, and municipal jobs, leading in almost every case to increased productivity and happier people. But similar to Ukraine following the Russian Revolution, the Spanish anarchist society was brought down by outside forces, principally the Spanish communist party and the fascists.
![Socialism from Below by George Woodcock, Chapter 10 - Russia and the Makhnovist Movement]()
September 12, 2020
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George Woodcock (1912-1995) was a historian, political biographer, essayist, poet, and anarchist. He wrote biographies of such anarchist thinkers as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, William Godwin, Oscar Wilde, and Peter Kropotkin. Throughout his life, Woodcock was given numerous awards for his work, but he refused several awards from the government of Canada on the grounds that he only accepted awards granted by his peers.
In this chapter, Woodcock briefly summarizes the anarchist movement during the Russian Revolution. Led by Nestor Makhno (1888-1934), a Ukrainian peasant turned guerrilla fighter, the anarchists successfully fought against the Whites, the Reds, the Germans, the Austrians, and other factions while securing the Ukrainian Free Territory for an anarchist society. But by the end of the Russian Civil War, as the Bolsheviks were emerging victorious in their rush to control the Russian state, they turned on the anarchists and violently repressed the blooming anarchist federation in Ukraine.
September 5, 2020
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George Woodcock (1912-1995) was a historian, political biographer, essayist, poet, and anarchist. He wrote biographies of such anarchist thinkers as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, William Godwin, Oscar Wilde, and Peter Kropotkin. Throughout his life, Woodcock was given numerous awards for his work, but he refused several awards from the government of Canada on the grounds that he only accepted awards granted by his peers.
In this chapter, Woodcock discusses the anarchist movement in the United States. He contends that, similar to Europe, the American anarchist movement evolved until it fused with anarcho-syndicalist thought, leaving labor organizations like the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) as the most important revolutionary organizations in the US.
![Socialism from Below by George Woodcock, Chapter 8 - Anarcho-Syndicalism]()
August 29, 2020
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George Woodcock (1912-1995) was a historian, political biographer, essayist, poet, and anarchist. He wrote biographies of such anarchist thinkers as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, William Godwin, Oscar Wilde, and Peter Kropotkin. Throughout his life, Woodcock was given numerous awards for his work, but he refused several awards from the government of Canada on the grounds that he only accepted awards granted by his peers.
In this chapter, Woodcock discusses the roots and growth of anarcho-syndicalism, the anarchist school of thought that began in the early-nineteenth century but came to full prominence at the beginning of the twentieth century in England, the US, and Spain. Anarcho-syndicalism is both a system for fostering revolutionary feeling in the working class and a system for a fair distribution of resources after the revolution. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to organize workers on the job in order to assert control over the means of production. Through direct action, anarcho-syndicalists assert they can overthrow capitalism and the state by direct action of the workers.
August 22, 2020
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George Woodcock (1912-1995) was a historian, political biographer, essayist, poet, and anarchist. He wrote biographies of such anarchist thinkers as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, William Godwin, Oscar Wilde, and Peter Kropotkin. Throughout his life, Woodcock was given numerous awards for his work, but he refused several awards from the government of Canada on the grounds that he only accepted awards granted by his peers.
In this chapter, Woodcock discusses the growth of the anarchist movement between the death of Bakunin and the First World War. On the continent, Bakunin's (and Kropotkin's) influence continued to fuel anarchist movements and actions, but the eventual rise of anarcho-syndicalism fundamentally shifted anarchists' focus from localized propaganda to organizing workers in the workplace.
July 25, 2020
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George Woodcock (1912-1995) was a historian, political biographer, essayist, poet, and anarchist. He wrote biographies of such anarchist thinkers as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, William Godwin, Oscar Wilde, and Peter Kropotkin. Throughout his life, Woodcock was given numerous awards for his work, but he refused several awards from the government of Canada on the grounds that he only accepted awards granted by his peers.
In this chapter, Woodcock dispels many of the common myths about anarchism, and he addresses the fundamental flaws of government, the state, and bourgeois democracy. He argues that if one is committed to both freedom and justice, the social philosophy of anarchism is the only tenable option.
July 18, 2020
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George Woodcock (1912-1995) was a historian, political biographer, essayist, poet, and anarchist. He wrote biographies of such anarchist thinkers as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, William Godwin, Oscar Wilde, and Peter Kropotkin. Throughout his life, Woodcock was given numerous awards for his work, but he refused several awards from the government of Canada on the grounds that he only accepted awards granted by his peers.
In this chapter, Woodcock discusses the philosophical bases for "society," the groups of individuals who cooperate together for the common good. But capitalism and the state have perverted the purposes of society, stripping individuals of their freedom and preventing the flourishing of humankind.
