Listen and Download HERE

On this special episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we feature an audio recording from a presentation in the bay area this summer on July 18th by the Black Rose Anarchist Federation  / Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation’s Bay Area local and AK Press hosted historian Troy Araiza Kokinis to discuss his new book Anarchist Popular Power: Dissident Labor and Armed Struggle in Uruguay, 1956-76.

Anarchist Popular Power is the first-ever full-length English-language history of the Anarchist Federation of Uruguay. As Araiza Kokinis explains, the FAU organized students and workers to directly confront international and domestic capitalists, far-Right violence, and state repression amidst rising IMF-mandated austerity and declining living standards during the 1960s and 1970s. Pushed underground and into exile by governmental ban and a decade of US-backed military dictatorship, the organization has spread its model for revolutionary change around the world since it resurfaced in the mid-1980s.

The FAU‘s innovative engagement with, disciplined commitment to, and steadfast confidence in everyday people’s capacities to control their shop floors, classrooms, neighborhoods, and lives offers important lessons for revolutionaries today. If you are inspired to adapt these and other lessons for the so-called United States, reach out to Black Rose / Rosa Negra at blackrosefed.org.

Due to some technical issues during the event, the following combines portions of live audio with recreations of the author’s talk. We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Produced and edited by Kenny Donovan.

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we again speak with anarchist historian, YouTuber, and libertarian socialist philosopher Zoe Baker about her new book, Means and Ends: The Revolutionary Practice of Anarchism in Europe and the United States, published by AK Press.

In many ways, the book takes off from our previous discussion on anarchist history, and talks about how anarchism became a mass movement in the late 1800s, faced repression from the State, and worked to participate in social movements and struggles that reflected its anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist principles.

During our discussion we talk about how the historical anarchist movement approached questions of organization, action, reform, movement building, distributing ideas, State socialism, trade unions, and beyond. Note, the scope of this historical overview is limited, and we encourage readers to check out Non-Western Anarchisms: Rethinking the Global Context.

More Info: Zoe Baker on Youtube, Means and Ends on AK Press, “Lessons from Anarchist History” podcast with IGD.

Music: Lee Brickley, Anna’s Song

On this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we again speak with labor historian and professor Peter Cole, author of Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia, Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area, and co-editor of Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW.

In particular, we speak about Cole’s new book published by PM Press, Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly, which centers around the exploits of African-American labor leader Ben Fletcher, who played a key role in Local 8 of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a radical syndicalist and anti-capitalist labor union. Local 8 was known for its militancy and willingness to strike on the Philadelphia waterfront, as well as being one of the most integrated unions in the United States, with white, Black, and immigrant union workers.

During our discussion, we talk about how the IWW rejected white supremacy and promoted anti-racist politics, went up against the KKK in some instances, and worked to bring together both African-American workers and European immigrants into one fighting union. We also discuss how Fletcher was targeted during the Red Scare, did time in prison, and how he came to be seen as both a national and international labor figure.

More Info: Peter Cole on Twitter, Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly at PM Press, The IWW and the Black Worker on LibCom

In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak with Robert Ovetz, author of the new book, When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921. During our discussion, we speak about insurrectionary labor history, touching on the post-Civil War eruptions of the Great Upheaval, the Pullman Strike, the Seattle General Strike, and the Redneck War.

Beyond just being a way to push forward demands, often these uprisings showcased revolutionary potential and in some cases, ended with groups of workers taking over entire towns. We also discuss the racial dynamics within some of these uprisings and how white supremacy was either confronted or left in place.

At a time when people are coming up against not only a system which has made their lives unlivable but also threatens their own existence; such history offers us a window into periods when ordinary people took up arms and sought to take control over their own lives.

More Info: Robert Ovetz on Twitter, Notes From Below, and When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921

In this episode of the It’s Going Down podcast, we speak again with historian Mark Bray about the anarchist movement in Spain as well as the Spanish Civil War and Revolution that broke out in 1936 against a fascist coup. We discuss how the movement grew, in all its complexities, and Bray describes the discussions and tensions over tactics and methods of struggle contemporary anarchists with find many similarities with. We then discuss what was achieved during the period of the revolution, from the taking over of industry in some cities, to the communization of land and agriculture in rural areas, to attacks on patriarchy and class society within everyday life.

We also discuss the betrayal of both the revolution and the antifascist resistance to Franco, not only by the major world powers in the face of a fascist coup by general Franco which was supported by Hitler and Mussolini, but also by the Stalinist forces who destroyed the revolution and literally attacked the anarchists.

We also talk about the various groups, tendencies, and formations that existed throughout the Spanish anarchist movement, from the labor union the CNT, the insurrectionary anarchist federation, the FAI, the Libertarian Youth movement, the role of anarchist infrastructure and press, and the anarcha-feminist group, Mujeres Libres.

Beyond just a blow by blow of the revolution, we spend a lot of our time talking about how the Spanish anarchists organized and built a counter-society that existed and in many cases still does, for generations.

More Info: Mark Bray on Twitter, Anarchism in the City, The Anarchist Collectives