Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870-1940: The Praxis of National Liberation, Internationalism, and Social Revolution issue 1874-6705

507 Pages·2010·3.34 MB·English

by  Edited by Steven Hirsch and Lucien van der Walt

Anarchism and Syndicalism
in the Colonial and
Postcolonial World, 1870–1940
Studies in
Global Social History
Series Editor
Marcel van der Linden
International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Editorial Board
Sven Beckert
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Philip Bonner
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Dirk Hoerder
University of Arizona, Phoenix, AR, USA
Chitra Joshi
Indraprastha College, Delhi University, India
Amarjit Kaur
University of New England, Armidale, Australia
Barbara Weinstein
New York University, New York, NY, USA
VOLUME 6
Anarchism and Syndicalism
in the Colonial and
Postcolonial World, 1870–1940
The Praxis of National Liberation,
Internationalism, and Social Revolution
Edited by
Steven Hirsch
Lucien van der Walt
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010
On the cover: Map of the world with anarchist symbol.
“The World: Colonial Possessions and commercial highways, 1910.” Map 140
of The Cambridge Modern History Atlas edited by Sir Adolphus William Ward,
G.W. Prothero, Sir Stanley Modaunt Leather, E.A. Benians, London: Cambridge
University Press, 1912. Courtesy of Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection,
University of Texas-Austin.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Anarchism and syndicalism in the colonial and postcolonial world, 1870-1940 : the
praxis of national liberation, internationalism, and social revolution / edited by Steven
Hirsch, Lucien van der Walt.
p. cm. — (Studies in global social history ; v. 6)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-90-04-18849-5 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Revolutions and socialism—
Developing countries. 2. National liberation movements—Developing countries.
3. Anarchism—Developing countries. 4. Syndicalism—Developing countries.
5 Anti-imperialist movements—Developing countries. 6. Internationalism. I. Hirsch,
Steven (Steven J.) II. Van der Walt, Lucien.
HX550.R48A53 2010
303.6’409172409041—dc22
2010036408
ISSN 1874-6705
ISBN 978 90 04 18849 5
Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
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Fees are subject to change.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ............................................................................ vii
Acknowledgments .............................................................................. ix
List of Contributors ........................................................................... xi
Preface ................................................................................................. xiii
Benedict Anderson
Rethinking Anarchism and Syndicalism: the colonial and
postcolonial experience, 1870–1940 ........................................... xxxi
Lucien van der Walt and Steven J. Hirsch
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 ........................................................................... 3
Anthony Gorman
Revolutionary Syndicalism, Communism and the National
Question in South African socialism, 1886–1928 .................... 33
Lucien van der Walt
Korean Anarchism before 1945: a regional and transnational
approach ......................................................................................... 95
Dongyoun Hwang
Anarchism and the Question of Place: thoughts from the
Chinese experience ........................................................................ 131
Arif Dirlik
The Makhnovist Movement and the National Question in the
Ukraine, 1917–1921 ...................................................................... 147
Аleksandr Shubin
vi contents
Syndicalism, Industrial Unionism, and Nationalism in
Ireland ............................................................................................. 193
Emmet O’Connor
PART TWO
ANARCHISM AND SYNDICALISM IN THE
POSTCOLONIAL WORLD
Peruvian Anarcho-Syndicalism: adapting transnational
influences and forging counterhegemonic practices,
1905–1930 ....................................................................................... 227
Steven J. Hirsch
Tropical Libertarians: anarchist movements and networks in
the Caribbean, Southern United States, and Mexico,
1890s–1920s .................................................................................... 273
Kirk Shaffer
Straddling the Nation and the Working World: anarchism and
syndicalism on the docks and rivers of Argentina,
1900–1930 ....................................................................................... 321
Geoffroy de Laforcade
Constructing Syndicalism and Anarchism Globally: the
transnational making of the syndicalist movement in São
Paulo, Brazil, 1895–1935 .............................................................. 363
Edilene Toledo and Luigi Biondi
Final Reflections: the vicissitudes of anarchist and syndicalist
trajectories, 1940 to the present .................................................. 395
Steven J. Hirsch and Lucien van der Walt
Index .................................................................................................... 413
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Illustrations
1. African workers attend a rally in Johannesburg, addressed
by members of the Industrial Workers of Africa, the
International Socialist League and the South African Native
National Congress, June 1918. Source: Museum Africa ......... 34
2. Members of the Korean Anarchist Federation pose with
Chinese comrades involved in a peasant self-management
initiative, Pukeun province, China ca. 1927–1928. Source:
Centre for International Research on Anarchism, Geneva ..... 112
3. The Ukrainian anarchist territory, showing core area of
“Makhnovia”, and maximum sphere of influence 1918–1921.
Source: Alexandre Skirda, Nestor Makhro: anarchy’s Cossack:
the struggle for free soviets in the Ukraine, 1917–1921 (2004
English edition). ............................................................................ 166
4. Makhnovist troops pore over the draft second alliance with
the Bolsheviks, Starobelsk, September 1920. Source: courtesy
of AK Press ..................................................................................... 185
5. Jim Larkin speaking in Queen’s Square, Belfast, 1907.
Source: Frank Boyd Collection, Linenhall Library, Belfast ..... 200
6. Nicolás Gutarra, Peruvian anarcho-syndicalist leader, is
hoisted on the shoulders of the crowd on May Day 1919,
Lima. Source: Variedades, Lima, 3 May 1919 .......................... 236
7. Peruvian anarcho-syndicalism: breaking the bonds of
oppression, exploitation, and ignorance. Source: El
Constructor, Organo de la Unión de Trabajadores en
Construcción Civil, volume 2, number 1, May 1925, kindly
provided by the International Institute of Social History ....... 239
8. Ricardo Flores Magón and Enrique Flores Magón, Mexican
anarchists, at the Los Angeles County Jail, 1916. Source:
David Poole, ed. 1977, Land and Liberty: anarchist
influences in the Mexican Revolution: Ricardo Flores
Magón. Orkney: Cienfuegos Press .............................................. 305
viii list of illustrations
9. Maritime workers and dockers affiliated to the Regional
Workers Federation of Argentina (FORA) meet in January
1919 on the eve of a general strike. Source: Eduardo
COLOMBO et al., De l’histoire du mouvement ouvrier
révolutionnaire, Paris, CNT-RP, 2001 .................................... 345
10. A crowd scene from the 1917 general strike in São Paulo
city, Brazil. Source: Arquivo Edgard Leuenroth,
University of Campinas ............................................................. 389
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book began as a panel on “Anarchism and Anarcho-syndicalism
in the Global South: Latin America in Comparative Perspective” for the
European Social Science History Conference held in Amsterdam in
2006. Subsequent to the conference, we solicited papers from Geoffroy
de Laforcade, Edilene Toledo and Luigi Biondi, Aleksandr Shubin,
Anthony Gorman, and Emmet O’Connor. We wish to thank all the
contributors to this volume for their patience and dedication to this
project. The editors are grateful to Marcel van der Linden for making
possible the publication of Arif Dirlik’s article. We also extend our
gratitude to other colleagues who provided invaluable ideas, critical
comments, and encouragement: Bert Altena, Kim Clark, Carl Levy,
Thad Metz, James Pendlebury, Michael Schmidt, Nicole Ulrich, and
Marcel van der Linden. In preparing this book, we received generous
assistance from Nienke Brienen-Moolenaar, Hylke Faber, and Boris
van Gool at Brill Publishers. We would also like to thank Sally Liard
and the International Institute of Social History for the translation of
Aleksandr Shubin’s chapter, and the International Institute of Social
History and the University of the Witwatersrand for helping finance
this translation. Finally, we want to thank the University of Pittsburgh-
Greensburg for defraying the costs of indexing this volume.