For Workers' Power
Description
Over the last sixty years many radicals have had their eyes opened by the writing of Maurice Brinton. The most prolific writer of the British Solidarity group, which existed from 1961 to 1992, his work slaughtered countless sacred cows of standard leftist thinking. For Brinton, "actually existing socialism" did not, in fact, exist. He wrote with passion, clarity, and consistency on behalf worker self-activity and self-management and to decry those who reinforced passivity, apathy, cynicism, pecking orders, and alienation among workers. This oppressive behavior was, to him, as prevalent among state socialists and communist parties as it was among capitalists, because it enabled rulers, and would-be rulers, of every political stripe to deceive and manipulate those in whose name they claimed to act. Today, when a new crop of so-called democratic socialists are seeking state power, allegedly on behalf of working people, Brinton's work is more relevant than ever.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Maurice Brinton (1923-2005) lived most of his life in London. He was a founding member of the Solidarity group and wrote some of the twentieth century's most important critiques of authoritarian socialism.
Content
CONTENTS Introduction by David Goodway 1. Socialism Reaffirmed 2. The Belgian General Strike: Diary, December 28-31, 1960 3. Revolutionary Organization 4. The Commune, Paris 1871 (with Philippe Guillaume) 5. Introduction to Paul Cardan, The Meaning of Socialism 6. Preface to Paul Cardan, The Meaning of Socialism 7. Introduction to Paul Cardan, Modern Capitalism and Revolution 8. The Balkanization of Utopia 9. For Workers' Power 10. Preface to Ida Mett, The Kronstadt Commune 11. The Russian Anarchists - Kropotkin 12. France: Reform or Revolution 13. France: The Theoretical Implications 14. The Events in France 15. Capitalism and Socialism 16. Capitalism and Socialism: A Rejoinder 17. A Question of Power 18. Solidarity and the Neo-Narodniks 19. Introduction to Murray Bookchin, On Spontaneity and Organization 20. Preface to Pierre Chaulieu, Workers' Councils and the Economics of a Self-Managed Society 21. Wilhelm Reich 1 22. Wilhelm Reich 2 23. The Sexual Revolution 24. As We See It 25. As We Don't See It 26. The Malaise on the Left 27. Factory Committees and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat 28. The Ulster Workers' Council General Strike 29. Portuguese Diary 1 30. Portuguese Diary 2 31. Introduction to Phil Mailer, Portugal: The Impossible Revolution? 32. Introduction to Paul Cardan, Redefining Revolution 33. Introduction to Cornelius Castoriadis, History as Creation 34. Suddenly This Summer 35. Making a Fresh Start 36. About Ourselves 1 37. About Ourselves 2 38. Castoriadis's Economics Revisited 39. About Ourselves 3 40. About Ourselves 4 *** Paris: May 1968 The Irrational in Politics The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control Suicide for Socialism?
