by ALEX BRADSHAW
Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870-1940
The Praxis of National Liberation, Internationalism,
and Social Revolution
Steven Hirsch & Lucien van der Walt (eds.)
Brill, Leiden, Netherlands/Boston, 2010
Scholars Steven Hirsch and Lucien van der Walt have compiled a fine collection of left history in Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870-1940. This volume counters the notion that anarchism and syndicalism are simply 19th century European phenomena, rather, anarchism and syndicalism flourished in what they call the “colonial” and “post-colonial” world.
While the volume concerns anarchists’ and syndicalists’ role in anti-imperialist struggles and union organizing, it also serves as an invaluable tool to shatter the notion that the history of socialism, as well as radical labor, is exclusive to Marxist-Leninism. Unfortunately, throughout the Western world, the history of socialism is often embedded in simplistic Cold War narratives centered on the USSR and its ally nation-states. “Socialism” is typically viewed as authoritarian, centralized, and top-down.
…
Many readers may not be familiar with the terms identifying the “colonial” and “postcolonial” world. The editors define these terms as “the regions of the world under the formal control of external powers, as well as the ex-colonies that were ostensibly independent social formations, but remained subject to a significant degree to informal imperial power influenced by colonial legacies.” More specifically, the research in the volume focuses on “Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe (with the exception of Ireland).”
The editors offer further analysis of why this is particularly significant for the period of 1870-1940. They state that, “By the early 20th century, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the United States ruled 90 percent of Africa, 57 percent of Asia, a quarter of the Americas, around half of East and Central Europe, and all of Polynesia.”
Z Communications for more