War and Revolution: The Hungarian Anarchist Movement in WWI and the Budapest Commune 1919 by Martyn Everett

“The state apparatus began to fall apart under pressure from below.”

War and Revolution: The Hungarian Anarchist Movement in World War I and the Budapest Commune written by Martyn Everett is a 28-page booklet that provides an overview of the anarchist role in the Hungarian Revolution of 1919. The author argues that “anarchist fortunes declined” at the end of WWI because they “fused with Marxist parties or were crushed by protofascism.”

Author Everett traces 19th century anarchism into two separate strands of thought–the ’social anarchists’ (influenced by German Social Democrat turned anarchist Johann Most) and a form of Christian anarchism that “coalesced” around Jeno Henrik Schmitt. Schmitt along with Istavan Varonyi led a “campaign of political agitation amongst the peasantry.” The result was the mobilization of the peasants for the Harvesters’ Strike of 1897, but the Hungarian government soon moved to repress the group. Many anarchist publications enjoyed a wide circulation, and this no doubt helped spread the word.

The booklet examines the work of major Hungarian anarchists–including Sandor Csizmadia, Ervin Batthyany, Ervin Szabo, Lajos Kassak, and their various contributions to the workers’ councils and general strike in 1918. The Hungarian anarchist movement was vehemently opposed to WWI, and they led a vigorous antiwar effort. Widespread social problems led to the collapse of the Hungarian War Cabinet–there were “uprisings and mutinies in the army and the navy, desertions reached record levels, and armed deserters linked up with strikers and rebellious peasants, seizing the land and clashing with police.” A coalition government was formed, but that too collapsed. Meanwhile the Hungarian Communist Party formed. The booklet examines the party’s role in the Hungarian revolution of 1919, and the establishment of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.

Bolshevik Bela Kun of the Hungarian Communist Party approached the anarchists as a fellow “dissident element” and their alliance worked–but only for a while. Major disagreements emerged between the Communist and anarchist goals of the revolution. Bela Kun was bitterly against the redistribution of land to the peasants, while the anarchists called for agrarian reform. The role of the Lenin Lads in enforcing Communist ideals is examined–along with the persecution of anarchists in the subsequent collapse of the Soviet and the counter-revolution that followed. This pamphlet serves as an overview only, and it includes a bibliography for those interested in further reading material.

This 28-page pamphlet is from our very own Kate Sharpley Library

Power Trip (2003)

 “Let’s go smash everything.”

Picture this:

In 1998, the American corporation, AES purchased Telasi, a previously state run electricity-distribution company in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.

Here are some numbers to stew over:
When AES acquired Telasi, the average electricity bill in Tibilisi, Georgia was $24 a month. Wages on average ran somewhere between $15-$75 a month. Do you see the basic problem here?

Under Telasi ownership, electricity in Georgia was free. Once AES took over the operation of distributing electricity, only 10% of the customers paid their bills. Meanwhile AES lost $120,000 a day. Obviously this situation could not last long, and what took place in Georgia is the subject of this fascinating documentary by Paul Devlin.

With outraged customers unable to pay their bills, the army becoming deadbeat customers, businesses getting enormous amounts of electricity ‘free’ thanks to cronyism, and with gangs and politicians muscling their way into the explosive mix, “Power Trip” is an entertaining examination of just what happens when an American corporation tries to run an electricity company in Georgia. And in the meanwhile, we get a good look at Georgia itself–a country fraught with civil unrest, and partially constructed buildings left by the exiting Russians–buildings that are now full of illegal hookups and rigged meters. Just as things look difficult for the population and the AES employees who are trying to wrest money for their services, things get even tougher when the long Georgian winter sets in, and a power deficit begins.

Power Trip explains the system of electricity distribution in Georgia, and this helps in understanding the various levels of corruption. And the film examines all sides of the issue by including interviews from outraged customers, crafty politicians, employees and management. By the time this lively documentary concludes, one cannot help but wonder whether AES did their sums before launching off into this highly risky venture.

Pie Any Means Necessary: The Biotic Baking Brigade

 “Under fire from all sides.”

Thanks to reading Pie Any Means Necessary: The Biotic Baking Brigade, I am now informed with the facts behind the Global Pastry Uprising (GPU). The uprising–which is a movement rather than a specific group–”has its roots in the belief that our planet is not dying, it is being killed.” Various activists–some organized and some acting individually, utilise pie-throwing as a form of social protest. Pie-tossing is “just one tool in a large toolbox of resistance to the dominant paradigm.” And this form of social protest is definitely on the rise. Believing that powerful figures prize their public image, the protestors seek to damage the image and make their point by pie tossing.

This entertaining book is written with tongue-in cheek humour, but nonetheless, the facts are here. The inside covers of the book detail the names of those who’ve been “tried and pied,” and along with the name of the recipient is also the name of the person or organization responsible for the pie-tossing. I was amazed by the sheer numbers here–politicians, CEOs, writers, philosophers & monarchs–have all been tried and pied by a variety of organisations. And the lists of the pie-tossers are also amazing. There’s: Humps not Dumps (a dozen women on camelback with pies), the Biotic Baking Brigade (the BBB-authors of this book), the Groucho Marxists, the Cherry Pie 3, Patisserie Brigade Internationale, the Salmon Souffle Society, and the Pieman (just to mention a few). PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of animals) has also tossed a few pies.

One hilarious chapter, “Cream and Punishment” is given to the pie-tossings of Georges Le Gloupier. In real life, he’s Noel Godin, the author of several books including The Anthology of Subversion. His targets have included Marguerite Duras and Jean-Luc Godard. Godin (Georges Le Gloupier is his pie-tossing name) describes his numerous pie encounters with Bernard-Henri Levy, a philosopher. Godin offers a unique analysis of pie-tossing. It “offers a stark revelation of a victim’s true character,” and Godin describes Godard’s reaction and compares it to Levy’s. Another chapter examines the phenomenon of “Food Throwing as a Political Act.” Other chapters explore Guerrilla Media and Culture Jamming.

Pie Any Means Necessary traces the noble history of pie-tossing when it became an “expression of political discontent in the late 60s and early 70s.” Aron Kay (The Pieman) lobbed pies at Phyllis Schlafly, and G. Gordon Liddy, amongst (many) others. The book also details the BBB’s recent Operation “Shock and Awe” (the pieing of a reporter for her coverage of war protestors in San Francisco), and Operation Free Willie, which targeted mayor Willie Brown in 1999 and resulted in jail sentences for the Cherry Pie 3.

The book includes comments from many Biotic Baking Brigade agents–Agent Lemon Meringue, Agent Cherry Rhubarb Tart, and Agent Custard offer hints for the successful pie-tosser– including clothes to wear, how to escape, the angle at which to toss a pie, etc. The book also includes recipes for pies, and the authors stress that the successful pie tossers are “strictly forbidden” from responding physically to attacks against them after the pies hit the target. The book includes several pages of links and resources (including web addresses of sites that show videos of pie-tossings). The book also covers the famous Tesco supermarket trials in England in which the Tesco supermarket chain staged a huge pie-tossing event in order to establish which pies were the best to throw.

The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)

“If they bring their savagery over here, we will meet it with a savagery of our own.”

A war of occupation is a peculiar thing. It’s a war that has no defined battle lines, and there’s a good chance that most of the native combatants will be civilians. This inevitably brings reprisals down upon the heads of the noncombatant civilian population. Also since there’s nowhere safe to escape to (you can’t really go behind battle lines since there aren’t any), it’s virtually impossible to stay neutral or uninvolved. In a war of occupation, sooner or later you are going to lose someone you care about, and then you’re sucked into the vortex of violence whether you like it or not.

Director Ken Loach’s film The Wind that Shakes the Barley does a marvelous job of showing the devastating fallout of the British occupation of Ireland through the story of two brothers. The film is set during one of the two periods in Irish history known as the so-called ‘Troubles’ (1919-1921). ‘Troubles’ seems like a fairly innocuous label to stick on these turbulent, bloody times, but perhaps that was the point. In 1912, Britain promised Home Rule to Ireland, but this was delayed with the advent of WWI. The failed Easter Rebellion of 1916 helped create support for Sinn Fein, and resistance to the British occupation was growing.

Damien (Cillian Murphy) sees the occupation as something that has little to do with him or his intention to become a doctor. Damien’s brother, Teddy (Padriac Delaney), on the other hand, is passionately devoted to ending the British occupation of Ireland. The two brothers don’t see eye-to-eye on the subject, and while Teddy thinks that Damian should stay and fight, Damian sees medicine as a priority.

Damian’s stance of non-involvement comes to a crushing halt one afternoon. He plays a game of curling with some friends. A group of British soldiers arrive, and using the excuse that the game constitutes an illegal gathering, the soldiers proceed to brutalize the locals and murder of one of Damien’s friends. This incident causes a moral shift in Damian, and fueled by a desire for justice and freedom from the yoke of the British, Damian joins the IRA. The film follows the situations Damien is forced to confront–betrayal by comrades, the difficulty of sustaining a relationship, the abandonment of comrades, and finally a split with his brother over the issue of the 1921 Truce ordered by the First Dail (the Irish parliament established in 1919 and dissolved in 1921 during the truce). Damian rejects the order to give up arms and refuses the truce as a betrayal, telling his brother “This treaty makes you a servant of the British Empire.”

The film’s portrayal of the British soldiers is not flattering, and director Ken Loach (who also made the marvelous mostly-forgotten film about the Spanish Revolution “Land and Freedom”) came under a great deal of fire for making this film. The film’s commentary (an extra feature on the DVD) includes an explanation that the British Black and Tans were hardened soldiers who’d served in WWI (whereas the Irish were not subject to conscription for WWI). This intense story carries a sense of dreadful sense of fatalism that grows as the film continues, and this makes for a grueling experience at times. Based on real events, some brutal scenes include beatings, torture and executions. And in a history-repeats-itself way, it’s impossible to watch this film and not draw comparisons to the current debacle in Iraq.

Distorted Morality: America’s War on Terror

 “America’s War on Terror.”

In a speech given at Harvard University on February 2002, Noam Chomsky argues that “we are all total hypocrites on any issue relating to terrorism.” Chomsky quotes a definition of terrorism from a 1984 army manual. The definition states that terrorism is a “calculated use of violence or the threat of violence to advance political, religious or ideological goals.” Chomsky discusses Reagan’s 1981 declaration of “War on Terror” and America’s covert operations and involvement in the politics of many other countries–including El Salvador, Nicaragua, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. Identifying the 80s as the era of state-supported terrorism, he cites the worst examples of terrorism (in terms of the numbers of injuries and deaths) in the year 1985, and America’s involvement in each one. Just as Iraq posed a threat to the U.S. with its Weapons of Mass Destruction, Nicaragua also presented a ‘national threat’ in the 80s. Hmmm … is there a pattern here?

Citing American actions in both Latin America and the Middle East, Chomsky offers example after example of instances in which America committed money and men towards “pre-emptive” action and “soft targets.” Chomsky also cites pivotal incidents of America vetoing or abstaining from key votes at the UN Security Council–particularly pertaining to Israel and Palestine. At one point, the U.S even abstained from voting on a measure that would have applied the Geneva Conventions to the occupied territories of Palestine. Chomsky’s point is that America’s War on Terror is hypocritical, and that the U.S is just as guilty of terrorism as other, much smaller and less powerful nations.

“Distorted Morality” really has the presentation of a lecture. Chomsky is a linguistics professor, and this shows. Chomsky is not an exhilarating speaker, but his speech carries a great deal of personal conviction. He sometimes waffles, doesn’t finish sentences, and corrects himself. While Chomsky attempts to inject some degree of sarcastic humour into his lecture, it remains rather dry. I had the distinct feeling I should be taking notes throughout. It is also assumed that his audience has at least some groundwork in the topics under discussion. Finally, for those (like me) who have a problem with this whole ‘War on Terror’ idea, Chomsky will provide some interesting food for thought. You’d think the fact that the U.S. provided Saddam Hussein with advanced weaponry and chemicals in the 80s would give the average person at least some pause about the current ‘War on Terror’ within Iraq.

Nihilist Girl By Sofya Kovalevskaya

“My fervent wish is to be of use to the cause.”

The novel Nihilist Girl by Sofya Kovalevskaya explores the breakdown of 19th century Russia societal structure through the life of Vera Barantsova. The Barantsova family is notorious for possessing “ardor and unbridled desires”–traits that would have led to ruination were it not for the intervention of “imperial grace” in the form of “new splendid estates” granted to replace those lost or gambled away. Count and Countess Barantsova retire to their country estate following a scandalous duel, and they plan to raise their three daughters in luxury with the idea that each girl will receive a portion of the estate as a dowry. Unfortunately, the Barantsovas have no idea about money management, and in the country “they continued with their free and merry ways”–wasting money while they lived like kings in an attempt to ‘elevate’ their provincial status by indulging in “refined and varied frills imported from the capital.”

The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 destroys the future of the Barantsova daughters, and the family can no longer maintain a system built on free labor. The Count who once abdicated from his financial responsibilities is now forced to face the painful truth, and this time no new estates or fortunes are sent his way. The serf system has yet to be replaced with something else, and in the meantime, the fortunes of the Barantsovas are in freefall.

Vera, the youngest of the three daughters is the one most profoundly affected by the changes taking place in Russia. While the Count and Countess hope that a stray dragoon will come along and propose, Vera is caught up in the idea of martyrdom to some great cause. Set adrift with no moral code to cling to, she dreams of China and obscure missionary work. But martyrdom proves to be much more accessible when a long-absent neighbour, Vasiltsev arrives. Vasiltsev, a subversive, has lost his position at Saint Petersburg University due to his radical notions of returning the land to the peasants. Viewed as a class traitor, Vasiltsev is under house arrest pending the Tsar’s further pleasure.

The youthful Vera is profoundly influenced by the aging Nihilist Vasiltsev, and she no longer looks to correct social injustice in China after becoming aware of the revolutionary turmoil in her own country. She longs to sacrifice herself to ‘the cause’ and just how she achieves this and whether or not it’s the right thing to do is the heart of this quiet, moving novel.

Nihilist Girl is a seemingly simple novel that tackles complex, abstract ideas. Vera is a symptom of her troubled age, and the scenes describing the shifting loyalties and behaviour of the serfs towards their former ‘masters’ are incredible. The MLA edition contains an introduction about the author Sofya Kovalevskaya, the first European woman to receive a doctorate in mathematics. Written in 1890-91, Nihilist Girl is Kovalevskaya’s only completed novel.

Terrorstorm: A History of Government Sponsored Terrorism (2006)

 “I think people should give up their liberty for freedom.”

In the documentary Terrorstorm: A History of Government Sponsored Terrorism filmmaker Alex Jones first presents an overview of government-sponsored terrorist events, and then posing the question “Was 9-11 an inside job?” Jones tackles the facts behind 9-11 and the 7-7-05 bombings in London.

Government “False Flag Operations” are, argues the film, “covert operations” conducted by “governments or corporations” that are by their nature “designed to appear” as though they were “carried out by others.” In other words, terror attacks are “staged” and then conveniently blamed on political enemies. Jones offers the viewer several well-known and not-so-well-known examples of False Flag Operations–the Reichstag fire, the Gleiwitz Incident, Operation Gladio, the Gulf of Tonkin Operation, and the sinking of the U.S.S Liberty. While the first two incidents were used as a pretext to war, Operation Gladio was an ongoing set of staged actions–terrorist events supposedly committed by Leftists–that created a Strategy of Tension within Italy. Information later revealed that the series of terrorist events in which innocent civilians were specifically targeted were staged by right wing elements of the government and the CIA.

From the overview of various False Flag Operations Jones leads to 9-11 and the London bombing of 7-7-05. In the London incident, Jones points out that drills were being conducted in London that day that pinpointed the same underground train stations as those ultimately attacked in the bombings. By an amazing coincidence, Norad was also conducting drills staging attacks on the day of the 9-11 attack. Jones argues that these drills were more than just coincidence, but were in fact designed to confuse and distract, and that “9-11 gave a pretext for a preconceived plan.”

Jones argues that the terrorist attacks of 9-11 and 7-7 are both False Flag Operations designed to strip citizens of their liberties while pursuing an imperialist global agenda. He boldly demonstrates the speed with which surveillance helicopters begin monitoring his activities when he takes a blow horn to Parliament (and this was, incidentally before the enactment of the recent Draconian laws that included forbidding any ‘free’ speech within the half-mile “Exclusion Zone” around parliament).

With Black Ops, double agents, recently declassified CIA documents, the murder of Brazilian Charles de Menzes, and Operation Northwoods, Terrorstorm includes an amazing amount of information–information that is deeply unsettling. The film points out that the leaked “White House Memo” shows that neither Bush nor Blair had much of a moral problem when it came to implementing a False Flag operation involving US planes painted in UN colours as the bait to lure Saddam into war. Jones also provides the background information on exactly why two SAS officers (dressed as arabs and carrying explosives) were arrested in September 2005 in Basra and thrown in an Iraqi jail. When the British army subsequently attacked the Iraqi police station to free their SAS men, it was obvious that there was a lot more to the story than we were being told. The film fills in the blanks with the details revealed in the British press, and it’s more than ugly.

Jones, who runs two websites, prisonplanet and infowars, is bold, unrelenting and fervent in his view that the so-called ‘War on Terror’ is just a way for governments–”our parasitic masters” to enact legislation that controls, manipulates and spies on people. The film includes interviews with former MI5 operatives, a former CIA analyst, Michael Meacher, physics professor Dr. Steven Jones, and Britain’s Brian Haw. It’s clear that Alex Jones is passionate about his subject, and the film’s narration echoes with chilling–and appropriate–quotes from Orwell’s 1984.

German Guerilla: Terror, Reaction, and Resistance by Jean-Marcel Bougereau

“The relation between the ends and the means employed becomes insane.”

The book, The German Guerrilla: Terror, Reaction and Resistance written by Jean-Marcel Bougereau and translated by Peter Silcock is a compilation and essays and interviews on the subject of German guerrillas. The book is for anyone interested in the Red Army Faction, urban guerrillas, and/or revolutionary ethics. Contents include:
Preface
Introduction
An Interview with Hans Joachim Klein
Postscript: Political Violence and Liberty
The Moabit Gang of Four
The Berlin Indomitables
Background to the Left German Guerrilla
RAF Philosophy

The story of Hans-Joachim Klein is fascinating. In 1975, Klein was one of a group of Guerrillas who stormed the OPEC headquarters in Vienna. The aim of the commando was to force the OPEC ministers to make declarations of support for the Palestinian cause, and as part of this raid, two ministers–Amouzegar from Iran, and Yamini from Saudi Arabia were targeted for death. The mission resulted in three murders, and Klein was seriously wounded. The hostages–along with Klein were flown to Algeria. Here, Klein recuperated and began to have serious misgivings about his actions.

In the interview Klein admits it was no simple matter to break from his undergound life and his relationship with ‘Carlos.’ According to Klein, he and some of his comrades were pawns of much larger, darker forces, and he came to realize this following Entebbe and after discovering that the guerrilla group received 5 million for placing a suitcase of explosives on a plane. He eventually managed to break free and then began an underground life on the run hiding from both the police and his former comrades. Klein explains why he wrote a letter to Spiegel in which he blew several upcoming commandos that targeted individuals for assassination. He acknowledges that “if you stay with the guerrillas for a long time, then sooner or later, you throw things overboard….from your humanity to your political ideals.”

In the interview Klein also offers contrasts between the three major German revolutionary groups: RAF (Red Army Faction), the June 2nd Movement, and the Revolutionary Cells (Revolutionare Zellen) and explains his evolution from a dissident to a gun-wielding guerrilla. The author includes a good analysis of a “clandestine existence” and concludes that such an existence has an “appalling effect.” He argues in a life cut off from reality, and with a loss of personal identity, the armed revolutionary is caught in an “incestuous circuit of ideas” and that such a dangerous existence inevitably alters “values and moral judgements.”

The book also includes a 27-item questionnaire titled “The Berlin Indomitables” written by the Moabit Gang of Four (Ralf Reinders, Gerald Klopper, Ronald Fritzch, and Fritz Teufel)–members of the June 2nd Movement. Stern, who intended to publish an interview with the Moabit Gang of Four, originally sent this questionnaire, but when the questionnaire was seized as evidence in court, the interview was never published.

Other sections of the book include the “Background to the Left German Guerrilla” and a statement taken from an RAF pamphlet. The latter includes details that question the alleged suicides of Andreas Baader, Jan Carl Raspe, and Gudrun Ensslin that occurred on October 18, 1977 in Stammheim Prison. The authors argue that these members of the RAF were, in fact, murdered by the state.

The book’s fascinating postscript “Political Violence and Liberty” offers a discussion analyzing political violence and its “three main areas of motive or source”: state terrorism, revolutionary terrorism, and violent political reaction. The author, arguing “actions and morality are indivisible,” advocates establishing the groundwork for a “viable alternative society” before attempting to dismantle the old, established order.

Strike (2006)

“Should the union president report me to the authorities?”

Strike is a fictionalized account of the contribution of one woman to the Polish Solidarity movement. When the film begins, it’s the 60s, and Agnieszka (Katharina Thalbach) works nights at the local Lenin shipyard to support herself and her small son. They live in a tiny cramped apartment, and life is a struggle. Agnieszka is a “heroine of labour” well respected by her fellow workmates and the bosses alike. When the film begins, she receives an award for exceeding work goals. The reward is a small television set, which she lugs home and turns on to the delight of her son and her neighbours.

While Agnieszka is obviously a hard worker, the first indication that she’s also a freethinker occurs early in the film when the workers ask for a longer lunch break. The 30 minutes they are given isn’t long enough to make it to the canteen and back, but the bosses egregiously refuse the request for a longer break. At this point, Agnieszka steps up and organizes lunch for her fellow workers at the site so that everyone can eat. Seems reasonable enough, but this action irks the bosses and the lunch period is reluctantly extended.

Agnieszka is illiterate when the film begins, but as the film progresses, she learns to read in order to become a crane operator. This new position will allow her to work days and help with the care of her son. As a crane operator, she must work all day long without coming down from her crane, and this means she will have to urinate in a bottle inside the crane. She accepts all of this very matter-of-factly and without complaint. Much of the film concentrates on the horrendous working conditions at the shipyard (”They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work”). Sloppy conditions combined with killer days and unattainable work goals lead to a horrendous accident in which many workers are killed. When the company rules that the workers were at fault, and uses this as an excuse to refuse to pay pensions (an action approved by the “so-called union”), Agnieszka goes to war against the bosses.

Strike does a good job of showing that the union bosses are in bed with the communist party. Union officials are not there to improve working conditions. Instead they concentrate on feathering their own nests while ensuring the passive cooperation of the workers. Agnieszka is portrayed as a remarkable, tenacious woman who refuses to bow to any ‘authority’ no matter the cost. The character of Agnieszka is based on the real life Anna Walentynowicz. Lech Walesa (Andrzej Chyra) appears here, but he’s shown to play a fairly minor role compared to Agnieszka. A few years after the formation of Solidarity, Anna Walentynowicz, critical of Walesa’s policies, left the Solidarity movement. The film hints at this, but does not explore this issue. In Polish with subtitles, Strike is from German director Volker Schlondorff.

The Iron Column: Testament of a Revolutionary by Elias Manzanera

 “We know the drawbacks to militarism.”

In the 36 page pamphlet The Iron Column: Testament of a Revolutionary author Elias Manzanera recalls the historic significance of the “famous (or notorious) anarchist militia unit”–the Iron Column. Manzanera fought in the Iron Column, and in this pamphlet, translated by Paul Sharkey, he dispels some of the propaganda that remains about the Spanish Civil War–and the Iron Column in particular.

Manzanera begins his reminiscences with a return journey to Valencia in 1979, and travels back to locations that evoke powerful memories of his youth and of the war. From this point, he recalls the Iron Column–its role in the Spanish Civil War, its fighters (”they were all members of the CNT, the FAI, and the FIJL”) and specifically lists certain members of the column, their deeds, and their tragically violent fates.

Manzanera describes The Battle of Sarrion and the stand taken in Puerto de Escandon. Eventually the Republican government ordered the militarization of all units into Brigades and Army Corps, and announced they would no longer tolerate the column’s anti-militaristic position. Supplies–including ammunition–were cut in an organized attempt by the government to bring the column and its anarchist revolutionary fighters to their knees. Ultimately, the “quintessentially anarchist and revolutionary Iron Column refused militarism, its view being that this was a counter revolutionary ploy designed to reduce an entire people to slavery again.” As a result, the Iron Column was disbanded and replaced by the 82nd Mixed Brigade.

From our very own Kate Sharpley Library