(en) Anarkismo.net: Australia, Melbourne, Global Fire by MACG - Anarchist Affinity

South African author Michael Schmidt on the global impact of revolutionary anarchism
Join us for an exploration of the global history and impact of anarchist and syndicalist 
ideas and strategies with international author Michael Schmidt! ---- Wednesday, March 19, 
2014 6.30pm ---- Michael Schmidt is an investigative journalist, an anarchist theorist and 
a radical historian based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has been an active participant 
in the international anarchist milieu, including the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front 
(http://zabalaza.net/). His major works include ?Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism 
(2013, AK Press) and, with Lucien van der Walt, ?Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class 
Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism? (2009, AK Press). The sequel to Black Flame,
'Global Fire: 150 Fighting Years of International Anarchism and Syndicalism', will be 
released by AK Press in 2015.

LOCATION: Meeting Room 1, Victorian Trades Hall, 54 Victoria St, Carlton, Melbourne.

An intro to the talk:

?Revolutionary anarchism gained a foothold in the daily lives of the popular classes 15 
decades ago in the heart of the industrialised world ? but also, crucially, in the 
colonial and post-colonial worlds where it offered the oppressed a practical set of tools 
with which they could challenge the tiny, heavily armed, parasitic elites. Anarchism 
provided the most devastating and comprehensive critique of capitalism, landlordism, the 
state, and power relations in general, whether based on gender, race, or other forms of 
oppression and exploitation. But it went far beyond that: African historian Michael
Schmidt examines the anarchist practice of running cities in Spain during the Cantonalist 
Revolt of 1873-1874, their control of the city of Guangzhou in China over 1921-1923, of 
the two-million-strong Shinmin free zone in Manchuria of 1929-1931, the 
anarchist-influenced free zone in Nicaragua in 1927-1933, the better-known territorial 
control exercised in parts of Mexico, Ukraine, and Spain, and their involvement in the 
Iranian Revolution of 1978. These and other examples show that far from eschewing the 
exercise of power, anarchists actively decentralised power into the hands of the popular 
classes, a ?counter-power? enlivened by working class counter-culture.?
There will be a Q&A and facilitated discussion after the talk.

This event is a joint initiative of Anarchist Affinity and the Melbourne Anarchist 
Communist Group.

For more information about Anarchist Affinity check out our website 
http://anarchistaffinity.org
or our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/AnarchistAffinity

For more information about the Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group check out: 
http://melbacg.wordpress.com