REVIEWS
We present summaries of three new excellent value pamphlets from Kate Sharpley Library all priced £3, plus one of their slightly older pamphlets.
1) Konstantinos Speras: the life and activities of a Greek anarcho-syndicalist
2) With the poor people of the earth: a biography of Doctor John Creaghe of Sheffield & Buenos Aires
3) Santos - the Barcelona of Brazil: Anarchism and class struggle in a port city
4) Against all tyranny! Essays on anarchism in Brazil
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You can order KSL publications through http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net
or by post to Kate Sharpley Library, BM Hurricane, LONDON WC1N 3XX.
Add 10% for postage (inland) or 20% (overseas). Cheques (in Sterling) payable to the Kate Sharpley Library. See website for orders outside Europe, and to see how to become a KSL subscriber and get further discounts.
Konstantinos Speras: the life and activities of a Greek anarcho-syndicalist, by Leonardos Kottis. 10 pages. 2006.
Konstantinos Speras (1893-1943) was born on the Greek island of Serifos. Whilst working in Egypt as a tobacco worker, he came into contact with anarchists, who were mostly Greek and Italian immigrants. On his return to Greece he became extremely active organizing amongst the workers. He took part in the big tobacco workers strike in Kavala in 1914, and was imprisoned for his activities.
He returned to his home island and supported the miners strike there in 1916. There was bloody repression and four miners were killed by the police. He was again imprisoned in the aftermath, writing a pamphlet on the strike whilst in jail. He advanced anarchosyndicalist ideas in the unions, calling for independence from political parties. Like many anarchists of the period around the world, taken in by Lenin’s ‘libertarian rhetoric’ and the seeming triumph of the working class with the Russian Revolution, he joined the emerging Communist Party (then called the Socialist Workers Party). He was soon expelled as an “anti-party element” in 1920. The Communists also attempted to expel him from the unions, but failed.
In 1921 Speras was again imprisoned after the tram workers strike. Communist persecution of him continued and he found it difficult to get a job because of this. In the end they succeeded in expelling him from his union in 1926. He continued supporting strikes in the 30s, and wrote a History of the Working Class Movement, which was never published and has now vanished. He was arrested, imprisoned or sent into exile 109 times! His last spell in prison was during the Metaxas dictatorship when he was sent to the island of Skopelos. He was released half-dead in 1940, but fortunately was saved by a doctor who treated him free.
In 1943 Captain Orestis, one of the leaders of ELAS, the Communist guerilla front, called him to a meeting outside of Athens. He was beheaded and his remains scattered. He was one of dozens of Trotskyists, anarchists and left communists murdered by the Communist Party. This pamphlet tells his story, one which deserves to be rescued from obscurity.
With the poor people of the earth: a biography of Doctor John Creaghe of Sheffield & Buenos Aires, by Alan O’Toole. 32 pages. 2005
This is an an account of the colourful life of the Irish doctor John Creaghe (1841-1920). He emigrated in the mid-1860s to the United States and from there to Argentina in 1874. He was destined for a brilliant career. However, the grinding poverty he saw in Argentina brought him round to to a radical outlook. The Italian anarchist Malatesta, who was then living in Argentina, was involved in organising amongst workers and Creaghe became involved in this himself.
In 1890 Creaghe moved to England and settled in Sheffield. Here he got in touch with the anarchists. His first public appearance in that city was his fiery speech at a public meeting held to commemorate the deaths of the Chicago anarchist martyrs. Creaghe earned his living as a “sixpenny doctor” administering to the poor . He also engaged in a series of rent strikes. He founded the paper The Sheffield Anarchist which had quite an influence on the Sheffield scene.
By now Creaghe had given up any hope of a revolutionary situation in Britain in the short term and he returned to Argentina in 1894. Here he brought out another anarchist paper, the monthly El Oprimo (The Oppression). Later he was involved in the setting up of the FORA (Federación Obrera Regional Argentina), a mass workers organization with an anarchist-communist line. Creaghe had a key role in the emergence and continuation of the anarchist paper La Protesta which had a distinguished role in Argentinian history.
In 1911, the developing Mexican revolution led Creaghe to go to Los Angeles, where he joined the editorial board of Regeneracion, the paper of the Mexican anarchists. He visited Mexico on several trips, and brought the attention of Latin American and US anarchists to the Zapata movement in southern Mexico.
Joint repression by the Mexican and US governments came down heavily on Regeneración. Creaghe was involved in a campaign with Emma Goldman to free the leading Mexican anarchist Flores Magón who had been arrested by the US authorities.
Creaghe moved to Washington where he died in poverty in 1920. He had given 30 years to the anarchist movement. Another anarchist veteran, Mat Kavanagh, was to remark: “He was one of those remarkable personalities that Anarchism alone seems able to produce, who, seeking not place or power, live to serve the cause of Human Emancipation”.
Santos - the Barcelona of Brazil: Anarchism and class struggle in a port city, by Edgar Rodrigues. 16 pages. 2005.
In the late 19th and early 20th century the Brazilian town of Santos was a centre of unrest, with many strikes. The first general strike was in 1905 and a number of anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist groups appeared. This proved victorious and Santos began to be called the Brazilian Barcelona because of the strength of the working class movement and the strength of the anarchist movement. This was reinforced by the arrival of anarchist orators and activists of Italian and Spanish origin. Not only did anarchists organize in the workplaces but they set up Social Cultural Centres with well-equipped libraries, amateur drama and music groups, literacy classes, and trades education. They staged revolutionary and anti-clerical plays which spread their idea far and wide.
Vicious repression came during the general strike of 1921. Many strikers were arrested. The anarchist and syndicalist movements bounced back the following year but the foundation of the Brazilian Communist Party caused splits in the movement. The police seized this opportunity to to close down the anarchist groups and Syndicalist organizations. This pamphlet tells a tale of a fascinating period in Brazilian history, full of accounts of extraordinary anarchist personalities.
Against all tyranny! Essays on anarchism in Brazil. Edgar Rodrigues, Renato Ramos and Alexandre Samis. 32 pages. 2003.
Yet another fascinating pamphlet on Brazil from the Kate Sharpley Library, currently out of print but should still be available elsewhere. This is an historical outline of the Brazilian anarchist movement. Many people emigrated to Brazil from Europe and with them came the anarchist idea. Brazilian - as well as Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Russian and German - workers contributed to the movement. Among them was the black worker Domingos Passos, nicknamed the Brazilian Bakunin, who perished after being exiled to a jungle area in the late 20s; the German activist Friedrich Kniestedt; and the teacher, writer and poer Maria Lacerda de Moura who looked beyond the winning of female suffrage to real liberation for women.