The Insurrectionary People's Picture Show Theater

Jesse Hirsh host of 3D Dialogue interviews Rob Shearer a member of the Toronto Catholic Worker community.

The Catholic Worker Movement, first founded in the US in 1933, believes in absolute harmony and a personal responsibility for helping the poor... as the website states, the movement believes "in the God-given dignity of every human person". Today, there are over 185 Catholic Worker communities worldwide that remain committed to non-violence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the homeless...

This would be a Turn of the contrary Jewish version of "Fuck Da Police"!

Anarchism has historically gained the most support and influence in Spain, especially in the seventy or so years before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. Here is the history of the Spanish anarchist movement from the words of those who where involved.

The Russian Revolution and Civil War were major watersheds of the 20th Century. Now, for the first time, the story of this bloodsoaked time is being told in full color. New footage from the battlefields, expert testimonies, and exciting colorized archives help to unfold the dramatic story of the Communist rise and seizure of power in 1917.

This powerful two-part series argues that the Russian Revolution was not so much perverted by Stalin, as it was rotten from the start. This was no idealistic uprising of the masses, but a brutal coup d’etat carried out by a handful of megalomaniacs. Almost overnight an entire society was destroyed and replaced with one of the biggest and most radical social experiments ever seen. Within a generation, millions would be killed and almost 1/3 of the world’s population would be living in the shadow of communism.

The film focuses on the sailors from the island naval base of Kronstadt, who took up the revolutionary cause with bloody enthusiasm in 1917 only to have their dreams shattered when Lenin creates a brutal police state. The sailors denounce their former ally and face the Red Army in a final desperate battle. Much of the history relating to the role of these sailors has been recently unearthed and is told here on film for the first time.

Here is an interesting piece of anarchist media history:

Lucifer the Lightbearer was an individualist-anarchist journal published by Moses Harman in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Originally produced by a local branch of the National Liberal League as the Valley Falls Liberal (1880-1883), Harman changed the title after he assumed sole editorship in 1883.

The mission of Lucifer was, according to Harman, "to help woman to break the chains that for ages have bound her to the rack of man-made law, spiritual, economic, industrial, social and especially sexual, believing that until woman is roused to a sense of her own responsibility on all lines of human endeavor, and especially on lines of her special field, that of reproduction of the race, there will be little if any real advancement toward a higher and truer civilization." The name was chosen because "Lucifer, the ancient name of the Morning Star, now called Venus, seems to us unsurpassed as a cognomen for a journal whose mission is to bring light to the dwellers in darkness."

Lucifer the Light Bearer Archive

Lessons from the Spanish Civil War. Anarchism is the only hope that the working class have to improve their life and stop the exploitation. We, the Anarchists, follow this Bakinin statement: "The power pervert the man!" During the Spanish Civil War I witnessed how well organized the Anarchist Unions (Sindicados) were in Catalunya and Aragon. It's not a myth anymore. I am in close contact with the Spanish "companeros" and I see how the working class is protected against the exploitation. We need to restore the workers pride and dignity, they should join us, the Anarchists, because the capitalists will never give them a chance to improve their lives; on the contrary, they use the cheaper workers overseas. We the Anarchists are the only hope of the proletariat and day by day we are growing and become important in our class struggle. George Sossenko is an 88-year old veteran of the Spanish Civil War. At the age of 16, he left his home in France to fight against Franco's fascists with the anarchists of the Durruti column. A dedicated, life-long anarchist, George is still an active organizer as he traveels and gives lectures on this important period in revolutionary history. Filmed at the New York City Anarchist Bookfair in May 2008 by David Buccola

Romance! Prostitutes! Anarchists!

Love and Anarchy (Italian: Film d'amore e d'anarchia) is a 1973 film directed by Lina Wertmüller and starring Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. The story, set in Fascist Italy before the outbreak of World War II, centers on Giannini's character, an anarchist who stays in a brothel while preparing to kill Benito Mussolini. Giannini's character, while preparing to assassinate Mussolini, falls in love with one of the whores working in the brothel. This film explores the depths of his emotions concerning love, his hate for fascism, and his fears of being killed while assassinating Mussolini.

This organic grocery store in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada is a thriving business with no bosses at all! Find out what they like about being a worker co-op and how the joys and sacrifices make every day worthwhile.

Thanks to Heather H for this.

This film, shot by 100 amateur camera operators, tells the story of the enormous street protests in Seattle, Washington in November 1999, against the World Trade Organization summit being held there. Vowing to oppose, among other faults, the WTO's power to arbitrally overrule nations' environmental, social and labour policies in favour of unbridled corporate greed, protestors from all around came out in force to make their views known and stop the summit. Against them is a brutal police force and a hostile media as well as the stain of a minority of destructively overzealous comrades. Against all odds, the protesters bravely faced fierce opposition to take back the rightful democratic power that the political and corporate elite of the world is determined to deny the little people.

Hat-tip to Roig i Negre Videos for this.

The S.U.F. is Swedish Anarcho-syndicalist Youth Federation, (in Swedish, Syndikalistiska Ungdomsförbundet) is a youth-based group in Sweden that supports anarcho-syndicalism.

Inspiration also came from the anarcho-syndicalist union Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (or the S.A.C.). From just three groups in 1993 it grew rapidly and today it is a nation-wide federation made up of around 25 local groups throughout the entire country, and several committees active within the federation. They publish a magazine called Direkt Aktion and a monthly internal paper called Storm.

Here is a video of the S.U.F. from Mayday 2009.

The Freie Arbeiterinnen- und Arbeiter-Union (Free Worker's Union;abbreviated FAU) is an anarcho-syndicalist labor union initiative in Germany. It is the German section of the International Workers Association (IWA-AIT).

The FAU was then founded in 1977 and has grown consistently all through the 1990s. Now, the FAU consists of just under 40 groups, organized locally and by branch of trade. The federal organization exists in order to coordinate campaigns and actions and for communication purposes. There are 250 to 300 members organized in the various groups.

Here is a video from FAU Berlin during Mayday 2009.

Andrew Nellis is an anarcho-syndicalist activist from Ontario. He is one of the lead organizers for the Ottawa Panhandlers Union. Denis Rancourt was a professor of Physics at the University of Ottawa, known for his radical pedagogy. This is a very good interview for Denis Rancourt's radio show The Five O'clock Train. Listen and enjoy!

Andrew Nellis Interviewed by Denis Rancourt for The Five O'clock Train.

The Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists is a 1980 documentary by Steve Fischler and Joel Sucher of Pacific Street Films. It memorializes the story of the Yiddish anarchist newspaper Fraye Arbeter Shtime, and the Jewish anarchist movement of the early 20th century. The movie contained a short interview with a very young Joe Conason. Paul Avrich was a consultant on the film.

As of 2006, AK Press has begun distributing it as part of a double DVD release with Anarchism in America, named after the latter.

A trailer for a video of a play about Emma Goldman by Howard Zinn. In this play, historian and playwright Howard Zinn dramatizes the life of Emma Goldman, the anarchist, feminist and free-spirited thinker who was exiled from the united states because of her outspoken views, including her opposition to World War One.

Hey folks. I just wanted to throw a quick post out there. I have to apologize, I'm not up to my regular schedule. Missed posting a movie on Friday, probably won't post any Emma Goldman this weekend. Grandparents are in town, along with the anarchist book fair, and works hell, so I've had little time to blog. Promise that everything will be back in schedule by next week.

In the mean time, here's Alan Moore talking about his conception of anarchism. Moore's comics like V for Vendetta and The Watchman explore political and anarchist themes. He is definitely one of my favorite comic book writers out there.

The early 20th century saw influx of immigration. One of the largest section of new Americans where Jews, often forced off there historical lands in Russia and the low countries by Czarist progroms. These experiences radicalized these Jewish immigrants. Some, like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, embraced anarchism. These Jewish anarchists started there own Yiddish publications, like Freie Arbeiter Stimme {The Free Voice of Labor) the longest-running anarchist periodical in the Yiddish language, and the American counterpart to Rudolf Rocker's London-based Arbeter Fraynd (Workers' Friend).

Here is a Jewish anarchist song from that time. I don't really know it's name, so if anyone does know, don't be afarid to drop me a line and give me the heads up.

Here's another one I would love with some English subtitles.

Lucio is a spanish documentary about famed anarchist Lucio Urtubia. Lucico carried out bank robberies and forgeries throughout the 1960s and 1970s, his most famous forgery being the forgery of Citibank travellers' checks in 1977. This criminal undertaking included 8,000 copies of 25 checks worth 100 dollars each and damaged the bank so severely that its stock price fell. The stolen money was used, as always, in the aid of guerrilla movements in Latin America (Tupamaros, Montoneros, etc) and Europe. In spite of the specularity of the forgery, Urtubia was only sentenced to 6 months in jail thanks to an extra-judicial agreement with Citibank, which dropped the charges in exchange for Urtubia's printing plates. All the time working as a bricklayer in France.

The insurrection that followed the police shooting and death of Alexandros Grigoropoulos is one of the most inspiring turn of events in this decade. That tragedy ripped open the lid of a widespread feeling of frustration in the younger generation festering under the gloss of a failing tourist economy.

The Potentiality of Storming Heaven is a 28 minutes short movie presenting the insurrection of December 2008 in Greece through the words and actions of people that took part in it.

Here is the Italian language version of Fury Over Spain. Produced by the CNT in order to raise western support for the anti-fascist struggle. Directed by American anarchist Louis Frank, who also directed another documentary on the Spanish Revolution called The Will of the People.

This film is a dramatic showing of the reality of the Spanish Civil War and revolution. I would love to post the English language version, so if anyone has it on file, don't be afraid of sending me an email.

I don't know how many folks are out there reading this, but if there is anyone out there reading, I'm asking for a little help.

I am looking for an English language version of Fury Over Spain, directed by an American anarchist named Luis Frank. I can liberate from the internet an Italian language version, but I would prefer to post an English version as well.

If anyone would have a digital copy of an English Fury Over Spain, please send me an email at: transconaslim@hotmail.com.