Connexions Resource Centre
Radical and Left History

Recent & Selected Articles

This is a small sampling of articles related to education and children in the Connexions Online Library. For more articles, books, films, and other resources, check the Connexions Library Subject Index, especially under topics such as education, children, youth, post-secondary education, film, and schools.

The People's Point of View: The Toronto Workers' History Project (November 26, 2020)
When the IWW Took on the Copper Kings (July 5, 2019)
Review of the movie "Bisbee ‘17" about a strike and subsequent deportation of the workers of an Arizona mining town.
Women in the Black Panther Party (December 1, 2018)
While much that has been written about the Black Panther Party (BPP) is focused on the role of certain prominent male leaders, lesser known is that during peak membership women made up nearly two-thirds of the party. Leela Yellessety spoke to three authors of recent books that highlight the contribution of women in the Black Panther Party.
Miriam Garfinkle 1954 - 2018 (September 16, 2018)
Obituary for Miriam Garfinkle, who died on September 15, 2018.
Lenin and the Bolshevik Party: A revolutionary collective (July 10, 2018)
The Russian Revolution of 1917 clearly reveals the complexities of Bolshevism – Lenin's party – as a revolutionary collective.
Letter to the Editors (July 1, 2018)
Georgakas responds to the book review of Finally Got the News in a previous issue of the journal. He was disheartened that pertinent political and artistic seeds that directly fed that period have been neglected.
Bequests (September 28, 2017)
Many of us have made working for social justice a lifetime commitment. If you are thinking about leaving a legacy for social justice that will live on, you might want to consider leaving a bequest to Connexions in your will.
Could Punching Nazis Have Prevented Hitler From Taking Power (September 8, 2017)
There have been repeated references to how Nazism could have been stopped by street-fighting, with almost no attention paid to the concrete socio-political conditions of Germany between 1920 and 1933. For many of those who think that physical force was the key to stopping Nazism, the viral video of Richard Spencer getting punched in the face was far more important as a guide to action than understanding the tragic history of the German left.
People's History, Memory & Archives (September 7, 2017)
A gateway to resources on people's history and grassroots archives.
The Women of 1917 (May 24, 2017)
Women weren't just the Russian Revolution’s spark, but the motor that drove it forward.
Detroit Radicals' Odessey (May 1, 2017)
Book review of Stephen M. Ward's In Love and Struggle: The Revolutionary Lives of James & Grace Lee Boggs.
How Workers Made May Day Theirs (May 1, 2017)
The extraordinary thing about the evolution of this institution is that it was unintended and unplanned. To this extent it was not so much an ‘invented tradition’ as a suddenly erupting one.
Splendors and Miseries of the Antiracist 'Left' (November 6, 2016)
May '68 Revisited (June 12, 2016)
Mitch Abidor recently spent weeks in France tracking down people who came of age politically in May 1968, to ask them how they viewed that experience, then and now. He went out of his way (with 1–2 exceptions) to talk to people "unknown," in contrast to the "stars" who feature in so many accounts of May. He talked with anarchists, Trotskyists, Stalinists, and even anarchists who had become Stalinists later. We publish this short summary of his results in Insurgent Notes because we like his direct, unvarnished access to participants, while taking our distance from some of his interpretations, which are subject to debate. We (the editors of Insurgent Notes) found Mitch's results sobering, if not downright deflating, because his subjects across the board say that the French working class in May 1968 was not revolutionary.
Marx & Engels papers completely available online (August 11, 2015)
The original papers of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, World Classics, are digitized and now online accessible. The papers can be consulted from anywhere and by anyone who logs into the catalogue website of the International Institute of Social History. Access is open and free.
African-American Self-Defense (January 1, 2015)
A Review of "This Noviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Cvil Rights Movement Possible" by Carles E. Cobb. Jr.
The Birth of a National Anti-Nuclear Movement (May 8, 2014)
“The year 1973 was the worst year for nuclear power,” Bill McGee, a retired nuclear industry spokesman, told us when he agreed to be interviewed for this book. “It’s just astonishing when you look back on it. When we built the Yankee Atomic plant in Rowe, Massachusetts, in 1960, everybody thought it was a great idea. It was there because Senator Jack Kennedy said, ‘Please build it here.’ Presidents, senators, congressmen, local people—all thought it was great. And we built six other plants. New England had, prior to 1972, seven plants making one third of the electricity in New England. And everybody thought it was a great idea. What happened?”
The Cochabamba Water War of 2000 in 2014 (April 9, 2014)
Today's betrayers will not erase our memory: Fourteen years ago we won, today it seems like we lost, but we have to rise again to win, and we already know how to do it. From April 4 to 14 in the year 2000 the so-called "Final Battle" was waged in Cochabamba, Bolivia to prevent the privatization of our water. It was part of a strategy designed by the people of Cochabamba in the "Water War" that started on November 12, 1999. Today, after fourteen years of this historic struggle, the people's demands are still the same: democracy, transparency, participation and an economic model that allows us all to enjoy the riches that our Mother Earth generously provides for the benefit of all.
"You Can't Kill a Revolution" (January 1, 2014)
A book review of Bloom and Martin's "Black Against Empire" and a look at the interpersonal relationships between the members of the Black Panther Party that allowed the group to gain support.
Activist archiving in Toronto (November 28, 2013)
People gather in Toronto to discuss what many hope will grow into a movement for archiving grassroots histories.
May 5, 1818: Birth of Karl Marx (May 5, 2013)
Marx breathes dialectics and revolution. For Marx, radicalism means going to the root, and Marx's radicalism seeks to go to the root of capitalism, to comprehend its essence dialectically, to understand its inherent contradictions - and the seeds of revolution it contains.
The Case for Grassroots Archives (May 2, 2013)
Grassroots archives play a valuable role in what has been called "the battle of memory". People's history projects such as grassroots archives preserve and share stories of resistance, hidden histories, and alternative visions.
Seeds of Fire (March 7, 2013)
Recalling events that happened on this day in history. Memories of struggle, resistance and persistence.
Connexions: Perserving and Sharing People's History (February 28, 2013)
A short overview of the Connexions project, including a statement of The Case for Grassroots Archives and the Connexions statement of values.
Archiving With May Day Rooms (February 1, 2013)
In our day, as the traces of our radical movements are being thrown into rubbish pits, as state sponsored “austerity” demands the commodification of every inch of space, and with sinister intent destroys the evidence of our past, its joys, its victories. Clear out the closets, empty the shelves, toss out the old footage, shred the underground press, pulverize the brittle, yellowing documents! Thus neo-liberalism organizes the transition from the old to the new; they must silence alternatives.
Grassroots archive information sheet (November 24, 2012)
Connexions is working on a project to help network grassroots archives and collections of materials about activist and radical history. If you have a collection of social justice materials in your basement/locker, etc., and would like to participate in an exploration of co-operative archiving and/or searching for shared space, please fill out this form and email it to Connexions.
Memory as Resistance: Grassroots Archives and the Battle of Memory (November 2, 2012)
CONNEXIONS and Beit Zatoun are spotlighting grassroots archives this November with an open house and networking event November 24, a talk and discussion November 27, and an exhibit (November 16-27).
Memory as Resistance: Grassroots Archives and the Battle of Memory (October 14, 2012)
CONNEXIONS and Beit Zatoun are spotlighting grassroots archives this November with an open house and networking event November 24, a talk and discussion November 27, and an exhibit (November 16-27). Grassroots archives play a valuable role in what has been called “the battle of memory”. Mainstream media and institutions of power consign inconvenient histories, struggles, and alternative visions to what George Orwell called “the memory hole.” People’s history projects such as grassroots archives preserve and share stories of resistance, hidden histories, and alternative visions. Their role is particularly important as official archives are forced to restrict acquisitions, limit access and discard materials as funding is slashed.
Is that an archive in your basement... or are you just hoarding? (August 31, 2012)
Are you an 'accidental archivist'? Have you been saving the publications and documents produced by the social justice projects you've been involved in? Then Connexions would like to hear from you.
A Marxist History of the World part 90: The Second World War: resistance (August 27, 2012)
Large parts of Occupied Europe were liberated by local resistance movements. But the potential for a revolutionary transformation was smothered at birth.
The rise and fall of the Jewish Labour Bund (June 28, 2012)
The history of the Bund, or Algemeyner Yiddisher Arbeter Bund in Rusland un Poyln (General Jewish Labour Union in Russia and Poland), is one riven with contradictions. It brought together tens of thousands of Jewish workers during its 52 years of existence in struggle against oppression and exploitation.
When Chomsky Wept (June 18, 2012)
A portrait of Noam Chomsky.
A Marxist History of the World part 75: The German Revolution (May 13, 2012)
At the end of the First World War, the epicentre of revolution moved from Petrograd to Berlin. Why did the German communists fail where the Bolsheviks had succeded?
A Marxist History of the World part 72: February to October the rhythms of revolution (April 23, 2012)
The situation of 'dual power' that emerged after the overthrow of the Tsar in February 1917 was marked by a series of major political crises.
A Marxist History of the World part 71: Dual power: the mechanics of revolution (April 15, 2012)
The centuries old Russian monarchy was overthrown in a matter of days in February 1917. Neil Faulkner looks at the months of turmoil that followed.
A Marxist History of the World part 67: Reform or Revolution? (March 19, 2012)
The world Socialist movement was blown apart as its members supported the First World War. Neil Faulkner looks at how the question of reform or revolution lay behind the split.
A Marxist History of the World part 65: The 1905 Revolution: Russia's great dress rehearsal (March 5, 2012)
Neil Faulkner looks at how the Russian Revolution of 1905 helped Leon Trotsky formulate an answer to the century-old riddle of Russian history: what form must the revolution take in order to be victorious.
A Marxist History of the World part 60: The Paris Commune: the face of proletarian revolution (January 30, 2012)
The Franco-Prussian war produced the first proletarian revolution in history, and showed to the world for the first time what a workers’ state looks like.
Cry for "Bread & Roses" Still Resonates (January 11, 2012)
When worker solidarity prevailed over corporate power in the icy streets of Lawrence a century ago, it made the promise of a better life real for many. The Bread and Roses strike became a consciousness-raising experience, not only for textile workers and their families, but the nation as a whole.
The Debate at Halle (January 1, 2012)
There were two defining moments in the history of the international working-class movement in the first half of the 20th century. The first, by far the most discussed and written about for obvious reasons, was the revolution in Russia in October 1917 and its subsequent isolation and defeat. The second was the disaster in the German movement, which had been for half a century the model of a militant, socialist working-class movement, and the subsequent collapse of that movement in the face of Nazism.
A Marxist History of the World part 53: What is Marxism? (November 15, 2011)
In his latest instalment, Neil Faulkner explores the complex history of Marxism - and how capitalism produced its own gravediggers.
Shining a light on the black bloc, part 1: Italian autonomism (November 15, 2011)
The combination of autonomist thuggery and Red Brigade terror had a lot to do with the implosion of the Italian left. While the Italian bourgeoisie was ready to carry out a repression even if the left had been far more intelligently organized, this was no excuse for carrying out tactics calculated to drive the average working class person into the arms of the government in the name of “security”. Revolutionary politics is really a project that is designed to win people to a cause. This involves patient explanation. Once someone develops a revolutionary consciousness, there is little that the state can do to vanquish it. A broken window can easily be replaced, but a revolutionary mind is permanent.
Memories of [my] Syndicalism (November 1, 2011)
A handful of friends, old and new, have asked me about the path that my ideas and activities have taken me, some 50 years after I happened across a civil rights picket line in my hometown of Champaign, Illinois in the summer of 1960. The following is a radical memory unusual in some ways, but with many similarities to the memories of my New Left contemporaries in the outcome.
A Theater for the Poor (November 1, 2011)
Each phase in the nine-year-history of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) now reads like a chapter from a cautionary tale for future generations of young radicals.
Traite du Savoir-Vivre for the Occupy Wall Street Generations (October 8, 2011)
Once upon a time, twenty thousand people descended on Wall Street, the capitol of capital, occupied it nonviolently, and won exactly what they demanded. This is not a fairy tale. It really happened. This is the story of how it happened.
Connexions Archive Case Statement (September 24, 2011)
Working together to secure a future for the past
Remembering the Paris Commune (July 1, 2011)
Marking the anniversary of the revolt that led to the establishment of the world's first workers’ government, the Paris Commune of 1871. The Paris Commune has always had a special place in the hearts and minds of revolutionaries, and can inspire today’s activist generation with the potential for "power to the people."
Defender of the Movement (January 21, 2011)
A profile of the radical lawyer.
Beyond the Fields (2011)
There is a strong historical link between the United Farm Workers in its heyday and myriad forms of progressive activism today. UFW alumni, ideas, and strategies have influenced Latino political empowerment, the immigrant rights movement, union membership growth, and on-going coalitions between labor, community, campus, and religious groups.
The 1960 Sit-ins in Context (July 1, 2010)
The Civil Rights Movement that we associate with the 1960s was the culmination of a vast set of social and economic changes. The tradition of Black struggle itself, going back to the very beginnings of slavery in the New World, was also part of the context for the new movement.
SNCC's 50-Year Legacy (July 1, 2010)
Celebrating SNCC's legacy.
Summit Protests Are Obsolete (June 28, 2010)
I can understand why a lot of folks went to the G20 protests, sincerely wanting to stand up and be counted against savage global capitalism and its consequences. The problem is, almost nobody who didn't participate, especially those who only heard of the protests through the media, has any idea what the protests were about, or why the protesters were there.
SNCC: Same Lesson, 50 Years On (April 15, 2010)
The SNCC lesson is that power yields nothing without demand and the guts to back it up.
SNCC at 50 (April 13, 2010)
The fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is vitally important not just for learning and understanding the past but, more importantly, for imagining and working for a more righteous future.
A Tribute To American People's Historian - Howard Zinn (January 29, 2010)
With the death of Howard Zinn there is no doubt that the anti-war and peace movement in the USA has lost one of its best activists and an honest historian.
Howard Zinn (1922-2010): In Lieu of Flowers, Organize (January 28, 2010)
Where other leftish icons have spent these decades gnashing their teeth, lecturing and bemoaning how awful everything that happens up above has been (as if most folks born down below didn't already know that by the time we were eight), Howard answered the call, again and again, to help us do something about it. He walked out to the picket lines every time he was called - by neighborhood organizers fighting against his university's real estate grabs, by striking workers that cleaned and fed the students and professors, by almost anyone who organized and fought that asked, and often before they asked, for his support.
New Hogtown Press (2010)
New Hogtown Press was a Canadian left-wing publisher active during the 1970s and 1980s.
Social Anarchism, Individualist Anarchism, the State and Leninism (March 12, 2009)
I take it that social or Left-anarchism and libertarian socialism are the same thing. Both stand opposed to Leninism, and both stand opposed to individualist anarchism.
General Perspectives on the Capitalist Development State and Class Struggle in East Asia (2009)
A discussion regarding the rise of the leftist movement in East Asia.
The Legacy of 1968 (September 1, 2008)
In 1989, the world systems theorists Giovanni Arrighi, Terence K. Hopkins and Immanuel Wallerstein wrote the following five short sentences: “There have only been two world revolutions. One took place in 1848. The second took place in 1968. Both were historical failures. Both transformed the world.”
The Russian Revolution in Retreat (September 1, 2008)
The relationship between “Leninism” and Stalinism has been a highly controversial topic between the political left and right as well as within the left itself. The “totalitarian” school of thought, historically associated with the political right and with many liberals, has held that there are no qualitative differences between the two regimes and that the main source of Stalinism was the Bolshevik ideology and politics that existed before the October Revolution.
Remember the '80s (January 4, 2008)
The history of 1980s activism deserves to be remembered and studied by those fighting for change today.It always helps to have a fuller view of the past, to figure out what to keep and what to discard.
Storming Heaven (2008)
The eruptions of 1968 challenged the power structures north and south, east and west. Countries in each continent were infected with the desire for change. Hope reigned supreme.
Militant as Hell on the Waterfront (2007)
New Beginnings looks at the life of workplace militant and writer, Stan Weir.
Workers Power and the Spanish Revolution (2006)
Introduction to the Johnson-Forest Tendency and the Background to 'Facing Reality' (2004)
Didn't See The Same Movie (2003)
The Anti-Colonial Movement in Vietnam (1997)
The Italian Factory Occupations of 1920 (1988)
During the month of September, 1920, a widespread occupation of Italian factories by their workforces took place, which originated in the auto factories, steel mills and machine tool plants of the metal sector but spread out into many other industries: cotton mills and hosiery firms, lignite mines, tire factories, breweries and distilleries, and steamships and warehouses in the port towns. But this was not a sit-down strike; the workers continued production with their own in-plant organization. And railway workers, in open defiance of the management of the state-owned railways, shunted freight cars between the factories to enable production to continue. At its height about 600,000 workers were involved.
From National Bolshevism to Ecologism (March 18, 1980)
National Bolshevism, which made its appearance in the German council movement in 1920, was initially created by two ex-militants of the American I.W.W., who played in Germany the same role as anarcho-syndicalism in Italian fascism, confirming once again that non-Marxist anti-capitalism is a sine qua non in the development of fascism.
Feminism in the Radical and Early Socialist Movement (1975)
There existed a strong minority tradition in radicalism which questioned the whole social and sexual position of women.
Middle-Class Women Begin to Organise (1975)
Marx on Democratic Forms of Government (1974)
Marx's socialism (communism) as a political programme may be most quickly defined, from the Marxist standpoint, as the complete democratization of society, not merely of political forms. For Marx, the fight for democratic forms of government - democratization in the state - was a leading edge of the socialist effort; not its be-all and end-all but an integral part of it all.
The Seattle General Strike of 1919 (1972)
From February 6 to February 11, 1919, nearly 100,000 Seattle workers participated in a general strike. This pamphlet is a history of the strike, written by the History Committee of the General Strike Committee shortly after the end of the strike.
The Principle of Self-Emancipation in Marx and Engels (1971)
For Marx and Engels, there was a direct relationship between the revolutionary (literally subversive) nature of their socialism and the principle of emancipation-from-below, the principle that, as Engels wrote, "there is no concern for ... gracious patronage from above."
Marxism, as the theory and practice of the proletarian revolution, therefore also had to be the theory and practice of the self-emancipation of the proletariat. Its essential originality flows from this source.
Women's liberation, then and now (1971)
Paris: May 1968 (1968)
This is an eyewitness account of two weeks spent in Paris during May 1968. It is what one person saw, heard or discovered during that short period.
The Student Movement of the Thirties (1965)
Most of the references one hears to the student movement of the thirties, and most published references too, are quite wrong in one basic respect: they speak as if 'the thirties' represented a single, homogeneous period for the student movement. But the biggest single fact about the history of this movement is that it went through a sweeping change in spirit, methods, and politics, which changed its face completely in mid-course.
The Commune, Paris 1871 (May 6, 1961)
The most significant aspect of the Paris Commune is that it created social forms which in a sense define socialism itself, social forms which serve as yardsticks for proletarian revolutions past, present and to come. These forms provide criteria for analyzing the social nature of any particular regime.
The Development of Utopian Socialism (1880)
The Utopians' mode of thought has for a long time governed the Socialist ideas of the 19th century, and still governs some of them. Until very recently, all French and English Socialists did homage to it. The earlier German Communism, including that of Weitling, was of the same school. To all these, Socialism is the expression of absolute truth, reason and justice, and has only to be discovered to conquer all the world by virtue of its own power. And as an absolute truth is independent of time, space, and of the historical development of man, it is a mere accident when and where it is discovered. With all this, absolute truth, reason, and justice are different with the founder of each different school.
The Beginning of an Era (1969)
The Oakland General Strike of 1946
An account of the General Strike in Oakland, California.
The Position of Working-Class Women in the Nineteenth Century
Capitalism broke down the old forms of social relations both at work and between men and women in the family. Middle-class women found themselves cut off from production and economically dependent on a man: working-class women were forced into the factory and became wage-labourers.
Women and Trade Unions

Selected Websites and Organizations

This is a small sampling of organizations and websites concerned with education and children in the Connexions Directory. For more organizations and websites, check the Connexions Directory Subject Index, especially under topics such as education, children, youth, post-secondary education, film, and schools.

Books, Films and Periodicals

This is a small sampling of books related to education and children in the Connexions Online Library. For more books and other resources, check the Connexions Library Subject Index, especially under topics such as education, children, youth, post-secondary education, film, and schools.

The Anarchist Collectives
Workers' Self-Management in the Spanish Revolution 1936-1939
Author: Dolgoff, Sam
Examines the experiments in workers' self-management, both urban and rural, which took place in Spain during the revolution and Civil War.
The Battle of Seattle
The new challenge to capitalist globalization
Author: Katsiaficas, George; Yuen, Eddie; Burton-Rose, Daniel
Berkeley: The New Student Revolt
Author: Draper, Hal
This story of the “free speech” uprising on the Berkeley campus of the University of California was begun in the conviction that an extraordinary event, in an historical sense, had taken place before our startled citizenry; and that it should be described for history as it was.
The Bolsheviks and Workers' Control
The State and Counter-Revolution
Author: Brinton, Maurice
A pamphlet exposing the struggle that took place over the running of workplaces in the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution. In doing so not only does it demolish the romantic Leninist "history" of the relationship between the working class and their party during these years (1917-21) but it also provides a backbone to understanding why the Russian revolution failed in the way it did. From this understanding flows alternative possibilities of revolutionary organization.
Canada's 1960s
The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era
Author: Palmer, Bryan D.
A history of social movements of the 1960s, including student and anti-war movements, the rise of women's liberation, labour struggles, and Quebec nationalism.
The Canadian Left
A Critical Analysis
Author: Penner, Norman
The main focus of the book is the emergence and development of Canadian socialist thought. Penner examines the origins of the Communist Party of Canada and its ideological base and the beginings and development of the CCF-NDP.
Chicago '68
Author: Farber, David
A vivid history of the political and social movements of that turbulent time, when the power structure felt itself threatened by social movements that rejected much of what it stood for.
Collectives in the Spanish Revolution
Author: Leval, Gaston
An account of the collectives set up in Spain during the struggle against Franco.
Democracy is in the Streets
From Port Huron to the Siege of Chicago
Author: Miller, James
A thoughtful and evocative history of the American New Left in the 1960's, looking critically but sympathetically at the struggles and passions of that period.
Flaunting It!
Author: Jackson, Ed; Perksy, Stan (eds.)
An anthology of articles spanning the first decade of the Canadian gay liberation periodical, The Body Politic.
A Future Without Hate or Need
The Promise of the Jewish Left in Canada
Author: Reiter, Ester
Driven from their homes in Russia, Poland, and Romania by pogroms and poverty, many Jews who came to Canada in the wave of immigration after the 1905 Russian revolution were committed radicals. A Future Without Hate or Need brings to life the rich and multi-layered lives of a dissident political community, their shared experiences and community-building cultural projects, as they attempted to weave together their ethnic particularity -- their identity as Jews -- with their internationalist class politics.
General Strike France 1968
A factory-by-factory account
Author: Hoyles, Andree
Andre Hoyles analyses the development, organisation and end of the mass strike in France, 1968, with reference to case studies of particular factories.
The German Revolution, 1917-1923
Author: Broue, Pierre
The History of Marxism
1. Marxism in Marx's Day
Author: Hobsbawm, Eric J. (ed.)
Homage to Catalonia
Author: Orwell, George
George Orwell's account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War.
The Imagination of the New Left
A Global Analysis of 1968
Author: Katsiaficas, George
Brings to life the social movements and events of the 1960s that made it a period of world-historical importance: the Prague Spring; the student movements in Mexico, Japan, Sri Lanka, Italy, Yugoslavia, and Spain; the Tet Offensive in Vietnam and guerrilla movements in Latin America; the Democratic Convention in Chicago; the assassination of Martin Luther King; and the near-revolution in France of May 1968.
In the Crossfire
Adventures of a Vietnamese Revolutionary
Author: Van, Ngo
This book is the story of those other movements and revolts in Vietnam, caught in the crossfire between the French and the Stalinists, told by one of the few survivors.
Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution
Volume I: State and Bureaucracy
Author: Draper, Hal
A wide-ranging and thorough exposition of Marx's views on democracy.
Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution
Volume II: The Politics of Social Classes
Author: Draper, Hal
Draper ranges through the development of the thought of Marx and Engels on the role of classes in society.
Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution
Volume III: The Dictatorship of the Proletariat
Author: Draper, Hal
Hal Draper examines how Marx and Marxism dealt with the issue of dictatorship in relation to the revolutionary use of force and repression, particularly as this debate has centered on the use of the term "dictatorship of the proletariat." Draper strips away the layers of misinterpretation and misinformation that have accumulated over the years to show what Marx and Engels themselves meant by the term.
The Labor Wars
Author: Lens, Sidney
A survey of landmark events in the U.S. labour movement.
Lessons of the Spanish Revolution 1936 - 1939
Author: Richards, Vernon
The Long Haul
An autobiography
Author: Horton, Myles
Myles Horton tells the story of the Highlander Folk School. A major catalyst for social change in the United States for over sixty years, this school has touched the lives of so many people, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Long Way From Home
The story of the Sixties generation in Canada
Author: Kostash, Myrna
An account of the upheavals and transformations experienced by those who came of age in the 1960s, a time when international currents of change intersected with specifically Canadian events and circumstances.
Love and Capital
Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution
Author: Gabriel, Mary
A biography of Karl and Jenny Marx.
The Mackenzie - Papineau Battalion
Canadian Participation in the Spanish Civil War
Author: Hoar, Victor
The story of over twelve hundred Canadians who fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
The New Left at 40
Legacy and Continuity
Author: Roussopoulos, Dimitrios (ed.)
A collection of memoirs and commentaries.
No Longer Barred From Prison
Author: Culhane, Claire
An account of one individual's determined efforts to get inside prisons to see what is actually happening there. As her story makes clear, the penal system cannot tolerate such close scrutiny: she herself has been declared persona non grata and officially denied access to Canadian penitentiaries.
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - December 17, 2017
Collective Memory and Cultural Amnesia
Author: Diemer, Ulli
Our society is obsessed with the short-term present. It devalues memory and the past. But there are those who do remember, and who work to preserve and share our collective memory. But they have to contend with those of us who see historical memory as a way of contributing to the struggle for a different world. For us, knowledge of history is subversive, and remembering can be a form of resistance.
Outlaws of America
The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity
Author: Berg, Daniel
Based on interviews with former Weather Underground members, as well as with civil rights activists, Black Panthers, Young Lords, and others.
Primitive Rebels
Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Author: Hobsbawm, E. J.
A study of 'primitive' or 'archaic' forms of social agitation.
Radical Ambition
The New Left in Toronto
Author: Graham, Peter; McKay, Ian
The story of Toronto's New Left from its initial stirrings in the late 1950s to its 'long, ambiguous goodbye in the early 1980s.
Reasoning Otherwise
Leftists and the People's Enlightenment in Canada 1890 - 1920
Author: McKay, Ian
Examines the people and events that led to the rise of the left in Canada from 1890 to 1920, and highlights how a new way of looking at the world based on theories of evolution transformed struggles around class, religion, gender, and race, and culminates in a new interpretation of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.
Rebels, Reds, Radicals
Rethinking Canada's Left History
Author: McKay, Ian
McKay looks at the history of the left in Canada as a series of experiments in "living otherwise" -- efforts to work out ways of life and thought strategically opposed to the prevailing liberal-capitalist order.
Red Rosa
A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg
Author: Evans, Kate; Buhle, Paul
A giant of the political left, Rosa Luxemburg is one of the foremost minds in the canon of revolutionary socialist thought. Red Rosa gives Luxemburg her due as a radical and human being. In this beautifully drawn work of graphic biography, writer and artist Kate Evans has opened up her subject’s intellectual world to a new audience, grounding Luxemburg’s ideas in the realities of an inspirational and deeply affecting life.
SDS
Author: Sale, Kirkpatrick
The rise and development of the Students for a Democratic Society, the organization that became the major expression of the American left in the 1960s -- its passage from student protest to institutional resistance to revolutionary activism, and its ultimate impact on American politics and life.
Situationist International Anthology
Author: Knabb, Ken
A selection of Situationist writings.
The Sixties
Years of Hope, Days of Rage
Author: Gitlin, Todd
One of the best books on the Sixties in the U.S., bringing to life the political and cultural currents, including especially the music, which raged during that decade, and setting them in historical context.
'68: The Year of the Barricades
Author: Caute, David
Caute's book looks at the explosive year 1968 (while situating it in the context of what had led up to it). One of the great strengths of this excellent book is that it looks at what was happening around the world.
Spain in Our Hearts
Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
Author: Hochschild, Adam
Hochschild shares tales of some of the roughly 2,800 Americans who participated in the Spanish Civil War. He shows how the war was a brutal, cruel mismatch from the beginning, with Franco's fascist forces strengthened by 80,000 Italian troops supplied by Mussolini, as well as weapons and airplanes provided by Hitler in exchange for war-related minerals. Additionally, Hochschild uncovers the story of how Texaco, headed by an admirer of Hitler, Torkild Rieber, provided Franco with unlimited oil on credit, shipped it for free, and supplied invaluable intelligence on tankers carrying oil to the Republican forces.
Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History
Author: Pekar, Harvey; Buhle, Paul
The History of SDS as You've Never Seen It Before. Captures the idealism and activism that drove a generation of young Americans to try to transform the world.
Ten Days That Shook The World
Author: Reed, John
John Reed's gripping account of the Russian Revolution of November 1917.
Ten Thousand Roses
The Making of a Feminist Revolution
Author: Rebick, Judy
Using interviews with many feminist activists, Rebick provides an oral history of feminism in Canada from the 1960s through the 1990s.
This Nonviolent Stuff'll Get You Killed
How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible
Author: Cobb, Charles E. Jr.
Charles Cobb, a veteran civil rights activist who served as a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the American South, unfolds a powerful narrative about Southern grass-roots black individuals and groups who played essential roles in African-American resistance. He reveals how they acted to protect black people and their allies throughout the ages with the careful use of violent self-defense methods.
To The Finland Station
A Study in the Writing and Acting of History
Author: Wilson, Edmund
The revolutionary tradition in Europe and the rise of socialism.
Traces of Magma
An Annotated Bibliography of Left Literature
Author: Knight, Rolf
An annotated bibliography of left wing novels which deal with the lives of working people during the twentieth century.
Truth and Revolution
A History of the Sojourner Truth Organization, 1969-1986
Author: Staudenmaier, Michael
In the 1970s and 1980s, as the movements of the sixties receded from view, the revolutionary left in the United States went through a series of profound political, demographic, and cultural transformations as it struggled to find its footing in a rapidly changing world. The unorthodox political agenda of the Sojourner Truth Organization represents a small but powerfully resonant thread running through this arc of history.
Uncovering the Sixties
Life and Times of the Undergound Press
Author: Peck, Abe
A book about the Sixties and how they were recorded by radical participants. It traces how movements and communities convinced that their news did not fit into the agenda of mainstream media covered themselves in print.
The Way the Wind Blew
A History of the Weather Underground
Author: Jacobs, Ron
What Really Happened to the 1960s
How Mass Media Culture Failed American Democracy
Author: Morgan, Edward P.
A historical overview, critical analysis, and appraisal of the 1960s. Drawing upon historical and media studies, theories of capitalism and democracy, and in-depth study of the era's social movements, Morgan provides an extremely comprehensive and penetrating analysis of the events and aftermath of the 1960s.
Wobblies!: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World
Author: Alewitz, Mike; Coe, Sue; Jones, Sabrina; Buhle, Paul; Schulman, Nicole
The stories of the hard-rock miners’ shooting wars, Elizabeth Gurly Flynn (the “Rebel Girl”), the first sit-down strikes and Free Speech fights, Emma Goldman and the struggle for birth control access, bohemian radicals John Reed and Louise Bryant, field-hand revolts and lumber workers’ strikes, wartime witch hunts, government prosecutions and mob lynching, Mexican-American uprisings in Baja, and Mexican peasant revolts led by Wobblies, hilarious and sentimental songs created and later revived—all are here, and much more.
Wobblies & Zapatistas
Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical Theory
Author: Lynd, Staughton; Grubacic, Andrej
Wobblies and Zapatistas offers readers an encounter between two generations and two traditions. Staughton Lynd and Andrej Grubacic meet in dialogue in an effort to bring together the anarchist and Marxist traditions, to discuss the writing of history by those who make it, and to remind us of the idea that 'my country is the world'.
Women, Resistance and Revolution
Author: Rowbotham, Sheila
A wide-ranging survey of the roots of inequality and of the long but sporadic struggles to covercome it. Her narrative extends from the seventeenth century to present-day (1970s) Vietnam, showing how certain women have struggled, in both revolutionary and repressive situations, to achieve liberation.
Worker-Student Action Committees France May '68
Author: Gregoire, R.; Perlman, F.
An account of the May-June 1968 events in Paris. The authors state that "our intention is not to 'clarify' the sequence of events which took place in France in order to make possible a ritual repetition of these events, but rather to contrast the limited views we had of the events at the time we were engaged in them, with the views we have gained from further action in different contexts."
World Revolution 1917-1936
The Rise and Fall of the Communist International
Author: James, C.L.R.
No major economic or political development in Russia, and few of the minor ones, can be understood, except in relation to the strength of the revolutionary movement in Western Europe, so long dominated by the Third International.
Writings on the Paris Commune
Author: Marx, Karl, Engels, Friedrich (Draper, Hal, ed.)
Hal Draper's compilation of all the writings by Marx and Engels on the Paris Commune of 1871, when a working-class-led revolution took power and established a new type of state for the first time in the history of the world - temporarily, in one city.

Resources for Activists

The Connexions Calendar - An event calendar for activists. Submit your events for free here.

Media Names & Numbers - A comprehensive directory of Canada’s print and broadcast media. .

Sources - A membership-based service that enables journalists to find spokespersons and story ideas, and which simultaneously enables organizations to raise their profile by reaching the media and the public with their message.

Organizing Resources Page - Change requires organizing. Power gives way only when it is challenged by a movement for change, and movements grow out of organizing. Organizing is qualitatively different from simple “activism”. Organizing means sustained long-term conscious effort to bring people together to work for common goals. This page features a selection of articles, books, and other resources related to organizing.

Publicity and Media Relations - A short introduction to media relations strategies.

Grassroots Media Relations - A media relations guide for activist groups.

Socialism gateway - A gateway to resources about socialism, socialist history, and socialist ideas.

Marxism gateway - A gateway to resources about Marxism.