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Book presentation: Plain Words, the “Good War” of Italian Immigrant Anarchists in the United States, 1914-1920.
Waar: De Verdieping , Anna Spenglerstraat 83, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Wanneer: 04/03/2024 - 19:00
Between 1914 and 1920, anarchists of Italian origin who had emigrated to the United States found themselves in a country openly hostile to all the exploited, in the midst of a profound capitalist and industrial restructuring, and on the verge of the outbreak of the First World War.
In the thick of social war, they did not resign, nor did they settle for convenient choices: they proposed and developed an autonomous anarchism in opposition to the pragmatism of politics.
In their struggle for a full life, that was never satisfied with mere survival, they set up printing presses and distributed publications in order to shatter the ignorance and fatalism of the oppressed. They acquired weapons and attacked the leaders and structures of social pacification, militarism, capitalism and the judicial system, in order to destroy the power of the oppressors. They did both primarily through the strength of their own ideas.
Anarchist history is generally used by institutions and academics to neutralize subversive experiences, which end up being turned into anecdotes and deprived of their spark of life. In the face of such intentions it is more necessary than ever to discuss and deepen the ideas and practices of the uncompromising comrades who preceded us, to nourish the possibilities and imagination of the present.
Plain Words, the “Good War” of Italian Immigrant Anarchists in the United States, 1914-1920.
Roofdruk/Compass editions, January 2024.
Monday 4th March 2024 - 19.00
De Verdieping
Anna Spenglerstraat 83 Amsterdam