Transnational Radicals

Italian anarchism emerged in the latter half of the nineteenth century, during that country’s long and bloody unification. Often facing economic hardship and political persecution, many of Italy’s anarchists migrated to North America. Wherever Italian anarchists settled they published journals, engaged in labour and political activism, and attempted to re-create the radical culture of their homeland. Transnational Radicals examines the transnational anarchist movement that existed in Canada and the United States between 1915 and 1940. Against a backdrop of brutal and open class war—with governments calling upon militias to suppress strikes, radicals thrown in jail for publicly speaking against capitalism and the church, and those of foreign birth being deported and even executed for political activities—Italian anarchism was successfully transplanted. Transnationalism made it more difficult for states to destroy groups spread across wide geographical spaces. In Italy and abroad the strong anarchist identity informed by class, ethnicity, and gender reinforced movement values, promoted movement expansion, and assisted mobilization during times of crisis. In Transnational Radicals, Tomchuk makes use of Italian government security files and Italian-language anarchist newspapers to reconstruct a vibrant and little-studied political movement during a tumultuous period of modern North American history.

International Communism and Transnational Solidarity offers an analysis of the organization of radical international solidarity by so-called ‘Non-Party Mass Organisations’ and ‘Sympathising Organisations for Special Purposes’ that had been established by or were connected to the Communist International.

This is an original study of the connected lives of two important socialists, Tom Mann (1856-1941) and Robert Samuel 'Bob' Ross (1873-1931). Born in Britain, Mann travelled the globe as a tireless socialist organiser and propagandist who met Ross in the course of his political work in Australia. They then worked closely together as labour editors, educators, trade unionists and socialists in Australia and New Zealand between 1902 and 1913. Thereafter, they continued regularly to correspond with one another and other socialists in Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the Pacific Rim. Based upon extensive research into neglected primary and secondary sources in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and related places, this book explores the careers and lives of Mann and Ross as paired transnational radicals, as leaders who crossed national and other boundaries in order to promote their socialism. It situates them within the neglected English-speaking and even global radical worlds of the later nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries, a period that constituted an early phase of globalisation. Breaking new ground in moving beyond the national focus which has dominated much of the relevant history, this book highlights both the importance of Mann's and Ross's transnational endeavours, attachments and identities and the ways in which these interacted with their national, sub-national and international spheres of activity, striking a chord with a wide variety of radicals seeking change in today's globalised world.

The history of international thought is a flourishing field, but it has tended to focus on Anglo-American realist and liberal thinkers. This book moves beyond the Anglosphere and beyond realism and liberalism. It analyses the work of thinkers from continental Europe and Asia with radical and reactionary agendas quite different from the mainstream.

Terrorism, mass uprisings, and political extremism are in the news every day. It is no coincidence that these phenomena come together at the beginning of a new era. Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Terrorists provides a comprehensive survey of the intersection of radical social movements and political violence. The book considers eight essential questions for understanding radicalism, including its origins, dynamics, and outcomes. Ranging across the globe from the 1500s to the present, the book examines cases as diverse as nineteenth-century anarchists, the Nazis, Che Guevara, the Weather Underground, Chechen insurgents, the Earth Liberation Front, Al-Qaeda, and the Arab Spring. Throughout, Colin J. Beck connects these cases to key social movements literature to demonstrate how using multiple areas of research results in better explanations. Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Terrorists is an essential companion for understanding the challenges facing governments and societies today. Its engaging style and original approach make it indispensable for students and scholars across the social sciences who are interested in social movements.

Traveling to Hanoi during the U.S. war in Vietnam was a long and dangerous undertaking. Even though a neutral commission operated the flights, the possibility of being shot down by bombers in the air and antiaircraft guns on the ground was very real. American travelers recalled landing in blackout conditions, without lights even for the runway, and upon their arrival seeking refuge immediately in bomb shelters. Despite these dangers, they felt compelled to journey to a land at war with their own country, believing that these efforts could change the political imaginaries of other members of the American citizenry and even alter U.S. policies in Southeast Asia.In Radicals on the Road, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu tells the story of international journeys made by significant yet underrecognized historical figures such as African American leaders Robert Browne, Eldridge Cleaver, and Elaine Brown; Asian American radicals Alex Hing and Pat Sumi; Chicana activist Betita Martinez; as well as women's peace and liberation advocates Cora Weiss and Charlotte Bunch. These men and women of varying ages, races, sexual identities, class backgrounds, and religious faiths held diverse political views. Nevertheless, they all believed that the U.S. war in Vietnam was immoral and unjustified.In times of military conflict, heightened nationalism is the norm. Powerful institutions, like the government and the media, work together to promote a culture of hyperpatriotism. Some Americans, though, questioned their expected obligations and instead imagined themselves as "internationalists," as members of communities that transcended national boundaries. Their Asian political collaborators, who included Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, Foreign Minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government Nguyen Thi Binh and the Vietnam Women's Union, cultivated relationships with U.S. travelers. These partners from the East and the West worked together to foster what Wu describes as a politically radical orientalist sensibility. By focusing on the travels of individuals who saw themselves as part of an international community of antiwar activists, Wu analyzes how actual interactions among people from several nations inspired transnational identities and multiracial coalitions and challenged the political commitments and personal relationships of individual activists.

When the Iron Curtain lifted in 1989, it was seen by some as proof of the final demise of the ideas and aspirations of the radical left. Not many years passed, however, before the critique of social inequalities and capitalism was once again a main protest theme of social movements. This book provides an account of radical left movements in today’s Europe and how they are trying to accomplish social and political change. The book’s international group of leading experts provide detailed analysis on social movement organizations, activist groups, and networks that are rooted in the left-wing ideologies of anarchism, Marxism, socialism, and communism in both newly democratized post-communist and longstanding liberal-democratic polities. Through a range of case studies, the authors explore how radical left movements are influenced by their situated political and social contexts, and how contemporary radical left activism differs from both new and old social movements on one hand, and the activities of radical left parliamentary parties on the other. Ultimately, this volume investigates what it means to be ‘radical left’ in current day liberal-democratic and capitalist societies after the fall of European state socialism. This is valuable reading for students and researchers interested in European politics, contemporary social movements and political sociology.

An examination of the links between radicalism in Victorian England, and the Risorgimento movement in Italy.