1960s
Vietnam: The collapse of the armed forces
A US military officer reports on the increasing incidence of insubordination, desertion and rebellion in the US army over the course of the Vietnam War. While we obviously don't agree with the officer's political perspective, the article contains lots of useful information on the GI resistance movement during the Vietnam War.
Introduction
The morale, discipline and battleworthiness of the U.S. Armed Forces are, with a few salient exceptions, lower and worse than at anytime in this century and possibly in the history of the United States.
There's a riot goin' on - The Red Menace
Article drawing parallels between the struggles of the late 1960s and late 1980s in Berkeley, California.
The recent wave of media nostalgia for the late 1960s in the USA and elsewhere (exemplified by the re-release of the film of the Woodstock festival) gives the impression that the most important preoccupations of the period were smoking dope and listening to Jimi Hendrix - which of course were not unimportant.
South London stress - Practical History
Leaflet distributed at a Reclaim The Streets party in South London in June 1998, to place the event in context, and explain the radical history of the South London area.
Reclaim the Streets,
Today Reclaim the Streets are planning to turn part of South London into a free festival zone for the day. Most non-residential streets in South London are dominated by bumper to bumper traffic with nothing much to do except shop. RTS parties are about creating our own space where we can dance, play, eat and drink - all without any money changing hands.
Review - Dancin' in the Streets - Red and Black Notes
Red and Black Notes review of Dancin' in the Streets editted by Franklin Rosemont and Charles Radcliffe.
Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 2004.
On the face of it, there doesn't seem to be much in common between the Industrial Workers ' of the World's revolutionary unionism and the surrealists' project of recovery of the unconscious, Yet, as Franklin Rosemont, the co-editor of this collection notes, he and his friends joined the IWW because it was the only group around which wasn't boring.
Belgian general strike diary, 1960 - Maurice Brinton
Maurice Brinton's vivid and captivating first hand account of the massive general strike in Belgium in 1960-61 against a new law "loi unique" to reduce workers' purchasing power.
THE BELGIAN GENERAL STRIKE: DIARY DECEMBER 28-31, 1960
THE BACKGROUND
Long lost wildcat strikes in the UK, 1960s - 1990s
Interesting article with snippets of analysis and often personal anecdotes about a number of unofficial strikes in the UK since the 1960s.
An introduction…
Up Against The Wall Motherfucker! - Interview with Ben Morea
.jpg "Up Against The Wall Motherfucker! - graphic, 1960s")
Morea talks of the 1960s Black Mask and Up Against The Wall Motherfucker! groups and their activities - such as busting into the Pentagon during an anti-war protest, and "assassinating" a famous poet. He also discusses friendships with various characters, including the late Valerie Solanas - who shot Andy Warhol and wrote the SCUM Manifesto.
1962-1973: Worker and student struggles in Italy
A history of the wave of strikes and occupations that gripped Italian factories and universities during the 1960s. Coming to a head with the Hot Autumn of 1969, independent forms of struggle used by workers represented a significant attempt to break from restrictive trade unions.
Rising from a period of centre-left coalition that had been marked by a constant failure to bring promised reforms to Italian society, the struggles of the 1960s acted as a pressure gauge for many sections of the Italian working class, one which was to reach its climax during the mass strikes of 1968-1970.
The Good and Bad Old Days - The Whinger
The following notes look at various developments in employment, unemployment, and industrial struggles, mainly in the UK, through the period of the sixties, and up to the mid-seventies.
These notes are not revolutionary, they don't even claim to be radical,... I_just nicked them and adapted them from an old seventies cyclopedia I found in a charity shop!. But they do tell a story, and they illustrate a big process of change at a critical turning point.
From; The Whinger - Irregular journal of hysterical madterialism; No. 6, Oct 2007.
Mount Isa: the great Queensland strike - Solidarity
Pamphlet by the UK Solidarity group on the 1964-1965 strike and lockout at the Mount Isa copper mine in Queensland, Australia, which placed miners in direct opposition to their union, employer and the Queensland State Government for almost seven months.
