Just Books Collective (Belfast) have been about in one form or another since 1978. This year we are moving into publishing!
Our first title will be G P Maximoff's Constructive Anarchism originally published in 1952.
This crowdfunder is being launched this month to mark the 100th anniversary of the Kronstadt Revolt. This is pertinent to the republication of this book given Maximoff's 'constructive anarchism' is itself largely informed by direct involvement in the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist movements in Russia before and during the revolution. A participant in the popular movement for workers' control Maximoff witnessed first hand the crushing of the revolution, not by international capitalism, but by the Bolsheviks seizure of state power. The month before the Kronstadt uprising Maximoff spoke alongside Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman and others at the funeral of influential anarchist communist Peter Kropotkin (pictured above). Maximoff's book was originally published by The Maximoff Memorial Publication Committee in 1952 in Chicago, less than two years after his death on 16th March 1950.
The original work includes a biographical foreword about Grigori Petrovich Maximoff written by George Woodcock, and is prefaced by Maximoff's essay My Social Credo. Maximoff explores the development of international anarchism in the period since WWI before putting forward a rich, if historically specific, vision of a practical and constructive anarchism. In doing so Maximoff examines the origins of anarchism in the First International and specifically it's constructive role in the Russian revolution. He deals crucially, and critically, with the conclusions reached by Makhno, Arshinov, Mett and others in the Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists (The Platform). This book is an essential historical document for the anarchist movement from an active participant in one of the most significant upheavals in anarchist and working-class history of the twentieth century.
At 50,000+ words including a new index, new introduction, and additional footnotes the book will also boast a much better cover than the image that is currently serving as a placeholder image for our crowdfunder. Everyone who donates £20 or over will receive a copy of the book as soon as it is in print.
