A friend of mine in the ISO recently recommended that I read Revolutionary Rehearsals, edited by Colin Barker. I’m glad I did, as it contains some incredible history that I didn’t know much about, and some intriguing analysis. On the whole, an excellent book.
The book delves into detail about five situations when a country was on the verge of a bottom-up, workers’ revolution to overthrow capitalism (in one case, Stalinism). Each one failed to do so, but the struggles have much to tell us. The authors consider them to be “rehearsals” for real revolutions (hence the title).
The book contains the following chapters:
1. France 1968: “All power to the imagination”
2. Chile 1972-73: The workers united
3. Portugal 1974-75: Popular power
4. Iran 1979: Long live Revolution!…Long live Islam?
5. Poland 1980-81: The self-limiting revolution
6. Perspectives
Each of the first five chapters is written by a different author and covers a specific struggle. The final chapter provides over-arching analysis and lessons.
The history is great – each historical chapter provides a compact, readable summary of the unfolding of the revolutionary times. Each gave me more information on its specific subject than I’ve found anywhere else. I’ll describe a little bit about each piece of history first.
Continue reading “Book Review: Revolutionary Rehearsals, edited by Colin Barker”
Fish Rock Road 