El 14 de mayo de 1980 muere en Granada (Andalucía, España) el anarquista y anarcosindicalista Carlos Soriano Águila. Había nacido el 2 de abril de 1905 en Palenciana (Córdoba, Andalucía, España). Hijo de un comerciante socialista de clase media, cuando tenía 12 años dejó el pueblo y se fue a vivir con su tío Miguel, ferroviario y jefe de la estación de Las Mellizas (Álora, Málaga, Andalucía, España), viudo y sin hijos. En Alora conoció la que luego sería su primera esposa en 1930. Entre diciembre de 1921 y 1923 estudió en la Academia de Factores Ferroviarios y entre 1923 y 1925 trabajó como factor provisional en la Compañía de Ferrocarriles Andaluces en Écija (Sevilla, Andalucía, España), donde entró en contacto con el movimiento anarquista. Los servicios en Écija le sirvieron para hacer el servicio militar. A partir de 1925 pasó a trabajar en la estación de Bobadilla (Antequera, Málaga, Andalucía, España) y 1928 se afilió al Sindicato Autónomo de Factores (SAF), bastante influido por la Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). En 1928 el SAF ingresó en la CNT. Continue reading Biografía de Carlos Soriano Águila (1905-1980), ferroviario y anarquista→
(Woolloomooloo anti eviction rally, Sydney early 1930s)
The economic depression of the 1930s saw thousands of Australians thrown out of their homes and into the streets. These actions however did not go unopposed. Across Australia pickets, occupations and protests were organised to disrupt and prevent evictions and auctions. Where these failed some took matters into their own hands wrecking the properties of landlords and real estate agents in revenge. This pamphlet, originally written in 1998 and updated ten years later, chronicles just some of the many struggles that took place. It includes a chronology of actions as well as photos and quotes from those involved providing an insight into the events of the time. It can be downloaded here.
“Nature has the habit of now and then producing a type of human being far in advance of the times; an ideal for us to emulate; a being devoid of sham, uncompromising, and to whom the truth is sacred; a being whose selfishness is so large that it takes the whole human race and treats self only as one of the great mass; a being keen to sense all forms of wrong, and powerful in denunciation of it; one who can reach in the future and draw it nearer. Such a being was Voltairine de Cleyre.”
“Nature has the habit of now and then producing a type of human being far in advance of the times; an ideal for us to emulate; a being devoid of sham, uncompromising, and to whom the truth is sacred; a being whose selfishness is so large that it takes the whole human race and treats self only as one of the great mass; a being keen to sense all forms of wrong, and powerful in denunciation of it; one who can reach in the future and draw it nearer. Such a being was Voltairine de Cleyre.”
Like most of my generation, I was brought up on the saying: ‘Satan finds some mischief for idle hands to do.’ Being a highly virtuous child, I believed all that I was told, and acquired a conscience which has kept me working hard down to the present moment. But although my conscience has controlled my actions, my opinions have undergone a revolution. I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached. Everyone knows the story of the traveler in Naples who saw twelve beggars lying in the sun (it was before the days of Mussolini), and offered a lira to the laziest of them. Eleven of them jumped up to claim it, so he gave it to the twelfth. this traveler was on the right lines. But in countries which do not enjoy Mediterranean sunshine idleness is more difficult, and a great public propaganda will be required to inaugurate it. I hope that, after reading the following pages, the leaders of the YMCA will start a campaign to induce good young men to do nothing. If so, I shall not have lived in vain. Continue reading In Praise of Idleness→
Convey to our Spanish friends and comrades and, through them, to all the workers in general my encouragement to them not to let their resolution falter in the revolutionary process which has been launched, as well as to make haste in uniting around a practical programme drafted of a specific ideological direction. At all costs there must be no let up in the pace of the masses’ revolutionary action. On the contrary, we must rush to help them compel (by force if there is no other way, no other means) the acting republican government which is hindering and distracting the revolution with its absurd decrees to desist from such harmful endeavours.
