December 2023

Welcome! Newsletter number 35.

There’s no two ways about it: I’ve got very little to show for this month. I blame it on the job. But I did get to write a review; indeed, a joint review! Under the title “The Lives of Anarchists,” you can read both about Charlie Allison’s No Harmless Power: The Life and Times of the Ukrainian Anarchist Nestor Makhno, and Ole Birk Laursen’s Anarchy or Chaos: M.P.T. Acharya and the Indian Struggle for Freedom.

In early November, I went to the Nordic Labour Film Festival in Malmö – an event I highly recommend if you ever make it that way! I talked both about Organisatörens handbok, a Swedish translation of Labor NotesSecrets of a Successful Organizer, published by the SAC press Federativs, and Frihetens fönster, the book about left-wing political refugees from Latin America I edited together with my friend Dharana Favilla.

Later in the month, I went to visit the great folks from Husby Arbetarcentrum. They have a new online newspaper, Husby Arbetarblad.

I wrote a little something in English about the ongoing Tesla strike in Sweden. Longer articles in German will follow soon. In Arbetaren, I also added my two cents to the Swedish debate about a stricter strike law in the country – only four years after the right to strike was significantly curtailed in a law reform!

Meanwhile, the Sámi Parliament in Sweden has issued a statement regarding mining in Sápmi, critical raw materials in particular. Tensions are growing, and the Sámi will lead the next wave of protest movements in northern Europe, no doubt about it. For those who want to see a very well-done feature film as an introduction to the topic, I highly recommend the recently released Norwegian-Sámi production Ellos eatnu – Let the River Flow.

More (hopefully) next month. Stay safe!