On July 18th the Bay Area Local of Black Rose / Rosa Negra and AK Press hosted historian Troy Araiza Kokinis to discuss his new book ‘Anarchist Popular Power: Dissident Labor and Armed Struggle in Uruguay, 1956-76‘.
You can now listen to the entirety of the recorded talk via the embedded YouTube link below, or via the It’s Going Down podcast where it was originally published.
Anarchist Popular Power is the first-ever full-length English-language history of the Anarchist Federation of Uruguay (FAU). As Araiza Kokinis explains, the FAU organized students and workers to directly confront international and domestic capitalists, far-Right violence, and state repression amidst rising IMF-mandated austerity and declining living standards during the 1960s and 1970s. Pushed underground and into exile by governmental ban and a decade of US-backed military dictatorship, the organization has spread its model for revolutionary change around the world since it resurfaced in the mid-1980s.
The FAU‘s innovative engagement with, disciplined commitment to, and steadfast confidence in everyday people’s capacities to control their shop floors, classrooms, neighborhoods, and lives offers important lessons for revolutionaries today.
Due to some technical issues during the event, the following combines portions of live audio with recreations of the author’s talk. We hope you enjoy the conversation!
Produced and edited by Kenny Donovan.
If you enjoyed this discussion, we recommend Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization.