Reading the ideas of Maurice Brinton for the first time proves discomforting to most - and downright insufferable to many. The most prolific contributor to the British Solidarity Group (1961-1992), he sought to inspire a mass movement based on libertarian socialist politics. Attempting to blow away the bad air of the "Old" and "New" Left alike, Brinton used the past as a guide - but not an anchor - in his visionary writings.
With unrestrained passion, clarity, and consistency, he examines the totality of revolutionary politics and flays the "revolutionaries" who obstruct their realization. Included here are Brinton's finest essays, pamphlets, eye-witness reportage, and his most influential works - Irrational in Politics and Bolsheviks and Workers' Control.
"It is hard to conceive of anyone doing a better job than Goodway and AK Press at bringing Brinton's politics and whole milieu back into prime focus. Brinton had a big effect on me, years back, and I never saw half the materials presented here. Brinton was a contributor to the past half century's activism and sums many of its lessons most brilliantly. To ignore him is to practice self denial. Don't do it." - Michael Albert
"One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea..."
Book, 378 pages (AK Press)