Communtity Anarchist Classes at CCSF Downtown Campus

All the following classes are free and open to the general public. No registration at City College of San Francisco required.

FALL 2005' ANARCHIST CLASSES :

THE SPANISH REVOLUTION AND CIVIL WAR
taught by Lawrence Jarach

THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
taught by Tom Wetzel

THE BASICS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
taught by Sonya Mehta

All classes are wheelchair accesible.
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THE SPANISH REVOLUTION AND CIVIL WAR
Teacher: Lawrence Jarach
Day: Wed
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Class begins Wed. Sep. 21st
next classes Sep. 28th, Oct. 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th
Location: Downtown Campus- 88 4th St., San Francisco ( across from the
Metreon )
Room #: 725
Course Description:
This course will examine the context of the anarchist contribution to the
revolution and civil war that took place in Spain as a result of the
attempted coup d'etat by the military in July 1936. Topics that will be
covered include: the social context of Spain through the 1930s; a history
of anarchist activity in Spain, 1880s-1930s; rivalry with socialists; the
organizational ideas and structures of the CNT and the FAI; the CP,
electoralism, and the Popular Front; the attempted coup (which social
classes were involved and why) and its immediate aftermath; government
anarchists; foreign intervention; militias versus Popular Army; internal
tensions among anti-fascist groups; Mujeres Libres and the women's
question; the May Days in Barcelona, the Friends of Durruti, and the
death of the Revolution; ultimate military defeat; post-war
resistance/suppression.

Recommended readings: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell (an eyewitness
account of Orwell's experiences as a militia volunteer; his experiences
in Spain led him to write "Animal Farm" and "1984"); The Spanish Civil
War by Antony Beevor (a military historian sympathetic to the anarchists
looks at the various tensions in Spanish culture and fits those into a
highly readable overview of the war years); We! the Anarchists by Stuart
Christie (a detailed critical look at the FAI and its relation to the
CNT, with an excellent history of how each organzation dealt with the
revolution and war).
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THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
Teacher: Tom Wetzel
Day: Wed
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Class Begins Nov. 2nd
next classes Nov. 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th, Dec. 7th
Location: Downtown Campus- 88 4th St., San Francisco ( across from the
Metreon )
Room #: 725
Course Outline:
1. & 2. Background, the revolution of 1905, formation of big city soviets
of 1917, the "dual power" between soviets & provisional government,
emergence of the factory committee movement, the "division of labor" between
economy & polity in the minds of many workers, the Bolshevik taking of
power,
the new structure of Soviet government, Lenin's decree on "worker control",
Marxist argument for central planning, First Trade Union Congress of
January 1918

3. anarchist stance towards the soviets & "power" and governance,
anarcho-syndicalist response to Marxists on central planning,
differences between anarcho-communists & anarcho-syndicalists

4. War Communism & the consequences of the civil war, program
of the Workers Opposition in 1921, Kronstadt rebellion, "proletarianization"
of the managerial regime & forced collectivization under Stalin.

5. The Makhnovist movement in Ukraine, critique of anarchist
disorganization by Makhno &
Arshinov

6. What is the nature of the Soviet system?
State capitalist? Bureaucratic collectivist? Coordinatorist?

Recommended reading:

Sheila Jackson, The Russian Revolution (a short, easy to read history of the
revolution)
Peter Rachleff, Soviets and Factory Committees in the Russian Revolution
[handout]
(available online)
Maurice Brinton, Bolsheviks & Workers Control (in the anthology For Workers
Power,
also available online)
Alexandre Skirda, Nestor Makhno: Anarchy's Cossack
Michael Albert & Robin Hahnel, "The Soviet Experience" in Socialism Today
and Tomorrow
[handout]
Ida Mett, The Kronstadt Uprising, 1921
Paul Avrich, Kronstadt 1921
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THE BASICS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
Teacher: Sonya Mehta
Day: Thu.
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Class Begins Sept. 22nd
next classes Sep. 29th, Oct. 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th
Location: Downtown Campus- 88 4th St., San Francisco ( across from the
Metreon )
Room #: 319
Course Description:
This six week course will focus on the essentials of community organizing.
We will begin with an overview of WHY organizing is important and also
what PRINCIPLES will guide our organizing work. To keep the course
grounded, students will be asked to either volunteer with an organization
for the duration of the class or create their own campaign or
organization.

All classes will be based on a popular education model, where we believe
knowledge comes from students' lived experience. This also means we will
learn through games, exercises and roleplaying.

Some of the topics will include:

-campaign planning and strategy
-anti oppression/pro equality: who and what are we fighting for?
-facilitation and agendas
-outreach
-campaign strategy and planning
-building alliances
-using the media
-fundraising

Students will be expected to bring an organizing journal with their
impressions and experiences in the field.
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INSTRUCTORS' BIOS:

SONYA MEHTA
Sonya Zehra Mehta is an organizer with Young Workers United, a
workers center for workers in the service sector. She has
facilitated organizing skills workshops for several years. Sonya has also
been a founder of Anarchist People of Color, as well as an organizing
intern with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and even a
tree sitter. Sonya was also a member of Studentes Organizing for Justcie
in the Americas (SOJA) while a student at UC Berkeley. She is excited to
teach this class to new anarchist and anarcho-curious organizers!

LAWRENCE JARACH
Lawrence Jarach has been interested in the Spanish anarchist experience
during the civil war for almost as long as he's been an anarchist. He has
written extensively about the subject in the form of book reviews for the
periodical "Anarchy; A Journal of Desire Armed" where he is co-editor. He
is a founder and co-facilitator of the decade-old anarchist study group
at the Long Haul in Berkeley and co-organizes the annual BASTARD
anarchist theory conferences.

TOM WETZEL
I was born and raised in Los Angeles. My mother was a secretary and my
father was a shipyard electrician. I've worked as a gas station attendant,
college teacher, typesetter and technical writer. I was one of the
organizers of the first teaching assistants' union at UCLA in the early
1970s.
I participated in attempts to unionize the Bay Guardian in the early '80s.
I'm currently the pr
esident of the San Francisco Community Land Trust. From
1982 to 1991 I was editorial coordinator of the anarcho-syndicalist magazine
ideas & action.

Education:
PhD in philosophy, UCLA, 1978

Teaching Experience:

Instructor, philosophy, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, 1976-78
Assistant Professor, philosophy, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee,
1978-81
Classes on logic, anarchism, society & technology, perception,
and metaphysics

Part-time instructor, San Jose State, philosophy, 1998-99
Classes on critical thinking

Some Writings:

Workers Power and the Russian Revolution (2005)
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=7614

Participatory Economics and the Self-emancipation of the Working Class
(2003)
http://www.zmag.org/parecon/writings/wetzel_emancipation.htm

Slaughterhouse Fight: A Look at the Hormel Strike (1986)
http://www.workersolidarity.org/hormel.htm

Small is not beautiful: Life at the Bay Guardian (Processed World, 1987)
http://www.workersolidarity.org/sfbg1.htm

The Italian Factory Occupations of 1920 (1988)
http://www.workersolidarity.org/ital1920.html

What is gentrification?
http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel/gentry.htm

The Capitalist City or the Self-managed City? (in Globalize Liberation,
David Solnit, ed.)
http://www.workersolidarity.org/selfmanagedcity.html

States of Affairs (2003)
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/states-of-affairs/
Entry in the Stanford University Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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MORE INFO AT anarchistlibrary.org