The Anarchist Expropriators

Buenaventura Durruti and Argentina's Working-Class Robin Hoods

by

paperback, 90 pages

Published Jan. 11, 2016 by AK Press.

ISBN:
978-1-84935-223-9
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(5 reviews)

Osvaldo Bayer's study of working-class retribution, set between 1919 and 1936, chronicles hair-raising robberies, bombings, and tit-for-tat murders conducted by Argentina's working men. Intense repression of labor organizations, newspapers, and meeting places by authorities set off a wave of illegal acts meant to secure funds and settle scores. Escaping similar repression at home, future Spanish Civil War hero Buenaventura Durruti joins the cast on a spree of robberies, ending in a narrow escape back to Europe.

Osvaldo Bayer is an anarchist pacifist, author, and screenwriter living in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is the author of Rebellion in Patagonia.

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reviewed The Anarchist Expropriators by Osvaldo Bayer

An all over the place account of militant and fearless anarchism in the Argentina 1930s

An interesting and well detailed account of militant anarchist actions during the 30s in Argentina. The book is very interesting in that it factually describes the events with immense detail of the actions led by the personages in the book. However, must of the times it is a little all over the place. Nevertheless, an essential read for a time where anarchist were not in any way afraid of combating state repression and violence with violence.

reviewed The Anarchist Expropriators by Osvaldo Bayer

Drags on, for as short as it is.

I can't tell if it's because of the translation or if it's just... not great. Or maybe it's both? But either way, it really is quite tedious for something that you think would be engaging and interesting. It really was a struggle for it to hold my attention, which was... weird considering expropriation is a topic that I'm rather interested in.

There's also little real commentary about expropriation and the ways of doing it. It's more like a bit of a story of individual events that all were, to some extent connected. Which is fine, but that wasn't really what I was sold. And it comes off as being a bit... obnoxious because it refuses to really acknowledge that there is a place for expropriation, though we need to have less of a masculinist tendency behind it (which would've been an interesting point to engage with, since it was also …

reviewed The Anarchist Expropriators by Osvaldo Bayer

Review of 'The Anarchist Expropriators' on 'Goodreads'

On the one hand, it is always interesting to read about some piece of anarchist history that I knew nothing about. On the other hand, I'm exhausted with reading about self righteous male anarchists with almost no context about how their actions affected the other people (particularly the women) in their communities. The book itself is a sprint that doesn't stop for a ton of reflection. Though I suppose it could kick start a fairly interesting conversation and might not be a bad book group choice for those who want to talk about ways and means using a real historical example.

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