Review of Wobblies and Zapatistas

Andrej Grubacic’s and Staughton Lynd’s Wobblies and Zapatistas is a different kind of history book. Being a conversation between both, the main text is formed by Lynd’s answers to Grubacic’s questions, in which the former reflects on his trajectory as an activist and civil rights lawyer in the US. It is a form of oral history, in which Lynd draws from his personal experience to answer Grubacic’s questions, and in doing so creates a historical narrative of his time. Although many times confusing due to its lack of a single narrative and Lynd’s multiple digressions, the book is innovative because the historian (Grubacic) gives voice to the historical subject (Lynd in this case) with only partial guidance; Grubacic leads the conversation by choosing the questions, but it is Lynd who ultimately has the last word. This is the complete opposite to what is common in most historical accounts, in which the historian is the only writing authority. Moreover, Grubacic’s intention is not to portray a “balanced” view of US activism in from the 1960s, but to record the life experience of a particular individual while making sense of the present day and imagining the future of the anarchist movement. The reason for the book is thus overtly political: inspiring the new generation of activists through the accounts of an experienced one (p. 241).

There is not however a lack of engagement with theory: Grubacic and Lynd discuss the possibility of a synthesis between Marxism and anarchism (which are never explicitly defined), the notion of accompaniment, the new internationalism, and guerrilla history as an alternative to mainstream history-writing. Guerrilla history is actually the title of the second chapter of the book, in which Grubacic starts by asking Lynd about “‘other history’ as a form of accompaniment”, history ‘out of doors’.  Lynd then defines guerrilla history as that which ‘one begins with the situation of the worker, the prisoner, or whoever the poor and oppressed person is in a particular situation, NOT with the existential dilemma of the radical intellectual.’ This raises an interesting point in the debate on anarchism as an object/subject, and the differences between the history of anarchism and anarchist history. Grubacic’s book forms part of the history of anarchism, as many of the topics discussed with Lynd (Zapatismo, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the global justice movement) were anarchist movements and their undertakings. The extent to which Wobblies and Zapatistas could be termed as ‘anarchist history’ is more questionable, and would first require a definition of anarchist history. Taking Grubacic’s notion of ‘guerrilla history’ as an interpretation of ‘anarchist history’, the book fulfils some of the criteria for guerrilla history discussed by Lynd and Grubacic, such as being primarily oral history. But ultimately the book is not directly about the oppressed or by them, but rather a conversation between two activists.

           Ultimately, the book is praiseworthy because it records the experiences of a key US activist of the late 20th century, while bridging the gap between two generations of activists. However, the book often falls into overindulgence and has an hagiographic feel; Lynd’s accounts always leave him as a hero and go without any questioning by Grubacic. From a historical perspective, fresh oral accounts such as Wobblies and Zapatistas are needed as much as grand, general accounts of anarchist movements, but more coherent narrative and more direct engagement of Lynd with Grubacic’s questions could have made the book clearer and more interesting for the reader. The questions it raises on how to make history are however deserving on their own. In contrast to In defense of Anarchism, Wobblies and Zapatistas is grounded in actual events, more specifically in Lynd’s and Grubacic’s personal experiences, and its intention is not to create a coherent logical explanation of anarchism but rather to preserve the life of an activist and to engage new generations of activists.

Staughton Lynd