Dancin’ in the Streets!

Description

Anarchists, IWWs, Surrealists, Situationists & Provos in the 1960s

Edited with introductions by Franklin Rosemont and Charles Radcliffe
Charles H. Kerr Publishing

While square critics derided them as “the left wing of the Beat Generation,” the multi-racial, working-class editorial groups of The Rebel Worker and its sister journal Heatwave in London became well known for their highly original revolutionary perspective, innovative social/cultural criticism, and uninhibited class-war humor. Rejecting traditional left dogma, and proudly affirming the influence of Bugs Bunny and the Incredible Hulk, these playful rebels against work expanded the critique of Capital into a critique of daily life and developed a truly radical theory and practice, rooted in poetry, provocation, blues, jazz, and the pleasure principle. Active in strikes, free-speech fights, and other tumults, they also introduced countless readers to important writings by and about surrealists, Situationists, IWWs, anarchists, libertarian Marxists, Provos, the Japanese Zengakuren, and other political/cultural revolutionary-minded individuals and movements from all over the world. This lavish tome provides dozens of selections from all the editions of both journals, with a wealth of related documents, communiques and articles, a bibliography, and detailed introductions by the original editors.

“Look here for links between the Beat Generation “Mimeo Revolution” and the later Underground Press, but also between traditional Marxist theory and the new “critique of everyday life” developed by an increasingly defiant and countercultural young left that made Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancin’ in the Streets “its international anthem.”—Paul Buhle, author of Marxism in the United States