Colin Barker

Five times in the last 40 years, the working class has posed a radical alternative to the status quo. France 1968: A general strike and factory occupations by millions of workers shake the country. Chile 1972: Workers defending the Popular Unity government set up workers' councils--the cordones--and demand control over production. Portugal 1974: Army officers overthrow the dictator Caetano and release an upsurge of "popular power" whichs last 18 months. Iran 1979: The viciously repressive Shah is toppled and workers set up independent councils, the shoras. Poland 1980: Demanding radical change, workers build the independent trade union Solidarity to fight for their own interests, exposing the false socialism of the Eastern Bloc. In each of these cases, the actions of workers themselves were the driving force of struggles with revolutionary potential. They demonstrate that workers can and will fight back on a mass scale. Each episode offers an inspiring glimpse of the way in which workers rise to the challenge of fighting for a better world--and pose their own alternative to the system. Although none of these struggles ultimately achieved their goals, they were "revolutionary rehearsals" that hold important lessons about the struggle for socialism under modern conditions.

Revolutionary Rehearsals

Oliver unexpectedly finds himself as the chosen representative of humanity at the upcoming cosmic enquiry that will judge humans against artificial Intelligence. To gather his evidence he sets off, transiting first to the Shadow-side to meet Lord Sebastian - an advocate for humanity - and Galactic controller Ovoid - who is most certainly not.

The Royal Road to the Stars

Markham seemed to have everything-except perhaps a loving wife. His elegant home in Santa Fe housed contemporary art, and he'd just inherited his father's European collection. But that's when the trouble started. While working with the paintings, Helen, an art historian from the university, was shot and killed; later a painting was stolen; and then an Italian concert pianist staying at the house died in a bizarre piano explosion. Professor Candrew Nor, Helen's colleague, gets embroiled and from crime scene details concludes that the killer was quite short. Suspicion falls on the Hispanic handyman. But Markham's estranged brother had been left out of the fathers will and several other people have reasons for murder. Candrew meets the maid Zona, a sixties holdover, and then at Helen's funeral is introduced to Professor LaBarre, her mentor from Yale. Both have roles that are not at first clear and it takes Candrew's logic and scientific skills to pin down the murderers.

Murder in the Art Department

False Perspective

The Power Game. Ills. by "RAG."

The Shell and Other Stories is a selection of twenty-two finely crafted short stories which address every aspect of human nature. With a diverse range of content, characters and settings, the reader is taken on a worldwide journey through almost every sphere of society. A Sri Lankan shell-seller, overwhelmed by the cruel hand life has dealt him, must make some difficult decisions; a seemingly innocent couple are not quite what they seem; a spy lost in enemy territory must outwit his pursuers; an Italian philanderer’s misdeeds catch up with him; a young man must prove his worth to a very influential boss. The Shell and Other Stories deals with thought-provoking issues such as loss, separation and loneliness. In the midst of despair, however, love, hope and humour often shine through. The collection is intended to surprise, horrify and make you laugh – sometimes all three at the same time. One thing is certain: you are sure to reflect on your own life and experiences. If you want an honest thrill, to hear what it’s like to speak to the dead, to grimace about life’s unfairness, to have a good laugh or shed a tear, The Shell and Other Stories is the short story anthology for you.

The Shell and Other Stories

Derby Trolleybuses

Petroleum exploration has always been limited by the lack of adequate subsurface control. Exploration problems are usually problems of extrapolation i.e. to greater depth, to laterally equivalent rocks, or back through time. Models are widely used as a way of describing complex geological systems so that they can be treated quantitatively and used as the basis for extrapolations and predictions. Models consider, typically, a simplified geological system that can be described mathematically. It is very important to know what simplifying assumptions have been made, when these assumptions are valid, and under what conditions their use may not be appropriate. This requires an understanding of the concepts involved in building the model and how the model operates. Models are best used as a tool for probing the system and evaluating the sensitivity of the conclusions to possible uncertainties in the values of the input parameters. In a sense, models permit experimental petroleum geochemistry and allow the user to answer the What if? questions e.g. What if the geothermal gradient had been higher in the past? What if the organic matter type had been different? This book provides students, exploration geologists, and others who would like to use the available models, with a general idea of how the models work, what they can do, and what their limitations are. It also provides the information necessary to obtain the input data required by the commercial models.

Theory and Applications

Thermal Modeling of Petroleum Generation

Alan Johnson

Michael Lavalette

Despite the explosion of social movement research in Europe and the US in the last 20 years, the question of leadership has been relatively neglected. This probing examination of the theory and practice of social movement leadership critically re-examines a series of classic cases. The essays illuminate the complex dynamics and competing forms taken by social movement leadership as well as its impact on movement successes and failures.

Leadership and Social Movements

The Golden Belt, Or the Carib's Pledge, by Colin Barker

This book is a significant contribution to the expanding study of social movements. The essays consider some of the manifold ways in which people join together in popular movements to pursue visions of a different and more just society. They examine the impact of such movements, both on ordinary citizens swept along by demands for change, and on conventional institutions caught in the crossfire between radical protest and the pursuit of more mundane goals. They cast a new light on seemingly familiar themes: participation as a learning experience, the critical ingenuity of leadership but also its failures of judgment and internal divisions and the ever-changing nature of protest in the face of relentless social change. Above all, these essays succeed in capturing the essential vitality and creativity of ideas and language expressed by citizens as they struggle to reinvent their lives and times.

Studies in Protest and Collective Action

To Make Another World

Neil Davidson

Gareth Dale

This indispensable volume surveys revolutionary upheavals across the world between 1989 and 2019, drawing lessons for theorizing revolution today.

Struggling to Be Born?

Revolutionary Rehearsals in the Neoliberal Age

This ambitious volume examines revolutionary situations during a non-revolutionary historical conjuncture--the neoliberal era. The last three decades have seen an increase in the number of political upheavals that challenge existing power structures, many of them taking the form of urban revolts. This book compellingly explores a series of such upheavals--in Eastern Europe, South Africa, Indonesia, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, sub-Saharan Africa (including Congo, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso) and Egypt. Each chapter studies the ways in which protest movements developed into insurgent challenges to state power, and the strategies that regimes have deployed to contain and repress revolt. In addition to empirical chapters, the book engages in theorization of revolution, dealing with questions such as the patterning of revolution in contemporary history, the relationship between class struggle and social movements, and the prospects of socialist revolution in the twenty-first century.

Colin Barker

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