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Tom Wetzel: Overcoming Capitalism (2022, AK Press) 5 stars

The book is a twenty-first century reworking of the approach to unionism. The United States …

I've earlier tried a stab a this book, but only got 45 pages in. There's a lot to fit in a 391pp paperback on anarcho-syndicalist perspectives on modern capitalism, class composition, organizing methods, the pitfalls of Leninism and such. I'm about 55 pages in and making a go at it. So far, I've really appreciated Wetzel's compact style: not a lot of flourish, a few examples to illustrate a point. From an interview on Coffee With Comrades, I got that Wetzel's been working on this book off and on for decades, so it shows a lot of thought, revision and concision in the layout and arguments. And I find the introduction of jargon to be minimal and clear when it does show up, a useful thing when introducing someone to a topic and leading them down a string of arguments to the conclusion you hope them to agree with. It also makes disagreement and critique way easier. For being a bit dry, I'm excited to keep moving through this title and maybe get to pick the author's brain in an interview.