Sam Dolgoff (10 October 1902 – 15 October 1990) was an anarchist and

anarcho-syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence i ...

from Russia who grew up and lived and was active in the United States.

Biography

Dolgoff was born in the

shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...

of Ostrovno in

Mogilev Governorate The Mogilev Governorate () or Government of Mogilev was a governorate () of the Russian Empire in the territory of the present day Belarus. Its capital was in Mogilev, referred to as Mogilev-on-the-Dnieper, or Mogilev Gubernskiy. The area of the ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(in present-day

Beshankovichy Raion Beshankovichy District or Biešankovičy District ( be, Бешанко́віцкі раён, Biešankovicki rajon; russian: Бешенковичский район) is a district (raion) of Vitebsk Region in Belarus. The Vula River flows through ...

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

), moving as a child to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1905 or 1906, where he lived in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

and in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

's Lower East Side where he died. His father was a house painter, and Dolgoff began house painting at the age of 11, a profession he remained in his entire life. After being expelled from the Young People's Socialist League, Sam joined the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

in 1922 and remained an active member his entire life, playing an active role in the anarchist movement for much of the century. He was a co-founder of the ''Libertarian Labor Review'' magazine, which was later renamed '' Anarcho-Syndicalist Review'' to avoid confusion with America's

Libertarian Party Active parties by country Defunct parties by country Organizations associated with Libertarian parties See also * Liberal parties by country * List of libertarian organizations * Lists of political parties Lists of political part ...

. Dolgoff was a member of the Chicago Free Society Group in the 1920s, Vanguard Group member and editor of its publication '' Vanguard: A Journal of Libertarian Communism'' in the 1930s, and co-founded the Libertarian League in New York in 1954. He wrote articles for anarchist magazines as well as books as the editor of anthologies, some of which are listed below. He was active in many causes, and attended groups like New York's Libertarian Book Club regularly. Dogloff died of congestive heart failure at the age of 88 in 1990.

Selected bibliography

* ''Ethics and American Unionism'' (1958) * ''The Labor Party Illusion'' (1961) * ''Bakunin on Anarchy'' (1971; revised 1980) * '' The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self-Management in the Spanish Revolution, 1936–1939'' (1974) *
The Cuban Revolution: A Critical Perspective
' (1974) * "American Labor Movement: Rebellion in the Ranks" Interrogations No. 3, 1975. *
The Relevance of Anarchism to Modern Society
' (1977) * ''A Critique of Marxism'' (1983) *
Modern Technology and Anarchism
(1986) * ''Fragments: A Memoir'' (1986, ). * ''Third World Nationalism and the State'' (Anarchist Communist Federation of North America) (1983)

References

Sources

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External links

Papers, 1874–1991 (bulk 1937–1977)
at the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

Wagner Archives
Sam Dolgoff, Collected Works and Info
on RevoltLib.com
An obituary and short biography of Sam Dolgoff
on libcom.org {{DEFAULTSORT:Dolgoff, Sam 1902 births 1990 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century Russian historians American anarchists American anti-capitalists American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Anarcho-syndicalists Belarusian Jews Historians of anarchism House painters Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Jews from the Russian Empire Industrial Workers of the World members Jewish anarchists People from Beshankovichy District People from Sennensky Uyezd Russian anti-capitalists 20th-century American male writers