Reply #87: Anarchist history

[tomorrowsashes]

Anarchism and libertarian socialism are basically the same thing, so I'll try to give my perception of what it means. First, I'll start with an anarchist history lesson. Modern day anarchism basically started with Max Striner in the early 19th century. While he never used the word "anarchist" to describe himself, he was advocated liberation from the church and state. Striner would be called an individualist anarchist.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon took it a step further, when, in 1840, he declared "Property is theft!" Later, in the same essay, he declares the "property is freedom." This apparent contradiction is explained when he differentiates between personal property and private property. Private property is capital which is used to amass profit. This is simply extortion, and is wrong. Personal property is something that you use on a regualar basis in your life. This is necessary for human hapiness. He argued for a society in which the means of production were publicly owned, but the amount those who used them would receive corresponded with how much work they put in.

Next, there is Mikhail Bakunin. He summed up anarchist/libertarian socialist philosiphy by saying that "we are convinced that freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice, and that socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality." He differed from Proudhon in arguing that all workers should receive the same pay. Bakunin was known as a harsh critic of Marx, and argued that the state would ruin socialism.

The next step in the evolution of anarchist thinking came with Peter Kropotkin. He was known mainly for debating Darwin's theory that progress came through competition, instead arguing that cooperation was the way to move forward. In his work The Conquest of Bread, he layed out a plan for an anarcho-communist society. He envisioned that workers would put in however much work they could, and that all products would be taken to public stores where people could take as much as they wanted or needed, regardless of their personal output. He was in direct opposition to any wage system. Kropotkin is also known for his work on Ethics and Morality, as well as his geological discoveries.

Kropotkin's ideas greatly influenced the anarchist pair Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman. They, along with Voltairine de Clyre, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson carried the ideas of anarchism over to the United States, where it played a huge part in the labor movement. Goldman was also a radical feminist, and served time in prison repeatedly for distributing birth control. Both her and Berkman were eventually deported to Russia, where they witnessed the revolution, the fallout, and eventually enough to realize that the Bolsheviks were not their allies.

May Day commemorates May 1, 1886, a day when a large group of activists, including hundreds, if not thousands of anarchists, demanded an 8 hour day. The cops open fired on the crowd, unprovoked, killed a person, and injured dozens more. The anarchists held a rally three days later to show their solidarity with their fallen comrades, and to take a stand against police oppression. Again, the cops showed up, and this time a bomb was thrown into their lines, killing seven police officers, and wounded countless more. It is unknown who threw the bomb, but 8 anarchists were put on trial, and seven of them were sentenced to death, despite the fact that what little evidence there was suggested overwhelmingly that they were not involved. Three of them were hanged, and one committed suicide before, on June 26th 1893 Governor Altgeld set them free. He made it clear he was not granting the pardon because he thought the men had suffered enough, but because they were innocent of the crime for which they had been tried. They and the hanged men had ben the victims of “hysteria, packed juries and a biased judge.”

Anarchism faded in and out of the world's political landscape from then on. It resurfaced later during the Mexican revolution, the great depression, the Spanish Revolution, the 60's and finally in the anti-globalization movement of today. Anarchism is a philosiphy based on freedom, and it will never go away. Wherever people realize their oppression, they will start looking for alternatives to the state.


****Here are some links for more on anarchism*****
www.infoshop.org
www.anarchyarchives.org
www.anarchistfaq.org