Anarchist theory and practice

1
Anarchist theory and practice

• Propaganda by the deed
• Anarcho-syndicalism
• Anarchist movement in the Spanish Civil War
• Anarchism a millenarian movement?
• Counter-culture
• Anti-globalization movement
• Green Syndicalism

2
Propaganda by the deed

• Early anarchism was not militant
• Killing people is the worst method for combating
  principles. Its only through ideas that we
  triumph over ideas(Proudhon 1848)
• After Paris Commune of 1871, a decade of failure
  of anarchist-led insurrection in Spain and Italy
• Bakunin expelled from 1st International in 1872
• Italian anarchists (Malatesta, Cafiero, Covelli)
  develop concept of propaganda by the deed
• First use of the phrase by Brousse (1876)
• Kropotkin, although less radical, acknowledged
  propaganda value of violence

3

• The only form of revolution beneficial to the
  people is one which destroys the entire State to
  the roots and exterminates all the state
  traditions, institutions, and classes in Russia.
  With this end in view, the Society therefore
  refuses to impose any new organization from
  above. Any future organization will doubtless
  work its way through the movement and life of the
  people but this is a matter for future
  generations to decide. Our task is terrible,
  total, universal, and merciless destruction. (
  from CATECHISM OF A REVOLUTIONIST by Sergei
  Nechaev, 1869)
• insurrectionary deed, designed to promote the
  principles of socialism by acts, is the most
  effective means of propaganda and the one which .
  . .penetrates to the deepest social stratum and
  attracts the living forces of humanity in the
  struggle that upholds the International
  (Malatesta and Cafiero, 1876)
• By actions which compel general attention the
  new idea of revolution seeps into peoples
  minds and wins converts (Kropotkin 1881)
• We provoke we stroke the fire of revolution and
  incite people to revolt in any way we can. The
  people have always been ready for freedom they
  have simply lacked the courage to claim it for
  themselves. (Johann Most, 1884)

4
Anarcho-syndicalism

• Little connection between anarchist thinkers and
  terrorist activities that accounted for the lives
  of, amongst others, Russian Tsar Alexander (1881)
  and US President McKinley (1901)
• In 1890s, Kropotkin, Most, Malatesta denounced
  terrorism
• Anarcho-syndicalism is the anarchist branch of
  workers movement (syndicat is French for trade
  union)
• Understands labour movement as
• Revolutionary
• Purpose of Unions is not to bargain with
  employers
• Decentralised self-management of unions
• Workers organizations will eventually form basis
  of new society (which renders state authority
  obsolete)
• Most successful in Spain where the Confederacion
  Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) had 1.6 million
  members in 1936

5
Anarchism in the Spanish Civil War

• Spanish Civil War (1936-39)
• Between 500,000 and 1 million killed
• Republican government (supported by anarchists
  and socialists) vs. fascists under Generalissimo
  Francisco Franco (who established rule in Spain
  from 1939 until his death in 1975)
• Attracting volunteers to both sides from around
  Europe and beyond (Huxley, Hemingway, Picasso on
  Republican side, Salvador Dali and many Irish
  Catholics on fascist side)
• Mussolini and Hitler supporting Franco with
  troops, Stalinists aiming to control Republican
  movement
• Anarchists held much of Catalonia and Andalusia
• Social revolution
• Established self-sufficient agrarian collectives
• Took over factories and railways
• Eventually defeated by Francos army which took
  Catalonia in early 1939

6
Anarchism millenarian movement?

• Karl Mannheim was first to suggest that Bakunian
  variety of anarchism
• comes closest to continuing the chiliastic
  outlook in the modern world (1936)
• Millenarian (chiliastic) movements
• Eschatological, utopian
• Religious sects living towards promise of
  apocalypse, second coming etc.
• Anarchism
• Secular movement, but in some ways
  quasi-religious
• Spanish anarchism characterised by anti-clerical
  rage
• Missionary zeal, aiming to convert
• Sometimes, after a single reading from Tierra y
  Libertad a labourer would feel illuminated by
  the new faith. The scales would fall from his
  eyes and everything seem clear to him. He gave
  up smoking, drinking, and gambling. He no longer
  frequented brothels. Her took care never to
  pronounce the work God. He did not marry but
  lived with his companera, to whom he was strictly
  faithfull, and refused to baptize his children.
  (Brennan, The Spanish Labyrinth 1943)

7
Counter culture

• Anarchist political theory
• Simplistic polarization between good and bad
• Anti-authoritarian
• Disassociating itself from all forms of state
  authority, whether democratic-republican or
  socialist
• State an artificial superstructure separate from
  society
• Victimization of subject community
• Whether workers, peasants or artists
• Counter community
• Development of co-operatives
• Emergence of self-sufficient collectives,
  disassociated from society, almost sect-like
• Organization of worker strikes combined with
  forming proletarian culture
• Decentralized actionism, revolutionary zeal, but
  weary of bureaucratisation of mass movements

8
Anti-globalization movement

• Heterogenous
• Environmentalism
• Feminism
• Single-issue campaigners
• Labour rights
• Attractiveness of anarchism
• Egalitarianism
• Anti-authoritarianism
• Exposure of truth rather than strategy
• Moral absolutism
• Decentralized, non-hierarchical organization
• Liberalism on steroids
• Intellectual fuzziness
• Militantly in favour of liberal values, human
  rights, free speech, diversity
• Target corporate power
• Anarchist umbrella allows for coalition of
  non-violent protesters with militants

9
Green syndicalism

• Movement to combine radical ecological activism
  with syndicalist organization and strategy
• Exposing capitalist blackmail jobs vs.
  environment
• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies)
  converting to green syndicalism in 1991
• Changing its preamble for first time since 1908
• Between these two classes working class and
  employing class a struggle must go on until the
  workers of the world organize as a class, take
  possession of the means of production, abolish
  the wage system, and live in harmony with the
  earth.
• IWW is remainder of syndicalist workers movement
• Non-bureaucratic, bottom-up organization
• Employing guerrilla tactics (sabotage, planned
  inefficiency etc.)
• Green syndicalism identifies lack of
  participation in corporate decision-making as a
  crucial impediment to ecological organising
• Similarity of strategies (decentralization,
  direction action) between ecologists and
  syndicalists
• Anti-growth, but not anti-industrialism instead
  emphasizing interconnectedness, mutualism
• Expertise of workers in dismantling industrial
  capital