Topic: Anarchist movement

The Spanish Revolution: Anarchy in Action

Post author By Anarcho
Post date April 10, 2020

This is a write-up of a talk I gave in Nottingham in March 2019. It is an introduction to the 1936 Spanish Revolution as well as a general introduction to the anarchist theory which inspired it. After all, you cannot see how 1936 was anarchy in action if you do not know what anarchy is. The meeting was advertised as following:

“Iain McKay takes us back to Spain in the 1930s where anarchists occupied the factories and the land, to make a revolution at the same time as fighting Franco’s fascists. And within that revolution, the women of Mujeres Libres fought also for the liberation of women.”

This is what I would like to have said, rather than what was actually said at the meeting. Hopefully the difference is not too great. It is based on section I.8 of An Anarchist FAQ.

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Introduction to “Direct Struggle Against Capital”

Post author By Anarcho
Post date March 25, 2020

This is the introduction to Direct Struggle Against Capital: A Peter Kropotkin Anthology (AK Press, 2014). It is a comprehensive selection of texts, many of which are translated or reprinted for the first time. As the introduction shows, Kropotkin was not some kind of anarcho-Santa but rather a revolutionary anarchist with a clear idea of what was wrong with society, how to change it and what a better world should be like. The book is still available, so please consider buying it for AK Press.

What’s New in the FAQ? (1997-2004)

Post date March 7, 2020

Introduction

Here is a list of all the new additions to the FAQ from (approximately) the beginning of February 1997 to March 2004. This should make it far easier for the return visitor to find out what has changed since the last visit.

The version number of the FAQ changes as follows. A major change results in then the version number is increased by one (from version 10.2 to version 11, for example). If a minor change is being made then the current version is increased by 0.1 (for example, from version 10.2 to 10.3).

What’s New in the FAQ? (2004-2007)

Post date March 7, 2020

Introduction

Here is a list of all the new additions to the FAQ between 2004 and 2007. An list of older changes can found here.

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Anarchism, Marxism and the lessons of the Commune

Post author By Anarcho
Post date December 15, 2019

A discussion of the Paris Commune and its legacy from an anarchist perspective, indicating how it influenced both Anarchism and Marxism. It shows that anarchism alone has learnt its lessons and that Marxism, particularly in its Leninist form, paid lip-service to it while ignoring both its actual politics and its lessons.

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On Anarchist Organisation

Post author By Anarcho
Post date November 16, 2019

A discussion of anarchist views on organisation, placing it within the historical context of liberalism, democracy and the labour movement. It shows that anarchists have had a firm notion of what a good organisation should be, one in which all members participate as equals rather than in a hierarchy of masters and slaves.

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Review: Whither Anarchism? by Kristian Williams

Post author By Anarcho
Post date November 16, 2019

In 1998 Murray Bookchin wrote a response to the critics of his Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm entitled Wither Anarchism?. Twenty years later appears a pamphlet bearing the same name and in a way covering the same issue – the state of the movement. Only the most blinkered anarchist would disagree that this is a valid question – and one we need to address even if the rest of the revolutionary left is hardly much better and without the benefit of having a viable theory.

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Precursors of Syndicalism IV

Post author By Anarcho
Post date October 19, 2019

In previous instalments of this series, we have discussed syndicalist ideas in the First International (Precursors of Syndicalism I), before turning to International Working People’s Association (Precursors of Syndicalism II) and communist-anarchism (Precursors of Syndicalism III). Here, we highlight anarchist-communist criticisms of revolutionary syndicalism.

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Precursors of Syndicalism III

Post author By Anarcho
Post date July 11, 2019

After discussing the rise of syndicalist ideas in the First International (Precursors of Syndicalism I) and then in the Chicago-based International Working People’s Association (Precursors of Syndicalism II), we now turn to debates within the European anarchist movement before the rise of revolutionary syndicalism in France. In other words, communist-anarchism in the form of its most famous thinker, Peter Kropotkin. To do so shows that the standard narrative on anarchism and syndicalism is wrong.

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Review: Anarchist Perspectives in Peace and War, 1900-1918

Post author By Anarcho
Post date July 11, 2019

This is the first of a series of four books which aims to outline the range and nature of libertarian organisations and views in the twentieth century. Here the author, A W Zurbrugg, discusses anarchist and syndicalist perspectives on war before and during the First World War and must be congratulated in the breath of material summarised. It is a useful reminder that libertarians were at the centre of the labour movement in much of Europe (Britain and Germany being notable exceptions) and in Latin America at this time, addressing issues with an awareness that they could actually impact on events.