American Federation of Labor cited "the long period of time intervening between the commission of the crime and the final decision of the Court" as well as "the mental and physical anguish which Sacco and Vanzetti must have undergone during the past seven years" in a telegram to the governor. In August 1927, the IWW called for a three-day nationwide walkout to protest the pending executions. The most notable response came in the
Walsenburg
The City of Walsenburg is the Statutory City that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Huerfano County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 3,049 at the 2020 census, down from 3,068 in 2010.
History
Walsenbur ...
coal district of Colorado, where 1,132 out of 1,167 miners participated, which led directly to the
Colorado coal strike of 1927.
Italian anarchist Severino Di Giovanni
Severino Di Giovanni (17 March 1901 – 1 February 1931) was an Italian anarchist who immigrated to Argentina, where he became the best-known anarchist figure in that country for his campaign of violence in support of Sacco and Vanzetti and anti ...
, one of the most vocal supporters of Sacco and Vanzetti in Argentina, bombed the American embassy in Buenos Aires a few hours after Sacco and Vanzetti were condemned to death.
[ Felipe Pigna, ''Los Mitos de la historia argentina'', ed. Planeta, 2006, chapter IV "''Expropriando al Capital''", esp. 105–114] A few days after the executions, Sacco's widow thanked Di Giovanni by letter for his support and added that the director of the tobacco firm ''Combinados'' had offered to produce a cigarette brand named "Sacco & Vanzetti".
On November 26, 1927, Di Giovanni and others bombed a Combinados tobacco shop.
The
Modern Schools, also called Ferrer Schools, were American schools established in the early 20th century that were modeled after the
Escuela Moderna
The Ferrer school was an early 20th century libertarian school inspired by the anarchist pedagogy of Francisco Ferrer. He was a proponent of rationalist, secular education that emphasized reason, dignity, self-reliance, and scientific observatio ...
of
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, the Catalan educator and
anarchist. They were an important part of the anarchist,
free schooling, socialist, and labor movements in the United States, intended to educate the working-classes from a
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
,
class-conscious perspective. The Modern Schools imparted day-time academic classes for children, and night-time continuing-education lectures for adults. The first and most notable of the Modern Schools was founded in New York City in 1911, two years after Guàrdia's execution for
sedition in monarchist Spain on October 18, 1909. Commonly called the Ferrer Center, it was founded by notable anarchists, including
Leonard Abbott, Alexander Berkman, Voltairine de Cleyre, and Emma Goldman, first meeting on
St. Mark's Place, in Manhattan's
Lower East Side, but twice moved elsewhere, first within lower Manhattan, then to
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...
. Besides Berkman and Goldman, the Ferrer Center faculty included the
Ashcan School
The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, was an artistic movement in the United States during the late 19th-early 20th century that produced works portraying scenes of daily life in New York, often in the city's poorer neighborhoods.
...
painters
Robert Henri
Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher.
As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...
and
George Bellows, and its guest lecturers included writers and political activists such as
Margaret Sanger,
Jack London
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
, and
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...
.
Student Magda Schoenwetter, recalled that the school used
Montessori
The Montessori method of education involves children's natural interests and activities rather than formal teaching methods. A Montessori classroom places an emphasis on hands-on learning and developing real-world skills. It emphasizes indepen ...
methods and equipment, and emphasized academic freedom rather than fixed subjects, such as spelling and arithmetic. ''The Modern School'' magazine originally began as a newsletter for parents, when the school was in New York City, printed with the manual
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...
used in teaching printing as a profession. After moving to the Stelton Colony, New Jersey, the magazine's content expanded to poetry, prose, art, and libertarian education articles; the cover emblem and interior graphics were designed by
Rockwell Kent
Rockwell Kent (June 21, 1882 – March 13, 1971) was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, sailor, adventurer and voyager.
Biography
Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown, New York. Kent was of English descent. He lived much of ...
. Acknowledging the urban danger to their school, the organizers bought 68 acres (275,000 m
2) in
Piscataway Township, New Jersey
Piscataway () is a township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It is a suburb of the New York metropolitan area, in the Raritan Valley. At the 2010 United States Census, the population was 56,044, an increase of 5,562 (+11.0%) f ...
, and moved there in 1914, becoming the center of the Stelton Colony. Moreover, beyond New York City, the
Ferrer Colony and Modern School
The Ferrer Center and Stelton Colony were an anarchist social center and colony, respectively, organized to honor the memory of anarchist pedagogue Francisco Ferrer and to build a school based on his model in the United States.
In the widespre ...
was founded (–1915) as a Modern School-based community, that endured some forty years. In 1933, James and
Nellie Dick, who earlier had been principals of the Stelton Modern School, founded the Modern School in
Lakewood, New Jersey
Lakewood Township is the most populous township in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A rapidly growing community as of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a total population of 135,158 representing an increase of 41,415 (+45.5% ...
, which survived the original Modern School, the Ferrer Center, becoming the final surviving such school, lasting until 1958.
Ross Winn was an American
anarchist writer and publisher from Texas who was mostly active within the Southern United States. Born in
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
, Winn wrote articles for ''
The Firebrand'', a short-lived, but renowned weekly out of
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...
; ''The Rebel'', an anarchist journal published in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
; and Emma Goldman's ''Mother Earth''.
[Slifer, Shaun and Ally Reeves (Summer 2004). "Ross Winn: Digging Up a Tennessee Anarchist". '' Fifth Estate'', pp. 55–57.] Winn began his first paper, known as ''Co-operative Commonwealth''. He then edited and published ''Coming Era'' for a brief time in 1898 and then ''Winn's Freelance'' in 1899. In 1902, he announced a new paper called ''Winn's Firebrand''. In 1901, Winn met Emma Goldman in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, and found in her a lasting ally. As she wrote in his obituary, Emma "was deeply impressed with his fervor and complete abandonment to the cause, so unlike most American revolutionists, who love their ease and comfort too well to risk them for their ideals." Winn kept up a correspondence with Goldman throughout his life, as he did with other prominent anarchist writers at the time.
Joseph Labadie
Charles Joseph Antoine Labadie (April 18, 1850 – October 7, 1933) was an American labor organizer, anarchist, Greenbacker, social activist, printer, publisher, essayist, and poet.
Biography
Early years
Jo Labadie was born on April 18, 1850, ...
, a prominent writer and organizer in Michigan, was another friend to Winn, and contributed several pieces to ''Winn's Firebrand'' in its later years.
Enrico Arrigoni
Enrico Arrigoni (pseudonym: Frank Brand) (February 20, 1894 Pozzuolo Martesana, Province of Milan – December 7, 1986 New York City) was an Italian American individualist anarchist, a lathe operator, house painter, bricklayer, dramatist and politi ...
, pseudonym of Frank Brand, was an Italian American individualist anarchist Lathe operator, house painter, bricklayer, dramatist and political activist influenced by the work of
Max Stirner
Johann Kaspar Schmidt (25 October 1806 – 26 June 1856), known professionally as Max Stirner, was a German post-Hegelian philosopher, dealing mainly with the Hegelian notion of social alienation and self-consciousness. Stirner is often seen a ...
.
In the 1910s, he started becoming involved in anarchist and anti-war activism around Milan. From the 1910s until the 1920s he participated in anarchist activities and popular uprisings in various countries including Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Argentina and Cuba. He lived from the 1920s onwards in New York City and there he edited the individualist anarchist eclectic journal ''Eresia'' in 1928. He also wrote for other American anarchist publications such as ''
L' Adunata dei refrattari
''L'Adunata dei refrattari'' ( en: ''Call of the refractaires'' (unmanageable ones)) was an Italian American anarchist publication published between 1922 and 1971 in New York City.International Institute of Social History"L'Adunata dei refrattari A ...
'', ''Cultura Obrera'', Controcorrente and Intessa Libertaria. During the Spanish Civil War, he went to fight with the anarchists but was imprisoned and was helped on his release by Emma Goldman.
Afterwards Arrigoni became a longtime member of the
Libertarian Book Club in New York City. ''Vanguard: A Libertarian Communist Journal'' was a monthly anarchist political and theoretical journal, based in New York City, published between April 1932 and July 1939, and edited by
Samuel Weiner, among others. ''Vanguard'' began as a project of the
Vanguard Group, composed of members of the editorial collective of the ''
Road to Freedom'' newspaper, as well as members of the Friends of Freedom group. Its initial subtitle was "An Anarchist Youth Publication", but changed to "A Libertarian Communist Journal " after Issue 1. Within several issues ''Vanguard'' would become a central sounding board for the international anarchist movement, including reports of developments during the
Spanish Revolution as well as movement reports by
Augustin Souchy
Augustin Souchy Bauer (28 August 1892 – 1 January 1984) was a German anarchist, antimilitarist, labor union official and journalist. He traveled widely and wrote extensively about the Spanish Civil War and intentional communities. He was ...
and Emma Goldman.
Other tendencies were also present within American anarchist circles. As such American anarcho-syndicalist
Sam Dolgoff
Sam Dolgoff (10 October 1902 – 15 October 1990) was an anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist from Russia who grew up and lived and was active in the United States.
Biography
Dolgoff was born in the shtetl of Ostrovno in Mogilev Governorate, ...
shows some of the criticism that some people on other anarchist currents at the time had. "Speaking of life at the Stelton Colony of New York in the 1930s, noted with disdain that it, "like other colonies, was infested by vegetarians, naturists, nudists, and other cultists, who sidetracked true anarchist goals." One resident "always went barefoot, ate raw food, mostly nuts and raisins, and refused to use a tractor, being opposed to machinery, and he didn't want to abuse horses, so he dug the earth himself." Such self-proclaimed anarchists were in reality "ox-cart anarchists," Dolgoff said, "who opposed organization and wanted to return to a simpler life." In an interview with
Paul Avrich
Paul Avrich (August 4, 1931 – February 16, 2006) was a historian of the 19th and early 20th century anarchist movement in Russia and the United States. He taught at Queens College, City University of New York, for his entire career, from 19 ...
before his death, Dolgoff also grumbled, "I am sick and tired of these half-assed artists and poets who object to organization and want only to play with their belly buttons"".
Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer and
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He was appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation ...
, head of the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
's
General Intelligence Division, were intent on using the
Anarchist Exclusion Act of 1918 to deport any non-citizens they could identify as advocates of anarchy or revolution. "Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman," Hoover wrote while they were in prison, "are, beyond doubt, two of the most dangerous anarchists in this country and return to the community will result in undue harm." At her deportation hearing on October 27, she refused to answer questions about her beliefs on the grounds that her American citizenship invalidated any attempt to deport her under the Anarchist Exclusion Act, which could be enforced only against non-citizens of the U.S. She presented a written statement instead: "Today so-called aliens are deported. Tomorrow Native Americans will be banished. Already some patrioteers are suggesting that native American sons to whom democracy is a sacred ideal should be exiled." The Labor Department included Goldman and Berkman among 249 aliens it deported ''en masse'', mostly people with only vague associations with radical groups who had been swept up in
government raids in November.
Goldman and Berkman traveled around Russia during the time of the Russian civil War after the Russian revolution and they found repression, mismanagement, and corruption instead of the equality and worker empowerment they had dreamed of. They met with
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
, who assured them that government suppression of press liberties was justified. He told them: "There can be no free speech in a revolutionary period." Berkman was more willing to forgive the government's actions in the name of "historical necessity", but he eventually joined Goldman in opposing the Soviet state's authority. After a short trip to Stockholm, they moved to Berlin for several years; during this time she agreed to write a series of articles about her time in Russia for
Joseph Pulitzer
Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...
's newspaper, the ''
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...
''. These were later collected and published in book form as ''My Disillusionment in Russia'' (1923) and ''
My Further Disillusionment in Russia
''My Disillusionment in Russia'' is a book by Emma Goldman, published in 1923 by Doubleday, Page & Co. The book was based on a much longer manuscript entitled "My Two Years in Russia" which was an eyewitness account of events in Russia from 1920 ...
'' (1924). The titles of these books were added by the publishers to be scintillating and Goldman protested, albeit in vain.
In July 1936, the Spanish Civil War started after an attempted ''
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
'' by parts of the
Spanish Army against the government of the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...
. At the same time, the
Spanish anarchists
Anarchism in Spain has historically gained some support and influence, especially before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, when it played an active political role and is considered the end of the golden age of cl ...
, fighting against the
Nationalist forces, started
an anarchist revolution. Goldman was invited to Barcelona and in an instant, as she wrote to her niece, "the crushing weight that was pressing down on my heart since Sasha's death left me as by magic". She was welcomed by the
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ( en, National Confederation of Labor; CNT) is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionar ...
(CNT) and
Federación Anarquista Ibérica
The Iberian Anarchist Federation ( es, Federación Anarquista Ibérica, FAI) is a Spanish organization of anarchist militants active within affinity groups in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) anarcho-syndicalist union. It is often ...
(FAI) organizations and for the first time in her life lived in a
community run by and for anarchists, according to true anarchist principles. She would later write that "
all my life I have not met with such warm hospitality, comradeship and solidarity." After touring a series of collectives in the province of
Huesca
Huesca (; an, Uesca) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and of the comarca of Hoya de Huesca. In 2009 it had a population of 52,059, almo ...
, she told a group of workers that "
ur revolution will destroy forever
he notionthat anarchism stands for chaos." She began editing the weekly ''CNT-FAI Information Bulletin'' and responded to English-language mail.
The first prominent American to reveal his homosexuality was the poet
Robert Duncan. This occurred when in 1944, using his own name in the anarchist magazine ''Politics'', he wrote that homosexuals were an oppressed minority.
Post-World War II period
An American anarcho-pacifist current developed in this period as well as a related
Christian anarchist
Christian anarchism is a Christian movement in political theology that claims anarchism is inherent in Christianity and the Gospels. It is grounded in the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately an ...
one. For Andrew Cornell, "
ny young anarchists of this period departed from previous generations both by embracing pacifism and by devoting more energy to promoting avant-garde culture, preparing the ground for the
Beat Generation in the process. The editors of the anarchist journal ''Retort'', for instance, produced a volume of writings by WWII draft resistors imprisoned at Danbury, Connecticut, while regularly publishing the poetry and prose of writers such as
Kenneth Rexroth and
Norman Mailer. From the 1940s to the 1960s, then, the radical pacifist movement in the United States harbored both social democrats and anarchists, at a time when the anarchist movement itself seemed on its last legs." As such anarchism influenced writers associated with the Beat Generation such as
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Gener ...
and
Gary Snyder.
Anarcho-pacifism is a tendency within the anarchist movement which rejects the use of violence in the struggle for social change.
The main early influences were the thought of Henry David Thoreau
and Leo Tolstoy while later the ideas of Mohandas Gandhi gained importance.
It developed "mostly in Holland, Britain, and the United States, before and during World War II.
Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980) was an American journalist, social activist and anarchist who, after a bohemian youth, became a Catholic without abandoning her social and anarchist activism. She was perhaps the best-known ...
was an American journalist, social activist and devout
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
convert who advocated the Catholic economic theory of
distributism
Distributism is an economic theory asserting that the world's productive assets should be widely owned rather than concentrated.
Developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, distributism was based upon Catholic social teaching pri ...
. She was also considered to be an anarchist and did not hesitate to use the term. In the 1930s, Day worked closely with fellow activist
Peter Maurin
Peter Maurin (; May 9, 1877 – May 15, 1949) was a French Catholic social activist, theologian, and De La Salle Brother who founded the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933 with Dorothy Day.
Maurin expressed his philosophy through short pieces of ...
to establish the
Catholic Worker movement
The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics and their associates founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in the United States in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus ...
, a nonviolent, pacifist movement that continues to combine direct aid for the poor and homeless with
nonviolent direct action on their behalf. The cause for Day's
canonization is open in the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.
Ammon Hennacy
Ammon Ashford Hennacy (1893–1970) was an American Christian pacifist, anarchist, social activist, member of the Catholic Worker Movement, and Wobbly. He established the Joe Hill House of Hospitality in Salt Lake City, Utah, and practiced tax ...
was an American
pacifist, Christian anarchist,
vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetariani ...
, social activist, member of the
Catholic Worker Movement
The Catholic Worker Movement is a collection of autonomous communities of Catholics and their associates founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in the United States in 1933. Its aim is to "live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus ...
and a
Wobbly
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 ...
. He practiced tax resistance and established the
Joe Hill House of Hospitality in
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
.
Anarchism continued to influence important American literary and intellectual personalities of the time, such as
Paul Goodman
Paul Goodman (1911–1972) was an American writer and public intellectual best known for his 1960s works of social criticism. Goodman was prolific across numerous literary genres and non-fiction topics, including the arts, civil rights, decen ...
,
Dwight Macdonald, Allen Ginsberg,
Leopold Kohr
Leopold Kohr (1909–1994) was an economist, jurist and political scientist known both for his opposition to the "cult of bigness" in social organization and as one of those who inspired the ''Small Is Beautiful'' movement. For almost twenty years, ...
,
[Dr. Leopold Kohr, 84; Backed Smaller States](_blank)
, The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
obituary, 28 February 1994. Judith Malina,
Julian Beck
Julian Beck (May 31, 1925 – September 14, 1985) was an American actor, stage director, poet, and painter. He is best known for co-founding and directing The Living Theatre, as well as his role as Reverend Henry Kane, the malevolent preacher ...
and
John Cage.
[Cage self-identified as an anarchist in a 1985 interview: "I'm an anarchist. I don't know whether the adjective is pure and simple, or philosophical, or what, but I don't like government! And I don't like institutions! And I don't have any confidence in even good institutions.]
John Cage at Seventy: An Interview
by Stephen Montague. ''American Music'', Summer 1985. Ubu.com. Accessed May 24, 2007. Paul Goodman was an American
sociologist, poet, writer, anarchist, and public intellectual. Goodman is now mainly remembered as the author of ''
Growing Up Absurd
''Growing Up Absurd'' is a 1960 book by Paul Goodman on the relationship between American juvenile delinquency and societal opportunities to fulfill natural needs. Contrary to the then-popular view that juvenile delinquents should be led to re ...
'' (1960) and an activist on the
pacifist left in the 1960s and an inspiration to that era's student movement. He is less remembered as a co-founder of
Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility and focuses on the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist–client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life ...
in the 1940s and 1950s. In the mid-1940s, together with
C. Wright Mills
Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916 – March 20, 1962) was an American Sociology, sociologist, and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills published widely in both popular and intellectual journ ...
, he contributed to ''
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
'', the journal edited during the 1940s by Dwight Macdonald. In 1947, he published two books, ''
Kafka's Prayer'' and ''
Communitas
''Communitas'' is a Latin noun commonly referring either to an unstructured community in which people are equal, or to the very spirit of community. It also has special significance as a loanword in cultural anthropology and the social sciences. V ...
'', a classic study of urban design coauthored with his brother
Percival Goodman
Percival Goodman (January 13, 1904 – October 11, 1989) was an American urban theorist and architect who designed more than 50 synagogues between 1948 and 1983. He has been called the "leading theorist" of modern synagogue design, Philip N ...
.
Anarchism proved to be influential also in the early environmentalist movement in the United States. Leopold Kohr (1909–1994) was an
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
,
jurist and
political scientist
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
known both for his opposition to the "cult of bigness" in social organization and as one of those who inspired the ''
Small Is Beautiful
''Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered'' is a collection of essays published in 1973 by German-born British economist E. F. Schumacher. The title "Small Is Beautiful" came from a principle espoused by Schumach ...
'' movement, mainly through his most influential work ''The Breakdown of Nations''. Kohr was an important inspiration to the
Green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...
,
bioregional,
Fourth World,
decentralist
Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group.
Conce ...
, and anarchist movements, Kohr contributed often to
John Papworth's "journal for the Fourth World",
Resurgence. One of Kohr's students was economist
E. F. Schumacher, another prominent influence on these movements, whose best-selling book ''Small Is Beautiful'' took its title from one of Kohr's core principles.
Similarly, his ideas inspired
Kirkpatrick Sale
Kirkpatrick Sale (born June 27, 1937) is an American author who has written prolifically about political decentralism, environmentalism, luddism and technology. He has been described as having a "philosophy unified by decentralism" and as being " ...
's books ''Human Scale'' (1980) and ''Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision'' (1985).
In 1958,
Murray Bookchin defined himself as an anarchist,
seeing parallels between anarchism and
ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...
. His first book, ''
Our Synthetic Environment,'' was published under the
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
Lewis Herber in 1962, a few months before
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose influential book '' Silent Spring'' (1962) and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental ...
's ''
Silent Spring
''Silent Spring'' is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading d ...
''. The book described a broad range of environmental ills but received little attention because of its political radicalism. His groundbreaking essay "Ecology and Revolutionary Thought" introduced ecology as a concept in radical politics.
In 1968, Bookchin founded another group that published the influential ''Anarchos'' magazine, which published that and other innovative essays on
post-scarcity
Post-scarcity is a theoretical economic situation in which most goods can be produced in great abundance with minimal human labor needed, so that they become available to all very cheaply or even freely.
Post-scarcity does not mean that scarc ...
and on ecological technologies such as solar and wind energy, and on decentralization and miniaturization. Lecturing throughout the United States, he helped popularize the concept of ecology to the
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...
. ''
Post-Scarcity Anarchism
''Post-Scarcity Anarchism'' is a collection of essays by Murray Bookchin, first published in 1971 by Ramparts Press. In it, Bookchin outlines the possible form anarchism might take under conditions of post-scarcity. One of Bookchin's major wo ...
'' is a collection of essays written by Murray Bookchin and first published in 1971 by Ramparts Press. It outlines the possible form anarchism might take under conditions of post-scarcity. It is one of Bookchin's major works, and its radical thesis provoked controversy for being utopian and
messianic in its faith in the liberatory potential of technology.
Bookchin argues that
post-industrial societies are also post-scarcity societies, and can thus imagine "the fulfillment of the social and cultural potentialities latent in a technology of abundance".
The self-administration of society is now made possible by technological advancement and, when technology is used in an ecologically sensitive manner, the revolutionary potential of society will be much changed.
In 1982, his book ''The Ecology of Freedom'' had a profound impact on the emerging ecology movement, both in the United States and abroad. He was a principal figure in the Burlington Greens in 1986 to 1990, an ecology group that ran candidates for city council on a program to create neighborhood democracy. In ''From Urbanization to Cities'' (originally published in 1987 as ''The Rise of Urbanization and the Decline of Citizenship''), Bookchin traced the democratic traditions that influenced his political philosophy and defined the implementation of the
libertarian municipalism
Murray Bookchin (January 14, 1921 – July 30, 2006) was an American social theorist, author, orator, historian, and political philosopher. A pioneer in the environmental movement, Bookchin formulated and developed the theory of social ec ...
concept. A few years later ''The Politics of Social Ecology'', written by his partner of 20 years,
Janet Biehl
Janet Biehl (born September 4, 1953) is an American author, copyeditor, and artist. She authored several books and articles associated with social ecology, the body of ideas developed and publicized by Murray Bookchin. Formerly an advocate of his ...
, briefly summarized these ideas.
The
Libertarian League was founded in New York City in 1954 as a political organization building on the
Libertarian Book Club. Members included
Sam Dolgoff
Sam Dolgoff (10 October 1902 – 15 October 1990) was an anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist from Russia who grew up and lived and was active in the United States.
Biography
Dolgoff was born in the shtetl of Ostrovno in Mogilev Governorate, ...
,
Russell Blackwell,
Dave Van Ronk
David Kenneth Ritz Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002) was an American folk singer. An important figure in the American folk music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in the 1960s, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of Ma ...
,
Enrico Arrigoni
Enrico Arrigoni (pseudonym: Frank Brand) (February 20, 1894 Pozzuolo Martesana, Province of Milan – December 7, 1986 New York City) was an Italian American individualist anarchist, a lathe operator, house painter, bricklayer, dramatist and politi ...
and Murray Bookchin. Its central principle, stated in its journal ''Views and Comments'', was "equal freedom for all in a free socialist society". Branches of the League opened in a number of other American cities, including Detroit and San Francisco. It was dissolved at the end of the 1960s.
Sam Dolgoff
Sam Dolgoff (10 October 1902 – 15 October 1990) was an anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist from Russia who grew up and lived and was active in the United States.
Biography
Dolgoff was born in the shtetl of Ostrovno in Mogilev Governorate, ...
(1902–1990) was a Russian American anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist. After being expelled from the
Young People's Socialist League, Dolgoff 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 the 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''. In the 1930s, he was a member of the editorial board of ''Spanish Revolution'', a monthly American publication reporting on the largest Spanish labor organization taking part in the Spanish Civil War. Among his books were ''Bakunin on Anarchy'', ''
The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self-Management in the Spanish Revolution, 1936–1939'', and ''The Cuban Revolution'' (Black Rose Books, 1976), a denunciation of Cuban life under Fidel Castro.
Anarchism was influential in the
counterculture of the 1960s and anarchists actively participated in the
late sixties students and workers revolts. The New Left in the United States also included anarchist, countercultural and
hippie-related radical groups such as the
Yippies
The Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were commonly called Yippies, was an American youth-oriented radical and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the late 1960s. It was founded on D ...
who were led by
Abbie Hoffman and
Black Mask/
Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers. For
David Graeber, "
SDS splintered into squabbling Maoist factions, groups like
the Diggers and Yippies (founded in '68) took the first option. Many were explicitly anarchist, and certainly, the late '60s turn towards the creation of autonomous collectives and institution building was squarely within the anarchist tradition, while the emphasis on free love, psychedelic drugs, and the creation of alternative forms of pleasure was squarely in the bohemian tradition with which Euro-American anarchism has always been at least tangentially aligned." By late 1966, the Diggers opened
free stores
Give-away shops, freeshops, free stores or swap shops are stores where all goods are free. They are similar to charity shops, with mostly second-hand items—only everything is available at no cost. Whether it is a book, a piece of furniture, a ...
which simply gave away their stock, provided free food, distributed free drugs, gave away money, organized free music concerts, and performed works of political art.
The Diggers took their name from the original
English Diggers led by
Gerrard Winstanley
Gerrard Winstanley (19 October 1609 – 10 September 1676) was an English Protestant religious reformer, political philosopher, and activist during the period of the Commonwealth of England. Winstanley was the leader and one of the founde ...
and sought to create a mini-society free of money and capitalism.
On the other hand, the Yippies employed theatrical gestures, such as advancing a pig ("
Pigasus the Immortal") as a candidate for president in 1968, to mock the social status quo. They have been described as a highly theatrical,
anti-authoritarian
Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism, which is defined as "a form of social organisation characterised by submission to authority", "favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom" an ...
and anarchist
[Abbie Hoffman, Soon to be a Major Motion Picture, page 128. Perigee Books, 1980.] youth movement of "symbolic politics". Since they were well known for street theater and politically themed pranks, many of the "old school"
political left
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
either ignored or denounced them. According to
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
, "The group was known for street theater pranks and was once referred to as the '
Groucho Marxists'." By the 1960s, Christian anarchist Dorothy Day earned the praise of counterculture leaders such as Abbie Hoffman, who characterized her as the first hippie,
a description of which Day approved.
Another influential personality within American anarchism is
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...
. Chomsky's political ideology is aligned with
anarcho-syndicalism and
libertarian socialism
Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (2 ...
.
[Chomsky wrote the preface to an edition of ]Rudolf Rocker
Johann Rudolf Rocker (March 25, 1873 – September 19, 1958) was a German anarchist writer and activist. He was born in Mainz to a Roman Catholic artisan family.
His father died when he was a child, and his mother when he was in his teens, so he ...
's book ''Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice''. In it Chomsky wrote: "I felt at once, and still feel, that Rocker was pointing the way to a much better world, one that is within our grasp, one that may well be the only alternative to the 'universal catastrophe' towards which 'we are driving on under full sail'..." Book Citation: Rudolph Rocker. ''Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice''. AK Press. p. ii. 2004. He is a member of the
Campaign for Peace and Democracy and the Industrial Workers of the World international union. Since the 1960s, he has become known more widely as a
political dissident
A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...
, an anarchist, and a
libertarian socialist
Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (20 ...
intellectual. After the publication of his first books on linguistics, Chomsky became a prominent critic of the Vietnam War, and since then has continued to publish books of political criticism. He has become well known for his critiques of
foreign policy of the United States,
state capitalism
State capitalism is an economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises (including the processes of capital ...
and the mainstream
news media
The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public. These include news agencies, print media (newspapers, news magazines), broadcast news (radio and television), and ...
. His
media criticism has included ''
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media'' (1988), co-written with
Edward S. Herman
Edward Samuel Herman (April 7, 1925 – November 11, 2017) was an American economist, media scholar and social critic. Herman is known for his media criticism, in particular the propaganda model hypothesis he developed with Noam Chomsky, a fr ...
, an analysis articulating the
propaganda model theory for examining the media.
Late 20th century and contemporary times
Andrew Cornell reports that "
Sam Dolgoff
Sam Dolgoff (10 October 1902 – 15 October 1990) was an anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist from Russia who grew up and lived and was active in the United States.
Biography
Dolgoff was born in the shtetl of Ostrovno in Mogilev Governorate, ...
and others worked to revitalize 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 ...
(IWW), alongside new syndicalist formations like the Chicago-based Resurgence group and Boston's Root & Branch; Bookchin's Anarchos collective deepened the theoretical links between ecological and anarchist thought; the ''
Fifth Estate'' drew heavily on French
ultra-left
The term ultra-leftism, when used among Marxist groups, is a pejorative for certain types of positions on the far-left that are extreme or uncompromising. Another definition historically refers to a particular current of Marxist communism, where ...
ist thinking and began pursuing a critique of technology by decade's end. Meanwhile, the Social Revolutionary Anarchist Federation connected individuals and circles across the country through a mimeographed monthly discussion bulletin. Just as influential to the anarchist milieu that has taken shape in the decades which have followed, however, were the efforts of the
Movement for a New Society
The Movement for a New Society (MNS) was a U.S.-based network of social activist collectives, committed to the principles of nonviolence, who played a key role in social movements of the 1970s and 1980s.
According to a description from the MNS pu ...
(MNS), a national network of feminist radical pacifist collectives that existed from 1971 to 1988."
[Andrew Cornell. Perspectives 2009. ]Institute for Anarchist Studies
The Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS) is a non-profit organization founded by Chuck W. Morse in 1996, following the anarcho-communist
Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a p ...
David Graeber reports that in the late 1970s in the northeast "
e main inspiration for anti-nuclear activists—at least the main organizational inspiration—came from a group called the Movement for a New Society (MNS), based in Philadelphia. MNS was spearheaded by a gay rights activist named George Lakey, who—like several other members of the group—was both an anarchist, and a
Quaker ... Many of what have now become standard features of formal consensus process—the principle that the facilitator should never act as an interested party in the debate, for example, or the idea of the "block"—were first disseminated by MNS trainings in Philadelphia and Boston." For Andrew Cornell, "MNS popularized consensus decision-making, introduced the spokescouncil method of organization to activists in the United States, and was a leading advocate of a variety of practices—communal living, unlearning oppressive behavior, creating co-operatively owned businesses—that are now often subsumed under the rubric of "
prefigurative politics
Prefigurative politics are the modes of organization and social relationships that strive to reflect the future society being sought by the group. According to Carl Boggs, who coined the term, the desire is to embody "within the ongoing political p ...
."
Fredy Perlman
Fredy Perlman (20 August 1934 – 26 July 1985) was an American author, publisher, and activist. His best-known work, ''Against His-Story, Against Leviathan!'', retells the historical rise of state domination through the Hobbesian metaphor o ...
was a Czech-born, naturalized American author, publisher, and militant. His most popular work, the book ''
Against His-Story, Against Leviathan
Fredy Perlman (20 August 1934 – 26 July 1985) was an American author, publisher, and activist. His best-known work, ''Against His-Story, Against Leviathan!'', retells the historical rise of state domination through the Hobbesian metaphor of ...
!'', details the rise of state domination with a retelling of history through the
Hobbesian
Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influent ...
metaphor of the
Leviathan
Leviathan (; he, לִוְיָתָן, ) is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and, according to some ...
. The book remains a major source of inspiration for anti-civilization perspectives in
contemporary anarchism, most notably on the thought of philosopher John Zerzan. Zerzan is an American anarchist and primitivist philosopher and author. His five major books are ''Elements of Refusal'' (1988), ''
Future Primitive and Other Essays'' (1994), ''Running on Emptiness'' (2002), ''Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections'' (2005) and ''Twilight of the Machines'' (2008). Zerzan was one of the editors of ''
Green Anarchy'', a controversial journal of anarcho-primitivist and insurrectionary anarchist thought. He is also the host of ''Anarchy Radio'' in Eugene on the
University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...
's radio station
KWVA
KWVA (88.1 FM) is a college radio station broadcasting from the EMU building on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Licensed to the University of Oregon, it serves the Eugene/Springfield metropolitan area and has a ...
. He has also served as a contributing editor at ''
Anarchy Magazine
''Anarchy'' was an anarchist monthly magazine produced in London from March 1961 until December 1970. It was published by Freedom Press and edited by its founder, Colin Ward with cover art on many issues by Rufus Segar. The magazine included a ...
'' and has been published in magazines such as ''
AdBusters
The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia. Adbusters describes itself as "a global network of artists, activis ...
''. ''
The Match!'' is an
atheist/anarchist journal published since 1969 in
Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
. ''The Match!'' is edited, published, and printed by Fred Woodworth. ''The Match!'' is published irregularly; new issues usually appear once or twice per year. Over 100 issues have been published to date. ''
Green Anarchy'' was a
magazine published by a collective located in
Eugene, Oregon. It had a circulation of 8,000, partly in prisons, the prison subscribers given free copies of each issue as stated in the magazine. Author John Zerzan was one of the publication's editors.
''
Fifth Estate'' is an American periodical based in Detroit established in 1965, but with remote staff members across North America. Its editorial collective sometimes has divergent views on the topics the magazine addresses but generally shares an anarchist,
anti-authoritarian
Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism, which is defined as "a form of social organisation characterised by submission to authority", "favoring complete obedience or subjection to authority as opposed to individual freedom" an ...
outlook and a non-dogmatic, action-oriented approach to change. The title implies that the periodical is an alternative to the
fourth estate (traditional print journalism). ''Fifth Estate'' is frequently cited as the longest running English language
anarchist publication in North America, although this is sometimes disputed since it became only explicitly anti-authoritarian in 1975 after ten years of publishing as part of the 1960s Underground Press movement. ''
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed'' is a North American anarchist magazine, and was one of the most popular anarchist publications in North America in the 1980s and 1990s. Its influences could be described as a range of post-left anarchism and various strains of
insurrectionary anarchism
Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory and tendency within the anarchist movement that emphasizes insurrection as a revolutionary practice. It is critical of formal organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based ...
and sometimes
anarcho-primitivism
Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of civilization (anti-civ) that advocates a return to non-civilized ways of life through deindustrialization, abolition of the division of labor or specialization, and abandonment of large-scale organ ...
. It was founded by members of the Columbia Anarchist League of
Columbia, Missouri, and continued to be published there for nearly fifteen years, eventually under the sole editorial control of
Jason McQuinn
''Alternative Press Review'' (byline: "Your guide beyond the mainstream") is a libertarian American magazine established in 1993 as a sister periodical to '' Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed''. The first issue was published in Fall 1993. As o ...
(who initially used the pseudonym "
Lev Chernyi
Lev Chernyi ( rus, Лев Чёрный, p=ˈlʲef ˈtɕɵrnɨj, a=Lyev Chyornyy.ru.vorb.oga; born Pavel Dimitrievich Turchaninov, rus, Па́вел Дми́триевич Турчани́нов, p=ˈpavʲɪl ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrtɕɪˈn ...
"), before briefly moving to New York City in 1995 to be published by members of the
Autonomedia
Autonomedia is a nonprofit publisher based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn known for publishing works of criticism. Staffed by volunteers, they have published over 200 books, usually with 3,000 of each run. Its most renowned book is Hakim Bey's essays o ...
collective. The demise of independent distributor
Fine Print
Fine print, small print, or mouseprint is less noticeable print smaller than the more obvious larger print it accompanies that advertises or otherwise describes or partially describes a commercial product or service. The larger print that is us ...
nearly killed the magazine, necessitating its return to the Columbia collective after just two issues. It remained in Columbia from 1997 to 2006, after which a
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and E ...
-based group continued to publish bi-annually. The magazine is noted for spearheading the
Post-left anarchy critique ("beyond the confines of ideology"), as articulated by such writers as
Hakim Bey,
Lawrence Jarach, John Zerzan,
Bob Black, and Wolfi Landstreicher (formerly Feral Faun/Feral Ranter among other
pen names).
Anarchists became more visible in the 1980s, as a result of publishing, protests and conventions. In 1980, the First International Symposium on Anarchism was held in Portland, Oregon. In 1986, the Haymarket Remembered conference was held in Chicago, to observe the centennial of the infamous
Haymarket Riot
The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or the Haymarket Incident, was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in ...
. This conference was followed by annual, continental conventions in Minneapolis (1987), Toronto (1988), and San Francisco (1989). Recently there has been a resurgence in anarchist ideals in the United States.
[Sean Sheehan Published 2004 Reaktion Book]
Anarchism
175 pages In the 1980s anarchism became linked with
squatting and
social centers
Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...
such as
ABC No Rio and
C-Squat
C-Squat is a former squat house located at 155 Avenue C (between 9th and 10th Streets) in the Alphabet City neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City that has been home to musicians, artists, and activists, among others. After a fire, it was t ...
in New York City. The
Institute for Anarchist Studies
The Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS) is a non-profit organization founded by Chuck W. Morse in 1996, following the anarcho-communist
Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a p ...
is a non-profit organization founded by
Chuck W. Morse following the anarchist-communist school of thought, in 1996 to assist anarchist writers and further develop the theoretical aspects of the anarchist movement. In 1984
Workers Solidarity Alliance
Workers' Solidarity Alliance (WSA) is an American anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian group designed to help establish member-managed organizations in the workplace and community. It was founded in 1984, created from an existing network of group ...
was founded as an
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 ...
political organization which published
Ideas and Action' and was at one time affiliated to the
International Workers Association
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
(IWA-AIT), an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist unions and groups.
In the late 1980s, started as a newspaper and in 1991 expanded into a continental federation. It brought new ideas to the movement's mainstream, such as
white privilege
White privilege, or white skin privilege, is the societal privilege that benefits white people over non-white people in some societies, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or economic circumstances. With root ...
, and new people, including anti-imperialists and former members of the Trotskyist
Revolutionary Socialist League. It collapsed in 1998 amid disagreements about the organization's
racial justice tenets and the viability of anarchism.
Love and Rage involved hundreds of activists across the country at its peak and included a section based in Mexico City, Amor Y Rabia, which published a newspaper of the same name. Contemporary anarchism, with its shift in focus from class-based oppression to all forms of oppression, began to address race-based oppression in earnest in the 1990s with Black anarchists
Lorenzo Ervin
Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin (born 1947) is an American writer, activist, and black anarchist. He is a former member of the Black Panther Party and Concerned Citizens for Justice. He was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and has lived in Memphis, Tennes ...
and
Kuwasi Balagoon, the journal ''
Race Traitor
Race traitor is a pejorative reference to a person who is perceived as supporting attitudes or positions thought to be against the supposed interests or well-being of that person's own race. The term is the source of the name of a quarterly magaz ...
'', and movement-building organizations including Love and Rage, , , and .
In the mid-1990s, an insurrectionary anarchist tendency also emerged in the United States mainly absorbing southern European influences.
["Insurrectionary anarchism has been developing in the English language anarchist movement since the 1980s, thanks to translations and writings by Jean Weir in her "Elephant Editions" and her magazine "Insurrection". .. In ]Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, British Columbia, Canada, local comrades involved in the Anarchist Black Cross
The Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), formerly the Anarchist Red Cross, is an anarchist support organization. The group is notable for its efforts at providing prisoners with political literature, but it also organizes material and legal support for c ...
, the local anarchist social center, and the magazines "No Picnic" and "Endless Struggle" were influenced by Jean's projects, and this carried over into the always developing practice of insurrectionary anarchists in this region today ... The anarchist magazine "Demolition Derby" in Montreal also covered some insurrectionary anarchist news back in the day"
"Anarchism, insurrections and insurrectionalism" by Joe Black
CrimethInc.
CrimethInc., also known as CWC, which stands for either "CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective" or "CrimethInc Ex-Workers Ex-Collective", is a decentralized anarchist collective of autonomous cells.
*
*
* CrimethInc. emerged in the mid-1990s, initia ...
, is a decentralized anarchist collective of autonomous
cells.
[* ] CrimethInc. emerged during this period initially as the
hardcore punk
Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier p ...
zine
A zine ( ; short for '' magazine'' or '' fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very s ...
''
Inside Front'', and began operating as a collective in 1996.
It has since published widely read articles and zines for the anarchist movement and distributed posters and books of its own publication.
CrimethInc. cells have published books, released records and organized national campaigns against
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...
and
representative democracy
Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy, is a type of democracy where elected people represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies function as some type of represe ...
in favor of radical
community organizing.
American anarchists increasingly became noticeable at protests, especially through a tactic known as the
Black bloc. U.S. anarchists became more prominent as a result of the
anti-WTO protests in Seattle.
Common Struggle – Libertarian Communist Federation or Lucha Común – Federación Comunista Libertaria (formerly the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists (NEFAC) or the Fédération des Communistes Libertaires du Nord-Est) was a
platformist/
anarchist communist organization based in the northeast region of the United States which was founded in 2000 at a conference in Boston following the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. Following months of discussion between former Atlantic Anarchist Circle affiliates and ex-Love and Rage members in the United States and ex-members of the Demanarchie newspaper collective in
Quebec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is t ...
. Founded as a bi-lingual French and English-speaking federation with member and supporter groups in the northeast of the United States, southern Ontario and the Quebec province, the organization later split up in 2008. The Québécoise membership reformed as the Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL) and the American membership retained the name NEFAC, before changing its name to Common Struggle in 2011 before merging into
Black Rose Anarchist Federation. Former members based in Toronto went on to help found an Ontario-based platformist organization known as Common Cause. The Green Mountain Anarchist Collective, which a local affiliate of NEFAC following Seattle, supported leftist causes in
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
such as unionization, the living wage campaign, and access to social services.
In the wake of
Hurricane Katrina, anarchist activists were visible as founding members of the
Common Ground Collective. Anarchists also had an early role in the
Occupy movement
The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of "real democracy" around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and econo ...
. In November 2011, ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' magazine credited American anarchist and scholar
David Graeber with giving the
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to t ...
movement its theme: "
We are the 99 percent". ''Rolling Stone'' reported that Graeber helped create the first
New York City General Assembly, with only 60 participants, on August 2, 2011. He spent the next six weeks involved with the burgeoning movement, including facilitating general assemblies, attending working group meetings, and organizing legal and medical training and classes on nonviolent resistance.
Following the Occupy Wall Street movement, author Mark Bray wrote ''Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street'', which gave a first hand account of anarchist involvement.
In the period before and after the Occupy movement several new organizations and efforts became active. A series invitational conferences called the Class Struggle Anarchist Conference, initiated by
Workers Solidarity Alliance
Workers' Solidarity Alliance (WSA) is an American anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian group designed to help establish member-managed organizations in the workplace and community. It was founded in 1984, created from an existing network of group ...
and joined by others, aimed to bring together a number of local and regional based anarchist organizations. The conference was first held in New York City in 2008 and brought together hundreds of activists and subsequent conferences were held in Detroit in 2009, Seattle in 2010 and Buffalo in 2012.
One group that was founded during this period was May First Anarchist Alliance in 2011 with members in Michigan and Minnesota which defines itself as having a working class orientation and promoting a non-doctrinaire anarchism. Another group founded during this period is
Black Rose Anarchist Federation (BRRN) in 2013 which combined a number of local and regional groups including Common Struggle, formerly known as the Northeastern Federation of Anarchist Communists (NEFAC), Four Star Anarchist Organization in Chicago, Miami Autonomy and Solidarity, Rochester Red and Black, and Wild Rose Collective based in Iowa City. Some individual members of the
Workers Solidarity Alliance
Workers' Solidarity Alliance (WSA) is an American anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian group designed to help establish member-managed organizations in the workplace and community. It was founded in 1984, created from an existing network of group ...
joined the new group but the organization voted to remain separate.
The group has a variety of influences, most notably
anarcho-communism
Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains res ...
,
anarcho-syndicalism,
especifismo
Platformism is a form of anarchist organization that seeks unity from its participants, having as a defining characteristic the idea that each platformist organization should include only people that are fully in agreement with core group ideas, r ...
and
platformism
Platformism is a form of anarchist organization that seeks unity from its participants, having as a defining characteristic the idea that each platformist organization should include only people that are fully in agreement with core group ideas, r ...
. Early activity of the group was coordinating the "Struggling to Win: Anarchists Building Popular Power In Chile" tour in 2014 of two anarchist organizers from Chile which had events in over 20 cities. In 2016, the organization published the online booklet ''Black Anarchism: A Reader''. In May 2017, a member published an op-ed in ''The Oregonian'' responding to police repression of the Portland International Workers Day march and was also featured in a
Vice News
Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice News was create ...
segment looking at left-wing
antifa protests in Portland.
In June 2020, the
Center for Strategic and International Studies
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts polic ...
reported that while
far-right terrorism
Right-wing terrorism, hard right terrorism, extreme right terrorism or far-right terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by a variety of different right-wing and far-right ideologies, most prominently, it is motivated by neo-Nazism, anti-comm ...
remains the major threat, having "significantly outpaced terrorism from other types of perpetrators", anarchists "could present a potential threat" in the United States. During the
COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, anarchists participated in a proliferation of
mutual aid organizations, exemplifying both the failure of government to provide for people's needs, and practice of anarchism in a peaceful and lawful way. In June 2021, the
National Security Council listed anarchists among the "anti-government and anti-authority violent extremists" which it claimed posed a threat of domestic terrorism.
See also
*
American Left
The American Left consists of individuals and groups that have sought egalitarian changes in the economic, political and cultural institutions of the United States. Various subgroups with a national scope are active. Liberals and progressives ...
*
History of the socialist movement in the United States
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
*
*
*
Paul Avrich
Paul Avrich (August 4, 1931 – February 16, 2006) was a historian of the 19th and early 20th century anarchist movement in Russia and the United States. He taught at Queens College, City University of New York, for his entire career, from 19 ...
and Karen Avrich. ''
Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman''. 2012.
* Andrew Cornell
"A new anarchism emerges, 1940–1954".
* Andrew Cornell
"Anarchism and the Movement for a New Society: Direct Action and Prefigurative Community in the 1970s and 80s."Perspectives 2009.
Institute for Anarchist Studies
The Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS) is a non-profit organization founded by Chuck W. Morse in 1996, following the anarcho-communist
Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a p ...
.
*
*
James J. Martinbr>
''Men Against the State: the State the Expositors of Individualist Anarchism'' The Adrian Allen Associates, Dekalb, Illinois, 1953.
* Eunice Minette Schuster
* Jessica Moran.
The Firebrand and the Forging of a New Anarchism: Anarchist Communism and Free Love".
* Max Nettlau, ''A Short History of Anarchism.'' Freedom Press, 1996.
* William O. Reichert, ''
Partisans of Freedom: A Study in American Anarchism''. Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1976.
*
Rocker, Rudolf. ''
Pioneers of American Freedom: Origin of Liberal and Radical Thought in America''. Rocker Publishing Committee. 1949.
* Steve J. Shone.
American Anarchism.'' Brill. Leiden and Boston. 2013.
* Kenyon Zimmer, ''
Immigrants Against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America.'' Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015.
External links
*
Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed
Black Rose Anarchist Federation (BRRN)
Common Ground Collective
First of May Anarchist Alliance
Institute for Anarchist Studies
Workers Solidarity Alliance
{{Portal bar, Anarchism, United States
1820s establishments in the United States
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
Left-wing politics in the United States
Political movements in the United States