Anarchist Movement Research Articles

Всеруски обществен комитет за увековечаване паметта на П. А. Кропоткин (ВОК): постижения и грешки (към 100-годишнината от създаването на комитета)

The All-Russian Public Committee (ARPC) for perpetuating the memory of P. A. Kropotkin, the most famous Russian theorist of anarchism, was established in 1921 after his death on 8 February. It reflected many disagreements in Russia’s anarchist movement, as well as contradictions between scientific and political activities within the Committee itself. These unsolved problems led to its conflict with the Soviet Union and the latter’s annihilation. The ARPC’s failure to resolve these contradictions was not its main mistake. However, it had significant scientific, publishing and museum achievements which enabled Peter Kropotkin’s creative heritage to be preserved, at least to some extent.

Program Documents as a Source on the History of the Anarchist Movement in Ukraine in the Early 20th Century

The article considers programs and program documents as a historical source on the history of the anarchist movement in Ukraine in the early 20th century. Without a doubt, the historical conditions prevailing in Ukraine and Russia in 1903–1914 influenced the formation and nature of sources. In particular, the absence of a central body and the denial of the movement as a whole affected the core of the source base, marked by a relatively small number of party-organizational documents with particular characteristics. The all-Russian character of anarchist activity also had an impact on the nature of sources. They were distributed in Ukraine, but their contents did not contain any references to specific activities in its territory.The article provides a classification of sources, which are divided into such groups: programs and statutes, congress resolutions, party press, activists’ memoirs and observations, private correspondence. The article describes the programs and program statements of anarchists. The specifics of the program-organizational sources of anarchists are also determined. They are characterized according to the views of anarchists on the organization itself and the party leadership. Not recognizing any organization, considering any leadership a sort of violence against an individual, anarchists advocated full autonomy and independence of groups, interaction on a federal basis.The article characterizes the programs and program statements of anarchists as a historical source. The historical value of documents is determined; their specificity is defined. The research of documents establishes ideological principles, tactics of struggle, ideas about the role of some social groups in the revolution. The studied documents allow establishing the territory of anarchist activity in Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century.

Bibliotecas populares en canarias: la Biblioteca de El obrero

This work includes a large sample of books from the popular library of the Canary Workers Association (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands). It is a reconstructed library based on the references published in the journalistic body of the Association, that is, the newspaper El Obrero. Through this work we approach literary and cultural hobbies, in general, of a social collective influenced by the anarchist movement of the early twentieth century, which was important in Spain and the Canary Islands, as well as in Spanish America. The inventory allows to identify various literary works of French and Russian novels, mainly, but also some pedagogical and esoteric treatises, such as studies on Freemasonry, spiritualism, etc. We understand that this type of inventory can be useful for the study of various ideological, political and cultural aspects of the Canary Islands WorkersʼAssociation, which was the first workers‘ entity of blind importance that existed in the Archipelago.

Right-Wing Anarchism: A Philosophical Left-Wing Concept

The article discusses the issue whether anarchism should be considered a right-wing ideology. Anarchism as an ideology, formulated in the works of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon of the 1830s-1840s, was originally in the leftwing political spectrum. The anarchist Joseph Dejacque, who advocates equality of rights for men and women and does not agree with Proudhon on this issue, called himself a libertaire . The French word libertaire has been translated into English as “libertarian.” Due to the fact that in the 20 th century, economic theories justifying state intervention in the economy became widespread among those who called themselves liberals, the word “liberal” came to mean “socialist.” American liberals (in the original sense of the word) adopted anarcho-communist Dejacque’s neologism “libertarian.” The author shows that, according to the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, unlimited liberalism and socialism have common origins, since these two ideologies proceed from the fact that human freedom is innate, which means that traditional values should not restrict human behavior. Thus, the ideological roots of anarcho-capitalism and libertarianism are to be found in the corpus of doctrines of the French left wing. In the 1970s, the French economist Henri Lepage translated the English word “libertarian” into the French, coining new world libertarien and not using the word libertaire, which is due to the fact that libertarianism began to be perceived as a right-wing ideology, and therefore it was necessary to distinguish it from its roots – libertarisme, which was considered a leftist movement. The author refutes the idea, which became widespread in the 20 th century, that, due to the emergence of the Libertarian party and anarcho-capitalism, a part of the anarchist movement joined the right wing.

Music Subculture versus Class Revolutionaries: Czech Antifascism in the Postsocialist Era

Abstract With its roots in the political, economic and social changes of 1989/1990, the Czech antifascist movement was initially characterized by its young supporters, who came mostly from subcultural and anarchist circles. When violent far-right skinheads increased their attacks in the country between 1990 and 1992, local antifascists were the main group to physically confront them. Three decades later, as a result of generational and tactical changes, Czech antifascists’ agenda is largely at odds with the class politics that drive important parts of the anarchist movement. At the same time, the antifascist movement retains some subcultural traits that have become depoliticized. Its strategy is now limited to monitoring far-right activists online and running cultural events. This study analyzes internal debates over the antifascist movement’s positions and reflects on their development over time.

Repensando el anarquismo en América Latina. ¿Del nacionalismo metodológico a un giro transnacional incompleto?

Durante el siglo pasado, el anarquismo en América Latina fue estudiado bajo la perspectiva del nacionalismo metodológico. Pese al mérito de estas producciones, omitieron importantes cuestiones relacionadas con la dinámica del movimiento anarquista latinoamericano. En las últimas décadas, la emergencia de la historia transnacional y la apropiación de su metodología por parte de los estudios libertarios, condujo a la publicación de nuevos trabajos que bajo este mismo enfoque abordan el anarquismo de la región. En el presente artículo, nos proponemos realizar un balance bibliográfico sobre las características e implicancias que tuvo el giro transnacional en dicha historiografía, considerando sus aportes, su incidencia en el campo historiográfico y sus limitaciones, relacionadas con las geografías ausentes del mapa transnacional construido en base a esas investigaciones.

Viralizando o sistema: o movimento Gay Shame e as subversões anarquistas

Como um vírus no sistema, infectando as estruturas do capitalismo e dos padrões heterossexuais de se viver/existir, assim surge o Gay Shame, movimento anarquista queer norte-americano sustentado pelos princípios clássicos da cooperação, autogestão e oposição ao Estado. Neste texto, busco tecer entrelaçamentos ousados entre a ação direta extravaganza do movimento e agenciamentos de uma educação anarquista, selvagem, subversiva e perigosamente antenada com as demandas políticas e sociais que emergem por meio da comunidade dos corpos abjetos. Para tanto, envolto nas reflexões pós-estruturalistas de Gênero, Sexualidade e do Anarquismo Queer, lanço meus olhares enviesados aos objetivos do Gay Shame e a sua intervenção na 27ª Dyke March realizada em São Francisco/EUA, percebendo que as práticas anarquistas do movimento ao provocarem dissidências e fissuras neste sistema agem como vírus corroendo a imunidade do Capital, na tentativa de enfraquecê-lo cotidianamente por meio de microações políticas nas relações de força a qual estamos inseridxs.

The Sham and the Fanatic: Conrad’s Anarchists in “Ironic,” “Desperate,” and Simple Tales

This paper examines three narratives by Joseph Conrad in which the author deploys anarchist characters. The anarchists presented inThe Secret Agent are “shams” who do not attempt any performative anarchist act but instead merely recite abstract philosophies. One such sham, Verloc, leads Stevie to bomb himself instead of the Observatory in a conspiracy to warn the British police against the anarchist movement. In the aftermath of the inadvertent self-destruction of Stevie, his devoted sister murders Verloc and then commits suicide. Such acts of “madness and despair,” induced by the fraudulent anarchist, do not change the world but destroy the fanatics themselves. Similarly, in Conrad’s “The Informer,” the fake anarchist informer turns out to be a fanatic who sacrifices himself for the “amateur” Lady Anarchist. It seems ironic that Mr. X (who criticizes the lady for pretending to be an anarchist with “gestures of revolutionary convictions”) also belongs to the upper class. Both the lady and X are imposters who again contribute to the destruction of the fanatic. Finally, Conrad’s “An Anarchist” narrates the “gullibility” of a working-class man. Situated on a penal island, the protagonist meets those anarchists who lured him into the movement, and he kills them in a rage, in order to be free from their influence. This act of violence leads to dire consequences, and it seems that Conrad’s excavations of anarchy are not only prescient, but serve as a warning. Conrad’s tales of anarchists reveal that the shams, rather than the fanatics, are destructive, particularly to the fanatic or fanatically disposed.

Anarchism and the Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala: A Tenuous Relation

While the indigenous peoples of Guatemala and its history of anarchist thought are seldom studied together but there is merit to exploring the differences and convergences between the anarchist movement's perspectives on class and ethnicity and those of better understood liberal, socialist and communist traditions. Anarchists in Guatemala made tentative efforts to reach out to rural workers and peasants in the period between 1928 to 1932, but these efforts were circumscribed and largely unsuccessful. They did so under the influence of more structured movements in Mexico and Argentina, which incorporated visions of collective emancipation that would appeal to autonomous indigenous movements; however their brief embrace of these issues, interrupted by fierce repression by the state, was curtailed by the overwhelming urban base from which they intervened in labour and social struggles. The reasons for this failure lay in the history of Guatemalan race relations and the structural divisions between urban and rural society that endured during the transition from colonial to republican society, and which anarchists tied to overcome.

Anarchists and 'the Indian Problem' in Peru, 1898-1927

Anarchists' pursuit of indigenous emancipation in Peru has been obfuscated and largely erased in Peruvian historiography. This is attributable in part to a concerted effort by Marxists and national populists (Apristas) to minimise anarchist influence and to arrogate to themselves the role of true defenders and revolutionary allies of Peru's indigenous peoples This article examines the way anarchists understood the nature of Peru's system of domination and the multifarious ways it oppressed, exploited, and marginalised indigenous peoples. They recognised the imperative to overcome urban-rural and coastal-sierra divisions to empower indigenous workers and peasants and to forge multi-ethnic alliances. In doing so, they fostered indigenous syndical organisations, encouraged the formation of indigenous intellectuals and activists, promoted bilingual education, and established study centres and rural schools. They defended indigenous and multi-ethnic communities' rights to land and resources and supported their demands for self-governance. That they were unsuccessful in achieving indigenous emancipation does not negate the important legacy of solidarity and struggle they bequeathed to Peru's current anarchist movement.

Agrarian anarchism and authoritarian populism: towards a more (state-)critical ‘critical agrarian studies’

ABSTRACT This paper applies an anarchist lens to agrarian politics, seeking to expand and enhance inquiry in critical agrarian studies. Anarchism's relevance to agrarian processes is found in three general areas: (1) explicitly anarchist movements, both historical and contemporary; (2) theories that emerge from and shape these movements; and (3) implicit anarchism found in values, ethics, everyday practices, and in forms of social organization – or ‘anarchistic’ elements of human social life. Insights from anarchism are then applied to the problematique of the contemporary rise of ‘authoritarian populism’ and its relation to rural people and agrarian processes, focusing on the United States. Looking via an anarchist lens at this case foregrounds the state powers and logics that underpin authoritarian populist political projects but are created and reproduced by varying political actors; emphasizes the complex political identities of non-elite people, and the ways these can be directed towards either emancipatory or authoritarian directions based on resentments towards state power and identifications with grassroots, lived moral economies; and indicates the strategic need to prioritize ideological development among diverse peoples, in ways that provide for material needs and bolster lived moral economies. The paper concludes with implications for the theory and practice of emancipatory politics.

Anarquistas en Oruro (Bolivia). Trincheras de lucha contra la crisis y la guerra, 1930-1932

El movimiento anarquista de Oruro (Bolivia) alcanzó un notable desarrollo entre 1930 y 1932. Sin embargo, el marco geográfico comúnmente utilizado en los estudios anarquistas de Bolivia, provoca que esta historia sea, todavía, desconocida parcialmente. Así, en este artículo nos proponemos recuperar mediante un amplio corpus documental, la experiencia de organización y lucha protagonizada por los anarquistas entre los trabajadores de Oruro. Abordaremos los principales hitos y sujetos que le dieron vida a dicho movimiento, deteniéndonos particularmente en las batallas que libró contra la crisis, la desocupación y el hambre, y hacia el final del período, la guerra. Asimismo, analizaremos la represión estatal que padeció y las disputas entabladas con otras corrientes de izquierda. De esta manera, en el artículo, logramos develar ciertos aspectos hasta ahora inexplorados sobre la Federación del Trabajo de Oruro, relacionados con su base social, su dinámica de actuación en el período y su vinculación con otros actores políticos y sociales, y ponemos en evidencia las causas que intervinieron tanto en el corto, aunque significativo, auge de dicha experiencia local, como en su declive.

‘Anarchism, pure and simple’: M. P. T. Acharya, anti-colonialism and the international anarchist movement

ABSTRACT In late 1922, the Indian revolutionary M. P. T. Acharya returned to Berlin from Moscow and joined the international anarchist movement. Straddling anti-colonial, anarchist, and pacifist circles in the interwar years, Acharya stands out as a distinctive figure within global revolutionary networks and broadens our conception of the global reach of the international anarchist movement. Staking out a different path towards freedom than most of his contemporaries, an analysis of Acharya’s activities within the international anarchist movement enables a more nuanced understanding of anti-colonial struggles against the totalised oppression of the state and redirects our attention towards anarchist conceptions of non-statist national liberation movements within anti-colonial frameworks. In doing so, the article extends recent scholarship on anarchism in the colonial and postcolonial world but also acknowledges anarchism’s limitations. However, exploring Acharya’s life and thought is part of a greater ambition to consider post-independent Indian politics through anarchism – a rejection of the nation-state as a necessity for nation liberation – as well as to allow for anti-authoritarian voices within India’s freedom struggle to be heard alongside a polyphony of independence narratives.

A Truly Pathological Case: Kropotkin, War and Anarchist Remembrance

Abstract This article examines anarchist responses across three generations to the split in the anarchist movement at the outbreak of the First World War. Focusing on appreciations of Peter Kropotkin’s role in that division, it demonstrates how shifting contextual circumstances and a developing memory of the war subsequently reshaped the narrative of these events in ways that reflected the broader memory of the war. Arguing that curation of a political tradition’s history is central to the self-identity of that tradition, the article investigates this process as successive generations of anarchists tried to make sense of the anarchist split in 1914, and, in turn, define their own political projects.

Materials of the Police Department as a Historical Source of the Anarchist Movement in Ukraine (1903–1914)

The article deals with the materials which belonged to the Police Department of the Russian Empire in the early 20th century and now serve as a historical source about the activity of anarchist groups which operated in Ukraine in 1903–1914. The article analyzes the factors that influenced the nature of sources and attempts to classify them. They are: the nature of the anarchist movement, the prejudice of law enforcement agencies towards anarchists, the use of agents and provocateurs as sources of information, the intention of the police to curb anarchists quickly, and so on. The study describes such Police Department sources as the documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, materials of the Police Department, and those of provincial gendarmeries.Two large groups of documents are characterized. The first group of sources consists of the materials which belonged to the Ministry of Internal Affairs: international agreements, meeting minutes, orders on anarchist movement, general regulatory documents for revolutionary parties in the Russian Empire. The other group of sources includes the materials of the Police Department which oversaw the provincial imperial investigative bodies: orders, circulars, analytical reports, reviews.The article states that the solution to the problem of fighting against anarchism was delegated to the Police Department, which was in charge of central administration of penal authorities. Thus, the basic documents investigated were either of administrative or generalizing and analytical-prognostic nature, since it was there that all information was systematized and decisions were issued.Special attention is paid to the study of the so-called Police Department reviews which reported on the activities of various anarchist groups in Ukraine. The documents identified specify the territories of the movement’s distribution, events, and its active members. The conclusion is made about the value of the Police Department sources both for discovering new facts and confirming the already known.

Dr Félix Martí Ibáñez's 'Considerations on Homosexuality' and the Spanish Anarchist Cultural Project

This article places a reconsideration of the Spanish anarchist doctor Félix Martí Ibáñez's work on sexual morality and, in particular, homosexuality within the dual historiographical framework of scientific ideas and anarchism's own history of engagement with these subjects. It argues that recent developments in the writing of the history of anarchism have paid far more attention to the articulation of cultural issues within anarchist movements as part of their overall contestation against the 'bourgeois', religious and capitalist world and sets this article within this renewed framework. The thought of Félix Martí Ibáñez is assessed not for its supposed 'scientificity' but for what it tells us about the eclectic nature of Spanish anarchism at the time and for what such thought signifies for today's libertarian movement.

Medieval History and Anarchist Studies

Medieval history and anarchist studies have a great deal to offer one another, but there is very little intellectual traffic between the two fields. This paper encourages historians to deploy anarchism as an approach to historical research akin to Marxist or feminist historiography, so that 'anarchist history' can move beyond the history of the modern anarchist movement and become a radical new way of studying and learning from the human past. Recent developments in anthropology and archaeology are offered as examples of how this might happen. Medieval history would benefit from the development of an anarchist approach to questions of ungoverned spaces, domination and inequality, and the growth of states and institutions. Anarchist studies would benefit from greater awareness of recent research in medieval history, much of which is relevant to anarchist interests.

An Infantile Disorder? Youth, Childhood, and the British Anarchist Movement During the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

An Infantile Disorder? Youth, Childhood, and the British Anarchist Movement During the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

Hidden Out in the Open: Spanish Migration to the United States (1875–1930) ed. by Phylis Cancilla Martinelli and Ana Varela-Lago

Reviewed by: Hidden Out in the Open: Spanish Migration to the United States (1875–1930) ed. by Phylis Cancilla Martinelli and Ana Varela-Lago Beth Ann Green-Nagle Cancilla Martinelli, Phylis, and Ana Varela-Lago, editors. Hidden Out in the Open: Spanish Migration to the United States (1875–1930). UP of Colorado, 2018. Pp. 349. ISBN 978-1-60732-798-1. In this important contribution to the history of immigration to the United States, Hidden Out in the Open: Spanish Migration to the United States (1875–1930), editors Phylis Cancilla Martinelli and Ana Varela-Lago present a fascinating and accessible collection of essays accompanied by informative graphics and engaging photos. Hidden Out in the Open is not exhaustive, but it provides a significant addition to the field by focusing primarily on working-class migration to [End Page 276] the United States and building upon the work of Germán Rueda and Felipe Fernández-Armesto, and regional scholarship like that published by the Center of Basque Studies at the University of Nevada-Reno. The chapters examine the history of Spanish immigrants and their contributions during the period of mass migration from Spain between 1880 and 1930. This collection examines the transnational aspect of Spanish migration to the United States, and highlights the movement between Spain, Cuba, the United States, and the US territories of Hawai‘i and Panama. Immigrants left regions such as Galicia, Asturias, Cataluña, and Andalucía motivated primarily by economic need. Needing a stable workforce, US companies recruited Spanish workers for specific industries. The chapters describe these diverse industries: Panama Canal construction, agricultural work on sugar cane plantations in Hawai‘i and Cuba, the cigar industry in Tampa and Brooklyn, and mining in West Virginia and Arizona. Following the introduction, Varela-Lago’s essay explores the transnational networks created by Spanish immigrants and how their Spanish identity adapted to the changing times between the 1870s and 1936. The immigrants created and maintained connections to the Spanish homeland via travel, Spanish-language publications, organizations like social clubs and mutual aid societies, the promotion of Spanish history and culture in the United States, as well as community establishments. Varela-Lago delves into the influence of Spanish anarchists and the connections that they created across immigrant communities. The collection republishes two articles from the 1980s which are fundamental resources for researchers who study migration from Spain to the United States. In “The Andalucía-Hawai‘i-California Migration: A Study in Macrostructure and Microhistory” (1984), Beverly Lozano explains the Hawaiian sugar cane industry’s motivations to recruit Spanish field workers and their families, the socio-economic reasons to leave their homeland for Hawai‘i, and the move to California. In “Spanish Anarchism in Tampa, Florida, 1886–1931” (1986), Gary R. Mormino and George E. Pozzetta detail how Spanish anarchism developed and was organized in Tampa, Florida among immigrants mainly from Galicia and Asturias. Mormino and Pozzetta emphasize the importance of the mutual aid societies and anarchist groups to the Latin community in Tampa. Christopher J. Castañeda contributes a history of Brooklyn’s Spanish colony from 1878 to 1925, their development of a cigar industry, and the rise of a local anarchist movement. Castañeda describes interaction between Spaniards and Cubans in the cigar industry, and a dynamic and sometimes tense interplay between the Cuban separatists, the Spanish anarchists, and labor activists. Brian Bunk studies the cultivation of Spanish identity in New York in the 1920’s through the experiences of young Spanish women and their participation in local pageants and popularity contests. Bunk provides a detailed description of how Spanish and regional organizations promoted a Spanish identity through social activities. He astutely analyzes how the community constructed and controlled the gender identities of young Spanish women. In her essay on Spaniards working in the Arizona copper mines from 1880 to 1930, Cancilla Martinelli expands our understanding of Spaniards’ contribution to the history of the Western US. She scrutinizes the racial classification of Spaniards as part of the “Latin Race,” an “in-between” racial status (214–15). Then she examines the situation of the Spanish population in the Arizona towns of Jerome, Ray, and the Clifton-Morenci-Metcalf District...

Поэзия бесконвоя. Шукшин и традиция анархической литературы

The paper describes the cultural and historical context between 19th and 20th centuries which witnesses a rise of a particular “anarchic” tradition (we take the precaution to distinguish such a creative stance from the theoretical and/or polemical "anarchist" production). Our intention is to inscribe into this context Vassily Shukshin's novel “I came to set you free” and some of his short prose. Showing the importance of the anarchist movement for the political and cultural turmoil of this era, we stress the strong connection that in Western countries as well as in Russia linked the anarchist perception of world and/or society to that of the avant-garde. The Russian situation owes its specific nature, among other factors, to the representation of Stepan Razin who epitomizes the spirit of revolutionary anarchy for the modernist artists and writers. The poetry and prose od Velimir Khlebnikov, Vassily Kamensky, Alexander Shiryaevets in the 1910s–1920s, the novels of Alexey Chapygin (1927), Stepan Zlobin (1951), Vassily Shukshin (1971) constitute a filiation, the presence whereof throughout the Soviet period is in itself a problem to tackle for a literary historian. In the last part of the paper we present a brief analysis of the Shukshin texts; we conclude that not only the Razin's figure brings his prose close to the “anarchic” tradition; the same could be said of his favorite characters, “chudiki”, extravagant searchers of freedom, as well as of such themes as fighting against the time (a frequent subject in the “anarchic” literature of Khlebnikov, Platonov etc.).