Anarchism in the United States

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The anarchism in the United States of America developed after the country's independence and began to expand about 1850th There were two (partly) strongly opposing currents: the individual anarchist and the social anarchist tradition.

Individual anarchism

The individualist anarchism is based on the social and ideological conditions of the country. He is also referred to as native , that is, indigenous anarchism. Its characteristic is the pronounced individual idea of ​​freedom. According to the individual anarchist tradition, the best government is that which does not rule at all , which is derived from the American Declaration of Independence (author: Thomas Jefferson ), which says: the best government is the one that rules the least . CL James and Rudolf Rocker were of the opinion that American anarchism was much older than European, so anarchism is not a foreign peculiarity .

A well-known representative of individual anarchism was Josiah Warren . He has been committed to social reforms since 1825 and campaigned for fair wages. Through him a strong communal movement developed (for example Oneida , 1848–1881) in the United States. These municipalities were mostly Christian and were fundamentally opposed to state intervention. The communal movement was largely rural or agrarian oriented and had a conservative character. Some individual anarchists had taken a conscious distance from the industrialization process .

Warren believed in the principles of social justice and mutual aid without any organizational framework being allowed to restrict individual freedom. The communities founded by Warren rejected a collective life: individuals or single families lived relatively withdrawn, and social activities were reduced to the community work necessary to maintain the community . In addition, there was hardly any commitment to social justice that went beyond the municipality. Many traits characteristic of Warren's politics determined the priorities of the entire epoch of American individualistic anarchism: pacifism , gender equality , sexual freedom , rejection of existing tax systems, and pragmatism. Warren died in 1874; his influence was great, also on the literary circle (for example Henry David Thoreau ). Warren's project was completed by Benjamin Tucker , who is considered the last great exponent.

Social anarchism

In the 19th century in the United States, the social issue took center stage, particularly in the industrial centers. The workforce consisted largely of immigrants , mostly from Eastern Europe, Germany and Italy. They formed the bulk of the anarchist working class circles; therefore, social anarchism is also referred to as foreign anarchism. The opposition between individual and social anarchism was about the question of violence in view of the explicit and practiced pacifism of the individual anarchists with the simultaneous participation of social anarchists at the forefront of the class struggles of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The radical anarchist labor movement was militant . Johann Most was an important actor in the anarchist movement; In early 1879 he founded the German-language anarchist magazine Freiheit in the United States. The primary center of workers' agitation was Chicago with the struggle to introduce the eight-hour day. Chicago provided half of the 6,000 participants at the anarchist Working People's Association convention in Pittsburgh. The city was a favorite destination for immigrants, which primarily because of the Bismarckian socialist laws numerous German Socialists included. In May 1886, strikes that had remained peaceful escalated into the Haymarket affair .

development

1928-1968

Events / protagonists worth mentioning for anarchists during this period include:

  • The move of Rudolf Rocker and Milly Witkops to the American States (1934). They settled in 1937 in Mohegan Colony Commune in New York State. The aim of the commune was to revive the spirit of the commune movement of the 19th century.
  • The founding of the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933 by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin . Both propagated a radical-socialist Catholic movement whose most important values ​​were: voluntary poverty, community service, pacifism and tax refusal.
  • Paul Goodman wrote texts about the possibilities of the anarchist community. His texts were the most influential anarchist original texts of the time. His best-known font was “Communitas” in 1947.

1968-1990

It was not until the student protests and the movement against the Vietnam War in the 1960s that anarchism regained importance. However, more in the sense of a general “anarchist mood” than in the form of explicit anarchist politics. The influence of the radical organizations was rather small (for example Black Panther Party ). Groups whose activism was clearly anarchist were Point Black in San Francisco and Black Mask in New York. The main spokesman for "New Anarchism" was the author Murray Bookchin , who through his article Listen, Marxist! got known.

From the 1990s

After the anti-WTO protests in Seattle in 1999 , the so-called "New Anarchism" emerged. With the anti-WTO protests in Seattle at the end of 1999, anarchism reverted to a broad political movement in the United States.

In 1989 the Love and Rage Network was officially founded. It later transformed into the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation , but split up and disbanded in 1998. In 2000 the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists (NEFAC), based on platformist ideas, was launched . This federation was mainly active in northeast North America and split into two groups in 2008: the Union Communiste Libertaire consisted mainly of members in Québec and members of the United States, who initially continued the name NEFAC and renamed themselves to Common Struggle in 2011 . They later became a member of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation , which has local chapters spread across the United States. Black Rose cannot be called a platformist organization, but it is partly close to especifismo , a movement similar to platformism in South America.

See also

further reading

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Book review of Gabriel Kuhn - New Anarchism in the USA
  2. Social anarchism or lifestyle anarchism? An answer to the criticism of libertarian communalism , Janet Biehl on "infopartisan.net". Quote: “ We must not allow social anarchism to be classified as a historical holdover, an archaeological antique. Despite the current cultural counterrevolution, we must maintain and expand a social, organized, programmatic left-wing libertarianism . The continued existence of the revolutionary libertarian left is at stake. "
  3. ^ Collective: Topic of the Week: Anarchist federations - anarchistnews.org. In: anarchistnews.org. March 7, 2016, accessed March 8, 2016 .