Anarcho-pacifism

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Anarcho- pacifism is a political-ideological term composed of anarchism and pacifism , which is synonymous with anarchist pacifism and pacifist anarchism . Since the second half of the 20th century it has been explicitly describing pacifist, in the narrower sense fundamentally antimilitarist and non-violent currents of anarchism. These currents have been part of the anarchist discourse on content since the 19th century , although the corresponding discourse for a long time consisted of spectacular militant and violent forms of social revolutionary and anarchist action, for example in the form of mostly individual political assassinations or other armed attacks as propaganda Act was superimposed.

In general, anarcho-pacifism is understood to mean ideas and theories that reject rule and state and whose followers refuse to use violence against the life and limb of people in their actions .

Civil disobedience , strikes , boycotts as well as blockades and occupations , and in some cases also acts of sabotage against facilities and equipment such as war weapons and military vehicles, are propagated as effective resistance methods , which, according to the anarcho-pacifists, help to maintain dominant and oppressive power relations and hierarchies .

History of Pacifist Anarchism

With the emergence of the anarchist movement, it already contained a pacifist element due to the denial of state rule in the sense of the rejection of wars between states and the military as an instrument of domination and oppression , resulting from the self-image of anarchism .

Notions of anarchism that reject violence in a broader sense were already in the 19th century - at least in part - by various well-known anarchists: For example by the Russian scientist and founder of communist anarchism Peter Kropotkin . One of the radical pacifist proponents of a strongly religious and spiritually inspired anarchism was the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in his later years .

Gustav Landauer in the early 1890s.

The American writer and natural philosopher Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) had a great influence on anarcho-pacifism. His essay On the Duty to Disobey the State , in particular , wrote a fundamental treatise that some anarcho-pacifists and parts of the non-violent civil rights movement of the 1960s in the USA itself delivered a theoretical manifesto in which the legitimation (in the sense of a primarily moral justification) of civil disobedience is set out.

In the first decades of the 20th century, pacifist anarchism in Germany had a certain high-profile following. The corresponding ideals were represented, for example, by the German theoretician of anarchism Gustav Landauer , who largely derived his ideas from the theories of Peter Kropotkin.

Commemorative plaque inaugurated in 2002 at the first location of Ernst Friedrich's International Anti-War Museum in Berlin-Mitte (Parochialstr. 1–3)

Landauer and the anarcho-pacifist writer and poet Erich Mühsam opposed the First World War and played an influential role in the Munich Soviet Republic in April 1919 during the revolutionary events at the end of the war and immediately afterwards . After their violent suppression, Landauer was murdered by Freikorps soldiers in custody, and Mühsam served a prison sentence until 1924. In the further course of the 1920s, Erich Mühsam campaigned for the corresponding ideals in various magazines such as Fanal and other publications.

The anarcho-pacifist Ernst Friedrich reached a larger readership with his book Krieg dem Kriege from 1924 (essentially a frightening photo documentation of the First World War with a four-language appeal to the “ people of all countries ”). In 1925 he opened the anti-war museum in Berlin . From 1933 onwards, anarcho-pacifism in Germany was crushed after the National Socialists came to power . Erich Mühsam was murdered in a concentration camp in 1934 .

Logo of FöGA, a combination of the symbolism of the anarchist circled A with the anti-militarist broken rifle

After the Second World War, anarcho-pacifism initially found no significant basis in Germany for a few decades. This was particularly different in the Anglo-American region. The Beat Generation of the 1950s, which initially emerged from the cultural field of literature , for example with Allen Ginsberg as one of its most important literary representatives, was in part just as inspired by anarcho-pacifism as the hippie movement in the mid-1960s and the one that partly emerged from it , increasingly politicized movement against the Vietnam War from the late 1960s, for example with Jerry Rubin as one of its protagonists. Another well-known exponent of anarcho-pacifism was the British mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell .

It was only in the course of the 1970s that the so-called grassroots movement and the nonviolent action groups (GAs) that developed from it in the Federal Republic of Germany, in relation to before, again formed a larger following of anarcho-pacifist ideas , particularly those in the context of the New Social Movements the opponents of nuclear power or in the peace movement of the 1980s with a fundamentally anti-militarist emphasis against retrofitting played a not insignificant role. The GAs, which had come together under the umbrella of the Federation of Nonviolent Action Groups (FöGA), drew attention to their concerns through sometimes spectacular actions such as blockades in front of nuclear weapon sites, self-chaining, occupation of building sites for controversial large-scale projects and others.

Another field anarchopazifistischen commitment is the promotion of the " total conscientious objection ", which over the constitutionally guaranteed in Germany right to conscientious objection is sufficient conscience also. Total conscientious objectors withdraw against the background of a rejection of any state compulsory service , and thus a general service obligation (" conscription ") as such, including civil service . So they take in Germany, where appropriate, legal prosecution with the charge of desertion ( " desertion ") and the risk of possible incarceration in buying.

In German-speaking countries, the Graswurzelrevolution newspaper has been the most important mouthpiece of pacifist anarchism since 1972 .

The anti-militarist activist and author Augustin Souchy , who was strongly influenced by Gustav Landauer as a young man and was internationally active for almost the entire 20th century, had a lasting influence on the anarcho-pacifist and anarcho-syndicalist scene in German-speaking countries with his publications until his death in 1984. He contributed to a relative renaissance of anarchism in the Federal Republic of Germany from the 1960s on.

In his memoir, Caution: Anarchist! he sums up the motivation of anarchist pacifism for himself with the following words:

"My non-domineering striving has always been aimed at the establishment of a non-violent order in place of organized violence."

symbolism

Although black and white is cited as a color combination of nonviolent anarchism / anarcho-pacifism, this color scheme often meets with criticism and rejection in nonviolent anarchist circles. So it is called z. B. in the magazine Graswurzelrevolution that “nothing [fits]” about this symbolism. "Such a symbolism is simply like a caricature of nonviolent anarchism", as a white flag is known for "surrender, non-resistance, surrender, defeat". "What is suggested with black and white as a supposed color combination of nonviolent anarchism / anarcho-pacifism, goes miles by the way of what nonviolent anarchism is, what it advocates in theory and lives in practice."

Broken rifle with A in a circle

The anti-militarist symbol of the broken rifle is sometimes used with the A in a circle and appears as a contemporary stencil .

Assessments

Within anarchism, nonviolence is not only judged positively. The anarchist and author Peter Gelderloos is one of the critics of non-violence. Pacifism as an ideology usually serves the interests of the state and not the overcoming of patriarchal and racist structures. The publishing collective Crimethinc classifies “violence” and “non-violence” as politicized terms that are used inconsistently in the discourse. They argue that it is not strategically correct for anarchists to delegitimize one another instead of coordinating joint action where there is agreement.

literature

Historical works

Newer literature

  • Grassroots Revolution (Ed.): Nonviolent Anarchism. Challenges and perspectives at the turn of the century , Verlag Graswurzelrevolution , Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-9806353-1-7
  • Bernd Drücke (Ed.): Yes! Anarchism. Lived utopia in the 21st century. Interviews and discussions , Karin Kramer Verlag , Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-87956-307-1 (For the history of the grassroots revolution, see Chapter 3: Nonviolent anarchism and grassroots revolution, pp. 114–201)
  • Wolfram Beyer (Ed.): Refuse military service - pacifism current. Libertarian and humanist positions . Oppo-Verlag Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-926880-16-1
  • ders .: pacifism and anti-militarism. An introduction to the history of ideas. Butterfly Verlag Stuttgart 2012, series theorie.org
  • Johann Bauer: A global departure! Conversation about the nonviolent anarchism of the 1970s. With basic texts and a. on the criticism of the RAF and the Göttingen »Mescalero« affair , Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Nettersheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-939045-12-0
  • Howard Clark: Nonviolence and Revolution. Ways to fundamentally change society , IDK , Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-9816536-1-8
  • Sebastian Kalicha: Nonviolent Anarchism & Anarchist Pacifism. On the trail of a revolutionary theory and movement , illustrated by Daniel Grunewald, Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Heidelberg 2017, ISBN 978-3-939045-30-4
  • Working group on anarchism and non-violence (ed.): The more violence, the less revolution. Texts on nonviolent anarchism & anarchist pacifism. Volume 1 , Verlag Graswurzelrevolution, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-939045-31-1

Web links

Commons : Anarcho-pacifism  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sebastian Kalicha: “A failed anarchist play of colors. Black and white - the colors of nonviolent anarchism? ” In: Graswurzelrevolution No. 400, summer 2015.
  2. ^ Peter Gelderloos: How Nonviolence Protects the State. 2007.
  3. ^ Crimethinc Ex-Workers' Collective: The Illegitimacy of Violence, the Violence of Legitimacy