1890s

In the pletzl (Marais) and in Montmartre in Paris (pictured, above), Jewish anarchists had a real influence. In 1907, police reports indicated the presence of about 450 anarcho-communists, an enormous figure if one realises that the immigrant Jewish population living in Paris at the time was about 20,000.

The Iles du Salut are situated off Cayenne, in what was French Guyana in South America. These three prison islands – of which Devil's Island is the most infamous - were reserved by the French authorities for hard cases, for repeated escapees and for political prisoners. In the course of time many anarchists were sent to these hell-holes.

There were eruptions against the convict labour system in the South, in which prisoners were leased in slave labour to corporations, used thus to depress the general level of wages and also to break strikes.

In reaction to the pedestrian Hungarian Social-Democratic Party, founded in 1890, which constantly appealed to the bourgeoisie, often forming alliances with its progressive elements, emerged a far more radical anarchist current. Count Ervin Batthany became friends with Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin whilst in London.

Revolutionary Syndicalism in the French CGT

14,000 police, militia and soldiers crushed the strike, leaving over 30 dead and many more wounded and jailed

Although the origins of the 1890 maritime strike are disputed, the events that accompanied and followed this strike were a turning point in Australian history. The strike began in Adelaide and rapidly spilled over into all the other colonies. The battle was particularly bitter in Victoria and New South Wales. Both employers and unions were itching for a fight.

Theodore Roosevelt wrote to a friend in the year 1897: "In strict confidence . . . I should welcome almost any war, for I think this country needs one."

In the year 1877, the signals were given for the rest of the century: the blacks would be put back; the strikes of white workers would not be tolerated; the industrial and political elites of North and South would take hold of the country and organize the greatest march of economic growth in human history. They would do it with the aid of, and at the expense of, black labor, white labor,

The Robber Baron Andrew Carnegie precipitated the Homestead Strike of 1892 with his attack against the standard of living of the workers and his bid to break the union representing the highest skilled workers. Carnegie announced his intention to impose an 18 percent pay cut and issued a statement saying that the real issue was whether the Homestead steel workers would be union or non-union.

Not many people have heard of Emile Henry, which is surprising really.

He was born in 1872 in Spain, the son of an exiled Paris Communard. He returned to Paris with his family, and became a student at the Prestigious Ecole Polytechnique. However, he chose to abandon his studies in favour of "propaganda by deed".