anarchism
Articles about anarchism, a political ideology based on mutual aid, solidarity and the abolition of the state.
Anarchy alive! Anti-authoritarian politics from practice to theory by Uri Gordon
Despite its interesting account of organisational preoccupations among global protesters, Tom Jennings doubts Anarchy Alive!’s coherence as theory
Reinventing Wheels. Book review – Tom Jennings
The formidable organising capabilities of the last decade’s global protest networks have helped gather many thousands of folks to disrupt late-capitalism’s world cannibalism junkets – registering spectacularly in the corporate media and making links with an impressive variety of grass-roots groups worldwide.
Stirner, Feurbach, Marx and the Young Hegelians - David McLellan
A summary of Stirner's ideas and their strong impact on his fellow Young Hegelians. McLellan asserts that Stirner's influence on Marx has been under-estimated and that he "played a very important role in the development of Marx's thought by detaching him from the influence of Feuerbach", his static materialism and his abstract humanism. Stirner's critique of communism (which Marx considered a caricature) also obliged Marx to refine his own definition. Stirner's concept of the "creative ego" is also said to have influenced Marx's concept of "praxis".
Source; originally a chapter in The Young Hegelians and Karl Marx; David McLellan, MacMillan Press, UK, 1980.
MAX STIRNER
1. STIRNER'S LIFE AND WORKS
The battle for the Green - John Taylor Caldwell
The late veteran Glasgow anarchist JT Caldwell tells the story of a struggle to defend the right of open air speaking on Glasgow Green during the early 1930s. As well as legal conflicts, the events included rowdy mass demonstrations of up to one hundred thousand people.
Source; Workers City; ed. Farquhar McLay, Clydeside Press, Glasgow 1988.
THE SUMMER OF 1931 was a riotous season in Glasgow. There were demonstrations involving anything from forty-five thousand to one hundred thousand angry protesters, in scenes which Police Superintendent Sweeny of the Central Division described as "a disgrace to any civilised community". The focal point of these demonstrations was Glasgow Green.
Not a life story, just a leaf from it - Robert Lynn
A short account by a participant of the UK's largest working class anarchist movement (with the possible exception of the better known movement among London's East End Jews); in Glasgow during the first half of the 20th century.
Source; Workers City, ed. Farquhar McLay; Clydeside Press, Glasgow 1988.
The State is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of human behaviour: we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently... One day it will be realised that Socialism is not the invention of anything new but the discovery of something that was always present, of something that has grown.
Gustav Landauer
The revolution delayed: 10 years of Hugo Chávez’s rule - Charles Reeve and El Libertario
An interview with Venezuelan libertarians.
This month marks the tenth anniversary of Hugo Chávez’s coming to power in Venezuela, and ten years of the “Bolivarian revolution”.
This process has included waves of state intervention in the economy and fervent rhetoric against US imperialism.
Marx, theoretician of anarchism
Maximilien Rubel's 1973 article highlighting the libertarian elements within Marx's work and its importance to anarchism, regardless of Marx's lengthy critiques of famous anarchist theoreticians.
Marx has been badly served by disciples who have succeeded neither in assessing the limits of his theory nor in determining its standards and field of application and has ended up by taking on the role of some mythical giant, a symbol of the omniscience and omnipotence of homo faber, maker of his own destiny.
North of the border: a look at anarchism in Scotland
Rob Ray interviews Declan of the Alba Anarchist Federation and Nick Durie of Praxis Glasgow in this 2008 feature for Freedom newspaper.
Scotland has had a strong tradition of class struggle. Are there many links between today’s younger and older radicals?
Anarchism - further reading guide
Libcom's guide to further reading around the subject of anarchism.
Recommended
- An Anarchist FAQ
- Anarchist communism - an introduction
- Anarcho-syndicalism - an introduction
- Libertarian communism, capitalism and direct action - an introduction
- Primitivism, anarcho-primitivism and anti-civilisationism - criticism
Additional
Guerin
- No Gods, No Masters
- Anarchism: An Introduction
Murray Bookchin
- Listen, Marxist!
Interview with Movimiento Libertario Cubano (Cuban Libertarian Movement)
During mid-June 2008 the Iberian counter-information collective A Las Barricadas posed several questions to the Movimiento Libertario Cubano (Cuban Libertarian Movement), an affinity group of Cuban anarchists abroad. The complete text of this interview follows.
We’re interviewing the Cuban Libertarian Movement (Movimiento Libertario Cubano – MLC), an organization made up of anarchists in exile in different parts of the world. In these days of apparent change, of transition, as the European and North American media would have it, it’s of interest to know first hand about what’s happening inside the island.
Jobs on the paper
We’ve had a few drop-outs in the last couple of collective issues, so Freedom is looking for more people…
Internationals editor
You need:
- An interest in international news
- A keen and enquiring mind
- To not mind about the whole ‘lack of renumeration’ thing
Your role:
