anarchists
Articles about the lives of the men and women who helped to build the international anarchist movement.
Baron, Fanya nee Anisimovna aka Fanny Baron 188?-1921
Idealistic young anarchist who suffered the brutality of both the US cops and the Russian Cheka.
“Baron was of the type of Russian woman completely consecrated to the cause of humanity. While in America she gave all her spare time and a goodly part of her meagre earnings in a factory to further Anarchist propaganda.
What is behind the label? A plea for clearness - Sylvia Pankhurst
Sylvia Pankhurst discusses the necessity of looking beyond such labels as 'anarchist', 'socialist' and 'communist', and engaging with the actual content of their ideas.
Men and women call themselves Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, Individualists, thinking they thus explain their views to themselves and others. Yet question them, but a little; you will discover how few of them have any clear conception of what they mean by their labels.
Sacha Piotr (Sascha Pjotr) aka Alexander Shapiro aka Sergei 1889/1890-1942(?)
A short biography of the obscure figure of Ukrainian anarchist Sacha Piotr-real name Alexander Schapiro, active in the Ukraine, Russia, Belgium, France and Germany. He fought with the anarchists in Spain and was murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz. Father of the gifted mathematican Alexander Grothendieck.
Alexander Schapiro was born into a Jewish family with a Hasidic background in Novozybkov in the Ukraine on October 11th 1889 or 6th August 1890. This is the date given by his son Alexander, but it is not clear whether this was by the Julian or Gregorian calendar! In addition the Red Cross report of 1957 on him give two different birth dates, one of 10/11/1889 and one of 11/10/1889!
De Jong, Albert 1891-1970
A short biography of Albert de Jong, Dutch anarchist veteran.
Albert Andries de Jong was born on 29 April 1891 in Amsterdam. His parents came from the Frisian region in northern Holland. His father was a baker and nightwatchman, and his mother was an enthusiast of the ideas of the anarchist Domela Nieuwenhuis.
Meschi, Alberto 1879-1958
A short biography of Alberto Meschi, great figure of Italian anarchism and still remembered fondly in Carrara.
Alberto Meschi was born at Borgo San Donnino (Parma) on 27 May 1879. An autodidact, as a boy he rallied to the workers movement in La Spezia. He worked as a bricklayer. From 1899 he wrote political articles in the paper Pro Coatti, the union magazine L'Edilizia and the antimilitarist La Pace.
Doster, Gustav aka Gustl 1904-1977
Gustav Doster was a leading light in the anarchist movement in the Rhineland. He organised underground anarchist networks under Nazism and experienced the Spanish Revolution.
Gustav Doster’s father was a boiler maker, and a union militant and member of the Social Democratic Party. From 1919 until 1923 he worked as a lathe operator and then worked as an instructor of metal workers until 1933.
Friedetzky, Heinrich, 1910-1998
Heinrich Friedetzky was a German anarchist who preserved his beliefs despite the experiences of Nazism, prison and concentration camps.
The last of eight children of a railway worker, Heinrich Friedetzky was born on 8th October 1910 at Bebra in the state of Hesse, Germany. His mother died in 1913, his father in 1920. From 1912 the family lived at Ratibor in Upper Silesia, now part of Poland, where Heinrich lived with his brothers, sisters and a stepmother.
Storione, Lawrence 1867-1922
A short biography of Lawrence Storione, miner and founder of the Anarchist Communist League in Fife.
Lawrence Storione was the son of the Italian stonemason Felix Storione and Philomena Moir (or Noir). He was born in Italy in 1867 and worked as a miner in Italy, France, Belgium and the west of Scotland before settling in Lumphinnans in 1908. It appears he had French citizenship, according to the 1901 census. He married Annie Cowan whom he met whilst living in Hamilton, Lanarkshire in 1900.
Franz Kafka and libertarian socialism
Michael Löwy explores the links between the seminal writer and the anarchist/libertarian socialist movement.
Clearly, the work of Franz Kafka cannot be reduced to a political doctrine of any kind. Kafka did not give speeches but fashioned individuals and situations. In his work, he expressed a Stimmung or sense of feelings and attitudes. The symbolic world of literature cannot be reduced to the discursive world of ideologies.
Wolberg, Aniela Franciszka 1907-1937
A short biography of Polish anarchist Aniela Wolberg
“When only twenty years old she sacrificed time and money for her ideal. At that time her sense of criticism and reality was highly developed; her heart was passioned for the masses, for the revolution. Her burning aim was to help the formation of an Anarchist movement in Poland; one that would not be locked up in groups, but powerful, popular, and able to materialize our aspirations”.
