104 Chapter 5
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Anarchist ideas have sometimes been traced back toTaoist or Buddhist ideas, to the Stoics and Cynics of Ancient Greece, or to the Diggers of the English Civil War. However, the first, and in a sense classic, statement of anarchist principles was produced by William Godwin (see p. 117) in his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice ([1793] 1971), although Godwin never described himself as an anarchist. During the nineteenth century, anarchism was a significant component of a broad but growing socialist movement. In 1864, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon’s (see p. 115) followers joined with Karl Marx’s (see p. 76) to set up the International Workingmen’s Association, or First International. The International collapsed in 1871 because of growing antagonism between Marxists and anarchists, led by Mikhail Bakunin (see p. 111). In the late nineteenth century, anarchists sought mass support among the landless peasants of Russia and southern Europe and, more successfully, through anarcho-syndicalism, among the industrial working classes. Syndicalism was popular in France, Italy and Spain, and helped to make anarchism a genuine mass movement in the early twentieth century. The powerful CGT union in France was dominated by anarchists before 1914, as was the CNT in Spain, which claimed a membership of over two million during the Spanish Civil War (1936–9). Anarcho-syndicalist movements also emerged in Latin America in the early twentieth century, especially in Argentina and Uruguay, and syndicalist ideas influenced the Mexican Revolution, led by Emiliano Zapata. However, the spread of authoritarianism and political repression gradually undermined anarchism in both Europe and Latin America. The victory of General Franco in the Spanish Civil War brought an end to anarchismas amassmovement.The CNTwas suppressed, and anarchists, alongwith left- wingers in general, were persecuted. The influence of anarchism was also undermined by the success of Lenin and the Bolsheviks in 1917, and thus by the growing prestige of communism within the socialist and revolutionary movements.
Syndicalism: A form of revolutionary trade
Despite these setbacks, anarchism has stubbornly refused to die. Early signs of an anarchist revival came with the emergence in the 1960s and 1970s, respectively, of the New Left (see p. 94) and the New Right (see p. 62). Encompassing neo-Marxists, radical democrats, social anarchists and others, the New Left endorsed an activist style of politics based on popular protest and direct action . The New Right revived interest in free-market economics, most radically through anarcho-capitalism . Anarchism subsequently gained greater prominence due to the upsurge in anti-capitalist protest from the late 1990s onwards. The clearest manifestation of this ‘new’ anarchism has been the activist-based theatrical politics that was first employed during the so-called ‘Battle of Seattle’ in 1999 (when some 50,000 activists forced the cancellation of the opening ceremony of a World Trade Organization meeting) and has been used in most subsequent anti-capitalist protests, including those organized by the Occupy movement. Finally, it has also been argued that widening anarchist influence is linked to the growth of cyberspace and the upsurge in the use of digital technologies generally (see p. 106).
unionism that focuses on labour syndicates as free associations of workers and emphasizes the use of direct action and the general strike. Social anarchism: A form of anarchism that combines socialist collectivism and anti- statism, its central theme being social solidarity. Direct action: Political action taken outside the constitutional and legal framework; direct action may range from passive resistance to terrorism. Anarcho-capitalism: A form of anarchism that seeks to replace government with a system of unregulated market competition.
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