Anarchists

Anarchists
Name	Anarchists
Region	Global
Period	Antiquity–Present

Anarchists are individuals and participants in movements advocating for social arrangements without hierarchical authority and centralized coercive institutions, promoting voluntary association, mutual aid, and decentralized decision-making. They have appeared across centuries in diverse forms, interacting with revolutionary currents, labor movements, anti-colonial struggles, and artistic scenes. Anarchists have influenced and been influenced by thinkers, activists, uprisings, organizations, and cultural works worldwide.

Definition and Principles

Anarchists advance principles such as autonomy, direct action, self-management, federalism, and mutualism while opposing compulsory hierarchy and state monopoly of force; these principles intersect with traditions represented by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, and Errico Malatesta. Debates among syndicalists, communists, individualists, and platformists connect to practices developed in First International, Spanish Civil War, Paris Commune, and Makhnovshchina. Related concepts appear in writings by William Godwin, Max Stirner, Voltairine de Cleyre, and in critiques of institutions such as the Tsarist Russia, Third Republic (France), Ottoman Empire, and British Empire.

History

Anarchists trace antecedents to radical republicanism in English Civil War, proto-anarchist libertarian currents in French Revolution, and radical peasant movements across Ukraine, Mexico, and Latin America. The 19th century saw organized activity in First International and conflicts between followers of Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin, leading to splits and the growth of libertarian socialist groups in Italy, Spain, and Russia. The late 19th and early 20th centuries featured influences in the Haymarket affair, Mexican Revolution, Russian Revolution of 1917, and the Spanish Revolution (1936–1939), with notable organizations like Industrial Workers of the World, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, and the Makhnovist movement. Post-World War II currents engaged with anti-colonial struggles in Algerian War, Vietnam War, and anti-globalization movements culminating in actions at Seattle WTO protests and connections to networks surrounding May 1968 and Occupy Wall Street.

Major Currents and Ideologies

Major currents include anarcho-communism associated with Peter Kropotkin and Nestor Makhno, anarcho-syndicalism linked to Buenaventura Durruti and the CNT, anarcho-capitalism associated with Murray Rothbard and Ayn Rand-adjacent libertarianism, individualist anarchism represented by Max Stirner and Benjamin Tucker, platformism influenced by Nestor Makhno's associates and Nestor Makhno-inspired texts, insurrectionary anarchism influenced by Errico Malatesta and Alfredo M. Bonanno, and eco-anarchism intersecting with Murray Bookchin and movements like Earth First!. Debates over organization and tactics involve groups such as Anarchist Federation (Britain), Friends of Durruti Group, Black Bloc formations, and federations modeled on Free Territory (Ukraine), Makhnovshchina, and Revolutionary Catalonia.

Influential Figures

Influential figures include theorists and activists: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Errico Malatesta, Nestor Makhno, Buenaventura Durruti, Alexander Berkman, Lucy Parsons, Voltairine de Cleyre, Lucy Parsons, Johann Most, Giuseppe Fanelli, Ricardo Flores Magón, Lucy Parsons (noted above), Severino Di Giovanni, Nicola Sacco, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Murray Rothbard, Murray Bookchin, Colin Ward, Rudolf Rocker, Sergio Tischler, Alexander Shapiro, Nikolai Bukharin, Errico Malatesta (repeated lineage), Ryne D.—many participated in movements including the Haymarket affair, Bread and Roses strike, May Day 1886, and the Spanish Civil War.

Tactics and Practices

Tactics and practices used by anarchists range from organized labor strikes by Industrial Workers of the World and the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo to mutual aid networks inspired by Peter Kropotkin and implemented in Revolutionary Catalonia and Free Territory (Ukraine). Direct action methods have included occupations like May 1968 occupations, squatting linked to Autonomia Operaia, workplace self-management as in CNT-FAI collectives, and militant insurrectionary acts associated with Narodnaya Volya-era conspiracies and 20th-century anarchist cells in Italy and Argentina. Nonviolent experiments include voluntary communes in Tolstoyan-inspired projects, social centers connected to Antifa-adjacent networks, and solidarity economies modeled on Mondragon Corporation-adjacent cooperatives. Surveillance, repression, and counterinsurgency responses have engaged state institutions such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cheka, Gestapo, and Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Cultural and Artistic Influence

Anarchists influenced literature, visual arts, and music through figures like Victor Hugo-adjacent radicals, Federico García Lorca-era participants, and folk traditions carried by activists such as Ricardo Flores Magón. Artistic movements with anarchist affinities include Dada, Surrealism (intersections with André Breton), Situationist International linked to Guy Debord, and punk subculture connected to bands and scenes overlapping with Crass and Dead Kennedys. Anarchist themes appear in novels by Upton Sinclair, essays by George Orwell (critical intersections), plays by Bertolt Brecht, murals in Revolutionary Catalonia, and films like those of Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein—artistic output often intersected with publishing efforts by Freedom Press, Black Flag (magazine), and underground presses in 1968 and 1970s networks.

Criticism and Legal Responses

Criticism of anarchists comes from political theorists like John Stuart Mill and institutional actors in states such as United Kingdom, United States, France, and Spain who associated anarchism with violence following events like the Haymarket affair and assassination attempts on figures including Alexander II of Russia and William McKinley. Legal responses have included bans, deportations exemplified by actions against Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, police and intelligence operations like COINTELPRO, and wartime repression in Spanish Civil War and Russian Civil War. Contemporary responses involve counterterrorism laws in jurisdictions like the Patriot Act-era United States, anti-riot legislation in France and United Kingdom, and extraditions involving militants from Italy and Greece.

Category:Anarchism