Anarchism
Anarchism and anarchists and anything associated with the thinking, the people, or the history generally get a raw deal from the media and even mainstream historians. It is true that anarchism is profoundly anti-authoritarian, but its popular association with violence (wild-eyed bearded men throwing bombs) is exaggerated, even fictionalized by the very forces threatened by it, namely governments and the media with vested interests in things as they are.
As with any subversive political and economic movement, some proponents became impatient and felt justified in striking out in vengeance or justice. Thus you have Alexander Berkman and his attempted assassination of Pennsylvanian Henry Clay Frick in 1892 and Leon Czolgosz and his successful assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. Berkman, however, served his time in jail, wrote a deep and insightful account of his experience and went on to write more worthwhile books on the subject which possessed his life. (Czolgosz did not have that opportunity, being executed forty-five days after the death of his victim.)
Anarchism survived its dramatic beginnings in the 19th Century, however, and interested readers can find its articulate concern with agricultural reform, labor rights, and prophetic worries about the growth of the surveillance state in many excellent books. Here you will find books and a superb documentary on Sacco and Vanzetti (as well as Woody Guthrie's cd of his investigation into the miscarriage of justice). Here you will find histories, biographies, anthologies, memoirs, and fiction. It is a rich tradition, relevant to this day and to the future.
23 Theses on Anarchism: Revolution is More than a Word
23 Theses on Anarchism: Revolution is More than a Word
This snappy essay maps out where anarchism is at as a movement in Europe and North America, examining both its strengths and weaknesses. "Revolution is More than a Word" does not try to fit the present-day anarchist movement into a narrow ideological mould, rather it takes it as it is, and then proceeds to elaborate 23 theses, actually suggestions, as to what steps this wide and varied movement could take to make itself as relevant as a revolutionary force as it has been as a subculture.
As the theses conclude, "Pursuing revolution for revolution's sake is pointless. The only thing justifying a revolution is that it makes people's lives better. This must be reflected in everything revolutionaries do."