Page 57 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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30———Anarchism

had some agents pretend to be anarchists and run an founders of modern feminism in the United States, was
anarchist newspaper to trap true militants. Prominent deported to Russia.
anarchists such as Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) and U.S. anarchist history also includes the 1920
E. Malatesta (1850–1932) were arrested several times trial and subsequent execution of Nicola Sacco and
in connection with cases they were ignorant of. Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1891–1927; 1888–1927). Active
Kropotkin, like Bakunin, supported violence as justifi- in antiwar and labor movement, these two Italian immi-
able in certain circumstances, especially if it offered grants were convicted on controversial murder charges
the only possibility of social change. Because in South Braintree, Massachusetts, in a trial that was
Kropotkin was a materialist and scientist, he also had more political than criminal.
a great belief in anarchist “propaganda by word”—the
education and inspiration of the public by use of VIOLENCE—NO INSPIRATION
subversive publications.
Individual acts of terror did not inspire the great
majority of people; rather, the violence frightened
AMERICAN ANARCHY and shocked them. Without coherent organization,
anarchism could not develop. Militant anarchism was
At the end of the 19th century, most anarchists in the
even rejected by the violent Russian revolutionaries of
United States were recent immigrants from Europe.
1917; the anarchists were defeated and persecuted by
John (Johann) Most, a German anarchist, founded an
the communists. In the 20th century, many radical
anarchist weekly Die Freiheit in 1882 in New York
thinkers started to realize that they could achieve
City. Soon other anarchist papers in French, Czech,
greater social changes if they joined a political party or
Yiddish, and Italian joined this German-language
trade union. The short success of anarchosyndicalism
newspaper. These publications endorsed the labor
in Spain during the civil war of 1936–1939 indicated
movement’s fight for the eight-hour working day in
that this is the direction that anarchism might take.
the hope of providing an impulse for a revolutionary
In the past 50 years, anarchist groups that have
upheaval. The openness and fervency of these news-
used terror as an end in itself include the Japanese Red
papers prompted authorities to assume that anarchists
Army, the British Angry Brigade, the German Baader-
were responsible for many violent disturbances and
Meinhof Gang, and Weatherman in the United States.
common crimes.
Such anarchistic elements as the acceptance of vio-
The most famous incident involving American
lence as part of culture and as an opposition method to
anarchists occurred in Chicago in 1886 during the
all conventions and restrictions influenced the student
Haymarket riot, when a bomb killed eight policemen.
movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
Although the police had no evidence, the state of pub-
Today, many radical activists, especially those
lic terror and fear of conspiracy was so high that eight
involved in antiglobalization protests, call them-
anarchists were convicted, four of whom were later
selves anarchists. They demonstrate against the
hanged. Publicity surrounding anarchist and antigov-
expansion of capitalism in the form of transnational
ernment activities kept the public and the authorities
corporations at international meetings of the World
fearful of radicals, especially if the radicals were
Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World
foreigners. Two years after the 1901 assassination
Trade Organization, and others of that ilk. The public
of President McKinley in Buffalo by Leon Czolgosz,
reputation of the anarchists continues to decline
a young anarchist of Polish origin, Congress passed a
because many such protests culminate in destruction
law that allowed known anarchists to be barred from
of property (e.g., smashing of windows) and some-
entering the United States and deportation of anarchist
times in a violent confrontation with police.
aliens already in the country. These laws became more
stringent a decade later during the wave of political See also BAADER-MEINHOF GANG; MIKHAIL BAKUNIN;
repression known as the Red Scare directed against PETER KROPOTKIN; WEATHERMAN
those who agitated against capitalism and war and for
the rights of working people. Two hundred and forty- Further Reading
seven anarchist aliens were deported by the year 1917. Epstein, Barbara. “Anarchism and Anti-globalization
Emma Goldman (1869–1940), a radical thinker and Movement.” Monthly Review: An Independent Socialist
passionate speaker who is considered one of the Magazine, Vol. 53, No. 4, September 2001, 1-14.