Anarchism in Australia
Encyclopedia
Anarchism
arrived in Australia
within a few years of anarchism developing as a distinct tendency in the wake of the 1871 Paris Commune
. Although a minor school of thought and politics, composed primarily of campaigners and intellectuals, Australian anarchism has formed a significant current throughout the history and literature of the colonies and nation. Anarchism's influence has been industrial and cultural, though its influence has waned from its high point in the early 20th century where anarchist techniques and ideas deeply influenced the official Australian union movement. In the mid 20th century anarchism's influence was primarily restricted to urban bohemian cultural movements
. In the late 20th century and early 21st century Australian anarchism has been an element in Australia's social justice and protest movements.
and others breaking away from the Australasian Secular Association of Joseph Symes, the journal Honesty being the anarchist club's official organ; and anarchism
became a significant minor current on the Australian left. The current included a diversity of views on economics, ranging from an individualism influenced by Benjamin Tucker
to the anarchist communism of JA Andrews
. All regarded themselves as broadly "socialist" however. The Anarchists mixed with the seminal literary figures Henry Lawson
and Mary Gilmore
and the labour journalist and utopian socialist William Lane
. The most dramatic event associated with this early Australian anarchism was perhaps the bombing of the "non-union" ship SS Aramac on 27 July 1893 by Australian anarchist and union organiser Larrie Petrie. This incident occurred in the highly charged atmosphere following the defeat of the 1890 Australian maritime dispute
and the 1891 Australian shearers' strike
, an atmosphere which also produced the Sydney
-based direct action group the "Active Service Brigade" Petrie was arrested for attempted murder but charges were dropped after a few months. He later joined Lane's "New Australia
" utopian experiment in Paraguay
.
A major challenge to the principles of these early Australian anarchists was the virulent anti-Chinese racism of the time, of which racism William Lane himself was a leading exponent. On a political level the anarchists opposed the anti-Chinese agitation. "The Chinese, like ourselves, are the victims of monopoly and exploitation" editorialized Honesty "We had far better set to and make our own position better instead of, like a parcel of blind babies, trying to make theirs worse." The anarchists were sometimes more ambivalent on the subject than this statement of principle might suggest; anti-Chinese racism was entrenched in the labour movement of which they were a part, and challenged by few others.
, belonged to the Melbourne Anarchist Club. He would later become a well-known militant of the Australian branch of the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW) and was arrested and imprisoned in 1916. His friend the social activist and literary figure Willem Siebenhaar
was among those who campaigned for his release.
After the First World War Australian anarchism fell into decline. The tradition was kept alive by, among others, the prominent agitator and street speaker Chummy Fleming
who died in Melbourne in 1950 and by Italian Anarchists active in Melbourne's Matteotti Club and the North Queensland canefields. William Andrade (1863–1939), David Andrade
's brother and fellow anarchist, became a successful bookseller in Sydney and Melbourne and while he retired from active politics in about 1920 he continued to influence events by allowing various radical groups to use his premises throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Anarchist refugees from Spain were also present in the 1930s. The literary journal, Angry Penguins
drew on the anarchist theory of Herbert Read
and others. The magazine was controversial and critical of the 'nationalistic socialism' of its counterparts, it did not continue after falling victim to an elaborate literary hoax
in 1943. The anarchist poet Harry Hooton
began publishing around this time.
developed a distinct brand of "pessimistic" or "permanent protest" anarchism, deeply skeptical of revolution and of any grand scheme of human betterment, yet friendly to the revolutionary unionism of the IWW
. Harry Hooton associated with this group, and his friend Germaine Greer
belonged to it in her youth. By 1972 she was calling herself an "anarchist communist" and was still identifying herself as "basically" an anarchist in 1999. The Sydney Libertarians were the political tendency around which the "Sydney Push
" social milieu developed, a milieu which included many anarchists.
The Sydney Libertarians, along with the remnant of the Australian IWW and of Italian and Spanish migrant anarchism fed into the Anarchist revival of the sixties and seventies which Australia shared with much of the developed world. Another post-war influence that fed into modern Australian anarchism was the arrival of anarchist refugees from Bulgaria.
The last years of Australian involvement in the Vietnam war was an active period for Australian anarchists, the high-profile draft resistor Michael Matteson
in particular became something of a folk hero. The prolific anarchist poet Pi O
began to write. The Brisbane Self-Management Group was formed in 1971, heavily influenced by the councillist writings of the Socialisme ou Barbarie
group and its offshoots. The Anarchist Bookshop in Adelaide began publishing the monthly Black Growth. Anarchists active in inner-city Melbourne played a major part in creating the Fitzroy Legal Service (FLS) in 1972. The FLS was the forerunner of the community legal centre movement in Australia.
At the same time anarchist theory was being intensely debated. A diverse Federation of Australian Anarchists (FAA) was formed at a conference in Sydney in 1975. A walkout from the second conference in Melbourne in 1976 lead to the founding of the Libertarian Socialist Federation(LSF) which in turn lead to the founding of Jura Books
in 1977. The FAA, and the LSF, soon dissolved but the founding of Jura, still existing as of August 2007, was a landmark in consolidating the modern movement.
The end of the 1970s saw the development of a Christian anarchist Catholic Worker
tendency in Brisbane
, the most prominent person in the group being Ciaron O'Reilly
. This tendency exploded into prominence in 1982 because of its part along with other anarchists and assorted radicals in the Brisbane free speech fights during the Queensland premiership of Joh Bjelke-Petersen
. In Melbourne in 1977 the Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society (LW) were formed on a theoretical platform similar to the Brisbane Self-Management Group. This Libertarian Workers group engaged very actively in propaganda, which played a major part on making possible the Australian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations
of 1986. Apart from generally respectful publicity the lasting consequences of the Celebrations were the founding of the Anarchist Media Institute which persists as of July 2007, its most visible member being Joseph Toscano
; and the founding of an Australian section of the International Workers Association
(IWA) called the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation (ASF). A major part of the activity of the ASF was its agitation among Melbourne's public transport workers culminating in a significant influence on the Melbourne Tram Dispute of 1990. This Australian section would self-destruct in 1992 in circumstances still controversial among Australian anarchists; however the IWA does currently list a group called the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation as a "friend", as distinct from a section, of the IWA. The Mutiny collective
and Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group are further examples of currently active anarchist groups. Anarchists in Australia as elsewhere frequently see no intrinsic value in ideologically based groups and do not necessarily affiliate to them.
Punk, including anarcho-punk
, appeared in Australia without delay. An example is the pamphlet How to Make Trouble and Influence People
and its sequels.
The term has been used in the Australian press to indicate a position of extreme or violent revolution, or of simple lawlessness. During the 1970s and to some extent the 1980s there was a tendency for anarchists to prefer such terms as "libertarian socialist".
The established and ongoing press of the Australian anarchist movement presently (July 2007) consists of the anarcho-syndicalist bimonthly Rebel Worker, founded in 1982; and the Anarchist Age Weekly Review.
the newsletter, founded in 1991, of the Anarchist Media Institute. Many more ephemeral publications have existed and continue to be produced.
Rebel Worker has carried over the years a body of polemic critical of inward-looking or "sect-building" anarchism, accused of seeing itself as something apart from the day to day struggles of working people. Associated with this polemic it has also carried articles critical of a "faista" (that is, dominated by the perspective favourable to the Federación Anarquista Ibérica
) interpretation of the history of Spanish Anarchism. The Anarchist Age Weekly Review provides a running commentary on the news plus very short theoretical and historical articles.
The pamphlet You Can't Blow Up A Social Relationship is a critique of guerilla-ism or "terrorism" as a strategy. It was published in 1978 in the name of several Australian groups following the Sydney Hilton bombing
. Another significant pamphlet, from the early 1980s, was Julie McCrossin
's Women, wimmin, womyn, womin, whippets an anarchist-feminist critique of some aspects of the separatist feminism of the day.
Particularly on the Sydney Libertarians: http://www.takver.com/history/sydney/indexsl.htm
Jura Books: http://jura.org.au
Black Rose Anarchist Library and Bookshop: http://blackrosebooks.org
Mutiny Zine - A Paper of Anarchistic Ideas and Action (read online, or printable PDF): http://www.jura.org.au/mutiny
Brisbane Anarchist Network: http : // www . blackflag . co . nr
Organise! Adelaide-based anarchist group: http://www.organisesa.org/
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
arrived in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
within a few years of anarchism developing as a distinct tendency in the wake of the 1871 Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
. Although a minor school of thought and politics, composed primarily of campaigners and intellectuals, Australian anarchism has formed a significant current throughout the history and literature of the colonies and nation. Anarchism's influence has been industrial and cultural, though its influence has waned from its high point in the early 20th century where anarchist techniques and ideas deeply influenced the official Australian union movement. In the mid 20th century anarchism's influence was primarily restricted to urban bohemian cultural movements
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
. In the late 20th century and early 21st century Australian anarchism has been an element in Australia's social justice and protest movements.
History
Anarchism has found both proponents and critics during the short history of Australia. International movements, émigrés or home-grown anarchists have all contributed to radical politics during the nation's formationBeginnings
The Melbourne Anarchist Club was officially founded on 1 May 1886 by David AndradeDavid Andrade
David Andrade was an Australian anarchist.In May 1886, David Andrade, his brother Will and half a dozen others formed the Melbourne Anarchist Club , the first anarchist organization in Australia. Andrade became the MAC secretary and one of its main propagandists.The MAC produced the journal Honesty...
and others breaking away from the Australasian Secular Association of Joseph Symes, the journal Honesty being the anarchist club's official organ; and anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
became a significant minor current on the Australian left. The current included a diversity of views on economics, ranging from an individualism influenced by Benjamin Tucker
Benjamin Tucker
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker was a proponent of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century, and editor and publisher of the individualist anarchist periodical Liberty.-Summary:Tucker says that he became an anarchist at the age of 18...
to the anarchist communism of JA Andrews
John Arthur Andrews
John Arthur "Jack" or "J.A." Andrews , was an Australian anarchist theoretician, agitator and journalist. He was also a poet and inventor and author of fiction. He was born in Bendigo to John Andrews, a clerk, and his wife Eliza Mary Ann, whoes maiden name was Barnett. He matriculated from Scotch...
. All regarded themselves as broadly "socialist" however. The Anarchists mixed with the seminal literary figures Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson
Henry Lawson was an Australian writer and poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period and is often called Australia's "greatest writer"...
and Mary Gilmore
Mary Gilmore
Dame Mary Gilmore DBE was a prominent Australian socialist poet and journalist.-Early life:Mary Jean Cameron was born on 16 August 1865 at Cotta Walla near Goulburn, New South Wales...
and the labour journalist and utopian socialist William Lane
William Lane
William Lane was a journalist, advocate of Australian labour politics and a utopian.-Early life:Lane was born in Bristol, England, eldest son of James Lane,from Ireland a Protestant Master Gardener , and his English wife Caroline, née Hall...
. The most dramatic event associated with this early Australian anarchism was perhaps the bombing of the "non-union" ship SS Aramac on 27 July 1893 by Australian anarchist and union organiser Larrie Petrie. This incident occurred in the highly charged atmosphere following the defeat of the 1890 Australian maritime dispute
1890 Australian maritime dispute
The 1890 Australian Maritime Dispute, commonly known as the 1890 Maritime Strike, was on a scale unprecedented in the Australian colonies to that point in time, causing political and social turmoil across all Australian colonies and in New Zealand, including the collapse of colonial governments in...
and the 1891 Australian shearers' strike
1891 Australian shearers' strike
350px|thumb|Shearers' strike camp, Hughenden, central Queensland, 1891.The 1891 shearers' strike is one of Australia's earliest and most important industrial disputes. Working conditions for sheep shearers in 19th century Australia weren't good. In 1891 wool was one of Australia's largest industries...
, an atmosphere which also produced the Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
-based direct action group the "Active Service Brigade" Petrie was arrested for attempted murder but charges were dropped after a few months. He later joined Lane's "New Australia
New Australia
New Australia was a utopian socialist settlement in Paraguay founded by the Australian New Australian Movement. The colony was officially founded on 28 September 1893 as Colonia Nueva Australia and comprised 238 adults and children.-History:...
" utopian experiment in Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
.
A major challenge to the principles of these early Australian anarchists was the virulent anti-Chinese racism of the time, of which racism William Lane himself was a leading exponent. On a political level the anarchists opposed the anti-Chinese agitation. "The Chinese, like ourselves, are the victims of monopoly and exploitation" editorialized Honesty "We had far better set to and make our own position better instead of, like a parcel of blind babies, trying to make theirs worse." The anarchists were sometimes more ambivalent on the subject than this statement of principle might suggest; anti-Chinese racism was entrenched in the labour movement of which they were a part, and challenged by few others.
World war
Monty Miller, a veteran of the Eureka uprisingEureka Stockade
The Eureka Rebellion of 1854 was an organised rebellion by gold miners which occurred at Eureka Lead in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The Battle of Eureka Stockade was fought on 3 December 1854 and named for the stockade structure erected by miners during the conflict...
, belonged to the Melbourne Anarchist Club. He would later become a well-known militant of the Australian branch of the Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
(IWW) and was arrested and imprisoned in 1916. His friend the social activist and literary figure Willem Siebenhaar
Willem Siebenhaar
Willem Siebenhaar was a social activist and writer in Western Australia from the 1890s until he left Australia in 1924. His literary contributions and opposition to policies such as conscription were his most notable contributions to the history of the state.-Biography:Siebenhaar was born in The...
was among those who campaigned for his release.
After the First World War Australian anarchism fell into decline. The tradition was kept alive by, among others, the prominent agitator and street speaker Chummy Fleming
Chummy Fleming
John William 'Chummy' Fleming was a pioneer unionist, agitator for the unemployed, and anarchist in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
who died in Melbourne in 1950 and by Italian Anarchists active in Melbourne's Matteotti Club and the North Queensland canefields. William Andrade (1863–1939), David Andrade
David Andrade
David Andrade was an Australian anarchist.In May 1886, David Andrade, his brother Will and half a dozen others formed the Melbourne Anarchist Club , the first anarchist organization in Australia. Andrade became the MAC secretary and one of its main propagandists.The MAC produced the journal Honesty...
's brother and fellow anarchist, became a successful bookseller in Sydney and Melbourne and while he retired from active politics in about 1920 he continued to influence events by allowing various radical groups to use his premises throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Anarchist refugees from Spain were also present in the 1930s. The literary journal, Angry Penguins
Angry Penguins
Angry Penguins was an Australian literary and artistic avant-garde movement of the 1940s. The movement was stimulated by a modernist magazine of the same name published by the surrealist poet Max Harris, who founded the magazine in 1940, at the age of 18....
drew on the anarchist theory of Herbert Read
Herbert Read
Sir Herbert Edward Read, DSO, MC was an English anarchist, poet, and critic of literature and art. He was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism, and was strongly influenced by proto-existentialist thinker Max Stirner....
and others. The magazine was controversial and critical of the 'nationalistic socialism' of its counterparts, it did not continue after falling victim to an elaborate literary hoax
Ern Malley
Ernest Lalor "Ern" Malley was a fictitious poet and the central figure in Australia's most celebrated literary hoax. The poet, and his entire body of work, were created in one day in 1944 by writers James McAuley and Harold Stewart as a hoax on Max Harris, Angry Penguins, the modernist magazine he...
in 1943. The anarchist poet Harry Hooton
Harry Hooton
Henry Arthur Hooton of Sydney was an Australian poet and social commentator whose writing spanned the years 1930s-1961. He was described by a biographer as ahead of his time, or rather "of his time while the majority of progressive artists and thinkers in Australia lagged far behind"...
began publishing around this time.
World revolution
After World War Two the Sydney LibertariansSydney Push
The Sydney Push was a predominantly left-wing intellectual sub-culture in Sydney from the late 1940s to the early '70s. Well known associates of the Push include Jim Baker, John Flaus, Harry Hooton, Margaret Fink, Sasha Soldatow, Lex Banning, Eva Cox, Richard Appleton, Paddy McGuinness, David...
developed a distinct brand of "pessimistic" or "permanent protest" anarchism, deeply skeptical of revolution and of any grand scheme of human betterment, yet friendly to the revolutionary unionism of the IWW
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
. Harry Hooton associated with this group, and his friend Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
belonged to it in her youth. By 1972 she was calling herself an "anarchist communist" and was still identifying herself as "basically" an anarchist in 1999. The Sydney Libertarians were the political tendency around which the "Sydney Push
Sydney Push
The Sydney Push was a predominantly left-wing intellectual sub-culture in Sydney from the late 1940s to the early '70s. Well known associates of the Push include Jim Baker, John Flaus, Harry Hooton, Margaret Fink, Sasha Soldatow, Lex Banning, Eva Cox, Richard Appleton, Paddy McGuinness, David...
" social milieu developed, a milieu which included many anarchists.
The Sydney Libertarians, along with the remnant of the Australian IWW and of Italian and Spanish migrant anarchism fed into the Anarchist revival of the sixties and seventies which Australia shared with much of the developed world. Another post-war influence that fed into modern Australian anarchism was the arrival of anarchist refugees from Bulgaria.
The last years of Australian involvement in the Vietnam war was an active period for Australian anarchists, the high-profile draft resistor Michael Matteson
Michael Matteson
Michael Matteson was an anti-war activist who resisted conscription into the Australian Army during the Vietnam War, due to his anarchist philosophy and principals....
in particular became something of a folk hero. The prolific anarchist poet Pi O
Pi O
П. O. is an Australian, working class, anarchist, poet of Greek origin.Born in Katerini, Greece, П. O. came to Australia with his family around 1954. After time in Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre, the family moved to the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy.П. O...
began to write. The Brisbane Self-Management Group was formed in 1971, heavily influenced by the councillist writings of the Socialisme ou Barbarie
Socialisme ou Barbarie
Socialisme ou Barbarie was a French-based radical libertarian socialist group of the post-World War II period . It existed from 1948 until 1965...
group and its offshoots. The Anarchist Bookshop in Adelaide began publishing the monthly Black Growth. Anarchists active in inner-city Melbourne played a major part in creating the Fitzroy Legal Service (FLS) in 1972. The FLS was the forerunner of the community legal centre movement in Australia.
At the same time anarchist theory was being intensely debated. A diverse Federation of Australian Anarchists (FAA) was formed at a conference in Sydney in 1975. A walkout from the second conference in Melbourne in 1976 lead to the founding of the Libertarian Socialist Federation(LSF) which in turn lead to the founding of Jura Books
Jura Books
Jura Books is an anarchist bookshop and infoshop located in Sydney, Australia. The shop was named after the Jura federation. It has operated since August 1977, first on King Street, Newtown, before moving to Petersham....
in 1977. The FAA, and the LSF, soon dissolved but the founding of Jura, still existing as of August 2007, was a landmark in consolidating the modern movement.
Catholic Worker
The Catholic Worker is a newspaper published seven times a year by the Catholic Worker Movement community in New York City. The newspaper was started by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin to make people aware of church teaching on social justice...
tendency in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, the most prominent person in the group being Ciaron O'Reilly
Ciaron O'Reilly
Ciaron O'Reilly is a long-time Catholic Worker, nonviolent resister and Christian anarchist. O'Reilly took part in the 1980s civil rights, social justice and free speech movement in Queensland, Australia, against state Premier Joh Bjelke-Peterson....
. This tendency exploded into prominence in 1982 because of its part along with other anarchists and assorted radicals in the Brisbane free speech fights during the Queensland premiership of Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Joh Bjelke-Petersen
Sir Johannes "Joh" Bjelke-Petersen, KCMG , was an Australian politician. He was the longest-serving and longest-lived Premier of Queensland, holding office from 1968 to 1987, a period that saw considerable economic development in the state...
. In Melbourne in 1977 the Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society (LW) were formed on a theoretical platform similar to the Brisbane Self-Management Group. This Libertarian Workers group engaged very actively in propaganda, which played a major part on making possible the Australian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations
Australian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations
The Australian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations occurred from 1 to 4 May 1986 in Melbourne, Australia.Preparations to celebrate the centenary of the formation of the first known anarchist organisation in Australia commenced in August 1984 by the Libertarian Workers for a Self Managed Society The...
of 1986. Apart from generally respectful publicity the lasting consequences of the Celebrations were the founding of the Anarchist Media Institute which persists as of July 2007, its most visible member being Joseph Toscano
Joseph Toscano
Dr Joseph Toscano is a medical practitioner, a broadcaster and an anarchist who lives in Melbourne, Australia. He has become widely known as an anarchist spokesperson for the Anarchist Media Institute through his broadcasting on community radio, his frequent letters to newspapers such as The Age...
; and the founding of an Australian section of the International Workers Association
International Workers Association
The International Workers' Association is an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist labour unions and initiatives based primarily in Europe and Latin America....
(IWA) called the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation (ASF). A major part of the activity of the ASF was its agitation among Melbourne's public transport workers culminating in a significant influence on the Melbourne Tram Dispute of 1990. This Australian section would self-destruct in 1992 in circumstances still controversial among Australian anarchists; however the IWA does currently list a group called the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation as a "friend", as distinct from a section, of the IWA. The Mutiny collective
Mutiny collective
The Mutiny Collective is an anarchist collective in Sydney, Australia made notorious in the media after the 2006 G20 summit meeting in Melbourne in November 2006, when protest organiser Marcus Greville accused Mutiny and the Arterial Bloc of being responsible for the confrontations with police...
and Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group are further examples of currently active anarchist groups. Anarchists in Australia as elsewhere frequently see no intrinsic value in ideologically based groups and do not necessarily affiliate to them.
Punk, including anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk
Anarcho-punk is punk rock that promotes anarchism. The term anarcho-punk is sometimes applied exclusively to bands that were part of the original anarcho-punk movement in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
, appeared in Australia without delay. An example is the pamphlet How to Make Trouble and Influence People
How To Make Trouble And Influence People
How To Make Trouble And Influence People was the title of a self-published book from 1996 chronicling the history of political pranks and acts of creative subversion in Australia. The book consists of a series of short paragraphs describing incidents, as well as facsimiles of flyers, posters and...
and its sequels.
Theory and literature
Various theories or conceptions of anarchism arose from the literature of Australia, writers and poets either identified as anarchists or became closely associated with associations and literary movements since the late 19th century. As a school of ethics or radicalism, anarchism is inherently prone to schism and dissolution. Sometimes given as a weakness of its political effectiveness, many anarchists maintain that dynamic political association is its strength. Magazines and pamphlets were generated throughout its history, associations came and went, and poets used the medium to illustrate their sometimes utopic vision. Many anarchists were engaged to socialist campaigning or in political actions involving other groups.The term has been used in the Australian press to indicate a position of extreme or violent revolution, or of simple lawlessness. During the 1970s and to some extent the 1980s there was a tendency for anarchists to prefer such terms as "libertarian socialist".
The established and ongoing press of the Australian anarchist movement presently (July 2007) consists of the anarcho-syndicalist bimonthly Rebel Worker, founded in 1982; and the Anarchist Age Weekly Review.
the newsletter, founded in 1991, of the Anarchist Media Institute. Many more ephemeral publications have existed and continue to be produced.
Rebel Worker has carried over the years a body of polemic critical of inward-looking or "sect-building" anarchism, accused of seeing itself as something apart from the day to day struggles of working people. Associated with this polemic it has also carried articles critical of a "faista" (that is, dominated by the perspective favourable to the Federación Anarquista Ibérica
Federación Anarquista Ibérica
The Federación Anarquista Ibérica is a Spanish organization of anarchist militants active within affinity groups inside the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo trade union. It is often abbreviated as CNT-FAI because of the close relationship between the two organizations...
) interpretation of the history of Spanish Anarchism. The Anarchist Age Weekly Review provides a running commentary on the news plus very short theoretical and historical articles.
The pamphlet You Can't Blow Up A Social Relationship is a critique of guerilla-ism or "terrorism" as a strategy. It was published in 1978 in the name of several Australian groups following the Sydney Hilton bombing
Sydney Hilton bombing
The Sydney Hilton bombing occurred on 13 February 1978, when a bomb exploded outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. At the time the hotel was the site of the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting , a regional off-shoot of the biennial meetings of the heads...
. Another significant pamphlet, from the early 1980s, was Julie McCrossin
Julie McCrossin
Julie McCrossin is an Australian radio broadcaster, journalist, comedian and campaigner for women's and gay rights. She is best known for her role as a team captain on the news-based comedy quiz show Good News Week between 1996 and 2000....
's Women, wimmin, womyn, womin, whippets an anarchist-feminist critique of some aspects of the separatist feminism of the day.
External links
For a first link on Australian Anarchist history see: http://www.takver.com/history/biblio.htmParticularly on the Sydney Libertarians: http://www.takver.com/history/sydney/indexsl.htm
Jura Books: http://jura.org.au
Black Rose Anarchist Library and Bookshop: http://blackrosebooks.org
Mutiny Zine - A Paper of Anarchistic Ideas and Action (read online, or printable PDF): http://www.jura.org.au/mutiny
Brisbane Anarchist Network: http : // www . blackflag . co . nr
Organise! Adelaide-based anarchist group: http://www.organisesa.org/