Post-colonial anarchism
Encyclopedia
Post-colonial anarchism is a new tendency within the larger anarchist movement. The name is taken from an essay by Roger White, one of the founders of Jailbreak Press and a well known activist in North America
n APOC
circles. Post-colonial anarchism is an attempt to bring together disparate aspects and tendencies within the existing anarchist movement and re-envision them in an explicitly anti-imperialist
framework. Where traditional anarchism is a movement arising from the struggles of proletarians in industrialized western European nations - and thus sees history from their perspective - post-colonial anarchism approaches the same principles of mutual aid
, class struggle
, opposition to social hierarchy, and community-level self-management, self-government, and self-determination
from the perspective of colonized peoples throughout the world. In doing so it does not seek to invalidate the contributions of the more established anarchist movement, but rather seeks to add what it sees as a unique and important perspective. The tendency is strongly influenced by indigenism
, anti-state forms of nationalism and Anarchist People of Color
, among other sources.
's early involvement in the Pan-Slavic movement. Anarchists have participated in left-nationalist movements in China
, Korea
, Vietnam
, Ireland
, Brittany
, Ukraine
, Poland
, Mexico
, Israel
, and many other nations. Modern anarchist organizations working on national liberation struggles include the CBIL in Brittany
.
While post-colonial anarchism clearly has objections to nationalism, it recognizes that a key element of imperialism is the waging of culture war
by the conquerors against subject nations in an attempt to destroy the identity of the conquered and make them easier to govern. Post-colonial anarchism therefore seeks not only the abolition of capitalism
and the state
, but is an effort by colonized peoples to promote, preserve, and defend their cultures, dignity, and identity. As Ashanti Alston
puts it in "Beyond Nationalism but Not Without It":
Ashanti thus sees value in the Nation of Islam
where it acts as a force for good by helping black people
in America stand up for themselves and demand equality, but also recognizes the negative impacts of the N.O.I.'s approach and urges the black community to stand up and speak out against the N.O.I. and other black nationalist groups where they cross the line from pride in self to promoting the domination of other individuals, groups and identities. He is also strongly critical of the larger anarchist movements tendency to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater and dismiss black nationalism and other national liberation struggles out of hand.
At root, the basic difference between anarchism and anti-state nationalism is that in nationalism the primary political unit is the nation
, or ethnic group
, whereas in an anarchist system the primary political unit is the local community or the place where labor occurs. Post-colonial anarchism is therefore clearly distinct from any form of nationalism in that it does not seek to make the nation a political unit - let alone the primary political unit. Just as social anarchists seek to create a socialist economy but oppose the tyranny of Marxist state socialism
, post-colonial anarchists oppose the tyranny of nationalism. and argue that the achievement of meaningful self-determination
for all of the world's nations requires an anarchist political system based on local control, free federation and mutual aid
.
-identified groups seek to bring together the perspectives of people of color within the anarchist movement and have a strong commitment to combating white supremacy
, but are often reluctant to recognize the validity and importance of anti-imperialist struggles in Europe. Indigenist thinkers like Ward Churchill
, by contrast, make a point of showing support for such movements and actively encourages white anti-racists to explore and learn from historical and ongoing anti-imperialist struggles in Europe. All the various strains of post-colonial anarchism, however, are explicitly opposed to and denounce claims of racial superiority by any group, and see the abolition of white supremacy and other strains of racial/ethnic supremacy as a fundamental goal of anarchism.
The reason why traditional African societies are characterized as "anarchies" is because of their horizontal political structure and absence of classes. The traditional legal system of Somalia, known as Xeer
, is one example of this.
Xeer, pronounced ħeːr, is the polycentric
legal system of Somalia
. Under this system, elders
serve as judges and help mediate cases using precedents. It is a good example of how customary law works within a stateless society
and is a fair approximation of what is thought of as natural law
. Several scholars have noted that even though Xeer may be centuries old, it has the potential to serve as the legal system of a modern, well-functioning economy.
While many traditional African societies were based on leadership by example, often by respected Elders, that leadership of elders normally did not transcend into the authoritative structure which characterizes the modern state (see also Pierre Clastres
' thesis expounded in Society Against the State).
Starting in the 15th century the class system began to form in the last empires of Africa, although it had already existed in some African civilizations (such as Nubia
, Egypt
, Axum
and Hausa) for millennia. However, many societies have until this day remained as what is called “tribes without rulers”, a form of “ordered anarchy”.
From a post-colonial perspective, African anarchism is therefore an attempt to re-imagine anarchist politics based on a conception of anarchism not as some utopian future society, but as a real functional model for society which was actually the norm for pre-conquest Africa, was disturbed by European aggression and imperialism, and which provides the single best blueprint for how African societies can move forward and create a just and equitable future.
of pre-invasion Celtic Ireland, provide a real-world example of a highly advanced Stateless legal system.
The tendency is thus similar to indigenism
in that it seeks inspiration for anarchism in the history and practices of ancestors, rather than relying solely on political theory and speculation. There is also a strong movement to seek out the good in the ongoing anti-imperialist movements in Ireland
, Scotland
, Wales
, Brittany
, Cornwall
, and Galicia.
. Earth First!
is one of the largest networks organizing around these issues and is organized along anarchist lines with many of the people who work under its banner self-identifying as anarchists. It is perhaps natural that the British
and Irish
Earth First! movements in particular would seek inspiration from and consciously seek linkages with Celtic identities, given that the ancient Celts are commonly portrayed as being more in touch with nature then modern consumer society. The Earth First Journal, the main publication of the movement, organizes its printing schedule around the Neopagan Wheel of the Year
, which consists of four Gaelic festivals and four Germanic ones, with issues named for Beltane
, Eostar, Brigid
, Samhain
, Yule
, Mabon, and Lughnasadh
.
, is portrayed as a national liberation struggle within the Celtic anarchist milieu. Anarchists, including the Irish Workers Solidarity Movement
, support a complete end to British involvement in Ireland, a stance traditionally associated with Irish republicanism
, but are also very critical of statist nationalism and the IRA
in particular. In two articles published on Anarkismo.net, Andrew Flood of the WSM outlines what he argues was the betrayal of class struggle by the IRA during the war of independence, and argues that the statism
of traditional Irish nationalism forced it to place the interests of wealthy Irish nationalists who were financing the revolution ahead of the interests of the vast majority of Ireland's poor. The example of the Irish Citizens Army, a workers militia which was led by James Connolly
and based in the radical wing of the Irish union movement, is held up as a better example of how the larger revolutionary movement could have - and should have - been organized.
Anarchists are extremely critical of the Irish Republican Army
, as well as of the various loyalist
paramilitaries, because of their use of political violence and internal authoritarianism. From the anarchist view, British and Irish nationalism are both statist, authoritarian, and seek to dominate and exploit the Irish nation to empower their competing States
. Anarchism would instead create a political system without the Nation-State where communities are self-governing on the local level. The achievement of home-rule, or political self-determination, is therefore a precondition for and a consequence of anarchism. At root then, the anarchist objection to Irish nationalism is that nationalists use reprehensible means to demand far too little. Still, anarchists seek to learn from and examine the liberatory aspects of the struggle for Irish independence and the W.S.M. includes a demand for complete British withdrawal from Northern Ireland
in its platform.
anarchism is an effort to understand how anarchism relates to the Chicano experience in the United States, or better said how the two relate to one another. A Chicano/a being a person of Mexican
descent who was born and raised in the United States
, more specifically a politicized person of Mexican descent born in the United States. Chicano anarchism, although the term itself is quite new, has it antecedents in the Mexican anarchist Ricardo Flores Magon
’s propagandizing in the Spanish-speaking communities of California
and the southwest during his years of exile, and in the Mexican anarchist movement
. Since the 1960s when the modern Chicano radical movement begin, and especially the late 60s and early 70s when it reached its zenith, to identify as a Chicano (rather than Hispanic
or Latino
) has been to identify with a self-consciously subversive political stance. Chicano anarchism thus seeks to take this form of radical self-identification and push it beyond the current emphasis on cultural-nationalism and towards class struggle and solidarity with the international working class, while keeping their analysis rooted in their unique history and culture.
One of the primary goals of Chicano anarchism is to inject a class struggle
anarchist critique, made primarily by class conscious Chicano anarchists, into the modern nationalist Chicano movement and transform the movement away from the reactionary ideas of cultural-nationalism and into a movement that works in collaboration as comrades with the international working class, of which the mass of Chicanos are a part.
and subjugation and domination of people of color, and favors a non-hierarchical organization of society. Black anarchists seek to abolish white supremacy
, patriarchy
, capitalism
, and the state. Theorists include Ashanti Alston
, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin
, Kuwasi Balagoon
, , and Martin Sostre
.
Black anarchists have criticized both the hierarchical organization of the Black Panther Party
, and the anarchist movement, on the grounds that it has traditionally been Eurocentric and/or white supremacist. They oppose the anti-racist conception, based on the universalism
of the Enlightenment
, which is proposed by the anarchist workers' tradition, arguing that it is not adequate enough to struggle against racism
and that it disguises real inequalities by proclaiming a de jure equality
.
Black anarchists are thus influenced by the civil rights movement
and the Black Panther Party, and seek to forge their own movement that represents their own identity and tailored to their own unique situation. However, in contrast to black activism that was, in the past, based in leadership from hierarchical organizations, black anarchism rejects such methodology in favor of developing organically through communication and cooperation to bring about a social, cultural and economic revolution that does away with all forms of domination. From Alston's @narchist Panther Zine:
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n APOC
Anarchist People of Color
Anarchist People of Color is an American anarchist/anti-authoritarian group created to address issues of race, anti-authoritarianism and people of color struggle politics within the context of anarchism, and to increase/create political space for people of color.Initially started as an e-mail list...
circles. Post-colonial anarchism is an attempt to bring together disparate aspects and tendencies within the existing anarchist movement and re-envision them in an explicitly anti-imperialist
Anti-imperialism
Anti-imperialism, strictly speaking, is a term that may be applied to a movement opposed to any form of colonialism or imperialism. Anti-imperialism includes opposition to wars of conquest, particularly of non-contiguous territory or people with a different language or culture; it also includes...
framework. Where traditional anarchism is a movement arising from the struggles of proletarians in industrialized western European nations - and thus sees history from their perspective - post-colonial anarchism approaches the same principles of mutual aid
Mutual aid (politics)
Mutual aid is a term in organization theory used to signify a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit. Mutual aid is arguably as ancient as human culture; an intrinsic part of the small, communal societies universal to humanity's ancient past...
, class struggle
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
, opposition to social hierarchy, and community-level self-management, self-government, and self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
from the perspective of colonized peoples throughout the world. In doing so it does not seek to invalidate the contributions of the more established anarchist movement, but rather seeks to add what it sees as a unique and important perspective. The tendency is strongly influenced by indigenism
Indigenism
Indigenism, Native nationalism, or Indigenous nationalism is a kind of ethnic nationalism emphasizing the group's indigeneity to their homeland...
, anti-state forms of nationalism and Anarchist People of Color
Anarchist People of Color
Anarchist People of Color is an American anarchist/anti-authoritarian group created to address issues of race, anti-authoritarianism and people of color struggle politics within the context of anarchism, and to increase/create political space for people of color.Initially started as an e-mail list...
, among other sources.
Issues
Post-colonial anarchism is syncretic and diverse, incorporating a wide range of sources, as is to be expected from a tendency which draws from such a wide range of perspectives.Nationalism
Anarchism and nationalism have a long history, going back to prominent anarchist theorist Mikhail BakuninMikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
's early involvement in the Pan-Slavic movement. Anarchists have participated in left-nationalist movements in China
Anarchism in China
The predominance in the late 19th century of the Nihilist movement and anarchist communism in Russia, which borders China, was a major source of anarchist influence on radical movements in China....
, Korea
Anarchism in Korea
Anarchism in Korea began in 1894, when Japan invaded Korea with the stated intention of protecting it from China. It was from within the exiles who fled to China in the wake of the 1919 independence conflict that the modern anarchist movement in Korea arose...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Ireland
Anarchism in Ireland
Irish anarchism has little historical tradition before the 1970s, and as a movement it only really developed from the late 1990s – although one organisation, the Workers Solidarity Movement has had a continuous existence since 1984...
, Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, Ukraine
Anarchism in Ukraine
Anarchism in Ukraine dates from the 19th century with the writings of Mykhailo Drahomanov , though it draws its rebellious inspiration in the actions of Nestor Makhno from the peasant uprisings of Stenka Razin and Yemelyan Pugachev as well as the Zaporozhian Cossacks.-Historical:The first...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Mexico
Anarchism in Mexico
-Historical:Pre-conquest, some of the indigenous peoples of what is today Mexico had decisionmaking structures based on participation, discussion, and consensus, hallmarks of modern anarchism...
, Israel
Anarchism in Israel
Anarchism has been an undercurrent in the politics of Palestine and Israel for over a century.- Early Kibbutz movement :The anarchist ideology arrived in Palestine at the beginning of the 20th century, carried by a big wave of emigrants from Eastern Europe...
, and many other nations. Modern anarchist organizations working on national liberation struggles include the CBIL in Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
.
While post-colonial anarchism clearly has objections to nationalism, it recognizes that a key element of imperialism is the waging of culture war
Culture war
The culture war in American usage is a metaphor used to claim that political conflict is based on sets of conflicting cultural values. The term frequently implies a conflict between those values considered traditionalist or conservative and those considered progressive or liberal...
by the conquerors against subject nations in an attempt to destroy the identity of the conquered and make them easier to govern. Post-colonial anarchism therefore seeks not only the abolition of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and the state
State (polity)
A state is an organized political community, living under a government. States may be sovereign and may enjoy a monopoly on the legal initiation of force and are not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state. Many states are federated states which participate in a federal union...
, but is an effort by colonized peoples to promote, preserve, and defend their cultures, dignity, and identity. As Ashanti Alston
Ashanti Alston
Ashanti Alston Omowali is an anarchist activist, speaker, and writer, and former member of the Black Panther Party. Even though the party no longer exists, Alston sometimes refers to himself as a Black Panther, and sometimes as "the @narchist Panther", a term he coined in his @narchist Panther Zine...
puts it in "Beyond Nationalism but Not Without It":
For me, even the nationalism of a Louis Farrakhan is about saving my people, though it is also thoroughly sexist, capitalist, homophobic and potentially fascist. Yet, it has played an important part in keeping a certain black pride and resistance going. Their "on the ground" work is very important in keeping an anti-racist mentality going. As a black anarchist, that’s MY issue to deal with cuz they’se MY FOLKS. But it points to where anarchism and nationalism have differences, and that is in [non-black] anarchists having NO understanding of what it means to be BLACK in this fucked up society.
Ashanti thus sees value in the Nation of Islam
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
where it acts as a force for good by helping black people
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
in America stand up for themselves and demand equality, but also recognizes the negative impacts of the N.O.I.'s approach and urges the black community to stand up and speak out against the N.O.I. and other black nationalist groups where they cross the line from pride in self to promoting the domination of other individuals, groups and identities. He is also strongly critical of the larger anarchist movements tendency to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater and dismiss black nationalism and other national liberation struggles out of hand.
At root, the basic difference between anarchism and anti-state nationalism is that in nationalism the primary political unit is the nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
, or ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
, whereas in an anarchist system the primary political unit is the local community or the place where labor occurs. Post-colonial anarchism is therefore clearly distinct from any form of nationalism in that it does not seek to make the nation a political unit - let alone the primary political unit. Just as social anarchists seek to create a socialist economy but oppose the tyranny of Marxist state socialism
State socialism
State socialism is an economic system with limited socialist characteristics, such as public ownership of major industries, remedial measures to benefit the working class, and a gradual process of developing socialism through government policy...
, post-colonial anarchists oppose the tyranny of nationalism. and argue that the achievement of meaningful self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
for all of the world's nations requires an anarchist political system based on local control, free federation and mutual aid
Mutual aid (politics)
Mutual aid is a term in organization theory used to signify a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit. Mutual aid is arguably as ancient as human culture; an intrinsic part of the small, communal societies universal to humanity's ancient past...
.
Race and racism
Post-colonial anarchism is self-consciously anti-racist, though different groups have differing ideas of what that means. Anarchist People of ColorAnarchist People of Color
Anarchist People of Color is an American anarchist/anti-authoritarian group created to address issues of race, anti-authoritarianism and people of color struggle politics within the context of anarchism, and to increase/create political space for people of color.Initially started as an e-mail list...
-identified groups seek to bring together the perspectives of people of color within the anarchist movement and have a strong commitment to combating white supremacy
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...
, but are often reluctant to recognize the validity and importance of anti-imperialist struggles in Europe. Indigenist thinkers like Ward Churchill
Ward Churchill
Ward LeRoy Churchill is an author and political activist. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1990 to 2007. The primary focus of his work is on the historical treatment of political dissenters and Native Americans by the United States government...
, by contrast, make a point of showing support for such movements and actively encourages white anti-racists to explore and learn from historical and ongoing anti-imperialist struggles in Europe. All the various strains of post-colonial anarchism, however, are explicitly opposed to and denounce claims of racial superiority by any group, and see the abolition of white supremacy and other strains of racial/ethnic supremacy as a fundamental goal of anarchism.
African anarchism
Sam Mbah and I. E. Igariwey in African Anarchism: The History of a Movement make the claim that:The reason why traditional African societies are characterized as "anarchies" is because of their horizontal political structure and absence of classes. The traditional legal system of Somalia, known as Xeer
Xeer
Xeer, pronounced , is the polycentric legal system of Somalia. Under this system, elders serve as judges and help mediate cases using precedents. It is a good example of how customary law works within a stateless society and is a fair approximation of what is thought of as natural law...
, is one example of this.
Xeer, pronounced ħeːr, is the polycentric
Polycentric law
Polycentric law is a legal structure in which providers of legal systems compete or overlap in a given jurisdiction, as opposed to monopolistic statutory law according to which there is a sole provider of law for each jurisdiction. Devolution of this monopoly occurs by the principle of...
legal system of Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
. Under this system, elders
Elder (administrative title)
The term Elder is used in several different countries and organizations to indicate a position of authority...
serve as judges and help mediate cases using precedents. It is a good example of how customary law works within a stateless society
Stateless society
A stateless society is a society that is not governed by a state. In stateless societies, there is little concentration of authority; most positions of authority that do exist are very limited in power and are generally not permanently held positions; and social bodies that resolve disputes through...
and is a fair approximation of what is thought of as natural law
Natural law
Natural law, or the law of nature , is any system of law which is purportedly determined by nature, and thus universal. Classically, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. Natural law is contrasted with the positive law Natural...
. Several scholars have noted that even though Xeer may be centuries old, it has the potential to serve as the legal system of a modern, well-functioning economy.
While many traditional African societies were based on leadership by example, often by respected Elders, that leadership of elders normally did not transcend into the authoritative structure which characterizes the modern state (see also Pierre Clastres
Pierre Clastres
Pierre Clastres, , was a French anthropologist and ethnographer. He is best known for his fieldwork among the Guayaki in Paraguay and his theory on stateless societies.-Theories:...
' thesis expounded in Society Against the State).
Starting in the 15th century the class system began to form in the last empires of Africa, although it had already existed in some African civilizations (such as Nubia
Nubia
Nubia is a region along the Nile river, which is located in northern Sudan and southern Egypt.There were a number of small Nubian kingdoms throughout the Middle Ages, the last of which collapsed in 1504, when Nubia became divided between Egypt and the Sennar sultanate resulting in the Arabization...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Axum
Axum
Axum or Aksum is a city in northern Ethiopia which was the original capital of the eponymous kingdom of Axum. Population 56,500 . Axum was a naval and trading power that ruled the region from ca. 400 BC into the 10th century...
and Hausa) for millennia. However, many societies have until this day remained as what is called “tribes without rulers”, a form of “ordered anarchy”.
From a post-colonial perspective, African anarchism is therefore an attempt to re-imagine anarchist politics based on a conception of anarchism not as some utopian future society, but as a real functional model for society which was actually the norm for pre-conquest Africa, was disturbed by European aggression and imperialism, and which provides the single best blueprint for how African societies can move forward and create a just and equitable future.
Celtic anarchism
The most basic aspect of the Celtic anarchism tendency is the belief that pre-conquest Celtic societies had strong aspects in common with anarchist ideals of how society should be structured, and that modern anarchists would do well to investigate these early models. Like Xeer in Africa, the Brehon LawsBrehon Laws
Early Irish law refers to the statutes that governed everyday life and politics in Early Medieval Ireland. They were partially eclipsed by the Norman invasion of 1169, but underwent a resurgence in the 13th century, and survived into Early Modern Ireland in parallel with English law over the...
of pre-invasion Celtic Ireland, provide a real-world example of a highly advanced Stateless legal system.
The tendency is thus similar to indigenism
Indigenism
Indigenism, Native nationalism, or Indigenous nationalism is a kind of ethnic nationalism emphasizing the group's indigeneity to their homeland...
in that it seeks inspiration for anarchism in the history and practices of ancestors, rather than relying solely on political theory and speculation. There is also a strong movement to seek out the good in the ongoing anti-imperialist movements in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, and Galicia.
Ecology
The influence of the modern revival of Celtic culture on anarchism are particularly evident within the radical wing of the environmentalist movement, particularly Deep EcologyDeep ecology
Deep ecology is a contemporary ecological philosophy that recognizes an inherent worth of all living beings, regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs. The philosophy emphasizes the interdependence of organisms within ecosystems and that of ecosystems with each other within the...
. Earth First!
Earth First!
Earth First! is a radical environmental advocacy group that emerged in the Southwestern United States in 1979. It was co-founded on April 4th, 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, and less directly, Bart Koehler and Ron Kezar....
is one of the largest networks organizing around these issues and is organized along anarchist lines with many of the people who work under its banner self-identifying as anarchists. It is perhaps natural that the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
Earth First! movements in particular would seek inspiration from and consciously seek linkages with Celtic identities, given that the ancient Celts are commonly portrayed as being more in touch with nature then modern consumer society. The Earth First Journal, the main publication of the movement, organizes its printing schedule around the Neopagan Wheel of the Year
Wheel of the Year
The Wheel of the Year is a Neopagan term for the annual cycle of the Earth's seasons. It consists of eight festivals, spaced at approximately even intervals throughout the year. These festivals are referred to as Sabbats...
, which consists of four Gaelic festivals and four Germanic ones, with issues named for Beltane
Beltane
Beltane or Beltaine is the anglicised spelling of Old Irish Beltaine or Beltine , the Gaelic name for either the month of May or the festival that takes place on the first day of May.Bealtaine was historically a Gaelic festival celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.Bealtaine...
, Eostar, Brigid
Brigid
In Irish mythology, Brigit or Brighid was the daughter of the Dagda and one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. She was the wife of Bres of the Fomorians, with whom she had a son, Ruadán....
, Samhain
Samhain
Samhain is a Gaelic harvest festival held on October 31–November 1. It was linked to festivals held around the same time in other Celtic cultures, and was popularised as the "Celtic New Year" from the late 19th century, following Sir John Rhys and Sir James Frazer...
, Yule
Yule
Yule or Yuletide is a winter festival that was initially celebrated by the historical Germanic people as a pagan religious festival, though it was later absorbed into, and equated with, the Christian festival of Christmas. The festival was originally celebrated from late December to early January...
, Mabon, and Lughnasadh
Lughnasadh
Lughnasadh is a traditional Gaelic holiday celebrated on 1 August. It is in origin a harvest festival, corresponding to the Welsh Calan Awst and the English Lammas.-Name:...
.
Post-colonial anarchism in Ireland
The armed struggle against British rule in Ireland, particularly up to and during the Irish War of IndependenceIrish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
, is portrayed as a national liberation struggle within the Celtic anarchist milieu. Anarchists, including the Irish Workers Solidarity Movement
Workers Solidarity Movement
The Workers Solidarity Movement is an anarchist organisation in Ireland broadly in the platformist tradition of Nestor Makhno. It was set up in 1984 and publishes the paper Workers Solidarity and the magazine Red and Black Revolution....
, support a complete end to British involvement in Ireland, a stance traditionally associated with Irish republicanism
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
, but are also very critical of statist nationalism and the IRA
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
in particular. In two articles published on Anarkismo.net, Andrew Flood of the WSM outlines what he argues was the betrayal of class struggle by the IRA during the war of independence, and argues that the statism
Statism
Statism is a term usually describing a political philosophy, whether of the right or the left, that emphasises the role of the state in politics or supports the use of the state to achieve economic, military or social goals...
of traditional Irish nationalism forced it to place the interests of wealthy Irish nationalists who were financing the revolution ahead of the interests of the vast majority of Ireland's poor. The example of the Irish Citizens Army, a workers militia which was led by James Connolly
James Connolly
James Connolly was an Irish republican and socialist leader. He was born in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, to Irish immigrant parents and spoke with a Scottish accent throughout his life. He left school for working life at the age of 11, but became one of the leading Marxist theorists of...
and based in the radical wing of the Irish union movement, is held up as a better example of how the larger revolutionary movement could have - and should have - been organized.
Anarchists are not nationalists, in fact we are completely against nationalism. We don't worry about where your granny was born, whether you can speak Irish or if you drink a green milkshake in McDonalds on St Patrick's Day.
But this doesn't mean we can ignore nations. They do exist; and some nationalities are picked on, discriminated against because of their nationality. Irish history bears a lot of witness to this.
The Kurds, Native Americans, Chechins, and many more have suffered also - and to an amazingly barbaric degree. National oppression is wrong. It divides working class people, causes terrible suffering and strengthens the hand of the ruling class. Our opposition to this makes us anti-imperialists. ...
So fight national oppression but look beyond nationalism. We can do a lot better. Changing the world for the better will be a hard struggle so we should make sure that we look for the best possible society to live in.
We look forward to a world without borders, where the great majority of people have as much right to freely move about as the idle rich do today. A worldwide federation of free peoples - classless and stateless - where we produce to satisfy needs and all have control over our destinies - that's a goal worth struggling for.
From 'An Anarchist Perspective on Irish Nationalism'
Anarchists are extremely critical of the Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
, as well as of the various loyalist
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
paramilitaries, because of their use of political violence and internal authoritarianism. From the anarchist view, British and Irish nationalism are both statist, authoritarian, and seek to dominate and exploit the Irish nation to empower their competing States
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
. Anarchism would instead create a political system without the Nation-State where communities are self-governing on the local level. The achievement of home-rule, or political self-determination, is therefore a precondition for and a consequence of anarchism. At root then, the anarchist objection to Irish nationalism is that nationalists use reprehensible means to demand far too little. Still, anarchists seek to learn from and examine the liberatory aspects of the struggle for Irish independence and the W.S.M. includes a demand for complete British withdrawal from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
in its platform.
Chicano anarchism
ChicanoChicano
The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
anarchism is an effort to understand how anarchism relates to the Chicano experience in the United States, or better said how the two relate to one another. A Chicano/a being a person of Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
descent who was born and raised in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, more specifically a politicized person of Mexican descent born in the United States. Chicano anarchism, although the term itself is quite new, has it antecedents in the Mexican anarchist Ricardo Flores Magon
Ricardo Flores Magón
Cipriano Ricardo Flores Magón was a noted Mexican anarchist and social reform activist. His brothers Enrique and Jesús were also active in politics. Followers of the Magón brothers were known as Magonistas....
’s propagandizing in the Spanish-speaking communities of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and the southwest during his years of exile, and in the Mexican anarchist movement
Anarchism in Mexico
-Historical:Pre-conquest, some of the indigenous peoples of what is today Mexico had decisionmaking structures based on participation, discussion, and consensus, hallmarks of modern anarchism...
. Since the 1960s when the modern Chicano radical movement begin, and especially the late 60s and early 70s when it reached its zenith, to identify as a Chicano (rather than Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
or Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
) has been to identify with a self-consciously subversive political stance. Chicano anarchism thus seeks to take this form of radical self-identification and push it beyond the current emphasis on cultural-nationalism and towards class struggle and solidarity with the international working class, while keeping their analysis rooted in their unique history and culture.
One of the primary goals of Chicano anarchism is to inject a class struggle
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
anarchist critique, made primarily by class conscious Chicano anarchists, into the modern nationalist Chicano movement and transform the movement away from the reactionary ideas of cultural-nationalism and into a movement that works in collaboration as comrades with the international working class, of which the mass of Chicanos are a part.
Black anarchism or Panther anarchism
Black anarchism opposes the existence of a stateAnti-statism
Anti-statism is a term describing opposition to state intervention into personal, social, and economic affairs. Anti-statist views may reject the state completely as well as rulership in general , they may wish to reduce the size and scope of the state to a minimum , or they may advocate a...
and subjugation and domination of people of color, and favors a non-hierarchical organization of society. Black anarchists seek to abolish white supremacy
White supremacy
White supremacy is the belief, and promotion of the belief, that white people are superior to people of other racial backgrounds. The term is sometimes used specifically to describe a political ideology that advocates the social and political dominance by whites.White supremacy, as with racial...
, patriarchy
Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...
, capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, and the state. Theorists include Ashanti Alston
Ashanti Alston
Ashanti Alston Omowali is an anarchist activist, speaker, and writer, and former member of the Black Panther Party. Even though the party no longer exists, Alston sometimes refers to himself as a Black Panther, and sometimes as "the @narchist Panther", a term he coined in his @narchist Panther Zine...
, Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin
Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin
Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin is an American writer, activist, and Black anarchist. He is a former member of the Black Panther Party. He has lived in Memphis, Tennessee since 2010.- Youth and early activism :...
, Kuwasi Balagoon
Kuwasi Balagoon
Kuwasi Balagoon , born Donald Weems, was a Black Panther, a member of the Black Liberation Army, a New Afrikan anarchist, and a defendant in the Panther 21 case in the late sixties. Captured and convicted of various crimes, he spent most of the 1970s in prison...
, , and Martin Sostre
Martin Sostre
Martin Ramirez Sostre is an American activist.He served time in Attica prison during the early 1960s, where he embraced doctrines as diverse as Black Muslimism, Black Nationalism, Internationalism, and finally anarchism. In 1966 Sostre opened the Afro-Asian Bookstore in the black ghetto of...
.
Black anarchists have criticized both the hierarchical organization of the Black Panther Party
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
, and the anarchist movement, on the grounds that it has traditionally been Eurocentric and/or white supremacist. They oppose the anti-racist conception, based on the universalism
Universalism
Universalism in its primary meaning refers to religious, theological, and philosophical concepts with universal application or applicability...
of the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, which is proposed by the anarchist workers' tradition, arguing that it is not adequate enough to struggle against racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and that it disguises real inequalities by proclaiming a de jure equality
Equality before the law
Equality before the law or equality under the law or legal egalitarianism is the principle under which each individual is subject to the same laws....
.
Black anarchists are thus influenced by the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
and the Black Panther Party, and seek to forge their own movement that represents their own identity and tailored to their own unique situation. However, in contrast to black activism that was, in the past, based in leadership from hierarchical organizations, black anarchism rejects such methodology in favor of developing organically through communication and cooperation to bring about a social, cultural and economic revolution that does away with all forms of domination. From Alston's @narchist Panther Zine:
"Panther anarchism is ready, willing and able to challenge old nationalist and revolutionary notions that have been accepted as ‘common-sense.’ It also challenges the bullshit in our lives and in the so-called movement that holds us back from building a genuine movement based on the enjoyment of life, diversity, practical self-determination and multi-faceted resistance to the Babylonian Pigocracy. This Pigocracy is in our ‘heads,’ our relationships as well as in the institutions that have a vested interest in our eternal domination."