Anarchy is more than throwing bombs (continued)

ANARCHISM HAS A long history, particularly in Europe, and counts among its leading proponents the German Max Stirner (1806-1856), the Frenchman Pierre-Joseph "Property is Theft" Proudon (1809-1865), and the Russians Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) and Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921). One of the best-known US anarchists was Emma Goldman, dubbed "Red Emma" by the press.

The Russian-born Goldman, who moved to Rochester, New York, in 1886 at age 17, became a revolutionary after the 1887 hanging of four anarchists in Chicago. The men were charged and convicted of conspiracy after a bomb exploded at a rally in Haymarket Square. The Haymarket gathering was a response to

the previous day, when police killed two workers at a march in support of the eight-hour workday. While there was no evidence that the anarchists had planted the Haymarket bomb, they were accused of inciting the mob violence that led to the death of a police officer, and executed. For many radicals, the Haymarket episode demonstrated the willingness of the state to use its

coercive power on behalf of capital, at the expense of workers.

Goldman, a ceaseless organizer, agitator, and barnstorming orator committed to revolution, labor, anti-war activism, and advancing the status of women, spent a year in prison for inciting a riot. Her husband, Alexander Berkman, was also jailed, in his case for attempting to assassinate Henry Clay Frick, president of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Steel Corporation. In the 1908 essay "What I Believe," Goldman indicts government: "The State is necessary only to maintain or protect property and monopoly. It has proven efficient in that function only. As a promoter of individual liberty, human well-being and social harmony, which alone constitute real order, government stands condemned by all the great men of the world."

A more contemporary advocate of anarchism is Noam Chomsky. The MIT linguistics professor objects to the coercive nature of the US state, and in particular, its willingness to do the bidding of multinational companies. Chomsky notes that state power is deployed not only domestically, but also through international economic organizations such as the IMF and World Bank. He further argues that the US media is complicit in this repression, and is guilty of legitimizing an order that effectively disinforms and disempowers the American people.

Anarchism isn’t so different from what Marx suggested in the Communist Manifesto. Not surprisingly, anarchism and communism are often linked, as exemplified by the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communist (NEFAC) an umbrella group with support in Canada and the US. Anarchists, however, part company with those communists, Marxists, and socialists who endorse, as did Lenin, the famous "dictatorship of the proletariat" in which a cadre of revolutionaries assumes power on behalf of the masses during a transitional period, eventually giving way (in theory) to a more egalitarian arrangement. The experience in the Soviet Union and elsewhere has demonstrated that once in power, such an elite is likely to consolidate its authority, rather than allow for greater freedom.

Anarchism has often been linked with syndicalism, which is essentially the ownership and management of industry by the workers. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), better known as the "Wobblies," is an organization devoted to such a goal. The IWW favors industrial unions over specific trade unions, and ultimately sees salvation in the formation of "One Big Union" uniting all workers. After enjoying a heyday in the early 20th-century, however, the Wobblies are a pale imitation of their former selves, remaining more of an aspiration for idealistic elements of the labor movement. With the percentage of US union membership having steadily dropped in recent decades, it’s clear that labor faces some broader challenges.

Anarchism, in my view, is an expression of the idea that the burden of proof is always on those who argue that authority and domination are necessary. They have to demonstrate, with powerful argument, that that conclusion is correct. If they cannot, then the institutions they defend should be considered illegitimate. How one should react to illegitimate authority depends on circumstances and conditions: there are no formulas.

— Noam Chomsky (1996)