direct action, anarchism

 

One of the most significant heydays of direct action in modern history took place in 1970s Italy. Oh, true, if you have a Socialist Briand in power, he may declare the workers “public officials” and try to make them serve against themselves! It is often said, and parrot-like repeated, that the bosses are “class-conscious,” that they stick together for their class interest, and are willing to undergo any sort of personal loss rather than be false to those interests. No one can exactly measure in years or months the effect of a forward push or a reaction. And while there are different “brands” of anarchism, they all espouse the general principles of horizontalism, mutual aid, autonomy, solidarity, direct action, and direct democracy. Direct action doesn’t necessarily have to be (but can be) firebombing a bank or throwing a molotov at cops. So that in the end, it is direct action that has to be relied on anyway. When the fugitive slave law was passed with the help of the political actionists of the North who wanted to offer a new sop to the slave-holders, the direct actionists took to rescuing recaptured fugitives. Direct Action is a phrase that gets thrown around a lot when describing anarchist tactics…. And yet it was a case of violent direct action against lawfully constituted authority. Behold, the progress of the colony has been set back twenty-five years;” forgetting that if the colonists had not resorted to direct action, their scalps would have been taken by the Indians a year sooner, instead of a number of them being hanged by the governor a year later. The other day I read a communication in the Chicago Daily Socialist from the secretary of the Louisville local Socialist Party to the national secretary, requesting that some safe and sane speaker be substituted for Bohn, who had been announced to speak there. For the basis of all political action is coercion; even when the State does good things, it finally rests on a club, a gun, or a prison, for its power to carry them through. “Anarchy” is often attributed to Greek words meaning “without rulers.” To learn more information about anarchism and anarchist ideas check out some of these introductory materials from others in the movement: Meanwhile, be peaceable, industrious, law-abiding, patient, and frugal (as Madero told the Mexican peons to be, after he sold them to Wall Street)! They wanted larger aims than those to which their organizations were looking; but they had to accept their fellow members as they were, and try to stir them to work for such things as it was possible to make them see. It is by and because of the direct acts of the forerunners of social change, whether they be of peaceful or warlike nature, that the Human Conscience, the conscience of the mass, becomes aroused to the need for change. Nearly all the laws which were originally framed with the intention of benefitting the workers, have either turned into weapons in their enemies’ hands, or become dead letters unless the workers through their organizations have directly enforced their observance. Of course, there were all sorts of people with all sorts of temperaments among those who advocated the abolition of slavery. For the benefit of those who have forgotten the details, let me briefly remind them that the Virginia planters were in fear of a general attack by the Indians; with reason. and rightly so, since it’s one of the main ways anarchists put our values of autonomy, self-organization and mutual aid into practice. We have now and oppression in the land — and not only in this land, but throughout all those parts of the world which enjoy the very mixed blessings of Civilization. The governor feared that such a company of armed men would be a threat to him; also with reason. Twenty-two years ago I met Farmer’s Alliance people who said so, Knights of Labor who said so, Trade Unionists who said so. The majority of business people are just like the majority of workingmen; they care a whole lot more about their individual loss or gain than about the gain or loss of their class. 2.8K likes. So… what is it exactly? Because they transgress the official channels of politics, and often the law itself, direct action campaigns are inevitably met with a whole toolbox of tactics aimed at bringing conflicts back under state control. They were made up of average men, with average desires, and they undertook to do what appeared to them possible and very reasonable things. They must learn that the workers’ problem can never be solved by beating up scabs, so long as their own policy of limiting their membership by high initiation fees and other restrictions helps to make scabs. 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