by Shawna Kenney
Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols threatened “Anarchy in the U.K.” back in 1976, with the song later co-opted by Megadeth as “Anarchy in the USA.” As easy and obvious as the lyrical leap was, what is the reality of the concept? Can anarchy exist within our supposedly democratic, capitalistic borders? And if it exists at all within the given political parameters, is it really anarchy?
Historians say yes. Replacing the Webster’s definition of anarchy—chaos without government—with the definition from the Oxford Dictionary of Politics, the view that society “can and should be organized without a coercive state” makes it apparent that anarchism as a philosophy has always existed in the United States of America, perhaps even embodied in the very idea of rugged individualism and the do-it-yourself ethic.
In May of 1886, American labor unions went on strike in campaigning for an eight-hour workday. Six workers in Chicago were killed when police fired into the striking crowd. In response, local anarchists organized a protest rally in the busy Haymarket area, where bombs were eventually thrown and one policeman was killed in the uprising. The Haymarket Affair is considered a pivotal moment in the minds of anarchists and historians alike. It instigated the international celebration of May Day, and is memorialized by a stone marker located in Forest Park, Ill., which is listed as a National Historic Landmark. Turn-of-the-century activist and writer Emma Goldman founded anarchist magazine Mother Earth, and was jailed several times for inciting to riot and for distributing information about birth control. She and her partner Alexander Berkman were later deported to Russia for interfering with the WWI draft.
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian-American anarchists arrested in 1927 for robbery and murder, and executed despite worldwide protest. Anarchism re-emerged again in the 1960s as a multi-factioned ideology: anarcho-capitalists, individual anarchists and social anarchists are but a few of the controversial labels commonly used. The Beats, Abbie Hoffman, Murray Rothbard, Karl Hess and Murray Bookchin are often associated with anarchism of this era.
American anarchists made headlines later in 1999 while protesting the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Seattle, Wash., as the black-masked portion of the more than 40,000 demonstrators. Political scientist and author Dr. Shira Tarrant says it’s exactly such awareness today’s anarchists are responsible for, despite media’s depictions and misconceptions. “Anarchists have brought such important attention to global issues like the IMF and World Bank and how unelected people are making policies affecting workers around the world,” she says. “Mainstream media focuses on wild demonstrators who wear black and throw rocks at The Gap. But more important is how anarchist groups have drawn attention to the politics of global exploitation. This especially matters because media is so incredibly controlled by corporate consolidation.”
Much of modern American anarchy exists as civil disobedience, residing in ideas like co-ops and community effort. “Anarchist groups get the word out. They’re also great about organizing grassroots Free Stores and Food Not Bombs so that food, clothes and other necessities get straight to the people who need it,” states Tarrant. Numerous anarchist bookstores and publishers thrive here. AK Press, a San Francisco-based worker-run collective that publishes and distributes anarchist literature, states on its website that anarchism “doesn’t tell people what to do. It is about emancipation, empowerment and agency.” The statement goes on to encourage people to ask “what would your ideal transportation system, agricultural system, neighborhood, school, or workplace look like? Now ask yourself how much influence you and the people around you have over these issues? Can we afford to leave these decisions to the same people who have been screwing up our lives thus far?” Such questioning goes well beyond kids sporting patches with the anarchy symbol like a trendy corporate logo.
“There’s always the danger that a radical political philosophy will become co-opted by the mainstream status quo, that it will become just a watered down fashion statement,” says Tarrant, but she stresses the positive change that anarchism can bring “in the face of sexism, racism, unethical capitalist pressures, or even co-optation.”
In the recent documentary film Anarchism in America, Murray Bookchin agrees. “It’s illusory to think a food co-op can replace Grand Union or Peoples’ Bank could replace Chase Manhattan. It is basically impossible to live a thoroughly anarchist life within a capitalist system,” he says. “But I do believe this: One can try to maintain a high ethical standard. That is one of the beautiful things about anarchism—that it brings ethics into socialism instead of mere science. One can concern oneself personally with what is humane. One can protest and try to work with projects in which people learn how to take control of their lives.”
