One of the major confusions in the anarchist movement in the USA and parts of Europe arises out of primitivism and its claim to be part of the anarchist movement. But primitivism is not a realistic strategy for social revolution and it opposes the basic purpose of anarchism – the creation of a free mass […]
Daily Archives: February 15, 2008
Civilization, Primitivism and anarchism
Over the last decade a generalized critique of civilization has been made by a number of authors, mostly based in the USA. Some of these have chosen to identify as anarchists although the more general self-identification is primitivist. There overall argument is that ‘civilisation’ itself is the problem that results in our failure to live […]
Anarchism, insurrections and insurrectionalism
Insurrections – the armed rising of the people – has always been close to the heart of anarchism. The first programmatic documents of the anarchist movement were created by Bakunin and a group of European left-republican insurrectionists as they made the transition to anarchism in Italy in the 1860’s. This was not a break with […]
The insurrection of Easter 1916 in Dublin
The Easter 1916 rising in Dublin is often portrayed simply as nationalist blood sacrifice but it can also be examined as an insurrection which was seriously planned to defeat the British army. It is credited with transforming political attitudes in Ireland, leading to the partally successful war of independance but nationalist histories tend to understate […]
Review: James Connolly ‘A full life’ by Donal Nevin
Revolutionary martyrs, being unable to speak for themselves, are liable to be claimed by all sorts of organisations with whom in real life they would have had little in common. When they are of national or international importance, like the Irish syndicalist James Connolly, this also mean that biographies often tend to be very partisan […]
Review: The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Ken Loaches ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’ got its North American release this week. In many ways this film is similar to his earlier film ‘Land and Freedom’ in seeking to introduce the elements of class struggle in both events to a mainstream audience which would only be aware of them as interesting military […]