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Albert Jay Nock (], ] - ], ]) was an influential American ], ] author, educational theorist, and social critic of the early and middle 20th century. He was editor of the first version of ] magazine, and author of many works, including , often cited by modern intellectuals and pundits like Murray Rothbard as a pivotal example of the ideology of individual liberty. Albert Jay Nock, a self described "philosophical anarchist", called for a ] vision of society free from the influence of the ] ]. He described the state as that which "claims and exercises the monopoly of crime". He opposed ], ], the ], and mandatory education, along with what he saw as the ] of ]. He denounced in equal terms all forms of ], including "], ], ]ism, ], ]", but was also harshly critical of ]. Nock argued instead that, "he practical reason for ] is that freedom seems to be the only condition under which any kind of substantial moral fiber can be developed -- we have tried ], compulsion and ] of various kinds, and the result is nothing to be proud of."<ref>"On Doing the Right Thing", The American Mercury, 1925</ref> Albert Jay Nock (], ] - ], ]) was an influential American ], ] author, educational theorist, and social critic of the early and middle 20th century. He was editor of the first version of ] magazine, and author of many works, including , often cited by modern intellectuals and pundits like Murray Rothbard as a pivotal example of the ideology of individual liberty. Albert Jay Nock, a self described "philosophical anarchist", called for a ] vision of society free from the influence of the ] ]. He described the state as that which "claims and exercises the monopoly of crime". He opposed ], ], the ], and mandatory education, along with what he saw as the ] of ]. He denounced in equal terms all forms of ], including "], ], ]ism, ], ]", but was also harshly critical of ]. Nock argued instead that, "he practical reason for ] is that freedom seems to be the only condition under which any kind of substantial moral fiber can be developed -- we have tried ], compulsion and ] of various kinds, and the result is nothing to be proud of."<ref>"On Doing the Right Thing", The American Mercury, 1925</ref>

===Murray Rothbard===
{{main|Murray Rothbard}}
]
Murray Rothbard (], ] – ], ]) was an American economist and political philosopher who is best known for theorizing ] (also known as ]<ref>"This volume honors the foremost contemporary exponent of free-market anarchism. One contributor aptly describes Murray Rothbard as 'the most ideologically committed zero-State academic economists on earth'." Review by Lawrence H. White of Man, Economy, and liberty: Essays in honor of Murray N. Rothbard, published in Journal of Economic Literature, Vol XXVIII, June 1990, page 664; " synthesizes an advocacy of Lockean rights to life, liberty, property, and defense, an appeal to the free market as the most efficient and decentralized "social" device for the allocation of resources, and a sociological and historical analysis of the State as being inherently aggressive and exploitive. The product of this synthesis is Rothbard's free market anarchism." Review by Eric Mack of For a New Liberty by Murray Rothbard, published in the American Political Science Review, Vol 71, p. 332</ref> and ]), a form of individualist anarchism<ref>Sources explicitly saying it is a type of individualist anarchism:
* Alan and Trombley, Stephen (Eds.) Bullock, ''The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought'', W. W. Norton & Company (1999), p. 30
* Outhwaite, William. ''The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought'', ''Anarchism'' entry, p. 21, 2002.
* Bottomore, Tom. '' Dictionary of Marxist Thought'', ''Anarchism'' entry, 1991.
* Barry, Norman. ''Modern Political Theory'', 2000, Palgrave, p. 70
* Adams, Ian. ''Political Ideology Today'', Manchester University Press (2002) ISBN 0-7190-6020-6, p. 135
* Grant, Moyra. ''Key Ideas in Politics'', Nelson Thomas 2003 ISBN 0-7487-7096-8, p. 91
* Heider, Ulrike. ''Anarchism: Left, Right, and Green'', City Lights, 1994. p. 3.
* ]. ''''. Peace Pledge Union Publications
* ]. ''Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Abridged Paperback Edition (1996), p. 282
* Sheehan, Sean. ''Anarchism'', Reaktion Books, 2004, p. 39
* Tormey, Simon. ''Anti-Capitalism'', One World, 2004. pp. 118-119
* ]. ''Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th Century'', Ecole Polytechnique, Centre de Recherce en Epistemologie Appliquee, Unité associée au CNRS, 2004.
* Offer, John. ''Herbert Spencer: Critical Assessments'', Routledge (UK) (2000), p. 243
* Levy, Carl. Anarchism. MS Encarta (UK).
* Heywood, Andrew. ''Politics: Second Edition'', Palgrave (2002), p. 61</ref> that opposes the state and supports a free market. Rothbard was "a student and disciple of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, combined the laissez-faire economics of his teacher with the absolutist views of human rights and rejection of the state he had absorbed from studying the individualist American anarchists of the nineteenth century such as Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker."<ref>Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, 1987, ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p. 290</ref> Like the nineteenth century individualists, believed that security should be provided by multiple competing businesses rather than by a tax-funded central agency.<ref> {{cite book |editor=William Outhwaite |title= The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought |edition=2nd |year= 2002 |publisher=] |location=Malden, MA |id= ISBN 0-631-22164-6}}</ref> However, he rejected their ] in favor of the modern neo-classical ] view. Thus, like most modern economists, he did not believe that prices in a free market would, or should be, proportional to labor (nor that "usury" or "exploitation" necessarily occurs where they are disproportionate). Instead, he believed that different prices of goods and services in a market, whether completely free or not, are ultimately the result of goods and services having different ] rather than the fact they contain differing amounts of labor - and that there is nothing unjust about this. Rothbard also disagreed with Tucker that interest would disappear with unregulated banking and money issuance. Rothbard believed that people in general do not wish to lend their money to others without compensation, so there is no reason why this would change where banking is unregulated. Nor, did he agree that unregulated banking would increase the supply of money because he believed the supply of money in a truly free market is self-regulating. And, he believed that it is good that it would not increase the supply or inflation would result.<ref>Rothbard, Murray. The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View </ref> Few individualist anarchists still agree with the labor theory of value of the nineteenth century individualists or their theories on money, and as a result, according to mutualist ], "most people who call themselves 'individualist anarchists' today are followers of Murray Rothbard's Austrian economics."<ref name="carson"> Carson, Kevin. Mutualist Political Economy, </ref> Rothbard strongly opposed communism in all its forms and other related ideologies that demand that wealth be distributed collectively instead of held individually. In anarcho-capitalism, the individual has no obligation to any other member of the community that he does not impose on himself other than to refrain from aggressing against others or defrauding them. It is important to mention that many social anarchists do not consider anarcho-capitalism to be "true" anarchism, believing that capitalism, no matter how voluntary, is intrinsically coercive.


===Sacco and Vanzetti=== ===Sacco and Vanzetti===

Revision as of 20:02, 25 January 2007

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  • Anarchism in the United States spans a wide range of anarchist philosophy, from individualist anarchism to anarchist communism and other less known forms. Individualist anarchism in the United States is strongly influenced by Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, the mutualist Proudhon, as well as the egoist Max Stirner. Major thinkers, such as Josiah Warren, Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker, and Murray Rothbard belong to this camp.

    Background

    More than any other regional variety of Anarchism, American Anarchism is marked by a sharp schism between Mutualist, Communist, and Indiginist strains inside socialist views and also sui generis forms of capitalism. There is also an ongoing debate about definitions with many anarchist-capitalists declaring that they are the only true "individualist" anarchists and all others are "collectivists", and others arguing that the anarcho-capitalists are not anarchists at all. While at times the distinction between these four groups have been blurry and many individuals have at times been identified with more than one of them, they are briefly summarized here in the American context. Refer to the articles on each school for a broader more general discussion.

    Indiginist Anarchism

    The best known modern Indiginist writer is Ward Churchill. In general, indiginist anarchism describes the majority of pre-Columbian native North American societies as anarchist in structure and function. Such claims are easiest to document among indigenous people's in some parts of what is now California, but the Iroquois League, the Mohawk Federation, and many other indigenous tribal governing structures throughout North America have been described as anarchist in structure. Despite this, many Native groups were far from an anarchist ideal. Cultures like the Mississippian, Aztec and Maya had social hierarchies and inequality, and, in the two latter cases, were state-level societies.

    More recently, many participants in the American Indian Movement have described themselves as anarchist and cooperation between anarchist and indiginist groups has been a key feature of movements such as the Minihaha Free State in Minneapolis, Minnesota - (which is build on an Ojibowe Reservation) - and at Big Mountain.

    Outside of indigenous communities, Green Anarchists have been the most vocal in declaring solidarity with ongoing indigenous struggles, but Social Anarchists in general are supportive as well.

    Individualist Anarchism

    The U.S., with its tradition of radical individualism, which is "enshrined in the Declaration of Independence", was a congenial environment for individualist anarchism. Josiah Warren cited the Declaration of Independence and Benjamin Tucker said that "Anarchists are simply unterrified Jeffersonian Democrats." In 1833 Josiah Warren began publishing "the first explicitly anarchist newspaper in the United States",, called "The Peaceful Revolutionist." Beginning in 1881, Benjamin Tucker began publishing "Liberty" which was a forum to propagate individualist anarchist ideas. By that time, anarcho-communism and propaganda by the deed was arriving in America, "both of which Tucker detested."

    Individualist Anarchism has historically been split between Mutualist, egoist and natural-rights schools, with Anarcho-Capitalist emerging in the 20th century. Some modern Green Anarchists describe themselves as individualists as well.

    Social Anarchism

    The social anarchist current within Anarchism is by far the largest and most influential globally and within the contemporary United States and has roots tracing back to well before the American Civil War. Early leaders included Albert Parsons, his wife Lucy Parsons, and Voltairine DeCleyre, along with many immigrants who brought their radicalism with them such as Johan Mohst, Emma Goldman, and Big Bill Haywood, and many others. Their influence on the early American labor movement was dramatic, with the execution of Albert Parsons and the other Haymarket Martyrs providing a key rallying cry for the early American labor movement and spurring the creation of radical unions throughout the country. The most powerful and notorious of these, the Industrial Workers of the World, was founded in 1905.

    Social Anarchism includes Anarcho-Communism, Anarcho-Syndicalism, Libertarian Socialism, and other forms of anarchism that take the creation of social goods as their first priority.

    Insurrectionary Anarchism

    Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory, practice and tendency within the anarchist movement which opposes formal anarchist organizations such as labor unions and federations that are based on a political program and periodic congresses. Instead, insurrectionary anarchists advocate direct action (violent or otherwise), informal organization, including small affinity groups and mass organizations which include non-anarchist individuals of the exploited or excluded class.

    Many anarchist communists, such as the publishers of Barricada magazine in the United States and foreign immigrants to the US such as Luigi Galleani and Johann Most have been insurrectionary anarchists.

    Growth and Conflict within the Movement(s)

    Some individualists claim that their particular form of anarchism is the only form "indigenous" to America and claim that Social Anarchism arose later in Europe and the ideas were imported into the U.S. by immigrants. - and should thus not be considered "American" since it is of exotic origin. This critique is directly traceable to the jingoist and nativist claims of mainstream conservative capitalist writers throughout the 19th and 20th centuries that blamed social unrest and the rise of Anarchism and Socialism on the large influx of immigrants from southern Europe which occurred during this time period. Social Anarchists (including socialists and communists) have tended to either denounce this line of argument as racist or to ignore it as irrelevant. The claims by anarcho-capitalists to represent the only "indigenous" form of Amarchism in America are disputed most strongly by indiginist anarchists that trace their anarchism to the economic and political systems of pre-Columbian America, and for whom anarcho-capitalist ideology is just another form of capitalism imported by European immigrants.

    After decades of relative inactivity following the repression of the Red Scare and the Cold War, Anarchism resurfaced in the 1960s then "shattered into various anarchist splinters. These ranged from Anarcho-Capitalists who desired the organization of society solely on the basis of a "free market" to Anarcho-Communists who sought an individualized society of decentralized communes." Most contemporary anarchists, following in the footsteps of classical anarchist theorists like Mikhail Bakunin, Emma Goldman and Peter Kropotkin, would reject the notion that it is possible to reconcile capitalism with anarchist ideas. All contemporary anarchist magazines (currently published periodicals include the Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, Anarchy, The Match, Northeastern Anarchist, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, and Social Anarchism) and federations reject capitalism, agreeing that authoritarian social relations need to be abolished throughout the entire society - not merely in the political arena.

    Notable anarchists

    Josiah Warren

    File:JosiahWarrenprofile.jpg
    Josiah Warren
    Main article: Josiah Warren

    Josiah Warren published a periodical called The Peaceful Revolutionist in 1833, which some believe to be the first anarchist newspaper. Warren had participated in a failed collectivist experiment headed by Robert Owen called "New Harmony," but was disappointed in its failure. He stressed the need for individual sovereignty. In True Civilization Warren equates "Sovereignty of the Individual" with the Declaration of Independence's assertion of the inalienable rights. He claims that every person has an "instinct" for individual sovereignty, making individual rights inalienable and inviolate.

    Basing his economics on the labor theory of value, Warren's economic principle was "cost the limit of price," with "cost" referring to the amount of labor incurred in producing a commodity and bringing it to market. He opposed what he called "value the limit of price," where prices paid are determined simply by subjective valuation irrespective of labor costs, as being inequitable or unfair. In 1827, Warren put his theories into practice by starting a business called the Cincinnati Time Store where the trade of goods was facilitated by private currency denominated in hours of labor. Warren was a strong supporter of the right of individuals to retain the product of their labor as private possessions. This position was shared by fellow anarchist Stephen Pearl Andrews.

    Henry David Thoreau

    Henry David Thoreau

    Main article: Henry David Thoreau

    Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862; was an American author, development critic, naturalist, transcendentalist, pacifist, tax resister and philosopher who is famous for Walden, on simple living amongst nature, and Civil Disobedience. In 1849, Henry David Thoreau wrote "I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe -- 'That government is best which governs not at all'; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which we will have." Thoreau never described himself as an anarchist, despite having many anarchists as contemporaries, so despite his vocal anti-statism his classification as such remains controversial.

    William B. Greene

    Main article: William Batchelder Greene

    William Batchelder Greene (1819-1878) was an author, soldier, Unitarian minister and philosopher, active in transcendentalist circles. In works such as Equality (1849) and Mutual Banking (1850) he synthesized the work of French socialists such as P.-J. Proudhon and Pierre Leroux with that of American currency reformers such as William Beck and Edward Kellogg. The result was a unique form of Christian mutualism, which attempted to harmonize elements of capitalism, communism and socialism. Greene was later involved with the New England Labor Reform League, and with the anti-death penalty work of The Prisoner's Friend. He was a regular contributor to Ezra Heywood's The Word until his death.

    Benjamin Tucker

    Main article: Benjamin Tucker
    Benjamin Tucker

    Benjamin Tucker, being influenced by Warren (who he credits as being his "first source of light"), Greene, Heywood, Proudhon's mutualism, and Stirner's egoism, is probably the most famous of the American individualists. Tucker defined anarchism as "the doctrine that all the affairs of men should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations, and that the State should be abolished" (State Socialism and Anarchism).

    Like the individualists he was influenced by, he rejected the notion of society being a thing that has rights, insisting that only individuals can have rights. And, like all anarchists, he opposed the governmental practice of democracy, as it allows a majority to decide for a minority. Tucker's main focus, however, was on economics. He opposed profit, believing that it is only made possible by the "suppression or restriction of competition" by government and vast concentration of wealth.

    He believed that restriction of competition was accomplished by the establishment of four "monopolies": the banking/money monopoly, the land monopoly, the tariff monopoly, and the patent and copyright monopoly - the most harmful of these, according to him, being the money monopoly. He believed that restrictions on who may enter the banking business and issue currency, as well as protection of unused land, were responsible for wealth being concentrated in the hands of a privileged few.

    Joseph Labadie

    Main article: Joseph Labadie

    Joseph Labadie was an American labor organizer, individualist anarchist, social activist, printer, publisher, essayist, and poet. He first joined the Socialist Labor Party in Detroit at the age of 27. In 1883, disenchanted with socialism, Labadie embraced individualist anarchism. He became closely allied with Benjamin Tucker, the country's foremost exponent of that doctrine, and frequently wrote for the latter's publication, "Liberty." Without the oppression of the state, Labadie believed, humans would choose to harmonize with "the great natural laws...without robbing fellows through interest, profit, rent and taxes." However, his opposition to the State was not complete, as he supported government control of water utilities, streets, and railroads (Martin). Although he did not support the militant anarchism of the Haymarket anarchists, he fought for the clemency of the accused because he did not believe they were the perpetrators.

    In 1888, Labadie organized the Michigan Federation of Labor, became its first president, and forged an alliance with Samuel Gompers. At age fifty he began writing verse and publishing artistic hand-crafted booklets. In 1908, the city postal inspector banned his mail because it bore stickers with anarchist quotations. A month later the Detroit water board, where he was working as a clerk, dismissed him for expressing anarchist sentiments. In both cases, the officials were forced to back down in the face of massive public protest for the person well-known in Detroit as its "Gentle Anarchist".

    Voltairine de Cleyre

    Main article: Voltairine de Cleyre
    Voltairine de Cleyre

    Voltairine de Cleyre (November 17, 1866June 20, 1912) was an individualist anarchist for several years before rejecting that label to embrace the philosophy of anarchism without adjectives. In explaining her views on anarchism she said: "Anarchism...teaches the possibility of a society in which the needs of life may be fully supplied for all, and in which the opportunities for complete development of mind and body shall be the heritage of all... teaches that the present unjust organization of the production and distribution of wealth must finally be completely destroyed, and replaced by a system which will insure to each the liberty to work, without first seeking a master to whom he must surrender a tithe of his product, which will guarantee his liberty of access to the sources and means of production... Out of the blindly submissive, it makes the discontented; out of the unconsciously dissatisfied, it makes the consciously dissatisfied... Anarchism seeks to arouse the consciousness of oppression, the desire for a better society, and a sense of the necessity for unceasing warfare against capitalism and the State."

    De Cleyre was held in high esteem by many anarchists. Emma Goldman called her "the most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman America ever produced", and de Cleyre argued in Goldman's defense after Goldman was imprisoned for urging the hungry to expropriate food. In this speech, she condoned a right to take food when hungry but stopped short of advocating it: "I do not give you that advice... not that I do not think one little bit of sensitive human flesh is worth all the property rights in New York City... I say it is your business to decide whether you will starve and freeze in sight of food and clothing, outside of jail, or commit some overt act against the institution of property and take your place beside Timmermann and Goldman."

    Her stance as an individualist versus a collectivist is controversial, with both sides claiming her as an adherent. In an 1894 article defending Emma Goldman, she states, "Miss Goldman is a communist; I am an individualist." Conversely, in a 1911 article entitled "The Mexican Revolution" she wrote that "The communistic customs of these people are very interesting and very instructive too...," in regards to Mexican Indian revolutionaries. Similarly, she instructs in "Why I am an Anarchist," that "the best thing ordinary workingmen or women could do was to organize their industry to get rid of money altogether . . . Let them produce together, co-operatively rather than as employer and employed; let them fraternize group by group, let each use what he needs of his own product, and deposit the rest in the storage-houses, and let those others who need goods have them as occasion arises." When she embraced "anarchism without adjectives", de Cleyre reasoned that: "Socialism and Communism both demand a degree of joint effort and administration which would beget more regulation than is wholly consistent with ideal Anarchism; Individualism and Mutualism, resting upon property, involve a development of the private policeman not at all compatible with my notion of freedom."

    Albert Jay Nock

    Main article: Albert Jay Nock

    Albert Jay Nock (October 13, 1870 - August 19, 1945) was an influential American individualist anarchist, libertarian author, educational theorist, and social critic of the early and middle 20th century. He was editor of the first version of The Freeman magazine, and author of many works, including Our Enemy, the State, often cited by modern intellectuals and pundits like Murray Rothbard as a pivotal example of the ideology of individual liberty. Albert Jay Nock, a self described "philosophical anarchist", called for a laissez faire vision of society free from the influence of the political state. He described the state as that which "claims and exercises the monopoly of crime". He opposed centralization, regulation, the income tax, and mandatory education, along with what he saw as the degradation of society. He denounced in equal terms all forms of totalitarianism, including "Bolshevism, Fascism, Hitlerism, Marxism, Communism", but was also harshly critical of democracy. Nock argued instead that, "he practical reason for freedom is that freedom seems to be the only condition under which any kind of substantial moral fiber can be developed -- we have tried law, compulsion and authoritarianism of various kinds, and the result is nothing to be proud of."

    Murray Rothbard

    Main article: Murray Rothbard
    File:Murray Rothbard.JPG
    (Rothbard circa 1955).

    Murray Rothbard (March 2, 1926January 7, 1995) was an American economist and political philosopher who is best known for theorizing anarcho-capitalism (also known as free-market anarchism and libertarianism), a form of individualist anarchism that opposes the state and supports a free market. Rothbard was "a student and disciple of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, combined the laissez-faire economics of his teacher with the absolutist views of human rights and rejection of the state he had absorbed from studying the individualist American anarchists of the nineteenth century such as Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker." Like the nineteenth century individualists, believed that security should be provided by multiple competing businesses rather than by a tax-funded central agency. However, he rejected their labor theory of value in favor of the modern neo-classical marginalist view. Thus, like most modern economists, he did not believe that prices in a free market would, or should be, proportional to labor (nor that "usury" or "exploitation" necessarily occurs where they are disproportionate). Instead, he believed that different prices of goods and services in a market, whether completely free or not, are ultimately the result of goods and services having different marginal utilities rather than the fact they contain differing amounts of labor - and that there is nothing unjust about this. Rothbard also disagreed with Tucker that interest would disappear with unregulated banking and money issuance. Rothbard believed that people in general do not wish to lend their money to others without compensation, so there is no reason why this would change where banking is unregulated. Nor, did he agree that unregulated banking would increase the supply of money because he believed the supply of money in a truly free market is self-regulating. And, he believed that it is good that it would not increase the supply or inflation would result. Few individualist anarchists still agree with the labor theory of value of the nineteenth century individualists or their theories on money, and as a result, according to mutualist Kevin Carson, "most people who call themselves 'individualist anarchists' today are followers of Murray Rothbard's Austrian economics." Rothbard strongly opposed communism in all its forms and other related ideologies that demand that wealth be distributed collectively instead of held individually. In anarcho-capitalism, the individual has no obligation to any other member of the community that he does not impose on himself other than to refrain from aggressing against others or defrauding them. It is important to mention that many social anarchists do not consider anarcho-capitalism to be "true" anarchism, believing that capitalism, no matter how voluntary, is intrinsically coercive.

    Sacco and Vanzetti

    Bartolomeo Vanzetti (left) and Nicola Sacco (right)
    Main article: Sacco and Vanzetti

    Nicola Sacco (April 22, 1891August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (June 11, 1888August 23, 1927) were two Italian-born American anarchists, influenced by Luigi Galleani, that were arrested, tried, and executed via electrocution in the American state of Massachusetts. Sacco and Vanzetti were accused of the killings of Frederick Parmenter, a shoe factory paymaster, and Alessandro Berardelli, a security guard, and of robbery of $15,766.51 from the factory's payroll on April 15, 1920. Both Sacco and Vanzetti had alibis, but they were the only people accused of the crime. As a result of what many historians feel was a blatant disregard for political civil liberties, and a strong anti-Italian prejudice, Sacco and Vanzetti were denied a retrial. Judge Webster Thayer, who heard the case, allegedly described the two as "anarchist bastards". The song "Two good men" by Woody Guthrie recounts the tale.

    Emma Goldman

    Main article: Emma Goldman

    Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869May 14, 1940) was Lithuanian born, but she immigrated to the United States at seventeen. Goldman played a pivotal role in the development of anarchism in the US and Europe throughout the first half of the twentieth century, and was a major contributor to the contemporary trade union and feminism movements in the US. She was imprisoned in 1893 at Blackwell's Island penitentiary for publicly urging unemployed workers that they should "Ask for work. If they do not give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, take bread."

    File:Goldmanberkman.jpeg
    Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman in 1917

    She was convicted of "inciting a riot" by a criminal court of New York, despite the testimonies of twelve witnesses in her defense. The jury based their verdict on the testimony of one individual, a Detective Jacobs. Voltairine de Cleyre gave the lecture In Defense of Emma Goldman as a response to this imprisonment. She was later deported to Russia for criticizing the US government during World War I (especially for the draft), where she witnessed the results of the Russian Revolution. Emma Goldman became one of the most prominent and respected representatives of anarchist communism worldwide.

    Alexander Berkman

    Main article: Alexander Berkman

    Alexander Berkman (21 November 1870 - 28 June 1936) was a Russian writer and activist who, in 1892, attempted to assassinate Henry Clay Frick, a wealthy industrialist involved in a bitter dispute with steelworkers in Homestead, Pennsylvania, in the belief that a violent act was needed to electrify the anarchist movement. He was arrested, convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to twenty-two years' imprisonment, of which he served fourteen years, many of them in solitary confinement (an account of which is contained in his book Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist).

    Upon regaining his freedom, Berkman — shattered and physically broken — joined Emma Goldman as one of the leading figures of the anarchist movement in the US. He was deported alongside Goldman and, with her, led the libertarian critique of the Soviet Communist Party, denouncing what they saw as the betrayal of the revolution. While they helped persuade the main organizations of the international anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist movement not to participate in the Third International controlled by the Russians, their impact on the wider world was only partially successful.

    Murray Bookchin

    Main article: Murray Bookchin
    File:Bookchin.jpg
    Murray Bookchin

    Murray Bookchin (January 14, 1921July 30, 2006) was an American libertarian socialist speaker and writer, and founder of the Social Ecology school of anarchist and ecological thought. He is the author of two dozen books on politics, philosophy, history, and urban affairs as well as ecology.

    Contemporary anarchists

    Contemporary anarchists in the United States include Michael Albert, Ashanti Alston, Jon Bekken, Jello Biafra, Alexis Buss, Kevin Carson, Noam Chomsky, Cindy Milstein, Jon Bekken, Jason McQuinn, David Watson, Liz Highleyman, Larry Gambone, David Graeber, James J. Martin, Chuck Munson, Joe Peacott, Keith Preston, Crispin Sartwell, Michael Webb, Fred Woodworth, John Zerzan, Howard Zinn, Starhawk, Rebecca Solnit, David Solnit, Judith Malina, Wayne Price, Jeff "Free" Luers, Sharon Pressley, Peter Coyote, Howard Ehrlich, Flint Jones, Wendy McElroy, and Lew Rockwell.

    Recently deceased American anarchists include Murray Bookchin, Sam Dolgoff and Robert Anton Wilson.

    Although he doesn't claim to be an anarchist, Ward Churchill incorporates elements of anarchist philosophy into his politics and has connections with the anarchist movement.

    See also

    Anarchism in North America
    Sovereign states
    Dependencies and
    other territories

    Notes

    1. "Individualist, as distinct from socialist, anarchism has been particularly strong in the USA from the time of Josiah Warren (1798-1874) onwards and is expressed today by Murray Rothbard and the school of 'anarcho-capitalists'." Ostergaard, Geoffrey. Resisting the Nation State - the anarchist and pacifist tradition, Anarchism As A Tradition of Political Thought. Peace Pledge Union Publications
    2. Madison, Charles A. (1945). "Anarchism in the United States". Journal of the History of Ideas. 6 (1): 46–66.
    3. Madison, Charles A. (1943). "Benjamin R. Tucker: Individualist and Anarchist". New England Quarterly. 16 (3): 444–467.
    4. Rocker, Rudolf (1949). Pioneers of American Freedom: Origin of Liberal and Radical Thought in America. Los Angeles, Calif: Rocker Publications Committee.
    5. ^ Phillips, William M. Nightmares of Anarchy: Language and Cultural Changes 1870-1914, Bucknell University Press, p. 58
    6. Brooks, Frank H. The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881-1908), Transaction Publishers (1994), p. 4
    7. Adams, Ian. Political Ideology Today, Manchester University Press, (2002), p. 119
    8. http://www.iww.org/culture/library/founding/
    9. http://www.cat.org.au/a4a/galleani.html
    10. DeLeon, David. The American as Anarchist: Reflections of Indigenous Radicalism, Chapter: The Beginning of Another Cycle, John Hopkins University Press, 1979, p. 117
    11. Josiah Warren, Equitable Commerce (1849), p. 11.
    12. Civil Disobedience ISBN 1-55709-417-9 (1849)
    13. de Cleyre, Voltairine (1907) McKinley's Assassination from the Anarchist Standpoint"
    14. "On Doing the Right Thing", The American Mercury, 1925
    15. "This volume honors the foremost contemporary exponent of free-market anarchism. One contributor aptly describes Murray Rothbard as 'the most ideologically committed zero-State academic economists on earth'." Review by Lawrence H. White of Man, Economy, and liberty: Essays in honor of Murray N. Rothbard, published in Journal of Economic Literature, Vol XXVIII, June 1990, page 664; " synthesizes an advocacy of Lockean rights to life, liberty, property, and defense, an appeal to the free market as the most efficient and decentralized "social" device for the allocation of resources, and a sociological and historical analysis of the State as being inherently aggressive and exploitive. The product of this synthesis is Rothbard's free market anarchism." Review by Eric Mack of For a New Liberty by Murray Rothbard, published in the American Political Science Review, Vol 71, p. 332
    16. Sources explicitly saying it is a type of individualist anarchism:
      • Alan and Trombley, Stephen (Eds.) Bullock, The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought, W. W. Norton & Company (1999), p. 30
      • Outhwaite, William. The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought, Anarchism entry, p. 21, 2002.
      • Bottomore, Tom. Dictionary of Marxist Thought, Anarchism entry, 1991.
      • Barry, Norman. Modern Political Theory, 2000, Palgrave, p. 70
      • Adams, Ian. Political Ideology Today, Manchester University Press (2002) ISBN 0-7190-6020-6, p. 135
      • Grant, Moyra. Key Ideas in Politics, Nelson Thomas 2003 ISBN 0-7487-7096-8, p. 91
      • Heider, Ulrike. Anarchism: Left, Right, and Green, City Lights, 1994. p. 3.
      • Ostergaard, Geoffrey. Resisting the Nation State - the anarchist and pacifist tradition, Anarchism As A Tradition of Political Thought. Peace Pledge Union Publications
      • Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Abridged Paperback Edition (1996), p. 282
      • Sheehan, Sean. Anarchism, Reaktion Books, 2004, p. 39
      • Tormey, Simon. Anti-Capitalism, One World, 2004. pp. 118-119
      • Raico, Ralph. Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th Century, Ecole Polytechnique, Centre de Recherce en Epistemologie Appliquee, Unité associée au CNRS, 2004.
      • Offer, John. Herbert Spencer: Critical Assessments, Routledge (UK) (2000), p. 243
      • Levy, Carl. Anarchism. MS Encarta (UK).
      • Heywood, Andrew. Politics: Second Edition, Palgrave (2002), p. 61
    17. Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, 1987, ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p. 290
    18. William Outhwaite, ed. (2002). The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-22164-6.
    19. Rothbard, Murray. The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View
    20. Carson, Kevin. Mutualist Political Economy, Preface

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