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Post-Colonial Anarchism is a new tendency within the larger anarchist movement. The name ' is taken from an Essay by Roger White, one of the founders of Jailbreak Press and a well known activist in North-American APOC circles. The essay outlines PCA as an attampt to bring together disparate aspects and tendencies within the existing anarchist movement and re-envision them in an explicitly anti-imperialist framework. Where traditional Anarchism is a movement arising from the struggles of proletarians in industrialized western European nations - and thus sees history from their perspective - Post colonial Anarchism approaches the same principles of mutual aid, class struggle, opposition to hierarchy, and community-level self management, self government, and self-determination from the perspective of colonized peoples throughout the world. In doing so it does not seek to invalidate the contributions of the more established anarchist movement, but rather seeks to add a unique and important perspective. The tendency is strongly influenced by Indigenism, Anti-State forms of Nationalism, Anarchist People of Color, and many other sources.
Issues in Post-Colonial Anarchism
Post-Colonial Anarchism is syncretic and diverse, incorporating a wide range of sources, as is to be expected from a tendency which draws from such a wide range of perspectives.
Nationalism
Anarchism and Nationalism have a long history, going back to Bakunin's early involvement in the Pan-Slavic movement. Anarchists have participated in Left-Nationalist movements in China, Korea, Vietnam, Ireland, Britanny, Ukraine, Poland, Mexico, Israel, and many other nations. Modern Anarchist organizations working on national liberation struggles include the CBIL in Brittany.
At root, the basic difference between Anarchism and Anti-State Nationalism is that in nationalism the primary political unit is the nation, or ethnic group, whereas in an anarchist system the primary political unit is either the individual (in individualist anarchism) or the local community (in social anarchism). Post-Colonial Anarchism is therefore clearly distinct from any form of nationalism in that it does not seek to use the Nation as the primary political unit. Just as Social Anarchists seek to create a socialist economy but oppose the tyranny of marxist state socialism, Post-Colonial Anarchists advocate for self-determination, the defense of local cultures, and an end to imperialism; but oppose the tyranny of nationalism.
Race and Racism
Post-Colonial Anarchism is self-consciously anti-racist, though different groups have differing ideas of what that means. APOC-identified groups seek to bring together the perspectives of people of color within the Anarchist movement and have a strong commitment to combating white supremacy, but are often reluctant to recognize the validity and importance of anti-imperialist struggles in Europe. Indigenist thinkers like Ward Churchill, by contrast, make a point of showing support for such movements and actively encourages white anti-racists to explore and learn from historical and ongoing anti-imperialist struggles in Europe. All the various strains of Post-colonial Anarchism, however, are explicitly opposed to and denounce claims of racial superiority by any group and see the abolition of racism as a fundamental goal of Anarchism.
African Anarchism
Celtic Anarchism
The most basic aspect of the tendency is the belief that pre-conquest Celtic societies had strong aspects in common with Anarchist ideals of how society should be structured, and that modern Anarchists would do well to investigate these early models. Celtic Ireland, prior to Cromwell's invasion, is held up as a positive example. The tendency is thus similar to Indigenism in that it seeks inspiration for anarchism in the history and practices of ancestors, rather then relying solely on political theory and speculation. There is also a strong movement to seek out the good in the ongoing anti-imperialist movements in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Bretony, Cornwall, and Galicia.
Ecology
The influence of the modern revival of Celtic culture on Anarchism are particularly evident within the radical wing of the Environmentalist movement, particularly Deep Ecology. Earth First! is one of the largest networks organizing around these issues and is organized along anarchist lines with many of the people who work under its banner self-identifying as anarchists. It is perhaps natural that the British and Irish Earth First movements in particular would seek inspiration from and consciously seek linkages with Celtic identities, given that the ancient Celts are commonly portrayed as being more in touch with nature then modern consumer society. The Earth First Journal, the main publication of the movement, organizes its printing schedule around the Neopagan Wheel of the Year, which consists of four Gaelic festivals and four Germanic ones, with issues named for Beltane, Eostar, Brigid, Samhain, Yule, Mabon, and Lughnasadh.
Post-Colonial Anarchism in Ireland
The armed struggle against British rule in Ireland, particularly up to and during the War of Independence, is portrayed as a National Liberation struggle with the Celtic Anarchist mileau. Anarchists, including the Irish Workers Solidarity Movement, support a complete end to British involvement in Ireland, a stance traditionally associated with Irish Republicanism, but are also very critical of Stateist Nationalism and the I.R.A. in particular. In two articles published on Anarkismo.net, Andrew Flood of the WSM outlines what he argues was the betrayal of class struggle by the IRA during the war of independence, and argues that the Stateism of traditional Irish Nationalism forced it to place the interests of wealthy Irish Nationalists who were financing the revolution ahead of the interests of the vast majority of Ireland's poor. The example of the Irish Citizens Army, a workers militia which was led by James Connoly and based in the radical wing of the Irish union movement, is held up as a better example of how the larger revolutionary movement could have - and should have - been organized.
Anarchists are extremely critical of the I.R.A., both because of its use of terrorist violence and because of its internal Authoritarianism. From the Anarchist view, British and Irish nationalisms are both Stateist, authoritarian, and seek to dominate and exploit the Irish Nation to empower their competing States. Anarchism would instead create a political system without States and where communities are self-governing on the local level. The achievement of home-rule, or political self-determination, is therefore a precondition for and a consequence of Anarchism. At root then, the Anarchist objection to Irish Nationalism is that Nationalists use reprehensible means to demand far too little. Still, Anarchists seek to learn from and examine the liberatory aspects of the struggle for Irish independence and the WSM includes a demand for complete British withdrawal from North Ireland in its platform.
Chicano Anarchism
Panther Anarchism
Notes and References
- the EarthFirst! Journal
- Insurrection in Ireland from Anarkismo.net
- Insurrection in Ireland from Anarkismo.net