"There is a crack in everything. It's how the light gets in." ---Leonard Cohen
An Anarchist Timeline
6th century BC The first clear expression of an anarchist sensibility may be traced back to the Taoists in ancient China from about the sixth century BC. Indeed, the principal Taoist work, the Tao te ching, may be considered one of the greatest anarchist classics.
270 BC The best exponent of anarchist philosophy in ancient Greece was Zeno (342-267 or 270 BC), from Crete, the founder of the Stoic philosophy, who distinctly opposed his conception of a free community without government to the state-utopia of Plato. He repudiated the omnipotence of the state, its intervention and regimentation, and proclaimed the sovereignty of the moral law of the individual - remarking already that, while the necessary instinct of self-preservation leads man to egotism, nature has supplied a corrective to it by providing man with another instinct - that of sociability. When men are reasonable enough to follow their natural instincts, they will unite across the frontiers and constitute the cosmos.
medieval Europe In medieval Europe the pantheistic Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit rejected all authority and advocated communism of goods and women. During the Hussite wars, Peter Chelcicky (c. 1930-c. 1460) taught that since all compulsion is from the devil, the state is evil and must disappear along with class distinctions. Anabaptists of the 16th century believed themselves freed from all law by Christ's grace, refused to pay taxes or tithes, and held wives and property in common.
1649-50 The English Diggers (1649-50) - The Diggers were a group of agrarian communists who flourished in England in 1649-50 and were led by Gerrard Winstanley (q.v.) and William Everard. In April 1649 about 20 poor men assembled at St. George's Hill, Surrey, and began to cultivate the common land. These Diggers held that the English Civil Wars had been fought against the king and the great landowners; now that Charles I had been executed, land should be made available for the very poor to cultivate. (Food prices had reached record heights in the late 1640s.) The numbers of the Diggers more than doubled during 1649. Their activities alarmed the Commonwealth government and roused the hostility of local landowners, who were rival claimants to the common lands. The Diggers were harassed by legal actions and mob violence, and by the end of March 1650 their colony was dispersed. The Diggers themselves abjured the use of force. The Diggers also called themselves True Levelers, but their communism was denounced by the leaders of the Levelers.
1793 It was William Godwin (1756-1836), in his Enquiry concerning Political Justice (2 vols., 1793), who was the first to formulate the political and economical conceptions of anarchism, even though he did not give that name to the ideas developed in his remarkable work.
1840 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-65) was the first to use, in 1840 the name of anarchy with application to the no government state of society. The name of 'anarchists' had been freely applied during the French Revolution by the Girondists to those revolutionaries who did not consider that the task of the Revolution was accomplished with the overthrow of Louis XVI
1868 Mikhail Bakunin joined the Geneva section of the First International
May 1871 The Paris commune
1884 In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had already failed. With workers being forced to work ten, twelve, and fourteen hours a day, rank-and-file support for the eight-hour movement grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of .many union leaders. By April 1886, 250,000 workers were involved in the May Day movement.
The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People's Association. Businesses and the state were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly. The police and militia were increased in size and received new and powerful weapons financed by local business leaders. Chicago's Commercial Club purchased a $2000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to be used against strikers. Nevertheless, by May 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters, shoemakers, and packing-house workers.
1886 on May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality.
The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.
Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement. Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected radicals, and hundreds were arrested without charge. Anarchists in particular were harassed, and eight of Chicago's most active were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and he was on the speakers' platform), and they were sentenced to die. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolf Fischer, and George Engel were hanged on November 11, 1887. Louis .Lingg committed suicide in prison, The remaining three were finally pardoned in 1893.
1910 Anarchism and Other Essays: by Emma Goldman (1869-1940) published
1911 January 24 - Execution of twelve anarchists in Japan.
1919 Emma Goldman deported. Judge Julius M. Mayer declares that as an alien, she has no constitutional rights.
1936-1939 Spanish Civil War
May 9th, 1970: Vancouver Anarchist Invasion of the United States
"Canadian troops stormed across the border and into the town of Blaine, Washington. The makeshift army was composed of about 600 guerrillas from vancouver , including anarchists and radicals from groups like the "Vancouver Liberation Front" and the Vancouver yippies "Northern Lunatic Fringe". They invaded in protest against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia and promised to penetrate no further than 22.7 miles into American territory, the same distance that president Nixon had promised not to exceed into Cambodia. Defying the orders of immigration officers, the troops crossed into the United States in the first violation of the "undefended" border since 1812. The invaders marched along the freeway and then down the exit ramp into Blaine, chanting and moving down the town's main street. The invading force swarmed over a small war memorial, pulling down and destroying an American flag. The mayor of Blaine appeared brandishing a .38 calibre pistol, hoping to turn back the freak army. They ignored him and marched on. However local rednecks and members of the White Serviceman's League started to attack and beat up straggling demonstrators. When other invaders rushed to defend them cops moved in with billy clubs swinging. The invaders started to turn back towards Canada while throwing rocks in defense. An American flag was ripped down from the Post Office building and burned. As they drew closer to the border, windows were smashed at a National Bank of Commerce. 20 demonstrators broke off from the main group and attacked a passing train carrying new American cars into Canada ,causing an estimated 50,000 dollars damage to 90 of a 107 cars. The retreating army also attacked the Peace Arch as they crossed back into Canada, splattering it with paint, covering it with graffiti, and tearing down plaques. In the aftermath a Washington congressman called for the Canadian government to pay for the damages incurred. A state senator demanded an offical apology from the Canadian government. The Attourney General of British Columbia called for leveling charges against the demonstrators, and the Canadian federal government called for a report. The invaders replied to the call for an apology by stating "We've withdrawn our troops from the U.S. We will apologize for our invasion when the U.S. withdraws its troops from Cambodia, apologizes and makes full restitution to the people of Southeast Asia."
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Sources:
Anarchist Action Network
David Spaner “Invade Amerika!” in Blacklisted News: Secret Histories from Chicago to 1984, by the New Yippie Book Collective, 1983
“Canadian mob invades Blaine,” Vancouver Express, May 12, 1970
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