Anarchist Current

of Stirnerian egoism and Proudhonian economics, although the European individualists were more consistent in their extremism. The problem for both is that while an egoist will not wanttobe exploited or dominated by anyone else, there is no reason why he or she would not exploit or dominate others. If the egoist The Anarchist Current can use existing power structures, or create new ones, to his or Continuity and Change in Anarchist Thought her advantage, then there is no reason for the egoist to adopt an anarchist stance. Furthermore, when each person regards the other simply as a means to his or her ends, taking and doing Robert Graham whatever is in his or her power, as Stirner advocated, it would seem unlikely that a Proudhonian economy of small property holders exchanging their products among one another would be able to function, for Proudhon’s notions of equivalent exchange and economic justice would carry no weight, even if they were feasible in a modern industrial economy. Armand rejected Proudhon’s notion of contract, arguing that “every contract can be voided the moment it injures one of the con- tracting parties,” since the individual is “free of all obligations as well as of collective morality.” At most, the individualist “is will- ing to enter into short-term arrangements only” as “an expedient,” being “only ever answerable to himself for his deeds and actions” (Volume One, Selection 42). Tucker, despite his attempts to base his anarchism on Stirner’s egoism, believed that contracts freely entered into should be binding and enforceable. In addition, he advocated the creation of “self-defence” associations to protect people’s property, opening the way, Kropotkin argued, “for reconstituting under the heading of ‘defence’ all the functions of the state” (1910: 18). Anarchist communists, such as Kropotkin, did not “see the necessity of… enforcing agreements freely entered upon” by people in an anarchist society, for even in existing society the “simple habit of keeping one’s word, the desire of not losing confidence, are quite sufficient in an overwhelming majority of cases to enforce the 2013 keeping of agreements” (1887: 47 & 53). Force is only necessary to 76 tried to distance himself from the “bandits,” claiming that he was merely an anarchist “propagandist” who did “not pretend to de- fend” his former comrades, “for a gulf separates philosophical anarchists” from those who seek to justify their crimes in the name of anarchism (Perry: 158–159). It was the kind of betrayal Kibalchich was to repeat in Russia after the 1917 Revolution when he renounced anarchism altogether, throwing his support behind the Bolshevik dictatorship. When justifying the Bolsheviks’ violent suppression of the anarchist movement, Kibalchich (now Serge) again drew a distinction between “counter-revolutionary” armed anarchist groups who hid common criminals within their ranks, and “ideological” anarchists, who were allegedly left alone to make their “ineffective” propa- ganda (Serge, 1930). It was a distinction Lenin and the Bolsheviks were happy to make, but never honour (Berkman, 1925: 91 & 142–151). Emile Armand (1872–1962), a more consistent individualist anarchist writing in France in 1911, supported “illegalism… with certain reservations.” For him, the individualist “anarchist seeks to live without gods or masters; without bosses or leaders; a-legally, bereft of laws as well as of prejudices; amorally, free of obligations as well as of collective morality.” The European individualists shared the anti-organizationalist critique of all formal organization but, as with Tucker and his associates, opposed anarchist communism. The individual, Armand wrote, “would be as much of a subordi- nate under a communist system as he is today.” Armand believed that individual autonomy could only be guaranteed by individual ownership of the means necessary to support oneself, the product of one’s own labour, and the goods one receives in exchange with others. He was much clearer than Tucker in opposing “the exploita- tion of anyone by one of his neighbours who will set him to work in his employ and for his benefit” (Volume One, Selection 42). Both Tucker and the European individualists developed a conception of anarchism representing an incoherent amalgam 75 Yet despite Tucker’s discovery of Max Stirner’s egoism in the late 1880s (Martin: 249–254), Tucker remained a self-righteous ideo- logue disapproving of those anarchists who advocated armed struggle, expropriation and social revolution. Stirner, on the other hand, would have had no reason to condemn expropriation or the use of Contents force, having suggested that the dispossessed simply take from the rich because “I give myself the right of property in taking property to myself.” In fact, Stirner can be seen as the original advocate of From Anarchy to Anarchism .............. 8 anarchist “illegalism,” when he argued that “in all cases where [the Daoism and Early Anarchism .............. 9 egoist’s] advantage runs against the State’s,” the egoist “can sat- Étienne de la Boétie and Voluntary Servitude . 11 isfy himself only by crime” (Volume One, Selection 11). It was this Heresy and Revolution . 12 aspect of Stirner’s egoism that was seized upon by individualist an- Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers . 13 archists in Europe around the turn of the century, who articulated Utopian Undercurrents . 14 and sometimes put into practice a much more radical conception The Great French Revolution . 15 of individualist anarchism than had been developed in the United Godwin’s Critique of Coercion . 17 States by Tucker and his associates, one which did not shy away Charles Fourier and the Liberation of Desire . 20 from violence and which regarded itself as revolutionary. Proudhon: The Self-Proclaimed Anarchist . 21 In 1909, the then individualist anarchist, Victor Kibalchich (bet- Revolutionary Ideas in Europe . 22 ter known by his later moniker, Victor Serge (1890–1947), after Max Stirner ......................... 23 he went over to Bolshevism), wrote in France that the anarchist Proudhon: Machinery and Worker Self-Management 25 “chooses the methods of struggle, according to his power and cir- 1848: Anarchism and Revolution in Europe . 27 cumstance. He takes no account of any conventions which safe- Déjacque’s Critique of Proudhon . 30 guard property: for him, force alone counts. Thus, we have neither Ernest Coeurderoy: Citizen of the World . 30 to approve or disapprove of illegal actions… The anarchist is always The First International and the Emergence of the illegal—theoretically. The sole word ‘anarchist’ means rebellion in Anarchist Movement . 31 every sense” (Perry: 50). Bakunin: “We do not fear anarchy, we invoke it” . 33 Kibalchich was associated with some of the future members of The Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune . 36 the “Bonnot Gang,” which conducted the first bank robbery using The Split in the First International . 40 getaway cars in late December 1911. Soon after the robbery, dur- Anarchist Communism . 42 ing which a bank clerk was shot, Kibalchich wrote that the shoot- Means and Ends ...................... 46 ing “proved that some men have at least understood the virtues of Anarchism and the Workers’ Struggles . 49 audacity. I am not afraid to own up to it: I am with the bandits” Libertarian Education ................... 52 (Perry: 90). However, after Bonnot was killed in a shoot outand Women’s Liberation .................... 54 Kibalchich was put on trial along with survivors of the gang, he Anarchist Morality .................... 55 74 3 Art and Anarchy ...................... 56 their anti-war, anti-militarist and anti-statist position began again Science and Technology: Anarchist Perspectives . 58 to find a sympathetic ear among the workers and peasants who Evolution and Revolution . 61 bore the brunt of the inter-imperialist slaughter in Europe, and Against Racism ....................... 63 who were to arise en masse in February 1917 in Russia, overthrow- Nationalism and Colonialism . 64 ing the Czar. The Spread of Anarchism . 66 The 1905 Russian Revolution . 67 Individualist Anarchism Revolution in Mexico ................... 68 Anarchism in Asia ..................... 70 In addition to the various revolutionary currents that existed Individualist Anarchism . 73 within the anarchist movement prior to the outbreak of World The Russian Revolution . 77 War I, individualist anarchism began to emerge as a distinct Factory Committees .................... 78 current in the United States and Europe. In contrast to many Counter-Revolution in Russia . 81 contemporary individualists, particularly in the United States, who The Makhnovist Movement . 81 sometimes identify themselves as “anarcho-capitalists,” a concept The Platform and Its Critics . 84 most anarchists would regard as hopelessly self-contradictory The Transvaluation of Values . 88 (Volume Three, Chapter 9), the individualist anarchists of the late Fascism: The Preventive Counter-Revolution . 90 19th and early 20th centuries were anti-capitalist. The Triumph of the Irrational . 92 The leading individualist anarchist in the United States was Authority and Sexuality . 93 Benjamin Tucker (1854–1939). Tucker was a great admirer of Anarchism in China Before the 1949 Revolution . 96 Proudhon, translating What Is Property (1876) and Volume One Class Struggle and ‘Pure’ Anarchism in Japan . 97 of The System of Economic Contradictions (1888) into English. Anarchism in the Korean Liberation Movement . 99 Nevertheless, when

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