Owlseyes ’s Reviews > Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward > Status Update

"I [Morris] am neither a Communist nor a Social Democrat, because I regard both as creeds of centralization and bureaucracy, ..."

The fourth general influence on [William] Morris was Old Norse literature.

Leo Tolstoy, who has commonly been treated as a mainstream anarchist theorist,(...)

Many anarchists and, perhaps especially, syndicalists were deeply impressed by the Bolsheviks’ seizure of power in October 1917, their anti-parliamentarianism and their determination to move forthwith, without waiting for the maturation of capitalism, to the building of a socialist society, and they defected in large numbers to the national Communist Parties as they began to be formed.

Many anarchists and, perhaps especially, syndicalists were deeply impressed by the Bolsheviks’ seizure of power in October 1917, their anti-parliamentarianism and their determination to move forthwith, without waiting for the maturation of capitalism, to the building of a socialist society, and they defected in large numbers to the national Communist Parties as they began to be formed.

For anarchism was also strong in the United States – not among native-born Americans, but within the immigrant communities, above all the Germans, Russians, Russian Jews and Italians – and in Latin America, whence it was in part carried by Spanish and Italian militants and immigrants, notably in Mexico – where it was an influential current in the Revolution of 1910–20 – Cuba, Brazil and Argentina.

The State is rejected not just as integral to the current order but crucially as the means to any desirable transformation;....

Anarchism is notorious for its diversity. Its accepted varieties range from the egoism of Max Stirner, through the individualism of such Americans as Benjamin Tucker and the mutualism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, both of whom accepted the institution of private property, to the collectivism of Mikhail Bakunin, communism of Peter Kropotkin and revolutionary trade unionism of the syndicalists.

(...) anti-statism; anti-parliamentarianism; spontaneity; resistance to war; and increasingly, although with deep roots in the tradition, sustainability and ecology.
DAVID GOODWAY

The anarchist tradition is characterized by such concepts and practices as autonomy, both individual and communal; mutual aid, or co-operation; organization from the bottom up; opposition to hierarchy; direct democracy or, at the very least, participatory democracy; federation; self-management; decentralization; (...)
David Goodway