Table Of ContentAnarchism
Seán M. Sheehan
F O C I
Anarchism
foci
Focus on Contemporary Issues ( ) addresses the pressing problems, ideas
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series editors
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In the same series
Cool Rules
Dick Pountain and David Robins
Chromophobia
David Batchelor
Global Dimensions
John Rennie Short
Celebrity
Chris Rojek
Activism!
Tim Jordan
Animal
Erica Fudge
Dreamtelling
Pierre Sorlin
Anarchism
SEÁN M. SHEEHAN
R E A K T I O N B O O K S
Published by Reaktion Books Ltd
79Farringdon Road
London ec1m 3ju, uk
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2003
Copyright © Seán M. Sheehan 2003
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publishers.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn
British Library Cataloguing in Publishing Data
Sheehan, Seán, M. 1951–
Anarchism.–(FOCI)
1. Anarchism 2. Anarchism – History
I. Title
335.8'3
isbn 1 86189 169 5
Contents
1 7
Global Anarchism
2 25
Anarchos
3 57
Marx, Nietzsche and Anarchism
4 81
Attacking the State
5 121
Subverting Hierarchies
6 149
The Anarchist Tension
161
References
175
List of Illustrations
CHAPTER ONE
Global Anarchism
The New Anarchism
1999
Seattle, November . The Carnival Against Capital. The World Trade
29
Organization (WTO) arrived in Seattle on the evening of November,
and thousands of protestors waited to meet the delegates arriving at the
Exhibition Center in their limousines and coaches. The first march through
6
Seattle started at am the next morning, and by the afternoon street block-
ades were still holding their own, aided and abetted by street theatre and
pavement parties. Wednesday morning saw more protestors gathering at
7
am, though the response was also more determined, and armoured
personnel carriers appeared on the streets. Friday witnessed large groups
of non-violent protestors mounting a sit-down outside the city gaol, where
arrested demonstrators were being detained. Each evening, meetings took
place, with representatives of different affinity groups sitting together in
large circles to discuss tactics. The warehouse building where these meet-
29
ings were held had for days leading up to November been the venue for
non-violence training sessions and gaol solidarity workshops; and once the
action got under way, ad hocfirst aid sessions were the order of the day.
Throughout the five days of protest, key anarchist principles were seen to
work so successfully that other non-anarchist militants adopted them. No
7
centralized authority or hierarchical bureaucracy emerged, and yet a
remarkable degree of coordination developed as affinity groups organized
a wide range of activities, including marches, human blockade chains,
banner displays, street props and pavement theatre. Participants of all
persuasions were welcomed at the anarchist Convergence Center, which
served as a clearing house for a variety of organizational needs, from help
with accommodation to medical care and plans for new forms of agitation.
Communication was effected through a combination of mobile phones,
large notices at the Convergence Center, and even messages emblazoned
on T-shirts.
Black flags were to be seen flying though the acrid smoke, but when
a McDonald’s outlet was stormed it was rounds of Roquefort cheese that
hit the plate glass windows. Not for the first time at an anti-capitalist
protest, many traditional idioms of revolution – guns, bombs and armies
– were playfully deconstructed in a potent commitment to peaceful and
photogenic protest. Activists appeared in mock ‘uniforms’ of anonymous
white overalls and chemical suits. In Prague, almost a year after Seattle,
protesting against the International Monetary Fund (IMF), mini armies
of protestors came dressed as fairies and armed with feather dusters to
tickle the ranks of heavily clothed, armed police. At such protests, lines of
transport tend to be blocked not so much by burning barricades and
street battles but by giant contraptions like the Liberation Puppet,
2001
capable of snarling up a major highway. Protest in Quebec City in
included a mock medieval catapult that fired an array of soft toys over the
heads of the lines of police protecting the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the
2000
Americas) delegates. At the Republican National Convention in
Philadelphia, protestors attired themselves as gross parodies of billion-
aires and dictators, and the Radical Cheerleaders called for a radical
feminism dressed in saucy skirts and pompons. Some of these antics
seem harmless enough, but the anti-capitalist movement, far from being
1960
an innocuous throwback to the protests of the s, heralds a new move-
8 ANARCHISM
Description:Anarchism re-emerged on the world stage at the end of 1999 on the streets of Seattle when the World Trade Organization was brought close to collapse. Anarchist groups shared pavement space with environmentalists, pacifists and a whole host of other groups. The anti-capitalism, anti-globalization mov
