Nationalist anarchism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Part of the Politics series on |
 |
| Schools of thought |
|---|
|
Black • Buddhist |
| Anarchism in culture |
|
Religion • Society • Arts |
| Anarchist theory |
|
Origins • Economics |
| Anarchism by region |
|
Africa • Austria • China |
| Anarchism lists |
| Anarchism Portal Politics Portal · |
Nationalist anarchism (also called anarcho-nationalism) is an umbrella term covering various political viewpoints which seek to unite nationalism and anarchism, two ideologies which emerged in Europe following the French Revolution.
The nationalist component may include an advocacy of cultural or ethnic separatism, although this is not always the case. Adherents of the separatist position propose that those preventing political activists from organizing in separate autonomous ethnic or racial groupings should be resisted. This separation may go as far as excluding those of other groups from settling in those areas.
Nationalist anarchists typically argue that a nation is first and foremost a people; that the state is parasitic upon the nation and should not be confused with it; and that states rarely coincide with national entities. Anarchists have usually rejected nationalism, as they equate nation with state. Most contemporary anarchists therefore consider nationalist anarchism to be a contradiction. There has nevertheless been a long history of anarchist involvement with nationalism:
Contents |
[edit] Origins in the 19th century
In the early 19th century, the ideas of nationalism, socialism and liberalism were closely intertwined. Revolutionaries and radicals like Giuseppe Mazzini aligned with all three in about equal measure. The early pioneers of anarchism participated in the spirit of their times: they had much in common with both liberals and socialists, and they shared much of the outlook of early nationalism as well. Moreover, as anti-semitism came to infuse itself into 19th-century political thought, it supplied a common focus which united many across all radical movements - socialists and anarchists as well as nationalists.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was anti-semitic and influenced the proto-fascist Cercle Proudhon set up in 1911. Mikhail Bakunin had a long career as a pan-Slavic nationalist before adopting anarchism, and retained his anti-semitism whilst an anarchist. Following his involvement with Russian colonial expansionism in Siberia, he returned to Europe and agitated for a United States of Europe (a vision originated by Mazzini). Har Dayal became an anarchist agitator in San Francisco, joining the IWW before becoming a pivotal figure in the Ghadar Party. He developed a vision of anarchism based upon a return to the principles of ancient Aryan society.[1]
Although anarchism is often regarded as a movement of the left, the nationalist side of Proudhon's and Bakunin's thought would feed into 20th-century parties and movements of the radical right, some of which indeed claimed these early anarchists as their own.
[edit] Völkisch anarchism
A concept of nationalist anarchism independent of anti-semitism or far right input can be traced back to the populist revolutionary nationalisms of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as the Russian narodniks (themselves a cradle of many political strains and tendencies with anarchistic leanings) and the völkisch movement of Germany and Austria. The latter inherited its Romantic outlook from Johann Gottfried von Herder whose own philosophy, which also inspired Mazzini, affirmed both the particularity of national cultures (nationalism) and their value within a universal context (internationalism).
As the völkisch movement developed, sections of it focussed on to theories of anti-semitism and racial supremacy which claimed a foundation in biology. Others, however, repudiated racism and preserved Herder's emphasis upon the equality of all nations. Among these prophets of international nationalism was the German-Jewish völkisch anarchist Gustav Landauer.
A recent revival of völkisch anti-racism can be found in the Alternative Socialist Movement, an alliance of British radicals formed during the 1970s in which Keith Motherson (formerly Keith Paton) and the controversial artist Monica Sjöö were key members. Alternative Socialism sought to synthesise a range of seeming contraries: dissident Marxism with anarchism, socialism with libertarianism, Christianity with paganism, and reformism with revolution.
It espoused the love of homeland and country from a nonviolent and feminist perspective which Motherson dubbed 'matriotism', and drew upon an interpretation of German völkisch thought as an essentially cosmopolitan current of ideas celebrating ethnic and cultural diversity. The movement rejected every form of patriarchal machismo from the left as well as the right, and therefore it advocated countering fascism through dialogue instead of dehumanising vilification.
[edit] Black Ram
Alternative Socialism is an evident precursor to a similar concept of völkisch anarchism which surfaced briefly in the British anarchist movement in 1982 when the Black Ram Group (formerly Derby Anarchist Group) published the first and only edition of its journal Black Ram. This publication made connections between anarchism, neo-paganism and völkisch nationalist ideas (Landauer in particular), with further exploration of these themes promised. However the group disbanded in the following year without further elaboration.
The Black Ram Group remained within the mainstream anarchist consensus of anti-racism and anti-sexism. Its positive evaluation of nationalism derived not from any roots in far right political organisations, but from the theoretical consideration that:
- "the pseudo-'nationalism' of the 'nation-State' - which anarchists unequivocally oppose...must be distinguished from the nationalism of the people (Volk) which in its more consistent expressions is a legitimate rejection of both foreign domination and internal authoritarianism, i.e. the State." - Black Ram[2]
The term 'anarcho-nationalist' is introduced in Black Ram 1:12 to describe the outlook of American Odinists with whom the paper's editors were in sympathy and, since then, it has been reused as a general term covering nationalist anarchisms. The term national anarchism was also used in the title of an article projected for publication in the second edition, 'Towards an Anarchist Nationalism: provisional manifesto of the National Anarchist Pagan Resurgence',[3] but no further editions appeared and so it was never formally defined. Other material in the first issue leaves no doubt of the direction that was intended. Wotan, 'Fylfots for Freedom', Black Ram 1:7-8 sets out a programme aiming to subvert fascism by reclaiming symbols and concepts for libertarian ends. The group's emblem was a 
in the centre of a swastika ('anarcho-swastika').
[edit] More recent groups
The most publicised nationalist anarchism viewpoint is National-Anarchism, a position developed in the 1990s by the National Revolutionary Faction, an organization with links to the far right in Britain and the former Soviet Union. The National-Anarchists worked with Albion Awake, Alternative Green (published by former Green Anarchist editor, Richard Hunt) and Jonathan Boulter to develop the Anarchist Heretics Fair. While some mainstream anarchist groups renounced them, SchNEWS ran adverts for them. Other contemporary combinations of anarchism with nationalism include some strains of Black anarchism.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Ghadar Movement: Ideology, Organisation and Strategy by Karish K. Puri, Guru Nanak Dev University Press, 1983
- ^ Editorial comment, Black Ram 1:5.
- ^ Black Ram 1:18.
[edit] References
- Hampson, Norman. 1968. The Enlightenment. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books.
- Hearder, Harry. 1966. Europe in the Nineteenth Century 1830-1880. New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-48212-7
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Anarchists against nationalism and anarchists and nationalism at flag.blackened.net
- Are anarchists against nationalism? at spunk press
- Anarchist Integralism
- Anarchist Notions of Nationalism and Patriotism
- Beyond Nationalism, But Not Without It Nationalism and Anarchism from a Black anarchist perspective, from Anarchist Panther by Ashanti Alston
