Anarchism: A Criticism and History of the Anarchist TheoryZenker, E. V. (Ernst Viktor)
History
Anarchism: A Criticism and History of the Anarchist Theory
Zenker, E. V. (Ernst Viktor)
Anarchism
Bakunin was right in taking this as a declaration of war, and his
followers accepted the challenge. On November 12, 1871, the Jura
sections met at a congress in Souvillier, in which they certainly
accepted the name "Jurassic Union," but declared the "Romance Union"
to be dissolved; appealed against the decisions of the London
Conference as well as against their legality, and appealed to a
general congress, to be called immediately.
These endless disputes came to a climax at the congress held at The
Hague in 1872, when Bakunin was excluded from the "International";
whereupon the Anarchist sections finally separated from the Social
Democrats, and in the same year called an "International Labour
Congress" at St. Imier. Here a provisional union of "Anti-Authority
Socialists" was resolved upon, and it was decided (1) that the
annihilation of every political power was the first duty of the
proletariat; (2) that every organisation of the political power, both
provisory and revolutionary, was merely a delusion, and was as
dangerous for the proletariat as any of the Governments now existing.
In the following year, 1873, another congress took place at Geneva,
which founded a new "International," which placed all power completely
in the hands of the sections, while the "Bureau" only was to serve as
a link between the autonomous unions, and to give information.
This first international Anarchist organisation never became of
practical importance; only the "Jurassic Union" formed for almost ten
years a much feared centre of Anarchism in Romance-speaking
Switzerland and Southern France. Indeed it became the cradle of the
"Anarchism of action" generally. "The Jura Federation,"[2] wrote
Kropotkin, "has played a most important part in the development of the
revolutionary idea. If, in speaking of Anarchy to-day, we can say that
there are three thousand Anarchists in Lyons, and five thousand in the
valley of the Rhone, and several thousands in the South, that is the
work mainly of the Jura Federation. Indeed I must ask, How was this
possible? Is Anarchy in Europe only ten years old? Of course the
_Zeitgeist_ has carried us along with it; but this was first openly
manifest in a group, the Jura Federation, which thus must gain credit
for it." The Jurassic Union was in fact the Anarchist party. The head
and soul of this union was the Bakuninist, Paul Brousse, a zealous and
reckless Anarchist and clever journalist, who in his paper
_Avantgarde_ was one of the first to preach the "propaganda of
action." In December, 1878, this paper was suppressed by the Swiss
Government because it had approved the attempts of Hoedel and Nobeling.
Brousse himself was arrested and condemned to two months' imprisonment
and ten years' banishment, but after undergoing his imprisonment he
completely gave up Anarchism. Kropotkin, who had already helped him
with the _Avantgarde_, took his place, and founded in Geneva the
_Revolte_, directing with a feverish activity the work originally
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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