JSTOR Daily, “Is There a Place in Public History for Sacco and Vanzetti?”
The case slowly grew into an international cause célèbre. Sacco and Vanzetti were avowed anarchists, devoted to the idea of destroying all government. They were followers of Luigi Galleani, an Italian anarchist leader with followers around the globe, who argued that governments were in league with oppressive wealthy businesses who exploited workers. Continue Reading
Huffington Post, “Sacco, Vanzetti, and Mary Dyer”
Today, August 23, marks the 90th anniversary of the deaths by execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two Italian immigrants and self-avowed anarchists who were convicted of robbery and first-degree murder in Massachusetts, and who, after numerous appeals and protests, died in the electric chair on August 23, 1927. Continue Reading
Boston Herald, “Rachelle Cohen: Robert E. joins Emma in history’s hall of shame”
But the pedestal we were looking at, my friend assured me, once held a statue of Emma Goldman. Ok, so what had this American anarchist done to deserve being thrown off her perch with the rest of them? Well, yes, she was Russian-born and after getting arrested in the U.S. several times for her rabble […]
Tablet Magazine, “Dear Antifas: A Note About Your Ancestor”
Tresca was the Cold War anarcho-syndicalist. He was a super-radical who, even so, did not remove himself from the larger American system. My old friend Daniel Bell had the misfortune of seeing Tresca’s body on the sidewalk at Fifth Avenue and 15th Street, after the assassination, in January 1943. That was a terrible event. Tresca’s […]
San Francisco Chronicle, “How should we protest neo-Nazis? Lessons from German history”
“Antifa” is short for antifascists, though the name by no means includes everyone who opposes fascism. The antifa is a relatively small movement of the far left, with ties to anarchism. It arose in Europe’s punk scene in the 1980s to fight neo-Nazism. Continue Reading
North County Public Radio (NY), “‘Antifa’ willing and sometimes eager to trade blows with far-right”
Antifa members say they trace their history to an anti-fascist street movement that’s existed in Europe for decades. Some claim inspiration from anarchist political ideas that are broadly anti-authoritarian and often anti-capitalist. In Charlottesville, they clashed repeatedly with neo-Nazis and white power activists. Continue Reading
Salon, “Heather Heyer picked her side”
The IWW, an anarcho-syndicalist union whose members are called “Wobblies,” was known for organizing across lines of race and ethnicity. Its direct actions and its willingness to recruit African Americans and immigrants led to its violent repression by government agents and corporate goons in the wake of World War I. Continue Reading
Fortune, “The Spain Attacks Show How Much Terrorism Is Changing”
Today’s use of cars to attack ordinary civilians in open urban and crowed areas, as evident in Thursday’s terrorist attack in Barcelona and Cambrils, Spain, bears a striking resemblance to some of the anarchist bombings and attacks that took place from the late 1880s to the dawn of the 1920s. Once again, a relatively tiny […]
Noisey (Vice), “A Brief But Very Informative History of How Fascists Infiltrated Punk and Metal”
European Liberation Front organizers like Troy Southgate, formerly of the Official National Front, sought to exploit the anarchist ideology associated with punk and metal subcultures, as well as rebellious autonomous radical groups. Calling their syncretic ideological fusion “national-anarchism,” these fascists commandeered a Trotskyist strategy known as “entryism,” entering groups (particularly in the green movement) and […]
The New York Times, “‘Antifa’ Grows as Left-Wing Faction Set to, Literally, Fight the Far Right”
Driven by a range of political passions — including anticapitalism, environmentalism, and gay and indigenous rights — the diverse collection of anarchists, communists and socialists has found common cause in opposing right-wing extremists and white supremacists. In the fight against the far right, antifa has allied itself at times with local clergy, members of the […]