Politics in the SCW

[Arlequín]

The word Anarchy simply means "without a ruler." Any connotations of violent disorder and chaos are baggage that it has picked up along the way. Whether that has been because of the actions of Anarchists or abuse of the word by people with a vested interest in there being rulers I leave for others to decide. Now an absence of rulers may or may not lead to violence and disorder, but that doesn't necessarily mean that violence and disorder are the aims of Anarchists.

Quite true and I think we (in Britain at least) get the idea of Anarchy as chaos from the 'bomb-throwing anarchist' stereotype of the late Victorian age. In other countries where anarchism was popular (such as Spain) there's an entirely different perception, mostly related to getting rid of the monarchy, church and absentee landlords and allowing the peasants to hold the land in common as a series of collectives. Industry would also form collectives and their produce would be simply exchanged for agricultural produce in a symbiotic relationship. That's the grass roots theory anyway.   

[eastern barbarian]

well, not that they were not throwing lots of bombs in Spain as well

[Arlequín]

well, not that they were not throwing lots of bombs in Spain as well

True but they only threw as many as they needed to throw and of course they were anybody's bombs to throw... nobody was ordering them to throw and who should do the throwing was agreed at a meeting beforehand. Pure anarchists would of course have a committee meeting before each one was thrown to agree what should be thrown at. 

[eastern barbarian]

agreed

[joroas]

Thanks guys, this has opened my eyes to something I had thoroughly misunderstood. 

Sadly, Phil will not be at WMMS so that I can apologise to for hijacking his thread.

[Christian]

I recommend a book called The Spanish Civil War by Anthony Beevor.

It really breaks down the relationship between the different factions-within-the-factions.

Anyone else read it?

[eastern barbarian]

It is in my opinion best ever book written about SCW. Its a proper brick but read really, really well.

[Arlequín]

I'll give it a thumbs up too... the revised edition is particularly good as Beevor is a bit more even-handed than previously.