Talk:Anarchism in the United Kingdom

Early discussion
The article prior to my edit was full of historical misinterpretations, and NPOVs in a very big pro-US-style US Libertarian Party ideology. No coverage of real English speaking anarchism at all (Tyler, Civil War, radical Whiggery, Radical US Revolutionaries, social Utopians, Kropotkin in Exile etc. No coverage of the rise of the shop-stewards movement.  or IWW.  Or English anarchist newspapers 1920-1960.  Or US/AU IWWs in the long period of slow down.  No coverage of "political" anarchism in Au or NZ or SA (see African Anarchism).  The middle section is still largely bullshit.  This article needs help.  Fifelfoo 00:53, 4 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * I think that slapping the NPOV label on this article is a bit of an over-reaction. If the article is POV, it is because it was written by a single author who is not an expert on the history of anarchism. I created this article because it is an important topic to the Anglophones who are using this wiki, but English anarchists aren't really central to the development of anarchism in general. I tried to provide a framework within which others could add details. If it fails to cover a number of anarchist movements, the simple solution is to add that information, not dismiss the previous writing as NPOV bullshit. The solution definitely is not to delete the previous content and replace it with your own POV. I like the expanded description of the English Civil War, but don't understand why several concepts were deleted without discussion. At the least, the deleted content should have been copied to the discussion page. I think the following topics are worth mentioning:
 * The fact that English speaking societies ~1800 on were dominated by liberal institutions, and that even if anarchists did not draw inspiration from the liberals, they at least responded to these liberal institutions.
 * Same for Christianity
 * The World Wars, including post WWI pacifism and the response to fascism
 * racism and the anarchist opposition to racism
 * the Great Depression and the resulting revival of radical politics
 * I'll have to confirm this, but I think that the tradition of trial by jury and the domination of Ireland influenced English anarchism.


 * I won't be able to work on this article for a while, so I hope this list of suggestions will help improve it. I think that the NPOV warning should be dropped (keep the "needs help" notice) and new perspectives should be included without dissing (or deleting) the perspectives that are already included. AdamRetchless 04:36, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * English speaking societies from 1800 onwards were dominated by Tory (Democrat-Republican) politics, until the 1830s Reform Movement got the corn laws repealed, and until the formation of the Republicans out of a variety of provincial reform movements. After 1880 Australian and NZ politcs were dominated by the issue of imperialism=nationalism (free trade-protectionism) and the labour movements.  UK politics from 1918 were dominated by the issue of the labour (though in shadow form, through the issue of universal male sufferage from 1830).  The line about political dominance of liberalism, especially in relation to anarchism, is bull.  "Reacting against liberalism" not in the specific.  Goldman would have advocated the shooting of any president, had the done so...
 * Christianity was largely irrelevent to anarchism in the English tradition, certainly in the format you're discussion. The major cross over is in the US's utopian commune movement.
 * Post WWI pacificism is nowhere near as important as industrial unionism or anarchism inside the union movements
 * Trial by Jury was a reactionary institution until the 1830s in America, and until the mid 20th century in England. For example, until the late 19th century juries were juries of magistrates in England.
 * NPOV => liberalism, infact I'd argue the article before my edit was a perfect example of the "Whig theory of history".Fifelfoo 05:22, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)


 * Well, you seem well prepared to replace Whig history with Marxist history, which, of course is scientific. Oh, please forgive any presumptions about your ideological slant. AdamRetchless


 * I'm honest about my Marxist historiographical methodology. Its there.  Its not NPOV.  The Whiggery is definately on the way down in the current article, though the colonial section needs rewriting to remove it.  Your removal of my class-interested teleology at the end was great, kudos! Fifelfoo 23:55, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I came to this page to find out a little about english Anarchism, as i know precious little. However, i found most of it was not entirely relevant, too much about the colonies and America (which is not anarchism in England)and i would have to agree there are POV issues as there was a good deal of vagueness and imbalance, and you admitted it!? I would like to see an expansion of 20th century pacifism and trade unionism. Wouldn't it also be relevant to include anarchist movements like 'reclaim the streets' et al in this? They seem to get a fair bit of coverage in the media so they do exist..however insipid they may be.--Turkeyplucker 17:30, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

list of anarchists
hans mole man

Overlap with American Individualist anarchism
There's overlap between these two articles American individualist anarchism. Maybe they should be restructured/merged.

Move
Per discussion at Template talk:Anarchism, this article has been renamed to focus on anarchism in England, though it may be expanded to encompass the UK or Britain if more on those subjects is added. ~  Swi tch  ( ✉ ✍  ☺ )  07:03, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

unionism
"Unique amongst national anarchist traditions is the development of English language industrial unionism in the United States and Australia, such as in the case of the Industrial Workers of the World. The tendency of industrial unionism represented the largest wing of English anarchism until the 1960s"

this seems a bit inaccurate considering the CNT. from what i gather, anarchist unions in poland have had some success as well. is there some difference I don't know about? Murderbike 17:20, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

Irrelevant material removed
The articleneeds a lot of work i.e. role of pacifism, spies for peace,CND and civil disobedience in the sixties, Punk in the eighties etc. There was a whole load of material not to do with the topic which I removed.Harrypotter 22:07, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

Scotland
Right now, Anarchism in the United Kingdom redirects here. What about Anarchism in Scotland?  Vert e t Noir talk 05:07, 21 July 2007 (UTC) Because the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of England and Scotland. 82.4.36.18 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 20:33, 21 May 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree, or maybe a Anarchism in the British Isle and Ireland for a name? Libleft (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 01:24, 23 Jan 2010 (GMT)

Sheffield Anarchist history
The Anarchist Federation group in Sheffield has done a few articles on the history of grassroots autonomous workers struggle in the city, and a look at anarchists and anarchism specifically too such as the Sheffield Anarchist Group. I'll write up something later unless someone else wants to do it. Links; 'Early Mischief Makers', in Fargate Speaker Jul/Aug 2009 'Broom Hall Burning', in Fargate Speaker Sep/Oct 2009 [http://www.yorks-afed.org/images/FargateDecJan.pdf 'Fargate Calling! Sheffield's Radical History', in Fargate Speaker Dec/Jan 2009-10]
 * Libleft (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 01:34, 23 Jan 2010 (GMT)

Orphaned references in Anarchism in England
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Anarchism in England's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "Encarta": From France:  From Individualist anarchism in Europe: "Anarchism", Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2006 (UK version) From Europe:  From Anarchism: "Anarchism", Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2006 (UK version). 

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 04:46, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

Anarchism in the United Kingdom
This article should be moved to Anarchism in the United Kingdom, given that it's about anarchism in the UK (not pre-act of union England). Charles Essie (talk) 01:08, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

National-Anarchism
I have not come across any other references to this group in the anarchism main page. Whats more anarchism is opposed to racism - therefore it shouldn't be on here. It seems insignificant to mention this just because there was one guy in the 80's. Some of the groups mentioned in the article had hundreds of members, or the people were well-known in academia or the literate world. Sentryward (talk) 08:25, 17 December 2014 (UTC)

Political power
It is not correct that there was a "limited monarch in coalition with a parliament of wealthy aristocrats and landowners". The parliamentary system was essentially restricted to the UK. Other monarchies were more powerful, with an accordingly less powerful parliament. Furthermore parliament was not made up of wealthy aristocrats and landowners. Many MP's were urban-based, from the worlds of commerce and industry.Royalcourtier (talk) 20:31, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

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"Contemporary times"
A surge of popular interest in anarchism occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. From the late 1970s this was associated with the anarcho punk movement; the band Crass in particular had a high profile for its anarchist and pacifist ideas. Since the turn of the millennium, anarchists have expressed their beliefs through the medium of film, rave music, and live theatre.

Class War is a class struggle based group and newspaper originally set up by Ian Bone and others in 1983. It subsequently mutated in various forms, becoming specifically anarchist. Inspired by the Stop the City actions of 1983 and 1984, Class War organised a number of 'Bash The Rich' demonstrations, in which supporters were invited to march through and disrupt wealthier areas of London such as Kensington, and Henley-on-Thames (during the annual Regatta), bearing banners and placards with slogans such as "Behold your future executioners!" (a phrase coined by the anarchist Lucy Parsons). A national conference was in held Manchester in 1986 and proposed that groups and individuals who produced and supported the paper should form "Class War" groups as part of a national federation with common 'aims and principles'. A Class War Federation developed, gaining particular prominence in the anti-poll tax movement of the late 80s and early 1990s. When Class War spokesman Andy Murphy praised those who had rioted in the Trafalgar Square Poll Tax Riots as "working class heroes", Class War gained wider media exposure (including a 'tea time' interview with Ian Bone on the Jonathan Ross Show (see Poll Tax Riots)). 1992 saw the publication of Unfinished Business - The Politics of Class War published jointly with AK Press that set out where Class War came from, and where it wanted to go.

A rejection of industrial technology is also prominent in the views of many green anarchists, with Colin Ward acting as theorist for this national current. This worldview was associated with the growth of the anti-roads movement(Reclaim The Streets), the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front. The magazine Green Anarchist was for a while the principal voice advocating green anarchism, an explicit fusion of libertarian socialist and ecological thinking. Founded after the 1984 Stop the City protests, the magazine was launched in the summer of that year by an editorial collective consisting of Alan Albon, Richard Hunt and Marcus Christo. Early issues featured a range of broadly anarchist and ecological ideas, bringing together groups and individuals as varied as Class War, veteran anarchist writer Colin Ward, anarcho-punk band Crass, as well as the Peace Convoy, anti-nuclear campaigners, animal rights activists and so on. However the diversity that many saw as the publication's greatest strength quickly led to irreconcilable arguments between the essentially pacifist approach of Albon and Christo, and the advocacy of violent confrontation with the State favoured by Hunt. During the 1990s Green Anarchist came under the helm of an editorial collective that included Paul Rogers, Steve Booth and others, during which period the publication became increasingly aligned with primitivism, an anti-civilization philosophy advocated by writers such as John Zerzan, Bob Black and Fredy Perlman.

The Direct Action Movement formed in 1979, when the one remaining SWF branch, along with other smaller anarchist groups, decided to form a new organisation of anarcho-syndicalists in Britain. The DAM was highly involved in the Miners' Strike as well as a series of industrial disputes later in the 1980s, including the Ardbride dispute in Ardrossan, Scotland, involving a supplier to Laura Ashley, for which the DAM received international support. From 1988 in Scotland, then England and Wales, the DAM was active in opposing the Poll Tax. In the early 1990s, DAM members set up the Despatch Industry Workers Union, which successfully organised workers for a number of inner-city courier firms. The Solidarity Federation, also known by the abbreviation SolFed, is a federation of class struggle anarchists. The organisation advocates a strategy of anarcho-syndicalism as a method of abolishing capitalism and the state. In March 1994 it adopted its current name, having previously been the Direct Action Movement since 1979, and before that the Syndicalist Workers' Federation since 1950. SolFed publishes the quarterly magazine Direct Action (presently on hiatus) and the newspaper Catalyst. Several locals and networks also publish their own newsletters. Along with the Anarchist Federation it is one of the two national anarchist federations active in the UK at the present time.

The Anarchist Federation (AF) is a federation of anarcho-communists in Great Britain and Ireland. The Federation was founded as the Anarchist Communist Federation in March 1986 by the Anarchist Communist Discussion Group, which had coalesced around two anarcho-communists who had returned from France and began selling the pamphlets of the defunct Libertarian Communist Group tendency, and members of Syndicalist Fight. The group aimed to provide an anarchist intervention into working class struggles such as the Miners' Strike, and was closely involved with the Anti-Poll Tax community-based campaign at the end of the 1980s and unemployed struggles through the Groundswell network of claimants' action groups. There is also a student membership, of whom many, including non-student members were involved in the series of university occupations that began in the beginning of 2009 and swept across British universities in opposition to the Gaza War as well as the 2010 Student movement against reforms in further education. Organise! is the magazine of the Anarchist Federation. It is published in order to develop anarchist communist ideas and aims to provide a clear anarchist viewpoint on contemporary issues and to initiate debate on ideas not normally covered in agitational papers. The AF aims to produce Organise! twice a year and to meet this target, the AF positively solicits contributions from its readers. The Anarchist Federation is a member organisation of the Anarchist International of Anarchist Federations (IAF-IFA), but also has its own secretariat responsible for regions of the world that do not have IAF-IFA members. The principles of work within IFA are that of federalism, free arrangement and mutual aid. To improve co-ordination and communication within IFA, as well as to provide an open contact address for the public and other anarchist groups and organisations, an International Secretariat (C.R.I.F.A. - Commission of Relations of the International of Anarchist Federations) was set up. CRIFA irregularly rotates among the IFA federations. It is currently based with the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI). It changed its name to the Anarchist Federation in the late 1990s, though advocacy of Anarchist communism remains at the centre of its politics. Despite this, there are a number of members who do not identify specifically as anarchist-communists, but are libertarian socialists, council communists and so forth. The Anarchist Federation places itself amongst a continually developing current of autonomous working class struggle. Important influences on the Anarchist Federation's politics include The Organisational Platform of Libertarian Communists, the Manifesto of Libertarian Communism, Solidarity and the anarchist communist currents within the Spanish, Russian and Ukrainian Revolutions. The Anarchist Federation continues this tradition of agitation within the workplace and community, rather than attempting to gain prominent bureaucratic positions in trade unions, local councils and other institutions, unlike a number of socialist and communist parties and groups. It promotes grassroots direct activism against the state and capitalism and is run in a horizontalist manner.

In July 2011 the Metropolitan Police Service called for anti-anarchist whistleblowers stating: "Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society, or anarchy. Any information relating to anarchists should be reported to your local police." However, they later retracted this statement.

Dumping this section here since it's entirely reliant on primary and unreliable sources or no sources at all. Feel free to restore content to the article with reliable, independent sources. (not watching, please )  czar  19:57, 10 November 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for dumping this section here, I'll probably get around to restoring it at some point as part of a broader expansion of this article. The current "contemporary times" section is in dire need of a do over generally, as it's currently scattered and unfocused, talking up specific individuals at random. --Grnrchst (talk) 21:22, 24 August 2021 (UTC)