“I’m an anarchist and a pragmatist. My moral philosophical position is that of an anarchist. This makes if very easy for me to make a decision from what you might call a Kropotkinist point of view.” – Michael Moorcock
Anarchists from Victorian times have been highly influencial to anarchist writers and anarchist representations in steampunk. Here are some well known anarchists who were born in, and engaged in anarchist theory and action during, the Victorian era.
Emma Goldman
1869 – 1940
Born in a remote Jewish ghetto in Russia, Goldman played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe. Known for her political activism, writing and speeches, she, quite significantly, brought a feminist dimension to anarchist theory.
Peter Kropotkin
1842 – 1921
Kropotkin was a proponent of mutual aid: a society based on voluntary associations between workers. Born in Moscow, his theories were seen in direct opposition to the centralised planning and control inherent in the ideologies of Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin.
Mikhail Bakunin
1814-1876
Bakunin was a contemporary of Marx who, in a historic break, argued against Marx and his followers that the liberation of workers must be achieved by the workers themselves (264). Thus, he paved the way for anarchist-syndicalism. As a Russian Revolutionary famous for his vision of collectivist anarchism, he was exiled to a work camp in Siberbia. After escaping to Japan, the US, and then to Europe, he became highly active in the European socialist movement.
Lucy Parsons
1853-1942
Parsons was a radical American labor organizer and anarchist communist. She was described by the Chicago Police Department as “more dangerous than a thousand rioters.” Primarily involved in the labor movement in the late 19th century, Parsons and her husband, an ex-Confederate soldier, also participated in revolutionary activism on behalf of political prisoners, people of color, the homeless and women.
The Paris Commune
1871
The Commune was the result of an uprising in Paris after France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War. It was a government that ruled Paris for a brief time, before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place. It is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution.
Libertarian Anarchists
Oscar Wilde
1854-1900
Wilde’s concern for freedom was predominantly about aesthetics and beauty of art, yet he realized the insufficiency of art for art’s sake. Wilde once stated in an interview “I think I am rather more than a Socialist. I am something of an Anarchist, I believe, but, of course, the dynamite policy is very absurd indeed” (177). When he was imprisoned for being homosexual, it only affirmed his beliefs. For Wilde, the artist will only thrive in a society free from government.
Rudolf Rocker
1873-1958
Rocker, a leading anarcho-syndicalist of his time, was born in the ancient Rhine city of Mainz, Germany. Rocker devoted many years to the Jewish anarchist movement. The widespread poverty and suffering in “Darkest London” led him to think that they become demoralized, rather than mobalized, through suffering.
Pacifist Anarchists
Leo Tolstoy
1828-1910
Tolstoy, the “Count of Peace,” did not call himself an anarchist due to the violent associations with anarchism, but he is considered one of the greatest anarchist thinkers of all time. He once said, “Laws are rules made by people who govern by means of organized violence, for non-compliance with which the non-complier is subjected to blows, a loss of liberty, or even to being murdered” (373). He also wrote that “The anarchists are right in…the negation of a pre-existing order…They are mistaken only in thinking that anarchy can be instituted by revolution” (375). Tolstoy extended his nonviolent philosophy to all sentient creatures, renouncing blood sports in 1882 and becoming a vegetarian afer visiting slums in Moscow (370).
Mahatma Gandhi
1869-1948
Influenced by thinkers such as Tolstoy of the Victorian era, Gandhi too realized that the State was a concentrated form of violence. As a libertarian he believed that the state, even in it’s better forms, stifled the individuality that accompanies progress. He believed that “The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy” (425). Armed with nonviolent tactics, he fought against British rule in India and aimed for the realization of peace and justice worldwide.
Resources:
Marshall, Peter. Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2008.
Moorcock, Michael. “Interview.” Mythmakers and Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers in Fiction. Ed. Margaret Killjoy. San Francisco, CA: AK Press, 2009. 116-123.
