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Anarchism in Australia

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Anarchism arrived in Australia within a few years of anarchism developing as a distinct tendency in the wake of the 1871 Paris Commune. Although a minor school, composed primarily of campaigners and intellectuals, Australian anarchism has formed a significant current throughout the history and literature of the colonies and nation.

History[edit]

Anarchism has found both proponents and critics during the short history of Australia. International movements, émigrés or home-grown anarchists have all contributed to radical politics during the nation's formation

Beginnings[edit]

The Melbourne Anarchist Club was officially founded on 1 May 1886 by David Andrade and others breaking away from the Australasian Secular Association of Joseph Symes, the journal Honesty being the anarchist club's official organ; and anarchism became a significant minor current on the Australian left. The current included a diversity of views on economics, ranging from an individualism influenced by Benjamin Tucker to the anarchist communism of JA Andrews. All regarded themselves as broadly "socialist" however.[1][2] The Anarchists mixed with the seminal literary figures Henry Lawson and Mary Gilmore and the influential labour journalist and utopian socialist William Lane. The most dramatic event associated with this early Australian anarchism was perhaps the bombing of the "non-union" ship SS Aramac on 27 July 1893 by Australian anarchist and union organiser Larrie Petrie.[3] This incident occurred in the highly charged atmosphere following the defeat of the 1890 Australian maritime dispute and the 1891 Australian shearers' strike, an atmosphere which also produced the Sydney-based direct action group the "Active Service Brigade" [4] Petrie was arrested for attempted murder but charges were dropped after a few months. He later joined Lane's "New Australia" utopian experiment in Paraguay.

A major challenge to the principles of these early Australian anarchists was the virulent anti-Chinese racism of the time, of which racism William Lane himself was a leading exponent. On a political level the anarchists opposed the anti-Chinese agitation. "The Chinese, like ourselves, are the victims of monopoly and exploitation" editorialized Honesty "We had far better set to and make our own position better instead of, like a parcel of blind babies, trying to make theirs worse."[5] The anarchists were sometimes more ambivalent on the subject than this statement of principle might suggest; anti-Chinese racism was entrenched in the labour movement of which they were a part, and challenged by few others.[6]

World war[edit]

Monty Miller, a veteran of the Eureka uprising, belonged to the Melbourne Anarchist Club. He would later become a well-known militant of the Australian branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and was arrested and imprisoned in 1916. [7]

After the First World War Australian anarchism fell into decline. The tradition was kept alive by, among others, the prominent agitator and street speaker Chummy Fleming who died in Melbourne in 1950 and by Italian Anarchists active in Melbourne's Matteotti Club and the North Queensland canefields.[8] William Andrade (1863-1939), David Andrade's brother and fellow anarchist, became a successful bookseller in Sydney and Melbourne and while he retired from active politics in about 1920 he continued to influence events by allowing various radical groups to use his premises throughout the 1920s and 1930s.[9] Anarchist refugees from Spain were also present in the 1930s. The literary journal, Angry Penguins drew on the anarchist theory of Herbert Read and others. The magazine was controversial and critical of the 'nationalistic socialism' of its counterparts, it did not continue after falling victim to an elaborate literary hoax in 1943. The anarchist poet Harry Hooton began publishing around this time.

World revolution[edit]

After World War Two the Sydney Libertarians developed a distinct brand of "pessimistic" or "permanent protest" anarchism, deeply skeptical of revolution and of any grand scheme of human betterment, yet friendly to the revolutionary unionism of the IWW. Harry Hooton associated with this group, and his friend Germaine Greer belonged to it in her youth. By 1972 she was calling herself an "anarchist communist"[10]and was still identifying herself as "basically" an anarchist in 1999.[11] The Sydney Libertarians were the political tendency around which the "Sydney Push" social milieu developed, a milieu which included many Australians who would be influential in various ways.[12]

The Sydney Libertarians, along with the remnant of the Australian IWW and of Italian and Spanish migrant anarchism fed into the Anarchist revival of the sixties and seventies which Australia shared with much of the developed world. Another post-war influence that fed into modern Australian anarchism was the arrival of anarchist refugees from Bulgaria.[13]

The last years of Australian involvement in the Vietnam war was an active period for Australian anarchists, the high-profile draft resistor Michael Matteson in particular became something of a folk hero. The prolific anarchist poet Pi O began to write. The very influential Brisbane Self-Management Group was formed in 1971[14], heavily influenced by the councillist writings of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group and its offshoots. Anarchists active in inner-city Melbourne played a major part in creating the Fitzroy Legal Service (FLS) in 1972.[15] The FLS was the ground-breaking forerunner of the community legal centre movement in Australia.

At the same time anarchist theory was being intensely debated.[16] A diverse Federation of Australian Anarchists (FAA) was formed at a conference in Sydney in 1975. A walkout from the second conference in Melbourne in 1976 lead to the founding of the Libertarian Socialist Federation(LSF) which in turn lead to the founding of Jura Books in 1977.[17] The FAA, and the LSF, soon dissolved but the founding of Jura, still existing as of August 2007, was a landmark in consolidating the modern movement.


Anarchists celebrate 100 years of organisation at the Eight hour day Monument on May Day, 1986 during the Australian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations

The end of the 1970s saw the development of a Christian anarchist Catholic Worker tendency in Brisbane, the most prominent person in the group being Ciaron_O'Reilly. This tendency exploded into prominence in 1982 because of its part along with other anarchists and assorted radicals in the Brisbane free speech fights during the Queensland premiership of Joh Bjelke-Petersen. [18] In Melbourne in 1977 the Libertarian Workers for a Self-Managed Society (LW) were formed on a theoretical platform similar to the Brisbane Self-Management Group. This Libertarian Workers group engaged very actively in propaganda, which played a major part on making possible the Australian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations of 1986. Apart from generally respectful publicity the lasting consequences of the Celebrations were the founding of the Anarchist Media Institute which persists as of July 2007, its most visible member being Joseph Toscano; and the founding of an Australian section of the International Workers Association (IWA) called the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation (ASF). A major part of the activity of the ASF was its agitation among Melbourne's public transport workers culminating in a significant influence on the Melbourne Tram Dispute of 1990.[19]This Australian section would self-destruct in 1992 in circumstances still controversial among Australian anarchists; however the IWA does currently list a group called the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation as a "friend", as distinct from a section, of the IWA. The Mutiny collective and Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group are further examples of currently active anarchist groups. Anarchists in Australia as elsewhere frequently see no intrinsic value in ideologically based groups and do not necessarily affiliate to them.

Punk, including anarcho-punk, appeared in Australia without delay; and as elsewhere was influential in the anarchist movement. An example of that influence is the pamphlet How to Make Trouble and Influence People and its sequels.

Theory and literature[edit]

Various theories or conceptions of anarchism arose from the literature of Australia, writers and poets either identified as anarchists or became closely associated with associations and literary movements since the late 19th century. As a school of ethics or radicalism, anarchism is inherently prone to schism and dissolution. Sometimes given as a weakness of its political effectiveness, many anarchists maintain that dynamic political association is its strength. Magazines and pamphlets were generated throughout its history, associations came and went, and poets used the medium to illustrate their sometimes utopic vision. Many anarchists were engaged to socialist campaigning or in political actions involving other groups.

The term has been used in the Australian press to indicate a position of extreme or violent revolution, or of simple lawlessness. During the 1970s and to some extent the 1980s there was a tendency for anarchists to prefer such terms as "libertarian socialist".

The established and ongoing press of the Australian anarchist movement presently (July 2007) consists of the anarcho-syndicalist bimonthly Rebel Worker[20], founded in 1982; and the Anarchist Age Weekly Review. [21]; the newsletter, founded in 1991, of the Anarchist Media Institute. Many more ephemeral publications have existed and continue to be produced.

Rebel Worker has carried over the years a body of polemic critical of inward-looking or "sect-building" anarchism, accused of seeing itself as something apart from the day to day struggles of working people. Associated with this polemic it has also carried articles critical of a "faista" (that is, dominated by the perspective favourable to the Federación Anarquista Ibérica) interpretation of the history of Spanish Anarchism. The Anarchist Age Weekly Review provides a running commentary on the news plus very short theoretical and historical articles.


Probably the most influential piece of anarchist polemic to come out of Australia is the pamphlet You Can't Blow Up A Social Relationship a critique of guerilla-ism or "terrorism" as a strategy. It was published in 1978 in the name of several Australian groups following the Sydney Hilton bombing.[22] Another significant pamphlet, from the early 1980s, was Julie McCrossin's Women, wimmin, womyn, womin, whippets[23] an anarchist-feminist critique of some aspects of the separatist feminism of the day.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Bob James "Introduction" in A Reader of Australian Anarchism 1886-1896, Bob James, Canberra, 1979 Online at http://www.takver.com/history/raa/raaintro.htm
  2. ↑ Bob James, J.A. Andrews (1865-1903) - A Brief Biography, 1986, Monty Miller Press/Libertarian Resources, Melbourne and Sydney, online at http://www.takver.com/history/andrews.htm
  3. ↑ B. James; "Larry Petrie, revolutionist", Red And Black, no. 8, (Summer 1978), Sydney Australia, pp. 19-31. Online at http://www.takver.com/history/petrie.htm
  4. ↑ Bob James Anarchism and State Violence in Sydney and Melbourne 1886-1896 An argument about Australian labor history, 1986, MA Thesis held at La Trobe University Melbourne. (Also a published book) Partially online at http://www.takver.com/history/aasv/index.htm with contempory articles by JA Andrews on Active Service Brigade)
  5. ↑ quoted in Andrew Markus, "White Australia? Socialists and Anarchists" Arena nos 32-33 (Double Issue), 1973
  6. ↑ Andrew Markus, "White Australia? Socialists and Anarchists" Arena nos 32-33 (Double Issue), 1973
  7. ↑ (2006). Siebenhaar, Willem (1863 - 1936). Australian Dictionary of Biography. Australian National University. URL accessed on 2007-06-20.
  8. ↑ G. Cresciani; "Proletarian migrants: fascism and Italian anarchists in Australia", Australian Quarterly, 51, (March 1979) pp. 4-19. Online at http://www.takver.com/history/italian.htm
  9. ↑ [1] Australian National Dictionary of Biography, accessed 30 January 2008
  10. ↑ Greer on Revolution Germaine on Love. Overland 50/51 Autumn 1972. URL accessed on 2007-08-16.
  11. ↑ Germaine Greer. Sydney Libertarians and the Push. URL accessed on 2007-07-03.
  12. ↑ Anne Coombs, Sex and Anarchy – the life and death of the Sydney Push Viking Penguin, 1996
  13. ↑ Bob James, "Bulgarian Anarchists in Sydney" in Anarchism in Australia. An Anthology Prepared for the Australian Anarchist Centennial Celebration, Melbourne 1-4 May 1986 in a limited edition of 50 printed copies by Bob James. Online at http://www.takver.com/history/aia/aia00028.htm
  14. ↑ John Englart, "A Short History of recent Sydney and Australian Anarchism" in Freedom (UK), June 1982, online at http://www.takver.com/history/sydney/syd7581.htm
  15. ↑ D. Neal (ed.) On Tap, Not On Top: Legal Centres in Australia, 1972-1982. Legal Service Bulletin, Clayton, Australia, Introduction
  16. ↑ Melbourne Anarchist Archives 1966-1973, copy held at Melbourne State Library. Online at:http://www.takver.com/history/melb/maa01.htm
  17. ↑ "The Split, A Monash Anarchist Perpsective" in Bob James (ed)Anarchism in Australia. An Anthology Prepared for the Australian Anarchist Centennial Celebration, Melbourne 1-4 May 1986, online at http://www.takver.com/history/aia/aia00045.htm
  18. ↑ Ciaron O'ReillyThe Revolution will not be Televised! A Campaign for Free Expression in Queensland (1982-1983) Online at http://www.takver.com/history/brisbane/freespeechqld.htm
  19. ↑ Dick Curlewis Anarcho-Syndicalism in Practice: Melbourne tram dispute and Lockout January-February 1990 1997, Jura Media Publications Online at http://www.takver.com/history/tram1990.htm
  20. ↑ Rebel Worker. URL accessed on 2007-07-21.
  21. ↑ Anarchist Age Weekly Review. URL accessed on 2007-07-21.
  22. ↑ You Can't Blow Up a Social Relationship. (pamphlet) Libertarian Socialist Organization et al. URL accessed on 2007-07-21.
  23. ↑ 1981, published in Sydney, online at http://www.takver.com/history/womyn.htm

External links[edit]

For a first link on Australian Anarchist history see: http://www.takver.com/history/biblio.htm Particularly on the Sydney Libertarians: http://www.takver.com/history/sydney/indexsl.htm

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