The European Anarchist Tradition
Anarchists have taken credit for yesterday's parcel bomb attacks at the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome:
The police said that the “Informal Anarchic Federation” left a note at the Chilean Embassy saying it was behind the attack; other officials said the same group had claimed responsibility for the Swiss Embassy parcel bomb. The message from the group, also known as FAI, read: “We decided to make our voice heard once more with words and with acts. We will destroy the power structure. Long live the FAI, long live anarchy.”
These are ancient figures on the European scene--vague, disaffected sociopaths who feel most fully alive when things explode and others die. The terrorist wing of the Narodniki undertook a campaign of political assassinations throughout Russia that culminated in 1881 in the murder of Tsar Alexander II. They inspired anarchists and political assassins throughout Europe, who spent the next thirty-odd years picking off heads of state before achieving their ultimate triumph, setting all of Europe ablaze in 1914 with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
King Umberto I was stabbed in Naples, in 1878, by the anarchist Giovanni Paissanante. The king survived, only to be assassinated in 1900 by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci. In France, the great Anarchist Terror lasted from 1892 to 1894. The French terrorist Ravachol remains a cult hero among French anarchists.
They just never go away completely, these creatures.
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May '10
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
Don't forget Sacco, Vanzetti, and their fellow Galleanisti who bombed the home of the US Attorney General, as well as numerous other targets.
Dec '10
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
... and so it will remain until everything that's wrong will be set right. I honestly hate to sound this way, because it's so very frowned upon, but that's how I see it.
Jul '10
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
I'd always believed the assassins of Franz Ferdinand were Serbian nationalists, not anarchists. No?
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
Princip was a member of Young Bosnia--very much in the tradition and influenced by anarchists like Kropotkin. But you're also right: He was a nationalist and an anarchist--though apparently he thought himself a Yugoslav first and a Serb second. What does this mean? That these categories are very fluid--and that young losers are attracted to the words "anarchist" and "nationalist."
Jul '10
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
This reminds me of the 1975 bombing at LaGuardia, which killed 11.
I was working at JFK airport at the time. I remember when we heard on radio that the bombing was linked to Croation separatists, we scratched our heads and asked, "What the heck is a Croation?". And what on earth would make them think that bombing an airport in New York City would further their obscure cause?
Jun '10
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
In a bitter twist of irony, the Anarchists tried to align with the Bolsheviks during the early days of the pre and post=Revolution. Boy, were they disappointed. Ever read Emma Goldman and her fellow travelers?
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
Yes--I discussed her in Menace in Europe.
Jun '10
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
Wow, I think you've sold me on that book now. I'm asking you if you've read about these things, and you've actually written about them. I think I should stop asking you inevitably naive questions from now on.
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Yes--I discussed her in Menace in Europe. · Dec 24 at 8:21am
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
Yes! Sale! Sale! Sale!
Dec '10
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
Also, a self-styled anarchist assassinated President McKinley.
May '10
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
Claire, is the labeling of Assange as an anarchist fair, do you think?
May '10
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
These are violent anarchists. I know anarchists who would not think of engaging in terrorism.
Aug '10
Re: The European Anarchist Tradition
How dare they. I preferred things when all the terrorist acts were perpetrated by Muslims. Life was less complicated.