Anarchism is the philosophy of social affiliation unrestricted by law, government, or hierarchies of power, in which free groupings of women and men join together for the common good. Its vision includes equitable distribution of wealth and liberation from internalized barriers to personal freedom. Its tactics for change range from philosophical writings to direct action.
The backlash against anarchists has thwarted anarchism's power as a mass movement and continues to obscure its historical contribution to free speech. It was a strong conceptual current in the turn-of-the-century U.S. labor movement and integral to the emergent critique of the suffrage movement as the best way to achieve women's freedom.
Anarchist influence on public discourse about reproductive and sexual freedom, however, continued to evolve between 1870 and 1920. Anarchist women, including Emma Goldman, Voltairine de Cleyre, and Margaret Anderson, formed a vocal subculture with socialists, radicals, and bohemians. Their early crusade for autonomy in private life was echoed in the resurgent women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s and its hallmark slogan, the personal is political.
Anarchism's tradition pervades U.S. cultural and political radicalism, especially in feminists' demand for freedom and equality in all aspects of life and in its implicit critique of social conventions that subordinate women—demands that have spurred profound changes both in social custom and in the guarantee of basic human rights.
Candace Falk
See also
Radicalism.
