Anarchism in Iceland

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Anarchists organizing squats in Reykjavik 20090414Reykjavik5894.JPG
Anarchists organizing squats in Reykjavik

Anarchism is a small minority political movement in Iceland, defined by its relationship with other progressive social movements, and its involvement in primarily ideological work.

Contents

Philosophy

Interest among anarchist writers

Anarchist historians and philosophers have looked to the Icelandic Commonwealth with interest since the 19th century. The Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin first noted in his book Mutual Aid that Norse society, from which the settlers in Iceland came, had various "mutual aid" institutions, including communal land ownership (based around what he called "the village community") and a form of social self-administration, the "Thing" – both local and Iceland-wide – which can be considered a "primitive" form of the anarchist communal assembly. Anarchist geographer Elisée Reclus also noted that in Iceland they "succeeded completely in maintaining their dignity as free man, without kings, feudal principles, hierarchy or any military establishment." They governed themselves through a process in which "the common interest was discussed in the open air by all inhabitants, who were dressed in armor, the symbol of the absolute right of personal self-defense belonging to each individual." [1]

Notes

  1. John P Clark and Camille Martin Anarchy, Geography, Modernity, p. 70]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Kropotkin</span> Russian anarchist (1842–1921)

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Individualist anarchism in the United States was strongly influenced by Benjamin Tucker, Josiah Warren, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lysander Spooner, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Max Stirner, Herbert Spencer and Henry David Thoreau. Other important individualist anarchists in the United States were Stephen Pearl Andrews, William Batchelder Greene, Ezra Heywood, M. E. Lazarus, John Beverley Robinson, James L. Walker, Joseph Labadie, Steven Byington and Laurance Labadie.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchism in Poland</span>

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References

"Interview with Siggi Pönk about Anarchism in Iceland". Alpine Anarchist. Alpine Anarchist. 2010. Retrieved 2014-05-28.