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Anarchism in the Czech Republic is a political movement in the Czech Republic, with its roots in the Bohemian Reformation, which peaked in the early 20th century. It later dissolved into the nascent Czech communist movement, before seeing a resurgence after the fall of the Fourth Czechoslovak Republic in the Velvet Revolution.
Traces of anarchism can be seen at the beginning of the Hussite movement. The Hussites, inspired by the teachings of Jan Hus, held that all authority (including the Church) was unjustifiable because it did not follow God's laws. Hence they supported the rights of ordinary subjects to rebel and establish a "society of equals." Although the revolutionary Tábor did establish consumer communism in its beginnings, [1] the authorities were not suppressed (on the contrary, Jan Žižka imposed an authoritative military order).
A radical faction, the so-called Adamites, separated from the Hussites. They believed that the kingdom of God had already come to pass, but that it would be established by men. They denied all authority, such as marriage, and instead exercised absolute freedom, including free love. Adamites and other followers of folk radicalism (historian Vladimír Liška refers to them as the "far left" of the movement [2] ) were gradually eliminated by the Hussites.
Side the Hussite movement, there was a religious thinker Petr Chelčický, who sympathized with the Hussite socially critical views, but rejected violence and armed struggle. He opposed the social hierarchy (the so-called "triple people"), [3] criticized the Catholic and Hussite nobility and opposed the existence of states. As an early pacifist, Chelčický is considered to be a forerunner of Christian anarchism and anarcho-pacifism, his teachings were an influence on Leo Tolstoy. [3]
Modern anarchists espouse the Hussites and Czech brothers as their predecessors, judging that "the ideas of the Czech revolutionaries of the fifteenth century were anarchist and communist in nature." [1]
The emergence of the anarchist movement in Bohemia and Moravia was closely connected with the split in the Czech Social Democratic Party. The moderate wing promoted parliamentarism and reformism as a peaceful path to socialism. The radicals, inspired by the ideas of Johann Most, instead called for an economic, collective and individual struggle. It was from this radical wing that the modern Czech anarchist movement emerged. On the pages of radical magazines and newspapers, "propaganda by deed" was promoted as a tactic. However, the issue of the using violence, which also provided a justification for state repression against the workers' movement, became the subject of debate in the anarchist movement over time.
During the 1890s, a form of so-called "independent socialism" prevailed in the movement. It built on absolute individual freedom and achieved a response in the student progressive movement. In 1896, the half-censored "Manifesto of Czech Anarchists" was published. In 1904, the "Czech Anarchist Federation" (CAF) was formed, which demanded the spread of anarchism between the working class and the intelligentsia. [4] In the same year, the "Czech Federation of Trade Unions" (CFVO) was founded, [4] based on the principles of anarcho-syndicalism and the political neutrality of trade unions. The CFVO was officially banned in 1908. [4] In 1914, the creation of a "Czech Anarchist Communist Party" was discussed among anarchists, but this idea was largely rejected. Instead, the Czech Anarchist Federation was transformed into the Federation of Czech Anarchist Communists (FČAK). [5]
Many anarchists took part in resistance activities against Austria-Hungary, which in turn led to the creation of the First Czechoslovak Republic. But experiences during the First World War and subsequent political developments led most of the anarchist movement in the Czech Republic to revise their political views and practices. They adopted a vision of joining a revolutionary-based political party. Many anarchists, especially Bohuslav Vrbenský and the union leaders of North Bohemian miners, established closer cooperation with representatives of the Czech National Social Party (ČSNS). In February 1919, the liquidation congress of the Federation of Czech Communist Anarchists (FČAK) took place, which agreed to merge with the ČSNS.
By the mid-1920s, Czech anarchism had lost its momentum, owing to the increased influence of Marxism-Leninism over the Czech social movement. [6] The group that formed around Stanislav Kostka Neumann established contacts with the Communist International and participated in the founding of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. However, after the 5th Congress of the Communist Party in 1929, Neumann and his companions were expelled for releasing the Manifesto of the Seven, in which they protested against the Bolshevization of the party.
The Czechoslovak Anarchist Association was established in the 1980s, even before the Velvet Revolution. After the revolution and the fall of the Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, other organizations began to appear. During the 1990s, the Federation of Social Anarchists, Federation of Anarchist Groups and Czechoslovak Anarchist Federation were formed. [7] Ladronka was squatted by anarchists in 1993 and became a self-managed social centre. [8] Other squats which followed in the tradition of Ladronka included Milada and Klinika. [9]
By the 2010s, there were several other anarchist organizations and groups in the Czech Republic, including those operating internationally, such as Antifa, Anarchist Black Cross, Anarcho-Communist alternative, Food Not Bombs, Animal Liberation Front and Voice of Anarchopacifism. [7]
The Hussites were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, a part of the Bohemian Reformation.
Petr Chelčický was a Czech Christian spiritual leader and author in the 15th century Bohemia, now the Czech Republic. He was one of the most influential thinkers of the Bohemian Reformation. Petr Chelčický inspired the Unitas Fratrum, who opposed transubstantiation and monasticism, insisting on pacifism and the primacy of scripture. There are multiple parallels with the teachings of the Anabaptists and Petr Chelčický. Czech Baptists have also expressed continuity with the Bohemian reformation by identifying with Petr Chelčický.
Czech National Social Party is a civic nationalist political party in the Czech Republic, that once played an important role in Czechoslovakia during the interwar period. It was established in 1897 by break-away groups from both the national liberal Young Czech Party and the Czech Social Democratic Party, with a stress on achieving independence of the Czech lands from Austria-Hungary. Its variant of socialism was moderate and reformist rather than a Marxist one. After the National Labour Party dissolved and merged with National Socialists in 1930, the party also became the refuge for Czech liberals. Its best-known member was Edvard Beneš, a co-founder of Czechoslovakia and the country's second President during the 1930s and 1940s.
According to different scholars, the history of anarchism either goes back to ancient and prehistoric ideologies and social structures, or begins in the 19th century as a formal movement. As scholars and anarchist philosophers have held a range of views on what anarchism means, it is difficult to outline its history unambiguously. Some feel anarchism is a distinct, well-defined movement stemming from 19th-century class conflict, while others identify anarchist traits long before the earliest civilisations existed.
Anarchism in Greece traces its roots to ancient Greece but was formed as a political movement during the 19th century. It was in the ancient era that the first libertarian thoughts appeared when philosophers based on rationality questioned the fundamentals of tradition. Modern anarchism in Greece emerged in the 19th century, heavily influenced by the contemporary European classical anarchism. Because of the Bolshevik success in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the rise of the Communist Party, anarchism faded after the first decades of the 20th century. The collapse of the military junta put an end to the monopoly of the political power from the Right, whereas the dissolution of the Soviet Union diminished the allure of the Communist Party of Greece allowing anarchist groups to gain pace in Athens and other cities.
Anarchism in Ukraine has its roots in the democratic and egalitarian organization of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, who inhabited the region up until the 18th century. Philosophical anarchism first emerged from the radical movement during the Ukrainian national revival, finding a literary expression in the works of Mykhailo Drahomanov, who was himself inspired by the libertarian socialism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. The spread of populist ideas by the Narodniks also lay the groundwork for the adoption of anarchism by Ukraine's working classes, gaining notable circulation in the Jewish communities of the Pale of Settlement.
Anarchism in Sweden first grew out of the nascent social democratic movement during the later 19th century, with a specifically libertarian socialist tendency emerging from a split in the movement. As with the movements in Germany and the Netherlands, Swedish anarchism had a strong syndicalist tendency, which culminated in the establishment of the Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (SAC) following an aborted general strike. The modern movement emerged during the late 20th century, growing within a number of countercultural movements before the revival of anarcho-syndicalism during the 1990s.
Anarchism in Poland first developed at the turn of the 20th century under the influence of anarchist ideas from Western Europe and from Russia.
Zdeněk Nejedlý was a Czech musicologist, historian, music critic, author, and politician whose ideas dominated the cultural life of what is now the Czech Republic for most of the twentieth century. Although he started out merely reviewing operas in Prague newspapers in 1901, by the interwar period his status had risen, guided primarily by socialist and later Communist political views. This combination of left wing politics and cultural leadership made him a central figure in the early years of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic after 1948, where he became the first Minister of Culture and Education. In this position he was responsible for creating a statewide education curriculum, and was associated with the early 1950s expulsion of university professors.
Contemporary anarchism within the history of anarchism is the period of the anarchist movement continuing from the end of World War II and into the present. Since the last third of the 20th century, anarchists have been involved in anti-globalisation, peace, squatter and student protest movements. Anarchists have participated in armed revolutions such as in those that created the Makhnovshchina and Revolutionary Catalonia, and anarchist political organizations such as the International Workers' Association and the Industrial Workers of the World have existed since the 20th century. Within contemporary anarchism, the anti-capitalism of classical anarchism has remained prominent.
German individualist philosopher Max Stirner became an important early influence in anarchism. Afterwards Johann Most became an important anarchist propagandist in both Germany and in the United States. In the late 19th century and early 20th century there appeared individualist anarchists influenced by Stirner such as John Henry Mackay, Adolf Brand and Anselm Ruest and Mynona.
Collectivist anarchism, also called anarchist collectivism and anarcho-collectivism, is an anarchist school of thought that advocates the abolition of both the state and private ownership of the means of production. In their place, it envisions both the collective ownership of the means of production and the entitlement of workers to the fruits of their own labour, which would be ensured by a societal pact between individuals and collectives. Collectivists considered trade unions to be the means through which to bring about collectivism through a social revolution, where they would form the nucleus for a post-capitalist society.
Squat Milada is a First Republic villa located in the Libeň district of Prague. Milada was intended to be demolished in the 1980s and deleted from the cadastre. Therefore it was a house which officially did not exist and it became one of the Czech Republic's best known squats, occupied from 1997 until 2009. It was then reoccupied for a day in 2012. Acting as a self-managed social centre and infoshop hosting concerts and events, Milada was also home to a number of people. Despite various plans for the site, as of 2021, the building was standing derelict.
Klinika was a squatted self-managed social centre in Žižkov, Prague, from 2014 until 2019. It followed in the tradition of anarchist projects such as Ladronka and Milada.
Ladronka is a homestead situated in a park in Břevnov, Prague 6, in the Czech Republic. Built by Charles IV in 1340, it was bought by an Italian count, then owned by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta before being broken into flats during the communist period. It was then squatted in 1993, becoming an internationally famous anarchist, self-managed social centre. The squatters organised gigs, exhibitions, readings and theatre, before being evicted in 2000 following the anti-globalization protests in Prague. After several years of renovation, Ladronka was re-opened as an activity centre in 2005, serving the surrounding park.
Squatting became a political phenomenon in the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Squats in Prague included Sochora, Stary Střešovice and Ladronka. Milada was occupied in 1998 and following its final eviction in 2009, there was a lull in squatting actions. In the 2010s a new social movement squatted houses to highlight the number of derelict properties in Prague and the social centre Klinika was founded in 2014.
Luisa Landová-Štychová was a Czechoslovak politician, feminist, educator and astronomer. In 1920 she was one of the first group of women elected to the Chamber of Deputies.
Anarchism in Denmark emerged in the late 19th century from the revolutionary factions of early social democratic spheres, crystalizing into a widespread anarcho-syndicalist movement that reached its height during the late 1910s. After the disintegration of organized syndicalism, anarchists in post-war Denmark began to organize the squatters' movement, which led to the creation of Freetown Christiania.
Anarchism in Austria first developed from the anarchist segments of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), eventually growing into a nationwide anarcho-syndicalist movement that reached its height during the 1920s. Following the institution of fascism in Austria and the subsequent war, the anarchist movement was slow to recover, eventually reconstituting anarcho-syndicalism by the 1990s.
