According to social scientist Ralf Vandamme, Graswurzelrevolution is "the main voice of the grassroots democratic activists."[1]
"The group that has most consistently tried to build a social rhizome and comes closest to anarchist ethics is the so-called Non-violent Action. It is not by coincidence that this group's newspaper, a magazine with a relatively wide distribution, is called graswurzelrevolution." — Horst Stowasser[2]
The zero issue of Graswurzelrevolution (GWR) [Grassroots Revolution] was published in the summer of 1972 in Augsburg, Bavaria. The "monthly magazine for a non-violent, anarchist society" was inspired by Peace News (published since 1936 by War Resisters' International (WRI) in London), the German-speaking Direkte Aktion (Newspaper for Anarchism and Non-Violence; published from 1965 to 1966 by Wolfgang Zucht and other non-violent activists in Hanover) and the French-speaking Anarchisme et Nonviolence (published in Switzerland and France from 1964 to 1973).[3]
Distributed throughout Germany, the paper describes itself as follows:
graswurzelrevolution means a fundamental social revolution which intends to abolish all forms of violence and domination by building up power from below. We fight for a world which no longer discriminates against people on the grounds of their gender or sexual orientation, their language, origin, convictions, disabilities, or based on racist or anti-Semitic prejudice. Our aim is to replace hierarchies and capitalism by a self-organized, socialist economic order and to replace the state by a federalist and grassroots democratic society. Up to now, our work has been focussed on anti-militarist and ecological areas. As far as possible, our aims should be reflected and applied in our forms of struggle and organisation. In order to drive back and destroy structures of domination and violence, we use non-violent forms of action. This is the way in which the anarchist paper graswurzelrevolution, since 1972, has been striving to broaden and develop the theory and practice of non-violent revolution.[4]
1999/2000: The coordinating editors of the publication Graswurzelrevolution No. 239 (April 1999) are the subjects of a criminal investigation according to § 111 of the Criminal Code, along with ninety persons who signed an appeal to boycott and desert the war in Yugoslavia. The GWR had already been investigated multiple times for the incitation of direct actions – e.g. for the article printed in GWR No. 110 (Dec. 1986) entitled "When the Utility Pole Falls… - Reflections upon Sabotage as a Direct, Non-Violent Action".[5]
It is the newspaper's declared aim to point out the connection between non-violence and anarchism and to contribute to "the pacifist movement becoming libertarian socialist and the anarchist movement becoming non-violent in their form of fighting". Since GWR No.52/1981 the periodical has been published monthly with a break in summer from July to August. Before that it came out every two to three months. Since 1989 it has come with an eight-page supplement of "libertarian book pages" every October. It has been published by different editors in Augsburg (1972–73), Berlin (1974–76), Göttingen (1976–78), Hamburg (1978–88), Heidelberg (1988–92), Wustrow (1992–95), Oldenburg (1995–99) and Münster (since the beginning of 1999). The sociologist Bernd Drücke is the coordinating editor since 1999. In the process the different editorial collectives each determined their own style. 2023 is GWR’s 52st year of publication, with circulations between 3,500 and 5,000 copies.[6]
Notes
↑ Ralf Vandamme: Basisdemokratie als zivile Intervention. Der Partizipationsanspruch der Neuen sozialen Bewegungen, doctoral thesis, Leske und Budrich, Opladen 2001, p. 16 ISBN3-8100-2676-X
↑ On the history of GWR and other libertarian periodicals in Germany cf. Bernd Drücke: Zwischen Schreibtisch und Straßenschlacht? Anarchismus und libertäre Presse in Ost- und Westdeutschland, doctoral thesis, Verlag Klemm & Oelschläger, Ulm 1998, p. 165 ff. ISBN3-932577-05-1
↑ "Impressum", Graswurzelrevolution No. 329, Münster, May 2008, p. 20 ISSN0344-2683
↑ Bernd Drücke, Anarchist and Libertarian Media, 1945-2010 (Federal Germany), in: John D. H. Downing (Editor, Southern Illinois University Carbondale), "Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media", SAGE, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington D.C., 2011
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including nation-states, and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies and voluntary free associations. As a historically left-wing movement, this reading of anarchism is placed on the farthest left of the political spectrum, usually described as the libertarian wing of the socialist movement.
Individualist anarchism is the branch of anarchism that emphasizes the individual and their will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions and ideological systems. Although usually contrasted to social anarchism, both individualist and social anarchism have influenced each other. Some anarcho-capitalists claim anarcho-capitalism is part of the individualist anarchist tradition, while others disagree and claim individualist anarchism is only part of the socialist movement and part of the libertarian socialist tradition. Mutualism, an economic theory sometimes considered a synthesis of communism and property, has been considered individualist anarchism and other times part of social anarchism. Many anarcho-communists regard themselves as radical individualists, seeing anarcho-communism as the best social system for the realization of individual freedom. Economically, while European individualist anarchists are pluralists who advocate anarchism without adjectives and synthesis anarchism, ranging from anarcho-communist to mutualist economic types, most American individualist anarchists of the 19th century advocated mutualism, a libertarian socialist form of market socialism, or a free-market socialist form of classical economics. Individualist anarchists are opposed to property that violates the entitlement theory of justice, that is, gives privilege due to unjust acquisition or exchange, and thus is exploitative, seeking to "destroy the tyranny of capital, — that is, of property" by mutual credit.
Anarchism and violence have been linked together by events in anarchist history such as violent revolution, terrorism, assassination attempts and propaganda of the deed. Propaganda of the deed, or attentát, was espoused by leading anarchists in the late 19th century and was associated with a number of incidents of political violence. Anarchist thought, however, is quite diverse on the question of violence. Where some anarchists have opposed coercive means on the basis of coherence, others have supported acts of violent revolution as a path toward anarchy. Anarcho-pacifism is a school of thought within anarchism which rejects all violence.
George Woodcock was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, a philosopher, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet and published several volumes of travel writing. In 1959 he was the founding editor of the journal Canadian Literature which was the first academic journal specifically dedicated to Canadian writing. He is most commonly known outside Canada for his book Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements (1962).
Anarcho-pacifism, also referred to as anarchist pacifism and pacifist anarchism, is an anarchist school of thought that advocates for the use of peaceful, non-violent forms of resistance in the struggle for social change. Anarcho-pacifism rejects the principle of violence which is seen as a form of power and therefore as contradictory to key anarchist ideals such as the rejection of hierarchy and dominance. Many anarcho-pacifists are also Christian anarchists, who reject war and the use of violence.
The history of anarchism is ambiguous, primarily due to the ambiguity of anarchism itself. Scholars find it hard to define or agree on what anarchism means, which makes outlining its history difficult. There is a range of views on anarchism and its history. Some feel anarchism is a distinct, well-defined 19th and 20th century movement while others identify anarchist traits long before first civilisations existed.
In the United States, anarchism began in the mid-19th century and started to grow in influence as it entered the American labor movements, growing an anarcho-communist current as well as gaining notoriety for violent propaganda of the deed and campaigning for diverse social reforms in the early 20th century. By around the start of the 20th century, the heyday of individualist anarchism had passed and anarcho-communism and other social anarchist currents emerged as the dominant anarchist tendency.
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary and harmful as well as opposing authority and hierarchical organization in the conduct of human relations. Proponents of anarchism, known as anarchists, advocate stateless societies based on non-hierarchical voluntary associations. While anarchism holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary and harmful, opposition to the state is not its central or sole definition. Anarchism can entail opposing authority or hierarchy in the conduct of all human relations.
Geoffrey Nielsen Ostergaard was a British political scientist best known for his work on the connections between Gandhism and anarchism, on the British co-operative movement, and on syndicalism and workers' control. His books included The Gentle Anarchists: A Study of the Sarvodaya Movement for Non-Violent Revolution in India (1971), coauthored with Melville Currell, and Nonviolent Revolution in India (1985), both dealing with the Sarvodaya movement. He spent the majority of his academic career at the University of Birmingham.
Anarchism in India first emerged within the Indian independence movement, gaining particularly notoriety for its influence on Mohandas Gandhi's theory of Sarvodaya and his practice of nonviolent resistance. Anarchism was also an influence on the revolutionary movement, inspiring the works of Har Dayal, M. P. T. Acharya and Bhagat Singh, among others.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to anarchism:
The Direkte Aktion is a German bimonthly newspaper by the anarcho-syndicalist Free Workers' Union. It has existed since the union's formation in 1977.
Individualist anarchism in Europe proceeded from the roots laid by William Godwin and soon expanded and diversified through Europe, incorporating influences from individualist anarchism in the United States. Individualist anarchism is a tradition of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasize the individual and his or her will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions, and ideological systems. While most American individualist anarchists advocate mutualism, a libertarian socialist form of market socialism, or a free-market socialist form of classical economics, European individualist anarchists are pluralists who advocate anarchism without adjectives and synthesis anarchism, ranging from anarcho-communist to mutualist economic types.
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.
The May Pamphlet is a collection of six anarchist essays written and published by Paul Goodman in 1945. Goodman discusses the problems of living in a society that represses individual instinct through coercion. He suggests that individuals resist such conditions by reclaiming their natural instincts and initiative, and by "drawing the line", an ideological delineation beyond which an individual should refuse to conform or cooperate with social convention. While themes from The May Pamphlet—decentralization, peace, social psychology, youth liberation—would recur throughout his works, Goodman's later social criticism focused on practical applications rather than theoretical concerns.
Anarchist archives preserve records from the international anarchist movement in personal and institutional collections around the world. This primary source documentation is made available for researchers to learn directly from movement anarchists, both their ideas and lives.
Ernst Friedrich was a German anarcho-pacifist.
Schwarzer Faden was a quarterly anarchist magazine published between 1980 and 2004.
Helmut Kirschey was a German anarchist and resistance fighter.
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.
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