Why didn’t anarchists stop World War I?

Or at least prevent it, before it started?

The work of historian Vadim Damier adduces various global facts towards a possible answer: 

 ·         Summer 1914: “[T]he French government planned to arrest several thousand of the most active syndicalists and socialists (registered in the so-called ‘Carnet B’) on the day a general mobilization was announced.”

 ·         1914: “In Germany, the beginning of the world conflict was accompanied by repression, virtually paralyzing the anarchists and syndicalists. The police banned Der Freie Arbeiter, the newspaper of the Anarchist Federation, and sealed its premises.”

  ·         “On August 1, 1914, the day France declared war, 30 activists of the syndicalist movement were arrested at various places in Germany, in particular, in the Rhineland, and charged in connection with their propaganda activities and belonging to an ‘association opposed to the state.’ . . . Some of those arrested were to remain in prison for two years, after which they were sent into the army.”

  ·         Late 1914:  “The [French] authorities conducted a search of the print shop, confiscated the press run, and threatened [Sébastien] Faure with reprisals.”

  ·         Britain:  “On December 2, [Rudolf] Rocker was arrested and interned in a camp from which he was freed only in 1918.”

  ·         Austria:  “The most prominent anarchist – the pacifist Pierre Ramus – was detained on two occasions on charges of espionage and treason for criticizing the war.  As a result, he was placed under house arrest.”

  ·         Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia: “The leading activists of the movement were either sent to the front. . . arrested or interned. . . .Sentenced by a military court, Šrámek and J. Veselý were shot.”

  ·         1915, Britain:  “A number of anarchist activists (Aldred, William McDougal, etc.) were later arrested.”

  ·         Scotland: “[T]he leaders of the Clyde Workers’ Committee were deported from Glasgow.”

  ·         France: “In December 1916, [Lecoin and Ruff] published and distributed 12,000 copies of a leaflet entitled ‘Imposons la paix!’ [Let’s impose peace], for which they were arrested again.”

  ·         France: “In April – June of [1916], the front was engulfed by mutinies, which were suppressed by the authorities with great brutality.”

  ·         1916, Brazil: “Government repression and the expulsion of hundreds of ‘foreign agitators’ failed to stem the tide of protests.”

  ·         Summer, 1916, USA: “At a meeting on June 14, the police carried out mass arrests, and the organizers decided to desist from putting on public events.”

  ·         Fall 1916 – early 1917, USA:  “[Tom] Mooney was sentenced to death, [Warren] Billings to life imprisonment.”

  ·         1917:  “Lepetit, Alphonse Barbé, Content, Ruff, Pierre Le Meillour and Lucien Grossin were charged in June 1917 with publishing the underground newspaper Libertaire and were sentenced in October to prison terms of from four months to two years.”

  ·         1917, USA:  “Repression extended throughout the whole country; it was implemented not only by the government and its police forces, but also by mobs convulsed by patriotism.  Mass arrests of those who evaded the military draft were commenced; an Espionage Act was passed.”

  ·         1917, Italy: “Fighting [in Turin] between the rebels and the forces of law and order continued for five days. During the clashes, at least 50 workers and 10 policemen were killed.  One thousand people were arrested.”

  ·         Summer 1917, USA:  “Frank Little, a member of the General Executive Board of the IWW, was kidnapped by bandits and hanged from a railway trestle.  By the end of the war, most of the leadership of the union had been arrested, and the work of organizing job sites was practically driven underground.”

  ·         Summer 1917, Spain: “In some locations, the strike occurred with armed clashes, but the insurgency was suppressed, and the socialist leaders arrested.”

  ·         Summer 1917, USA: “Systematic persecution and a ban on using the postal service led to suspension of anarchist newspapers.  In August 1917, the journal Mother Earth ceased publication. . . . The Blast also stopped publishing.”

  ·         Fall 1917, USA:  “In Milwaukee, during an attack by an armed mob on a group of anarchists and socialists, two anarchists were killed; afterwards, Italian anarchist clubs were destroyed, and arrests were carried out, with 11 people charged with disorderly conduct and terrorism and subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison each.”

  ·         France:  “In late 1917 – early 1918 . . . The anarchist movement was effectively decapitated.”

  ·         Early 1918, Hungary: “On January 12, 1918, the government ordered the confiscation of anti-war leaflets and banned circles; on the first day 30 members of the Galileo Circle were arrested.  Next followed arrests of left social-democrats.”

  ·         USA:  “On February 4, 1918, [Alexander] Berkman and [Emma] Goldman began to serve their prison terms.”

  ·         Early 1918, Germany: “[T]wo anarchists managed to take over the leadership of the Munich [USPD] party organization for a time, but by late February or March, the military authorities had banned them from public life, and in April expelled them from the city.”

  ·         Early 1918, Germany: “But after the suppression of the strike, the leading activists were repressed: [Leo] Rothziegel was arrested in April, the journalist Egon Erwin Kisch was sent to the front.”

  ·         Summer 1918, USA: “In Chicago, police arrested more than 1000 members of the IWW . . . and charged them with treason.  [Bill] Haywood was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and 110 other activists to various terms of from one to ten years.”

  ·         1918, Hungary: “[Ilona Duczynska] was arrested, charged with treason, and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment.”

  ·         1918, France: “The movement was suppressed, with the activists being sent to the front.”

Thus, an obvious answer to TiR’s initial question(s), above. 

The answer is:  “I blame the the state!”

[It can be passing, superficially juvenile fun to tease anarchists, that this is their answer to every question. 

“Q: Why is it raining today?”
“A: The state!”]

Alternatively, another answer to our initial question(s):  “Anarchist history is very depressing!”

--------------------------------

The above quotes =  all from Damier’s “Anarchists, Syndicalists, and the First World War” (2017), available here.

Or course Damier’s project is not reducible to TiR’s glib subject line. Rather, his project is basically a concise overview of the international situation and the positions of its key players, plainly set forth after sifting and distilling sources from across a handful of languages.

Countries touched upon, other than those mentioned above, include Belgium, Russia, Japan, Switzerland, Portugal and Bulgaria.  Two French Algerian anarchists get named in passing.

--------------------------------


Why, then?  To say, "they were too weak" or "their numbers were too few" while proximate-cause-true, in turn pre-supposes (pre-asks?):  Why too weak?  Why too few, to overcome the horribles paraded above?

TiR would hazard that the author’s substantive, hypothetical “answer” might revolve around the failings of what he calls “neutral syndicalism,” and a general lack of effective organization, chiefly we glean in connection with insufficient links to the labor movement (in contrast, he has some positive remarks about the grass-roots approach, strategic clarity and militancy of the Glaswegian shop-stewards’ committees).  

Underlying those obstacles were some fundamental and dizzyingly shifting disagreements, debates and uncertainties about the nature of the war itself:

Why was it happening?  Along what battle lines were the sprawling, interlocking conflicts drawn?  Who if anyone was the “real” enemy, and of whom, and how to tell?    

--------------------------------

Finally, the most entertaining factoid in the booklet is this one:

“Some [Czech] anarchist groups continued work under various neutral-sounding names – ‘The Astronomical Society,’ ‘Worker’s Temperance Association,' etc.” [“Astronomický kroužek” and “Sdružení dělnických abstinentů”]

A bit more information about the latter organization and its co-founder Luisa Landová-Štychová can be found here.*

A current photo of the very terrifying-sounding “Astronomical Society” can be found here.



                                                          *[This TiR believes is its 1st link ever posted to an FB page.
 
                                                                If we never have occasion to post another,
                                                                                             that's somehow OK with us.]