ap p e n d i x 4 : anarc h i st ante ce d e nt s i n a m ste rdam
The anarchist tradition, often obscured by the more dominant Marxism , was attractive to the new spirit of the Sixties because of its anti-authoritarian stance . Anarchism has its own pantheon of greats : including Proudhon, Kropotkin, and Bakunin, as well as Thoreau , Tolstoy, the Diggers of 1 7th-century England , the Anarchists of Spain, O scar Wilde , Sacco & Vanzetti, Gandhi, and several political groups from the Sixties , including the Provos and the Enrages of Paris ' 6 8 . I n popular thought, anarchism is synonymous with chaos as a figurative term and is visually equated with the image of wild eyed bomb throwers as a political stance . However, a dispassionate analysis of the history of anarchism would s how that politically it should be equated with cooperativism . Anarchy as a political theory stands opposed to the concept of the State; indeed to any authori tarian power structure whatever. The New England town meeting and the positions taken by the later Count Tolstoy or Gandhi would be closer to the anarchist ideal than either the Weathermen of the late 1 960s or the numerous assassins of the late 1 9th and early 20th centuries , who fit the popular stereotype. Rudolf de Jong, a Dutch anarchist historian, wrote that anarchism is anti-Messianic , in that man must liberate himself from any authority, domination or preju dice , and not rely on a Redeemer, a Party, a group , or any other indi vidual. Indeed, the later Diggers of the Haight-Ashbury hippie scene in San Francisco serve as a good American example of anarchism. O ne confusion that arises about anarchism is due to the fact that there are at least two major strains of the movement : the coop erativist one , best represented by Kropotkin, and the individualist terrorist one represented by Stimer and Bakunin. The two Russians , Kropotkin and Bakunin, were the major anarchists of the late 1 9th century, both of whom lived in exile in Western E urope . Stirner was a German and is slightly more obscure historically. In the United State s , the American anarchist tradition was largely forgotten by
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