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This thesis has investigated the four main branches of modern anarchist political thought. It has emphasized the relationships between the individual and the society in which he lives.Each of the main currents of anarchism – anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, anarchist individualism, and religious anarchism -- were described in their three essential components: 1) the critique of the existing order; 2) the concept of revolution; 3) the vision of the future anarchist order.The thesis attempted to point out each theory's philosophical contradictiors as well as its theoretical strengths.

This thesis examines, classifies and evaluates the tactics and organisational methods of British and Irish anarchist groups, which operated in the period 1984-1999 (although reference is made to groupings and events outside of this period). The thesis explains how class struggle anarchism, which was a minority trend even within the libertarian milieu, has developed into a significant and lively (anti-)political movement. This thesis examines recent groups through their own publications and their accounts of their recent actions. Previous studies have attempted to assess anarchist methods through either liberal or traditional Marxist categories. This thesis develops a mode of assessment that is consistent with the methods of evaluation used by anarchists themselves. This prefigurative ethic is used to build up an ideal-type of anarchism that is consistent with the main characteristics of libertarian theory. Anarchist prefiguration - which demands that the means must be synecdochic in relation to the ends - requires that the oppressed become the agents who bring about change. Oppression is irreducible to capitalism alone, but in most contexts, economic oppression will be a significant force in the creation of the oppressed agent's identity. Anarchists' preference for 'direct action' captures their commitment to the means being in accordance with the ends, and the primacy of the oppressed in resisting their oppression. The anarchist ideal is used as a standard to assess the operations of existing anarchist groups. Consistent with prefiguration, anarchist organisation and tactics have to be multiform and flexible, without strategic priority being given to any single organisation or structure. Anarchist tactics must also involve a variety of oppressed subjects, while undermining hierarchies of power. It will be shown that certain organisational methods associated with anarchism; such as old style syndicalism is incompatible with the prefigurative ethic. Similarly certain organisational structures, often dismissed as inconsistent with anarchist principles, such as temporary small groups carrying out selective propaganda by deed, can, under certain conditions, be consistent with anarchism. The growth of class struggle anarchism is shown to be a result of its prefigurative and multiform organisation and its corresponding diversity of tactics.

No description available.

Thesis--University of California at Berkeley. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 256-282). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1970. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The thesis is a qualitative study that analyses the personal narratives of isolation and resistance of former Baader-Meinhof prisoners (RAF) in the period 1970-1995 within the context of imprisonment and penality in Gennany. The thesis constructs a picture of isolation and resistance through these individual narratives that illustrate how a state policy to control the communication of individual RAF prisoners was translated into techniques of immobilization - solitary confinement - and surveillance - searches, censorship and monitoring. The narratives recount how these techniques, though central to security and order in prison, were applied and adapted in order to disable the group both within prison and on the outside, and to diminish the (political) resolve of the individual prisoner. The narratives also give insight into individual and collective resistance to isolation, namely the rationales of individual survival and striving for community in the pursuit of collective detention of RAF prisoners. The thesis contributes to the literature on RAF imprisonment by framing the lived experiences of former women and men RAF prisoners and the meanings they attach to isolation and resistance within a power and gendered dimensions of prison life and penality. The study also hopes to contribute wider discussions on imprisonment and penality in Gennany, in particular the governance of women and men prisoners who are constructed as dangerous.

The objective of this thesis is to provide a theoretical analysis and conceptual history of the most significant instances of convergence between 'anarchist' and 'Marxist' political ideas and practices, circa 1872-1963. This study will be conducted with two key aims. First, reassessing some of the dominant claims of a dichotomous relationship between the anarchist and Marxist traditions. Second, with a view towards determining if moments of convergence exhibit sufficient continuity and coherence to be considered as a distinct ideological current or sub-variant within the broader socialist tradition, or what has sometimes been referred to as 'libertarian socialism' or 'libertarian communism'. I argue that the communist, anti-statist, and anti-parliamentary currents in the international working-class movement expose a neglected sphere of commonality which demands closer investigation. In part one, 'Convergences and Divergences', I problematise the dominant interpretations of the relationships between anarchism and Marxism as hostile and irreconcilable ideologies. Employing the 'morphological' approach to ideologies, I then recast this debate as an interplay between two core political concepts: the 'libertarian' critique of hierarchy and authoritarianism and the 'communist' critique of the capitalist mode of production and alienated labour. Part two, 'Beyond the Red and Black Divide', examines the intersections of the libertarian and communist critiques through three case studies. In the first case study, the 'Chicago Idea' movement of the Haymarket Martyrs is examined as an instance of anarchist/Marxist synthesis - one of the ideological precursors of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union. Case study two examines ideological innovations which emerged in response to the Russian Revolution (1917-1921) and Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) through an analysis of the Makhnovist-platformist, council communist, and the 'Friends of Durruti' group conceptions of revolutionary organisation. The final case study examines the post-war evolution of the Socialisme ou Barbarie, Johnson-Forest Tendency, and Solidarity groups from Trotskyism to 'libertarian socialism'.

Justification of the State and Anarchist Alternatives aims to establish four key findings regarding the State and its justification according to a revised form of Aristotelian perfectionist ethics. The first finding is a proper definition of a State, and how that definition of the State compares to other definitions of the State, most notably, Max Weber’s definition. The second finding is the establishment of what parts of Aristotle’s ethics and politics are feasible and sound; this requires historical enquiry in addition to philosophical enquiry. The third finding is that this revised form of Aristotelian ethics does not justify the State. The fourth finding is that Aristotelian ethics would justify a non-state political structure (the modern polis), and objections to that structure are dealt with. The core of the thesis is that Aristotle’s ethics do not justify the state, but would justify a form of anarchism.