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Title: Anarchism in Czechoslovakia Author: Ryan Robert Mitchell Date: 2009 Language: en Topics: Czech Republic, Slovakia, history Source: Retrieved on 22nd November 2021 from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp1658 Notes: Published in The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest.
Czech anarchism is characterized by the development of two distinct
strands, independently formed in the 1880s.
The first was the anarchosyndicalism of the radical trade unionist
movement of the North Bohemian miners and industry workers. Centered
around editor Johann Most’s journal Die Freiheit (Freedom), these
working-class anarchists believed the trade union was not simply to be
used as an instrument in the greater anarchist struggle, but was to be
seen as the model of a future classless society. Premised around direct
action and the organization of labor, the radical labor movement was
uncoordinated as a whole until 1903 with the formation of the
Severoˇceská Hornická Federace (Northern Bohemian Federation of Miners).
The second strain of Czech anarchism grew out of the secret student
societies and radical reading circles of the 1880s and was further
articulated by the more philosophical individualist anarchism of the
radical intelligentsia and artists of the 1890s. Centered upon such
literary journals as Omladina (Youth) and NovĂ˝ Kult (New Cult), and in
lieu of an actual anarchist organization representing the educated
intelligentsia, these journals were intended as vehicles for theorizing,
agitating, and organizing.
By the end of the 1890s the two tendencies began to overlap with each
other. One of the first attempts to align the two complementary strands
of Czech anarchism was the anarchist journal ModernĂ Revue (Modern
Review), which by the end of the 1890s expanded beyond its discussion of
the manifestations of literary and artistic anarchism into a concern
with the workers’ movement and broader anarchist struggles.
In 1904 these efforts culminated in the formation of the ˇCeská federace
va ̨ech odbor°u (Czech Federation of All Unions, ˇCFVO) and the ˇCeská
anarchistická federace (Czech Anarchist Federation, ˇCAF), which,
according to Stanislav Kostka Neumann (1875–1947), editor of the Nový
Kult journal, were to be the “fists” and the “brains” of the Czech
anarchist movement, respectively. This alliance would not last for long,
however, because in 1908 the Austro-Hungarian authorities, fearing its
influence on the railway workers, outlawed the ˇCFVO – a blow the
radical labor movement never recovered from. This left the ˇCAF as the
main anarchist group in Czechoslovakia.
World War I and its aftermath brought radical changes to the Czech
political landscape. With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire
many within the ˇCAF (like S. K. Neumann, who would later hold a seat in
parliament) began to support the idea of an anarchist “party” that would
work with the new Czechoslovakian republic. Others, like Michal Kácha
(1874–1940), opposed the idea and saw the threat of engaging in
parliamentary politics. With the dilution of anarchism and the lack of a
strong extra-parliamentary anarchist group as an alternative, many on
the radical left placed their support behind the increasingly
authoritarian Czech Communist Party. These events effectively ended the
“classical” period of Czech anarchism.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Czech anarchism
experienced a rebirth. Much like in the classical era, the new Czech
anarchism was centered around two journals that were founded in 1991,
A-Kontra and Autonomie. The new Czech anarchists found early success
combating neo-Nazi skinheads and the far right in the early 1990s and
then later success with the organization of counter-demonstrations at
the 2000 IMF meeting in Prague.
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REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Garver, B. M. (1978) The Young Czech Party 1874–1901 and the Emergence
of a Multi-Party System. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Slaˇcálek, O. (2002) “Don’t Trust Anybody, Not Even Us!” Brief History
of Czech Anarchism. Trans. Petra Horská. Available at
www.csaf.cz/english.php?file=56 (accessed April 16, 2008).
Tomek, V. (1993) From the Idea of Freedom to Authoritarian Emancipation:
Historic Experience of Czech Anarchism. In L. Sekelj and V. Tomek
(Eds.), Anarchism: Community and Utopia. Prague: FilosofickĂ˝ Ăşstav AV
ˇCR.
Tomek, V. (1996) ˇCesky Anarchismus 1890–1925. Prague: Filosofia.
Tomek, V. & Sekelj, L. (Eds.) (1993) Anarchism: Community and Utopia.
Prague: Filosofický ústav AV ˇCR.