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The tabloids loathe them, but anarchists are too busy arguing with each other to riot, says Stewart Home
Anarchism is often associated with chaos, which is one reason it makes headlines whenever there's a riot on the British mainland. However, the Anarchy in the UK festival in London this week demonstrates that the vast majority of anarchists have little interest in throwing bricks and bottles at the police.
While anarchism as a political doctrine has never exerted much influence outside Spain and the Ukraine, the impact of anarchist ideas on the arts has been enormous. Bohemianism is a quintessentially anarchist pursuit and it is this, principally in its subcultural guises, that forms the focus for the 10-day festival, which began on Friday.
The event is the brainchild of Ian Bone, a founder member of the Class War newspaper and Class War Federation. His past activities do little to inspire trust among old hands at anarchist politics. At one point, he left the federation to set up the rival Class War Organisation, which collapsed after publishing just one issue of its national newspaper. Among revolutionary anarchists, Anarchy in the UK is derisively referred to as the Bone Show.
While the festival will thrill all rebellious punk squatters, the major British anarchist groups are refusing to participate in what they perceive as a desperate attempt to revive the careers of some second-rate rock bands.
An obsession with autonomy, or freedom, is what characterises all anarchist thought. Naturally, this leads to sectarianism. One of the major divisions within anarchist thinking is between collectivist and individualist ideologies. While anarcho-individualists have never attempted to build mass political organisations, their collectivist brethren find that although there is a great deal of support for anarchist ideas, very few people are willing to become paid-up members of the movement. Indeed, no British anarchist group has more than one hundred active members.
In this context, it seems absurd to claim, as the tabloid press has done, that the Class War Federation is responsible for the rioting during recent demonstrations against the Criminal Justice Bill. Class War is in no position to organise riots; almost all its time and energy is put into producing and selling its newspaper. Most of the Class War groups...