History of Post-War Insurrectionary Anarchism?

[palotin]

Whenever I ask an insurrectionary anarchist about the history of this particular tendency, their reply is generally along the lines of "true anarchists have always been insurrectionary" as though their particular ideology is ahistorical and the essence of the libertarian tradition. I've read the basic texts (Bonnano, Tiqqun, The Coming Insurrection, etc.) and feel I have a decent grasp on them. With Tiqqun or the Invisible Committee, I'm on pretty decent ground as far as my understanding of their theoretical antecedents. With Bonnano, less so. I know precious little about postwar Italian anarchism. Autonomist Marxism has always been more my thing. Do you know of any resources out there that would describe the scene and the struggles from which Bonnano emerged? Or, for that matter, the struggles from which insurrectionary anarchism of any Continental sort emerged? I get where the theorists are coming from intellectually. I have no clue, other than the case of Os Cangaceiros and contemporary bank robbers, where the insurrectionaries are coming from at the level of historical practice.

[bcbm]

the italian insurrectionary anarchism developed pretty much out of the specific conditions there where the country was on the brink of revolution, there was lots of activity and violence from the right and left but there were anarchists who did not identify with the more formal groupings, anarchist or authoritarian, and began critiquing them while practicing the things that have become their hallmark- small groups, direct action, etc. from italy these ideas spread out, especially in the 80s as they were translated to english and the 90s and early 00s when groups like killing king abacus (feral faun/wolfi landstreicher published there i think?), murder of crows and others began publishing and spreading these ideas.

i think tiqqun comes from a sort of similar trajectory based off the italian stuff but mixed with marxism and other philosophers, agamben for example and is a sort of insurrectionary communism more than anarchism i think.

greece has its own insurrectoinal current that shares some similarities with the italian experience and is informed by the fall of the dictatorship. according to that book about the december riots in 08, greek anarchists in the 80s decided to use violence to separate themselves from other political factions and show their complete opposition. not sure about the theoretical underpinnings there, i think italian stuff probably is popular or there are greek equivalents, bonnano was arrested in greece not too long ago.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Whenever I ask an insurrectionary anarchist about the history of this particular tendency, their reply is generally along the lines of "true anarchists have always been insurrectionary" as though their particular ideology is ahistorical and the essence of the libertarian tradition.

It seems to me that nowadays "insurrectionary anarchism" refers to those people who endorse or practice subversive and/or illegal activities in pursuit of their political agenda. In this sense, yes, I would agree that all anarchists have been "insurrectionary", even people like Leo Tolstoy, who was involved in the illegal distribution of Peter Kropotkin's writings, and assorted individualist anarchists (we all know about the anarcho-communist record).


I've read the basic texts (Bonnano, Tiqqun, The Coming Insurrection, etc.) and feel I have a decent grasp on them. With Tiqqun or the Invisible Committee, I'm on pretty decent ground as far as my understanding of their theoretical antecedents. With Bonnano, less so.

(shrug) I kind of consider Bonnano to be a kind of post-modern Malatesta of sorts. I think he combines Malatesta's views on violence (although maybe even a bit more of an up-front advocate about them than even Malatesta was) and some of the phraseology of the traditional anarchist left (proletariat, bourgeoisie, etc.) with the organizational models and tactics born out of Italy's period of unrest, like bcbm mentioned.