Abstract
In the early 2000s, some commentators such as Barbara Epstein and David Graeber wrote about the ‘new anarchists’, in the aftermath of the so-called Battle of Seattle, opposing the alterglobalisation movement and the police protecting the World Trade Organization (WTO) Summit. At the end of the day, the ‘anarchists’ had stolen the show, either by their civil disobedience non-violent collective action under the umbrella of the Direct Action Network (DAN), which prevented the Summit to open, or the spectacular hit-and-run action of the Black Bloc, which smashed tens of windows of infamous international firms (banks, coffee shops, fast food restaurants, etc.). The goal of the chapter is to explain what lead the new activists to endorse, openly or not, anarchism and how this anarchism translated into their collective organisation, decision-making process, and collective action. While discussing the role of the anarchists within the alter globalisation movement, we deal more specifically with the ‘fluffy vs spiky’ debate (non-violence/violence) and explain how the movement developed the concept of ‘the respect for diversity of tactics’ (which is consistent with anarchism).
The author, who struggles with the English language, thanks Ellen Warkentin who edited the text.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
D. Graeber, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology (Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2004), 103 and 105.
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T. Ibaniz, Anarchisme en mouvement: anarchisme, néoanarchisme et postanarchisme (Paris: Nada, 2014), 23.
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B. Epstein, “Anarchism and the Anti-Globalization movement”, Monthly Review, 53:4 (2001) [https://monthlyreview.org/2001/09/01/anarchism-and-the-anti-globalization-movement/].
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M. Ramnath, Decolonizing Anarchism (Oakland: AK Press, 2011), 224–225.
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Ibid., 241.
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J. Shantz, Active Anarchy: Political Practice in Contemporary Movements (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2001), 51.
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In J. Baschet, Adieux au capitalisme. Autonomie, société du bien vivre et multiplicité des mondes (Paris: La Découverte, 2014), 70.
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My emphasis. Sabine et Olivier, “Mouvement zapatiste et lutte des femmes: entretien avec Jules Falquet”, Flagrant délit, no 10, 1999 [http://1libertaire.free.fr/FemmesZapatistes.html].
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Emphasis mine. A. Cockburn, “So who did win in Seattle? Liberals rewrite history” [http://www.ainfos.ca/99/dec/ainfos00350.html].
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C. Gabay, ‘What did the anarchists ever do’, 123.
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L. A. Fernandez, Policing Dissent: Social Control and the Anti-Globalization Movement (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2008).
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G. Katsiaficas, “Seattle was not the beginning”, in E. Yuen, G. Katsiaficas, and D. Burto-Rose (Eds), The Battle of Seattle: The New Challenge to Capitalist Globalization (New York: Soft Skull Press, 2001), 29.
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G. McKay, DiY Culture, 15.
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For accounts of these events see C. Milstein, “Something did Start in Quebec City: North America’s Revolutionary Anticapitalist Movement,” in E. Yuen, D. Burton-Rose, and G. Katsiaficas (Eds), Confronting Capitalism: Dispatches From a Global Movement (New York: Soft Skull Press, 2004), 126–133.
- 39.
Emphasis mine. Starhawk, Webs of Power: Notes from the Global Uprising, Gabriola Island (British Colombia), New Society Publishers, 2002, 207–208.
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- 41.
Massacre ’68 is an old punk band in Mexico, named in reference to the students who were killed on October 2, 1968, in the plaza of the Three Cultures (A. O’Connor, ‘Punk subculture’, 47).
- 42.
Paolo Gerbaudo, The Mask and the Flag: Populism, Citizenism and Global Protest (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 6.
- 43.
Ibid., 65.
- 44.
This is a work-in-progress research project.
- 45.
Emphasis mine M. Naím, “Lori’s War,” Foreign Policy (Spring 2000), 49.
- 46.
Quoted by T. Egan, “Talks and Turmoil: The Violence,” The New York Times, December 2, 1999, sec. A, 1. In an article published later, “Window-smashing hurt our cause” [www.zmag.org/benjamin.htm], she claimed having been misquoted, but still criticized the anarchists’ use of force.
- 47.
According to an e-mail exchange with the editor of Public Seminar, it seems that Fraser agreed about the title.
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D. Graeber, “The New Anarchists”, New Left Review, 13, January–February 2002, 70.
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T. Alfred, Wasáse: Indigenous Pathways of Action and Freedom (Orchard Park: Broadview Press, 2005), 46.
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Dupuis-Déri, F. (2019). From the Zapatistas to Seattle: The ‘New Anarchists’. In: Levy, C., Adams, M.S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_27
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