The Texture of Politics: London's Anarchist Clubs 1884 - 1914 (original) (raw)

Art and the Anarchist Movement in Britain

Freedom, Centenary Edition, vol 47, no 9. , 1986

A brief look at some of the connections between artists and the anarchist movement in Britain, c1890- 1986. Originally published in Freedom, Centenary Edition, vol 47, no 9 A Hundred Years, October 1886 to October 1986. 3 illustrations

Banal and everyday (inter)nationalism: French and Italian anarchist exiles in London, 1870s-1914

Nations and Nationalism, 2022

Abstract This article explores the anarchists' multilayered theoretical and practical engagement with the concepts and performance of nations, nationalism and national belonging, by applying the frameworks of banal nationalism (understood as an ideology) and everyday nationhood (the daily practices in which nation and nationhood are enacted) as analytical categories, to investigate the Italian and French anarchist exile groups in London between 1870 and 1914. Adopting these theoretical categories proves fruitful in probing the anarchists' perception and enactment of the idea of nation and national belonging, contributing to the literature on the relationship between pre-1914 socialist movements and (inter)nationalism and highlighting the specificity of anarchism therein. Using Fox and Miller-Idriss's four categories of everyday nationhood, we show that while the anarchists explicitly subverted the everyday performance of nationhood, redeploying it along internationalist lines, some forms of attachment to the national did endure and were in fact not always contradictory with anarchist internationalism. Looking at the exilic rituals of this intensely diasporic group thus complicates the simplistic but still pervasive view of a monolithic ideological internationalism and rejection of the national on the part of anarchists.

The Paris Commune in London and the spatial history of ideas, 1871-1900

The Historical Journal , 2019

Following the Paris Commune of 1871, around 3,500 Communard refugees and their families arrived in Britain, with the majority settling in the capital. This article is an exploration of these exiled Communards within the geography of London. The spatial configurations of London's radical and exile communities, and the ways in which Communards interacted with those they crossed paths with, is vital in understanding how some of the ideas that came out of the Commune permeated London's radical scene. Too often British political movements, particularly British socialism, have been presented as being wilfully impervious to developments on the continent. Instead, this article argues that in order to find these often more affective and ancillary foreign influences, it is important to think spatially and trace how the exile map of London corresponded with, extended, and redrew parts of the existing radical mapping of the city. In carving out spaces for intellectual exchange, Communard refugees moved within and across various communities and physical places. The social and spatial context in which British sympathizers absorbed and appropriated ideas from the Commune is key to understanding how the exiles of the Paris Commune left their mark on the landscape, and mindscape, of London.

The Choreography of Anarchism: Historians and the Mapping of a Movement

European Social Science History Conference University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. April 22-27, 2014, 2014

This paper argues that historians should integrate a spatial analysis in their research and writing. This is especially relevant for histories of anarchism and other oppositional, decentralized movements. These movement cultures and networks can be better understood when the spatial implications of their ideological practices are examined. In this paper I focus on immigrant or diasporic anarchist movements in the period 1870 to 1920. I will present some ideas of actually mapping this movement in such a way that takes into account both narrative through time and movement in social space. I illustrate this with specific examples like German and other immigrant anarchist movements and their networked culture of print, fundraisers, and lecturers. There are possibilities here of using open-source graph visualization software such as Gephi, which features “Social Network Analysis.” Specifically, anarchist newspapers can be mapped showing subscribers, contributors, and agents spread across the globe each showing sub-networks of their own. At the same time, I contextualize this type of project by invoking concepts and metaphors from other historians and sociologists such as Georg Simmel, Thomas Bender, David Featherstone, and Philip Ethington. For example, does the historian of social movements resemble a cartographer (static space) or a choreographer (motion in space)? And what can this analogy teach us about recovering, reconstructing, and interpreting the history of anarchism in time, space, and narrative?

Remembering the buildings of the British labour movement: an act of mourning

International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2013

This paper outlines the buildings of the British labour movement. Hitherto, labour activists, historians and heritage professionals have focused on the artefacts and archives as opposed to the many historic buildings of the labour movement. The narrative closely follows the course of the industrial revolution and the accompanying development of the labour movement from its beginnings in the 18 th century. Examples cover a wide range including the artisan trade societies, Utopian Owenite settlements and purpose-built radical and trade union premises. The authors make a brief critique of the paper itself as an example of the intangible heritage of the labour movement. It concludes with a consideration of why these buildings are relatively neglected and suggests that the notion 'don't mourn, organise' might contain some clues as to specific reasons for their neglect.

Radical Conduct: Politics, Sociability and Equality in London 1789-1815

Radical Conduct, 2020

The book explores the distinctive character of the radical literary culture of the 1790s and reveals a set of tensions between the radicals' deliberative aspirations and the conventions and practices in which their own conduct remained embedded. This chapter explores, in particular, the evidence for radical circles of literary women in this period.