Anarchism in the Czech Republic
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Anarchism in the Czech Republic is a political movement in the
Precursors
Traces of anarchism can be seen at the beginning of the Hussite movement. The Hussites, inspired by the teachings of Jan Hus, held that all authority (including the Church) was unjustifiable because it did not follow God's laws. Hence they supported the rights of ordinary subjects to rebel and establish a "society of equals." Although the revolutionary Tábor did establish consumer communism in its beginnings,[1] the authorities were not suppressed (on the contrary, Jan Žižka imposed an authoritative military order).
A radical faction, the so-called Adamites, separated from the Hussites. They believed that the kingdom of God had already come to pass, but that it would be established by men. They denied all authority, such as marriage, and instead exercised absolute freedom, including free love. Adamites and other followers of folk radicalism (historian Vladimír Liška refers to them as the "far left" of the movement[2]) were gradually eliminated by the Hussites.
Side the Hussite movement, there was a religious thinker Petr Chelčický, who sympathized with the Hussite socially critical views, but rejected violence and armed struggle. He opposed the social hierarchy (the so-called "triple people"),[3] criticized the Catholic and Hussite nobility and opposed the existence of states. As an early pacifist, Chelčický is considered to be a forerunner of Christian anarchism and anarcho-pacifism, his teachings were an influence on Leo Tolstoy.[3]
Modern anarchists espouse the Hussites and Czech brothers as their predecessors, judging that "the ideas of the Czech revolutionaries of the fifteenth century were anarchist and communist in nature."[1]
Turn of the 20th century
The emergence of the anarchist movement in
During the 1890s, a form of so-called "independent socialism" prevailed in the movement. It built on absolute individual freedom and achieved a response in the student progressive movement. In 1896, the half-censored "Manifesto of Czech Anarchists" was published. In 1904, the "Czech Anarchist Federation" (CAF) was formed, which demanded the spread of anarchism between the working class and the intelligentsia.[4] In the same year, the "Czech Federation of Trade Unions" (CFVO) was founded,[4] based on the principles of anarcho-syndicalism and the political neutrality of trade unions. The CFVO was officially banned in 1908.[4] In 1914, the creation of a "Czech Anarchist Communist Party" was discussed among anarchists, but this idea was largely rejected. Instead, the Czech Anarchist Federation was transformed into the Federation of Czech Anarchist Communists (FČAK).[5]
First Republic
Many anarchists took part in resistance activities against
By the mid-1920s, Czech anarchism had lost its momentum, owing to the increased influence of
After 1989
The Czechoslovak Anarchist Association was established in the 1980s, even before the
By the 2010s, there were several other anarchist organizations and groups in the Czech Republic, including those operating internationally, such as
Timeline
- 1894: Omladina Trial convicts 68 Czech nationalists of radical activities.
- 1910s: Franz Kafka is active in anarchist groups.
- 1993-2000: Ladronka is squatted.
- 1997-2003: Squat Milada is squatted.
- 2014-2019: Klinika is squatted.
See also
References
- ^ a b Tomek & Slačálek 2006.
- ^ Liška 2004.
- ^ a b Mikolášová 2009, p. 44.
- ^ a b c Mikolášová 2009, p. 49.
- ^ Mikolášová 2009, p. 50.
- ^ Tomek 1996, p. 96.
- ^ a b Mareš 2014.
- ^ Pixová 2019, p. 94.
- ^ Heller 2019.
Bibliography
- Heller, Jakub (9 January 2019). "Ladronka, Milada či Klinika. Připomeňte si známé squaty a jejich neslavné konce [Ladronka, Milada and Klinika: Remembering the famous squats and their infamous endings]". Aktuálně (in Czech). Retrieved 27 November 2023.
- Liška, Vladimír (2004). Hussites – the end of a myth? (in Czech). Fontána. ISBN 80-7336-162-0.
- Mareš, Miroslav (10 September 2014). Extremism in the Czech Republic: Anarchism and the Autonomists (in Czech). National Institute for Education. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- Bastl, Martin; Mareš, Miroslav; Smolík, Josef (2011). Petra Vejvodová: Far Right and Far Left in the Czech Republic (in Czech). Prague: Grada Publishing.
- Mikolášová, Darina (2009). Anarchism and culture (Master's) (in Czech). Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague.
- Pixová, Michaela (15 November 2019). Contested Czech Cities: From Urban Grassroots to Pro-democratic Populism. Springer Nature. ISBN 978-981-329-709-8. Retrieved 28 September 2020.
- Tomek, Václav (1996). Czech anarchism 1890–1925 (in Czech). Prague: Filosofia. ISBN 978-80-7007-080-2.
- Tomek, Václav (2002). Czech anarchism and its journalism 1880-1925 (in Czech). Prague: Filosofia. ISBN 978-80-7007-165-6.
- Tomek, Václav; Slačálek, Ondej (2006). Anarchism: freedom against power (in Czech). Praha: Vyehrad. OCLC 690414542.