Anarchy: Real World Examples

01

Cecilio Domínguez

Prime Minister Cánovas del Castillo received a bouquet of flowers from Cecilio Domínguez — and a bullet. The pistol hidden among the stems ended Spain's 1897 summer. Who taught an anarchist the etiquette of assassination?

02

Gustav Landauer

Gustav Landauer, Germany's foremost anarchist philosopher, was stomped and shot by soldiers in a Munich prison courtyard on May 2, 1919. His last book on Shakespeare was still unfinished. Philosophy ended with a boot.

03

Jonestown

Jim Jones called it 'Revolutionary Suicide.' In a Guyanese jungle on November 18, 1978, 918 people died — 304 of them children — drinking cyanide-laced punch. The vats were prepared in advance.

04

MOVE (organization)

Philadelphia Police Commissioner dropped a military-grade bomb on 6221 Osage Avenue in 1985, killing 11 people and burning 61 homes. The MOVE commune had been there for years. A city bombed its own block.

05

Paris Commune

Paris workers governed themselves for 72 days in 1871, burning the Tuileries Palace on their way out. The French army then shot an estimated 10,000 Communards in one week. Self-rule ended in a mass grave.

06

Ferrer movement

Francisco Ferrer opened a Barcelona school in 1901 with no grades, no priests, no corporal punishment. Spain blamed him for a workers' uprising he didn't lead and executed him by firing squad in 1909.

07

Tulsa race massacre

Greenwood, Tulsa's 'Black Wall Street,' burned for 18 hours in June 1921 while residents fired back from rooftops. Over 1,200 homes were destroyed. The official death toll was never confirmed — possibly 300.

08

Katalonia

In July 1936, Barcelona's anarchists collectivized every barbershop, hotel, and tram line within weeks of Franco's coup. Waiters became co-owners. One journalist noted the menu prices hadn't changed, but the waiters walked differently.

09

Makhnovshchina

Nestor Makhno's anarchist territory in Ukraine printed banknotes stamped 'not obligatory' — currency that admitted it was optional. The stateless zone held 7 million people at its peak. Was it money or a philosophical joke?

10

1919 United States anarchist bombings

In April 1919, thirty-six mail bombs were posted simultaneously to US senators, a Supreme Court justice, and John D. Rockefeller. Most were intercepted by a postal worker who noticed the postage due. Justice nearly by accident.