Roads to anarchy

- Anarchist ideas are better in theory than in practice

- They turn away from active politics and despise conventional political processes

- They regard the state as evil so trying to win power or influence government is hypocritical

- Political power is always oppressive, even forms of democracy like representative government and electoral politics

- Anarchist politics is a contradiction in terms. They have to find less orthodox means of political activism

Revolutionary violence

- 19th century - anarchist leaders tried to rouse the oppressed masses to revolt

- Anarchist risings failed because they were based on unreliable tactics like spontaneous belief rather than careful organisation

- 20th century - anarchism increasingly lost support to better organised & better disciplined communist movement

- Some anarchists continued to emphasise the revolutionary potential of terrorism and violence

- Anarchist violence was prominent in the 1970's and the 1890s

- Anarchists have employed terrorism, often involving bombings or assasinations in order to create an atmosphere of terror

- Typically anarchist terrorists work alone

- Anarchists say that using violence is just and fair, it is not merely a way of exerting political influence

- Violence…