Johann Most: Behind the caricature

The German-American anarchist, who died 120 years ago today, was a gifted writer and influential agitator

https://freedomnews.org.uk/2026/03/17/johann-most-behind-the-caricature/

#JohannMost #Anarchism #AnarchistHistory

Johann Most (1846-1906) fue un influyente anarquista, pensador y periodista alemán conocido por su defensa de la "propaganda por el hecho". Sus frases destacan la necesidad de la revolución violenta, la abolición de la propiedad privada y la acción directa para establecer el comunismo anarquista.

#JohannMost #Anarquismo #AccionDirecta #HistoriaRevolucionaria #ComunismoAnarquista #PropagandaPorElHecho #PensamientoCritico

Johann Most (1846-1906) fue un influyente anarquista, pensador y periodista alemán conocido por su defensa de la "propaganda por el hecho". Sus frases destacan la necesidad de la revolución violenta, la abolición de la propiedad privada y la acción directa para establecer el comunismo anarquista.

#JohannMost #Anarquismo #AccionDirecta #HistoriaRevolucionaria #PensamientoLibertario #PropagandaPorElHecho #LuchaSocial

Today in Labor History October 14, 1883: The two-day founding congress of the International Working People's Association (IWPA) occurred in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the Allegheny Turner Hall, marking the beginning of the anarchist-trade union movement in the US. Participants wore red badges and carried red flags. The congress endorsed militant labor organizing, overthrowing the state, and "propaganda by the deed," which included assassinations. Parsons, Spies, Johann Most, and others drafted the Pittsburgh Manifesto at this event. The manifesto called for the overthrow of the ruling class and replacing it with free cooperatives. The manifesto ends with the following line: “Tremble, oppressors of the world! Not far beyond your purblind sight there dawns the scarlet and sable lights of the JUDGEMENT DAY!”

Here are the basic principles called for in the manifesto:
1. Destruction of the existing class rule, by all means, i.e., by energetic, relentless, revolutionary, and international action.
2. Establishment of a free society based upon co-operative organization of production.
3. Free exchange of equivalent products by and between the productive organizations without commerce and profit-mongering.
4. Organization of education on a secular, scientific, and equal basis for both sexes.
5. Equal rights for all without distinction to sex or race.
6. Regulation of all public affairs by free contracts between the autonomous (independent) communes and associations, resting on a federalistic basis.

Preceding the IWPA was the Workingmen’s Party (WPUS), formed in Philadelphia in 1876, which played a major role in the Great Upheaval of 1877, particularly in St. Louis and Chicago. During that strike wave, over 100 workers were slaughtered by cops, Pinkertons and federal troops. Albert and Lucy Parsons were important organizers during that strike. However, the WPUS became dominated by Lasallian socialists, who opposed strikes and direct action, and believed they could vote capitalism away. The Parsons, and many others, were radicalized by the brutality against the Great Upheaval strikers, and subsequently became anarchists. The WPUS ultimately split as a result of the conflict between the anarchists, Marxists, and Lasallians, later becoming the Socialist Labor Party. And the anarchists left to form the IWPA, which helped unite Albert Parsons and August Spies and other anarchists who were later wrongly implicated in the 1886 Haymarket bombing. The subsequent witch hunt for anarchists, and the convictions and executions that followed the Haymarket bombing, effectively destroyed the IWPA.

Read my article on Lucy Parsons and the Haymarket Affair here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/24/lucy-parsons/

Read my article “The Wide Awakes and the Antebellum Roots of Wokeness” to learn more about the Turner Society and the radical German immigrant abolitionists in the mid- to late 1800s: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/27/the-wide-awakes-and-the-antebellum-roots-of-wokeness/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #lucyparsons #AlbertParsons #JohannMost #pittsburgh #pinkerton #GreatUpheaval #strike #union #syndicalism #massacre #marxism #socialism #directaction #abolition #haymarket #prison #deathpenalty

Emma Goldman takes to the stage to give Johann Most a thrashing after the latter had snitch and bad jacketed one too many times.

After being publicly challenged for proof of his insinuations, he muttered about "hysterical women" at which point she moved to lash him.

#emmaGoldman #johannMost