Sylvia Wong, age 11, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for her question:
WHAT IS ANARCHISM?
Anarchism is the belief that every type of government or regulation is immoral and that restraint of one person by another is an evil which must be destroyed.
Anarchism comes from a Greek word meaning without government.
Since ancient times, many people have suggested anarchism as a way of life. The legends of many countries tell of a golden age of freedom which preceded organized governments. Anarchism also appeared among early Christian groups.
Often called the father of anarchism is a Frenchman named Pierre Joseph Proudhon. He was the first person to make anarchism a mass movement. His philosophical or individualistic anarchism urged the willing cooperation of free men without any regulation or government.
Later on, anarchism suggested a social organization based on common ownership and free agreements, but its disciples differed among themselves in methods and forms.
Terroristic anarchism started under the leadership of a Russian named Mikhail Bakunin during the early 1800s. Followers of this type of anarchism thought that the destruction of the government by violence and terror was proper. They thought that land and other means of production should be owned in common.
A lot of anarchists in many parts of the world resorted to revolution and assassination in the belief that terror would correct what they thought to be evil.
Anarchists murdered heads of governments in a number of countries. Among those who died were Czar Alexander II of Russia, Empress Elizabeth of Austria and President William McKinley of the United States.
After the death of McKinley, the U.S. government quickly passed a law making it illegal for anarchists to enter the country.
The strength of the anarchism movement declined throughout the world in the 1900s.
Anarchists played an important part in the Spanish Civil War which was fought between 1936 and 1939. The movement is still active in Spain today.
Earlier, Prince Peter Rropotkin of Russia practiced anarchism during the late 1800s. He rejected the terroristic method of Bakunin, but he also opposed the authoritative type of communism. Under his kind of anarchism, the state would be eliminated and the future society would be built on the communes, or village communities, which had existed in feudal Russian society.
One of the most famous trials ever held in the United States involved two men who were philosophical anarchists. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were Italian aliens who were accused of killing a paymaster and his guard in South Braintree, Mass.
After a trial that attracted world wide attention because of the political beliefs of the defendants, Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty and executed in 1927.