Anarchism and the Secret Police

A new book by Alex Butterworth argues that anarchists were not very dangerous until secret policemen infiltrated them and drove them toward spectacular acts of violence. From a review by Wendy Smith:

Butterworth credibly documents instances across Europe in which a mysterious figure appeared in anarchist circles, armed with cash and access to explosives, provoked them to target public places for maximum damage, then vanished just as the police swooped in — sometimes before the bombs went off, sometimes not.

Anarchists were vulnerable to this attack because their own rhetoric called for "the propaganda of the deed," and because the saner anarchist leaders could not distance themselves from the radicals:

Unfortunately for anarchism's reputation, it was a successful strategy, because leading theorists like Peter Kropotkin, while privately appalled by terrorist acts, were unwilling to publicly denounce them. There was more to anarchism than the belief that existing society must be destroyed so that a new socialist utopia could arise, but it was a founding principle.

Anarchism was and is a ludicrous political philosophy, and there were anarchist terrorists. But that no more justified some of the extreme measures taken against them, especially in Russia, than 9-11 justified torture or the Iraq war.