Direct action, self-organisation, anti-authoritarianism : distinctive features of the anarcho-syndicalist movement in North Bohemia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries
Abstract
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, anarchists also gained a place in Czech political culture. While most people are aware of Czech anarchists from their schoolrooms, mainly thanks to the anarchist artistic bohemia embodied by names like František Gellner, S.
K. Neumann or Fráňa Šrámek, less is known about the fact that anarchism also took root in the workers' movement.
It experienced its greatest fame at the beginning of the 20th century in North Bohemia among the miners. This paper has focused on the main characteristics that distinguished the anarchist labour movement from the social democratic movement.
Like many other authors of so-called anarchist studies, the author examined three specific features of anarchism in the concrete movement of North Bohemian anarchist miners: direct action, self-organization and anti-authoritarianism. The author answered the questions of how these manifested themselves in theory and practice and how important a role they played in distancing themselves from the social democratic movement.