Individualist anarchism refers to several
traditions of thought within the anarchist
movement that emphasize the individual and
his or her will over external determinants
such as groups, society, traditions, and ideological
systems.
European individualist anarchism proceeded
from the roots laid by William Godwin, Individualist
anarchism expanded and diversified through
Europe, incorporating influences from American
individualist anarchism.
Early European individualist anarchism was
influenced by many philosophers, including
Pierre Joseph Proudhon, Max Stirner, and Henry
David Thoreau.
Proudhon was an early pioneer of anarchism
as well as of the important individualist
anarchist current of mutualism.
Stirner became a central figure of individualist
anarchism through the publication of his seminal
work The Ego and Its Own which is considered
to be "a founding text in the tradition of
individualist anarchism."
The philosophy of Max Stirner supports the
individual doing exactly what he pleases – taking
no notice of God, state, or moral rules.
To Stirner, rights were spooks in the mind,
and he held that society does not exist but
"the individuals are its reality"– he supported
property by force of might rather than moral
right.
Stirner advocated self-assertion and foresaw
"Union of egoists" drawn together by respect
for each other's self-ownership.
Thoreau emphasized the promotion of simple
living, environmental stewardship, and civil
disobedience were influential in European
individualist anarchists.An important tendency
within European individualist anarchism in
general is the emphasis on individual subjective
exploration and defiance of social conventions.
Individualist anarchist philosophy attracted
"amongst artists, intellectuals and the well-read,
urban middle classes in general."
As such Murray Bookchin describes a lot of
individualist anarchism as people who "expressed
their opposition in uniquely personal forms,
especially in fiery tracts, outrageous behavior,
and aberrant lifestyles in the cultural ghettos
of fin de siecle New York, Paris, and London.
As a credo, individualist anarchism remained
largely a bohemian lifestyle, most conspicuous
in its demands for sexual freedom ('free love')
and enamored of innovations in art, behavior,
and clothing.".
In this way free love currents and other radical
lifestyles such as naturism had popularity
among individualist anarchists.
Other important currents common within European
individual anarchism include free love, illegalism,
and freethought.Influential European individualist
anarchists include Albert Libertad, Bellegarrigue,
Oscar Wilde, Émile Armand, Lev Chernyi, John
Henry Mackay, Han Ryner, Adolf Brand, Miguel
Gimenez Igualada, Renzo Novatore, and Michel
Onfray.
== Early influences ==
=== William Godwin ===
William Godwin was an individualist anarchist
and philosophical anarchist who was influenced
by the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment,
and developed what many consider the first
expression of modern anarchist thought.
Godwin was, according to Peter Kropotkin,
"the first to formulate the political and
economical conceptions of anarchism, even
though he did not give that name to the ideas
developed in his work."
Godwin advocated extreme individualism, proposing
that all cooperation in labor be eliminated.
Godwin, a utilitarian, believed that not all
individuals are of equal value, with some
of us "of more worth and importance' than
others depending on our utility in bringing
about social good.
Godwin believed that the person whose life
was the most conducive to the general good
should be favored, eschewing equal rights.
Godwin opposed government because it infringes
on the individual's right to "private judgement"
to determine which actions most maximize utility,
but also objected to all authority over the
individual's judgement.
This aspect of Godwin's philosophy, minus
the utilitarianism, was developed into a more
extreme form later by Stirner.Godwin even
opposed individuals performing together in
orchestras, writing in Political Justice that
"everything understood by the term co-operation
is in some sense an evil."
The only apparent exception to this opposition
to cooperation is the spontaneous association
that may arise when a society is threatened
by violent force.
One reason he opposed cooperation is he believed
it to interfere with an individual's ability
to be benevolent for the greater good.
Godwin opposes the idea of government, but
wrote that a minimal state is a present "necessary
evil" that would become increasingly irrelevant
and powerless by the gradual spread of knowledge.
He expressly opposed democracy, fearing oppression
of the individual by the majority (though
he preferred democracy to dictatorship).
Godwin supported individual ownership of property,
defining it as "the empire to which every
man is entitled over the produce of his own
industry."
But he also suggested that individuals give
each other their surplus property when the
other needed it, without involving trade (e.g.
gift economy).
Thus, while people have the right to private
property, they should give it away as enlightened
altruists.
Godwin explained this approach stating, "[e]very
man has a right to that, the exclusive possession
of which being awarded to him, a greater sum
of benefit or pleasure will result than could
have arisen from its being otherwise appropriated."
Yet to Godwin, benevolence was not to be enforced
but instead a matter of free individual "private
judgement."
He did not advocate a community of goods or
assert collective ownership as is embraced
in communism, but his belief that individuals
ought to share with those in need was influential
on the later development of anarchist communism.
Godwin's political views were diverse and
do not perfectly agree with any of the ideologies
that claim his influence; writers of the Socialist
Standard, organ of the Socialist Party of
Great Britain, consider Godwin both an individualist
and a communist; anarcho-capitalist Murray
Rothbard did not regard Godwin as an individualist,
referring to him as the "founder of communist
anarchism"; and historian Albert Weisbord
considers him an individualist anarchist without
reservation.
Some writers see a conflict between Godwin's
advocacy of "private judgement" and utilitarianism,
as he says that ethics requires that individuals
give their surplus property to each other
resulting in an egalitarian society, but,
at the same time, he insists that all things
be left to individual choice.
Many of Godwin's views changed over time,
as noted by Peter Kropotkin.
=== Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ===
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) was the
first philosopher to label himself an "anarchist."
Some consider Proudhon to be an individualist
anarchist, while others regard him to be a
social anarchist.
Some commentators reject this, noting his
preference for association in large industries,
rather than individual control.
Nevertheless, he was influential among American
individualists; in the 1840s and 1850s, Charles
A. Dana, and William B. Greene introduced
Proudhon's works to the United States.
Greene adapted Proudhon's mutualism to American
conditions and introduced it to Benjamin R.
Tucker.Proudhon opposed government privilege
that protects capitalist, banking and land
interests, and the accumulation or acquisition
of property (and any form of coercion that
led to it) which he believed hampers competition
and concentrates wealth.
Proudhon favored the right of individuals
to retain the product of their labor as their
own property, but believed that all other
property was illegitimate.
Thus, he saw private property as both essential
to liberty and a road to tyranny, the former
when it resulted from labor and was required
for labor and the latter when it resulted
in/from exploitation (profit, interest, rent,
tax).
He generally termed the former "possession"
and the latter "property."
For large-scale industry, he supported workers
associations to replace wage labor and opposed
land ownership.
Proudhon maintained that workers should retain
the entirety of what they produce, and that
monopolies on credit and land are the forces
that prohibit this.
He advocated an economic system he called
mutualism that included possession and exchange
of private property but without profit.
Joseph Dejacque explicitly rejected Proudhon's
philosophy, instead preferring anarchist-communism,
asserting directly to Proudhon in a letter
that "it is not the product of his or her
labor that the worker has a right to, but
to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever
may be their nature."
An individualist rather than anarchist communist,
Proudhon said that 
"communism...is the very denial of society
in its foundation..." and famously declared
that "property is theft!" in reference to
his rejection of ownership rights to land
being granted to a person who is not using
that land.
After Dejacque and others split from Proudhon,
the relationship between individualists, and
anarcho-communists was characterized by various
degrees of antagonism and harmony.
For example, individualists like Tucker at
once translated and reprinted the works of
collectivists like Mikhail Bakunin while rejecting
the economic aspects of collectivism and communism
as incompatible with anarchist ideals.
==== Mutualism ====
Proudhon originated mutualism, an anarchist
school of thought, envisioning a society where
each person might possess a means of production,
either individually or collectively, with
trade representing equivalent amounts of labor
in the free market.
Integral to the scheme was the establishment
of a mutual-credit bank which would lend to
producers at an interest rate only high enough
to cover the costs of administration.
Mutualism is based on a labor theory of value
which holds that when labor or its product
is sold, in exchange, it ought to receive
goods or services embodying "the amount of
labor necessary to produce an article of exactly
similar and equal utility".
Some mutualists believe that if the state
did not intervene, as a result of increased
competition in the marketplace, individuals
would receive no more income than that in
proportion to the amount of labor they exert.
Mutualists oppose the idea of individuals
receiving income through loans, investments,
and rent, as they believe these individuals
are not laboring.
Some of them argue that if state intervention
ceased, these types of incomes would disappear
due to increased competition in capital.
Though Proudhon opposed this type of income,
he expressed: "... I never meant to ... forbid
or suppress, by sovereign decree, ground rent
and interest on capital.
I believe that all these forms of human activity
should remain free and optional for all."
Insofar as they ensure workers' rights to
the full product of their labor, mutualists
support markets and private property.
However, they argue for conditional title
to land, whose private ownership is legitimate
only so long as it remains in use or occupation
(which Proudhon called "possession.")
Proudhon's Mutualism supports labor-owned
cooperative firms and associations for "we
need not hesitate, for we have no choice.
. . it is necessary to form an ASSOCIATION
among workers . . . because without that,
they would remain related as subordinates
and superiors, and there would ensue two . . . castes
of masters and wage-workers, which is repugnant
to a free and democratic society" and so "it
becomes necessary for the workers to form
themselves into democratic societies, with
equal conditions for all members, on pain
of a relapse into feudalism."
Mutualist opinions differs on whether capital
goods (man-made, non-land, "means of production)"
should be commonly managed public assets or
private property.
Mutualists originally considered themselves
to be libertarian socialists.
However, "some mutualists have abandoned the
labor theory of value, and prefer to avoid
the term "socialist."
But they still retain some cultural attitudes,
for the most part, that set them off from
the libertarian right."
Mutualists have distinguished themselves from
state socialism, and don't advocate social
control over the means of production.
Benjamin Tucker said of Proudhon, that "though
opposed to socializing the ownership of capital,
[Proudhon] aimed nevertheless to socialize
its effects by making its use beneficial to
all instead of a means of impoverishing the
many to enrich the few...by subjecting capital
to the natural law of competition, thus bringing
the price of its own use down to cost."
=== 
Max Stirner ===
Johann Kaspar Schmidt (October 25, 1806 – June
26, 1856), better known as Max Stirner (the
nom de plume he adopted from a schoolyard
nickname he had acquired as a child because
of his high brow, in German 'Stirn'), was
a German philosopher, who ranks as one of
the literary fathers of nihilism, existentialism,
post-modernism and anarchism, especially of
individualist anarchism.
Stirner's main work is The Ego and Its Own,
also known as The Ego and His Own (Der Einzige
und sein Eigentum in German, which translates
literally as The Only One and his Property).
This work was first published in 1844 in Leipzig,
and has since appeared in numerous editions
and translations.
Authors, philosophers and artists have cited,
quoted or otherwise referred to Max Stirner.
They include Albert Camus in The Rebel (the
section on Stirner is omitted from the majority
of English editions including Penguin's),
Benjamin Tucker, Dora Marsden, Emma Goldman,
Georg Brandes, Rudolf Steiner, John Cowper
Powys, Émile Armand, Han Ryner, Renzo Novatore,
Karl Marx, Robert Anton Wilson, Italian individualist
anarchist Frank Brand, Russian-American philosopher
Ayn Rand, Bob Black, antiartist Marcel Duchamp,
several writers of the Situationist International,
and Max Ernst, who titled a 1925 painting
L'unique et sa propriété.
The Ego and Its Own has seen periodic revivals
of popular, political and academic interest,
based around widely divergent translations
and interpretations—emphasizing psychological
or political views.
Today, many ideas associated with post-left
anarchy's criticism of ideology and uncompromising
individualism are clearly related to Stirner's.
Individualist feminism claims him as a pioneer,
since his objection to any absolute concept
also counts gender roles as "spooks".
His ideas were also adopted by post-anarchism,
with Saul Newman largely agreeing with many
of Stirner's criticisms of classical anarchism,
including his rejection of revolution and
essentialism.
==== Egoism ====
Stirner's philosophy, sometimes called "egoism",
is the most extreme form of IA.
He was a Hegelian philosopher whose "name
appears with familiar regularity in historically-orientated
surveys of anarchist thought as one of the
earliest and best-known exponents of IA."
Stirner does not recommend that the individual
try to eliminate the state but simply exploit
it to further the individual's interests.
He says that the egoist rejects pursuit of
devotion to "a great idea, a good cause, a
doctrine, a system, a lofty calling", saying
that the egoist has no political calling but
rather "lives themselves out" without regard
to "how well or ill humanity may fare thereby."
Stirner held that the only limitation on the
rights of the individual is his power to obtain
what he desires.
He proposes that most commonly accepted social
institutions—including the notion of State,
property as a right, natural rights in general,
and the very notion of society—were mere
spooks in the mind.
Stirner wanted to "abolish not only the state
but also society as an institution responsible
for its members."
He advocated self-assertion and foresaw "associations
of egoists" where respect for ruthlessness
drew people together.
Even murder is permissible "if it is right
for me."
Stirner claimed that property comes about
through might: "Whoever knows how to take,
to defend, the thing, to him belongs property."
"What I have in my power, that is my own.
So long as I assert myself as holder, I am
the proprietor of the thing."
"I do not step shyly back from your property,
but look upon it always as my property, in
which I respect nothing.
Pray do the like with what you call my property!".
His concept of "egoistic property" not only
rejects moral restraint on how one obtains
and uses things, but includes other people
as well.
His embrace of egoism is in stark contrast
to Godwin's altruism.
Stirner was opposed to communism, seeing it
as a form of authority over the individual.
In Russia, IA inspired by Stirner combined
with an appreciation for Friedrich Nietzsche
to attract a small following of bohemian artists
and intellectuals such as Lev Chernyi, as
well as a few lone wolves who found self-expression
in crime and violence.
They rejected organizing, believing that only
unorganized individuals were safe from coercion
and domination.
They claimed this belief to be fundamental
to anarchism.
This type of IA inspired anarcho-feminist
Emma GoldmanThough Stirner's philosophy is
individualist, it has influenced some libertarian
communists and anarcho-communists.
"For Ourselves Council for Generalized Self-Management"
discusses Stirner and speaks of a "communist
egoism", which is said to be a "synthesis
of individualism and collectivism", and says
that "greed in its fullest sense is the only
possible basis of communist society."
Forms of libertarian communism such as situationism
are influenced by Stirner.
Anarcho-communist Emma Goldman was influenced
by both Stirner and Peter Kropotkin and blended
their philosophies together in her own.
== Development by country ==
=== France ===
Proudhon and Stirner stimulated a strong response
in France.
An early important example was Anselme Bellegarrigue.
He participated in the French Revolution of
1848, was author and editor of Anarchie, Journal
de l'Ordre and Au fait ! Au fait ! Interprétation
de l'idée démocratique and wrote the important
early Anarchist Manifesto in 1850.
Catalan historian of individualist anarchism
Xavier Diez reports that during his travels
in the United States "he at least contacted
(Henry David) Thoreau and, probably (Josiah)
Warren."
Jean-Baptiste Louiche, Charles Schæffer and
Georges Deherme edited the individualist anarchist
publication Autonomie Individuelle that ran
from 1887 to 1888.Intellectuals such as Albert
Libertad, André Lorulot, Émile Armand, Victor
Serge, Zo d'Axa and Rirette Maitrejean extended
the theory in France's main individualist
anarchist journal, L'Anarchie in 1905 and
later in EnDehors.
Outside this journal, Han Ryner wrote Petit
Manuel individualiste (1903).
French individualist anarchists espoused diverse
positions.
For example, Émile Armand rejected violence
and embraced mutualism while advocating free
love.
Albert Libertad and Zo d'Axa championed violent
propaganda by the deed while adhering to communitarianism
or anarcho-communism and rejecting work.
Han Ryner on the other side conciled anarchism
with stoicism.
Nevertheless, French individualist circles
displayed a strong sense of personal libertarianism
and experimentation.
Anarchist naturism and free love concepts
influenced individualist anarchists circles
in France and Spain and expanded to the rest
of anarchism.
Henri Zisly, Emile Gravelle and Georges Butaud
promoted anarchist naturism.
Butaud was an individualist "partisan of the
milieux libres, publishing "Flambeau" ("an
enemy of authority") in 1901 in Vienna.
He focused on creating and participating in
anarchist colonies."In this sense, the theoretical
positions and the vital experiences of french
individualism are deeply iconoclastic and
scandalous, even within libertarian circles.
The call of nudist naturism, the strong defense
of birth control methods, the idea of "unions
of egoists" with the sole justification of
sexual practices, that will try to put in
practice, not without difficulties, will establish
a way of thought and action, and will result
in sympathy within some, and a strong rejection
within others."
==== Illegalism ====
Illegalism developed primarily in France,
Italy, Belgium, and Switzerland during the
early 20th century as an outgrowth of Stirner's
IA.
Illegalists typically did not seek moral basis
for their actions, recognizing only the reality
of "might" rather than "right".
They advocated illegal acts to satisfy personal
desires, not a larger ideal, although some
committed crimes as a form of direct action
or propaganda of the deed .Influenced by Stirner's
egoism as well as Proudhon's "property is
theft", Clément Duval and Marius Jacob proposed
the theory of la individual reclamation.
Illegalism first rose to prominence among
a generation of Europeans inspired by the
unrest of the 1890s.
Ravachol, Émile Henry, Auguste Vaillant,
and Caserio committed daring crimes in anarchism's
name.
France's Bonnot Gang was the most famous group
to embrace illegalism.
==== Albert Libertad ====
Joseph Albert (known as Albert Libertad or
Libertad) was an individualist anarchist militant
and writer from France who edited the influential
anarchist publication L'Anarchie.
During the Dreyfus affair, he founded the
Anti-Militarist League (1902) "and, along
with Paraf-Javal, founded the "Causeries populaires",
public discussions that met with great interest
throughout the country, contributing to the
opening of a bookstore and various clubs in
different quarters of Paris".
On the occasion of July 14 anniversary, L'Anarchie
"printed and distributed the manifesto "The
Bastille of Authority" in one hundred thousand
copies.
Along with feverish activity against the social
order, Libertad was usually also organizing
feasts, dances and country excursions, in
consequence of his vision of anarchism as
the "joy of living" and not as militant sacrifice
and death instinct, seeking to reconcile the
requirements of the individual (in his need
for autonomy) with the need to destroy authoritarian
society.
In fact, Libertad overcame the false dichotomy
between individual revolt and social revolution,
stressing that the first is simply a moment
of the second, certainly not its negation.
Revolt can only be born from the specific
tension of the individual, which, in expanding
itself, can only lead to a project of social
liberation.
For Libertad, anarchism doesn't consist in
living separated from any social context in
some cold ivory tower or on some happy communitarian
isle, nor in living in submission to social
roles, putting off the moment when one puts
one's ideas into practice to the bitter end,
but in living as anarchists here and now,
without any concessions, in the only way possible:
by rebelling.
And this is why, in this perspective, individual
revolt and social revolution no longer exclude
each other, but rather complement each other."
==== Émile Armand ====
Émile Armand was an influential French individualist
anarchist, free love/polyamory and pacifist/antimilitarist
propagandist and activist.
He wrote for such anarchist magazines as L'Anarchie
and EnDehors.
His thought was mainly influenced by such
thinkers as Stirner, Benjamin Tucker, and
American Transcendentalism.
Outside France he was an important influence
in Spanish anarchist movements, above all
in the individualist publications Iniciales,
Al Margen and Nosotros.
He defended the Ido constructed language over
Esperanto with the help of José Elizalde.
Armand contrasted his IA with social anarchist
currents, rejecting revolution.
He argued that waiting for revolution meant
delaying the enjoyment of liberty until the
masses gained awareness and will.
Instead he advocated living under one's own
conditions in the present time, revolting
against social conditioning in daily life
and living with those with an affinity to
oneself in accord to the values and desire
they share.
He says the individualist is a "presentist"
and "he could not, without bad reasoning and
illogic, think of sacrificing his being, or
his having, to the coming of a state of things
he will not immediately enjoy".
He applies this rule to friendship, love,
sexual encounters and economic transactions.
He adheres to an ethics of reciprocity and
advocated propagandizing one's values to enable
association with others to improve the chances
of self-realization.Armand advocated free
love, naturism and polyamory in what he termed
la camaraderie amoureuse.
He wrote many propagandist articles on this
subject advocating not only a vague free love
but also multiple partners, which he called
"plural love."
"'The camaraderie amoureuse thesis,' he explained,
'entails a free contract of association (that
may be annulled without notice, following
prior agreement) reached between anarchist
individualists of different genders, adhering
to the necessary standards of sexual hygiene,
with a view toward protecting the other parties
to the contract from certain risks of the
amorous experience, such as rejection, rupture,
exclusivism, possessiveness, unicity, coquetry,
whims, indifference, flirtatiousness, disregard
for others, and prostitution.'".
==== Han Ryner ====
Han Ryner was a French individualist anarchist
philosopher and activist and a novelist.
He wrote for publications such as L'Art social,
L'Humanité nouvelle, L'Ennemi du Peuple,
L'Idée Libre de Lorulot; and L'En dehors
and L'Unique.
His thought is mainly influenced by stoicism
and epicureanism.
He defines individualism as "the moral doctrine
which, relying on no dogma, no tradition,
no external determination, appeals only to
the individual conscience.".
He distinguishes "conquering and aggressive
egoists who proclaim themselves to be individualists"
from what he called "harmonic individualists"
who respected others.
He admired Epicurus' temperance and that "he
showed that very little was needed to satisfy
hunger and thirst, to defend oneself against
heat and the cold.
And he liberated himself from all other needs,
that is, almost all the desires and all the
fears that enslave men.".
He celebrated how Jesus "lived free and a
wanderer, foreign to any social ties.
He was the enemy of priests, external cults
and, in general, all organizations."
==== 
Post-War and contemporary times ====
French individualist anarchists grouped behind
Émile Armand, published L'Unique after World
War II.
L'Unique went from 1945 to 1956 with a total
of 110 numbers.
Gérard de Lacaze-Duthiers (January 26, 1876
– May 3, 1958) was a French writer, art
critic, pacifist and anarchist.
Lacaze-Duthiers, an art critic for the Symbolist
review journal La Plume, was influenced by
Oscar Wilde, Nietzsche and Max Stirner.
His (1906) L'Ideal Humain de l'Art helped
found the 'Artistocracy' movement – a movement
advocating life in the service of art.
His ideal was an anti-elitist aestheticism:
"All men should be artists".
Together with André Colomer and Manuel Devaldes,
he founded L'Action d'Art, an anarchist literary
journal, in 1913.
He was a contributor to the Anarchist Encyclopedia.
After World War II he contributed to the journal
L'Unique.Within the synthesist anarchist organization,
the Fédération Anarchiste, there existed
an individualist anarchist tendency alongside
anarcho-communist and anarchosyndicalist currents.
Individualist anarchists participating inside
the Fédération Anarchiste included Charles-Auguste
Bontemps, Georges Vincey and André Arru.
The new base principles of the francophone
Anarchist Federation were written by Charles-Auguste
Bontemps and the anarcho-communist Maurice
Joyeux which established an organization with
a plurality of tendencies and autonomy of
federated groups organized around synthesist
principles.
Charles-Auguste Bontemps was a prolific author
mainly in the anarchist, freethinking, pacifist
and naturist press of the time.
His view on anarchism was based around his
concept of "Social Individualism" on which
he wrote extensively.
He defended an anarchist perspective which
consisted on "a collectivism of things and
an individualism of persons."
In 2002, an anarchist, Libertad organized
a new version of the L'EnDehors, collaborating
with Green Anarchy and including contributors
such as Lawrence Jarach, Patrick Mignard,
Thierry Lodé, Ron Sakolsky, and Thomas Slut.
Articles about capitalism, human rights, free
love and social fights were published.
The EnDehors continues now as a website, EnDehors.net.
The prolific contemporary French philosopher
Michel Onfray has been writing from an individualist
anarchist perspective influenced by Nietzsche,
French post-structuralists thinkers such as
Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze; and Greek
classical schools of philosophy such as the
Cynics and Cyrenaics.
Among the books which best expose Onfray's
individualist anarchist perspective include
La sculpture de soi : la morale esthétique
(The sculpture of oneself: aesthetic morality),
La philosophie féroce : exercices anarchistes,
La puissance d'exister and Physiologie de
Georges Palante, portrait d'un nietzchéen
de gauche which focuses on French individualist
philosopher Georges Palante.
=== Italy ===
In Italy IA had a strong tendency towards
illegalism and violent propaganda by the deed,
perhaps more extreme than in France which
emphazised criticism of organization be it
anarchist or of other type.
Acts included notorious magnicides carried
out or attempted by individualists Giovanni
Passannante, Sante Caserio, Michele Angiolillo,
Luigi Luccheni, and Gaetano Bresci who murdered
king Umberto I. Caserio lived in France and
later assassinated French president Sadi Carnot.
The theoretical seeds of current Insurrectionary
anarchism were laid out at the end of 19th
century Italy combining IA criticism of permanent
groups and organization with a socialist class
struggle worldview.
This thought also motivated Gino Lucetti,
Michele Schirru and Angelo Sbardellotto in
attempting the assassination of Benito Mussolini.
Pietro Bruzzi published the journal L'Individualista
in the 1920s alongside Ugo Fedeli and Francesco
Ghezzi but who fell to fascist forces later.
Pietro Bruzzi also collaborated with the Italian
American individualist anarchist publication
Eresia of New York City edited by Enrico Arrigoni.
==== Renzo Novatore ====
Renzo Novatore was influenced by Stirner,
Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges Palante, Oscar
Wilde, Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Schopenhauer and
Charles Baudelaire.
He collaborated in numerous anarchist journals
and participated in futurism avant-garde currents.
He proclaimed "revolution is the fire of our
will and a need of our solitary minds; it
is an obligation of the libertarian aristocracy.
To create new ethical values.
To create new aesthetic values.
To communalize material wealth.
To individualize spiritual wealth.
Because we violent celebralists and passional
sentimentalists at the same time-understand
and know that revolution is a necessity of
the silent sorrow that suffers at the bottom
and a need of the free spirits who suffer
in the heights."
He summarizes the three options in life as
"The stream of slavery, the stream of tyranny,
the stream of freedom!
With revolution, the last of these streams
needs to burst upon the other two and overwhelm
them.
It needs to create spiritual beauty, teach
the poor the shame of their poverty, and the
rich the shame of their wealth."
These views justified his practice of illegalism
and later active resistance to fascism.
Novatore collaborated in the individualist
anarchist journal Iconoclasta! alongside the
young Stirnerist illegalist Bruno FilippiAlso,
a poet, Novatore belonged to the leftist section
of the avant-garde movement of futurism, alongside
others individualist anarchists such as Dante
Carnesecchi, Leda Rafanelli, Auro d'Arcola,
and Giovanni Governato.
==== Post-war and contemporary times ====
In Italy in 1945 during the Founding Congress
of the Italian Anarchist Federation, individualists
anarchists were led by Cesare Zaccaria.
During the 1965 IX Congress of the Italian
Anarchist Federation in Carrara a splinter
group created the Gruppi di Iniziativa Anarchica.
In the 1970s, it was mostly composed of "veteran
individualist anarchists with an orientation
of pacifism, naturism, etc,...".Egoism had
a strong influence on insurrectionary anarchism,
as can be seen in the work of Alfredo Bonanno
and Michele Fabiani.
Bonanno has written on Stirner in works such
as Max Stirner and "Max Stirner und der Anarchismus".In
the famous Italian insurrectionary anarchist
anonymous essay, "At Daggers Drawn with the
Existent, its Defenders and its False Critics"
is "The workers who, during a wildcat strike,
carried a banner saying, 'We are not asking
for anything' understood that the defeat is
in the claim itself ('the claim against the
enemy is eternal').
There is no alternative but to take everything.
As Stirner said: 'No matter how much you give
them, they will always ask for more, because
what they want is no less than the end of
every concession'."
Horst Fantazzini (March 4, 1939 Altenkessel,
Saarland, West Germany–December 24, 2001,
Bologna, Italy), was an Italian-German individualist
anarchist who pursued an illegalist lifestyle
and practice until his death in 2001.
He gained media notoriety mainly due to his
many bank robberies through Italy and other
countries.
In 1999 the film Ormai è fatta! appeared
based on his life.
=== Spain ===
Spanish individualist anarchists was influenced
by American individualist anarchism but mainly
it was connected to the French currents.
At the turn of the 20th century people such
as Dorado Montero, Ricardo Mella, Federico
Urales, Mariano Gallardo and J. Elizalde translated
French and American individualists.
Important in this respect were also magazines
such as La Idea Libre, La Revista Blanca,
Etica, Iniciales, Al margen, Estudios and
Nosotros.
The most influential thinkers there were Stirner,
Émile Armand and Han Ryner.
Just as in France, Esperanto, anationalism,
anarcho-naturism and free love were present.
Later Armand and Ryner started publishing
in the Spanish individualist press.
Armand's concept of amorous camaraderie had
an important role in motivating polyamory
as realization of the individual.Recently
historian Xavier Diez wrote on the subject
in El anarquismo individualista en España:
1923–1938 y Utopia sexual a la premsa anarquista
de Catalunya.
La revista Ética-Iniciales(1927–1937) deals
with free love thought in Iniciales.
Diez reports that the Spanish individualist
anarchist press was widely read by members
of anarcho-communist groups and by members
of the anarcho-syndicalist trade union CNT.
There were also the cases of prominent individualist
anarchists such as Federico Urales and Miguel
Gimenez Igualada who were members of the CNT
and J. Elizalde who was a founding member
and first secretary of the Iberian Anarchist
Federation.Federico Urales was an important
catalan individualist anarchist who edited
La Revista Blanca.
The individualist anarchism of Urales was
influenced by Auguste Comte and Charles Darwin.
He saw science and reason as a defense against
blind servitude to authority.
He was critical of influential individualist
thinkers such as Nietzsche and Stirner for
promoting an asocial egoist individualism
and instead promoted an individualism with
solidarity as a way to guarantee social equality
and harmony.
In the subject of organization he was highly
critical of anarcho-syndicalism as he saw
it plagued by too much bureaucracy and thought
that it tended towards reformism.
Instead he favored small groups based on ideological
alignment.
He supported the establishmente of the Iberian
Anarchist Federation (FAI) in 1927 and participated
in it.In 2000 in Spain Ateneo Libertario Ricardo
Mella, Ateneo libertario Al Margen, Ateneu
Enciclopèdic Popular, Ateneo Libertario de
Sant Boi, Ateneu Llibertari Poble Sec y Fundació
D'Estudis Llibertaris i Anarcosindicalistes
republished Émile Armand's writings on Free
Love and IA in a compilation titled Individualist
anarchism and Amorous camaraderie.Jesús Huerta
de Soto is a Spanish economist of the Austrian
School, professor in the Department of Applied
Economics at King Juan Carlos University of
Madrid, Senior Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises
Institute and a reference of anarcho-capitalism
in Spain.
He has defended the theoretical superiority
of anarcho-capitalism over classical liberalism.
In his work The Theory of Dynamic Efficiency
he states that the analysis of the social
reality must combine adequately three different
standpoints: theoretical (Ludwig von Mises),
historical-evolutionary (Friedrich Hayek),
and ethical (Murray Rothbard).
==== Miguel Giménez Igualada ====
An important Spanish individualist anarchist
was Miguel Giménez Igualada who wrote the
lengthy theory book called Anarchism espousing
his individualist anarchism.
Between October 1937 and February 1938 he
starts as editor of the individualist anarchist
magazine Nosotros, in which many works of
Han Ryner and Émile Armand appear and will
also participate in the publishing of another
individualist anarchist maganize Al Margen:
Publicación quincenal individualista.
In his youth he engaged in illegalist activities.
His thought was deeply influenced by Max Stirner,
of which he was the main popularizer in Spain
through his writings.
He publishes and writes the preface to the
fourth edition in Spanish of The Ego and Its
Own from 1900.
He will propose the creation of a union of
egoists, which will be a Federation of Individualist
Anarchists in Spain, but did not succeed.
In 1956 publishes an extensive treatise on
Stirner which he dedicates to fellow individualist
anarchist Émile Armand Afterwards he will
travel and live in Argentina, Uruguay and
Mexico.In his major work Anarchism Igualada
states that "humanism or anarchism,...for
me are the same thing".
He sees the anarchist as one who "does not
accept the imposition of a thought on us and
who does not allows one's own thought to be
imposed over another brain, oppressing it...since
anarchy is not for me a mere negation, but
a twofold activity of consciousness; in the
first instance a consciousness of the individual
on its meaning within the human world, defending
his personality against every external imposition;
on a second instance, and here is present
the whole great beauty of its ethic, it defends,
stimulates and enhances the other's personality....
Igualada exposes a radical pacifist view when
he thinks that "When I say that through war
humanity will never find peace, I sustain
my affirmation in the fact that those who
are more peaceful are the least believers,
and so...one can affirm that the day of happiness
in which war (religiosity is bellicosity)
is extirpated from consciousness, peace will
exists in the home of men, and since from
consciousness these beliefs will not be extracted
but only through an act of transcendental
education, our labor is not of killing, but
of education having it well present that to
educate is not in any case domestication.
=== Freethought ===
Freethought as a philosophical position and
as activism was important in European individualist
anarchism.
"Anticlericalism, just as in the rest of the
libertarian movement, in another of the frequent
elements which will gain relevance related
to the measure in which the (French) Republic
begins to have conflicts with the church...Anti-clerical
discourse, frequently called for by the French
individualist André Lorulot, will have its
impacts in Estudios (a Spanish individualist
anarchist publication).
There will be an attack on institutionalized
religion for the responsibility that it had
in the past on negative developments, for
its irrationality which makes it a counterpoint
of philosophical and scientific progress.
There will be a criticism of proselitism and
ideological manipulation which happens on
both believers and agnostics.".
This tendencies will continue in French individualist
anarchism in the work and activism of Charles-Auguste
Bontemps and others.
In the Spanish individualist anarchist magazine
Ética and Iniciales "there is a strong interest
in publishing scientific news, usually linked
to a certain atheist and anti-theist obsession,
philosophy which will also work for pointing
out the incompatibility between science and
religion, faith and reason.
In this way there will be a lot of talk on
Darwin's theories or on the negation of the
existence of the soul.".
=== Anarcho-naturism ===
Another important current, especially within
French and Spanish individualist anarchist
groups was naturism.
Naturism promoted an ecological worldview,
small ecovillages, and most prominently nudism
as a way to avoid the artificiality of the
industrial mass society of modernity.
Naturist individualist anarchists saw the
individual in his biological, physical and
psychological aspects and avoided, and tried
to eliminate, social determinations.
An early influence in this vein was Henry
David Thoreau and his famous book Walden Important
promoters of this were Henri Zisly and Emile
Gravelle who collaborated in La Nouvelle Humanité
followed by Le Naturien, Le Sauvage, L'Ordre
Naturel, & La Vie Naturelle.This relationship
between anarchism and naturism was quite important
at the end of the 1920s in Spain.
"The linking role played by the 'Sol y Vida'
group was very important.
The goal of this group was to take trips and
enjoy the open air.
The Naturist athenaeum, 'Ecléctico', in Barcelona,
was the base from which the activities of
the group were launched.
First Etica and then Iniciales, which began
in 1929, were the publications of the group,
which lasted until the Spanish Civil War.
We must be aware that the naturist ideas expressed
in them matched the desires that the libertarian
youth had of breaking up with the conventions
of the bourgeoisie of the time.
That is what a young worker explained in a
letter to 'Iniciales' He writes it under the
odd pseudonym of 'silvestre del campo', (wild
man in the country).
"I find great pleasure in being naked in the
woods, bathed in light and air, two natural
elements we cannot do without.
By shunning the humble garment of an exploited
person, (garments which, in my opinion, are
the result of all the laws devised to make
our lives bitter), we feel there no others
left but just the natural laws.
Clothes mean slavery for some and tyranny
for others.
Only the naked man who rebels against all
norms, stands for anarchism, devoid of the
prejudices of outfit imposed by our money-oriented
society."".
"The relation between Anarchism and Naturism
gives way to the Naturist Federation, in July
1928, and to the lV Spanish Naturist Congress,
in September 1929, both supported by the Libertarian
Movement.
However, in the short term, the Naturist and
Libertarian movements grew apart in their
conceptions of everyday life.
The Naturist movement felt closer to the Libertarian
individualism of some French theoreticians
such as Henri Ner than to the revolutionary
goals proposed by some Anarchist organisations
such as the FAI, (Federación Anarquista Ibérica)".
=== Germany ===
==== Individualist anarchism and Friedrich
Nietzsche ====
The thought of German philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche has been influential in individualist
anarchism specifically in thinkers such as
the French Émile Armand, the Italian Renzo
Novatore, the Russian Lev Chernyi, the Colombian
Biofilo Panclasta, and also "translations
of Nietzsche's writings in the United States
very likely appeared first in Liberty, the
anarchist journal edited by Benjamin Tucker."
==== John Henry Mackay ====
In Germany the Scottish-born German John Henry
Mackay became the most important individualist
anarchist propagandist.
He fused Stirnerist egoism with the positions
of Benjamin Tucker and translated Tucker into
German.
Two semi-fictional writings of his own Die
Anarchisten and Der Freiheitsucher contributed
to individualist theory, updating egoist themes
with respect to the anarchist movement.
His writing were translated into English as
well.
Mackay is also an important European early
activist for LGBT rights.
==== Adolf Brand ====
Adolf Brand (1874–1945) was a German writer,
Stirnerist anarchist and pioneering campaigner
for the acceptance of male bisexuality and
homosexuality.
Brand published the world's first ongoing
homosexual publication, Der Eigene in 1896.
The name was taken from Stirner, who had greatly
influenced the young Brand, and refers to
Stirner's concept of "self-ownership" of the
individual.
Der Eigene concentrated on cultural and scholarly
material, and may have averaged around 1500
subscribers per issue during its lifetime.
Contributors included Erich Mühsam, Kurt
Hiller, John Henry Mackay (under the pseudonym
Sagitta) and artists Wilhelm von Gloeden,
Fidus and Sascha Schneider.
Brand contributed many poems and articles
himself.
Benjamin Tucker followed this journal from
the United States.
==== Anselm Ruest (Ernst Samuel) and Mynona
(Salomo Friedlaender) ====
Der Einzige was the title of a German individualist
anarchist magazine.
It appeared in 1919, as a weekly, then sporadically
until 1925 and was edited by cousins Anselm
Ruest (pseud. for Ernst Samuel) and Mynona
(pseud. for Salomo Friedlaender).
Its title was adopted from the book Der Einzige
und sein Eigentum (engl. trans.
The Ego and Its Own) by Max Stirner.
Another influence was the thought of German
philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
The publication was connected to the local
expressionist artistic current and the transition
from it towards dada.
=== Russia ===
Individualist anarchism was one of the three
categories of anarchism in Russia, along with
the more prominent anarchist communism and
anarcho-syndicalism.
The ranks of the Russian individualist anarchists
were predominantly drawn from the intelligentsia
and the working class.
For anarchist historian Paul Avrich "The two
leading exponents of individualist anarchism,
both based in Moscow, were Aleksei Alekseevich
Borovoi and Lev Chernyi (Pavel Dmitrievich
Turchaninov).
From Nietzsche, they inherited the desire
for a complete overturn of all values accepted
by bourgeois societypolitical, moral, and
cultural.
Furthermore, strongly influenced by Max Stirner
and Benjamin Tucker, the German and American
theorists of individualist anarchism, they
demanded the total liberation of the human
personality from the fetters of organized
society."Some Russian individualists anarchists
"found the ultimate expression of their social
alienation in violence and crime, others attached
themselves to avant-garde literary and artistic
circles, but the majority remained "philosophical"
anarchists who conducted animated parlor discussions
and elaborated their individualist theories
in ponderous journals and books."
==== Lev Chernyi ====
Lev Chernyi was an important individualist
anarchist involved in resistance against the
rise to power of the Bolchevik Party.
He adhered mainly to Stirner and the ideas
of Benjamin Tucker.
In 1907, he published a book entitled Associational
Anarchism, in which he advocated the "free
association of independent individuals.".
On his return from Siberia in 1917 he enjoyed
great popularity among Moscow workers as a
lecturer.
Chernyi was also Secretary of the Moscow Federation
of Anarchist Groups, which was formed in March
1917.
He was an advocate "for the seizure of private
homes", which was an activity seen by the
anarchists after the October revolution as
direct expropriation on the bourgoise.
He died after being accused of participation
in an episode in which this group bombed the
headquarters of the Moscow Committee of the
Communist Party.
Although most likely not being really involved
in the bombing, he might have died of torture.Chernyi
advocated a Nietzschean overthrow of the values
of bourgeois Russian society, and rejected
the voluntary communes of anarcho-communist
Peter Kropotkin as a threat to the freedom
of the individual.
Scholars including Avrich and Allan Antliff
have interpreted this vision of society to
have been greatly influenced by the individualist
anarchists Max Stirner, and Benjamin Tucker.
Subsequent to the book's publication, Chernyi
was imprisoned in Siberia under the Russian
Czarist regime for his revolutionary activities.
==== Alexei Borovoi ====
On the other hand, Aleksei Borovoi (1876?–1936),
was a professor of philosophy at Moscow University,
"a gifted orator and the author of numerous
books, pamphlets, and articles which attempted
to reconcile individualist anarchism with
the doctrines of syndicallism".
He wrote among other theoretical works, Anarkhizm
in 1918 just after the October revolution
and Anarchism and Law.
For him "the chief importance is given not
to Anarchism as the aim but to Anarchy as
the continuous quest for the aim".
He manifests there that "No social ideal,
from the point of view of anarchism, could
be referred to as absolute in a sense that
supposes it's the crown of human wisdom, the
end of social and ethical quest of man."
=== United Kingdom and Ireland ===
The English enlightenment political theorist
William Godwin was an important influence
early influence as mentioned before.
In the late 19th century individualist anarchists
such as Wordsworth Donisthorpe, Joseph Hiam
Levy, Joseph Greevz Fisher, John Badcock,
Jr., Albert Tarn, and Henry Seymour were close
to Tucker's magazine Liberty.
In the mid-1880s Seymour published a journal
called The Anarchist. and also later took
a special interest in free love as he participated
in the journal The Adult: A Journal for the
Advancement of Freedom in Sexual Relationships.
"The Serpent, issued from London...the most
prominent English-language egoist journal,
was published from 1898 to 1900 with the subtitle
'A Journal of Egoistic Philosophy and Sociology'".Also,
philosopher and writer Herbert Read wrote
on Godwin and works such as To Hell With Culture,
The Paradox of Anarchism Philosophy of Anarchism,
Anarchy & Order; Poetry & Anarchism and My
Anarchism.
Henry Meulen was notable for his support of
free banking.
Sidney Parker is a British egoist who wrote
articles and edited anarchist journals from
1963 to 1993 such as Minus One, Egoist, and
Ego.Donald Rooum is an English anarchist cartoonist
and writer with a long association with Freedom
Press.
Rooum stated that for his thought "The most
influential source is Max Stirner.
I am happy to be called a Stirnerite anarchist,
provided 'Stirnerite' means one who agrees
with Stirner's general drift, not one who
agrees with Stirner's every word."
An Anarchist FAQ reports that "From meeting
anarchists in Glasgow during the Second World
War, long-time anarchist activist and artist
Donald Rooum likewise combined Stirner and
anarcho-communism."
In the hybrid of post-structuralism and anarchism
called post-anarchism the British Saul Newman
has written a lot on Stirner and his similarities
to post-structuralism.
He writes:
Max Stirner's impact on contemporary political
theory is often neglected.
However in Stirner's political thinking there
can be found a surprising convergence with
poststructuralist theory, particularly with
regard to the function of power.
Andrew Koch, for instance, sees Stirner as
a thinker who transcends the Hegelian tradition
he is usually placed in, arguing that his
work is a precursor poststructuralist ideas
about the foundations of knowledge and truth.
Newman has published several essays on Stirner.
"War on the State: Stirner and Deleuze's Anarchism"
and "Empiricism, pluralism, and politics in
Deleuze and Stirner" discusses what he sees
are similarities between Stirner's thought
and that of Gilles Deleuze.
In "Spectres of Stirner: a Contemporary Critique
of Ideology" he discusses the conception of
ideology in Stirner.
In "Stirner and Foucault: Toward a Post-Kantian
Freedom" he identifies similarities between
Stirner and Michel Foucault.
Also he wrote "Politics of the ego: Stirner's
critique of liberalism".
==== Oscar Wilde ====
The Irish anarchist writer of the Decadent
movement Oscar Wilde influenced individualist
anarchists such as Renzo Novatore and gained
the admiration of Benjamin Tucker.
In his important essay The Soul of Man under
Socialism from 1891 he defended socialism
as the way to guarantee individualism and
so he saw that "With the abolition of private
property, then, we shall have true, beautiful,
healthy Individualism.
Nobody will waste his life in accumulating
things, and the symbols for things.
One will live.
To live is the rarest thing in the world.
Most people exist, that is all."
For anarchist historian George Woodcock "Wilde's
aim in The Soul of Man under Socialism is
to seek the society most favorable to the
artist...for Wilde art is the supreme end,
containing within itself enlightenment and
regeneration, to which all else in society
must be subordinated...Wilde represents the
anarchist as aesthete."
Woodocock finds that "The most ambitious contribution
to literary anarchism during the 1890s was
undoubtedly Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man under
Socialism" and finds that it is influenced
mainly by the thought of William Godwin.
== See also ==
Individualist anarchism in France
Individualist anarchism in the United States
== 
References ==
== Bibliography ==
Diez, Xavier El anarquismo individualista
en España (1923–1939).
Virus Editorial, 2007.
Parry, Richard.
The Bonnot Gang: The Story Of The French Illegalists
. Rebel Press, 1987.
Sonn, Richard D. Sex, Violence, and the Avant-Garde:
Anarchism in Interwar France.
Penn State Press.
2010.
Parvulescu, Constantin.
The individualist anarchist journal "Der Einzige"
and the making of the radical Left in the
early post-World War I Germany.
An enquiry concerning political justice and
its influence on morals and happiness by William
Godwin
What is Property? by Pierre Joseph Proudhon
General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth
Century (1851) by Pierre Joseph Proudhon
The Ego and his own by Max Stirner
"Anarchist Individualism as a Life and Activity"
by Émile Armand
Mini-Manual of Individualism by Han Ryner
Voluntary non-submission.
Spanish individualist anarchism during dictatorship
and the second republic (1923–1938) by Xavier
Diez PDF in Spanish
THE "ILLEGALISTS" by Doug Imrie
Toward the creative Nothing by Renzo Novatore
"Han Ryner or the Social Thinking of an Individualist
in the Early Part of the 20th Century" by
Gérard Lecha in French
Émile Armand, Petit manuel anarchiste individualiste
Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism – An
Unbridgeable Chasm by Murray Bookchin
"A Sure Means to Pluck Joy Immediately: Destroy
Passionately" by Zo d'Axa
"Down With the Law!" by Albert Libertad
"Why I Was a Burglar" by Marius Jacob
"Who Are We?
What Do We want?"
(1911) by Andre Lorulot
"Anarchism and Individualism" by Georges Palante
Anarchist of Love: The Secret Life of John
Henry Mackay by Hubert Kennedy
"The English Individualists As They Appear
In Liberty" by Carl Watner
== External links ==
L'En Dehors current French individualist anarchist
magazine and website which reclaims the inheritance
of Zo d'Axa's and Émile Armand's EnDehors
Han Ryner blog
Han Ryner archive
NovAtore.it Sito dedicato alla memoria di
Renzo Novatore mostly in Italian with a small
section in English and includes many of Novatore's
works translated into English
Emile Armand archive
"E. Armand and "la camaraderie amoureuse"
Revolutionary sexualism and the struggle against
jealousy" by Francis Ronsin
The Anarchism of Emile Armand biography and
some articles by Armand
Zo d'Axa archive
Albert Libertad archive
Andre Lorulot Reference Archive
The rebel's dark laughter: the writings of
Bruno Filippi
