It may seems strange to have a special section on contemporary anarchism on an anarchist website that is filled with news and information on contemporary anarchism, but we present this special overview page for people who are looking for a concise overview on contemorary anarchism in the United States.

Anarchy in the USA

The anarchism movement and anarchism in the United States have seen a huge increase in attention and numbers since the start of the 21st century. The number of anarchists in the United States had been increasing since the mid-1990s, but anarchism really took off after the protests in Seattle and the subsequent explosion of the anti-globalization movement. The entrance of many new people into the anarchist movement and anarchism has meant that the demographics have changed. There are now many more women, people of color, and older people in the anarchist movement, a big change from the 1980s and 1990s when anarchism was dominated by young white men (partly due to the influence of the punk movement). A survey by Infoshop.org conducted in 2002 found the average of anarchists to be around 24 and the ratio of male anarchists to female anarchists to be 7:2. Unfortunately, there are no reliable numbers on the actual amount of anarchists in the United States.

Most anarchists self-identify simply as "anarchists." Other significant flavor of anarchism include anarcho-communists, anarchists without adjectives, anarcho-syndicalists, and people who don't like labels but see themselves as anarchists. One trend that can't be determined very well is the number of people in the general population who hold anarchist views, but don't call themselves anarchists or don't know about anarchism.

American anarchists engage in a variety of political activities. While some anarchists don't engage in activism, and resist the state and support alternatives in their own way, many American anarchists are involved in activism. American anarchists have gained the most notoriety for their involvement in the anti-globalization and anti-capitalist movements, where they may make up around 30% of the activists involved in those movements. One misconception about anarchists in these movements is that the black bloc anarchists are the sole anarchists in these movements, when most anarchists don't even participate in these black blocs. American anarchists are also involved in the peace and anti-war movements, especially in local community peace groups. Community organizing is a big focus for American anarchists, who help organize tenants groups, participate in anti-poverty campaigns, organize for the homeless, and much more. Some groups that feature anarchists organizing as anarchists in the community include Homes Not Jails and Food Not Bombs. The "anarchist people of color" movement has grown in the past few years and has held several national conferneces. There are many American anarchists who are involved in workplace organizing and unions. They are involved in radical unions like the IWW as well as more mainstream unions. In recent years, anarchists have been heavily involved in the media reform movements. They have protested the FCC, put pirate radio stations on the air, published newspaper, and much more. One significant project associated with this movement is Indymedia, which is an open, DIY journalism network that runs on software coded by anarchists and local independent media centers run by anarchists. Other anarchists are involved in the free software movement and other runs websites and ISPs (Mutualaid.org and Riseup.net) Anarchist women and men have been developing new women's health projects and other feminist projects and events (including the Southern Girls Convention, Ladyfest, and Visions in Feminism). American anarchists are heavily involved in efforts to open community spaces and infoshops (more on this below). And there has been an interesting trend of anarchists in professions organizing, such as the anarchist librarians and the more nebulous network of anarchist lawyers and law students.

Unlike their counterparts in Europe, American anarchists for the most part do not organize via explictly anarchist groupings. Most American anarchists are involved in small collectives with other anarchists and in projects and activism that include non-anarchists. There are some explicitly anarchist organizations that emulate the European model, such as NEFAC and FRAC, but these groups are a minor trend in American anarchism. NEFAC is a federation of anarcho-communists that is based on local colelctives in the northeast U.S. and eastern Canada. FRAC is active in the Great Lakes region. There are some explicitly anarchist groups at the local level. And there are several regionalnetworks such as the Great Plains Anarchist Netwrok.

Anarchist publishing in the U.S. continues to flourish and grow. The biggest publisher and distributor of anarchist materials, which is run by an anarchist collective, is the Oakland-based AK Press. Other American anarchist book publishers include City Lights (San Francisco), See Sharp Press (Tuscon, AZ), Autonomedia (New York City), C.A.L. Press (Columbia, MO), Feral House, and Crimethinc. Noam Chomsky is the best-selling anarchist author. Several mainstream and alternative publishers publish anarchist books, including The New Press, Verso, Charles Kerr, Pluto Press, South End Press, and several other. Anarchist magazines and periodicals continue to increase in circulation and newstand distribution. The highest circulating anarchist periodical is the Alternative Press Review, followed by Anarchy magazine (Columbia, MO/Berkeley, CA) . The Fifth Estate (Michigan/Tennessee) and The Match (Tuscon, Arizona) have been publishing since the 1960s and enjoy high circulations. Other anarchist magazines of note include Northeastern Anarchist, Social Anarchism, Green Anarchy, the Defenestrator, Slingshot, Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, Live Wild or Die, and Eat the State. Anarchists continue to publish a large number of zines. There are some American anarchists who work on magazines with non-anarchists (Earth First journal, Industrial Worker, Z Magazine, Clamor) and there are more and more anarchist writers who write for larger publications such as The Nation, In These Times, Z Magazine, Salon.com, and alternative newsweeklies.

Publishers

AK Press

Autonomedia

See Sharp Press

Magazines and Zines

Alternative Press Review

Anarcho-Syndicalist Review

Anarchy

Media Activism

Indymedia.org

Federations

NEFAC

Local Anarchism

Baltimore

Boston

Chicago

Kansas City

Milwaukee

New York City

San Francisco

Washington, DC

more...