DVD Review: ANARCHISM IN AMERICA

AK Press does a great job keeping much classic Left-collectivist anarchist literature in print. Now they’ve released two 1980 documentaries by Steven Fishler and Joel Sucher (“Anarchism in America” and “The Free Voice of Labor”) on a single DVD broadly titled Anarchism in America. Both movies are worth your attention, particularly if you’re interested in some of the roots of U.S. anti-statism, but the film after which this DVD is named is especially interesting for Libertarian Leftists. It features a nice segment about our “granddaddy,” the late Karl Hess, and speaks briefly of Murray Rothbard, whom he credits for his conversion from conservative Republican to anarchist radical. Karl is also shown alongside Left anarchist Murray Bookchin at a libertarian conference.

It’s nice to have these two films available. But they are 26 years old. Somebody should really pull together a new documentary about the American anarchist movements, both Left and Right, yesterday and today.

Consumer warning: Advertisements claim that Ursula K. LeGuin, author of the anarchist sci-fi classic The Dispossessed, appears on Anarchism in America. She does not.