Anarchism in Australia

A selection of primary and secondary source documents relevant to the history of the anarchist political tradition in Australia.

Melbourne Anarchist Club (1886 – 1891)

Active Service Brigade (1893 – 1895)

Industrial Workers of the World (1907 – )

  • Direct Action (Sydney, NSW : 1914 – 1930), digitised back issues online at Trove.
  • “Bump Me Into Parliament”, Bill Casey, 1915, Song.
  • Tom Barker and the IWW, Eric Fry, 1965. Monograph published by the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History.
  • “The Iron Heel: The Suppression of the IWW during World War I’’, Verity Burgmann, 1982, book chapter in Sydney Labour History Group (ed.), What Rough Beast? The State and Social Order in Australian History, Allen & Unwin, pp. 171-191.
  • Revolutionary Industrial Unionism. The Industrial Workers of the World in Australia, Verity Burgmann, 1995, book, Cambridge University Press.
  • “The Australian IWW and ‘Direct Action’, 1914-2000”, Mike, 2000, in Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library May 2000 – No. 22. Online at Libcom.

Spanish anarchist refugees in Australia (1909 – 2010s)

Communist-Anarchist Press (1913?)

Italian anarchist refugees in Australia (1922 – ?)

The Sydney Push / Sydney Libertarians (1940s – 1964)

Bulgarian anarchist exiles in Australia (1951 – ?)

See Also: Red and Black: an anarchist journal (1964-2000), and Sydney Anarchist Group (1957-?)

Sydney Anarchist Group (1957 – ?)

Red and Black: an anarchist journal (1964 – 2001)

Note: I am in the process of collecting and digitizing back issues of Red and Black. Progress so far at the above link.

Anarchist opposition to the Vietnam War (1960s – 1970s)

TREASON: The Revolutionary Emancipists Against State Oppression and Nationalism (1966-?)

Solidarity [anarchist group] (1970?)

  • ‘Notes on the Fucking System’, Solidarity, 1970. Reprinted in Tharunka 23 June 1970, under the headline ‘Cops Move In on Melbourne Anarchists’, online thanks to Trove.

Carnival Anarchism (1970 – 1977)

See also ‘Sydney Anarchist Group (1974 – 1976).

Self-Management Group, Brisbane (1971-1977)

Sydney Anarchist Group (1974 – 1976)

See also ‘Carnival Anarchism (1970 – 1975)’.

Get Out of Fitzroy! (1974-1975)

Anarchism-Feminism Conference (1975)

Federation of Australian Anarchists (1975-1977)

See also ‘Libertarian Socialist Federation 1976-?’.

Libertarian Socialist Federation 1976-?

Melbourne Anarchist Archives (1975 -1979)

Freedom Collective, Perth (1977-198?)

Sydney Anarcho-Syndicalists (1976-1977)

Jura Books (1977 – Present)

Libertarian Workers for a Self Managed Society (1977 – )

Libertarian Socialist Alliance for Self Managed Energy Systems (1978 – 1979)

Christian anarchism (1981 – 2002)

Black Rose Books (1982 – 2015)

Affinity: Anarchist Quarterly (1983 – 1985?)

Institute for Social Ecology, Brisbane (1985? – ?)

Australian Anarchist Centennial Celebration (1986)

Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation (1986 – Present)

See also: Anarcho-syndicalism in Melbourne and Sydney, Conal Thwaite, 2010.

Union Street / CircleA Press / A-House

Anarres Books (1992 – 2008)

@Net (1993 – ?)

Sydney Anarchist / Sydney Anarchist Quarterly? (1993 – 1995?)

Anarcho-Syndicalist Network (1995? – present)

See also: Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation (1986 – Present).

Visions of Freedom conference (1995)

Barricade Books (1995 – ?)

Food Not Bombs Melbourne (1996 – Current)

Love and Rage: collective of the autonomous left (1997 – 2002)

s11 (2000)

Indymedia (2000 – 2015)

Melbourne Anarchist Club (2000 – Present)

Mutiny Collective (2003 – 2014)

Anarchist and Autonomist Conferences / Anarcon (2001 – 2005)

Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group (2004 – present)

G20 Summit Protest (2006)

Student Housing Action Co-operative (2008 – 2009)

Melbourne Anarchist Bookfair and Camp Anarchy (2011 – )

Occupy Melbourne (2011)

Anarchist Affinity / Collective Action (2012 -2020)

Black Swan (2013 – 2015)

Sydney Anarchist Bookfair (2014 – 2015)

  • ‘The making of an anarchist bookfair’, Jay Kerr & Sid Parissi, article in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, no. 62, pp-15-16. [No DOI available, search the title from a library with ProQuest access to retrieve].
  • Sydney Anarchist Bookfair posters, 2014-2015.

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Cutting from Anarchy and Socialism in New South Wales, Sunday Times, 26 May 1894. Placed here so something shows up in social shares.

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