Anarchism

Anarchism

Anarchism, the political doctrine which teaches that government is evil and unnecessary and that society should be recognized on the basis of voluntary mutual-aid associations. In Canada it has never generated much support, although small groups of activists have existed sporadically in larger cities and anarchist ideas have lightly influenced a number of writers.

The movement's most famous theoretician, Peter Kropotkin, visited Canada in 1897; it was on his recommendation that Tolstoy and others decided to settle the Doukhobors on the Canadian Prairies in 1898-99. Anarchist Emma Goldman, after a militant career in the US and USSR, died in Toronto in 1940. Among Canadian anarchists is activist-writer George Woodcock, who in 1962 published Anarchism, a history of the movement.