Prefiguration or Dual Power? Infoshops and Revolutionary Anarchism in the 1990s
Channel: Spencer Beswick
Date: 2022-08-26

Spencer Beswick gives a short overview of the anarchist infoshop movement, including its historical roots in West German squats and rapid growth in the US in the 1990s. He also addresses critiques of the model, particularly from the Love and Rage Revolutionary Anarchist Federation, which argued that infoshops should be subordinated to the task of building a revolutionary movement and dual power structures. Love and Rage was inspired by the Zapatistas in Mexico, who they saw as a model and a vision of the future. Ultimately, the debates over infoshops reflected very real differences in revolutionary strategy and tactics that are relevant for today’s movements.

This talk was originally presented at the Anarchist Studies Network Conference in August 2022 on a panel called "Prefiguring the Future: Twentieth Century Anarchist Visions."

Spencer Beswick is a History PhD Candidate at Cornell University. His dissertation is titled "Love and Rage: Revolutionary Anarchism in the Late Twentieth Century." You can find him on Twitter @spencerbeswick and read more on his blog, emptyhandshistory.com.