The name is absent

74

proved ultimately unsuccessful, as were his subsequent attempts to establish an anarchist
organization in Greece. Dadaoglou was a follower OfBakunian anarchy, also known as
collectivist anarchy which informed the anarchist paradigm in Italy and subsequently
Greece (Kottis & Pomonis 2006; Pomonis 2004; Woodcock 1962). It is interesting to
note that Bakunian collectivism, among other things, touts decentralization and autonomy,
a system that would have fit rather closely with established early modes of rural Greek
inter-village socioeconomic relations, particularly during the period immediately prior to
and following the collapse of Ottoman rule in the country. This combined with the
general poverty and distress that colored this period suggests why anarchist rhetoric
would have been appealing to a mass audience. Let us consider this point further.

According to anarchic collectivism the state is replaced by a system of
decentralized federation. This federation in turn consists of free autonomous
communities, each of which owns its own property and means of production (Bakunin
1973; Kinna 2005:17-19; see also Kropotkin & Baldwin 1970). In the Iate-Ottoman
Greek period, around the early 1800s, many regions, and indeed individual villages in the
country, had become isolated both as a result of imposed travel restrictions by Ottoman
overseers and protectionist internal socio-economic strategies practiced by each village
(Jelavich 1985; Vakalopoulos 2003). I will argue below that this is the first instance of a
protective localization which develops and changes over the years ultimately coming to
influence popular perceptions of the state. At that early time in Greek history, Bakunian
anarchy, or collectivism, could have been seen by the immediate post-Ottoman peasantry
to approximate the mode of regional organization they were familiar with while rejecting
the subjugation associated with monarchic rule (Ottoman or otherwise). Numerous local

<<   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   >>

More intriguing information