Rudolf Rocker

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Rudolf Rocker
Rudolf Rocker.jpg
Born
March 25, 1873
Mainz, German Empire
Died
September 19, 1958 (aged 85)
Mohegan Colony near Crompond, New York, US
Known for
Anarcho-syndicalist writings and activism
Johann Rudolf Rocker (March 25, 1873
September 19, 1958) was an anarcho-syndical
ist writer and activist. A self-professed anarchist without adjectives, Rocker b
elieved that anarchist schools of thought represented "only different methods of
economy" and that the first objective for anarchists was "to secure the persona
l and social freedom of men".[1]
Contents
1 Mainz
1.1 Early life
1.2 Political activism
2 Paris
3 London
3.1 Rocker's first years in London
3.2 Jewish anarchism's golden years
3.3 World War I
4 Back in Germany
4.1 FVdG
4.2 Heyday of syndicalism
4.3 Decline of syndicalism
5 United States
5.1 First years
5.2 Nationalism and Culture and Anarcho-Syndicalism
5.3 World War II, Pioneers of American Freedom, final years
6 Works
7 References
8 Bibliography
9 External links
Mainz
Early life
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v t e
Rudolf Rocker was born to the lithographer Georg Philipp Rocker and his wife Ann
a Margaretha ne Naumann as the second of three sons in Mainz, Hesse (now Rhinelan

d-Palatinate), Germany, on March 25, 1873. This Catholic, yet not particularly d
evout, family had a democratic and anti-Prussian tradition dating back to Rocker
's grandfather, who participated in the March Revolution of 1848. However, Georg
Philipp died just four years after Rocker's birth. After that, the family manag
ed to evade poverty, only through the massive support by his mother's family.[2]
Rocker's uncle and godfather Carl Rudolf Naumann, a long-time member of the Soc
ial Democratic Party (SPD), became a substitute for his dead parents and a role
model, who directed the boy's intellectual development. Rocker was disgusted by
his schoolteacher's authoritarian methods, calling the man a "heartless despot".
He was, therefore, a poor student.
Rocker's father died in 1877. In October 1884, the Rocker household was joined b
y his mother's new husband Ludwig Baumgartner. This marriage presented Rudolf wi
th a half brother, Ernest Ludwig Heinrich Baumgartner, with whom Rocker did not
maintain close contact.[3] Rocker was shocked once again as his mother died in F
ebruary 1887. After his stepfather remarried soon thereafter, Rocker was put int
o an orphanage.[4]
Disgusted by the unconditional obedience demanded by the Catholic orphanage and
drawn by the prospect of adventure, Rocker ran away from the orphanage twice. Th
e first time he just wandered around in the woods around Mainz with occasional v
isits to the city to forage for food and was retrieved after three nights. The s
econd time, which was at the age of fourteen and a reaction to the orphanage wan
ting him to be apprenticed as a tinsmith,[5] he worked as a cabin-boy for Kln-Dsse
ldorfer Dampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft. He enjoyed leaving his hometown and travel
ing to places like Rotterdam. After he returned, he started an apprenticeship to
become a typographer like his uncle Carl.[6]
Political activism
Political rights do not originate in parliaments; they are, rather, forced u
pon parliaments from without. And even their enactment into law has for a long t
ime been no guarantee of their security. Just as the employers always try to nul
lify every concession they had made to labor as soon as opportunity offered, as
soon as any signs of weakness were observable in the workers' organizations, so
governments also are always inclined to restrict or to abrogate completely right
s and freedoms that have been achieved if they imagine that the people will put
up no resistance. Even in those countries where such things as freedom of the pr
ess, right of assembly, right of combination, and the like have long existed, go
vernments are constantly trying to restrict those rights or to reinterpret them
by juridical hair-splitting. Political rights do not exist because they have bee
n legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingro
wn habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the vio
lent resistance of the populace. Where this is not the case, there is no help in
any parliamentary Opposition or any Platonic appeals to the constitution.
?Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory & Practice, 1947[7]
Carl also had a substantial library consisting of socialist literature of all co
lors. Rocker was particularly impressed by the writings of Constantin Franz, a f
ederalist and opponent of Bismarck's centralized German Empire; Eugen Dhring, an
anti-Marxist socialist, whose theories had some anarchist aspects; novels like V
ictor Hugo's Les Misrables and Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward; as well as the
traditional socialist literature such as Karl Marx's Capital and Ferdinand Lasal
le and August Bebel's writings.[8] Rocker became a socialist and regularly discu
ssed his ideas with others. His employer became the first person he converted to
socialism.[9]
Under the influence of his uncle, he joined the SPD and became active
ographers' labor union in Mainz. He volunteered in the 1890 electoral
which had to be organized in semi-clandestinity because of continuing
repression, helping the SPD candidate Franz Jst retake the seat for

in the typ
campaign,
government
the district

Mainz-Oppenheim in the Reichstag. Because the seat was heavily contested, impor
tant SPD figures like August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Georg von Vollmar, and P
aul Singer visited the town to help Jst and Rocker had a chance to see them speak
.[10]
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v t e
In 1890, there was a major debate in the SPD about the tactics it would choose a
fter the lifting of the Anti-Socialist Laws. A radical oppositional wing known a
s Die Jungen (The Young Ones) developed. While the party leaders viewed the parl
iament as a means of social change, Die Jungen thought it could at best be used
to spread the socialist message. They were unwilling to wait for the collapse of
capitalist society, as predicted by Marxism, rather they wanted to start a revo
lution as soon as possible. Although this wing was strongest in Berlin, Magdebur
g, and Dresden, it also had a few adherents in Mainz, among them Rudolf Rocker.
In May 1890, he started a reading circle, named Freiheit (Freedom), to study the
oretical topics more intensively. After Rocker criticized Jst and refused to retr
act his statements, he was expelled from the party. The same would happen to the
rest of Die Jungen in October 1891. Nonetheless, he remained active and even ga
ined influence in the socialist labor movement in Mainz. Although he had already
encountered anarchist ideas as a result of his contacts to Die Jungen in Berlin
, his conversion to anarchism did not take place until the International Sociali
st Congress in Brussels in August 1891. He was heavily disappointed by the discu

ssions at the congress, as it, especially the German delegates, refused to expli
citly denounce militarism. He was rather impressed by the Dutch socialist and la
ter anarchist Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, who attacked Liebknecht for his lack
of militancy. Rocker got to know Karl Hfer, a German active in smuggling anarchi
st literature from Belgium to Germany. Hfer gave him Bakunin's God and the State
and Kropotkin's Anarchist Morality, two of the most influential anarchist works,
as well as the newspaper Autonomie.[11]
Mikhail Bakunin.
Rocker became convinced that the source of political institutions is an irration
al belief in a higher authority, as Bakunin claimed in God and the State. Howeve
r, Rocker rejected the Russian's rejection of theoretical propaganda and his cla
im that only revolutions can bring about change. Nevertheless, he was very much
attracted by Bakunin's style, marked by pathos, emotion, and enthusiasm, designe
d to give the reader an impression of the heat of revolutionary moments. Rocker
even attempted to emulate this style in his speeches, but was not very convincin
g. Kropotkin's anarcho-communist writings, on the other hand, were structured lo
gically and contained an elaborate description of the future anarchist society.
The work's basic premise, that an individual is entitled to receive the basic me
ans of living from the community independently of his or her personal contributi
ons, impressed Rocker.[12]
In 1891, all Die Jungen were either expelled from the SPD or left voluntarily. T
hey then founded the Union of Independent Socialists (VUS). Rocker became a memb
er and founded a local section in Mainz, mostly active in distributing anarchist
literature smuggled in from Belgium or the Netherlands in the city. He was a re
gular speaker at labor union meetings. On December 18, 1892, he spoke at a meeti
ng of unemployed workers. Impressed by Rocker's speech, the speaker that followe
d Rocker, who was not from Mainz and therefore did not know at what point the po
lice would intervene, advised the unemployed to take from the rich, rather to st
arve. The meeting was then dissolved by the police. The speaker was arrested, wh
ile Rocker barely escaped. He decided to flee Germany to Paris via Frankfurt. He
had, however, already been toying with the idea of leaving the country, in orde
r to learn new languages, get to know anarchist groups abroad, and, above all, t
o escape conscription.[13]
Paris
In Paris, he first came into contact with Jewish anarchism. In Spring 1893, he w
as invited to meeting of Jewish anarchists, which he attended and was impressed
by. Though neither a Jew by birth nor by belief, he ended up frequenting the gro
up's meeting, eventually holding lectures himself. Solomon Rappaport, later know
n as S. Ansky, allowed Rocker to live with him, as they were both typographers a
nd could share Rappaport's tools. During this period, Rocker also first came int
o contact with the blending of anarchist and syndicalist ideas represented by th
e General Confederation of Labor (CGT), which would influence him in the long te
rm. In 1895, as a result of the anti-anarchist sentiment in France, Rocker trave
led to London to visit the German consulate and examine the possibility of his r
eturning to Germany but was told he would be imprisoned upon return.[14