Contesting Internationalists: Transnational Anarchism, Anti-Imperialism and US Expansion in the Caribbean, 1890s-1920s

Resumo

By the early 1900s, anarchists penetrated the far corners of the Western Hemisphere. In Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Panama, activists—like their comrades everywhere—struggled to create their own anarchist visions of a free society for all, regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality or gender. To accomplish this, anarchists challenged the power structures of society: capital, church and state. In Cuba, Luis Barcia, Adrián del Valle, Marcelo Salinas and Antonio Penichet, in Puerto Rico, Juan Vilar, Emiliano Ramos, and Ventura Mijón, and in Panama, M.D. Rodríguez, Aquilino López and José María Blázquez de Pedro always thought of themselves as internationalists. They rejected nationalist and patriotic rhetoric that they believed falsely divided humanity for the material and political interests of a few elite. As such, they saw their local and national struggles as part of a global anti-authoritarian movement.