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+3 votes
Are there any labor struggle ideas put forth that are consistent with these perspectives. Are there examples of any effective and/or practical techniques used by other individual workers in the past?

edited to add tags
related to an answer for: What is autonomous organization?
by (4.0k points)
edited by
I'm an independent contractor with no traditional workplace and no boss. Historically, egoists and illegalists have expropriated from the rich.
They struggle for a promotion.

3 Answers

+6 votes
first thought: sabotage of employers
second thought: theft from employers
third thought: the bonnot gang (see creativenothing's comment-that-could-be-an-answer), and other illegalists


i'm sure there are other options...
by (53.1k points)
+2 votes
whilst sabotage and expropriation come most immediately to mind, there's also no dogma that prevents egoists from working with unions when it benefits them. a workplace union could share the traits of stirner's "union of egoists", it's just that most don't.

example:
http://anarchistnews.org/node/19510
by (320 points)
Thank you for that link. That article looks pretty good.
+1 vote
Well the prominent individualist anarchist and post-left writer Hakim Bey is a member of the IWW anarcho-syndicalist trade union.

He said this about joining the IWW:

"The Mackay Society, of which Mark & I are active members, is devoted to the anarchism of Max Stirner, Benj. Tucker & John Henry Mackay...As “individualists” moreover we have good reason to appreciate the IWW concept of the union. Stirner — contrary to the belief of those who have not actually read his book — spoke approvingly of a “Union of Unique Ones” (we prefer this translation to “Union of Egoists”), in which all members would reach for individual goals through common interests. He suggested that the workers had the most to gain by embracing this notion, & that if the productive class were to organize on such a basis it would prove irresistible. (The prejudice against Stirner, by the way, can be traced to Marx & Engels, who considered him potentially even more dangerous than Bakunin, & wrote their biggest book to destroy his influence.)...The Mackay Society, incidentally, represents a little-known current of individualist thought which never cut its ties with revolutionary labor. Dyer Lum, Ezra & Angela Haywood represent this school of thought; Jo Labadie, who wrote for Tucker’s Liberty, made himself a link between the american “plumb-line” anarchists, the “philosophical” individualists, & the syndicalist or communist branch of the movement; his influence reached the Mackay Society through his son, Laurance. Like the Italian Stirnerites (who influenced us through our late friend E. Arrigoni) we support all anti-authoritarian currents, despite their apparent contradictions."


Hakim Bey
"An esoteric interpretation of the I.W.W. preamble"
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/hakim-bey-an-esoteric-interpretation-of-the-i-w-w-preamble
by (3.3k points)
I gave your answer a positive vote, iconoclast. I had forgotten about this piece by Hakim Bey.

I don't agree with it, I just think it shows how quirky Anarchism can be. An Individualist-Anarchist endorsement of the IWW..it just seems so odd to me. But it seems to match Hakim Bey's output. Some of his writing I like and some of it I strongly disagree.
My interactions with Wobblies have led me to view them as a mix of progressive/liberal/green party organizers and Marxists with an occasional Anarcho-Marxist/Platformist/Syndicalist
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