The roots of anarchism in Colombia and their relationship to liberalism

Diego Paredes Goicochea
Orcid ID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6342-9910
Iigg/UBA/Conicet, Argentina
dfparedesg@unal.edu.co

Abstract:

This article explores the relationship between anarchist ideas and liberalism in Colombia in the 1850s and 1920s in order to argue that, contrary to what is claimed by much of the limited historiography of Colombian anarchism, this movement emerged precisely at the time anarchism separated from liberalism. To support this hypothesis, we will try to show that prior to 1924, when Colombian anarchism gained its ideological and organizational definition under the anarcho-syndicalist struggle, anarchist and liberal ideas crossed their path in the context of the legacy rhetoric of the European revolutions of 1789 and 1848, but did not contribute to the construction of an anarchist movement ideologically coherent.

Keywords: anarchism, liberalism, anarcho-syndicalism, labor movement, Colombia.