Graswurzelrevolution

Graswurzelrevolution (German for "grassroots revolution") is an anarcho-pacifist magazine founded in 1972 by Wolfgang Hertle in West Germany. It focuses on social equality, anti-militarism and ecology. The magazine is considered the most influential and long-lived anarchist publication of the German post-war period. It is classified by the Verfassungsschutz as left-wing extremist.

According to social scientist Ralf Vandamme, "graswurzelrevolution" is "the main voice of the grassroots democratic activists." [Ralf Vandamme: "Basisdemokratie als zivile Intervention. Der Partizipationsanspruch der Neuen sozialen Bewegungen", doctoral thesis, Leske und Budrich, Opladen 2001, p. 16 ISBN 3-8100-2676-x]

"The group that has most consistently tried to build a social rhizome and comes closest to anarchist ethics is the so-called Non-violent Action. It is not by coincidence that this group's newspaper, a magazine with a relatively wide distribution, is called "graswurzelrevolution"." Horst Stowasser [Horst Stowasser: "Anarchie!", Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 2007, p. 460 ISBN 978-3-89401-537-4]

The zero issue of "graswurzelrevolution" (GWR) was published in the summer of 1972 in Augsburg, Bavaria. The "monthly magazine for a non-violent, anarchist society" was inspired by "Peace News" (published since 1936 by War Resisters International (WRI) in London), the German-speaking "Direkte Aktion" ("newspaper for anarchism and non-violence"; published from 1965 to 1966 by Wolfgang Zucht and other non-violent activists in Hanover) and the French-speaking "Anarchisme et Nonviolence" (published in Switzerland and France from 1964 to 1973). [On the history of GWR and other libertarian periodicals in Germany cf. Bernd Drücke: "Zwischen Schreibtisch und Straßenschlacht? Anarchismus und libertäre Presse in Ost- und Westdeutschland", doctoral thesis, Verlag Klemm & Oelschläger, Ulm 1998, p. 165 ff. ISBN 3-932577-05-1]

Distributed throughout Germany, the paper describes itself as follows:"graswurzelrevolution" means a fundamental social revolution which intends to abolish all forms of violence and domination by building up power from below. We fight for a world which no longer discriminates against people on the grounds of their gender or sexual orientation, their language, origin, convictions, disabilities, or based on racist or anti-Semitic prejudice. Our aim is to replace hierarchies and capitalism by a self-organized, socialist economic order and to replace the state by a federalist and grassroots democratic society. Up to now, our work has been focussed on anti-militarist and ecological areas. As far as possible, our aims should be reflected and applied in our forms of struggle and organisation. In order to drive back and destroy structures of domination and violence, we use non-violent forms of action. This is the way in which the anarchist paper "graswurzelrevolution", since 1972, has been striving to broaden and develop the theory and practice of non-violent revolution." ["Impressum", "Graswurzelrevolution" No. 329, Münster, May 2008, p. 20 ISSN 0344/2683]

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External links

*http://www.graswurzel.net