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Anarchy rules – again

Nearly 3,000 anarchists from across the world gathered in St Imier at the beginning of August. The meeting was to commemorate the founding of the international libertarian movement in the Swiss town 140 years ago.

The small industrial centre with its 4,800 inhabitants is situated in a remote region in northwestern Switzerland. Back in 1872, it hosted a historic congress of the international anarchist movement.

The gathering marked the divorce between Karl Marx’s followers and those of the libertarian wing jointly led by Russian revolutionist Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume of Switzerland.

Nearly 150 years later and mostly wearing black clothes, the followers of libertarianism met in St Imier to discuss issues including autonomous social centres, negative growth, the situation in Greece, civil disobedience as well as the debt crisis and even Italian anarchist songs. (Pictures: Roger Wehrli)

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR