• Events just as important as those featured in the first two episodes (from the May 68 revolts to the Rojava insurrection, and including the Summer of Love, the punk phenomenon, the Chiapas uprising or the Black Bloc in Seattle);
• Characters as important as those included in the first episodes, such as Albert Camus,Murray Bookchin, Hakim Bey and Abdullah Ocalan;
• Ideas and new actions introduced that further enlivened the revolutionary arsenal of the libertarian movement (eco-anarchy, urban guerrillas, temporary autonomous zones, black bloc etc.).

In short, anarchism was not just black and white, nor is its history only one of defeats, however heroic.

It continues its colourful existence up to this day.

And it’s essential to make it known.

But as Arte, the TV broadcaster of the first two episodes, did not wish to broadcast the remaining parts of this history, after months of blockage, we decided to produce it ourselves.

Listen to Tancrède Ramonet, the director:

The continuation of No Gods, no masters is made up of two episodes: Flowers and Cobblestones(1945–1969) and The Networks of Anger (1965-2011).

Their synopses are:

Episode 3: Flowers and Cobblestones (1945–1969)

At the end of the 2nd World War, anarchism was a seriously diminished force, but a few prominent personalities like Bertrand Russell or Albert Camus continued to defend and promote its ideals.

Then, little by little, at the heart of the Cold War, many socialists and communists joined up as they became disillusioned with the realities of Soviet socialism, following the Prague Spring. With the example of Murray Bookchin, at the end of the 1950s, more and more revolutionaries turned to anarchism and brought a new resonance with them.

Thanks to them, new organisations, both formal and informal, emerged –like the Diggers in San Francisco; new symbols were created such as the circled A, devised in 1964 by the Young Libertarians in Paris; new mass movements were formed that tried to change the world, questioning both Stalinism and capitalism.

From 1967 and throughout 1968, we can clearly see that the supposedly moribund anarchism was alive again and centre stage. It inspired the ‘Summer of Love’ in the United States, it permeatedthe Provos movement in Amsterdam, and, in France in May 1968, stimulated action in the great student protests and workers strikes, and also in Italy, Germany and as far as Mexico.

Inspired by this symbolic triumph, for the first time in decades, anarchists gathered together and organised themselves, holding a new international Congress in Carrara, hoping to take advantage of the situation.

However, what was supposed to be a new high point in the history of anarchism, one that would cement its return to centre stage, ended up a scene of vain argumentation. Divided, the anarchists were condemned to miss a vital opportunity to play a leading role in the revolutionary impulses fermenting at the end of the 60s.

(archive: occupation of a building in London in 1969)

Episode 4: The Networks of Anger (1965-2011)

As in the times of propaganda by action, anarchism was again seized by its old demons in the beginning of the 70s. Inspired by the strategy instigated by the Tupamaros in Uruguay, for a time it was tempted to resort to armed violence, spreading a new form of armed struggle to the major western conurbations: the Urban Guerrilla phenomenon.

Groups sprung up everywhere and took action: the Angry Brigades in the UK, the June 2nd Movement in West Germany, Action Directe in France, the Weather Underground in the US, all names that struck fear around the world. And, with them, the name of anarchism became yet again a synonym for disorder and chaos.

It was even more fearsome because at the same time, the highly visible punk movement conquered the international scene, contesting music industry practices and, more generally, the established order itself, like a true cultural guerrilla movement. While punk contributed in popularising the slogans, symbols and even the libertarian practices to a new generation, it also felt the force of the repressive backlash to the revolutionary movement at the beginning of the 80s.

Later, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the triumph of capitalism, the anarchists had no choice but to adopt anonymity and mask their identity.

Anarchism and its revolutionary spirit inspired these new resistance tendencies, such as theEZLN and Subcomandante Marcos in Mexico, the high profile Black Bloc sabotage of the G7 in Seattle in 1999, or the Indignados (Outraged) movements that spread from Madrid to New York, Tel-Aviv and Buenos Aires.

Also, in the insurgent neighbourhoods of Athens on to the autonomous Rojava region and the ZAD at Notre Dame des Landes, anarchism was at the heart of major social movements, personifying the contemporary critique of capitalism and, therefore becoming the one true enemy of the establishment powers.

(archive: demonstration at the G20 counter-summit in 2009)

If we get a little more money, we can finally produce a 90-minute version of each documentary, which would then be published on DVD.

As you can see, the existence of these films also depends on you.

So don’t hesitate to give what you can and also, it’s very important, to share the information.