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Illegalism is a tendency of anarchism that developed primarily in France, Italy, Belgium and Switzerland during the late 1890s and early 1900s as an outgrowth of individualist anarchism. Illegalists embrace criminality either openly or secretly as a lifestyle. Illegalism does not specify the type of crime, though it is associated with theft and shoplifting. Some anarchists, like Clément Duval and Marius Jacob, justified theft with theories of individual reclamation (la reprise individuelle) and propaganda of the deed and saw their crime as an educational and organizational tool to facilitate a broader resistance movement. Others, such as Jules Bonnot and the Bonnot Gang, saw their actions in terms of egoist anarchism and referred to the philosophy of Max Stirner. Influenced by theorist Max Stirner's egoism, some illegalists in France broke from anarchists. They argued that their actions required no moral basis and illegal acts were taken not in the name of a higher ideal, but in pursuit of one's own desires. In Paris, this milieu was centered on the weekly papers L'Anarchie and the Causeries Populaires (regular discussion groups meeting in several different locations in and around the capital each week), both of which were founded by Albert Libertad and his associates. Illegalism's premise is the rejection of law and the moral standards reflected by law. Illegalists contend that both written law and standards of morality perpetuate and reproduce capitalist thought, which they find oppressive and exploitative. The movement resists the order upheld by social institutions which emerge from this mode of production and its praxis thus reflects their vision for an individualist, yet cooperative, world beyond this order. Illegalism is distinct from many leftist ideologies and movements in its diversion from certain thought on morality and visions for economic organization. A number of them are also unique in their embrace of individualist thought, which is not widely reflected in the anarchist tendency towards collectivism.

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Glossary of anarchism

The following is a list of terms specific to anarchists. Anarchism is a political and social movement which advocates voluntary association in opposition to authoritarianism and hierarchy. NOTOC The negation of rule or "government by none". While "anarchy" refers to the absence of a hierarchical society-organizing power principle, "acracy" refers to the absence of coercion; the condition of acracy is one of voluntary order. Derived from the Greek α- [no] and κρατία [system of government].

Egoist anarchism

Egoist anarchism or anarcho-egoism, often shortened as simply egoism, is a school of anarchist thought that originated in the philosophy of Max Stirner, a 19th-century philosopher whose "name appears with familiar regularity in historically orientated surveys of anarchist thought as one of the earliest and best known exponents of individualist anarchism". Max Stirner's philosophy is usually called "egoism".

Propaganda of the deed

Propaganda of the deed (or propaganda by the deed, from the French propagande par le fait) is specific political direct action meant to be exemplary to others and serve as a catalyst for revolution. It is primarily associated with acts of violence perpetrated by proponents of insurrectionary anarchism in the late 19th and early 20th century, including bombings and assassinations aimed at the State, the alleged ruling class, and religious groups, even though propaganda of the deed also had non-violent applications.