Good question! I'll try and explain some of the lingo, and then relate it to Josephs.
Anarchism is the belief that no one should have the power to control or exploit another. Within anarchist thought there are variations, from the individualist who believes in complete freedom (from both society and obligation), to what is called 'social anarchists' — anarchists who would be considered socialists (collective ownership of resources etc). What makes a social anarchist different from a socialist is her/his belief that hierarchy, as well as Capitalism, is oppressive. In this sense, social anarchists refute the need for a state or any kind of government (including a Communist State such as Russia, China or Cuba). Instead, the principles of bottom-up decision making (direct democracy), the freedom to work and live collectively (free association) and self-organisation on a grassroots level is paramount. The state would be replaced by free units of workers (producers) and communities (consumers), joined together (federated) through delegates, answerable to the community from which they came, and recallable at any time.
Josephs falls into this camp. The literature he distributed, the talks he gave as part of the New Zealand Socialist Party's economic classes, and the nature of the group he helped found seem to indicate this. In 1906 at a May Day celebration, Josephs moved:
"that this meeting sends it fraternal greetings to our comrades engaged in the universal class war, and pledges itself to work for the abolition of the capitalistic system and the substitution in New Zealand of a co-operative commonwealth, founded on the collective of the land and the means of production and distribution." (Evening Post, May 7, 1906).
In another talk he decried the fact that anarchism was misunderstood and associated with violence.
So it seems Jospehs worked with and in the New Zealand labour movement during it's most turbulent years (the Blackball Strike of 1908, the Waihi Strike of 1912 and the Great Strike of 1913). The 'Freedom Group' which he co-founded was formed around the 1913 strike, and while that lasted about a year, Josephs continued distributing books and literature throughout the First World War.
However by this time the climate for radicals was far from peachy. In October 1915 the military Censor in charge of monitoring correspondence noticed Josephs was receiving anarchist mail from the USA. On his advice, and the opinion of Sir John Salmond (Solicitor-General of NZ), further correspondence was censored, his offices raided and the names of other anarchists were found.
Rootschat and all you wonderful people on it has helped me pinpoint when he arrived in New Zealand, where he was before that, and given me names of his family (and more). This kind of information will help me as I try to understand what made Josephs an anarchist, when he became radicalised, and what happened to him from the 1920's onwards. Well, hopefully!
Jared Davidson
