Peter Gelderloos

Peter Gelderloos (born 1981 or 1982)^[1] is an American anarchist activist and writer.

Peter Gelderloos
Born	Peter Alan Gelderloos 1981 or 1982 (age 42–43)[1] Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.
Notable work	How Nonviolence Protects the State (2005) Anarchy Works (2010) The Failure of Nonviolence (2013) Worshipping Power: An Anarchist View of Early State Formation (2017)
Movement	Anarchism

Biography

Gelderloos first became involved in political issues as a high school student, and described the Seattle WTO protests in November 1999 as helping influence his political development.^[2]

In November 2001,^[1] Gelderloos was arrested with 30 others for trespass in protest of the American military training facility School of the Americas, which trains Latin American military and police.^[3] He represented himself in court^[4] and was sentenced to six months in prison.^[5][6] Gelderloos previously organized a student rally against the Iraq War^[7] and was a member of a copwatch program in Harrisonburg.^[8]

In April 2007, Gelderloos was arrested in Spain and charged with disorderly conduct and illegal demonstration during a squatters' protest. He faced up to six years in prison.^[5] According to Gelderloos, he was arrested as a bystander after someone had set off a firework designed to scatter fliers through the air.^[2] He claimed that he was unfairly targeted for his political beliefs. He was acquitted in 2009.^[9]

He is known for his 2005 book, How Nonviolence Protects the State, which has been cited in works discussing and analyzing forms of violent and nonviolent resistance.^[9][10][11] He has written for the publications In These Times and ROAR Magazine.^[12][13] In a review of his 2017 work Worshiping Power: An Anarchist View of Early State Formation, William Gillis described him as "an anarchist committed to making anarchist theory accessible" and "within our movement [...] probably the least controversial anarchist writer alive".^[14]

In 2024, he co-produced It’s Revolution or Death, a documentary series focused on the global climate crisis, in collaboration with media collective subMedia.Tv.^[15]

Works

• — (2024). Organization, Continuity, Community. Detritus Books.
• — (2024). They Will Beat the Memory Out of Us : Forcing Nonviolence on Forgetful Movements. London: Pluto Press.
• — (2022). The Solutions Are Already Here: Strategies of Ecological Revolution From Below. London: Pluto Press.
• — (2017). Worshipping Power: An Anarchist View of Early State Formation. Oakland: AK Press.
• — (2014). Learning From Ferguson (PDF). Seattle: Left Bank Books.
• — (2013). The Failure of Nonviolence: From the Arab Spring to Occupy. Seattle: Left Bank Books.^[16][17]
• — (2010). Anarchy Works. San Francisco: Ardent Press.
• — (2010). To Get to the Other Side: a journey through Europe and its anarchist movements. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020.
• — (2009). Sousa in the Echo Chamber. Homebound Books.
• — (2007). How Nonviolence Protects the State. Boston: South End Press. ISBN 978-0-89608-772-9.
• — (2006). Consensus: A New Handbook for Grassroots Social, Political, and Environmental Groups. Tucson: See Sharp Press. ISBN 978-1-884365-39-3.
• — (2005). How Nonviolence Protects the State. Harrisonburg: Signalfire Press.^[18][19]
• — (2004). What is Democracy?. Tucson: See Sharp Press. ISBN 978-0-00-005219-3.

See also

• Anarchism and violence