From The Transmetropolitan Review
Click here for the full pamphlet of An Anarchist at Home: Andrej Klemenčič in Home, Washington, 1895-1907
INTRODUCTION
Andrej Klemenčič was born on November 30, 1867 in the town of Spodnja Šiška, just north of Ljubljana, the historical capital of Slovenia. At the time of Andrej’s birth, Slovenia was under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and he grew up under their despotic reign until 1880 when he began his travels across the Earth. This unique journey not only made Andrej a committed anarchist, it eventually delivered him to the isolated backwater of Home, Washington.
Andrej lived quite a life before he came to Washington State. At the age of twelve, he left Ljubljana region and worked as a tailor in Italian cities like Venizia and Firenze, learning much from their ancient clothing traditions. After traveling as far as London, he returned to Slovenia in 1887 to fulfill his military service. When his service was up, Andrej couldn’t find work in Ljubljana, so he traveled south to Trieste. It was here at the edge of the Empire that Andrej learned how to be an anarchist agitator.
Andrej helped start the first radical unions in Trieste and was a founder of Delavski List, the first Sloveninan socialist newspaper, published in 1890. Within a year, the Empire had dissolved his union for election interference and Andrej was briefly imprisoned for his street agitation. This experience soured Andrej on his homeland and he soon fled to Switzerland in 1891, then to Paris, where he appears to have met Jean Grave and the comrades surrounding Les Temps Nouveaux, the main anarchist newspaper in France.
Andrej left Paris and traveled to New York City sometime in 1892, according to his own recounting. He then went to Chicago, after which he moved across the continent to the gnarly industrial town of Tacoma, Washington, arriving in July 1893, the first known anarchist agitator in the region. Although the location is unknown, Andrej appears to have quickly opened his own tailor shop in Tacoma, a testament to his skill with a blade and thread.
Andrej wasn’t just tailoring, he was busy circulating radical socialist pamphlets, given there was no English-language anarchist periodical in the United States at the time, as he put it. In early 1894, when the hobos, bums, and tramps known as Coxey’s Army mobilized for a poverty march on Washington DC, Andrej and his Tacoma comrades organized the local mob to storm multiple stores and demand whatever they wanted, a demand which wasn’t refused in this nascent but short-lived uprising.

Shortly after this, a socialist named Oliver Verity came into Andrej’s tailor shop and told him about the socialist colony he’d helped found in Glennis, just over thirty miles south of Tacoma. This colony was partially inspired by the utopian science-fiction novel Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, although when Andrej went to visit, he wasn’t impressed with their proscribed socialist way of living. At the time, most socialist colonies were explicitly racist, as were most socialists, although Glennis was not.
Andrej also helped found an anarchist newspaper called The Firebrand published out of Portland, and he became its Tacoma correspondent. Soon enough, anarchists were debating socialists across the Pacific Northwest, and little by little anarchism gained a foothold. The socialist colony at Glennis eventually split, with the anarchists deciding to leave the socialists behind and start a new colony. For this purpose, Andrej built a wooden boat on the Tacoma waterfront with Oliver Verity, George Allen, and Frank Odell, who then sailed off to establish Home as it became known.
The first families moved to Home on February 10, 1896, and over the following year Andrej helped Home grow from his base in Tacoma. There is little documentation of his involvement with Home in this time, but as he wrote for Les Temps Nouveaux, in Portland, Oregon, anarchism spreads greatly. Most of the militant anarchists are newly convinced. In short, our ideas have a better chance of succeeding here than anywhere else in the world I’ve had the opportunity to travel, because the people are very intelligent and are now in dire poverty, especially in the American Northwest.
Andrej agitated in Tacoma from February 1896 to April 1897, when he moved south to San Francisco, all the while writing for The Firebrand and Les Temps Nouveaux. While he was in San Francisco, the government shut down The Firebrand, although it was soon replaced by Free Society published out of San Francisco, which Andrej also wrote for. When the comrades at Home began publishing Discontent, he contributed numerous articles, first from San Francisco, then from the port of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where he arrived by August 1898, living there until 1901.
After traveling to the Philippines, China, Australia, and New Zealand, he returned to Home sometime before May 1903 and lectured at the newly finished Liberty Hall. After this, he returned to Honolulu by May, when he sent several nice gifts back to Home. Andrej then moved to Pueblo, Colorado where he agitated from 1903 to 1905 before helping to found the IWW in Chicago, after which he returned to Home. He became editor of The Demonstrator, the successor to the suppressed Discontent, but he moved back to Tacoma in November 1905 and took over the tailor shop of Nathan and Bessie Levin, two Belarusan anarchists who’d recently built their own house at Home.
Andrej appears to have lived in Tacoma through 1906 and into 1907, always writing the international news column for The Demonstrator. He gave several popular lectures at Liberty Hall and organized a wholesome anarchist picnic with ice cream. When his comrade Laurent Casas arrived at Home in June 1907 to take over as editor of The Demonstrator, it appears that Andrej was waiting to pass the torch. His last news column is dated July 17, 1907, after which Andrej disappears from The Demonstrator, and from history.
Andrej Klemenčič is alleged to have died sometime in 1908, but the only source is a Slovenian socialist who never knew Andrej and didn’t know anyone at Home when he visited in 1909. According to him, people at Home claimed Andrej was dead, although as of the final February 19, 1908 issue of The Demonstrator, there was no mention of his passing. His close comrades Emma Goldman, Lucy Parsons, Big Bill Haywood, or Jean Grave never mention his death, nor is there any obituary in any anarchist newspaper. All of this is a story for another time, but one is thing is certain: the last words written by Andrej Klemenčič were published from Home, the anarchist community he helped found.










Comments
Ah, yes, the "isolated…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 06:55
Ah, yes, the "isolated backwater of Home, Washington," as in, a white colony founded in 1896 on the prior displacement of Lushootseed-speaking people, isolated as in a not overly-long boat ride away from the white town of Tacoma that had just forcibly removed Chinese residents in 1885. Before white people showed up to take Home and make it isolated it was in reality well-connected by waterway among many Native communities. Home, as in a corporation founded under the laws and protection of the colonial State of Washington, according to Home's own periodicals, The New Era and Discontent, not as in anarchists squatting the woods in defiance of state law.
'Lushootseed-speaking…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 09:38
In reply to Ah, yes, the "isolated… by anonymous (not verified)
'Lushootseed-speaking peoples'? Ah, yes, don't bother to look up the actual band that resided on that part of what you call 'well-connected waterway.' In fact, keep being a lazy loser who has never even gotten off their ass and gone to the Squaxin rez and into their historical center.
Hate to break it to you but…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 10:21
In reply to 'Lushootseed-speaking… by anonymous (not verified)
Hate to break it to you but it's possible to know at the same time that there is more than one Lushootseed speaking tribe/community and which community was where then and is currently (which aren't always exactly the same thing). A community doesn't become non-Lushootseed-speaking just because there is more than one of them. I don't expect non-Natives to understand this, and I'm not angry, just disappointed. But go ahead, continue to get more mad at Native peoples for still existing and criticizing you and your racist heroes than you do at the racist white anarchists actively colonizing Native lands and publishing anti-Native articles. You've accurately chosen your true enemy, the people you're stealing from.
nice, so you have no idea…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 10:32
In reply to Hate to break it to you but… by anonymous (not verified)
nice, so you have no idea who lived where 'home' was built, or what their name was. there is an answer, but i guess you white boys dont get taught much at yr evergreen-adjacent cult pods
I do know, that's how I knew…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 10:45
In reply to nice, so you have no idea… by anonymous (not verified)
I do know, that's how I knew they were Lushootseed-speaking, whereas you are so ignorant in the year of our lord 2025 that you still think that before colonization Native people didn't travel or have relations with other nearby communities even when they spoke the same language (given more than one dialect, etc). Ah yes, Native people have always lived on reservations and never left them, even before colonization. Very wise thinking indeed! No problem with white anarchists buying land and protection from the State of Washington and publishing articles about how they hated the "savage" way of life. But have fun looking through Home's anarchist periodicals for any mention specifically of the Squaxin, Puyallup, Nisqually or others. You'll be looking for a good long while and will have less time for hand-wringing commentary here.
"Native people got their…
anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/19/2025 - 07:43
In reply to nice, so you have no idea… by anonymous (not verified)
"Native people got their land taken then privatized? I want all of their names! Every single one of them! Or else you're a liberal campus loser..."
The Transmetropolitan Review…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 11:03
In reply to Ah, yes, the "isolated… by anonymous (not verified)
The Transmetropolitan Review wrote about this in 2023: https://thetransmetropolitanreview.wordpress.com/2023/12/30/how-to-star…
"Home was founded in February of 1896 by three families: the Allens, the Veritys, and the O’Dells. All of them were white. Four decades earlier, the united indigenous had risen up against the colonizers only to be crushed by the US government, their leaders executed and their people consigned to reservations. The tribal band that originally inhabited Home, the S’hotl-Ma-Mish, were displaced to Squaxin Island, made a wide variety of promises by the federal government, and eventually found their fishing rights infringed upon by numerous fish canning operations run by white people."
And later:
“Nevertheless, it remains unclear what the original indigenous residents thought or felt about Home, nor is there any clear record of the anarchists meeting with tribal members… However, despite this lack of documentation, it is basically impossible that residents of Home had no contact with the local tribes, given how much both peoples lived on the Salish Sea, for food as well as transportation.”
For whatever reason they didn't talk about it this time, but you are all arguing over something the publishers made public already.
Yeah, I'd already read that…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 11:12
In reply to The Transmetropolitan Review… by anonymous (not verified)
Yeah, I'd already read that article before I made my initial comment here on this new one, but thanks anyway. Doesn't justify their "isolated backwater" comment or their failure to address the nature of Home as a corporation under the State of Washington's laws and protection, or the Home periodicals' failure to ever mention local tribes, or those same periodicals' willingness to publish explicitly anti-Native articles. Encountering Natives around the area you live because you live on stolen Native land doesn't justify anything. Anarchy shouldn't be about gaining white freedom at the expense of Native peoples. Hope this helps.
it is pretty bad and if…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 11:31
In reply to Yeah, I'd already read that… by anonymous (not verified)
it is pretty bad and if there is not a good article talking about all that, maybe someone who has done the research should write one... maybe titled "how dumb white dropout hippie anarchos were already around in the 19th century"
k yt boy. you still haven't…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 10:48
k yt boy. you still haven't named the lushootseed-speaking band that lived near home, so clearly you are another guilty yt boy from evergreen trying to be ultimate ally. go actually speak to a native person from the region you are actively colonizing and learn the local history instead of make ignorant comments.
No, go read every issue of…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 11:00
In reply to k yt boy. you still haven't… by anonymous (not verified)
No, go read every issue of Home's anarchist periodicals, find any mention specifically of the Squaxin, Puyallup, Nisqually or other Native tribes of Puget Sound and then get back to me about why it's ok to you that some of the Home anarchists thought it was ok to publish articles about "savages" being evil. I'll be here waiting for you to prove yourself right for having criticized me and myself wrong for having criticized the perfect white anarchist colonizers of Home.
k yt boy, go actually talk…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 11:38
In reply to No, go read every issue of… by anonymous (not verified)
k yt boy, go actually talk to the local natives in the region you are actively colonizing. you might stop generalizing about natives and thinking you are their ultimate ally. instead, you might get to know real life natives in your region. hope this helps.
I see you still haven't gone…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 11:44
In reply to k yt boy, go actually talk… by anonymous (not verified)
I see you still haven't gone through every issue of Home's anarchist periodicals to find any mention specifically of the Squaxin, Puyallup, Nisqually or other Native tribes of Puget Sound. I'll be waiting. Might take you a while given you have no idea what you're talking about and are only commenting to defend the honor of racist white settlers who published articles about how Natives were too savage to make art and stuff like that.
dont know why yr using a…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 13:01
In reply to I see you still haven't gone… by anonymous (not verified)
dont know why yr using a slovenian guy to make yrself out to be some moral authority on the local indigenous when 1) you can't even cite the tribal band name of the people who inhabited near to home, not home itself 2) you clearly never talked with the local tribal historians who wouldve shown you the family trees and intermarriages occurring in that region from 1890 to 1930s, the native christianity in the region, which did more damage than home (seriously wtf), and the active genocidal colonists still murdering whole villages in the 1870s
but thats not surprising bcuz 'ultimate allies' like u just want other yt ppl to defer to them and their generalizations, not the local indigenous themselves. but yeah yt boy keep citing some articles that u never actually cite, none of which are written by this slovenian guy, just more of your guru cult generalizations that paint u as the ultimate arbiter
I would say I don't know why…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 13:14
In reply to dont know why yr using a… by anonymous (not verified)
I would say I don't know why you still haven't found any mention specifically of the Squaxin, Puyallup, Nisqually or other Native tribes of Puget Sound in the Home anarchist periodicals (but would have found explicitly racist articles saying Natives in general didn't understand equality, if you'd looked), but then I would be a dishonest troll just like you. Only difference is that you are defending white settler racists by deflection, whereas I just brought up three simple, irrefutable points that don't become any less true whether one goes to a certain place and talks to a certain person or not, which you'd might know if you were Native. 1) Home wasn't an "isolated backwater". 2) It's pretty close to the town of Tacoma, which wasn't just anti-Native but also violently anti-Chinese, making space for more white workers. 3) Home wasn't an anarchist squat in the woods. It was a corporation, as the Home colonizers admitted, under the laws and protection of the State of Washington. The hero of the Home anarchists wasn't Chief Leschi, it was the racist colonizer Thomas Paine who whined about how the Brits were stirring up the Natives and Blacks to destroy the poor oppressed white Americans. Maybe read a book or a Home colony periodical before you grandstand here. Or go troll under an actual bridge. Your white settler heroes were fools and aren't getting any smarter the more their dust scatters.
k yt boy feel free to cite…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 13:21
In reply to I would say I don't know why… by anonymous (not verified)
k yt boy
feel free to cite the articles
btw yr not any authority on the natives and you clearly dont know shit about the regions history
Feel free to cite any…
anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/18/2025 - 13:40
In reply to k yt boy feel free to cite… by anonymous (not verified)
Feel free to cite any mention of the Squaxin, Puyallup, Nisqually or other Native tribes of Puget Sound in any of the Home anarchist periodicals. I'll wait patiently for your next comment after you've found the mention you're looking for, out of respect for your dutiful research in service of your white settler idols.
since you claim to have read…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/20/2025 - 13:32
In reply to Feel free to cite any… by anonymous (not verified)
since you claim to have read all 2,000,000+ words of all three home papers, please just drop a list of all these anti-native articles as well as the author names. might be helpful in convincing ppl you aren't a dumbshit yt boy
Yeah, random internet person…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/20/2025 - 18:08
In reply to since you claim to have read… by anonymous (not verified)
Yeah, random internet person in 2025 can you please verify your identity. If you're white that will change history so that a different group of people, the Home anarchists, weren't white settler racists. But if you're not white, that will keep history the way it was, the Home anarchists will remain white settler racists. Comment Section Time Machine. I for one hope that we can move past this idea that any anarchist ever did or said anything wrong. We are all Proudhon's perfect angels and always will be.
It is impossible to mention …
EmmaAintDead Mon, 05/19/2025 - 15:08
It is impossible to mention "Home" without someone having a meltdown. I say we lean in. Double down. Piss everyone off.
The trouble with Home wasn't that it was a colonizer effort, it was that they didn't make masking mandatory.
If you'd read some of the…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/20/2025 - 07:22
In reply to It is impossible to mention … by EmmaAintDead
If you'd read some of the old anarchist rags from Home, you'd know that not only did they print racist anti-Native articles, not only did they never mention the locals, they also reprinted a little article against government vaccine mandates. You wouldn't have to make shit up to troll about, like the Transmetropols made up the shit about Home being an isolated backwater, like you made up shit about other people's psychological states. You could troll about real shit. Troll smarter, not harder.
when I create my own…
EmmaAintDead Tue, 05/20/2025 - 08:52
In reply to If you'd read some of the… by anonymous (not verified)
when I create my own anarchist town the first law I will pass will be for mandatory vaccinations. Anyone who doesnt get their anarchist-required medical procedures will be forcefemmed - if they want to inflict the tyranny of disease on us, we will inflict the tyranny of gender on them!
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