----- Original Message ----- Good explanation. Another factor is that, unlike the Marxists and social democrats, the anarchists never seized state power in a revolution or formed a government in a capitalist society (the latter never having been their objective) and only had limited influence in the trade unions and other popular organizations in Spain, Italy, France and a few Latin American countries prior to WW II. In other words, the great majority of politically conscious workers and intellectuals looking at the historical record and the relative strength of the competing political tendencies, had less reason to treat anarchist tactics seriously, however attractive its anti-statist, anti-party program and heroic tradition embodied in proletarian activists like Sacco and Vanzetti.
-------------
Orwell was pretty impressed with them in Spain. Enough to fight in their ranks in the civil war.
For details, see "Homage to Catalonia."
Joanna