Anarchism

"Anarchist" redirects here. For the Marvel Comics superhero, see Anarchist (comics).

Anarchism is a political philosophy or group of doctrines and attitudes centered on rejection of any form of authoritarian relationship, hierarchical institution or compulsory government (cf. "state"), and supporting its elimination. The term "anarchism" is derived from the Greek αναρχία ("without arche" or "without authority"). Thus "anarchism", in its most general meaning, is the belief that all forms of authority are undesirable. A majority of the philosophical trends within anarchism are anti-property or for the communal use of resources and further democratisation of society. Starting with the early social democratic movement and philosophers such as Proudhon and Bakunin, the issue of property and its use and control has been of major importance for anarchists and anarchist organisations.

There are a variety of types and traditions of anarchism with various points of difference. However, the varieties are not particularly well characterized and not all of them are mutually exclusive. Other than the description above, "there is no single defining position that all anarchists hold, and those considered anarchists at best share a certain family resemblance." Preferred economic systems are one of the many areas of disagreement for anarchists.

Origins

Pre-Nineteenth Century

Main article: History of anarchism

Opposition to the state and hierarchical authority had a long history prior to the formation of the anarchist movement in nineteenth century Europe. Some claim that anarchist themes can be detected in works as old as those of the Taoist sage Lao Tzu, though this is a controversial topic. Diogenes of Sinope and the Cynics and their contemporary, Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, also introduced topics which contain anarchist themes.

James Harrington in The Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) uses the term anarchy to describe a situation where the people use force to impose a government on an economic base composed of either solitary land ownership (absolute monarchy), or land in the ownership of a few (mixed monarchy). He distinguishes it from a commonwealth, the situation in which both land ownership and government are shared by the population at large, seeing anarchy as a temporary situation arising from an imbalance between the form of government and the form of property relations.

Anarchism in the modern sense, however, has its roots in the secular political thought of the Enlightenment, particularly Rousseau's arguments for the moral centrality of freedom. The word "anarchist" was originally used as a term of abuse, but by the French Revolution some groups such as the Enragés had started to use the term in a positive sense, seeing the Jacobin concept of a "revolutionary government" as an oxymoron. It was in this political climate that William Godwin would develop his philosophy, which is considered by many to be the first expression of modern anarchist thought.

William Godwin

Main article: William Godwin

According to Peter Kropotkin, William Godwin, in his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (2 vols., 1793), was "the first to formulate the political and economical conceptions of anarchism, even though he did not give that name to the ideas developed in his work." Charles A. Madison writes, "The first modern systematic exponent of anarchism was William Godwin. . . . Strongly influenced by the sentiments of the French Revolution, he argued that since man is a rational being he must not be hampered in the exercise of his pure reason. Moreover, since all forms of government have irrational foundations and are consequently tyrannical in nature, they must be swept away." However, as a philosophical anarchist he was opposed to revolutionary action to eliminate the state and saw a minimal state as a present "necessary evil" that would become increasingly irrelevant and powerless by the gradual spread of knowledge. Godwin advocated an extreme form of individualism, proposing that all sorts of cooperation in labor should be eliminated; he says: "everything understood by the term co-operation is in some sense an evil." Godwin felt that discrimination on any grounds besides ability was intolerable. Godwin is also well known for marrying the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Their daughter, Mary Shelley, eloped with Percy Shelley, a poet who was a follower of Godwin's ideas. Later she achieved fame as the author of Frankenstein.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Main article: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Proudhon and his children, by Gustave Courbet, 1865

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was the first self-proclaimed anarchist, a label which he adopted in his 1840 treatise What is Property?. It is for this reason that some declare Proudhon the founder of modern anarchist theory. He developed the theory of spontaneous order in society, whereby organization emerges without any central authority, a "positive anarchy" in which order arises from every individual "doing what he wishes and only what he wishes" and where "business transactions alone produce the social order." He saw anarchy as:

"a form of government or constitution in which public and private consciousness, formed through the development of science and law, is alone sufficient to maintain order and guarantee all liberties. In it, as a consequence, the institutions of the police, preventive and repressive methods, officialdom, taxation, etc., are reduced to a minimum. In it, more especially, the forms of monarchy and intensive centralization disappear, to be replaced by federal institutions and a pattern of life based on the commune."

His opposition to capitalism, the state, and organized religion inspired subsequent anarchists and made him one of the leading socialist theorists of his time. However, he was also opposed to "communism, whether of the utopian or the Marxist variety, [the criticism being] that it destroyed freedom by taking away from the individual control over his means of production." Like Godwin, Proudhon was a philosophical anarchist who opposed violent revolutionary action.

Schools of anarchist thought

Mutualism

Main article: Mutualism (economic theory)

While mutualism as a body of economic ideas began in English and French labor movements of the 18th century, it later took on an anarchist form mostly associated with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. In his landmark book What is Property? (Qu'est-ce que la propriété?, published in 1840), he criticized existing theories of private property and expounded an economic theory based on a labor theory of value, stating that, "The price of every product in demand should be its cost in time and outlay — neither more nor less. . ." However, "every product not in demand is a loss to the producer — a commercial non-value." According to Proudhon, "It is labor, labor alone, that produces all the elements of wealth... according to a law of variable, but certain, proportionality." He was also careful to advise, however, that "The value of labor is a figurative expression, an anticipation of effect from cause." Mutualist economics is characterised by a dedication to free association, a democratically run mutualist bank, and voluntary contract/federation.

Many mutualists believe that a market without government intervention would result in prices paid for labor aligning with its true worth, as determined by the labor theory of value, because firms would be forced to compete over workers just as workers compete over firms, which would raise wages. As William B. Greene put it:

Under the mutual system, each individual will receive the just and exact pay for his work; services equivalent in cost being exchangeable for services equivalent in cost, without profit or discount; and so much as the individual laborer will then get over and above what he has earned will come to him as his share in the general prosperity of the community of which he is an individual member.

Proudhon's mutualism, introduced into the United States in 1848 by Charles A. Dana, supplemented a native American form already worked out by Josiah Warren. Proudhon's mutualism was adapted to American conditions by Greene, who introduced it to Benjamin R. Tucker. Unlike the American individualist anarchists, Proudhon emphasises associations amongst producers; thus, some see mutualism as being situated somewhere between individualism and collectivism. This sense seems confirmed by the mutualists' own writings. In What Is Property?, Proudhon develops a concept of "liberty", equivalent to "anarchy", which is the dialectical "synthesis of communism and property." Greene, influenced by Pierre Leroux, sought mutualism in the synthesis of three philosophies — communism, capitalism and socialism. Although later individualist anarchists used the term mutualism to describe their economic philosophy, they retained little if any of this emphasis on synthesis.

Economic mutualism is not to be confused with dyadic mutualism, which holds that intimate relationships are strongest when they involve creative collaboration.

Collectivist anarchism

Main article: Collectivist anarchism

Mikhail Bakunin

Collectivist anarchism is most commonly associated with Mikhail Bakunin and the anti-authoritarian section of the First International (1864-1876). Unlike mutualists, collectivist anarchists oppose all private ownership of the means of production, instead advocating that ownership be collectivized. Workers would be compensated for their work on the basis of the amount of time they contributed to production, rather than goods being distributed "according to need" as in anarcho-communism. By the early 1880s, most of the European anarchist movement had adopted an anarcho-communist position, advocating the abolition of wage labour and distribution according to need rather than labor, although the early anarchist movement in Spain is sometimes associated with collectivism. Although the collectivist anarchists advocated compensation for labor, they held out the possibility of a post-revolutionary transition to a communist system of distribution according to need. Collective anarchism arose contemporary with Marxism but was opposed to it, despite Marxism striving for a collectivist stateless society, because of an opposition to the Marxist dictatorship of the proletariat.

Anarchist communism

Main article: Anarchist communism

Joseph Déjacque was an early anarchist communist and the first person to describe himself as "libertarian". Unlike Proudhon, he argued that "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature." Other important anarchist communists include Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman and Errico Malatesta. Many in the anarcho-syndicalist movements (see below) saw anarchist communism as their objective. Isaac Puente's 1932 El comunismo libertario was adopted by the Spanish CNT as its manifesto for a post-revolutionary society.

Anarchist communists propose that a society composed of a number of self-governing communes with collective usage of the means of production, with direct democracy as the political organizational form, and related to other communes through federation would be the freest form of social organisation. However, some anarchist communists oppose the majoritarian nature of democracy, feeling that it can impede individual liberty and opt in favor of consensus. In anarchist communism, individuals would not receive direct compensation for labour (through sharing of profits or payment), but would instead have free, unregulated or unrestricted access to the resources and surplus of the commune. Anarchist communists believe that the value of labor cannot be measured, since the value of every creation is relative to the creator, and the creation of all products is made possible by the labor of past generations. They believe everyone should be free to consume without the restraint of arbitrary measurement of the worth of their labor. Some commentators believe that this would require an essentially communitarian 'human nature', but, according to the view developed by Kropotkin and later by Murray Bookchin, the members of such a society will spontaneously perform all necessary labour because they will recognize the benefits of communal enterprise and mutual aid. As a biologist, Kropotkin in particular, on the basis of his biology research and experiments, believed that humans and human society are more inclined towards efforts for mutual benefit than toward competition and strife.

Peter Kropotkin

Peter Kropotkin, often seen as the most important theorist of anarchist communism, outlined his economic ideas in The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops. Kropotkin felt that co-operation is more beneficial than competition, arguing in Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution that this was illustrated in nature. He advocated the abolition of private property through the "expropriation of the whole of social wealth" by the people themselves, and for the economy to be co-ordinated through a horizontal network of voluntary associations where goods are distributed according to the physical needs of the individual, rather than according to labor. He further argued that these "needs", as society progressed, would not merely be physical needs but "[a]s soon as his material wants are satisfied, other needs, of an artistic character, will thrust themselves forward the more ardently. Aims of life vary with each and every individual; and the more society is civilized, the more will individuality be developed, and the more will desires be varied."

He maintained that, in anarcho-communism:

...houses, fields, and factories will no longer be private property, and that they will belong to the commune or the nation and money, wages, and trade would be abolished.

— Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread

Individuals and groups would use and control whatever resources they needed, as the aim of anarchist-communism was to place "the product reaped or manufactured at the disposal of all, leaving to each the liberty to consume them as he pleases in his own home." He supported the expropriation of property to ensure that everyone would have access to what they needed without being forced to sell their labour to get it.

We do not want to rob any one of his coat, but we wish to give to the workers all those things the lack of which makes them fall an easy prey to the exploiter, and we will do our utmost that none shall lack aught, that not a single man shall be forced to sell the strength of his right arm to obtain a bare subsistence for himself and his babes. This is what we mean when we talk of Expropriation...

— Peter Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread

He said that a "peasant who is in possession of just the amount of land he can cultivate", and "a family inhabiting a house which affords them just enough space... considered necessary for that number of people" and the artisan "working with their own tools or handloom" would not be interfered with, arguing that "[t]he landlord owes his riches to the poverty of the peasants, and the wealth of the capitalist comes from the same source."

Platformism

Main article: Platformism

Platformism is a tendency within the wider anarchist communist movement which shares an affinity with organising in the tradition of Nestor Makhno's Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft). The Platform came from the experiences of Russian anarchists in the 1917 October Revolution, which lead eventually to the victory of Bolshevik party dictatorship rather than workers' and peasants' self-management. It argued for the "vital need of an organization which, having attracted most of the participants in the anarchist movement, would establish a common tactical and political line for anarchism and thereby serve as a guide for the whole movement."

Anarcho-syndicalism

Main article: Anarcho-syndicalism

Flag used by Anarcho-syndicalists.

The early twentieth century saw the rise of anarcho-syndicalism as a distinct school of thought within the anarchist tradition. More heavily focused on the labour movement than previous forms of anarchism, syndicalism posits radical trade unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the state with a new society that is democratically self-managed by workers. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Three important principles of syndicalism are workers' solidarity, direct action (such as general strikes and workplace recuperations), and workers' self-management. Anarcho-syndicalism and other communitarian branches of anarchism are not mutually exclusive: anarcho-syndicalists often subscribe to communist or collectivist schools of anarchism. Its advocates propose labour organization as a means to create the foundations of a non-hierarchical anarchist society within the current system and bring about social revolution.

Rudolf Rocker was one of the most popular voices in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. He outlined a view of the origins of the movement, what it sought, and why it was important to the future of labour in his 1938 pamphlet Anarchosyndicalism. Although more frequently associated with labor struggles of the early twentieth century (particularly in France and Spain), many syndicalist organizations are active today.

Individualist anarchism

Main article: Individualist anarchism

Individualist anarchism is an anarchist philosophical tradition that has a strong emphasis on equality of liberty and individual sovereignty, drawing much from the tradition of classical liberalism. Individualist anarchists believe that "individual conscience and the pursuit of self-interest should not be constrained by any collective body or public authority." Individualist anarchism is not a single philosophy but refers to a group of individualistic philosophies; there are "several traditions of individualist anarchism."

Egoism

Main article: Individualist anarchism

Max Stirner was the author of a form of individualist anarchism called "Egoism." Stirner's "name appears with familiar regularity in historically-orientated surveys of anarchist thought as one of the earliest and best-known exponents of individualist anarchism." In 1844, Max Stirner's The Ego and Its Own (sometimes translated as "The Individual and His Property") was published, which is considered to be "a founding text in the tradition of individualist anarchism." Stirner held that society had no responsibility for its members. Stirner believed that most commonly accepted social institutions — including the concept of the state, property as a right, natural rights, and the very notion of society — were mere illusions or ghosts in the mind, saying of society that "the individuals are its reality." He advocated egoism and a form of amoralism, in which individuals would unite in "associations of egoists" only when it was in their self interest to do so. For him, property simply comes about through might: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property." And, "What I have in my power, that is my own. So long as I assert myself as holder, I am the proprietor of the thing."

Stirner never called himself an anarchist; he accepted only the label "egoist". Nevertheless, he is considered by most to be an anarchist because of his rejection of the state, law, and government. Also, his ideas influenced many anarchists, although interpretations of his thought are diverse. Anarchists including Benjamin Tucker, Federica Montseny, and the Bonnot Gang claimed him as an influence, while Emma Goldman gave lectures on his thought.

19th century United States

Main articles: Individualist anarchism and Anarchism in the United States

File:JosiahWarren.jpg

Josiah Warren is generally considered "the first American anarchist."

Individualist anarchism in the American tradition began with nineteenth century figures such as Josiah Warren, William B. Greene, Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker, Stephen Pearl Andrews, Victor Yarros, and Henry David Thoreau. The tradition is a form of philosophical anarchism, which does not recommend any violent revolutionary action for immediate elimination of the state. Thoreau's individualist anarchism proclaimed "the inevitability of self-government accompanied by atrophy of the State" and argued that the state had no power other than what individuals cede to it, but included no practical program for social change. Other individualist anarchists pursued a more comprehensive theory and practice.

Also known as the "Boston anarchists", the nineteenth century individualists supported private property and a free market,. They also advocated that protection of liberty and property should be provided by private contractors voluntarily funded in a free market rather than by the state. Victor Yarros explained the understanding of the word "anarchism" of the market anarchists such as Tucker, himself, and others:

Anarchism means no government but it does not mean no laws and no coercion. This may seem paradoxical, but the paradox vanishes when the Anarchist definition of government is kept in view. Anarchists oppose government, not because they disbelieve in punishment of crime and resistance to aggression, but because they disbelieve in compulsory protection. Protection and taxation without consent is itself invasion; hence Anarchism favors a system of voluntary taxation and protection.

Like the social anarchists, they believed that capitalism was unjust in separating the worker from the direct entailment of their labor. But unlike the social anarchists, individualists endorsed the exchange of labor for individual wages. The nineteenth century individualists argued that the state prevents true free competition in the market, which they thought caused labor to receive less income than it should receive. Benjamin Tucker supported the liberty of individuals in "carrying on business for themselves or from assuming relations between themselves as employer and employee if they prefer", as did Spooner. However, Spooner argued that "each man should be his own employer, or work directly for himself, and not for another for wages; because, in the latter case, a part of the fruits of his labor go to his employer, instead of coming to himself" However, though Andrews held to the labor theory and believed that pay should be proportional to labor exerted, he disagreed that "every individual being so employed as to be his own 'boss' and to work solely for himself...is either desirable of feasible. It is not all men who are made for designers, contrivers, and directors." To ensure that individuals self-employed or employed by others are paid in accordance with the labor theory, he, following Warren, advocated the use of money denominated in labor hours. Dyer Lum argued that a free market would see the end of wage labour by co-operatives. They argued that free-market competition would cause disappearance of non-labor income (profit, rent and interest according to a labor theory of value). They believed that unregulated "free banking" and the use of local, mutual currencies would cause interest rates to decline to a nominal rate, as a result of intensified competition in lending.

Benjamin Tucker

Benjamin Tucker, who was one of the most prominent individualist anarchists, opposed what he called four "monopolies": the money monopoly (state control over currency, credit, and banks); the land monopoly of land-titles that remained in effect if individuals were not using their land; patents, which prohibit competition; tariffs, which restrict competition in favor of established firms. There was also agreement among the early American individualists on the permissibility of employment ("wage labour"). Tucker believed that if the state stopped protecting these "monopolies" from competition that "it will make no difference whether men work for themselves, or are employed, or employ others. In any case they can get nothing but that wages for their labor which free competition determines." The nineteenth century individualists disagreed on various things, so there is not one philosophy of "individualist anarchism." For example, departing from most individualists, Spooner supported intellectual property rights and permitted absentee ownership of land. Steven T. Byington also opposed Tucker's ideas on occupancy and use requirements for land titles.

Several of these individualist anarchists later converted to the Egoist form of individualist anarchism, most associated with Max Stirner. After abandoning allegiance to natural rights individualism, Tucker said that there were only two rights, "the right of might" and "the right of contract." In regard to land he said, "In times past...it was my habit to talk glibly of the right of man to land. It was a bad habit, and I long ago sloughed it off....Man's only right to land is his might over it."

Anarcho-capitalism

Main article: Anarcho-capitalism

Further information: [[:Anarchism and anarcho-capitalism]]

File:Murray Rothbard.JPG

Murray Rothbard

Anarcho-capitalism (also self-described as private property anarchism or free-market anarchism) has a significant following in the United States,. Like the traditional individualist anarchists, anarcho-capitalists would like for all services, including law enforcement and security, to be performed by multiple private providers all competing for business, rather than by a monopolist state agency funded by taxation. Anarcho-capitalism's leading proponents include Murray Rothbard, David D. Friedman, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, and Walter Block. It has been influenced by right-libertarians such as Gustave de Molinari, Frederic Bastiat, and Robert Nozick.

Although anarcho-capitalism was also influenced by Tucker and Spooner, it rejects parts of the tradition, in particular the labor theory of value, in favor of the modern neo-classical marginalist view. Thus, many anarcho-capitalists, like most modern economists, do not believe that prices in a free market are, or would be, proportional to labor (nor that "usury" or "exploitation" necessarily occurs where they are disproportionate). Anarcho-capitalists such as Rothbard, believe that different prices of goods and services in a market, whether completely free or not, are ultimately the result of goods and services having different marginal utilities rather than the fact they contain differing amounts of labor - and that there is nothing unjust about this. Anarcho-capitalists also disagree with Tucker that interest would disappear with unregulated banking and money issuance. Rothbard believed that people in general do not wish to lend their money to others without compensation, so there is no reason why this would change where banking is unregulated (nor does he agree that unregulated banking would increase the supply of money). Rothbard defined free-market capitalism as "peaceful voluntary exchange", in contrast to "state capitalism" which he defined as a collusive partnership between business and government that uses coercion to subvert the free market.

Anarcho-capitalism has a theory of legitimacy that supports private property as long as it was obtained by labor, trade, or gift. Anarcho-capitalists support the liberty of individuals to be self-employed or to contract to be employees of others, whichever they prefer. David Friedman has expressed preference for a society where "almost everyone is self-employed." Most anarcho-capitalists believe that in the absence of the institutionalized aggression carried on by the state, "free" capitalism would naturally and inevitably develop through market processes, and thus other forms of aggression would be diminished. Hence, Rothbard's statement that "capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism."

See also: Agorism

Green Anarchism

Main article: Green Anarchism

Green and black flag of Green Anarchism.

Green-Anarchism is a philosophy that advocates a return to a pre-industrial and usually pre-agricultural society. It develops a critique of industrial civilization. In this critique technology and development have alienated people from the natural world. This philosophy develops themes present in the political action of the Luddites and the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, although when primitivism emerged it was influenced more directly by the works of theorists such as the Frankfurt School Marxists Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse; anthropologists Marshall Sahlins and Richard Lee; and others such as Lewis Mumford, Jean Baudrillard and Gary Snyder. Many advoctes of Green Anarchism and primitivism consider Fredy Perlman as the modern progenitor of their views, even though he was neither an anarchist nor a primitivist.

Some green anarchists, identifying themselves as primitivists, advocate a complete process of 'rewilding' and a return to nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles while many green anarchists only wish to see an end to industrial society and do not necessarily oppose domestication or agriculture. Key theorists in the former category include Derrick Jensen and John Zerzan while the 'Unabomber' Theodore Kaczynski belongs in the latter. Still, many green anarchists decide to skirt these issues entirely, focusing not on a post-revolutionary future, but on defense of the earth and social revolution in the present. Today there is much conflict between primitivists and followers of more traditional forms of anarchism, such as the social ecology of Murray Bookchin and class struggle anarchism, yet many green anarchists advocate class struugle. As with all other shades of anarchism, the distinctions between each advocate's ideology can vary greatly.

Anarchism without adjectives

Main article: Anarchism without adjectives

Voltairine de Cleyre

Anarchism without adjectives, in the words of historian George Richard Esenwein, "referred to an unhyphenated form of anarchism, that is, a doctrine without any qualifying labels such as communist, collectivist, mutualist, or individualist. For others, ... [it] was simply understood as an attitude that tolerated the coexistence of different anarchist schools". It arose as the result of being troubled by the "bitter debates" between the different movements and was a call for more tolerance. Anarchism without adjectives emphasizes harmony between various anarchist factions and attempts to unite them around their shared anti-authoritarian beliefs. The expression was coined by Cuban-born Fernando Tarrida del Mármol, who used it in November 1889 in Barcelona.

To these anarchists the economic preferences are considered to be of "secondary importance" to abolishing all authority, with free experimentation the one rule of a free society. Rudolf Rocker said that the different types of anarchism presented "only different methods of economy, the practical possibilities of which have yet to be tested, and that the first objective is to secure the personal and social freedom of men no matter upon which economics basis this is to be accomplished."

Voltairine de Cleyre was one of the most prominent "anarchists without adjectives". Although she initially identified herself as an individualist anarchist, she later espoused a collectivist form of anarchism, while refusing to identify herself with any of the contemporary schools. She commented that "Socialism and Communism both demand a degree of joint effort and administration which would beget more regulation than is wholly consistent with ideal Anarchism; Individualism and Mutualism, resting upon property, involve a development of the private policeman not at all compatible with my notion of freedom." In The Making of an Anarchist, she wrote, "I no longer label myself otherwise than as 'Anarchist' simply." However, she said that "There is nothing un-Anarchistic about any of [these systems] until the element of compulsion enters and obliges unwilling persons to remain in a community whose economic arrangements they do not agree to."

Errico Malatesta was another proponent of anarchism-without-adjectives, stating that "[i]t is not right for us, to say the least, to fall into strife over mere hypotheses."

Anarchism as a social movement

Individualist anarchism does not represent the majority of anarchists; most anarchists favor some form of communitarianism or collectivism. Advocacy of collectivism and violent revolution dominated mainstream anarchism from the days of the First International until the destruction of anarchism as a mass movement at the end of the Spanish Civil War.

The First International

Main articles: International Workingmen's Association and Anarchism and Marxism

The masonic "level in a circle" as used by the Federal Council of Spain of the International Workingmen's Association. Note the inclusion of the plumb, one of the working tools of operative masonry, and a symbol of rectitude of conduct.

In Europe, harsh reaction followed the revolutions of 1848. Twenty years later in 1864 the International Workingmen's Association, sometimes called the 'First International', united some diverse European revolutionary currents, including French followers of Proudhon, Blanquists, English trade unionists, socialists and social democrats. Due to its genuine links to active workers' movements, the International became a significant organization.

Karl Marx became a leading figure in the International and a member of its General Council. Proudhon's followers, the mutualists, opposed Marx's state socialism, advocating political abstentionism and small property holdings. Mikhail Bakunin joined in 1868, allying with the anti-authoritarian socialist sections of the International, who advocated the revolutionary overthrow of the state and the collectivization of property. At first, the collectivists worked with the Marxists to push the First International in a more revolutionary socialist direction. Subsequently, the International became polarized into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads.

Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as authoritarian and predicted that, if a Marxist party came to power, its leaders would simply take the place of the ruling class they had fought against. In 1872, the conflict climaxed with a final split between the two groups, when, at the Hague Congress, Marx engineered the expulsion of Bakunin and James Guillaume from the International and had its headquarters transferred to New York. In response, the anti-authoritarian sections formed their own International at the St. Imier Congress, adopting a revolutionary anarchist program.

Anarchism and organized labor

Main articles: Anarcho-syndicalism and Anarchism in Spain

The anti-authoritarian sections of the First International were the precursors of the anarcho-syndicalists, seeking to "replace the privilege and authority of the State" with the "free and spontaneous organization of labor."

The Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour, CGT), formed in France in 1895, was the first major anarcho-syndicalist movement, but it had been preceded by the Spanish Workers Federation in 1881. Anarchist trade union federations were of special importance in Spain. The most successful was the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour: CNT), founded in 1910. Before the 1940s, the CNT was the major force in Spanish working class politics and played a major role in the Spanish Civil War. The CNT was affiliated with the International Workers Association, a federation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions founded in 1922, with delegates representing two million workers from 15 countries in Europe and Latin America.

The largest organised anarchist movement today is in Spain, in the form of the Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) and the CNT. CGT membership was estimated to be around 100,000 for the year 2003. Other active syndicalist movements include the US Workers Solidarity Alliance and the UK Solidarity Federation. The revolutionary industrial unionist Industrial Workers of the World, claiming 2,000 paying members, and the International Workers Association, an anarcho-syndicalist successor to the First International, also remain active.

The Russian Revolution

Main article: Russian Revolution of 1917

Anarchists participated alongside the Bolsheviks in both February and October revolutions, many anarchists initially supporting the Bolshevik coup. However, the Bolsheviks soon turned against the anarchists and other left-wing opposition, a conflict that culminated in the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion. Anarchists in central Russia were either imprisoned or driven underground or joined the victorious Bolsheviks. In the Ukraine, anarchists fought in the civil war against Whites and then the Bolsheviks as part of the Makhnovshchina peasant army led by Nestor Makhno.

Expelled American anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were amongst those agitating in response to Bolshevik policy and the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising, before they left Russia. Both wrote classic accounts of their experiences in Russia, aiming to expose the reality of Bolshevik control. For them, Bakunin's predictions about the consequences of Marxist rule had proved all too true.

The victory of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution and the resulting Russian Civil War did serious damage to anarchist movements internationally. Many workers and activists saw Bolshevik success as setting an example; Communist parties grew at the expense of anarchism and other socialist movements. In France and the US, for example, the major syndicalist movements of the CGT and IWW began to realign themselves away from anarchism and towards the Communist International.

In Paris, the Dielo Truda group of Russian anarchist exiles, which included Nestor Makhno, concluded that anarchists needed to develop new forms of organisation in response to the structures of Bolshevism. Their 1926 manifesto, called the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft), was supported by some communist anarchists, though opposed by many others. Platformist groups today include the Workers Solidarity Movement in Ireland and the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists of North America.

The fight against Fascism

Main articles: Anti-fascism and Anarchism in Spain

File:CNT-armoured-car-factory.jpg

Spain, 1936. Members of the CNT construct armoured cars to fight against the fascists in one of the collectivised factories.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the familiar dynamics of anarchism's conflict with the state were transformed by the rise of fascism in Europe. Italy saw the first struggles between anarchists and fascists. Anarchists played a key role in the anti-fascist organisation Arditi del Popolo. This group was strongest in areas with anarchist traditions and marked up numerous successful victories, including driving back Blackshirts in the anarchist stronghold of Parma in August 1922.

In France, where the fascists came close to insurrection in the February 1934 riots, anarchists divided over a 'united front' policy. In Spain, the CNT initially refused to join a popular front electoral alliance and abstention by CNT supporters led to a right wing election victory. But in 1936, the CNT changed its policy and anarchist votes helped bring the popular front back to power. Months later, the ruling class responded with an attempted coup, and the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was underway.

In response to the army rebellion, an anarchist-inspired movement of peasants and workers, supported by armed militias, took control of Barcelona and of large areas of rural Spain where they collectivized the land. But even before the eventual fascist victory in 1939, the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with the Stalinists. The CNT leadership often appeared confused and divided, with some members controversially entering the government. According to George Orwell and other foreign observers, Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted both dissident Marxists and anarchists.

Since the late 1970s some anarchists have been involved in fighting the rise of neo-fascist groups. In Germany and the United Kingdom some anarchists worked within militant anti-fascist groups alongside members of the Marxist left. They advocated directly combating fascists with physical force rather than relying on the state.

Issues in anarchism

Ends and means

Main articles: Voluntaryism, Propaganda of the deed, and direct action

Generally, anarchists advocate direct action and oppose voting in elections. Most anarchists feel that real change is not possible through voting. Further, many argue that voting is equivalent to condoning the state, while others advocate a more pragmatic approach, including voting in referendums.

Direct action may be violent or non-violent. Although some anarchists believe that violence is justified in overthrowing existing authority, most anarchists reject terrorism as authoritarian. Mikhail Bakunin and Errico Malatesta, for example, wrote of violence as necessary in revolutionary settings, but denounced terrorism as counter-revolutionary.

Anarchists have often been portrayed as dangerous and violent, due mainly to a number of high-profile violent acts, including riots, assassinations, insurrections, and terrorism by some anarchists, as well as persistently negative media portrayals. Some anarchists do not see the destruction of property as a violent act. Anarchists see war, however, as an activity in which the state seeks to gain and consolidate power, both domestically and in foreign lands, and subscribe to Randolph Bourne's view that "war is the health of the state."

Many anarchists participate in subversive organizations as a means to undermine the establishment, such as Food Not Bombs, radical labor unions, alternative media, and radical social centers. This is in accordance with the anarchist concept of dual power: creating the structures for a new anti-authoritarian society in the shell of the old, hierarchical one.

Capitalism

Main article: Anarchism and capitalism

Most anarchist traditions reject capitalism (which they perceive as authoritarian, coercive, and exploitative) along with the state. This includes rejection of wage labour and usually private property. Market anarchists however, consider private property and markets essential to a free society. Ninetenth century individualists such as Benjamin Tucker opposed collective ownership of capital,, despite often considering themselves socialist. However, the meaning of the term "socialism" has long been contested, and their philosophy cannot be considered collectivist.. Also, it has been debated whether the term should refer to state control.). Market anarchists believe trade and private ownership of the means of production to be natural and spontaneous, and that its abolition would require a coercive state or private aggression. Thus elimination of capital and property is seen as counterproductive to anarchy.

The ninteteenth century American individualist anarchists were "fervent anti-capitalists" who "saw no contradiction between their individualist stance and their rejection of capitalism." However, they supported free trade, free competition, and varying levels of private property, like in mutualism and homesteading. For example, Benjamin Tucker supported private property arising from labor, including private ownership of the means of production with the caveat that land would not be considered owned if not in use, while Lysander Spooner supported private property in land as well whether in use or not. Anarcho-capitalists support free-market capitalism without a state, which Murray Rothbard defines as "peaceful voluntary exchange" as opposed to state capitalism which he calls "violent expropriation".

In contrast, most non-individualist anarchists follow Proudhon in opposing ownership of workplaces by capitalists and aim to replace wage labour with workers' associations. These anarchists agree with Kropotkin's comment that "the origin of the anarchist inception of society" lies in "the criticism . . . of the hierarchical organisations and the authoritarian conceptions of society" rather than in simple opposition to the state or government. They argue that wage labour is hierarchical and authoritarian in nature and, consequently, capitalism cannot be anarchist. Such anarchists would agree with scholar Jeremy Jennings when he argues that it is "hard not to conclude that these ideas [i.e. anarcho-capitalism] -- with roots deep in classical liberalism -- are described as anarchist only on the basis of a misunderstanding of what anarchism is."' In Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism, Peter Marshall argues that "few anarchists would accept the 'anarcho-capitalists' into the anarchist camp since they do not share a concern for economic equality and social justice. . . Anarcho-capitalists, even if they do reject the State, might therefore best be called right-wing libertarians rather than anarchists." However, anarcho-capitalism is often considered to be a form of anarchism by scholars.

Globalization

All anarchists oppose the use of coercion related to international trade, as they claim is carried out through institutions such as the World Bank, World Trade Organization, G8 and World Economic Forum. Some anarchists see such coercion as neoliberal globalization. Groups such as Reclaim the Streets, were among the instigators of the so-called anti-globalization movement. The Carnival Against Capitalism on 18 June 1999 is generally regarded as the first of the major anti-globalization protests. Anarchists, such as the WOMBLES, have on occasion played a significant role in planning, organising and participating in subsequent protests. The protests tended to be organised on anarchist direct action principles with a general tolerance for a range of different activities ranging from those who engage in tactical frivolity to the black blocs. Other market anarchists and anarcho-capitalists see the worldwide expansion of the division of labor through trade as a boon, and oppose the regulation and cartelization imposed by the World Bank, WTO, etc. Many also object to fiat money issued by central banks and resulting debasement of money and confiscation of wealth.

Communism

While communism is proposed as a form of social and economic organisation by many anarchists, other anarchists consider it a danger to the liberty and free development of the individual. Most schools of anarchism have recognized a distinction between libertarian and authoritarian forms of communism. Proudhon said of communism, "whether of the utopian or the Marxist variety, that it destroyed freedom by taking away from the individual control over his means of production" and "Communism is exploitation of the strong by the weak." Mikhail Bakunin stated:

"I hate Communism because it is the negation of liberty and because for me humanity is unthinkable without liberty. I am not a Communist, because Communism concentrates and swallows up in itself for the benefit of the State all the forces of society, because it inevitably leads to the concentration of property in the hands of the State."

Although Peter Kropotkin, one of the leading proponents of anarchist communism, argued for an economic model of free distribution between all individuals, many individualist anarchists oppose communism in all its forms, on the grounds that voluntary communism is not practicable. Individualist such as Benjamin Tucker, Victor Yarros, and Henry Appleton have denied that anarcho-communism is a genuine form of anarchism. They rejected its strategies and argued that it is inherently authoritarian. In the opinion of individualist Henry Appleton, "Communism, being opposed to natural law, must necessarily call upon unnatural methods if it would put itself into practice" and employ "pillage, brute force, and violence."

Anarcho-communists reject the criticism, pointing to the principle of voluntary association that underpins their theory and differentiates it from state communism. Some individualist anarchists are also willing to recognize anarchist communism as a legitimate form. Kevin Carson writes:

Free market, libertarian communist, syndicalism, and other kinds of collectivist anarchists must learn to coexist in peace and mutual respect today, in our fight against the corporate state, and tomorrow, in the panarchy that is likely to succeed it.

Democracy

For individualist anarchists, "the system of democracy, of majority decision, is held null and void. Any impingement upon the natural rights of the person is unjust and a symbol of majority tyranny." Anarcho-ecologist Murray Bookchin criticizes individualist anarchists for opposing democracy, and says "majority rule" is consistent with anarchism, but he also preferred the term assembly rather than democracy. Bookchin has in turn been accused of "municipal statism"; i.e., non-anarchism. Lysander Spooner's long essay "No Treason" offers an individualist anarchist rebuttal to the argument that existing democratic governments are justified by majority consent.

Gender

Main article: Anarcha-feminism

Anarcha-feminism is a kind of radical feminism that espouses the belief that patriarchy is a fundamental problem in society. However, it was not explicitly formulated as anarcha-feminism until early 1970s, during the second-wave feminist movement.

Unlike marxist feminism and socialist feminism, anarcha-feminism does not necessarily adopt the historical model of patriarchy put across by Engels in The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. Rather, anarcha-feminists are likely to view patriarchy as a component and symptom of interconnected systems of oppression. In such a model, opposition to patriarchy is not the sole means of opposing authoritarian repression, but instead becomes a justification for opposing all interconnected forms of oppression.

In anarcha-feminist circles in the United States, the slang term "manarchist" is sometimes used, pejoratively, to describe a (generally white and heterosexual) male anarchist who is either inattentive or dismissive with regard to (anarcha)feminist concerns.

Race

A minority of historically prominent anarchists have been accused of racism: e.g. Proudhon and Bakunin. Most modern and historical anarchists describe themselves as explicitly anti-racist. Many early Anarchists, notably Lucy Parsons - formerly an enslaved non-white American - viewed Racism as one of many negative side-effects of Capitalism and expected that it would vanish in a post-capitalist world. Among modern Anarchists, however, anti-racism plays a more prominent role and is typically viewed as one of several forms of social hierarchy and stratification which must be destroyed. While Proudhon's anti-semitism influenced the proto-fascist Cercle Proudhon, Anarchist organizations, however, generally have never included racism as part of their platforms, and have often included anti-racism.

More recently, Stuart Christie, published a positive review of Kurt Saxon's book Wheels of Rage., leading some to accuse him of sympathy to certain forms of fascism (see Leaderless resistance), notwithstanding his prominent role in combatting the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Anti-Racist Action is one of the largest grassroots anti-fascist and anti-racist organizations in North America today and counts many anarchists among its members. Their tactics, centered around directly confronting neo-fascist and white-supremacist groups, are considered controversial both within the anarchist movement (where they are sometimes portrayed as well-intentioned but ineffective) and in mainstream society (where they are often portrayed as violent and disruptive).

Many Anarchists are also involved in the New Abolitionist movement, which seeks to abolish the concept of race itself on that basis that it has no biological basis and is a social construction designed to divide the working class and preserve capitalism.

Black anarchism opposes the existence of a state, capitalism, and subjugation and domination of people of African descent, and favours a non-hierarchical organization of society. Theorists include Ashanti Alston, Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, Sam Mbah and Martin Sostre.

See also: Black anarchism

Anarchist People of Color emerged in the United States as a tendency which theorized anarchism in the broader context of race. Founded by writer and organizer Ernesto Aguilar, an APOC email list became the basis for collectives composed of people of colour to form in several American cities. APOC held a conference in Detroit, Michigan in 2003. In 2005, the first APOC journal, Wildfire, was launched, but folded a few months later. In 2007, Roger White and the Oakland, California APOC group founded Jailbreak Press. [10]

Imperialism

See also: Nationalist anarchism

Anarchism has a long history of opposing Imperialism, both in the core nations (the colonizers) and the periphery nations (the colonized), notwithstanding Bakunin's colonialist sympathies as expressed while in the Russian colony of Siberia. In general, Anarchists have preferred to focus on building revolutions at home and doing solidarity work for comrades in other countries, e.g. Guy Aldred was jailed for printing Shyamji Krishnavarma's'The Indian Sociologist. In practice that has meant that Anarchists in Europe and North America have focused their anti-imperialist activism on combatting the ability of the States under whose jurisdiction they reside to carry out wars of aggression in other parts of the world. The limitations of this were shown during the Spanish Revolution, when Franco was able to mobilise Regulares - Moroccan soldiers of the Spanish Army of Africa - who provided crucial shock troops in the opening stages of Franco's revolt.

One example of this was Rudolf Rocker, a prominent German anarchist and anti-fascist, who was particularly active amongst Jewish workers. In his Nationalism and Culture he argued for a "federation of European peoples" which would include Jews. Rejecting biological theories of race, and rejecting the concept of nation, he nevertheless privileged the European cultural orbit, suggesting that the successful libertarian organization amongst Europeans was "the first condition for the creation of a world federation, which will also secure the so-called colonial peoples the same rights for the pursuit of happiness" (p554). Many modern anarchists share this eurocentric approach, including the WOMBLES, and others, through their participation in Euromayday.

Chinese anarchists were very active in the early Chinese nationalist movement and in the resistance to British and later Japanese colonization of China. Anarchists were also deeply involved in anti-imperialist nationalist movements in Vietnam, Korea, Cuba, Ukraine, Ireland, Mexico, and all over Africa.

Anarchism is also a major influence in the modern Indigenist movement.

The environment

See also: Green anarchism, Eco-anarchism, Social ecology, Anarcho-primitivism, Ecofeminism, and Green syndicalism

The environment and sustainability have been an issue for anarchists from at least as far back as Kropotkin's "Fields, Factories and Workshops", but since the late 1970s anarchists in Anglosphere and European countries have been agitating for the natural environment. Eco-anarchists or green anarchists believe in deep ecology. This is a worldview that embraces biodiversity and sustainability. Eco-anarchists often use direct action against what they see as earth-destroying institutions. Of particular importance is the Earth First! movement, that takes action such as tree sitting. The more militant Earth Liberation Front, which grew out of Earth First!, also has connections with the anarchist movement. Another important component is ecofeminism, which sees the exploitation of nature as analagous to the social exploitation of women.

Most anarchists see class society as being the root cause of pollution. They argue that a small class of owners or controllers have the wealth to avoid the worst repercussions of pollution while a very much larger class of workers without such wealth have no say in the running of the workplace. Thus under capitalism and other class societies those who control workplaces are also those with the least interest in minimising pollution - indeed as most anti-pollution measures add to costs that class will have an interest in minimising such measures. Under capitalism pollution is often a product of externalising costs - that is a transfer of a pollutant from the property of the owner to a public river transfers the cost from the capitalist to society at large. The anarchist communist solution is to ensure that all those working and living within the ecosystem of a plant have control over all its outputs, including pollutants.

Religion

The novelist and Christian anarchist Leo Tolstoy

Main articles: Anarchism and religion, Buddhist anarchism, Christian anarchism, Jewish anarchism, and Islam and anarchism

From Proudhon and Bakunin to the Spanish anarcho-syndicalists, Anarchists have traditionally been skeptical about and opposed to organized religion, believing that most organized religions are hierarchical in nature and, more often than not, aligned with contemporary power structures like state and capital. Nonetheless, there are those who reconcile anarchism with religion.

Christian anarchists believe that there is no higher authority than God, and oppose earthly authority such as government and established churches. They believe that Jesus' teachings and the practice of the early church were clearly anarchistic. Some of them feel that the teachings of the Nazarenes and other early groups of followers were corrupted by contemporary religious views - most notably when Paul of Tarsus reintroduced Phariseeic Judaism via dialectical legalism, and when Constantine declared "Christianity" to be the official religion of Rome.

Though he did not call himself an anarchist because he applied the term to those who wanted to change society through violence, Leo Tolstoy is considered to be the most famous Christian anarchist. His 'The Kingdom of God Is Within You' is considered a key Christian anarchist text. The Catholic Worker Movement is a modern Christian anarchist organisation.

Buddhist anarchism originated in the Chinese Anarchist movement of the 1920s. Taixu, one of the leading thinkers and writers of this school, was deeply influenced by the work of Christian anarchists like Tolstoy and by the ancient Chinese well-field system. A much more recent incarnation of this school of thought was popularized by Jack Kerouac in his book The Dharma Bums.

In the late 1800s the Ghadar movement in India (see Har Dayal), influenced by Buddhist thought and by Swami Dayananda Saraswati (founder of Arya Samaj), saw anarchism as a way of propagating the ancient culture of the Arya (not to be confused with the much later appropriation of "Aryan" identity by German Fascists).

Discussing the anarchist movement in Britain in 2002, Adam K. has argued that it "has an especially ignorant and hegemonistic perception of the Muslim community", which he attributed to "the anglo-centric nature of the movement". Quoting the statement that "Islam is an enemy of all freedom loving people" from an anarchist magazine, he argues that this is "no different to the bigoted rhetoric of George Bush or even BNP leader Nick Giffen."

See also: Islam and Anarchism

Recent developments within Anarchism

Anarchism generates many eclectic and syncretic philosophies and movements. Since the Western social ferment in the 1960s and 1970s a number of new movements and schools have appeared. Most of these stances are limited to even smaller numbers than the schools and movements listed above.

• Especifismo - Especifismo emerged out of nearly 50 years of anarchist experiences in South America starting with the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU), founded in 1956 by anarchists who saw the need for an organization which was specifically anarchist. It has been summmarised as:
  "The need for specifically anarchist organization built around a unity of ideas and praxis. The use of the specifically anarchist organization to theorize and develop strategic political and organizing work. Active involvement in and building of autonomous and popular social movements, which is described as the process of "social insertion."
  Other organisations that hold to Especifismo include Federação Anarquista Gaúcha (FAG), the Federação Anarquista Cabocla (FACA), and the Federação Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro (FARJ) (all in Brazil). Especifismo is considered to have come to broadly similar conclusions to the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) leading to the argument that it is properly considered a new form of Platformism

File:Hakim Bey.jpeg

Peter Lamborn Wilson aka Hakim Bey

• Post-left anarchy - Post-left anarchy seeks to distance itself from the traditional "left" - communists, socialists, social democrats, etc. - and to escape the confines of ideology in general. Post-leftists argue that anarchism has been weakened by its long attachment to contrary "leftist" movements and single issue causes (anti-war, anti-nuclear, etc.). It calls for a synthesis of anarchist thought and a specifically anti-authoritarian revolutionary movement outside of the leftist milieu. Important groups and individuals associated with Post-left anarchy include: CrimethInc, the magazine Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed and its editor Jason McQuinn, Bob Black, Hakim Bey and others.
• Post-Anarchism - The term post-anarchism was originated by Saul Newman, first receiving popular attention in his book From Bakunin to Lacan to refer to a theoretical move towards a synthesis of classical anarchist theory and poststructuralist thought. Subsequent to Newman's use of the term, however, it has taken on a life of its own and a wide range of ideas including autonomism, post-left anarchy, situationism, post-colonialism and Zapatismo. By its very nature post-anarchism rejects the idea that it should be a coherent set of doctrines and beliefs. As such it is difficult, if not impossible, to state with any degree of certainty who should or should not be grouped under the rubric. Nonetheless key thinkers associated with post-anarchism include Saul Newman, Todd May, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.
• Insurrectionary anarchism - Insurrectionary anarchism is a form of revolutionary anarchism critical of formal anarchist labor unions and federations. Insurrectionary anarchists advocate informal organization, including small affinity groups, carrying out acts of resistance in various struggles, and mass organizations called base structures, which can include exploited individuals who are not anarchists. Proponents include Wolfi Landstreicher and Alfredo M. Bonanno, author of works including "Armed Joy" and "The Anarchist Tension". This tendency is represented in the US in magazines such as Willful Disobedience and Killing King Abacus.
• Small 'a' anarchism - Small 'a' anarchism (sometimes known as "little a") is a term used in two different, but not unconnected contexts. Dave Neal posited the term in opposition to big 'A' Anarchism in the article Anarchism: Ideology or Methodology?. While big 'A' Anarchism referred to ideological Anarchists, small 'a' anarchism was applied to their methodological counterparts; those who viewed anarchism as "a way of acting, or a historical tendency against illegitimate authority." As an anti-ideological position, small 'a' anarchism shares some similarities with post-left anarchy. David Graeber and Andrej Grubacic offer an alternative use of the term, applying it to groups and movements organising according to or acting in a manner consistent with anarchist principles of decentralisation, voluntary association, mutual aid, the network model, and crucially, "the rejection of any idea that the end justifies the means, let alone that the business of a revolutionary is to seize state power and then begin imposing one's vision at the point of a gun."

Criticisms of anarchism

Main article: Criticisms of anarchism

The theory and practice of anarchism has been controversial since it came to prominence in the 19th century. Some of the criticisms made of anarchism come from the interests it opposes, such as governments. Other criticisms have been made internally of other anarchists or by political movements that appear to share similar goals, such as Marxism. Many question the idealist nature of anarchism, and have misgivings about its practical application in the real world. Some point to anarchism's inability to establish a viable anti-state. Some social scientists note that hierarchies appear to be synonymous with human civilization, although others note that many indigenous societies have been largely egalitarian. Objectivism has been another source of anti-anarchism, objectivists claiming anarcho-capitalism is a contradiction in terms and that true capitalism requires an ultraminimal government for a military, law enforcement, and an objective judiciary. Force, objectivists say, cannot be a market service.

Also, while libertarianism is an individualist philosophy, many of the most prominent libertarian thinkers have voiced fundamental objections to anarchism [11]. For libertarian minarchists, the government's proper role is to create and enforce a framework of law that maximizes individual liberty, notably by prohibiting force and fraud. In his classic Capitalism and Freedom, economist Milton Friedman made the case for economic freedom as a precondition for political freedom, while recognizing that "the need for government (...) arises because absolute freedom is impossible. However attractive anarchy may be as a philosophy, it is not feasible in a world of imperfect men".

Cultural phenomena

Noam Chomsky (1928 – )

The kind of anarchism that is most easily encountered in popular culture is represented by well-known figures who publicly identify themselves as anarchists. The following figures are examples of prominent publicly self-avowed anarchists:

• photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson
• MIT professor of linguistics Noam Chomsky
• feminist, author and critic Germaine Greer
• social historian Howard Zinn
• author Edward Abbey
• author and speaker Murray Bookchin
• author and philosopher Robert Anton Wilson
• film-maker John Milius
• graphic novelist Alan Moore
• UFC fighter and champion Jeff Monson
• actor, film director, writer and comedian Hans Alfredson.
• Rapper and social activist Emcee Lynx

In Denmark, the Freetown Christiania was created in downtown Copenhagen. The housing and employment crisis in most of Western Europe led to the formation of communes and squatter movements like the one still thriving in Barcelona, in Catalonia. Although not always explicitly anarchist, militant resistance to neo-Nazi groups in places like Germany, and the uprisings of autonomous Marxism, Situationist, and Autonomist groups in France and Italy also helped to give popularity to anti-authoritarian, non-capitalist ideas.

In various musical styles, anarchism rose in popularity. Most famous for the linking of anarchist ideas and music has been punk rock, although hip hop and folk music are also becoming important mediums for the spreading of the anarchist message. In the UK this was associated with the punk movement; the band Crass are celebrated for their anarchist and pacifist ideas, while Chumbawamba are arguably the best known UK anarchist band, having made some inroads into the realms of 'popular chart music' with the single Tubthumping and the album Tubthumper. The post-rock, modern classical band Godspeed You! Black Emperor has often associated itself with anarchism proved by their dislike of people trying to claim one or another member the band's leader.

Further information: [[:anarcho-punk and list of anarchist musicians]]

Recent technological developments have made the transmission of anarchist ideas accessible to a wider public. Many people use the Internet to form on-line communities. Intellectual property has been undermined to some extent and a gift-culture supported by sharing music files, collaborative software development, and free software (also called open-source software) has arisen. These cyber-communities include those that support GNU, Linux, Indymedia, and Wikis. Others use technology to remain anonymous, communicate securely using public key cryptography, and maintain financial privacy through digital currency. See also: Crypto-anarchism and Cypherpunk.

The mud farmers King Arthur comes across in Monty Python's Monty Python and the Holy Grail claim to live in an anarcho-syndicalist commune.

See also

Memorial to the Haymarket Riot.

There are many concepts relevant to the topic of anarchism, this is a brief summary. There is also a more extensive list of anarchist concepts.

• anarcha-feminism, anarcho-primitivism, anarcho-capitalism, anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, black anarchism, Christian anarchism, green anarchism, individualist anarchism, mutualism, post-anarchism, post-left anarchism
• Libertarian socialism
• Anarchist symbolism
• List of anarchist organizations
• Major conflicts within anarchist thought
• Criticisms of anarchism
• Past and present anarchist communities
• Anarchism/historical
• Origins of anarchism
• Direct Democracy
• Consensus Democracy

Historical events

• Paris Commune (1871)
• Haymarket Riot (1886)
• High Treason Incident (1910)
• Ukrainian Revolution (1918-1922) (see also The Free Territory)
• Kronstadt rebellion (1921)
• Amakasu Incident (1923)
• Sacco and Vanzetti trial (1927)
• Shinmin Free Province (1929-1931)
• Spanish Revolution (1936) (see also Anarchism in Spain)
• May 1968, France (1968)
• WTO Meeting in Seattle (1999)
• Argentine riots (2001)

Anarchism by region

Main article: Anarchism by country

• Anarchism in Africa
• Anarchism in Brazil
• Anarchism in China
• Anarchism in England
• Anarchism in France
• Anarchism in Ireland
• Anarchism in Italy
• Anarchism in Greece
• Anarchism in Mexico
• Anarchism in Spain
• Anarchism in the United States

Anarchism by culture

• Chinese anarchism
• Buddhist anarchism
• Islam and anarchism
• Jewish anarchism
• Russian anarchism

Books

Main article: List of anarchist books

• Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State [12]
• Emma Goldman, Anarchism & Other Essays [13]
• Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid [14]
• Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, What is Property? [15]
• Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism [16]
• Murray Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State [17]
• Max Stirner, The Ego And Its Own [18]
• Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You [19]
• John Zerzan, Future Primitive and Other Essays

External links

• "An Anarchist FAQ" at Infoshop.org
• "Anarchist Theory FAQ"
• Anarchy Archives - information relating to famous anarchists. This includes many of their books and other publications.
• * Anarkismo.net - Multilingual anarchist news site run by over a dozen 'platformist' organisations on five continents
• libcom.org - Anarchist forum, library, and news service based in the UK.
• GreenAnarchy.org - a magazine site of the green anarchism branch
• Jesse Cohn Anarchism, Representation, and Culture
• at the Daily Bleed's Anarchist Encyclopedia - 1,500+ anarchists listed, with short bios, links & dedicated pages
• "Anarchism", BBC Radio 4 program, In Our Time, Thursday December 7 2006. Hosted by Melvyn Bragg of the BBC, with John Keane, Professor of Politics at Westminster University, Ruth Kinna, Senior Lecturer in Politics at Loughborough University, and Peter Marshall, philosopher and historian.
• "www.anarchyisorder.org" for 'Principles, propositions and discussions for Land and Freedom', an anarchive with user-friendly versions of anarchist texts.
• Anarchist virtual library 768 books, booklets and texts about Anarchism.
• Infoshop.org - anarchist news and information site.