Anarchism

Anarchism, in its most general meaning, is the belief that rulership is unnecessary and should be abolished. This page focuses on the most popular interpretation of what it means to abolish rulership: the elimination of all forms coercive authority, such as government and social hierarchy. For information about movements which do not reject social hierarchy, see anarcho-capitalism.

Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of all forms of government and social hierarchy. In place of centralized political structures, capitalist ownership of the means of production, and exploitative economic institutions such as rent and profit, these movements favor social relations based upon voluntary interaction and self-management, and aspire to a society characterised by autonomy and freedom. These philosophies use anarchy to mean a society based on voluntary interaction of free individuals, and the idea that communities and individuals have a say in decisions to the degree that they are affected by their outcomes.

While opposition to coercive institutions and socially constructed hierarchies are primary tenets of anarchism, anarchism is also a positive vision of how a voluntary society would work. There is considerable variation amongst anarchist philosophies. Opinions differ in various areas, such as whether violence should be employed to foster anarchism, what type of economic system should exist, questions on the environment and industrialism, and anarchists' roles in other movements.

The terms "anarchy" and "anarchism" are derived from the Greek αναρχία ("without archons (rulers)"). Thus "anarchism," in its most general meaning, is the belief that rulership is unnecessary and should be abolished. The word "anarchy", as most anarchists use it, does not imply chaos or anomie, but rather a stateless society with voluntary social relations.

Precursors of anarchism

Primitive cultures

Anarcho-primitivists assert that, for the longest period before recorded history, human society was organized on anarchist principles. They point to the egalitarian structure of hunter-gatherer bands, to the lack of division of labour and accumulated wealth, non-hierarchal political organization, and the lack of decreed law, as indicators of such indigenous anarchist systems. Examples of indigenous societies with Anarchist political systems include the Nuer of East Africa, the Iroquois (and by some accounts most native people) in North America. Russel Means, a leader in the American Indian Movement, has repeatedly stated that he is "an anarchist, and so are all [his] ancestors." Other prominent Native Americans, including Ward Churchill support this position.

Philosophical traces

Some anarchists have embraced Taoism, which developed in Ancient China, as a source of anarchistic attitudes [1]. Similarly, anarchistic tendencies can be traced to the philosophers of Ancient Greece, such as Zeno, the founder of the Stoic philosophy, and Aristippus, who said that the wise should not give up their liberty to the state [2]. Later movements – such as Stregheria in the 1300's, the Free Spirit in the Middle Ages, the Anabaptists, The Diggers, and the Ranters, – have also expounded ideas that have been interpreted as anarchist.

Ancient Greece

The first known usage of the word anarchy appears in the play Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus, dated 467 BC. There, Antigone openly refuses to abide by the rulers' decree to leave her brother Polyneices' body unburied, as punishment for his participation in the attack on Thebes, saying that "even if no one else is willing to share in burying him I will bury him alone and risk the peril of burying my own brother. Nor am I ashamed to act in defiant opposition to the rulers of the city (ekhous apiston tênd anarkhian polei)".

Ancient Greece also saw the first western instance of anarchism as a philosophical ideal, in the form of the stoic philosopher Zeno of Citium, who was, according to Kropotkin, "[t]he best exponent of Anarchist philosophy in ancient Greece". As summarized by Kropotkin, Zeno "repudiated the omnipotence of the state, its intervention and regimentation, and proclaimed the sovereignty of the moral law of the individual". Within Greek philosophy, Zeno's vision of a free community without government is opposed to the state-Utopia of Plato's Republic. Zeno argued that although the necessary instinct of self-preservation leads humans to egotism, nature has supplied a corrective to it by providing man with another instinct — sociability. Like many modern anarchists, he believed that if people follow their instincts, they will have no need of law, courts, or police, no temples and no public worship, and use no money (a gift economy taking the place of the exchanges). Zeno's beliefs have only reached us as fragmentary quotations. [3]

The Anabaptists

The Anabaptists of 16th century Europe are sometimes considered to be religious forerunners of modern anarchism. Bertrand Russell, in his History of Western Philosophy, writes that the Anabaptists "repudiated all law, since they held that the good man will be guided at every moment by the Holy Spirit...[f]rom this premise they arrive at communism...." The novel Q by Luther Blissett provides a fictional depiction of this movement and its revolutionary ideology. Gerrard Winstanley of The Diggers, who published a pamphlet calling for communal ownership and social and economic organization in small agrarian communities in the 17th century, is considered another of the forerunners of modern anarchism.

History of anarchism

Justice against the state

William Godwin, in An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice" (1793) wrote what would become core anarchist critiques of government, economics, and society; though he did not use the word anarchism, some today regard him as the "founder of philosophical anarchism"

By "political justice" Godwin meant "the adoption of any principle of morality and truth into the practice of a community," and his characteristically anarchist conclusion was that government in fact inhibits rather than fosters justice.

Godwin's philosophy was optimistic about the potential for human beings to develop and conduct social relations on the basis of reason and consent. He believed that there are no innate principles, and therefore no original propensity to evil. He considered that "our virtues and our vices may be traced to the incidents which make the history of our lives, and if these incidents could be divested of every improper tendency, vice would be extirpated from the world." The control of man by man in general, and the institution of government in particular, are detrimental to human development. "Government by its very nature counteracts the improvement of original mind."

Godwin's masterpiece was published in 1793, in the thick of the French Revolution. The themes of his work, some of which he later retracted, would become central to the future development of anarchism. But at this point no anarchist movement yet existed, and the term anarchiste was known only as an insult hurled by the bourgeois Girondins at more radical elements in the revolution. (Some of whom, the Parisian Sans-culottes, are seen by many as the immediate predecessors of working-class anarchism.)

The first self-labeled anarchist

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Pierre Proudhon (1809-1865)

It is commonly held that it wasn't until Pierre-Joseph Proudhon published "What is Property?" in 1840 that the term "anarchist" was adopted as a self-description. It is for this reason that some claim Proudhon as the founder of modern anarchist theory.

In What is Property Proudhon answers with the famous accusation "Property is theft." In this work he opposed the institution of property (propriété) involving full 'rights of use and abuse' as it exists in capitalism; but he supported a more limited right of 'possession' (possession) by individuals of the means and produce of their own labour. Proudhon's vision of anarchy, which he called mutualism (mutuellisme), thus involved a non-coercive exchange economy where individuals would trade the produce of their labour. This would be a market system without profit; goods would be traded on the basis of the labour time; a national bank would lend without interest to support production. Without property interests to protect, the state would become superfluous.

Proudhon generally opposed violent expropriation of property; instead he tended to advocate schemes (including the formation of an interest-free community-owned bank, which would become the prototype for modern credit unions) whereby workers would create mutual organisations that could come to supplant capitalism and render the state superfluous. Proudhon's ideas began to exert some influence within French working class movements, and his followers were active in the Revolution of 1848 in France. However authoritarian socialist tendencies such as Blanquism were a stronger force in Proudhon's own time.

Proudhon's work on property raised a central issue in the future development of anarchism. The question of property, and its place in an anarchist society, is sometimes seen as dividing anarchism thereafter into two major streams or tendencies which can loosely be called 'individualism' and 'collectivism'. While the position of the latter is "each according to his needs," for Proudhon and the individualists it is "To each according to his works, first; and if, on occasion, I am impelled to aid you, I will do it with a good grace; but I will not be constrained" (The Philosophy of Misery). Proudhon was influential on the newly-developing individualist anarchism in America, mainly through Benjamin Tucker who translated What is Property?

It should be noted that, like Godwin, Proudhon moved away from a utopian ideal of anarchism in later life, believing it to be an unrealistic expectation given human nature. He reasoned that: "Since the two principles, Authority and Liberty, which underlie all forms organized society, are on the one hand contrary to each other, in a perpetual state of conflict, and on the other can neither eliminate each other nor be resolved, some kind of compromise between the two is necessary." Hence, he advocated that "the institutions of the police, preventative and repressive methods officialdom, taxation etc., are reduced to a minimum..." However, he called such a state of affairs "anarchy." (Selected Writings). His work Theory of Property (Theorié de la Propriété) gives a historical account in which property, in the full Roman Law sense, appears as an 'odious' but necessary evil counterbalancing the power of the state.

Individualism

See also: Individualist anarchism, mutualism, Anarchism and capitalism, Anarchist economics

Benjamin Tucker

Individualist anarchism is a philosophical tradition that has a pronounced focus on the liberty of the individual. While its roots include William Godwin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Max Stirner, it is most often associated with American tradition of individualist anarchism, which strongly supports "private property" (a right to individual ownership of the product of one's labor, as opposed to collectivization of this product) and a market economy where this property may be bought and sold. Wage labor is also supported, as long as wages adhere to the labor theory of value. This is in contrast to philosophies such as anarcho-communism, which oppose private property, wages, and a market economy. However, classical individualists believe profit in economic relations to be a violation of the labor theory of value. As capitalism is commonly understood to be a system where profit is made, the philosophy is also in contrast to capitalism. The classical individualist maintain that profit is only made possible by government-backed privilege for capital; and, if this were to cease prices would converge to their "natural rate" where profit was not possible.

In the United States, individualist anarchism originated with the writings and activism of Josiah Warren. Others include Benjamin Tucker, Lysander Spooner, and Stephen Pearl Andrews. Traditional individualists tend to advocate, and practice, an economic system called mutualism as an alternative to capitalism and communism. Most of these individualists oppose property titles to unused land, arguing that vacant land should not be protected against those who wish to use or occupy it. While some individualists looked to natural law to justify individualism, many, in accordance with Stirner's "Egoism" hold that self-interest is the only legitimate justification for action.

Many also consider Henry David Thoreau as an individualist anarchist due to his position that individuals should not be governed and his belief that all should be free to withdraw themselves from "any incorporated body." Noteworthy anarchist writer and poet John Henry Mackay is also considered an individualist anarchist. Contemporary individualist anarchists include Robert Anton Wilson, Kevin A. Carson, and Joe Peacott.

The International - Anarchism becomes a mass movement

In Europe, a period of harsh reaction followed the widespread revolutionary activity of 1848. The next major phase of revolutionary activity began almost twenty years later with the founding of the International Workingmen's Association, sometimes called the 'First International', in London in 1864.

The International Workingmen's Association, at its founding, was an alliance of diverse socialist groups, including French Mutualists, English Owenites, state socialists, and others. Over its short life it grew into a major movement, with local federations in many countries developing strong bases of working class activism. But at the same time the IWA began to polarise into two camps, with Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin as their respective figureheads.

Both sides had a stated common aim (stateless communism), and common political opponents (the ruling class). But each was critical of the other, and the conflict between the two groups intensified. Perhaps the clearest differences emerged over proposed strategies for achieving their visions of socialism. The anarchists grouped around Bakunin favoured (in Kropotkin's words) "direct economical struggle against capitalism, without interfering in the political parliamentary agitation." Marxist thinking, at that time, focused on parliamentary activity. (Particularly when the new German Empire of 1871 became the first country to introduce manhood suffrage, leading many German socialists to focus their energies within the then Marxist Social Democratic Party of Germany.)

Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as authoritarian, and predicted that if a Marxist party gained to power its leaders would end up as bad as the ruling class they had fought against (notably in his Statism and Anarchy.) In 1872, the conflict in the First International climaxed with the expulsion of Bakunin and those who had become known as the "Bakuninists" when they were outvoted by the Marxists at the Hague Congress. This is often cited as the origin of the long-running conflict between anarchists and Marxists. From then on, the authoritarian and libertarian currents of socialism had distinct organisations, at various points including rival 'internationals'.

Unfortunately, many of the debates between the opposing camps became heated to the point of abusiveness. Bakunin did not restrain himself from hurling anti-German and anti-semitic slurs at Marx.

The theory of anarchist communism

See also: Anarchist communism

Unlike Marxism, anarchism has never had one central set of texts or authorities. But in the last three decades of the nineteenth century the anarchism of many of Bakunin's followers did gradually develop into a clearer position embracing an idea of communism.

An early proponent of anarchist communism was Joseph Déjacque. In 1857 Déjacque, who was initially a follower of Proudhon, wrote a letter to the latter objecting to his stance on feminism and his support for the individual ownership of the product of labor and a market economy: "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." Déjacque split from the Proudhonian philosophy and began publishing the first anarcho-communist journal in America called Le Libertaire, from 1858-1861. Déjacque is also notable as the first person to describe himself as a "libertarian", and the 1857 letter contains the first appearance of the term in print.[4][5]

The Italian federation of the First International, which overwhelmingly took the Bakuninist line, was perhaps the first organisation to set out an explicit vision of communist anarchism. The Italian anarchists included Carlo Cafiero, Errico Malatesta, Andrea Costa and other ex-Mazzinian Republicans. At its Florence Conference of 1876, their federation stated its principles as follows:

"The Italian Federation considers the collective property of the products of labour as the necessary complement to the collectivist programme, the aid of all for the satisfaction of the needs of each being the only rule of production and consumption which corresponds to the principle of solidarity."

In his Anarchie et Communisme, Cafiero argued that private property even in the product of labor (Mutualist 'possession') will lead to unequal accumulation of capital, and therefore to class distinctions.

Anarchist communists advocate an egalitarian society without markets or wages, based on the principle of "from each according to their ability, to each according to need." Decisions would be made through workers councils and assemblies. There would be direct worker control of production, and self-management of community institutions. Communities, groups and workplaces would be connected together through federations and networks created by free association and popular affinity.

Perhaps the most important theorist of anarchist communism was Peter Kropotkin. In a number of works including The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops, Kropotkin plotted his views of what anarchist communist society might look like and how it might be achieved. Kropotkin's anarchist communism was closely linked to his scientific theory based on evolution in which co-operation equaled or surpassed competition in importance, as illustrated in Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution (1897).

Subsequent figures in the theory of anarchist communism include Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. The anarcho-syndicalist movements (see below) generally saw anarchist communism as their objective. Isaac Puente's 1932 Comunismo Libertario was adopted by the Spanish CNT as its manifesto for an anarchist communist society.

Propaganda by the deed

Anarchists have often been portrayed as dangerous and violent, due mainly to a number of high-profile violent acts including riots, assassinations, and insurrections involving anarchists. Some revolutionaries of the late 19th century encouraged acts of political violence, such as bombings and the assassinations of heads of state to further anarchism. Such actions have sometimes been called 'propaganda by the deed'.

Between 1894 and 1901, individual anarchists assassinated numerous heads of state. For example, US President McKinley's assassin, Leon Czolgosz, (a registered Republican who had never belonged to any Anarchist organization) claimed to have been influenced by Emma Goldman - although Goldman disavowed any association with him. Because international terrorism arose during this time period with the widespread distribution of dynamite, bombings were associated with anarchists, an image that remains to this day. Depictions in the press and popular fiction helped create a lasting public impression that anarchists are violent terrorists. This perception was enhanced by events such as the Haymarket Riot, where anarchists were blamed for throwing a bomb at police who came to break up a public meeting in Chicago, Illinois.

The use of terrorism and assassination, however, is condemned by most anarchists. Even anarchists who see acts of violence as justified in a context of insurrection and class war would often view individual acts of terrorism as ineffective and counter-productive.

However there is no consensus on the legitimacy or utility of violence as such in the furtherance of anarchism. Mikhail Bakunin and Errico Malatesta saw violence as a necessary and sometimes desirable force. Malatesta took the view that it is "necessary to destroy with violence, since one cannot do otherwise, the violence which denies [the means of life and for development] to the workers" (Umanità Nova, number 125, September 6, 1921[6]).

Other anarchists share Leo Tolstoy's Christian anarchist belief in nonviolence. These anarcho-pacifists advocate nonviolent resistance as the only method of achieving a truly anarchist revolution. They often see violence as the basis of government and coercion and argue that, as such, violence is illegitimate, no matter who is the target. Some of Proudhon's French followers even saw strike action as coercive and refused to take part in such traditional socialist tactics.

Many anarchists would make a distinction between "violence" and "property destruction": they claim that violence is when a person inflicts harm to another person, while property destruction or property damage is not violence, although it can have indirect harm such as financial harm.

Anarchism at work

See also: Anarcho-syndicalism

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The red-and-black flag, coming from the experience of anarchists in the labour movement, is particularly associated with anarcho-syndicalism.

In the late 19th century, anarcho-syndicalism developed as a movement pursuing industrial actions, especially the general strike, as the primary strategy to achieve anarchist revolution, and "build the new society in the shell of the old". Most anarcho-syndicalists shared a belief in anarchist communism as the best form of the future society, although not all anarchist communists agreed with syndicalism.

According to the preamble to the constitution of the US-based Industrial Workers of the World (also called IWW or Wobblies) syndicalist union:

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organized, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organizing industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.[7]

Anarcho-syndicalism formed a new wave of anarchism in beginning in the 1890's and 1900's. Even more than the anarchism of the International, this was anarchism brought out of the philosophy books and embodied in the ongoing struggle of millions of working class people.

After the fall of the Paris Commune in 1871 French anarchists and socialists had suffered a dark period of repression similar to the aftermath of the 1848 revolution. Anarchism began to resurface in the 1880's and 1890's, and was a particular influence upon the Bourses de Travails of autonomous workers groups and trade unions. It was from this ground that the CGT trade union confederation, founded in 1895, was born. The CGT was the first major anarcho-syndicalist movement.

CGT members Emile Pataud and Emile Pouget wrote the classic syndicalist text in 1909. The fictionalised How we will bring about the revolution (Comment nous ferons la revolution) tells the story of the birth of libertarian communism in a French general strike. However the CGT soon veered away from anarchism, and after the Russian Revolution of 1917 fell into the Communist camp. (The CGT is still an important French trade union, though now thoroughly reformist in sympathy.)

In Chicago in June 1905, a convention of two hundred socialists, anarchists, and radical trade unionists from all over the United States founded the IWW. At its peak in 1923 the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. The anarcho-syndicalist orientation of many early American labor unions played a large part in the formation of the American political spectrum. The United States is the only industrialized former British colony to not have a labor-based political party.

Anarchism had been introduced into Spain by followers of Bakunin in the late 1860's, and quickly established itself as the dominant force within the Spanish socialist and working class movements. (See also - Anarchism in Spain.) Spanish anarchist trade union federations were formed in the 1870's and in 1900. But the most famous and most successful was the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo founded in 1910. The CNT was to become the major force in Spanish working class politics - it had a membership of 1.58 million in 1934. The CNT played a major role in the Spanish Civil War (see below).

In Berlin in 1922 the CNT was amongst trade unions who joined together to form the International Workers Association, an anarcho-syndicalist successor to the First International.

In Mexico, anarcho-syndicalists including Ricardo Flores Magón were key figures in the 1910-17 Mexican Revolution which overthrew the dictator Porfirio Diaz, exerting a strong influence on Anarchism in throughout Latin America. This influence extends to the modern day Zapatista rebellion and the factory ccupation movements in Argentina and elsewhere.

In other parts of the world, anarcho-syndicalism lives on - although it is far from the force it once was (see below). Whilst engaging in everyday workplace struggles, anarcho-syndicalist trade unions distance themselves from the methods of the dominant 'reformist' trade unions which in their view merely seek short-term and compromising improvements. Anarcho-syndicalists in general uphold principles of workers solidarity, direct action, and self-management (see Anarcho-syndicalism).

Insurrectionary anarchism

Insurrectionary anarchism is critical of formal anarchist labor unions and federations. Instead, 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. Here, Wolfi Landstreicher writes some of the basis points of its praxis.

Insurrectionary anarchism is not an ideological solution to all social problems, a commodity on the capitalist market of ideologies and opinions, but an on-going praxis aimed at putting an end to the domination of the state and the continuance of capitalism, which requires analysis and discussion to advance. We don’t look to some ideal society or offer an image of utopia for public consumption. Throughout history, most anarchists, except those who believed that society would evolve to the point that it would leave the state behind, have been insurrectionary anarchists. Most simply, this means that the state will not merely wither away, thus anarchists must attack, for waiting is defeat; what is needed is open mutiny and the spreading of subversion among the exploited and excluded. Here we spell out some implications that we and some other insurrectionary anarchists draw from this general problem: if the state will not disappear on its own, how then do we end its existence? It is, therefore, primarily a practice, and focuses on the organization of attack...The State of capital will not “wither away,” attack is the refusal of mediation, pacification, sacrifice, accommodation, and compromise.

[Landstreicher, Wolfi]

Alfredo M. Bonanno, an Italian insurrectionary anarchist also had a great impact on this specific tendency, writing such works as "Armed Joy," "The Anarchist Tension," and others. In the US, Willful Disobedience, Killing King Abacus, and other magazines caused interest in insurrectionary anarchism to grow.

Anarchism and feminism

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Emma Goldman 1869-1940

See also: Anarcha-Feminism

Anarcha-feminism is a kind of radical feminism that espouses the belief that patriarchy is a fundamental problem in society. While anarchist feminism has existed for more than a hundred years, its explicit formulation as anarcha-feminism dates back to the early 70s [8], during the second-wave feminist movement. Anarcha-feminism, views patriarchy as the first manifestation of hierarchy in human history; thus, the first form of oppression occurred in the dominance of male over female. Anarcha-feminists then conclude that if feminists are against patriarchy, they must also be against all forms of hierarchy, and therefore must reject the authoritarian nature of the state and capitalism.

Anarcho-primitivists see the creation of gender roles and patriarchy a creation of the start of civilization, and therefore consider primitivism to also be an anarchist school of thought that addresses feminist concerns. Eco-feminism is often considered a feminist variant of green anarchist feminist thought.

Anarcha-feminism is most often associated with early 20th-century authors and theorists such as Emma Goldman and Voltairine de Cleyre, although even early first-wave feminist Mary Wollstonecraft held proto-anarchist views, and William Godwin is often considered a feminist anarchist precursor. In the Spanish Civil War, an anarcha-feminist group, "Free Women", organized to defend both anarchist and feminist ideas.

In the modern day anarchist movement, many anarchists, male or female, consider themselves feminists, and anarcha-feminist ideas are growing. The publishing of Quiet Rumors, an anarcha-feminist reader, has helped to spread various kinds of anti-authoritarian and anarchist feminist ideas to the broader movement.

Religion

See also: Christian anarchism, Anarchism and religion

Leo Tolstoy 1828-1910

Christian anarchism is the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable, the authority of God as embodied in the teachings of Jesus. Christian anarchists therefore feel that earthly authority such as government, or indeed the established church do not and should not have power over them. Christian anarchists are pacifists and oppose the use of all physical force, both proactive and reactive.

Christian anarchists believe that freedom from earthly authority will only be guided by the grace of God if individuals display compassion for others and turn the other cheek when confronted by violence. Its adherents believe this quest for freedom is justified spiritually and quote the teachings of Jesus, some of whom are critical of the existing establishment and church. They believe all individuals can directly communicate with God and will eventually unify in peace under this one God.

The most famous advocate of Christian anarchism was Leo Tolstoy, author of The Kingdom of God is Within You, who called for a society based on compassion, nonviolent principles and freedom.

Some Christian anarchists oppose war and other statist aggression through tax resistance, while others submit to taxation. Ammon Hennacy advocated tax resistance, while Tolstoy opposed it. Tolstoy claimed that the act of resisting taxes requires physical force to withhold what a government tries to take. Contrary to this Hennacy, who like Tolstoy also believed in nonresistance, managed to resist taxes without resorting to physical force. Many Christian anarchists are vegetarian or vegan.

Spiritual Anarchism, or Divine Anarchy, was originally expressed by the political revolutionary, poet and yogi Sri Aurobindo during the First World War in a series of articles published in the Arya, and later made available in two books, The Human Cycle and The Ideal of Human Unity. The exaggerations of both individualistic and communistic streams of anarchist thought are harmonized by going beyond the vital and intellectual foundations of most other schools of anarchism and rooting itself firmly in the spiritual realization and dynamic perfection of the individual and universal godhead in the race.

A spiritual anarchist holds that a perfect form of social organization can only be achieved by governing our individual and collective life by a higher light than the intellectual reason, a deeper law of solidarity and oneness than emotional or mental bonds of association. Although it has deviated significantly from its course, the international township of Auroville was originally intended to be organized as a Divine Anarchy, and may well one day fulfill its purpose.

Other forms of religious Anarchism include the Buddhist Anarchism of Tai-Xu which was strongly influenced by Tolstoy, but also looked to the ancient well-field system for inspiration. Buddhist Anarchism is one of several types of Chinese Anarchism which was influential in mainland China in the 1920's.

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a seismic event in the development of anarchism as a movement and as a philosophy.

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 which culminated in the 1918 Kronstadt rebellion. Anarchists in central Russia were imprisoned or driven underground, or joined the victorious Bolsheviks. In Ukraine anarchists fought in the civil war against both Whites and Bolsheviks within the Makhnovshchina peasant army led by Nestor Makhno).

Expelled American anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman before leaving Russia were amongst those agitating in response to Bolshevik policy and the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising. 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, a group of Russian anarchist exiles around Nestor Makhno concluded that anarchists needed to develop new forms of organisation in response to the structures of Bolshevism. Their manifesto known as the Platform, or the "Organizational Platform of Libertarian Communists", was supported by some Anarchist Communists, but opposed by many others.

The fight against fascism

In the 1920s and 1930s the familiar dynamics of anarchism's conflict with the state were transformed by the rise of fascism in Europe. In many cases, European anarchists faced difficult choices - should they join in popular fronts with reformist democrats and Soviet-led Communists against a common fascist enemy?

Luigi Fabbri, an exile from Italian fascism, was amongst those arguing that fascism was something different:

Fascism is not just another form of government which, like all others, uses violence. It is the most authoritarian and the most violent form of government imaginable. It represents the utmost glorification of the theory and practice of the principle of authority.

In France, where the fascists came close to insurrection in the February 1934 riots, anarchists divided over a 'united front' policy. (see David Berry, ‘Fascism or Revolution!’ Anarchism and Antifascism in France, 1933-39*) [[9]]

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 right responded with an attempted coup, and the Spanish Civil War was underway.

In the history of anarchism the Spanish Civil War of (1936-1939) is a defining event on at least the scale of the First International or the Russian Revolution of 1917. A widely popular anarchist movement supported by anti-fascist militias took control of the industrial stronghold of Barcelona, and rural areas mainly in northeast Spain where they collectivized the land. For a few brief months in 1936-37 libertarian communism was being put into practice.

But even before the eventual fascist victory, the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with the Soviet-backed communists. Whilst the CNT leadership often appeared confused and divided, Communist-led troops suppressed the collectives, and the revolution was destroyed. Anarchism has never since come so close to realising the dream of libertarian communism as in that short summer of anarchy.

Contemporary anarchism

Contemporary Anarcho-syndicalism

Anarcho-syndicalist unions live on to this day, though with nothing like the strength they once enjoyed.

The world's largest organised anarchist movement is probably still to be found in Spain. After defeat in the Spanish Civil War, CNT members were killed, imprisoned or forced underground and into exile, from whence they continued carry out covert actions against Franco's fascist dictatorship - sometimes loosely allied with other dissident forces including Basque and Catalan nationalists. Following the death of Francisco Franco in 1975, the CNT returned to Spain. However, in the early 1980's the movement became split. The larger organisation today is the Confederación General del Trabajo (or CGT - not to be confused with the now-reformist French CGT confederation). The CGT claims a current paid-up membership of 60,000, making it the third largest Spanish trade union bloc. In recent Spanish syndical elections it gained the votes of over one million workers.[10]

The CNT, though smaller, is still an active movement which takes a 'purer' line. A major dividing point between the two is that the CNT urges abstention from syndical as well as political elections.

In the United States, the IWW is still active, and though relatively tiny has recently experienced a major surge in growth that has made it one of the fastest growing labor unions in the United States. Other current anarcho-syndicalist organizations include the Workers Solidarity Alliance in the US, and the Solidarity Federation in the UK.

Some critics of anarcho-syndicalism contend that its focus on proletarian class struggle overlooks the needs of segments of society such as parents or others occupied with child-rearing or domestic labor, although some anarcho-syndicalist thought attempts to address other sectors of economic life. Some primitivist authors, notably Bob Black, contend that an anarcho-syndicalist revolution would leave in place social systems they find oppressive (work and workplaces, for example), although anarcho-syndicalists contend that worker self-management would render those systems fundamentally more humane.

The platformist tradition

A number of anarchist organisations in different countries take their inspiration from the Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists, a manifesto for anarchist organisation written by the Dielo Truda group of exiled Russian anarchists in Paris in 1926[11]. Platformists tend to describe themselves as anarchist-communists, and as 'class struggle' anarchists.

Like the anarcho-syndicalists, with whom they have close relationships in many countries, they thus see themselves as continuing a tradition of revolutionary anarchism rooted in working class movements. Unlike anarcho-syndicalists, however, they believe in a role for separate and dedicated Anarchist revolutionary organisations outside of the trade union movement which are characterised by four principles of 'theoretical unity', 'tactical unity', 'collective responsibility' and 'federalism'.

Platformist groups today include the Workers Solidarity Movement in Ireland, the UK's Anarchist Federation, and the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists in Canada.

Punk rock

A surge of popular interest in anarchism occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. In the UK this was associated with the punk rock movement; the band Crass is celebrated for its anarchist and pacifist ideas. 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. 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.

For further details, see anarcho-punk

Environmentalism

See also: Green anarchism

Eco-anarchism generally is a belief in deep ecology, direct action against earth destroying institutions and systems, and generally a critique of industrial capitalism, although generally not against civilization per se.

There is a significant anarchist element to the environmental movement, including those that are known as eco-anarchists and green-anarchists. Eco-anarchism is generally a broad term that broadly refers to anarchists engaged in the earth liberation movement. The largest segment of 'eco-anarchists' is the Earth First! movement, a network of various collectives formed along anarchist principles. Earth First! generally engages in direct action and eco-defense, such as tree sitting and 'locking down'. In the modern anarchist movement, eco-anarchists generally adhere to deep ecology, which is a worldview that embraces biodiversity and sustainability. Eco-feminism is also sometimes considered the form of eco-anarchist feminism.

Civil rights

See also: black anarchism, APOC, ARA

Anti-Racist Action is a loose federation of groups that focus on confronting (sometimes violently) racist agitators, such as the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazis when they appear in public. Not all members or ARA are anarchists, but many are.

Black anarchism opposes the existence of a state, capitalism, and subjugation and domination of people of color, and favors a non-hierarchical organization of society. Black anarchists, recognizing that anarchism has traditionally been European or white-based, seek to forge their own movement that represents their own identity and tailored to their own unique situation. Theorists include Ashanti Alston, Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, and Sam Mbah.

Anarchist People of Color was created as a forum for non-caucasian anarchists to express their thoughts about racial issues within the anarchist movement, particularly within the United States.

Globalization of capitalism

Globally, anarchism has also grown in popularity and influence as part of the anti-war, anti-capitalist, and anti-globalization movements. Since the late 1990s, anarchists have been known for their involvement in protests against World Trade Organization and Group of Eight meetings, and the World Economic Forum -- protests that are generally portrayed in mainstream media coverage as violent riots. Some anarchists form black blocs at protests, in which members of the bloc wear black and cover their faces to avoid police identification and to create one large solid mass. Bloc members confront and defend other protesters from the police, set up barricades, and sometimes engage in the destruction of corporate property.

Although black bloc anarchists are often the only visible anarchists at large protests, large-scale protests are often constructed and organized through anarchist structures. Affinity groupings, spokescouncils, and networking all have led to the success of various large-scale anti-war and anti-globalization mobilizations, most notably at the protests against the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle. Anarchists have also been involved heavily with underground direct action movements such as the Animal Liberation Front, and the Earth Liberation Front, which are considered "eco-terrorist" by federal authorities and some liberal organizations. Anarchism (or at least anarchist systems of organizing) is now largely seen to have about the same sway in modern revolutionary movements as Marxism had in the 1960's.

The question of civilization

See also: anarcho-primitivism

File:Zerzan.jpeg

John Zerzan

Beginning in the later part of the 20th century anarchist John Zerzan wrote in Elements of Refusal, and later, Future Primitive that civilization — not just the state — would need to fall for anarchy to be achieved. A rejection of industrial technology is also prominent in the views of many green anarchists. This worldview was associated with the growth of the anti-roads movement in the UK, Earth First! and the Earth Liberation Front in the US, and the actions of Theodore Kaczynski (aka the "Unabomber").

Primitivism is a philosophy advocating a return to a pre-industrial and usually pre-agricultural society, and a critique of industrial civilization, and the alienation that technology, progress, etc, have created between people and the natural world. Primitivism believes that industrial society inevitably produces oppressive structures through specialization of tasks or division of labor, and that technology has similar negative implications. Most forms of primitivism question civilization itself. Primitivism generally sees that by the birth of agriculture, and the birth of cities and the creating of production surplus, gave rise to structures of hierarchy, and later statism. Anarcho-primitivists point to the anti-authoritarian nature of many 'primitive' or hunter-gatherer societies throughout the world's history, as examples of anarchist societies.

The primitivist movement has connections to radical environmentalism movements such as the Earth Liberation Front and Earth First!.

Parallel structures

See also: anarchist economics, dual-power networks

Anarchists engage in building parallel structures and organizations, such as Food Not Bombs, radical labor unions, infoshop and radical social centers, new sets of schooling systems, media in various forms, organizing around housing and land issues, and work toward accountability with police and other institutions through such tools as consensus decision-making. This is in line with the general anarchist concept of creating "dual-power", the idea of creating the structures for a new anti-authoritarian society in the shell of the old, hierarchical one.

Technology

See also: Crypto-anarchism and Cypherpunk.

Some have said that recent technological developments have made the anarchist cause both easier to advance and more conceivable to people. Public key cryptography and the Internet have made anonymous digital currencies such as e-gold an alternative to statist fiat money. Many people use cell phones or the Internet to form loose communities that could be said to be organized along anarchist lines. Some of these communities have as their purpose the production of information in a non-commodified or use-value format, a goal made attainable by the availability of personal computing, desktop publishing, and digital media. These things have made it possible for individuals to share music files over the Internet. There are also open source programming communities, who donate their time and offer their product for free. Examples include Usenet, the free software movement (including the GNU/Linux community and the wiki paradigm), and Indymedia.

Some anarchists see information technology as the way to replace hierarchy, defeat monopoly, and prevent war, and support culture jamming in particular as a way to do so. Some writers — particularly Iain M. Banks, who has written quite extensively in the science fiction genre about The Culture, a futuristic society which has disposed of government — have theorised that anarchism would be inevitable with the technological advances that would make travelling and living in space plausible [12]. The Electro-anarchy Collective poses a similar theory that technological power will naturally overthrow human government (although some question their anarchist credentials, claiming that technological governance is no less oppressive than human governance).

It has also been argued that the free software movement is an example of anarchic organization, this being an example not of hierarchical business, but of voluntary association for the production of a good.

Post-structuralism

See also: Post-anarchism

The term postanarchism was originated by Saul Newman in his book From Bakunin to Lacan: Antiauthoritarianism and the Dislocation of Power to refer to a theoretical move towards a synthesis of classical anarchist theory and poststructuralist thought. In this sense it has similarities with post-Marxism associated with Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffee. 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 have been suggested for inclusion under the rubric. Others have argued that the term "poststructuralist anarchism" is preferable in order to maintain an unbroken link with the anarchist heritage.

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 shouldn't be grouped under the rubric. Nonetheless key thinkers associated with post-anarchism include Saul Newman, Todd May, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.

External reference: Postanarchism Clearinghouse

Against ideology

See also: Post-left anarchy

Post-left anarchy (also called egoist-anarchism) seeks to distance itself from the traditional "left" - communists, liberals, social democrats, etc. - and to escape the confines of ideology in general. It has rapidly developed since the fall of the Soviet Union, which many view as the death of authoritarian leftism; however, its roots are clearly visible in the ideas of the 1960s Situationists. It is not an independent "movement" as such but rather a critical way of thinking about anarchist ideas.

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. It often focuses on the individual rather than speaking in terms of class or other broad generalizations and shuns organizational tendencies in favor of the complete absence of hierarchy. Total individual liberation is a key focus, rather than merely economic liberation.

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, and others. For more information, see Infoshop.org's Anarchy After Leftism section, and the Post-left section on anarchism.ws.

Personal practice

Small 'a' anarchism 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, while Neal's insistence that it entails a rejection of the idea that there can be an "ultimate Truth" recalls the poststructuralist turns of post-anarchism (see above).

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." [13] Graeber and Grubacic do not offer a comprehensive list of groups within this rubric, but suggest that it includes the likes of autonomism, Zapatismo and radical democracy. It should be stressed that many of these groups do not describe themselves as "anarchist", perhaps deliberately, and are grouped instead on the basis of what they do, implying that the criteria for inclusion are similar to those articulated by Neal.

It is unclear how far the term has been picked up by the wider anarchist movement, but it does help to clarify and begin to explain some of the conflicts and disagreements within contemporary anarchism.

Conceptions of an anarchist society

See also: Anarchism and Society

Many political philosophers justify support of the state as a means of regulating violence, so that the destruction caused by human conflict is minimized and fair relationships are established. Anarchists argue that pursuit of these ends does not justify the establishment of a state, and in fact many argue that the state is incompatible with those goals. Anarchists argue that the state helps to create a monopoly on violence, and uses force and violence to expand and protect elite interests. Much effort has been dedicated to explaining how anarchist societies would handle criminality.

Pacifism

Some anarchists consider Pacifism (opposition to war) to be inherent in their philosophy. Some anarchists take it further and follow Leo Tolstoy's belief in non-violence (note, however, that these anarcho-pacifists are not necessarily Christian anarchists as Tolstoy was), advocating non-violent resistance as the only method of achieving a truly anarchist revolution.

Anarchist literature often portrays war as an activity in which the state seeks to gain and consolidate power, both domestically and in foreign lands. Many anarchists subscribe to Randolph Bourne's view that "war is the health of the state"[14]. Anarchists believe that if they were to support a war they would be strengthening the state — indeed, Peter Kropotkin was alienated from other anarchists when he expressed support for the British in World War I.

Just as they are critical and distrustful of most government endeavours, anarchists often view the stated reasons for war with a cynical eye. Since the Vietnam War protests in North America and, most recently, the protests against the war in Iraq, much anarchist activity has been anti-war based.

Many anarchists in the current movement however, reject complete pacifism, (although groups like Earth First!, and Food Not Bombs are based on principles of non-violence), and instead are in favor of self-defense, and sometimes violence against oppressive and authoritarian forces which they in fact also consider as defensive violence. Anarchists are skeptical however of winning a direct armed conflict with the state, and instead concern themselves mostly with organizing. Most anarchists however, do not consider the destruction of property to be violent, as do most activists who believe in non-violence.

Parliamentarianism

While most anarchists firmly oppose voting, or otherwise participating in the State institution, there are a few that disagree. Even hard-core anarchists (e.g. Proudhon) have succumbed to the temptation of electoral politics - and inevitably regretted it. Voluntaryism is a anarchist school of thought which emphasizes "tending your own garden" and "neither ballots nor bullets." The anarchist case against voting is explained in The Ethics of Voting by George H. Smith.

See also

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.

• Anarchist symbolism
• List of anarchism links
• List of anarchists
• List of anarchist organizations
• Past and present anarchist communities

Historical events

• Paris Commune (1871)
• Haymarket Riot (1886)
• Kronstadt rebellion (1921)
• Spanish Revolution (1936) (see Anarchism in Spain)
• May 1968, France (1968)
• WTO Meeting in Seattle (1999)

Books

• Alexander Berkman, What is Anarchism?, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, others
• Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State, The Paris Commune and the Idea of the State, others
• Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays, Living My Life, others
• Daniel Guérin, Anarchism
• Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, The Conquest of Bread, others
• Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, What is Property?
• Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism
• Voline, The Unknown Revolution
• Robert Paul Wolff, In Defense of Anarchism
• William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
• Max Stirner, The Ego And Its Own Contractarian (as opposed to Natural Law or utilitarian) anarchism
• Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You - Christian pacifist anarchism
• Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle
• Hakim Bey, Temporary Autonomous Zone Ontological anarchism

Anarchism by region/culture

• African Anarchism
• Anarchism in Spain
• Anarchism in the English tradition

External links

The overwhelming diversity and number of links relating to anarchism is extensively covered on the links subpage.

• Anarchoblogs Blogs by Anarchists.
• Anarchy Archives extensively archives information relating to famous anarchists. This includes many of their books and other publications.
• Hundreds of anarchists are listed, with short bios, links & dedicated pages at the Daily Bleed's Anarchist Encyclopedia
• Industrial Workers of the World
• IWW Retail Workers
• International Workers Association (IWA-AIT)