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Anarchism

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   Anarchism is the name of a political philosophy or a group of doctrines
   and attitudes that are centered on rejection of any form of compulsory
   government (" state") and supporting its elimination. The term
   "anarchism" is derived from the Greek αναρχία ("without archons" or
   "without rulers"). Thus "anarchism," in its most general meaning, is
   the belief that all forms of rulership are undesirable and should be
   abolished.

   There is a variety of types and traditions of anarchism with various
   points of difference. Other than being opposed to the state, "there is
   no single defining position that all anarchists hold, and those
   considered anarchists at best share a certain family resemblance."
   Preferred economic arrangements are one of the many areas of
   disagreement for anarchists.

Origins

Pre-Nineteenth Century

   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. Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism also introduced topics
   which contain anarchist themes.

   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

   William Godwin
   Enlarge
   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."

   Godwin felt that the evil of man was the result of societal corruption,
   and his view was that government would become unnecessary as the human
   race is perfected. "Above all we should not forget, that government is
   an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual
   conscience of mankind; and that, however we may be obliged to admit it
   as a necessary evil for the present, it behoves us, as the friends of
   reason and the human species, to admit as little of it as possible, and
   carefully to observe whether, in consequence of the gradual
   illumination of the human mind, that little may not hereafter be
   diminished." 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, achieved
   fame as the author of Frankenstein.

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

   Proudhon and his children, by Gustave Courbet, 1865
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   Proudhon and his children, by Gustave Courbet, 1865

   Pierre-Joseph Proudhon is 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." 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."

Schools of Anarchist Thought

Mutualism

   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. Proudhon was the first
   to call himself and his politics anarchist. 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 to align 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.

Collectivist Anarchism

   Mikhail Bakunin
   Enlarge
   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

   Joseph Déjacque was an early anarchist communist and the first person
   to describe himself as " socialist 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 ownership of the means of
   production, ruled by direct democracy, and related to other communes
   through federation would be the freest form of social organisation. In
   anarchist communism, individuals would not receive direct compensation
   for labour (through share of profits, payment or any other
   compensation), but would instead have free access to the resources of
   the commune. 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.
   It is often characterised as Utopianism, a claim some do not deny, but
   anarchist communism is portrayed by its supporters as an achievable
   goal, if not an inevitability, rather than an impossible ideal.

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."

   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..."

   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

   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

   Flag used by Anarcho-syndicalists.
   Enlarge
   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 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

   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." Some
   individualists are market anarchists, which are individualists that
   believe that security of individuals and their property should be
   provided by the market itself (such as by supplying private police and
   courts).

Egoism

   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
   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.

Individualist anarchism in the United States

   Josiah Warren is generally considered "the first American anarchist."
   Enlarge
   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. 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
   accede 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, also
   advocating 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."

   Unlike anarcho-communists, they supported the exchange of labor for
   wages. Benjamin Tucker said, "Not to abolish wages, but to make every
   man dependent upon wages and secure to every man his whole wages is the
   aim of Anarchistic Socialism." (Note that Tucker used the word
   "socialism" in a non-standard sense; he supported private ownership of
   the means of production.) They argued that the state prevents true free
   competition in the market, which they thought prevented labor from
   receiving its true value in exchange. Spooner, however, 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"
   while Dyer Lum argued that a free market would see the end of wage
   labour by co-operatives. They accepted a labor theory of value,
   believing that free-market competition would cause what they believed
   to be non-labor income (profit, rent and interest) to disappear. 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
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   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 favour of established firms. There was also
   agreement among the early American individualists on the permissibility
   of employment ("wage labour"). The nineteenth century individualists
   disagreed on various things, so there is not one philosophy of
   "individualist anarchism." For example, 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.

Anarcho-capitalism

   Anarcho-capitalism (also known as private property anarchism or market
   anarchism) is a form of individualist anarchism lying outside the
   mainstream of anti-capitalistic anarchism, which has a significant
   following in the United States. Like their predecessors,
   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 are Murray
   Rothbard, David Friedman and Hans-Hermann Hoppe. It has been influenced
   by libertarians such as Gustave de Molinari, Frederic Bastiat, Ayn Rand
   and Robert Nozick.

   Although anarcho-capitalism was also influenced by Tucker and Spooner,
   it rejects their labor theory of value in favour of the modern
   neo-classical marginalist view. Thus, anarcho-capitalists, like modern
   economists, do not believe that prices in a free market are, or would
   be, proportional to labor times (nor do they think that "usury,"
   "exploitation," or "profit" is taking place if that does not happen).
   Economically-inclined anarcho-capitalists, such as Rothbard, believe
   that different prices of goods and services in a market, whether
   completely free or not, are the result of individuals making subjective
   judgements on the marginal utility of goods and services rather than on
   the amounts of labor embodied in them. Also anarcho-capitalists
   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 just because banking is unregulated
   (nor does he agree that unregulated banking would increase the supply
   of money in the first place). Anarcho-capitalism has a theory of
   legitimacy that supports private property as long as it was obtained by
   labor, trade, or gift. Most anarcho-capitalists believe that in the
   absence of aggression, including the instutionalized aggression carried
   on by the state, free capitalism would naturally and inevitably
   develop. Hence, Rothbard's statement that "capitalism is the fullest
   expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of
   capitalism."

Anarchism without adjectives

   Voltairine de Cleyre
   Enlarge
   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 Marmol, who used it in November 1889 in
   Barcelona.

   To these anarchists, economic preferences are considered to be of
   secondary importance to abolishing all coercive authority. Rudolf
   Rocker, who was one of these anarchists, 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."

   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 favour 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

   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 a operative masonry, and a
   symbol of rectitude of conduct
   Enlarge
   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 a 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

   CNT poster from April 2004. Reads: Don't let the politicians rule our
   lives/ You vote and they decide/ Don't allow it/ Unity, Action,
   Self-management.
   Enlarge
   CNT poster from April 2004. Reads: Don't let the politicians rule our
   lives/ You vote and they decide/ Don't allow it/ Unity, Action,
   Self-management.

   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

   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

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

Issues in anarchism

Ends and means

   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. Many 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

   Most anarchist traditions not only seek rejection of the state, but
   also of capitalism, which they perceive as authoritarian, coercive, and
   exploitative.

   The American individualist anarchists were "fervent anti-capitalists"
   who "saw no contradiction between their individualist stance and their
   rejection of capitalism." However, this opposition did not include
   opposition to the product of labor or capital goods ("means of
   production") run by individuals, but only " usury", i.e. rent,
   interest, and profit from other's labor (profit being defined as labor
   not receiving its "full product" under the labor theory of value). Such
   individualist anarchists support free trade, free competition, and
   varying levels of private property, like in mutualism and homesteading.
   As 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."

   Non-individualist anarchists, in contrast, follow Proudhon in opposing
   ownership of workplaces by capitalists and aim to replace wage labour
   by 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 simply 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."

Globalization

   The majority of anarchists oppose neoliberal globalization as an
   attempt to use coercion on a global scale, carried out through
   institutions such as the World Bank, World Trade Organization, G8 and
   World Economic Forum. Anarchist 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, often played a major role in planning,
   organising and participating in the 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.

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. Individualist
   anarchists oppose communism in all its forms. 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. The
   socialist Proudhon also opposed 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."
   Anarchist communists reject the criticism, pointing to the principle of
   voluntary association that underpins the theory.

Gender

   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. 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.

Race

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

   Since the late 1970s some anarchists have been involved in fighting the
   rise of neo-fascist groups. In Germany and Great Britain 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. Since the late 1990s,
   a similar tendency has developed within US anarchism.

The environment

   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 domination of nature as a metaphor for the
   domination of women.

   Anarcho-Primitivism is a predominantly Western 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. Some
   primitivists advocate a complete process of ' rewilding' and a return
   to nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles while others only wish to see an
   end to industrial society and do not 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. Today there is much conflict between primitivists and
   followers of more traditional forms of class struggle anarchism, such
   as the social ecology of Murray Bookchin.

Religion

   The novelist and Christian anarchist Leo Tolstoy
   Enlarge
   The novelist and Christian anarchist Leo Tolstoy

   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, but were corrupted when
   "Christianity" was declared 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 whose ' 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 1800's 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). .

Recent Developments within Anarchism

   Anarchism generates many eclectic and syncretic philosophies and
   movements. Since the Western social ferment in the 1960's and 1970's 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), and the
   Argentinean organization Auca (Rebel). 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
     * 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 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

   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.

Cultural phenomena

   Noam Chomsky (1928–)
   Enlarge
   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:
     * the MIT professor of linguistics Noam Chomsky
     * the social historian Howard Zinn
     * author Edward Abbey
     * author and speaker Murray Bookchin
     * author and philosopher Robert Anton Wilson
     * graphic novelist Alan Moore
     * UFC fighter and champion Jeff Monson
     * feminist, author and critic Germaine Greer
     * Hans Alfredson, actor, film director, writer and comedian.
     * Hip Hop musician 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 in the modern age, 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 the 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.

   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.

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