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Anarchism (from Greek ἀν (without) + ἄρχειν (to rule) + ισμός (from stem -ιζειν), "without archons," "without rulers")[1] is a political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which reject compulsory government[2] (the state) and support its elimination,[3][4] often due to a wider rejection of involuntary or permanent authority.[5] Anarchism is defined by The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics as "a cluster of doctrines and attitudes centered on the belief that government is both harmful and unnecessary."[6]

There are many types and traditions of anarchism,[7][8] not all of which are mutually exclusive.[9] According to the Oxford Companion to Philosophy, "there is no single defining position that all anarchists hold," beyond their rejection of compulsory government, "and those considered anarchists at best share a certain family resemblance."[10] Anarchists hold different views as to the economic organisation of society; some favor libertarian communism, collectivist anarchism or participatory economics while others support free market systems like mutualism, agorism, or anarcho-capitalism.[11] Anarchist schools of thought differ fundamentally, supporting anything from extreme individualism to complete collectivism.[12]

Contents

[edit] Origins

Main article: History of anarchism
William Godwin is credited as one of the founders of modern anarchism.
William Godwin is credited as one of the founders of modern anarchism.

Opposition to state and hierarchy had a long history prior to the anarchists in nineteenth century Europe. Some claim anarchist themes can be found in the works of Taoist sage Lao Tzu.[13] [14] Diogenes of Sinope and the Cynics and their contemporary, Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, also introduced similar topics.[13]

Modern anarchism, however, sprung from the secular thought of the Enlightenment, particularly Rousseau's arguments for the moral centrality of freedom.[15] "Anarchist" started as a term of abuse, but by the French Revolution some, such as the Enragés, began to use the term positively,[16] seeing the Jacobin "revolutionary government" as oxymoronic. From this climate William Godwin would develop what many consider the first expression of modern anarchist thought.[17] Godwin was, according to Peter Kropotkin, "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."[13][18] Godwin, a philosophical anarchist, opposed revolutionary action and saw a minimal state as a present "necessary evil"[19] that would become increasingly irrelevant and powerless by the gradual spread of knowledge.[17] Godwin advocated extreme individualism, proposing that all cooperation in labor be eliminated.[20] Godwin felt discrimination on any grounds besides ability was intolerable.

Mutualist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was the first self-described anarchist.
Mutualist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was the first self-described anarchist.

The first to describe himself as anarchist was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, which led some to call him the founder of modern anarchist theory.[21] Proudhon proposed spontaneous order, whereby organization emerges without central authority, a "positive anarchy" where order arises when everybody does “what he wishes and only what he wishes"[22] and where "business transactions alone produce the social order."[23] Like Godwin, Proudhon opposed violent revolutionary action. 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."[24]

[edit] Schools of thought

Main article: Anarchist schools of thought

[edit] Mutualism

Main article: Mutualism (economic theory)

Mutualism began in 19th century English and French labor movements, then took an anarchist form associated with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in France and others in the US.[25] This influenced individualist anarchists in the United States such as Benjamin Tucker and William B. Greene. Mutualist anarchism is concerned with reciprocity, free association, voluntary contract, federation, and credit and currency reform. Many mutualists believe a market without government intervention drives prices to labor-costs, eliminating profit, rent, and interest according to the labor theory of value. Firms would be forced to compete over workers just as workers compete over firms, raising wages.[26][27]

Some see mutualism as between[clarify] individualist and collectivist anarchism.[28] In What Is Property?, Proudhon develops a concept of "liberty", equivalent to "anarchy", which is the dialectical "synthesis of communism and property."[29] Greene, influenced by Pierre Leroux, sought mutualism in the synthesis of three philosophies — communism, capitalism and socialism.[30] Later individualist anarchists used the term mutualism but retained little emphasis on synthesis.[citation needed]

Even before Proudhon, Josiah Warren proposed similar ideas[31] after participating in a failed Owenite experiment.[32] In the 1840s and 1850s, Charles A. Dana,[33] and William B. Greene introduced Proudhon's works to the US. Greene adapted Proudhon's mutualism to American conditions and introduced it to Benjamin R. Tucker.[34]

[edit] Collectivist anarchism

Main article: Collectivist anarchism
Collectivist anarchist Mikhail Bakunin opposed the Marxist aim of dictatorship of the proletariat in favour of universal rebellion.
Collectivist anarchist Mikhail Bakunin opposed the Marxist aim of dictatorship of the proletariat in favour of universal rebellion.

Collectivist anarchism (a specific tendency not to be confused with the broad category sometimes called collectivist or communitarian anarchism[35]) is most commonly associated with Mikhail Bakunin and the anti-authoritarian section of the First International (1864-1876),[citation needed] as well as with Johann Most.[36] Unlike mutualists, collectivist anarchists oppose all private ownership of the means of production, instead advocating that ownership be collectivized. However, collectivization was not to be extended to the distribution of income, as workers would be paid according to time worked, rather than receiving goods being distributed "according to need" as in anarcho-communism. Although the collectivist anarchists advocated compensation for labor, some held out the possibility of a post-revolutionary transition to a communist system of distribution according to need.[37] Collective anarchism arose contemporaneously with Marxism but opposed the Marxist dictatorship of the proletariat, despite Marxism striving for a collectivist stateless society.[38]

[edit] Individualist anarchism

Main article: Individualist anarchism
19th century philosopher Max Stirner, a prominent early individualist anarchist.
19th century philosopher Max Stirner, a prominent early individualist anarchist.

Individualist anarchism is comprised of "several traditions"[39] which hold that "individual conscience and the pursuit of self-interest should not be constrained by any collective body or public authority."[40] Individualist anarchism is supportive of property being held privately, unlike the social/socialist/collectivist/communitarian wing which advocates common ownership.[41] Individualist anarchism has been espoused by individuals such as Henry David Thoreau[42] Josiah Warren, and Murray Rothbard. William Godwin, regarded by some as an individualist anarchist[43], advocated benevolence but also defended the sanctity of "private judgement" for each individual over his own labor and his property, and predicted a progressive rationalism that would result in government becoming smaller over time until eventual disappearance.

One of the earliest and best-known proponents of individualist anarchism was Max Stirner,[44] who wrote The Ego and Its Own (1844), a "founding text" of the philosophy.[44] Stirner's philosophy was an "egoist" form of individualist anarchism according to which the individual does as he/she pleases, taking no notice of God, state, or moral rules,[45] and society has no responsibility for its members.[46] To Stirner, rights were spooks in the mind, and society does not exist but "the individuals are its reality" — he supported property as possession by might rather than right.[47] Stirner preached self-assertion and foresaw "associations of egoists" where respect for ruthlessness drew people together.[48]

A "less radical"[49] form of individualist anarchism was advocated by the "Boston anarchists," individualists who supported private property and a free market.[50] They advocated the protection of liberty and property by private contractors,[51] and endorsed exchange of labor for wages,[52] although they believed state monopoly capitalism (defined as a state-sponsored monopoly[53][54]) didn't fully reward labor. Even among the nineteenth century American individualists, there was not a monolothic doctrine, as they disagree amongst each other on various issues. For example, Tucker opposed intellectual property rights while Spooner supported them.[55] Tucker supported property in land only while it was being used or occupied, while Byington and Spooner had no such restrictions for property.[56][57] A major cleft occurred later in the 19th century when Tucker, and some others, abandoned natural rights and converted to an "egoism" modeled upon Stirner's philosophy.[58] Some, like Tucker, identified themselves as "socialist" – a term which at the time denoted a broad concept – which he understood to refer to many ideas aimed at solving "the labor problem" by radically changing the economy.[59])

By the turn of the century, "the heyday of individualist anarchism had passed."[60] However, individualist anarchism was later revived with modifications by Murray Rothbard and the anarcho-capitalists in the mid-twentieth century, as a current of the broader libertarian movement.[61][62]

[edit] Anarchist communism

Main article: Anarchist communism
Anarcho-communist Peter Kropotkin believed that in anarchy, workers would spontaneously self-organize to produce goods in common for all society.
Anarcho-communist Peter Kropotkin believed that in anarchy, workers would spontaneously self-organize to produce goods in common for all society.

Anarchist communists propose that a society composed of a number of self-governing communes with collective use of the means of production and direct democracy as the political organizational form, and related to other communes through federation would be the freest form of social organisation.[63] However, some anarchist communists oppose the majoritarian nature of direct democracy, feeling that it can impede individual liberty and favor consensus democracy.[64] Joseph Déjacque was an early anarchist communist and the first person to describe himself as "libertarian".[65]

In anarchist communism, individuals would not receive direct compensation for labour (through sharing of profits or payment), but would instead have free access to the resources and surplus of the commune.[66] According to Kropotkin and later 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.[67] Kropotkin believed that private property was one of the causes of oppression and exploitation and called for its abolition.[68][69] In opposition to private property he advocated common ownership, proposing that "houses, field, and factories will no longer be private property [but] will be belong to the commune or the nation."[70]

The status of anarchist communism within anarchism is disputed, because it is seen by individualist anarchists and anarcho-capitalists as incompatible with freedom.[71] Some anarcho-syndicalists saw an anarcho-communist society as their objective; for example, the Spanish CNT adopted Isaac Puente's 1932 El comunismo libertario[63] as its manifesto for a post-revolutionary society. Platformism is an anarchist communist tendency in the tradition of Nestor Makhno who 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."[72] Some anarcho-communists[Who?] are strongly influenced by radical individualist and egoist philosophy and believe that anarcho-communism does not require a communitarian nature at all. Some forms of libertarian communism are strongly Egoist in nature.[73] Anarcho-communist Emma Goldman was influenced by both Max Stirner and Kropotkin and blended their philosophies together in her own.[74]

[edit] Anarcho-syndicalism

Main articles: Syndicalism and Anarcho-syndicalism
A common anarcho-syndicalist flag.
A common anarcho-syndicalist flag.
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In the early twentieth century anarcho-syndicalism arose as a distinct school of thought within anarchism. With greater focus on the labour movement than previous forms of anarchism, syndicalism posits radical trade unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the state with a new society, democratically self-managed by the workers. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Important principles of syndicalism include workers' solidarity, direct action (such as general strikes and workplace recuperations), and workers' self-management.

Rudolf Rocker was an early anarcho-syndicalist thinker who 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.[75] Although more frequently associated with labor struggles of the early twentieth century (particularly in France and Spain), many syndicalist organizations are active today, including the SAC in Sweden, the USI in Italy, and the CNT in Spain. A number of these organizations are united across national borders by membership in the International Workers Association.

[edit] Anarcho-capitalism

Main article: Anarcho-capitalism
Murray Rothbard, 20th century progenitor of anarcho-capitalism.
Murray Rothbard, 20th century progenitor of anarcho-capitalism.

Anarcho-capitalism (also private property anarchism or free-market anarchism[76]) is a political philosophy "based on a belief in the freedom to own private property,[77] a rejection of any form of governmental authority or intervention, and the upholding of the competitive free market as the main mechanism for social interaction."[78] Anarcho-capitalism has a theory of legitimacy that supports private property as long as it was obtained by labor, trade, or gift.[79] In an anarcho-capitalist society, its proponents hold, voluntary market processes would result in the provision of social institutions such as law enforcement, defence and infrastructure by competing for-profit firms, charities or voluntary associations.[80] rather than the state.

Anarcho-capitalism has drawn influence from pro-market theorists such as Gustave de Molinari, Frederic Bastiat, and Robert Nozick, as well as American invidualist thinkers such as Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner.[81] It has been characterised as a form of individualist anarchism.[82] However, unlike the version of individualist anarchism held by Tucker and Spooner, it rejects the labor theory of value and its normative implications in favor of the neo-classical marginalist view. Anarcho-capitalist ideas have in turn contributed to the development of agorism and market-oriented left-libertarianism.[83]

Anarcho-capitalism has been advocated on both natural rights-based [84] and utilitarian[85] grounds. Because of the historically anti-capitalist nature of most anarchist thought, the status of anarcho-capitalism within anarchism is disputed [86], with "those within the communist anarchist movement [having] been particularly keen to expunge individualists anarchists like [Murray] Rothbard" from literary accounts of anarchism.[87] Rothbard distinguished free-market capitalism – peaceful voluntary exchange[88] – from "state capitalism" which he defined as a collusive partnership between big business and government that uses coercion to subvert the free market.[89] In this spirit, Rothbard stated that "capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism."[90]

[edit] Green anarchism

Main article: Green Anarchism
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Green and black flag of Green Anarchism.
Green and black flag of Green Anarchism.

Green anarchism is a school of thought within anarchism which emphasizes the environment. Green anarchists include, amongst others, some anti-civilization anarchists and anarcho-primitivists.[citation needed] A critique of technology is a common, though non-essential feature of green anarchist thought.[original research?]

Primitivist and anti-civilization green anarchists advocate a return to a pre-industrial and usually pre-agricultural society.[91] They critique industrial civilization from the perspective that technology and development have alienated people from the natural world.[attribution needed] This strand of green anarchism philosophy develops themes present in the political action of the Luddites and the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, although when primitivism emerged it was influenced more directly by the works of theorists such as the Frankfurt School Marxists Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse; anthropologists Marshall Sahlins and Richard Borshay Lee; and others such as Lewis Mumford, Jean Baudrillard and Gary Snyder.[citation needed] Fredy Perlman is a prominent contemporary progenitor of primitivist green anarchist views,[citation needed] while green anarchists such as Derrick Jensen and John Zerzan, identifying themselves as primitivists, advocate a complete process of 'rewilding' and a return to nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles.[92][93]

Other green anarchists[Who?] only wish to see an end to industrial society and do not necessarily oppose domestication or agriculture. Yet other green anarchists[Who?] focus not on a post-revolutionary future, but on defense of the earth and social revolution in the present. Many non-primitivist green anarchists, such as anthropologist Brian Morris, are influenced by the social ecology of Murray Bookchin.

[edit] Anarchism without adjectives

Main article: Anarchism without adjectives
Voltairine de Cleyre was an anarchist without adjectives active in the late 19th century who rejected socialist/communist forms of anarchism for their need for regulation, and mutualist/individualist forms for their hard propertarianism.
Voltairine de Cleyre was an anarchist without adjectives active in the late 19th century who rejected socialist/communist forms of anarchism for their need for regulation, and mutualist/individualist forms for their hard propertarianism.

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".[94] Anarchism without adjectives emphasizes harmony between various anarchist factions and attempts to unite them around their shared anti-authoritarian beliefs. The expression was coined by Cuban-born Fernando Tarrida del Mármol, who used it in Barcelona in November 1889 as a call for tolerance, after being troubled by the "bitter debates" between the different anarchist movements.[95]

Voltairine de Cleyre was an anarchist without adjectives who initially identified herself as an individualist anarchist but later espoused a collectivist form of anarchism,[96] 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" although she stopped short of denouncing these tendencies as un-anarchistic.[97] 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."[98] Fred Woodworth is a contemporary anarchist without adjectives.[99]

[edit] Recently-developed schools of thought

Temporary Autonomous Zone theorist Hakim Bey is an influential figure in contemporary anarchist circles.
Temporary Autonomous Zone theorist Hakim Bey is an influential figure in contemporary anarchist circles.

Anarchism continues to generate many eclectic and syncretic philosophies and movements; since the 1960s and 1970s, a number of new movements and schools have emerged.

Post-left anarchy seeks to distance itself from the traditional "left" 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 and calls for a synthesis of anarchist thought and a specifically anti-authoritarian revolutionary movement outside of the leftist milieu. Post-anarchism is a theoretical move towards a synthesis of classical anarchist theory and poststructuralist thought developed by Saul Newman and associated with thinkers such as Todd May, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. It draws from a wide range of ideas including autonomism, post-left anarchy, situationism, post-colonialism and Zapatismo. Another recent form of anarchism critical of formal anarchist movements is Insurrectionary anarchism which advocates informal organization and active resistance to the state; its proponents include Wolfi Landstreicher and Alfredo M. Bonanno.

Crypto-anarchism is a cyberspatial realization of anarcho-capitalism[100] that developed in the 1990s and was first promulgated by Timothy C. May.[101] It proposes to defend individual sovereignty, privacy and freedom by making persecution by the state technically and legally unfeasible through the use of public-key cryptography. Small 'a' anarchism describes those who view anarchism as "a way of acting, or a historical tendency against illegitimate authority."[102] The term also describes 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 a rejection of the notion that the ends justify the means.[103]

[edit] Anarchism as a social movement

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[edit] The First International

In Europe, harsh reaction followed the revolutions of 1848, but in 1864 the International Workingmen's Association, sometimes called the "First International," united diverse revolutionary currents, including French followers of Proudhon, Blanquists, Freemasons (Philadelphes), English trade unionists, socialists and social democrats. Due to its 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. In 1868, following their unsuccessful participation in the League of Peace and Freedom (LPF), Mikhail Bakunin and his associates joined the First International - which had decided not to get involved with the LPF. They allied themselves 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.[104] 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.[105]

[edit] Anarchism and organized labor

Main articles: Anarcho-syndicalism and Anarchism in Spain
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Spanish anarcho-syndicalists successfully organized autonomous communities during the Spanish Revolution (1936 – 1939).
Spanish anarcho-syndicalists successfully organized autonomous communities during the Spanish Revolution (1936 – 1939).

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."[106] In 1907, the International Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam gathered delegates from 14 different countries, among which important figures of the anarchist movement, including Errico Malatesta, Pierre Monatte, Luigi Fabbri, Benoît Broutchoux, Emma Goldman, Rudolf Rocker, Christiaan Cornelissen, etc. Various themes were treated during the Congress, in particular concerning the organisation of the anarchist movement, popular education issues, the general strike or anti-militarism. A central debate concerned the relation between anarchism and syndicalism (or trade-unionism). Malatesta and Monatte in particular opposed themselves on this issue, as the latter thought that syndicalism was revolutionary and would create the conditions of a social revolution, while Malatesta considered that syndicalism by itself was not sufficient.[107] Malatesta thought that trade-unions were reformist, and could even be, at times, conservative. Along with Cornelissen, he cited as example US trade-unions, where trade-unions composed of qualified workers sometimes opposed themselves to non-qualified workers in order to defend their relatively privileged position.

The Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour, CGT), formed in France in 1895, was the first major anarcho-syndicalist movement,[citation needed] 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.[108] 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.

[edit] The Russian Revolution

Main article: Russian Revolution of 1917
Anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman resisted Bolshevik consolidation of power following the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman resisted Bolshevik consolidation of power following the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Anarchists participated alongside the Bolsheviks in both February and October revolutions, many anarchists initially supporting the Bolshevik coup. However, the Bolsheviks soon turned against the anarchists and other left-wing opposition, a conflict that culminated in the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion. Anarchists in central Russia were either imprisoned or driven underground or joined the victorious Bolsheviks. In the Ukraine, anarchists fought in the civil war against Whites and then the Bolsheviks as part of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine led by Nestor Makhno, who attempted to establish an anarchist society in the region for a number of months.

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 accounts of their experiences in Russia, criticizing the amount of control the Bolsheviks exercised. For them, Bakunin's predictions about the consequences of Marxist rule[109] 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, certain members of the major syndicalist movements of the CGT and IWW left the organizations and joined 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),[72] 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.

[edit] The fight against fascism

Main article: Anti-fascism
See also: Anarchism in Italy, Anarchism in France, and Anarchism in Spain
Spain, 1936. Members of the anarchist CNT construct armoured cars in one of the collectivised factories to fight against the fascists.
Spain, 1936. Members of the anarchist CNT construct armoured cars in one of the collectivised factories to fight against the fascists.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the rise of fascism in Europe transformed anarchism's conflict with the state. Italy saw the first struggles between anarchists and fascists. Italian anarchists played a key role in the anti-fascist organisation Arditi del Popolo, which was strongest in areas with anarchist traditions and marked up numerous successful victories, including repelling Blackshirts in the anarchist stronghold of Parma in August 1922.[110] In France, where the far-right leagues came close to insurrection in the February 1934 riots, anarchists divided over a 'United Front' policy.[111]

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, who controlled the distribution of military aid to the Republican cause from Soviet Russia. The CNT leadership often appeared confused and divided, with some members controversially entering the government.[original research?] According to George Orwell and other foreign observers, Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted both dissident Marxists and anarchists.

Since the late 1970s anarchists have been involved in opposing the rise of neo-fascist groups.[specify] In Germany and the United Kingdom 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.[citation needed]

[edit] Internal issues and debates

Main article: Issues in anarchism
The efficacy and legitimacy of using violence to political ends have been controversial issues amongst anarchists.
The efficacy and legitimacy of using violence to political ends have been controversial issues amongst anarchists.

Anarchism is a philosophy which embodies many diverse and heterogeneous attitudes, tendencies and schools of thought; as such, disagreement over questions of values, ideology and tactics is common. The compatibility of capitalism, nationalism and religion with anarchism is widely disputed. Similarly, anarchism enjoys a complex relationship with ideologies such as Marxism, communism and anarcho-capitalism. Anarchists may be motivated by humanism, divine authority, enlightened self-interest or any number of alternative ethical doctrines.

Phenomena such as civilization, technology (e.g. within primitivism and insurrectionary anarchism), and the democratic process may be sharply criticized within some anarchist tendencies and simultaneously lauded in others. Anarchist attitudes towards race, gender and the environment have changed significantly since the modern origin of the philosophy in the eighteenth century.

On a tactical level, while propaganda of the deed was a tactic used by anarchists in the 19th century (e.g. the Nihilist movement), contemporary anarchists espouse alternative methods such as nonviolence, counter-economics and anti-state cryptography to bring about an anarchist society.


[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Anarchy Merriam-Webster's Online dictionary
  2. ^ Malatesta, Errico, Towards Anarchism.
  3. ^ Anarchism. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 29 August 2006
  4. ^ Anarchism. The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005. P. 14 "Anarchism is the view that a society without the state, or government, is both possible and desirable."
  5. ^ Bakunin, Mikhail, God and the State, pt. 2.; Tucker, Benjamin, State Socialism and Anarchism.; Kropotkin, Piotr, Anarchism: its Philosophy and Ideal; Malatesta, Errico, Towards Anarchism; Bookchin, Murray, Anarchism: Past and Present, pt. 4; An Introduction to Anarchism by Liz A. Highleyman[1]
  6. ^ Carl Slevin "anarchism" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Ed. Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan. Oxford University Press, 2003.
  7. ^ Kropotkine, Petr Alekseevich. Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings, Courier Dover Publications, 2002, p.5
  8. ^ R.B. Fowler (1972). "The Anarchist Tradition of Political Thought". Western Political Quarterly 25 (4): 738-752. doi:10.2307/446800. 
  9. ^ Sylvan, Richard. Anarchism. A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, editors Goodwin, Robert E. and Pettit, Philip. Blackwell Publishing, 1995, p.231
  10. ^ Anarchism. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 31
  11. ^ "Usually considered to be an extreme left-wing ideology, anarchism has always included a significant strain of radical individualism, from the hyperrationalism of Godwin, to the egoism of Stirner, to the libertarians and anarcho-capitalists of today." Brooks, Frank H. 1994. The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881-1908). Transaction Publishers. p. xi
  12. ^ Carl Slevin "anarchism" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Ed. Iain McLean and Alistair McMillan. Oxford University Press, 2003. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.
  13. ^ a b c Peter Kropotkin, "Anarchism", from The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910
  14. ^ [2]PDF (99.5 KiB)
  15. ^ Anarchism, Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2006 (UK version) http://uk.encarta.msn.com © 1997-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved
  16. ^ Sheehan, Sean. Anarchism, London: Reaktion Books Ltd., 2004. pg. 85
  17. ^ a b William Godwin at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  18. ^ Godwin himself attributed the first anarchist writing to Edmund Burke's Vindication of Natural Society. "Most of the above arguments may be found much more at large in Burke's Vindication of Natural Society; a treatise in which the evils of the existing political institutions are displayed with incomparable force of reasoning and lustre of eloquence…" - footnote, Ch. 2 Political Justice by William Godwin.
  19. ^ Godwin said: "…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." in "An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice"
  20. ^ "everything understood by the term co-operation is in some sense an evil." – In Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 7, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online
  21. ^ Daniel Guerin, Anarchism: From Theory to Practice (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970).
  22. ^ Proudhon, Solution to the Social Problem, ed. H. Cohen (New York: Vanguard Press, 1927), p.45.
  23. ^ Proudon, Pierre-Joseph. The Federal Principle. "The notion of anarchy in politics is just as rational and positive as any other. It means that once industrial functions have taken over from political functions, then business transactions alone produce the social order."
  24. ^ Selected Writings, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
  25. ^ "A member of a community," The Mutualist; this 1826 series criticized Owen's proposals, and has been attributed to Josiah Warren or another dissident Owenite in the same circles; Wilbur, Shawn, 2006, "More from the 1826 "Mutualist"?"
  26. ^ [3]
  27. ^

    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.

    – "Communism versus Mutualism", Socialistic, Communistic, Mutualistic and Financial Fragments. (Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1875), William Batchelder Greene

  28. ^ Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Princeton University Press 1996 ISBN 0-691-04494-5, p.6
    Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, Blackwell Publishing 1991 ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p.11
  29. ^ Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph What is Property? (1840), p. 281
  30. ^ Greene, William B. "Communism — Capitalism — Socialism", Equality (1849)[4], p. 59.
  31. ^ Warren published the periodical The Peaceful Revolutionist in 1833, seven years before Proudhon's "What is Property."
  32. ^ "While more learned men lost faith in utopias and in human nature when the New Harmony experiment failed, Warren became more trusting than before in man's intelligence and perfectibility." - Native American Anarchism, pg. 94, Eunice Schuster
  33. ^ Dana, Charles A. Proudhon and his "Bank of the People" (1848).
  34. ^ Tucker, Benjamin R., "On Picket Duty", Liberty (Not the Daughter but the Mother of Order) (1881-1908); 5 January 1889; 6, 10; APS Online pg. 1
  35. ^ Morris, Christopher W. 1998. An Essay on the Modern State. Cambridge University Press. p 50. The collectivist category is also sometimes known as social, socialist, or communitarian anarchism category.
  36. ^ Avrich, Paul. 2006. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. AK Press. p. 5
  37. ^ Bakunin's associate, James Guillaume, put it this way in his essay, Ideas on Social Organization(1876):

    When… production comes to outstrip consumption… [e]veryone will draw what he needs from the abundant social reserve of commodities, without fear of depletion; and the moral sentiment which will be more highly developed among free and equal workers will prevent, or greatly reduce, abuse and waste.

  38. ^ Bakunin, Mikhail; Statism and Anarchism:

    They [the Marxists] maintain that only a dictatorship — their dictatorship, of course — can create the will of the people, while our answer to this is: No dictatorship can have any other aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can beget only slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can be created only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on the part of the people and free organization of the toiling masses from the bottom up.

  39. ^ Ward, Colin. Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 2
  40. ^ Heywood, Andrew, Key Concepts in Politics, Palgrave, ISBN 0-312-23381-7, 2000, p. 46
  41. ^ Freeden, Micheal. Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. Oxford University Press. ISBN 019829414X. pp. 314
  42. ^ Johnson, Ellwood. The Goodly Word: The Puritan Influence in America Literature, Clements Publishing, 2005, p. 138: "…a political theory that has usually been named 'anarchist individualism'…The theory, however, does not advocate anarchism in the sense, for example, of the destruction of institutions; its purpose is only description. Emersonian and Thoreauavian anarchism does not call for any specifiable program of rebellion or destruction of social institutions, but merely asserts one abiding truth…" Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, edited by Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, Alvin Saunders Johnson, 1937, p. 12: "The noblest and most eloquent statement of this essentially anarchist individualism came a generation later in Thoreau's essay on Civil Disobedience" Bool, Henry, Henry Bool's Apology for His Jeffersonian Anarchism, 1901: "I am a believer in the doctrines of the individualistic school of Anarchists, to which Garrison, Emerson, Proudhon, Thoreau, Spooner, Andrews, Warren and Tucker belong."
  43. ^ Woodcock, George. 2004. Anarchism: A History Of Libertarian Ideas And Movements. Broadview Press. p. 20
  44. ^ a b Max Stirner at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  45. ^ Miller, David. "anarchism." 1987. The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought. Blackwell Publishing. p 11
  46. ^ Heider, Ulrike. Anarchism: Left, Right and Green, San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1994, pp. 95-96
  47. ^ "What my might reaches is my property; and let me claim as property everything I feel myself strong enough to attain, and let me extend my actual property as fas as I entitle, that is, empower myself to take…" In Ossar, Michael. 1980. Anarchism in the Dramas of Ernst Toller. SUNY Press. p. 27
  48. ^ Woodcock. George. 2004. Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements. Broadview Press. p 20
  49. ^ Levy, Carl. Anarchism. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007.
  50. ^ "Anarchism is a word without meaning, unless it includes the liberty of the individual to control his product or whatever his product has brought him through exchange in a free market - that is, private property. Whoever denies private property is of necessity an Archist." "ANARCHISM AND PROPERTY", by Benjamin Tucker in "The New Freewoman", November 15, 1913
  51. ^ Benjamin Tucker, "defense is a service like any other service; that it is labor both useful and desired, and therefore an economic commodity subject to the law of supply and demand; that in a free market this commodity would be furnished at the cost of production; that, competition prevailing, patronage would go to those who furnished the best article at the lowest price; that the production and sale of this commodity are now monopolized by the State; and that the State, like almost all monopolists, charges exorbitant prices" "Instead of a Book" (1893)
    "Anarchism does not exclude prisons, officials, military, or other symbols of force. It merely demands that non-invasive men shall not be made the victims of such force. Anarchism is not the reign of love, but the reign of justice. It does not signify the abolition of force-symbols but the application of force to real invaders." Tucker, Benjamin. Liberty October 19, 1891.
  52. ^ Tucker, Benjamin. Labor and Its Pay, from Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin T. Tucker
  53. ^ Schwartzman, Jack. Ingalls, Hanson, and Tucker: Nineteenth-Century American Anarchists. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 62, No. 5 (November, 2003). p. 325
  54. ^ Schwartzman, Jack. Ingalls, Hanson, and Tucker: Nineteenth-Century American Anarchists. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 62, No. 5 (November, 2003). p. 325
  55. ^ Spooner, Lysander. The Law of Intellectual Property
  56. ^ Carl Watner. Benjamin Tucker and His PeriodicalPDF (868 KiB), Liberty. Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 308
  57. ^ Watner, Carl. Spooner Vs. LibertyPDF (1.20 MiB) in The Libertarian Forum. March 1975. Volume VII, No 3. ISSN 0047-4517. pp. 5-6.
  58. ^ Watner, Carl. 1977. "Benjamin Tucker and His Periodical, Liberty." Journal of Libertarian Studies
  59. ^ Brooks, Frank H. 1994. The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881-1908). Transaction Publishers. p. 75.
  60. ^ Avrich, Paul. 2006. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. AK Press. p. 6
  61. ^ Levy, Carl. Anarchism. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007.
  62. ^ Miller, David. Anarchism. The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought 1987. p. 11
  63. ^ a b Puente, Isaac "Libertarian Communism" (The Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review' #6 Orkney 1982)[5]
  64. ^ Graeber, David and Grubacic, Andrej. Anarchism, Or The Revolutionary Movement Of The Twenty-first Century
  65. ^ De l'être-humain mâle et femelle - Lettre à P.J. Proudhon par Joseph Déjacque (in French)
  66. ^ Miller. Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, Blackwell Publishing (1991) ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p. 12
  67. ^
  68. ^ "[t]he landlord owes his riches to the poverty of the peasants, and the wealth of the capitalist comes from the same source" – Kropotkin, "The Conquest of Bread" op cit
  69. ^ Kropotkin, Peter. Words of a Rebel, p99.
  70. ^ Kropotkin, Peter. 1907. The Conquest of Bread. Putnam. p. 202
  71. ^ Yarros, Victor S. A Princely Paradox, Liberty, Vol 4. No. 19, Saturday, April 9, 1887, Whole Number 97; Tucker, Benjamin. Labor and Its Pay; Appleton, Henry. Anarchism, True and False, Liberty 2.24, no. 50, 6 September 1884, p. 4; Swartz, Clarence Lee. What is Mutualism?; Rothbard, Murray. The Death Wish of the Anarcho-Communists
  72. ^ a b Dielo Trouda group [1926] (2006). Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft). Italy: FdCA. Retrieved on 2006-10-24. 
  73. ^ Christopher Gray, Leaving the Twentieth Century, p. 88.
  74. ^ Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays, p. 50.
  75. ^ Anarchosyndicalism by Rudolph Rocker, retrieved 7 September 2006
  76. ^ "This volume honors the foremost contemporary exponent of free-market anarchism. One contributor describes Murray Rothbard as 'the most ideologically committed zero-State academic economist on earth'." Review by Lawrence H. White of Man, Economy, and liberty: Essays in honor of Murray N. Rothbard, published in Journal of Economic Literature, Vol XXVIII, June 1990, page 664
  77. ^ Anarcho-capitalism has a theory of legitimacy that supports private property as long as it was obtained by labor, trade, or gift.Rothbard, Murray (1969) Confiscation and the Homestead PrinciplePDF (580 KiB) The Libertarian Forum Vol. I, No. VI (June 15, 1969) Retrieved 5 August 2006
  78. ^ "anarcho-capitalism." Oxford English Dictionary. 2004. Oxford University Press
  79. ^ Rothbard, Murray (1969) Confiscation and the Homestead PrinciplePDF (580 KiB) The Libertarian Forum Vol. I, No. VI (June 15, 1969) Retrieved 5 August 2006
  80. ^ Hess, Karl. "The Death of Politics". Interview in Playboy Magazine, March 1969
  81. ^ DeLeon, David. The American as Anarchist: Reflections on Indigenous Radicalism. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978, p. 127 and Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, 1987, ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p. 290: "A student and disciple of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, Rothbard combined the laissez-faire economics of his teacher with the absolutist views of human rights and rejection of the state he had absorbed from studying the individualist American anarchists of the nineteenth century such as Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker. (Rothbard himself is on the anarchist wing of the movement.)"
  82. ^ Adams, Ian. 2002. Political Ideology Today. p. 135. Manchester University Press; Ostergaard, Geoffrey. 2003. Anarchism. In W. Outwaite (Ed.), The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought. p. 14. Blackwell Publishing
  83. ^ Konkin, Samuel Edward. New Libertarian Manifesto. KoPubCo year = 2006. ISBN 9780977764921.  (online version)
  84. ^ Murray Rothbard and Hans-Hermann Hoppe
  85. ^ e.g. by David D. Friedman
  86. ^ For further information see Anarchism and anarcho-capitalism
  87. ^ Jainendra, Jha. 2002. Anarchism. In Encyclopedia of Teaching of Civics and Political Science. p. 52. Anmol Publications.
  88. ^ Rothbard, Murray N. A Future of Peace and Capitalism. In Modern Political Economy. James H. Weaver (ed.). pp 419. Allyn and Bacon.
  89. ^ Murray Rothbard, A Future of Peace and Capitalism; Murray Rothbard, Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty.
  90. ^ Exclusive Interview With Murray Rothbard The New Banner: A Fortnightly Libertarian Journal (25 February 1972)
  91. ^ Nocella, Anthony. Best, Stephen. 'Igniting a Revolution: Voices in Defense of the Earth' AK Press (2006) pg.23
  92. ^ Endgame, Volume 1: The Problem of Civilization, Seven Stories Press (ISBN 1-58322-730-X)
  93. ^ John Zerzan - What is Anarchism?
  94. ^ Esenwein, George Richard "Anarchist Ideology and the Working Class Movement in Spain, 1868-1898" [p. 135]
  95. ^ Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 6
  96. ^ "The best thing ordinary workingmen or women could do was to organise their industry to get rid of money altogether…Let them produce together, co-operatively rather than as employer and employed; let them fraternise group by group, let each use what he needs of his own product, and deposit the rest in the storage-houses, and let those others who need goods have them as occasion arises." Voltairine De Cleyre, "Why I Am an Anarchist"
  97. ^ "There is nothing un-Anarchistic about any of [these systems] until the element of compulsion enters and obliges unwilling persons to remain in a community whose economic arrangements they do not agree to."
  98. ^ quoted by Max Nettlau, A Short History of Anarchism [p. 198-9]
  99. ^ "I have no prefix or adjective for my anarchism. I think syndicalism can work, as can free-market anarcho-capitalism, anarcho-communism, even anarcho-hermits, depending on the situation. But I do have a strong individualist streak.
    – From an interview with Fred Woodworth in Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in American by Paul Avrich (2006). Page 475
  100. ^ Vernor Vinge, James Frankel. True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier (2001), Tor Books, p.44
  101. ^ The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto Timothy C. May, 1992.
  102. ^ Dave Neal, "Anarchism: Ideology or Methodology?"
  103. ^ "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."Anarchism, Or The Revolutionary Movement Of The Twenty-first Century by David Graeber and Andrej Grubacic
  104. ^ Bakunin, Mikhail [1873] (1991). Statism and Anarchy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36973-8. 
  105. ^ Graham, Robert ''Anarchism (Montreal: Black Rose Books 2005) ISBN 1-55164-251-4
  106. ^ Resolutions from the St. Imier Congress, in Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas, Vol. 1, p.100 [6]
  107. ^ Extract of Malatesta's declaration (French)
  108. ^ Carley, Mark "Trade union membership 1993-2003" (International:SPIRE Associates 2004)
  109. ^ "You can see quite well that behind all the democratic and socialistic phrases and promises in Marx’s program for the State lies all that constitutes the true despotic and brutal nature of all states, regardless of their form of government." Bakunin, Mikhail (1872) "On the International Workingmen's Association and Karl Marx" (Bakunin on Anarchy, translated and edited by Sam Dolgoff, 1971)[7]
  110. ^ Holbrow, Marnie, "Daring but Divided" (Socialist Review November 2002)
  111. ^ Berry, David, "Fascism or Revolution" (Le Libertaire August 1936)

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