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Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of hierarchy and imposed authority. These philosophies use anarchy to mean a society based on voluntary cooperation of free individuals. Philosophical anarchist thought does not advocate chaos or anomie — it intends "anarchy" to refer to a manner of human relations that is intentionally established and maintained.

While individual freedom and opposition to the state are primary tenets of anarchism, most anarchists insist that anarchism is much more than that. There is also considerable variation among the anarchist political philosophies, to the point that groups with radically different views may consider themselves anarchist. Opinions vary in areas ranging from the role of violence in fostering anarchism, to the preferred type of economic system, the relationship between technology and hierarchy, the interpretation of egalitarian ideals, and desirability of various forms of organization.

Anarchy

Anarchy, literally, means a lack of hierarchy. A common use of the English word anarchy is "a state of lawlessness or political disorder", more properly known as anomie. This use of the word anarchy implies a broad definition: usually, any situation where there is no internationally recognized government is considered anarchic. The current political situation in Somalia, for example, is referred to as a state of anarchy using this definition, since it is in a state of chaos .

However, in anarchist philosophies, anarchy means either an "anarchist society" - that is, a society where individuals are free from coercion - or, more broadly, any relationship or set of relationships exhibiting a lack of hierarchy. Few anarchists would point to Somalia as an example of "anarchy". They would argue that Somalia's warlord system is merely another face of despotism, characterized by brutal use of force by self-appointed rulers. Anarchists do not believe, as Jean-Francois Revel wrote in Democracy against Itself, that "... anarchy leads to despotism ... despotism leads to anarchy ..." .

Anarchist theories have a fundamental critique of government as coercion, a vision of a society without government, and a proposed method of reaching such a society. The details of the political, economic, and social organization of an anarchist society vary among different branches of anarchist political thought, as do the proposed means to achieve a society organized along those lines. All anarchists, however, share certain principles, most notably non-hierarchy (in an anarchist society there cannot be any kind of social hierarchy) and its derivatives, such as the principle of equal decision-making power (all people must have equal decision-making power in an anarchist society; if some have more power than others, then a hierarchy is formed). It should be noted that, contrary to popular conception, anarchists are not inherently opposed to social organization, but simply to organization by coercion. Anarchists have favored workers councils, general assemblies, collectives, and federations and networks of various organizations for the purposes of carrying out action, settling and ending problems, and also for the sake of production and consumption.

Historically, the word "anarchist" has been applied to political opponents as a derogatory term with the meaning of "advocating chaos". For instance, the Levellers of the English Civil War and the Enragés of the French Revolution were referred to as anarchists by their opponents. These leftist parties advocated social equality and universal suffrage. Still today, social movements may be dismissed as "anarchist" without further comment, and the term still inspires in many an image of a black clad "mad bomber", terrorist, or other aimless troublemaker. Although such anarchists do exist, many more have various philosophical critiques of violence, ranging from supporting violence in individual or communal self-defense, to abhorring violence as an attempt to institute hierarchy, however short-lived, of aggressor over victim.

History of anarchism

Precursors of anarchism

Anarcho-primitivists assert that, for the longest period before recorded history, human society was organized on anarchist principles. There is debate over the anthropological evidence to support this.

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

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

Ancient Greece also saw the first western instance of anarchism as a philosophical ideal, in the form of the stoic philosopher Zeno of Citium, who was, according to Kropotkin, "he best exponent of Anarchist philosophy in ancient Greece". As summarized by Kropotkin, Zeno "repudiated the omnipotence of the state, its intervention and regimentation, and proclaimed the sovereignty of the moral law of the individual". Within Greek philosophy, Zeno's vision of a free community without government is opposed to the state-Utopia of Plato's Republic. Zeno argued that although the necessary instinct of self-preservation leads humans to egotism, nature has supplied a corrective to it by providing man with another instinct — sociability. Like many modern anarchists, he believed that if people follow their instincts, they will have no need of law courts or police, no temples and no public worship, and use no money (a gift economy taking the place of the exchanges). Zeno's beliefs have only reached us as fragmentary quotations.

In Athens, the year 404 BC was commonly referred to as "the year of anarchy". According to the historian Xenophon, this happened even though Athens was at the time under the rule of the oligarchy of "The Thirty", installed by the Spartans following their victory in the second Peloponnesian war, and despite the presence of an Archon, nominated by the oligarchs, in the person of Pythodorus. However, Athenians refused to apply here their custom of calling the year by that archon's name, since he was elected during the oligarchy, and "preferred to speak of it as the 'year of anarchy'".

The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle used the term anarchy negatively, in association with democracy which they mistrusted as inherently vulnerable and prone to deteriorate into tyranny. Plato believed that the corruption created by democracy loosens the "natural" hierarchy between social classes, genders and age groups, to the extent that "anarchy finds a way into the private houses, and ends by getting among the animals and infecting them". ('Republic', book 8). Aristotle spoke of it in book 6 of the 'Politics' when discussing revolutions, saying that the upper classes may be motivated to stage a coup by their contempt for the prevailing "disorder and anarchy (ataxias kai anarkhias)" in the affairs of the state. He also claimed it would give, "license among slaves (anarkhia te doulôn)" as well as among women and children. "A constitution of this sort", he concludes, "will have a large number of supporters, as disorderly living (zên ataktôs) is pleasanter to the masses than sober living".

The Anabaptists of 16th century Europe are sometimes considered to be religious forerunners of modern anarchism. Bertrand Russell, in his History of Western Philosophy, writes that the Anabaptists "repudiated all law, since they held that the good man will be guided at every moment by the Holy Spirit...rom this premiss they arrive at communism...."

Gerrard Winstanley, who published a pamphlet calling for communal ownership and social and economic organization in small agrarian communities in the 17th century, is considered another of the forerunners of modern anarchism. The first modern author to have published a treatise explicitly advocating the absence of government was William Godwin in An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793); though he did not use the word anarchism, some today regard him as the "founder of philosophical anarchism". The term "anarchist" was used during the French Revolution as an insult against the left, but Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, adopted the term to describe his political philosophy in the 1840s.

Liberals were often labeled "anarchists" by monarchists, even though they did not call for the abolition of hierarchy. Still, they did promote the idea of human equality, individual rights, and the responsibility of the people to judge their governments, which provided a groundwork for the development of anarchist thought. As American political society developed along the liberal model, anarchist thoughts were expressed in the writings of Henry David Thoreau (Civil Disobedience). Anarcho-capitalism arose later as some liberals attempted to reform the ideology of anarchism to make it compatible with capitalism. All other anarchists, however, argue that the hierarchical foundations of capitalism and its many entailments contradict anarchist values.

Modern anarchism

In 1793 William Godwin published An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, in which he presents his vision of a free society alongside a critique of government. Some consider this the first anarchist treatise, crediting Godwin with founding modern philosophical anarchism. He is also considered a forebear of utilitarianism. It wasn't until Pierre-Joseph Proudhon published What is Property? in 1840 that the term "anarchist" was adopted as a self-description. It is for this reason that some claim Proudhon as the founder of modern anarchist theory.

Individualists, taking much from the writings of Max Stirner, among others, demanded the utmost respect for the liberty of the individual.

Later in the 19th century, Anarchist communist theorists like Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin built on the Marxist critique of capitalism and synthesized it with their own critique of the state, emphasizing the importance of a communal perspective to maintain individual liberty in a social context, and the critical role of workers self-managed organs of production and creation.

The International Workingmen's Association, at its founding, was an alliance of socialist groups, including both anarchists and Marxists. Both sides had a common aim (stateless communism) and common political opponents (conservatives and other right-wing elements). But each was critical of the other, and the inherent conflict between the two groups soon embodied itself in an ongoing argument between Mikhail Bakunin, representative of anarchist ideas, and Karl Marx himself. Generally Marx wanted to work within the system, use hierarchal organizational structures, and run people in elections. Bakunin hated these ideas, and predicted that if a revolution was won under a Marxist revolutionary party, they would end up being as bad as the ruling class that they fought against, (a claim that seems to have come true). In 1872, the conflict in the First International climaxed with the expulsion of Bakunin and those who had become known as the "Bakuninists" when they were outvoted by the Marx party at the Hague Congress. This is often cited as the origins of the conflict between anarchists and Marxists.

Mikhail Bakunin saw a need to defend the working class against oppression and overthrow the ruling class as a means to dissolve the state. Peter Kropotkin's anarchist communism developed from his scientific theory based on evolution in which co-operation equaled or surpassed competition in importance, as illustrated in Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution (1897).

Some revolutionaries of this time encouraged acts of political violence such as bombings and the assassinations of heads of state to further anarchism. However, these actions were regarded by many anarchists as counter-productive or ineffective (see "Violence and non-violence", below).

In the late 19th century anarcho-syndicalism developed as the industrialized form of libertarian communism, emphasizing industrial actions, especially the general strike, as the primary strategy to achieve anarchist revolution, and "build the new society in the shell of the old".

Anarchists played a role in many of the labour movements, uprisings, and revolutions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the Russian Revolution (1917). In the United States, many new immigrants were anarchists; an especially notable group was the large number of Jewish immigrants who had left Russia and Eastern Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These groups were disrupted by the Red Scare of 1919.

Emma Goldman was a very influential anarchist and feminist during this period. She traveled the country and the world spreading anarchist ideas and attempting to live an anarchist life.

The anarcho-syndicalist orientation of many early American labor unions played a large part in the formation of the American political spectrum. The United States is the only industrialized former British colony to not have a labor-based political party. In Mexico, anarcho-syndicalists like Richard Flores-Magon led various revolts and uprisings, that would help overthrow the dictator Diaz, and lead the way for the growth of anarchism in Latin America, (and also go on to influence the modern day Zapatista rebellion).

In Europe, in the first quarter of the 20th century, anarchist movements achieved relative, if short-lived, successes and were violently repressed by states. However, in the 1920s and 1930s the conflict between anarchism and the state was eclipsed by the one among liberal democracy, fascism and communism, which ended with the defeat of fascism in World War II. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-9), a widely popular anarchist movement supported by militias loyal to the republic took control of rural areas of north-east Spain in 1936-1937 and collectivized the land, being crushed in short order by the Communist-controlled republican army.

At the end of World War II Europe was mostly divided into a liberal region under United States influence and a communist region under control of the Soviet Union, and the major political dichotomy became that between capitalism and communism. The philosophical influence of anarchism remained latent until it resurfaced in the 1960s.

A surge of popular interest in anarchism occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. In the UK this was associated with the punk rock movement; the band Crass is celebrated for its anarchist and pacifist ideas. In Denmark, the Freetown Christiania was created in downtown Copenhagen. The housing and employment crisis in most of Western Europe led to the formation of communes and squatter movements like the one still thriving in Barcelona, . 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.

Beginning in the later part of the 20th century anarchist primitivists like John Zerzan began to proclaim that civilization — not just the state — would need to fall for anarchy to be achieved. A rejection of industrial technology is also prominent in the views of many primitivists, such as Theodore Kaczynski. This primitivist worldview was also associated with the growth of the anti-roads movement in the UK, and also the Earth First! movement in the US.

Through the 20th century anarchists were actively involved in the labour, animal-rights, radical ecological, feminist movements, and later in the fight against fascism. The influence of this on anarchist thought is apparent, as most of the traditional anarchist philosophies emphasize the economic implications of anarchism, or arrive at anarchism from economic arguments. Since the mid-1960s, anarchists have been involved in student protest movements, peace movements, squatter movements, and the anti-globalization movement, among others.

There has long been an association between anarchism and the arts. Like socialism, communism and even fascism, anarchism has a plethora of imagery and has developed an anarchist symbolism which has become associated with a variety of groups and movements, and co-opted (or "recuperated") by capitalist industry. The influence of anarchism is not always directly a matter of specific imagery or public figures, but may be seen in a certain stance towards the liberation of the total human being and the imagination. In visual art, strains of anarchism have been noted in French Symbolism, Dadaism, the Ashcan School of American realism, and the mail art movement. Surrealism in particular was actually equated with anarchism by its founder André Breton. In music, anarchism has been associated with punk rock, the more explicitly political anarcho-punk, and the techno music scene.

In the latter part of the 20th century, and the start of the 21st century, anarchism, (or anti-authoritarianism), has been seen to have the same influence as Marxism did during the protest movements of the 1960's. With the uprising of anti-authoritarian movements in the Zapatista communities in Mexico, and the people's uprising starting in 2001 in Argentina, and the global growth and interest in non-statist, anti-capitalist beliefs and organizing have given anarchism a new life within various movements. Anarchists, (although generally against violence against people except in self-defense), have also been at the forefront of militant resistance against capital and the state, engaging in property destruction against various corporations, militant street battles with police, confronting neo-Nazi and far-right groups, and also having a strong militant presence at anti-globalization protests.

Anarchism today

Today, traditional anarchist organizations continue to exist across the globe.

Feminism arose early in the history of anarchism in the form of anarcha-feminism. North American anarchism also takes strong influences from the American Civil Rights Movement and the movement against the Vietnam War. European anarchism has developed out of the labour movement, and both have incorporated animal rights and environmental activism from a direct action approach which gave growth the the anti-roads movement, and Reclaim the Streets. Globally, anarchism has also grown in popularity and influence as part of the anti-war, anti-capitalist, and anti-globalisation movements. Recently, anarchists have been known for their involvement in protests against World Trade Organization and Group of Eight meetings, and the World Economic Forum; protests which are generally portrayed in mainstream media coverage as violent riots. Many anarchists are part of the black blocs, (a tactic in which all people within the bloc wear black and cover their faces to avoid police identification, and to create one large solid mass), at these protests, and engage in protecting various non-violent protesters, setting up barricades, vandalism and sometimes corporate property destruction, and confronting and defending people from the police. Many anarchists are critical of the black bloc because some blocs have engaged in property destruction against multi-national corporations and have thus gotten a label as "violent", and "adventurists" from media and large scale liberal organizations. Although black bloc anarchists are often the only visible anarchists at large protests, large scale protests are often constructed and organized through anarchist structures. Affinity groupings, spokescouncils, and networking all have lead to the success of various large scale anti-war and anti-globalization mobilizations, (such as the protests against the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle, and the Bay Area shut-down during the start of the second Iraq war). Anarchists have also been involved heavily with underground direct action movements such as the Animal Liberation Front, and the Earth Liberation Front, which are considered "eco-terrorist" by federal authorities and some liberal organizations.

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

Some have said that recent technological developments have made the anarchist cause both easier to advance and more conceivable to people. Many people use cell phones or the Internet to form loose communities which could be said to be organized along anarchist lines. Some of these communities have as their purpose the production of information in a non-commodified or use-value format, a goal made attainable by the availability of personal computing, desktop publishing and digital media. These things have made it possible for individuals to share music files over the Internet, without economic incentive, and even with a certain amount of risk. There are also open source programming communities, who donate their time, and offer their product freely as well. Examples include Usenet, the free software movement (including the GNU/Linux community and the wiki paradigm), and Indymedia. A book analyzing how this new "anarchic" mode of production is possible is Eric S. Raymond's The Cathedral and the Bazaar. Traditional historical materialist analysis, used by many libertarian socialists, is one means of interpreting the above, and would describe it as a "political economy of non-commodity information production". There also exists, however, recognition that such technologies, as society currently exists, are dependent on a centralized and hierarchical industrial system, with laborers and non-human life at the bottom.

Anarchists today are active in almost all countries, Greece, Turkey, Australia, America, Canada, Britain, South Africa, Mexico, just to name a few, and engage in a wide range of social activism.

Historical examples

See Past and present anarchist communities

Schools of anarchist thought

From William Godwin's utilitarian anarchism to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's mutualism, to Max Stirner's egoism, to Benjamin Tucker's radical individualism, to Peter Kropotkin's anarchist communism, the roots of anarchist thought in modern political philosophy are varied, with many different views of what a society without government should be like. Anarcho-capitalism has roots in classical laissez-faire liberalism but also draws inspiration from the individualist anarchists, despite the latter's rejection of capitalist economics. Primitivism, advocating the dissolution of civilization, is reminiscent of, if not inspired by, the early 19th century Luddite movement. Some would argue that ecoterrorism is an expression of anarchism. There are also a number of feminist anarchist theories, including anarcha-feminism, eco-feminism, and individualist feminism. Another tradition in anarchism follows from individuals like Errico Malatesta and Voltairine de Cleyre in claiming no adjective. These "anarchists without adjectives" seek to unify all anarchists around the basic shared principles of anti-statism and anti-capitalism, arguing that the diverse forms of anarchism can work together in relative harmony.

Anarcho-syndicalism

Main article: Anarcho-syndicalism

Anarcho-syndicalism is the anarchist wing of the labor union movement. Its primary aim is the end of the wage system. It functions on principles of workers solidarity, direct action, and self-management.

Workers' solidarity means that anarcho-syndicalists believe all workers, no matter what their race, gender, or ethnic group are in a similar situation vis-a-vis their bosses. Furthermore, it means that, within capitalism, any gains or losses made by some workers in their relation to bosses will eventually impact all workers. Therefore, it says that in order to gain liberation, all workers must support one another in their struggle against bosses.

Anarcho-syndicalists only believe in direct action — that is, action directly designed to confront a problem. Direct action can range from traditional strike action to active sabotage.

Furthermore, anarcho-syndicalists believe that workers' organizations — the organizations which struggle against the wage system and which, in anarcho-syndicalist theory, will eventually form the basis of a new society – should be self-managing. They should not have bosses or "business agents"; rather, the workers should be able to make decisions that affect them amongst themselves.

The International Workers Association is an international anarcho-syndicalist federation of various labor unions from different countries. The Industrial Workers of the World, a once-powerful, still active, and again growing labor union, is considered a leading organ of the anarcho-syndicalist philosophy in the United States. The Spanish Confederación Nacional del Trabajo played a major role in the Spanish Civil War. Other major anarcho-syndicalist organizations include the Workers Solidarity Alliance, and the Solidarity Federation in the UK.

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

Anarcho-communism

Main article: Anarcho-Communism

Anarcho-communism shares many things in common with anarcho-syndicalism but generally strives for a society without any kind of money system and proposes instead societies based on direct workers control, and gift economies. Anarcho-communists also propose large and small scale connections of communities, groups, and workplaces through federations and networks created by free association and popular affinity.

Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, and most recently, groups like NEFAC (North Eastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists), have advocated various forms of anarcho-communism. Historically, anarcho-communism has been said to have been put into practice by millions of people in the anarchist collectives and communes of the anarchist controlled region of the Ukraine during the Russian Revolution, and during the Spanish Civil War in the Aragon and Catalonia regions of Spain.

Anarcho-communists are split generally on the "Platform", or the "Organizational Platform of Libertarian Communists", written by Russian anarchist militant, Nestor Makhno. The platform calls for various forms of structures within the anarchist movement, and has been accepted by some anarchists and scorned by others.

Anarcho-communists today are involved in various community issues; generally revolving around housing, labor struggles, anti-racism, and building the anarchist movement. Anarcho-communists have generally called for more cohesive groups and structures of anarchist groups and thereby garnered criticism from other anarchist sects. Various large scale groups of anarcho-communists exist today with the larger groups existing mostly in the United States and Europe.

Anarcho-capitalism

Main article: Anarcho-capitalism

Anarcho-capitalism is an ideology which rejects the state and, unlike most forms of anarchism, embraces capitalism. Anarcho-capitalists see human freedom as paramount, both as a means to a just and prosperous society and as an end in itself, and think capitalism is both the most free and the most efficient method of organizing society. They reject the labelling of capitalism as an unjustified hierarchy. Prominent anarcho-capitalists include Murray Rothbard and David Friedman.

Most anarchists, (including mostly all of those that are involved with social activism), fervently deny that anarcho-capitalists are anarchists at all, citing the fundamental anarchist critiques of capitalism that view it as inherently authoritarian and exploitative. They feel that anarcho-capitalism is not part of the "broad back" of anarchism, and cite the fact that the nature of bosses and private property are authoritarian and based on the use of force, and are non-anarchist qualities.

Ecological anarchism

There is a significant anarchist element to the environmental movement, including those that are known as eco-anarchists and green-anarchists. These two, though similar, are not quite the same because the political label 'Green' has implications beyond ecology (see Green Party). Green anarchists accept some restrictions on individual freedom as a means of preserving natural capital (for example, farmland and water) and often promote limited forms of social ecology. Eco-anarchists, by contrast, are more extreme and advocate a sort of fusion with nature (see also: ecovillage and primitivism). Green anarchism, in North America at least, is also linked with anarcho-primitivism, and is generally seen as associated with Deep Ecology, and the Earth First! movement. Eco-feminism is also sometimes considered a form of anarchism.

Anarcho-primitivism

Main article: Primitivism

Anarcho-primitivism is a philosophy advocating a return to a pre-industrial and usually pre-agricultural society. Primitivism believes that industrial society inevitably produces oppressive structures through specialization of tasks or division of labor, and that technology has similar negative implications. Most forms of primitivism question civilization itself. The primitivist movement has connections to radical environmentalism. Primitivism has been notably advocated by John Zerzan, and to some extent by Theodore Kaczynski (the Unabomber) and Derrick Jensen.

Insurrectionary Anarchism

Insurrectionary Anarchism generally is critical of larger anarchist organizations like radical unions or federations. It instead is in favor of small affinity groups, carrying out acts of resistance in various struggles. Insurrectionary Anarchists look in part to the actions of such groups as the Earth Liberation Front as various tactical successes. Here, Wolfi Landstreicher writes some of the basis points on it's praxis.

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

Alfredo M. Bonanno, a European insurrectionary anarchist also had a great impact on this specific tendency, writing such works as "Armed Joy," "The Anarchist Tension," and others. In the US, Willful Disobedience, Killing King Abacus, and other magazines caused interest in insurrectionary politics to grow. Although insurrectionary anarchists are generally interested in class struggle anarchism, in the US, many insurrectionary anarchists consider themselves to be anarcho-primitivists, or green anarchists as well.

Technological anarchism

Some anarchists see information technology as the way to replace hierarchy, defeat monopoly, and prevent war, and support culture jamming in particular as a way to do so. Some writers — particularly Iain M. Banks, who has written quite extensively in the science fiction genre about The Culture, a futuristic society which has disposed of government — have theorised that anarchism would be inevitable with the technological advances that would make travelling and living in space plausible .

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

See also Crypto-anarchism and Cypherpunk.

CrimethInc.

CrimethInc. is the name of a broad and varied section of the anarchist movement that is largely styled after the situationists and generally concerns itself with personal liberation and support of various resistance movements. Crimethinc has no central core group or hub, although many of the posters, position statements, and other propaganda are produced by one core group. Associated collectives, websites, and groups can at will take up the crimethInc. name and thus add their works to the network.

CrimethInc. has been criticized by many anarchists as promoting lifestylism, and thus pushing many people away from anarchism. Dumpster diving, squatting, scamming, and shoplifting are often talked about in crimethInc. circles and was popularized by the crimethInc. book "Evasion" in which the lead character drops out of "wage-slave" society, and lives by such means. CrimethInc. has countered this perception by organizing several speaking and activist tours and organizing around events such as the Republican National Convention in 2004.

CrimethInc. is cited by some as the best propagandist group in the anarchist movement at this point, due largely to the 2002 creation of "Fighting For Our Lives", a small booklet dealing with various anarchist ideas and concepts. CrimethInc. has also managed to foster activism for people unable to work with larger anarchists groups by promoting wheatpasting, stencils with spray paint, and community groups like Food Not Bombs which do not require many or any collaborators.

In 2004, various people and groups within crimethInc. created the Don't (Just) Vote campaign, to stress direct action and direct democracy, as opposed to representative 'democratic' capitalist states. The group also released it's largest book yet, Recipes For Disaster, which gives advice on how to conduct various anarchist projects and actions.

Feminist anarchism

Radical feminism espouses the belief that patriarchy is a fundamental problem in our society. Feminist anarchism, or anarcha-feminism (a term allegedly created during the 1960s' second-wave feminism), views patriarchy as the first manifestation of hierarchy in human history; thus, the first form of oppression occurred in the dominance of male over female.

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

Though some consider her an anarcho-capitalist, Wendy McElroy is an example of a contemporary figure claiming to be an individualist anarchist feminist.

Conceptions of an anarchist society

Many political philosophers justify support of the state as a means of regulating violence, so that the destruction caused by human conflict is minimized and fair relationships are established. Anarchists argue that pursuit of these ends do not justify the establishment of a state, and in fact many argue that the state is incompatible with those goals. Much effort has been dedicated to explaining how anarchist societies would promote these values. While anarchists recognize that the use of violence is ultimately an individual decision, some have proposed mechanisms by which an anarchist society could influence that decision.

Anarchists who have renounced violence in all forms have the simplest answer. Since the state relies on violence to enforce all of its laws, even those that promote its own survival such as taxation, if a large proportion of a society ceases to provide moral or material support to any use of violence, then the state would inevitably collapse, resulting in anarchy. Since this view of anarchy presupposes the renunciation of violence by the bulk of a society, the problem of discouraging the use of violence is not an issue. From this perspective, the main challenge facing anarchists is not to devise institutions, but to convince individuals to renounce the use of violence.

However, other anarchists believe that violence is an unfortunate but inevitable part of human existence. These anarchists emphasize that violence is only justified in self-defense, though the definition of self-defense can vary widely. Various institutions have been proposed to ensure that aggressive violence is met with an overwhelming response. These institutions seek to encourage the community to intervene on behalf of the wronged person, or at least not intervene on behalf of the aggressor. For civil disputes, juries or mediators may be called upon to rule on the dispute. Refusal to submit to the decision of the jury or mediator would reflect poorly on that individual.

Larger conflicts would be addressed with larger organizations. Confederation is a popular model for such organization. Any such organization would have a "bottom up" structure, recognizing the right of individuals and small groups to leave the larger group at any time. In such a situation, it is unlikely that everyone in a country would decide to participate in the same organization. Anarchists hope that this would result in the co-existence of multiple associations with individuals changing their associations as they saw fit. Robert Paul Wolff represents those who argue for a unanimous consent democracy.

Anarchist social organization

By rejecting existing political structures, anarchists also reject many of the practices that have been designed with the intent of promoting social cohesion. How anarchists propose that an anarchist society would replace these practices varies widely. Some anarchists believe that the society only needs to be concerned with the use of violence. Others believe that more extensive rules of conduct are necessary, but that these should be enforced by passive punishments, such as economic or social exclusion. Still others take a deontological stance on the issue, arguing that the practical tasks of promoting social cohesion are beside the point, and that anarchism is a moral imperative that should be pursued regardless of consequence.

Anarchists see anarchism more as a mediation, and way for a group, or groups of people to come to a consensus on how to run their society. In this way, now real hardcore blueprint for an anarchist society can be created, although we can look back on past anarchies, and learn from their examples.

Schools, social centers, and workplaces are all seen as things that are needed to be turned over and run by the people through systems of direct democracy and self-management. Social services, (teachers and doctors), would be carried out by interested people, and because in an anarchist society people would be working for themselves and their communities, they would be open to more time to work on bettering themselves and their communities. Anarchists often point out the success of the postal system, which although is hierarchaly organized with a boss, has no central postal leader, simply various autonomous postal outposts. Federations and networks of doctors and other workers could follow this method as well, and apply anarchist principles to it's organizational structure. Indeed, if the modern medical feild was treated like the open software movement, more people would have access to work on cure for diseases, and other problems that threaten society. In regards to solving issues of crime and settling disputes, anarchists generally are in favor of councils and assemblies of community mediation and discourse. In a society lacking private property, anarchists assume that social crimes will be the problems to focus on, (i.e. rape, murder, etc). Anarchists are generally skeptical of the prison system, which they see as simply authoritarian, and not working to fix problems within society, and only manifesting new ones.

Anarchist economic organization

Main article: Anarchist economics

The modern state is deeply involved in society's economic activities, ranging from the protection of property, to the regulation of markets, and even the provision of goods. Most anarchists would agree that radical restructuring of existing economic systems is necessary. For example, Bob Black proposed that anarchy would allow for "the abolition of work".

Socialist anarchists advocate the use of collectives and co-operatives for organizing small-scale production. These units would be coordinated by voluntary associations that could range from market arrangements to tightly coordinated confederacies. An example of a large-scale communist system is "The Industrial Commonwealth" proposed by the Industrial Workers of the World. Workers, through unions organized by type of product, would democratically govern output. The model assumes that benefits arise by organizing workers based on the type of good produced (health, agricultural goods, communication, domestic labour). Means and tools of production would be held in common, through the unions. The Industrial Commonwealth was initially focused on the six sectors of Agriculture, Transport, Construction, Manufacturing, Government Services and Non-Government Services: a model which omitted to recognise particular industries like domestic labour or sex work. The contemporary model of the Industrial Commonwealth more explicitly recognises this work.

The new "Industrial Commonwealth" economy was to grow within the old capitalist one. As unions became more powerful, and more workers worked in worker controlled industries, society would be gradually transformed by a constant struggle.

While the day-to-day methods of accounting and resource allocation for the Industrial Commonwealth have never been proposed, the IWW's suggestion that workers learn how to run their factories indicates that workers would largely take over firm management and allocation strategies.

Major conflicts within anarchist thought

Violence and non-violence

Anarchists have often been portrayed as dangerous and violent, due mainly to a number of high-profile violent acts including riots, assassinations, and insurrections involving anarchists. Since the 1970s, the punk image of irresponsible youths has also been associated with anarchist symbolism, so furthering the association with violence.

The use of terrorism and assassination, however, is condemned by most anarchist ideology, though there remains no consensus on the legitimacy or utility of violence.

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

Other anarchists advocate Marshall Rosenberg's non-violent communication that relates to peoples fundamental needs and feelings using strategies of requests, observations and empathy yet providing for the use of protective force while rejecting pacifism as a compromising strategy of the left that just perpetuates violence.

Other anarchists, such as Mikhail Bakunin and Errico Malatesta saw violence as a necessary and sometimes desirable force. Malatesta took the view that it is "necessary to destroy with violence, since one cannot do otherwise, the violence which denies to the workers" (Umanità Nova, number 125, September 6, 1921).

Between 1894 and 1901, individual anarchists assassinated numerous heads of state, including:

• French President Sadi Carnot (1894);
• Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1898);
• King Umberto I of Italy (1900); and
• United States President William McKinley (1901).

Such "propaganda of the deed" was not popular among anarchists, and many in the movement condemned the tactic. For example, McKinley's assassin, Leon Czolgosz, claimed to be a disciple of Emma Goldman, but she disavowed any association with him.

Goldman included in her definition of anarchism the observation that all governments rest on violence, and this is one of the many reasons they should be opposed. Goldman herself didn't oppose tactics like assassination until she went to Russia, where she witnessed the violence of the Russian state and the Red Army. From then on she condemned the use of terrorism, especially by the state, and advocated violence only as a means of self-defense.

Depictions in the press and popular fiction (for example, a malevolent bomb-throwing anarchist in Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent) helped create a lasting public impression that anarchists are violent terrorists. This perception was enhanced by events such as the Haymarket Riot, where anarchists were blamed for throwing a bomb at police who came to break up a public meeting in Chicago.

More recently, anarchists have been involved in protests against World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings across the globe, which the media has described as violent or riots. Traditionally, May Day in London has also been a day of marching, but in recent years the Metropolitan Police have warned that a "hardcore of anarchists" are intent on causing violence. Anarchists often respond that it is the police who initiate violence at these demonstrations, with the anarchist intent being only to defend themselves. The anarchists involved in such protests often formed black blocs at these protests and some engaged in property destruction, vandalism, or in violent conflicts with police, though others stuck to non-violent principles.

Those participating in black blocs distinguish between "violence" and "property destruction", they claim that violence is when a person inflicts harm to another person, property destruction or property damage is not violence, they say that you cannot violate a building.

Pacifism

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

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

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

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

Sexual relations

For most anarchists, marriage and sex are private matters to be resolved between consenting adults. In their opinion, authorities like governments, lawmakers, churches and mullahs have no business meddling with private affairs of individuals who do not voluntarily desire to follow their commands — at which point they are no longer authorities and have no power to command those who dissent, only the opportunity to advise those who consent.

Others, however, believe that the concept of marriage is a fundamentally coercive institution, pointing to the wealth of assumptions about what gender pairings can be acceptable partners, the number of people that can be involved in a relationship, and the proper roles for members of a relationship to have. They argue that marriage is ultimately a heteronormative concept, and that it is a particularly subtle form of control.

Some anarchists in Spain viewed love as a dangerous concept and advocated "change of commune" for those experiencing "the sickness of love." This, however, is a small minority view. Many anarchists, including Emma Goldman, believe that love between people is at the core a powerful and benign force, though possibly corrupted by institutions or traditions.

See also

• For a dictionary definition, see wiktionary:anarchism
• Anarchist objections to marxism
• Anarchist objections to capitalism
• Anarchist symbolism
• Anarcho-punk
• Punk ideology
• Anarcho-syndicalism
• Black cat, for a symbol of anarchism
• Christian anarchism
• Equalism
• List of anarchists
• List of anarchist organizations
• List of creative works about anarchism
• Past and present anarchist communities
• Situationist
• Alternative society
• Syndicalism
• Temporary Autonomous Zone
• Free store

Historical events

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

Books

Classics

• Alexander Berkman, What is Anarchism?
• Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State
• Daniel Guérin, Anarchism
• Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid and The Conquest of Bread
• Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, What is Property?
• Robert Paul Wolff, In Defense of Anarchism
• Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays
• William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice

Publications

• Journals: Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed, The Raven, Fifth Estate, Green Anarchist, Our Generation, Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, Social Anarchism, Northeastern Anarchist, The Match!, Green Anarchy, Earth First! Journal
• News publications: Black Flag (Organ Of The Anarchist Black Cross), Class War, Industrial Worker, Freedom, INFOrm
• Other magazines and zines: Anarchist Panther, Harbinger (CrimethInc), Practical Anarchy, Species Traitor, Profane Existence, Alternative Press Review, Communicating Vessels, Killing King Abacus, Willful Disobedience, Do or Die, In Ya Face, Anarchy and Community, Anchorage Anarchy, Black Badger, Slingshot.
• Collections: Spunk Library
• Related publications: Z Magazine, AdBusters

Concepts

• Anti-Capitalism
• Anti-Authoritarian
• Direct action
• Direct democracy
• Dual Power
• Gift economy
• Intellectual worker
• Media democracy
• Mutual aid
• General Strike
• Monopoly on violence
• Sovereignty of the individual
• Union of egos
• Voluntary association
• Anarchist economics
• Self-Management
• Deep Ecology
• Radical Feminism
• Parecon
• Free Association
• Consensus Democracy

Anarchist organizations

• AK Press
• Alternative Media Project
• Anarchist Black Cross
• Anarchist Communitarian Network
• Anarchist Federation
• Anarchist Football Network
• Anarchist People of Color
• Anarchy Aotearoa / New Zealand
• Animal Liberation Front
• Biotic Baking Brigade
• CrimethInc.
• Critical Mass
• Earth Liberation Front
• Food Not Bombs
• FRAC
• Freedom Press
• Green Anarchy
• Homes Not Jails
• Industrial Workers of the World
• Indymedia
• Institute for Anarchist Studies
• IWA-AIT
• Midwest Unrest
• NEFAC
• Peoples' Global Action
• Red and Anarchist Action Network
• Red and Anarchist Skinheads
• Workers Solidarity Movement
• Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation

While all of these organizations have anarchists as members, many are inclusive beyond anarchist and include anti-authoritarians and greens.

Anarchism by region/culture

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

External links

• African Anarchism: The History of a Movement
• An Anarchist FAQ
• Hundreds of anarchists are listed, with short bios, links & dedicated pages at the Daily Bleed’s Anarchist Encyclopedia
• Anarchoblogs
• Anarchopedia and Anarchapedia intend to be anarchist encyclopedias based on the MediaWiki engine.
• Anarchy Archives extensively archives information relating to famous anarchists. This includes many of their books and other publications.
• Antflip.com | Anarchism Page A selection of websites, books, and online articles that explore social anarchism.
• Fake Anarchists and Libertarians
• Infoshop.org
• International Workers Association (IWA-AIT)
• Melbourne Anarchist Archives 1966-1973
• The Inefficient Utopia - an analysis of anarchist use of consensus, by the Curious George Brigade.
• North Eastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists - (NEFAC)
• Green Anarchy
• Network of Green Anarchist Collectives
• Autonome
• Industrial Workers of the World]
• IWW Retail Workers
• Crimethinc.com
• Crimethinc.net
• Earth Liberation Front (ELF)
• Animal Liberation Front (ALF)
• Anarchist People of Color
• Anarcha-feminism
• Earth First!
• Anti-Racist Action
• Towards an another anarchism by Andrej Grubacic at the World Social Forum

v t e Anarchism
Concepts	Anarchy Anarchist Black Cross Anarchist criminology Anationalism Anti-authoritarianism Anti-capitalism Anti-militarism Affinity group Autonomous social center Black bloc Classless society Class struggle Consensus decision-making Conscientious objector Critique of work Decentralization Deep ecology Direct action Free love Freethought Horizontalidad Individualism Law Mutual aid Participatory politics Permanent autonomous zone Prefigurative politics Proletarian internationalism Propaganda of the deed Refusal of work Revolution Rewilding Sabotage Security culture Self-ownership Social ecology Sociocracy Somatherapy Spontaneous order Squatting Temporary autonomous zone Union of egoists Voluntary association Workers' council
Issues	Animal rights Capitalism Education Love and sex Nationalism Religion Violence
Schools of thought	Classical Individualist Egoist Illegalist Naturist Philosophical Mutualist Social Collectivist Communist Magonist Post-classical Feminist Green Primitivist Social ecology Independence Insurrectionary Pacifist Religious Christian Buddhist Jewish Without adjectives Contemporary Black Free-market Postcolonial Post-anarchist Post-left Queer
Types of federation	Affinity group Anarcho-syndicalism Platformism Synthesis anarchism Union of egoists
Economics	Communization Cooperative Cost the limit of price Decentralized planned economy Free association General strike Gift economy Give-away shop Labour voucher Market socialism Mutual bank Mutual credit Social ownership Wage slavery Workers' self-management
Culture	A las Barricadas Anarchist bookfair Anarcho-punk Arts DIY ethic Escuela Moderna Films Freeganism Infoshop Independent Media Center The Internationale Jewish anarchism Lifestylism May Day "No gods, no masters" Popular education "Property is theft!" Radical cheerleading Radical environmentalism Self-managed social center Symbolism
History	French Revolution Revolutions of 1848 Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA Paris Commune Hague Congress Cantonal rebellion Haymarket affair International Conference of Rome Trial of the Thirty International Conference of Rome Ferrer movement Strandzha Commune Congress of Amsterdam Tragic Week High Treason Incident Manifesto of the Sixteen German Revolution of 1918–1919 Bavarian Soviet Republic 1919 United States bombings Biennio Rosso Kronstadt rebellion Makhnovshchina Amakasu Incident Alt Llobregat insurrection Anarchist insurrection of January 1933 Anarchist insurrection of December 1933 Spanish Revolution of 1936 Barcelona May Days Red inverted triangle Labadie Collection Provo May 1968 Kate Sharpley Library Carnival Against Capital 1999 Seattle WTO protests Really Really Free Market Occupy movement
People	Alston Armand Ba Bakunin Berkman Bonanno Bookchin Bourdin Chomsky Cleyre Day Durruti Ellul Ervin Faure Fauset MacDonald Ferrer Feyerabend Giovanni Godwin Goldman González Prada Graeber Guillaume He-Yin Kanno Kōtoku Kropotkin Landauer Liu Magón Makhno Maksimov Malatesta Mett Michel Most Parsons Pi i Margall Pouget Proudhon Raichō Reclus Rocker Santillán Spooner Stirner Thoreau Tolstoy Tucker Volin Ward Warren Yarchuk Zerzan
Lists	Anarcho-punk bands Books Fictional characters Films Jewish anarchists Musicians Periodicals
By region	Africa Albania Algeria Andorra Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bangladesh Belarus Belgium Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Finland France French Guiana Georgia Germany Greece Guatemala Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Ireland Israel Italy Japan Korea Latvia Malaysia Mexico Monaco Mongolia Morocco Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria Norway Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Romania Russia Serbia Singapore South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tunisia Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom United States Uruguay Venezuela Vietnam
Related topics	Anti-corporatism Anti-consumerism Anti-fascism Anti-globalization Anti-statism Anti-war movement Autarchism Autonomism Communism Definition of anarchism and libertarianism Dual Power Labour movement Left communism Left-libertarianism Libertarianism Libertarian socialism Marxism Relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche and Max Stirner Situationist International Socialism Spontaneous order
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