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Anarchism derives from the Greek αναρχία ("without archons (rulers)"). Thus anarchism is the belief that rulers are unnecessary and should be abolished. Anarchism refers to various political philosophies and related social movements that advocate the elimination of authoritarian institutions and relationships. The state is seen by anarchists as an unnecessary evil that must be abolished, as are exploitative economic relationships like slavery and caste systems. In place of these political and economic structures, anarchists advocate social relations based upon voluntary association of autonomous individuals and self-governance. Voluntary associations may be firms, communes, joint stock companies, mutuals, and any other non-aggressive group of people.
While anarchism is defined by what it is against, anarchists also offer differing positive visions of what they believe to be a truly free society. The word "anarchy," as anarchists use it, does not imply chaos or anomie, but rather a harmonious rulerless society. However, ideas about how an anarchist society might work vary considerably, and there is disagreement about how a free society might be brought about.
Precursors of anarchism
Primitive cultures
Anarcho-primitivists assert that, before recorded history, human society was organized on anarchist principles. They point to the egalitarian structure of hunter-gatherer bands, to the lack of division of labour and accumulated wealth, non-hierarchal political organization, and the lack of decreed law as indicators of such indigenous anarchist systems. Examples of indigenous societies with Anarchist political systems include the Nuer of East Africa, the Iroquois (and by some accounts most native people) in North America.
The first use of the term anarchy to mean anti-statism was by Louis-Armand, Baron de Lahontan in his Nouveaux voyages dans l'Amérique septentrionale, (1703), where he described the indigenous American society, which had no state, laws, prisons, priests, or private property, as being in anarchy . Russell Means, a leader in the American Indian Movement, has repeatedly stated that he is "an anarchist, and so are all ancestors." Thomas Jefferson said the native American Indians "never submitted themselves to any laws, any coercive power, any shadow of government. Their only controls are their manners, and that moral sense of right and wrong, which, like the sense of tasting and feeling in every man, makes a part of his nature..." and "I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government, enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments" (Notes on Virginia and Letter to Colonel Carrington).
Philosophical traces
Some anarchists have claimed that Taoism, which developed in Ancient China, was 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, Aristippus, who said that the wise should not give up their liberty to the state , and Diogenes of Sinope, the Cynic, who claimed to be a citizen of the world. Later movements — such as Stregheria in the 1300s, the Free Spirit in the Middle Ages, the Anabaptists, The Diggers, and the Ranters — have also expounded ideas that have been interpreted as anarchist.
Ancient Greece
The first known usage of the word anarchy appears in the play Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus, dated 467 BC. There, Antigone openly refuses to abide by the rulers' decree to leave her brother Polyneices' body unburied, as punishment for his participation in the attack on Thebes, saying that "even if no one else is willing to share in burying him I will bury him alone and risk the peril of burying my own brother. Nor am I ashamed to act in defiant opposition to the rulers of the city (ekhous apiston tênd anarkhian polei)".
Ancient Greece also saw the first European 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 or slavery 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.
Taoism
Taoism is often forgotten when looking for anarchist tracings through history. However, early philosophical Taoism is very close to modern anarchism. Founded by Lao Tzu in the 6th Century BCE Taoism rejected civilization and stated that all unhappiness in the world was created by human beings not being able to do what they want. Lao Tzu felt that humans should live with nature so they can express their nature endowed talents. In the Tao Te Ching the Taoist scripture Lao Tzu's definition of nature endowed talents is akin to the Christian notion of God given talent. Lao Tzu also felt that there were many artificialties in our civilization which consisted of: culture, government institutions of all kinds including education, institutionalized morality (laws, rules, convention, manners, etiquette), institutionalized violence (arms, military), conscription, antiritualism, antimilitarism, antiintellectualism (he was not advocating ignorance, but intellectualism as far as institutionalized education was concerned). Taoism has a strong belief in the goodness of human nature. To illustrate this better there is a famous Taoist story about a man who wakes up one morning and decides to visit a friend who he has not seen a while but lives far away. The man takes half the day going to his friends house and when he gets to the door instead of knocking he stops and turns around to go back home. Many people become frustrated with this story and ask if the man took all that time to go to his friends house then he should have just visited him. But to a Taoist the man obviously did not feel like seeing his friend when he arrived and instead of forcing himself to go through with the visit anyway, and doing something he did not want to, he simply turned around and went back home.
The Anabaptists
The Anabaptists of 16th century Europe are sometimes considered to be religious forerunners of modern anarchism. Bertrand Russell, in his History of Western Philosophy, writes that the Anabaptists "repudiated all law, since they held that the good man will be guided at every moment by the Holy Spirit...rom this premise they arrive at communism...." The novel Q by Luther Blissett provides a fictional depiction of this movement and its revolutionary ideology. Gerrard Winstanley of The Diggers, who published a pamphlet calling for communal ownership and social and economic organization in small agrarian communities in the 17th century, is considered another of the forerunners of modern anarchism.
History of anarchism
Justice against the state
The first essay explicitly advocating the absence of government was "A Vindication of Natural Society" (1756) by Edmund Burke. There is an ongoing historical dispute about whether this essay was serious or satirical; nevertheless, it was influential among later anarchists such as William Godwin, Benjamin Tucker, and others who praised it. William Godwin, in An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice" (1793) wrote what would become core anarchist critiques of government, economics, and society; though he did not use the word anarchism, some today regard him as the "founder of philosophical anarchism."
By "political justice" Godwin meant "the adoption of any principle of morality and truth into the practice of a community," and his characteristically anarchist conclusion was that government in fact inhibits rather than fosters justice.
Godwin's philosophy was optimistic about the potential for human beings to develop and conduct social relations on the basis of reason and consent. He believed that there are no innate principles, and therefore no original propensity to evil. He considered that "our virtues and our vices may be traced to the incidents which make the history of our lives, and if these incidents could be divested of every improper tendency, vice would be extirpated from the world." The control of man by man in general, and the institution of government in particular, are detrimental to human development. "Government by its very nature counteracts the improvement of original mind." However, Godwin admitted that "we may be obliged to admit as a necessary evil for the present."
Godwin's masterpiece was published in 1793, in the thick of the French Revolution. The themes of his work, some of which he later retracted, would become central to the future development of anarchism. But at this point no anarchist movement yet existed, and the term anarchiste was known only as an insult hurled by the bourgeois Girondins at more radical elements in the revolution. (Some of whom, the Parisian Sans-culottes, are seen by many as the immediate predecessors of working-class anarchism.)
The first self-labelled anarchist
It is commonly held that it wasn't until Pierre-Joseph Proudhon published "What is Property?" in 1840 that the term "anarchist" was adopted as a self-description. It is for this reason that some claim Proudhon as the founder of modern anarchist theory.
In What is Property Proudhon answers with the famous accusation "Property is theft." In this work he opposed the institution of "property" (propriété) in the special sense of natural resources bestowed and enforced by state privilege, but he also opposed the notion of collective ownership of such, saying "instead of inferring from this that property should be shared by all, I demand, as a measure of general security, its entire abolition." Rather, he advocated a right of individuals to occupy and use land and to individually own product of cultivating it, calling this "possession" and "usufruct"; dominion over land that is not being used or occupied would constitute "property" and therefore "theft." He strongly supported individual property in the product of labor. His reply to the communist motto "each according to his needs" was: "To each according to his works, first; and if, on occasion, I am impelled to aid you, I will do it with a good grace; but I will not be constrained" (The Philosophy of Misery). Proudhon's vision of anarchy, which he called mutualism (mutuellisme), thus involved an exchange economy where individuals and groups could trade goods valued by the labour time expended to produce them. The system would be supported by interest-free banks.
Proudhon generally opposed violent expropriation of property; instead he advocated programs whereby workers would create mutual organisations that could supplant capitalism and render the state superfluous. For example, he advocated the formation of interest-free community-owned banks - the prototype for modern credit unions. Proudhon's ideas began to exert some influence within French working class movements, and his followers were active in the Revolution of 1848 in France. However authoritarian socialist tendencies such as Blanquism were a stronger force in Proudhon's own time.
Proudhon's work on property raised a central issue in the future development of anarchism. The question of property, and its place in an anarchist society, is sometimes seen as dividing anarchism thereafter into two major streams or tendencies which can loosely be called 'individualism' and 'collectivism'. Proudhon consistently opposed ideas of communism, and his reply to the motto "each according to his needs" was: "To each according to his works, first; and if, on occasion, I am impelled to aid you, I will do it with a good grace; but I will not be constrained" (The Philosophy of Misery). Proudhon also debated the French économistes (Frederic Bastiat, Gustave de Molinari, et. al.), who shared Proudhon's anti-statism but did not share his antipathy toward capital and interest. See Frederic Bastiat's debate with Proudhon.
Egoism
Max Stirner is considered to be the first egoist of the individualist anarchists. Stirner considered the world and everything in it, including other persons, available to one's taking or use without moral constraint --that rights do not exist in regard to objects at all. Stirner is a supporter of property but holds that a right to property is an illusion, or "ghost"; property is only a matter of control --it is not based in any moral right but solely in the right of might: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property." He sees no rationality in taking the interests of others into account unless doing so furthers one's self-interest, which he believed is the only legitimate reason for acting. His embrace of egoism is in stark contrast to Godwin's altruism. He denies society as being an actual entity, calling society a "spook" and that "the individuals are its reality" (The Ego and Its Own). Stirner argued that most commonly accepted social institutions - including property rights and the very notion of society itself - were mere illusions or ghosts, saying rather that "the individuals are its reality." He advocated a form of amoralism, in which individuals would unite in 'associations of egoists' only when it was in their self interest to do so.
The philosophy of Max Stirner, which he described as egoism is considered a form of individualist anarchism. Whether individualist anarchism is properly justified by self-interest (egoism) or natural law has been a subject of debate among later individualists. For example, Lysander Spooner argued that private property was based in natural law and espoused a labor theory of property, while Benjamin Tucker's ideas on property were founded on egoism, as he believed that property could only come about by self-interested parties contracting to establish it: "the right of might and the right of contract -are the only rights that ever have been or ever can be."
Individualist anarchism
See also: Individualist anarchism, American individualist anarchist, mutualism
In 1825, the American Josiah Warren had participated in a collectivist experiment headed by Robert Owen called "New Harmony" that failed in a few years amidst much internal conflict. Warren came to the conclusion that the community's failure was due to a lack of individual sovereignty and private property. He held that in order to have a well-functioning society,
- "Society must be so converted as to preserve the SOVEREIGNTY OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL inviolate. That it must avoid all combinations and connections of persons and interests, and all other arrangements which will not leave every individual at all times at liberty to dispose of his or her person, and time, and property in any manner in which his or her feelings or judgment may dictate. WITHOUT INVOLVING THE PERSONS OR INTERESTS OF OTHERS" - "Practical Details" (Warren's capitalization)
Warren believed that "by dispensing with government we shake off the greatest invader of human rights" (Equitable Commerce). He put his theories to practice by organizing anarchist colonies, including Utopia and Modern Times.
In 1872 Benjamin Tucker first met Warren and William B. Greene in Boston at the New England Labor Reform League. He became familiar with Warren's ideas on the cost the limit of price (an application of the labor theory of value) and Greene's ideas on mutual banking. Tucker incorporated these ideas, as well as the market anarchism of Proudhon and Max Stirner's egoism, Herbert Spencer's "law of equal freedom," and other theorists, into what is seen as a formalized individualist anarchist theory. This form of individualist anarchism strongly supports "private property" (a right of an individual to exercise exclusive domain over the product of his labor, as opposed to this product being relegated to a collective pool shared equally by the community) and a market economy where this property may be bought and sold. Wage labor is also supported, as long as wages adhere to the labor theory of value. As capitalism is commonly understood to be a system where profit is permissible, the philosophy differs from capitalism.
Other 19th century individualists include Lysander Spooner, Stephen Pearl Andrews, and Victor Yarros. While some individualists looked to natural law to justify individualism, many, in accordance with Stirner's "Egoism" hold that self-interest is the only legitimate justification for action. For example, Lysander Spooner holds that there are natural property rights, but egoists such as Benjamin Tucker agree with Stirner that there are no natural property rights, but rather come about by contract between individuals. The American author and tax resister Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) was a quasi-anarchist. He wrote the influential essay Civil Disobedience (available at wikisource) on resistance to civil government.
Though marginalized in the 20th century due to the popularity of anarcho-communism and syndicalism, individualist anarchism continued on. Around the early to mid-20th century, some individualist anarchists, such as Emile Armand, Henry Meulen and Ulrich von Beckerath, in a departure from the earlier individualist cost is the limit of price belief, began to adopt a subjective theory of value where price was subject to individual judgement. For instance, in 1945 French individualist anarchist E. Armand, in Our Demands as Individualist Anarchists, made the following demand: "FULL AND UNRESTRICTED RIGHT to determine and change the value or price of any goods, either one's own products or consumer goods, of whatever kind, according to one's own discretion. Likewise untouchable is the right to negotiate in this respect, to use an arbitrator or to do without any determination of values." According to political historian Carl Levy, in his MS Encarta Encyclopedia Anarchism article, "Since World War II, this tradition has been reborn and modified in the United States as anarcho-capitalism or libertarianism."
The International
In Europe, a period of harsh reaction followed the widespread revolutionary activity of 1848. The next major phase of revolutionary activity began almost twenty years later with the founding of the International Workingmen's Association, sometimes called the 'First International', in London in 1864.
The International Workingmen's Association, at its founding, was an alliance of diverse groups, including French Mutualists, Blanquists, English Owenites, Italian followers of Mazzini and other socialists of various persuasions. Over its short life it grew into a major movement, with local federations in many countries developing strong bases of working class activism. Karl Marx was a constant, and leading, figure from the start - he was elected to every succeeding General Council of the association.
Due to the wide variety of philosophies present in the First International, there was conflict from the start. The first objections to Marx's came from the Mutualists who opposed communism and statism. However, shortly after Mikhail Bakunin and his followers (called Collectivists) joined in 1868, the First International became polarised into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads. Perhaps the clearest differences between the groups emerged over their proposed strategies for achieving their visions of socialism. The anarchists grouped around Bakunin favoured (in Kropotkin's words) "direct economical struggle against capitalism, without interfering in the political parliamentary agitation." Marxist thinking, at that time, focused on parliamentary activity. For example, when the new German Empire of 1871 became the first country to introduce manhood suffrage, many German socialists became active in the Marxist Social Democratic Party of Germany.
Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as authoritarian, and predicted that if a Marxist party gained to power its leaders would end up as bad as the ruling class they had fought against (notably in his Statism and Anarchy.) In 1872, the conflict in the First International climaxed with a final split between the two groups at the Hague Congress. This clash is often cited as the origin of the long-running conflict between anarchists and Marxists. From then on, the authoritarian and libertarian currents of socialism had distinct organisations, at various points including rival 'internationals'.
Unfortunately, many of the debates between the opposing camps became heated to the point of abusiveness. Bakunin did not restrain himself from hurling anti-German and anti-semitic slurs at Marx.
Religion
See also: Christian anarchism, Anarchism and religion
Christian anarchism is the belief that there is only one source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable, the authority of God as embodied in the teachings of Jesus. Christian anarchists therefore feel that earthly authority such as government, or indeed the established church do not and should not have power over them. Christian anarchists are pacifists and oppose the use of all physical force, both proactive and reactive.
Christian anarchists believe that freedom from earthly authority will only be guided by the grace of God if individuals display compassion for others and turn the other cheek when confronted by violence. Its adherents believe this quest for freedom is justified spiritually and quote the teachings of Jesus, some of whom are critical of the existing establishment and church. They believe all individuals can directly communicate with God and will eventually unify in peace under this one God.
The most famous advocate of Christian anarchism was Leo Tolstoy, author of The Kingdom of God is Within You, who called for a society based on compassion, nonviolent principles and freedom.
Some Christian anarchists oppose war and other statist aggression through tax resistance, while others submit to taxation. Tolstoy wrote that if the act of resisting taxes requires physical force to withhold what a government tries to take, then it is important to submit to taxation. Ammon Hennacy, who like Tolstoy also believed in nonresistance, managed to resist taxes without using force. Many Christian anarchists are vegetarian or vegan.
Spiritual Anarchism, or Divine Anarchy, was originally expressed by the political revolutionary, poet and yogi Sri Aurobindo during the First World War in a series of articles published in the Arya, and later made available in two books, The Human Cycle and The Ideal of Human Unity. The exaggerations of both individualistic and communistic streams of anarchist thought are harmonized by going beyond the vital and intellectual foundations of most other schools of anarchism and rooting itself firmly in the spiritual realization and dynamic perfection of the individual and universal godhead in the race.
A spiritual anarchist holds that a perfect form of social organization can only be achieved by governing our individual and collective life by a higher light than the intellectual reason, a deeper law of solidarity and oneness than emotional or mental bonds of association. Although it has deviated significantly from its course, the international township of Auroville was originally intended to be organized as a Divine Anarchy, and may well one day fulfill its purpose.
Other forms of religious Anarchism include the Buddhist Anarchism of Tai-Xu which was strongly influenced by Tolstoy, but also looked to the ancient well-field system for inspiration. Buddhist Anarchism is one of several types of Chinese Anarchism which was influential in mainland China in the 1920's.
Anarchism and feminism
See also: Anarcha-Feminism
Anarcha-feminism is a kind of radical feminism that espouses the belief that patriarchy is a fundamental problem in society. While anarchist feminism has existed for more than a hundred years, its explicit formulation as anarcha-feminism dates back to the early 70s , during the second-wave feminist movement. Anarcha-feminism, views patriarchy as the first manifestation of hierarchy in human history; thus, the first form of oppression occurred in the dominance of male over female. Anarcha-feminists then conclude that if feminists are against patriarchy, they must also be against all forms of hierarchy, and therefore must reject the authoritarian nature of the state and capitalism.
Anarcho-primitivists see the creation of gender roles and patriarchy a creation of the start of civilization, and therefore consider primitivism to also be an anarchist school of thought that addresses feminist concerns. Eco-feminism is often considered a feminist variant of green anarchist feminist thought.
Anarcha-feminism is most often associated with early 20th-century authors and theorists such as Emma Goldman and Voltairine de Cleyre, although even early first-wave feminist Mary Wollstonecraft held proto-anarchist views, and William Godwin is often considered a feminist anarchist precursor. In the Spanish Civil War, an anarcha-feminist group, "Free Women", organized to defend both anarchist and feminist ideas.
In the modern day anarchist movement, many anarchists, male or female, consider themselves feminists, and anarcha-feminist ideas are growing. The publishing of Quiet Rumors, an anarcha-feminist reader, has helped to spread various kinds of anti-authoritarian and anarchist feminist ideas to the broader movement.
The fight against fascism
In the 1920s and 1930s the familiar dynamics of anarchism's conflict with the state were transformed by the rise of fascism in Europe. In many cases, European anarchists faced difficult choices - should they join in popular fronts with reformist democrats and Soviet-led Communists against a common fascist enemy? Luigi Fabbri, an exile from Italian fascism, was amongst those arguing that fascism was something different:
- Fascism is not just another form of government which, like all others, uses violence. It is the most authoritarian and the most violent form of government imaginable. It represents the utmost glorification of the theory and practice of the principle of authority.
In France, where the fascists came close to insurrection in the February 1934 riots, anarchists divided over a 'united front' policy. In Spain, the CNT initially refused to join a popular front electoral alliance, and abstention by CNT supporters led to a right wing election victory. But in 1936, the CNT changed its policy and anarchist votes helped bring the popular front back to power. Months later, the right responded with an attempted coup, and the Spanish Civil War was underway.
In the history of anarchism the Spanish Civil War of (1936-1939) is a defining event on at least the scale of the First International or the Russian Revolution of 1917. A widely popular anarchist movement supported by anti-fascist militias took control of the industrial stronghold of Barcelona, and rural areas mainly in northeast Spain where they collectivized the land. For a few brief months in 1936-37 libertarian communism was being put into practice.
But even before the eventual fascist victory, the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with the Stalinists. The CNT leadership often appeared confused and divided, with some members entering the government. Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives, and persecuted both dissident marxists and anarchists. The revolution was destroyed. Anarchism has never since come so close to realising the dream of "libertarian communism in one country" as in that short summer of anarchy.
Contemporary anarchism
Anarchism today comprises a range of philosophies, strategies and traditions. Below are brief profiles of some of these tendencies (in alphabetical order).
Issues
Conceptions of an anarchist society
See also: Anarchism and Society
Many political philosophers justify support of the state as a means of regulating violence, so that the destruction caused by human conflict is minimized and fair relationships are established. Anarchists argue that pursuit of these ends does not justify the establishment of a state, and in fact many argue that the state is incompatible with those goals. Anarchists argue that the state helps to create a monopoly on violence, and uses force and violence to expand and protect elite interests. Much effort has been dedicated to explaining how anarchist societies would handle criminality.
Environmentalism
See also: Green anarchism
Eco-anarchism generally is a belief in deep ecology, direct action against earth-destroying institutions and systems, and generally a critique of industrial capitalism, although generally not against civilization per se.
There is a significant anarchist element to the environmental movement, including those that are known as eco-anarchists and green-anarchists. Eco-anarchism is generally a broad term that broadly refers to anarchists engaged in the earth liberation movement. The largest segment of 'eco-anarchists' is the Earth First! movement, a network of various collectives formed along anarchist principles. Earth First! generally engages in direct action and eco-defense, such as tree sitting and 'locking down'. In the modern anarchist movement, eco-anarchists generally adhere to deep ecology, which is a worldview that embraces biodiversity and sustainability. Eco-feminism is also sometimes considered the form of eco-anarchist feminism.
Civil rights and cultural sovereignty
Anti-Racist Action is a loose federation of groups that focus on confronting (sometimes violently) racist agitators, such as the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazis when they appear in public. Not all members or ARA are anarchists, but many are.
Black anarchism opposes the existence of a state, capitalism, and subjugation and domination of people of color, and favors a non-hierarchical organization of society. Black anarchists, recognizing that anarchism has traditionally been European or white-based, seek to forge their own movement that represents their own identity and tailored to their own unique situation. Black anarchists are critical of White anarchism. Ashanti Alston, one of the most noted proponent of black anarchism, says "Every time I hear someone talk about my people as if we are just some "working class" or "proletariat" I wanna get as far away from that person or group as possible, anarchist, Marxist, whatever" (Beyond Nationalism, but Not Without It). Theorists include Ashanti Alston, Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, and Sam Mbah.
Anarchist People of Color was created as a forum for non-caucasian anarchists to express their thoughts about racial issues within the anarchist movement, particularly within the United States.
Black anarchist Ashanti Alston opposes the criticism by some anarchists that nationalism and anarchism are not compatible. He says "what does it mean when the specific anarchist movements within a specific country are racist and dismissive of any and all nationalism, be it reactionary or revolutionary????" (Beyond Nationalism, but Not Without It). However this does not indicate that he would sanction the collaboration of some white national anarchists with openly racist and fascist groups like the British National Party and the Eurasians.
The Zapatista movement is another cultural sovereignty group, aiming to end the 500 year oppression of the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, Mexico. Also, indigenous people in Miskitia (the Atlantic Autonomous Zone of Nicaragua) also struggle for sovereignty.
Neo-imperialism and Globalization
Neo-imperialism refers to the process of persuading rulers of (generally) lesser developed countries (LDCs) to alter political and economic policies in exchange for receiving loans from other states or, more commonly, through loans by state cartels such as the World Bank. In effect, third world rulers give concessions and coercive monopolies to foreign corporations in return for monetary bribes that they often use to consolidate their own power. In most cases, much of the money loaned to these LDCs is returned to the privileged foreign corporations. Thus, these foreign loans amount to subsidies to crony corporations favored by the loaner nation's rulers. This collusion is sometimes referred to as the corporatocracy. All anarchists oppose neo-imperialism and the state cartels which carry it out, including the World Bank, World Trade Organization and Group of Eight, and the World Economic Forum.
Globalization is an ambiguous term that has different meanings to different anarchist factions. Anarchists generally use the term to mean neo-imperialism, with jargon such as "the globalization of capitalism," reflecting their belief that capitalism is necessarily exploitative. Many of these anarchists have been active in the anti-globalization movement. Since the late 1990s, anarchists have been known for their involvement in protests against World Trade Organization and other cartels listed above. One of the more successful anti-globalization mobilizations was the protest against the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle.
Anarcho-capitalists tend to use "globalization" to mean the worldwide expansion of the division of labor and trade, which they see as beneficial as long as governments do not intervene. Thus, they see globalization and neo-imperialism as opposing concepts. Anarcho-capitalists favor laissez-faire globalization but strongly oppose neo-colonialism.
Parallel structures
See also: anarchist economics
Anarchists engage in building parallel structures and organizations, such as Food Not Bombs, radical labor unions, infoshop and radical social centers, new sets of schooling systems, media in various forms, organizing around housing and land issues, and work toward accountability with police and other institutions through such tools as consensus decision-making. This is in line with the general anarchist concept of creating "dual-power", the idea of creating the structures for a new anti-authoritarian society in the shell of the old, hierarchical one.
Technology
See also: Crypto-anarchism and Cypherpunk.
Some have said that recent technological developments have made the anarchist cause both easier to advance and more conceivable to people. Public key cryptography and the Internet have made anonymous digital currencies such as e-gold an alternative to statist fiat money. Many people use cell phones or the Internet to form loose communities that could be said to be organized along anarchist lines. Some of these communities have as their purpose the production of information in a non-commodified or use-value format, a goal made attainable by the availability of personal computing, desktop publishing, and digital media. These things have made it possible for individuals to share music files over the Internet. There are also open source programming communities, who donate their time and offer their product for free. Examples include Usenet, the free software movement (including the GNU/Linux community and the wiki paradigm), and Indymedia.
Some anarchists see information technology as the way to replace hierarchy, defeat monopoly, and prevent war, and support culture jamming in particular as a way to do so. Some writers — particularly Iain M. Banks, who has written quite extensively in the science fiction genre about The Culture, a futuristic society which has disposed of government — have theorised that anarchism would be inevitable with the technological advances that would make travelling and living in space plausible . The Electro-anarchy Collective poses a similar theory that technological power will naturally overthrow human government (although some question their anarchist credentials, claiming that technological governance is no less oppressive than human governance).
It has also been argued that the free software movement is an example of anarchic organization, this being an example not of hierarchical business, but of voluntary association for the production of a good.
Misc Cultural Phenomena
In Denmark, the Freetown Christiania was created in downtown Copenhagen. The housing and employment crisis in most of Western Europe led to the formation of communes and squatter movements like the one still thriving in Barcelona, in Catalonia. Militant resistance to neo-Nazi groups in places like Germany, and the uprisings of autonomous Marxism, situationist, and Autonomist groups in France and Italy also helped to give popularity to anti-authoritarian, non-capitalist ideas.
A surge of popular interest in anarchism, some would say nihilism, 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. The Dutch punk band The Ex further exemplifies this expression. For further details, see anarcho-punk
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 which they in fact also consider as defensive violence. Anarchists are skeptical however of winning a direct armed conflict with the state, and instead concern themselves mostly with organizing. Most anarchists however, do not consider the destruction of property to be violent, as do most activists who believe in non-violence.
Parliamentarianism
While most anarchists firmly oppose voting, or otherwise participating in the State institution, there are a few that disagree. Even hard-core anarchists (e.g. Proudhon) have succumbed to the temptation of electoral politics - and inevitably regretted it. Voluntaryism is an anarchist school of thought which emphasizes "tending your own garden" and "neither ballots nor bullets." The anarchist case against voting is explained in The Ethics of Voting by George H. Smith.
See also
There are many concepts relevant to the topic of anarchism, this is a brief summary. There is also a more extensive list of anarchist concepts.
- Anarchist symbolism
- List of anarchism links
- List of anarchists
- List of anarchist organizations
- Past and present anarchist communities
Historical events
- Paris Commune (1871)
- Haymarket Riot (1886)
- Kronstadt rebellion (1921)
- Spanish Revolution (1936) (see Anarchism in Spain)
- May 1968, France (1968)
- WTO Meeting in Seattle (1999)
Books
Anarcho-Communist
- Alexander Berkman, What is Anarchism?, Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist, others
- Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State, The Paris Commune and the Idea of the State, others
- Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays, Living My Life, others
- Robert Graham "Anarchism. A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas." Volume 1:From Anarchy to Anarchism (300CE to 1939). 536 pages, 24 chapter; 131 article. Black Rose Books, Montreal 2005. ISBN 1-55164-250-6
- Daniel Guérin, Anarchism
- Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, The Conquest of Bread, others
- Peter Marshall A History of Anarchism ISBN 0-00-686245-4
- Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism
- Voline, The Unknown Revolution
- Errico Malatesta, Anarchy
- Colin Ward, Anarchy in Action
- Noam Chomsky, Chomsky on Anarchism
- Murray Bookchin, Post-Scarcity Anarchism
General/Other
- William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice
- Max Stirner, The Ego And Its Own Contractarian (as opposed to Natural Law or utilitarian) anarchism
- Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdon of God is Within You - Christian pacifist anarchism
- Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle
- Leopold Kohr, The Breakdown of Nations Small is beautiful
- Hakim Bey, Temporary Autonomous Zones Ontological anarchism
- Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, What is Property?
Anarchism by region/culture
External links
The overwhelming diversity and number of links relating to anarchism is extensively covered on the links subpage.
- "Anarchism" on Infoshop.org A resource on Anarchism written and hosted by anarchists.
- Anarchoblogs Blogs by Anarchists.
- Anarchy Archives extensively archives information relating to famous anarchists. This includes many of their books and other publications.
- Hundreds of anarchists are listed, with short bios, links & dedicated pages at the Daily Bleed's Anarchist Encyclopedia
- Industrial Workers of the World
- IWW Retail Workers
- International Workers Association (IWA-AIT)