Anarchism
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Anarchism is the name of a political philosophy or a group of doctrines and attitudes that are centered on rejection of any form of compulsory government ("state")<ref>Some differentiate government from state: "A distinction that is relevant to the anarchist ideal is the difference between the government, referring to the state, and government, referring to the administration of a political system. Anarchists, like everyone, tend to use the word government as a synonym for state, but what is rejected by anarchism's a priori opposition to the state is not the concept of government as such but the idea of a sovereign order that claims and demands obedience, and if necessary, the lives of its subjects. Anarchism rejects the form of imposed, centralized authority enshrined and made material in the state." -Sheehan, Sean. Anarchism, Reaktion Books 2004, p. 25-26</ref> and supporting its elimination.<ref name=definitions>
- Anarchism. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 29 August 2006 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9117285>. Anarchism is "a cluster of doctrines and attitudes centred on the belief that government is both harmful and unnecessary."
- Anarchism. The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2005. P. 14 "Anarchism is the view that a society without the state, or government, is both possible and desirable."</ref> The term "anarchism" is derived from the Greek αναρχία ("without archons" or "without rulers"). Thus "anarchism," in its most general meaning, is the belief that all forms of rulership are undesirable and should be abolished.
There is a variety of types and traditions of anarchism with various points of difference.<ref>Kropotkine, Petr Alekseevich. Anarchism: A Collection of Revolutionary Writings, Courier Dover Publications, 2002, p.5</ref><ref>R.B. Fowler (1972). "The Anarchist Tradition of Political Thought". Western Political Quarterly 25 (4): 738-752. DOI:10.2307/446800.</ref> Other than being opposed to the state, "there is no single defining position that all anarchists hold, and those considered anarchists at best share a certain family resemblance."<ref>Anarchism. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 31</ref> Preferred economic arrangements are one of the many areas of disagreement for anarchists.<ref>Esenwein, George Richard "Anarchist Ideology and the Working Class Movement in Spain, 1868-1898" [p. 135]</ref>
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[edit] Origins
[edit] Pre-Nineteenth Century
Opposition to the state and hierarchical authority had a long history prior to the formation of the anarchist movement in nineteenth century Europe. Some claim that anarchist themes can be detected in works as old as those of the Taoist sage Lao Tzu,<ref name="EB1910">Peter Kropotkin, "Anarchism", from The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910</ref> though this is a controversial topic.<ref>[1]</ref> Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism also introduced topics which contain anarchist themes.<ref name="EB1910"/>
Anarchism in the modern sense, however, has its roots in the secular political thought of the Enlightenment, particularly Rousseau's arguments for the moral centrality of freedom.<ref name=Encarta>Anarchism, Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2006 (UK version) http://uk.encarta.msn.com © 1997-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved </ref> The word "anarchist" was originally used as a term of abuse, but by the French Revolution some groups such as the Enragés had started to use the term in a positive sense,<ref>Sheehan, Sean. Anarchism, London: Reaktion Books Ltd., 2004. pg. 85</ref> seeing the Jacobin concept of a "revolutionary government" as an oxymoron. It was in this political climate that William Godwin would develop his philosophy, which is considered by many to be the first expression of modern anarchist thought.<ref>William Godwin Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, First published Sun Jan 16, 2000; substantive revision Sat May 20, 2006</ref>
[edit] William Godwin
According to Peter Kropotkin, William Godwin, in his Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (2 vols., 1793), was "the first to formulate the political and economical conceptions of anarchism, even though he did not give that name to the ideas developed in his work."<ref name="EB1910"/> Charles A. Madison writes, "The first modern systematic exponent of anarchism was William Godwin. . . . Strongly influenced by the sentiments of the French Revolution, he argued that since man is a rational being he must not be hampered in the exercise of his pure reason. Moreover, since all forms of government have irrational foundations and are consequently tyrannical in nature, they must be swept away."<ref name="Madison">Madison, Charles A. (1945). "Anarchism in the United States". Journal of the History of Ideas 6 (1): 46-66.</ref>
Godwin felt that the evil of man was the result of societal corruption, and his view was that government would become unnecessary as the human race is perfected. "Above all we should not forget, that government is an evil, an usurpation upon the private judgment and individual conscience of mankind; and that, however we may be obliged to admit it as a necessary evil for the present, it behoves us, as the friends of reason and the human species, to admit as little of it as possible, and carefully to observe whether, in consequence of the gradual illumination of the human mind, that little may not hereafter be diminished."<ref>William Godwin, "An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice"</ref> Godwin felt that discrimination on any grounds besides ability was intolerable. Godwin is also well known for marrying the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Their daughter, Mary Shelley, achieved fame as the author of Frankenstein.
[edit] Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon is the first self-proclaimed anarchist, a label which he adopted in his 1840 treatise What is Property?. It is for this reason that some declare Proudhon the founder of modern anarchist theory.<ref>Daniel Guerin, Anarchism: From Theory to Practice (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970).</ref> He developed the theory of spontaneous order in society, whereby organization emerges without any central authority, a "positive anarchy" in which order arises from every individual "doing what he wishes and only what he wishes."<ref> Proudhon, Solution to the Social Problem, ed. H. Cohen (New York: Vanguard Press, 1927), p.45. </ref> He saw anarchy as:
"a form of government or constitution in which public and private consciousness, formed through the development of science and law, is alone sufficient to maintain order and guarantee all liberties. In it, as a consequence, the institutions of the police, preventive and repressive methods, officialdom, taxation, etc., are reduced to a minimum. In it, more especially, the forms of monarchy and intensive centralization disappear, to be replaced by federal institutions and a pattern of life based on the commune."<ref>Selected Writings, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon</ref>
His opposition to capitalism, the state, and organized religion inspired subsequent anarchists and made him one of the leading socialist theorists of his time.<ref name="EB-Proudhon"> From Encyclopedia Britannica article "Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph" (2006)[2]</ref> However, he was also opposed to "communism, whether of the utopian or the Marxist variety, [the criticism being] that it destroyed freedom by taking away from the individual control over his means of production." <ref name="EB-Proudhon"/>
[edit] Schools of Anarchist Thought
[edit] Mutualism
While mutualism as a body of economic ideas began in English and French labor movements of the 18th century, it later took on an anarchist form mostly associated with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Proudhon was the first to call himself and his politics anarchist. In his landmark book What is Property? (Qu'est-ce que la propriété?, published in 1840), he criticized existing theories of private property and expounded an economic theory based on a labor theory of value, stating that, "The price of every product in demand should be its cost in time and outlay—neither more nor less. . ." However, "every product not in demand is a loss to the producer—a commercial non-value." <ref>Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph What is Property? (1840)[3], p. 138</ref> According to Proudhon, "It is labor, labor alone, that produces all the elements of wealth... according to a law of variable, but certain, proportionality." He was also careful to advise, however, that "The value of labor is a figurative expression, an anticipation of effect from cause." <ref>Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph The Philosophy of Poverty (1847)[4]</ref> Mutualist economics is characterised by a dedication to free association, a democratically run mutualist bank, and voluntary contract/federation.
Many mutualists believe that a market without government intervention would result in prices paid for labor to align with its true worth, as determined by the labor theory of value, because firms would be forced to compete over workers just as workers compete over firms, which would raise wages.<ref>[5]</ref> As William B. Greene put it:
- "Under the mutual system, each individual will receive the just and exact pay for his work; services equivalent in cost being exchangeable for services equivalent in cost, without profit or discount; and so much as the individual laborer will then get over and above what he has earned will come to him as his share in the general prosperity of the community of which he is an individual member."<ref>Greene, William B., "Communism versus Mutualism," Socialistic, Communistic, Mutualistic and Financial Fragments. (Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1875)</ref>
Proudhon's mutualism, introduced into the United States in 1848 by Charles A. Dana,<ref>Dana, Charles A. Proudhon and his "Bank of the People" (1848).</ref> supplemented a native American form already worked out by Josiah Warren. Proudhon's mutualism was adapted to American conditions by Greene, who introduced it to Benjamin R. Tucker.<ref>Tucker, Benjamin R., "On Picket Duty," Liberty (Not the Daughter but the Mother of Order)(1881-1908); Jan 5, 1889; 6, 10; APS Online
pg. 1</ref> Unlike the American individualist anarchists, Proudhon emphasises associations amongst producers;<ref name="Woodcock"/> thus, some see mutualism as being situated somewhere between individualism and collectivism.<ref>Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Princetone University Press 1996 ISBN 0-691-04494-5, p.6
Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, Blackwell Publishing 1991 ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p.11</ref> This sense seems confirmed by the mutualists' own writings. In What Is Property?, Proudhon develops a concept of "liberty," equivalent to "anarchy," which is the dialectical "synthesis of communism and property." <ref>Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph What is Property? (1840)[6], p. 281</ref> Greene, influenced by Pierre Leroux, sought mutualism in the synthesis of three philosophies—communism, capitalism and socialism. <ref>Greene, William B. "Communism—Capitalism—Socialism," Equality (1849)[7], p. 59. </ref> Although later individualist anarchists used the term mutualism to describe their economic philosophy, they retained little if any of this emphasis on synthesis.
[edit] Collectivist Anarchism
Collectivist anarchism is most commonly associated with Mikhail Bakunin and the anti-authoritarian section of the First International (1864-1876). Unlike mutualists, collectivist anarchists oppose all private ownership of the means of production, instead advocating that ownership be collectivized. Workers would be compensated for their work on the basis of the amount of time they contributed to production, rather than goods being distributed "according to need" as in anarcho-communism. By the early 1880s, most of the European anarchist movement had adopted an anarcho-communist position, advocating the abolition of wage labour and distribution according to need rather than labor, although the early anarchist movement in Spain is sometimes associated with collectivism. Although the collectivist anarchists advocated compensation for labor, they held out the possibility of a post-revolutionary transition to a communist system of distribution according to need. <ref>Bakunin's associate, James Guillaume, put it this way in his essay, Ideas on Social Organization(1876):
When… production comes to outstrip consumption… [e]veryone will draw what he needs from the abundant social reserve of commodities, without fear of depletion; and the moral sentiment which will be more highly developed among free and equal workers will prevent, or greatly reduce, abuse and waste.</ref> Collective anarchism arose contemporary with Marxism but was opposed to it, despite Marxism striving for a collectivist stateless society, because of an opposition to the Marxist dictatorship of the proletariat.<ref>Bakunin, Mikhail; Statism and Anarchism:
They [the Marxists] maintain that only a dictatorship — their dictatorship, of course — can create the will of the people, while our answer to this is: No dictatorship can have any other aim but that of self-perpetuation, and it can beget only slavery in the people tolerating it; freedom can be created only by freedom, that is, by a universal rebellion on the part of the people and free organization of the toiling masses from the bottom up.</ref>
[edit] Anarchist communism
Joseph Déjacque was an early anarchist communist and the first person to describe himself as "socialist libertarian".<ref>De l'être-humain mâle et femelle - Lettre à P.J. Proudhon par Joseph Déjacque (in French)</ref> Unlike Proudhon, he argued that "it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right to, but to the satisfaction of his or her needs, whatever may be their nature."<ref name=Graham-05>Graham, Robert Anarchism (Montreal: Black Rose Books 2005) ISBN 1-55164-251-4[8]</ref> Other important anarchist communists include Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman and Errico Malatesta. Many in the anarcho-syndicalist movements (see below) saw anarchist communism as their objective. Isaac Puente's 1932 El comunismo libertario <ref name="LibCom">Puente, Isaac "Libertarian Communism" (The Cienfuegos Press Anarchist Review' #6 Orkney 1982)[9]</ref> was adopted by the Spanish CNT as its manifesto for a post-revolutionary society.
Anarchist communists propose that a society composed of a number of self-governing communes with collective ownership of the means of production, ruled by direct democracy, and related to other communes through federation would be the freest form of social organisation.<ref name="LibCom"/> In anarchist communism, individuals would not receive direct compensation for labour (through share of profits, payment or any other compensation), but would instead have free access to the resources of the commune.<ref>Miller. Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought, Blackwell Publishing (1991) ISBN 0-631-17944-5, p. 12</ref> Some commentators believe that this would require an essentially communitarian human nature, but, according to the view developed by Kropotkin and later by Murray Bookchin, the members of such a society will spontaneously perform all necessary labour because they will recognize the benefits of communal enterprise and mutual aid. <ref> Important treatises on this theory include:
- Kropotkin, Peter Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, 1998 paperback, London: Freedom Press. ISBN 0-900384-36-0, also at Project Gutenburg
- Kropotkin, Peter The Conquest of Bread, first published 1892, also at Anarchy Archives
- Kropotkin, Peter Fields, Factories and Workshops, available at Anarchy Archives
- Bookchin, Murray Post Scarcity Anarchism (1971 and 2004) ISBN 1-904859-06-2.</ref> It is often characterised as Utopianism, a claim some do not deny,<ref>See the essay on utopianism in Post Scarcity Anarchism</ref> but anarchist communism is portrayed by its supporters as an achievable goal, if not an inevitability<ref>Durruti, Buenaventura "We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth, there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world, here, in our hearts. That world is growing this minute." quoted on libcom.org</ref>, rather than an impossible ideal.<ref name="LibCom"/>
[edit] Peter Kropotkin
Peter Kropotkin, often seen as the most important theorist of anarchist communism, outlined his economic ideas in The Conquest of Bread and Fields, Factories and Workshops. Kropotkin felt that co-operation is more beneficial than competition, arguing in Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution that this was illustrated in nature. He advocated the abolition of private property through the "expropriation of the whole of social wealth" by the people themselves<ref>Kropotkin, Peter. Words of a Rebel, p99.</ref>, and for the economy to be co-ordinated through a horizontal network of voluntary associations<ref>Kropotkin, Peter. The Conquest of Bread, p145.</ref> where goods are distributed according to the physical needs of the individual, rather than according to labor. <ref>Shatz, Marshall. Introduction to Kropotkin: The Conquest of Bread and Other Writings, Cambridge University Press 1995, p. xvi "Anarchist communism called for the socialization not only of production but of the distribution of goods: the community would supply the subsistence requirements of each individual member free of charge, and the criterion, 'to each according to his labor' would be superseded by the criterion 'to each according to his needs.'"</ref> He further argued that these "needs," as society progressed, would not merely be physical needs but "[a]s soon as his material wants are satisfied, other needs, of an artistic character, will thrust themselves forward the more ardently. Aims of life vary with each and every individual; and the more society is civilized, the more will individuality be developed, and the more will desires be varied." <ref>Kropotkin, Peter. The Conquest of Bread Chapter IX The Need For Luxury</ref>
He maintained that, in anarcho-communism:
"...houses, fields, and factories will no longer be private property, and that they will belong to the commune or the nation and money, wages, and trade would be abolished."<ref>Kropotkin, Peter. Chapter 13 The Collectivist Wages System from The Conquest of Bread, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 1906.</ref>
Individuals and groups would use and control whatever resources they needed, as the aim of anarchist-communism was to place "the product reaped or manufactured at the disposal of all, leaving to each the liberty to consume them as he pleases in his own home."<ref>The Place of Anarchism in the Evolution of Socialist Thought</ref> He supported the expropriation of property to ensure that everyone would have access to what they needed without being forced to sell their labour to get it.
"We do not want to rob any one of his coat, but we wish to give to the workers all those things the lack of which makes them fall an easy prey to the exploiter, and we will do our utmost that none shall lack aught, that not a single man shall be forced to sell the strength of his right arm to obtain a bare subsistence for himself and his babes. This is what we mean when we talk of Expropriation..."<ref>Kropotkin, Peter The Conquest Of Bread Chapter IV</ref>
He said that a "peasant who is in possession of just the amount of land he can cultivate," and "a family inhabiting a house which affords them just enough space... considered necessary for that number of people" and the artisan "working with their own tools or handloom" would not be interfered with<ref>Kropotkin Act for yourselves. N.Walter and H. Becker, eds. (London: Freedom Press 1985) [p. 104-5]</ref>, arguing that "[t]he landlord owes his riches to the poverty of the peasants, and the wealth of the capitalist comes from the same source."<ref>Kropotkin "The Conquest of Bread" op cit</ref>
[edit] Platformism
Platformism is a tendency within the wider anarchist communist movement which shares an affinity with organising in the tradition of Nestor Makhno's Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft). The Platform came from the experiences of Russian anarchists in the 1917 October Revolution, which lead eventually to the victory of Bolshevik party dictatorship rather than workers' and peasants' self-management. It argued for the "vital need of an organization which, having attracted most of the participants in the anarchist movement, would establish a common tactical and political line for anarchism and thereby serve as a guide for the whole movement."<ref name=Platformtext>Dielo Trouda group [1926] (2006). Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft). Italy: FdCA. Retrieved on 2006-10-24.</ref>
[edit] Anarcho-syndicalism
The early twentieth century saw the rise of anarcho-syndicalism as a distinct school of thought within the anarchist tradition. More heavily focused on the labour movement than previous forms of anarchism, syndicalism posits trade unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the state with a new society that is democratically self-managed by workers. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Three important principles of syndicalism are workers' solidarity, direct action (such as general strikes and workplace recuperations), and workers' self-management. Anarcho-syndicalism and other communitarian branches of anarchism are not mutually exclusive: anarcho-syndicalists often subscribe to communist or collectivist schools of anarchism. Its advocates propose labour organization as a means to create the foundations of a non-hierarchical anarchist society within the current system and bring about social revolution.
Rudolf Rocker was one of the most popular voices in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. He outlined a view of the origins of the movement, what it sought, and why it was important to the future of labour in his 1938 pamphlet Anarchosyndicalism.<ref>Anarchosyndicalism by Rudolph Rocker retrieved 7 September 2006</ref> Although more frequently associated with labor struggles of the early twentieth century (particularly in France and Spain), many syndicalist organizations are active today.
[edit] Individualist anarchism
Individualist anarchism is an anarchist philosophical tradition that has a strong emphasis on equality of liberty and individual sovereignty, drawing much from the tradition of classical liberalism.<ref name="Madison">Madison, Charles A. (1945). "Anarchism in the United States". Journal of the History of Ideas 6 (1): 46-66.</ref> Individualist anarchists believe that "individual conscience and the pursuit of self-interest should not be constrained by any collective body or public authority."<ref>Heywood, Andrew, Key Concepts in Politics, Palgrave, ISBN 0-312-23381-7, 2000, p. 46</ref> Individualist anarchism is not a single philosophy but refers to a group of individualistic philosophies; there are "several traditions of individualist anarchism."<ref>Ward, Colin. Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 2</ref> Some individualists are market anarchists, which are individualists that believe that security of individuals and their property should be provided by the market itself (such as by supplying private police and courts).<ref>Lavoie, Don. Democracy, Markets, and the Legal Order: Notes on the Nature of Politics in a Radically Liberal Society. Published in Liberalism and the Economic Order, by G. Tyler Miller. Cambridge University Press, 1993. p. 115</ref> Some individualist anarchists call themselves "market anarchists."
[edit] Egoism
Max Stirner was the author of a form of individualist anarchism called "Egoism." Stirner's "name appears with familiar regularity in historically-orientated surveys of anarchist thought as one of the earliest and best-known exponents of individualist anarchism."<ref name="SEP-Stirner">Leopold, David "Max Stirner", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2006 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2006/entries/max-stirner/>.</ref> In 1844, Max Stirner's The Ego and Its Own (sometimes translated as "The Individual and His Property") was published, which is considered to be "a founding text in the tradition of individualist anarchism."<ref name = "SEP-Stirner"/> Stirner believed that most commonly accepted social institutions—including the concept of the state, property as a right, natural rights, and the very notion of society—were mere illusions or ghosts in the mind, saying of society that "the individuals are its reality." He advocated egoism and a form of amoralism, in which individuals would unite in "associations of egoists" only when it was in their self interest to do so. For him, property simply comes about through might: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend, the thing, to him belongs property." And, "What I have in my power, that is my own. So long as I assert myself as holder, I am the proprietor of the thing."
Stirner never called himself an anarchist; he accepted only the label "egoist". Nevertheless, he is considered by most to be an anarchist because of his rejection of the state, law, and government. Also, his ideas influenced many anarchists, although interpretations of his thought are diverse. Anarchists including Benjamin Tucker, Federica Montseny, and the Bonnot Gang claimed him as an influence, while Emma Goldman gave lectures on his thought.<ref>Emma Goldman: Chronology 1901-1919. Berkeley Digital Library. Retrieved on 2006-05-30.</ref>
[edit] Individualist anarchism in the United States
Individualist anarchism in the American tradition began with nineteenth century figures such as Josiah Warren, William B. Greene, Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker, Stephen Pearl Andrews, Victor Yarros, and Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau's individualist anarchism proclaimed "the inevitability of self-government accompanied by atrophy of the State" and argued that the state had no power other than what individuals accede to it,<ref>Johnson, Ellwood. The Goodly Word: The Puritan Influence in America Literature, Clements Publishing, 2005, p. 138: "...a political theory that has usually been named 'anarchist individualism'...The theory, however, does not advocate anarchism in the sense, for example, of the destruction of institutions; its purpose is only description. Emersonian and Thoreauavian anarchism does not call for any specifiable program of rebellion or destruction of social institutions, but merely asserts one abiding truth..." Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, edited by Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, Alvin Saunders Johnson, 1937, p. 12: "The noblest and most eloquent statement of this essentially anarchist individualism came a generation later in Thoreau's essay on Civil Disobedience" Bool, Henry, Henry Bool's Apology for His Jeffersonian Anarchism, 1901: "I am a believer in the doctrines of the individualistic school of Anarchists, to which Garrison, Emerson, Proudhon, Thoreau, Spooner, Andrews, Warren and Tucker belong."</ref> but included no practical program for social change. Other individualist anarchists pursued a more comprehensive theory and practice.
Also known as the "Boston anarchists," the nineteenth century individualists supported private property and a free market<ref>"Anarchism is a word without meaning, unless it includes the liberty of the individual to control his product or whatever his product has brought him through exchange in a free market - that is, private property. Whoever denies private property is of necessity an Archist." "ANARCHISM AND PROPERTY", by Benjamin Tucker in "The New Freewoman", November 15 1913</ref>, also advocating that protection of liberty and property should be provided by private contractors voluntarily funded in a free market rather than by the state.<ref>Benjamin Tucker, "defense is a service like any other service; that it is labor both useful and desired, and therefore an economic commodity subject to the law of supply and demand; that in a free market this commodity would be furnished at the cost of production; that, competition prevailing, patronage would go to those who furnished the best article at the lowest price; that the production and sale of this commodity are now monopolized by the State; and that the State, like almost all monopolists, charges exorbitant prices" "Instead of a Book" (1893)
"Anarchism does not exclude prisons, officials, military, or other symbols of force. It merely demands that non-invasive men shall not be made the victims of such force. Anarchism is not the reign of love, but the reign of justice. It does not signify the abolition of force-symbols but the application of force to real invaders." Tucker, Benjamin. Liberty October 19 1891.</ref> Victor Yarros explained the understanding of the word "anarchism" of the market anarchists such as Tucker, himself, and others:
- "Anarchism means no government but it does not mean no laws and no coercion. This may seem paradoxical, but the paradox vanishes when the Anarchist definition of government is kept in view. Anarchists oppose government, not because they disbelieve in punishment of crime and resistance to aggression, but because they disbelieve in compulsory protection. Protection and taxation without consent is itself invasion; hence Anarchism favors a system of voluntary taxation and protection."<ref>Victor Yarros. Cited in Carl Watner's Benjamin Tucker and His Periodical, Liberty. Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 308</ref>
Unlike anarcho-communists, they supported the exchange of labor for wages. Benjamin Tucker said, "Not to abolish wages, but to make every man dependent upon wages and secure to every man his whole wages is the aim of Anarchistic Socialism."<ref>Tucker, Benjamin. Labor and Its Pay, from Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin T. Tucker</ref> (Note that Tucker used the word "socialism" in a non-standard sense; he supported private ownership of the means of production.) They argued that the state prevents true free competition in the market<ref>"When Warren and Proudhon, in prosecuting their search for justice to labor, came face to face with the obstacle of class monopolies, they saw that these monopolies rested upon Authority, and concluded that the thing to be done was, not to strengthen this Authority and thus make monopoly universal, but to utterly uproot Authority and give full sway to the opposite principle, Liberty, by making competition, the antithesis of monopoly, universal." Tucker, Benjamin State Socialism and Anarchism (Liberty 10 March 1888)</ref>, which they thought prevented labor from receiving its true value in exchange. Spooner, however, argued that "each man should be his own employer, or work directly for himself, and not for another for wages; because, in the latter case, a part of the fruits of his labor go to his employer, instead of coming to himself"<ref>POVERTY: ITS ILLEGAL CAUSES AND LEGAL CURE</ref> while Dyer Lum argued that a free market would see the end of wage labour by co-operatives.<ref>Albert Parsons (ed.), Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Scientific Basis, University Press of the Pacific Honolulu, Hawaii</ref> They accepted a labor theory of value, believing that free-market competition would cause what they believed to be non-labor income (profit, rent and interest) to disappear. They believed that unregulated "free banking" and the use of local, mutual currencies would cause interest rates to decline to a nominal rate, as a result of intensified competition in lending.
Benjamin Tucker, who was one of the most prominent individualist anarchists, opposed what he called four "monopolies": the money monopoly (state control over currency, credit, and banks); the land monopoly of land-titles that remained in effect if individuals were not using their land; patents, which prohibit competition; tariffs, which restrict competition in favor of established firms. There was also agreement among the early American individualists on the permissibility of employment ("wage labour")<ref>"[I support individuals] carrying on business for themselves or from assuming relations between themselves as employer and employee if they prefer." Tucker, Benjamin. Liberty or Authority</ref>. The nineteenth century individualists disagreed on various things, so there is not one philosophy of "individualist anarchism." For example, Spooner supported intellectual property rights <ref>Spooner, Lysander. The Law of Intellectual Property</ref> and permitted absentee ownership of land.<ref>Watner, Carl. Spooner Vs. Liberty in The Libertarian Forum. March 1975. Volume VII, No 3. ISSN 0047-4517. pp. 5-6.</ref> Steven T. Byington also opposed Tucker's ideas on occupancy and use requirements for land titles.<ref>Carl Watner. Benjamin Tucker and His Periodical, Liberty. Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 1, No. 4, p. 308</ref>
[edit] Anarcho-capitalism
- Further information: Anarchism and anarcho-capitalism
Anarcho-capitalism (also known as private property anarchism or market anarchism) is a form of individualist anarchism lying outside the mainstream of anti-capitalistic anarchism, <ref> Such accounts specifying anarcho-capitalism as a form of individualist anarchism include:
- Alan and Trombley, Stephen (Eds.) Bullock, The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought, W. W. Norton & Company (1999), p. 30
- Outhwaite, William. The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought, Anarchism entry, p. 21, 2002.
- Bottomore, Tom. Dictionary of Marxist Thought, Anarchism entry, 1991.
- Barry, Norman. Modern Political Theory, 2000, Palgrave, p. 70
- Adams, Ian. Political Ideology Today, Manchester University Press (2002) ISBN 0719060206, p. 135
- Grant, Moyra. Key Ideas in Politics, Nelson Thomas 2003 ISBN 0-7487-7096-8, p. 91
- Heider, Ulrike. Anarchism: Left, Right, and Green, City Lights, 1994. p. 3.
- Ostergaard, Geoffrey. Resisting the Nation State - the anarchist and pacifist tradition, Anarchism As A Tradition of Political Thought. Peace Pledge Union Publications
- Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Abridged Paperback Edition (1996), p. 282
- Sheehan, Sean. Anarchism, Reaktion Books, 2004, p. 39
- Tormey, Simon. Anti-Capitalism, One World, 2004. pp. 118-119
- Raico, Ralph. Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th Century, Ecole Polytechnique, Centre de Recherce en Epistemologie Appliquee, Unité associée au CNRS, 2004.
- Offer, John. Herbert Spencer: Critical Assessments, Routledge (UK) (2000), p. 243
- Levy, Carl. Anarchism. MS Encarta (UK).
- Heywood, Andrew. Politics: Second Edition, Palgrave (2002), p. 61
Sources stating anarcho-capitalism as a form of anarchism in general:
- Sylvan, Richard. Anarchism. A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, editors Goodin, Robert E. and Pettit, Philip. Blackwell Publishing, 1995, p.231
- Perlin, Terry M. Contemporary Anarchism. Transaction Books, New Brunswick, NJ 1979, p. 7 * DeLeon, David. The American as Anarchist: Reflections of Indigenous Radicalism, Chapter: The Beginning of Another Cycle, John Hopkins University Press, 1979, p. 117
- Brown, Susan Love, The Free Market as Salvation from Government: The Anarcho-Capitalist View, Meanings of the Market: The Free Market in Western Culture, edited by James G. Carrier, Berg/Oxford, 1997, p. 99 (Brown notes that the individualist anarchists "saw themselves as socialists" and rejected capitalism, p. 104)
- Kearney, Richard. Continental Philosophy in the 20th Century, Routledge (UK) (2003), p. 336 * Sargent, Lyman Tower. Extremism in America: A Reader, NYU Press (1995), p. 11
- Dahl, Robert Alan. Democracy and Its Critics. Yale University Press (1991), p. 38
- Goodwin, Barbara. Using Political Ideas, Fourth Edition, John Wiley & Sons (1987), p. 137 (Goodwin however concludes that the anarcho-capitalists' "true place is in the group of right-wing libertarians" and not in anarchism, p. 148)
</ref> which has a significant following in the United States.<ref>Sargent, Lyman Tower. Extremism in American: A Reader, NYU Press, 1995, p. 11</ref> Like their predecessors, anarcho-capitalists would like for all services, including law enforcement and security, to be performed by multiple private providers all competing for business, rather than by a monopolist state agency funded by taxation. Anarcho-capitalism's leading proponents are Murray Rothbard, David Friedman and Hans-Hermann Hoppe. It has been influenced by libertarians such as Gustave de Molinari, Frederic Bastiat, Ayn Rand and Robert Nozick.
Although anarcho-capitalism was also influenced by Tucker and Spooner<ref>DeLeon, David. The American as Anarchist: Reflections on Indigenous Radicalism. John Hopkins University Press, 1978, p. 127</ref>, it rejects their labor theory of value in favor of the modern neo-classical marginalist view. Thus, anarcho-capitalists, like modern economists, do not believe that prices in a free market are, or would be, proportional to labor times (nor do they think that "usury," "exploitation," or "profit" is taking place if that does not happen). They believe that different prices of goods and services in a market, whether completely free or not, are the result of individuals making subjective judgements on the marginal utility of goods and services rather than on the amounts of labor embodied in them. Also anarcho-capitalists disagree with Tucker that interest would disappear with unregulated banking and money issuance. Rothbard believed that people in general do not wish to lend their money to others without compensation, so there is no reason why this would change just because banking is unregulated (nor does he agree that unregulated banking would increase the supply of money in the first place)<ref>Rothbard, Murray. The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View [10]</ref>. Anarcho-capitalism has a theory of legitimacy that supports private property as long as it was obtained by labor, trade, or gift.<ref>Rothbard, Murray (1969) Confiscation and the Homestead Principle The Libertarian Forum Vol. I, No. VI (June 15 1969) Retrieved 5 August 2006</ref> Most anarcho-capitalists believe that in the absence of aggression, including the instutionalized aggression carried on by the state, free capitalism would naturally and inevitably develop. Hence, Rothbard's statement that "capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism."<ref>Exclusive Interview With Murray Rothbard The New Banner: A Fortnightly Libertarian Journal (25 February 1972)</ref>
[edit] Anarchism without adjectives
Anarchism without adjectives, in the words of historian George Richard Esenwein, "referred to an unhyphenated form of anarchism, that is, a doctrine without any qualifying labels such as communist, collectivist, mutualist, or individualist. For others, ... [it] was simply understood as an attitude that tolerated the coexistence of different anarchist schools." <ref>Esenwein, George Richard "Anarchist Ideology and the Working Class Movement in Spain, 1868-1898" [p. 135] </ref>. It arose as the result of being troubled by the "bitter debates" between the different movements and was a call for more tolerance.<ref>Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 6</ref> Anarchism without adjectives emphasizes harmony between various anarchist factions and attempts to unite them around their shared anti-authoritarian beliefs. The expression was coined by Cuban-born Fernando Tarrida del Marmol, who used it in November 1889 in Barcelona.
To these anarchists, economic preferences are considered to be of secondary importance to abolishing all coercive authority. Rudolf Rocker, who was one of these anarchists, said that the different types of anarchism presented "only different methods of economy, the practical possibilities of which have yet to be tested, and that the first objective is to secure the personal and social freedom of men no matter upon which economics basis this is to be accomplished."<ref>Quoted in Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America. Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 7</ref>
Voltairine de Cleyre was one of the most prominent "anarchists without adjectives". Although she initially identified herself as an individualist anarchist, she later espoused a collectivist form of anarchism,<ref>"The best thing ordinary workingmen or women could do was to organise their industry to get rid of money altogether . . . Let them produce together, co-operatively rather than as employer and employed; let them fraternise group by group, let each use what he needs of his own product, and deposit the rest in the storage-houses, and let those others who need goods have them as occasion arises." Voltairine De Cleyre, "Why I Am an Anarchist"</ref> while refusing to identify herself with any of the contemporary schools. She commented that "Socialism and Communism both demand a degree of joint effort and administration which would beget more regulation than is wholly consistent with ideal Anarchism; Individualism and Mutualism, resting upon property, involve a development of the private policeman not at all compatible with my notion of freedom." In The Making of an Anarchist, she wrote, "I no longer label myself otherwise than as 'Anarchist' simply."
Errico Malatesta was another proponent of anarchism-without-adjectives, stating that "[i]t is not right for us, to say the least, to fall into strife over mere hypotheses."<ref>quoted by Max Nettlau, A Short History of Anarchism [p. 198-9]</ref>
[edit] Anarchism as a Social Movement
Individualist anarchism does not represent the majority of anarchists; most anarchists favor some form of communitarianism or collectivism.<ref>Johnston, Larry. Politics: An Introduction to the Modern Democratic State, Broadview Press (2001), pp. 146-147</ref> Advocacy of collectivism and violent revolution dominated mainstream anarchism from the days of the First International until the destruction of anarchism as a mass movement at the end of the Spanish Civil War.<ref name="EB">"Anarchism." Encyclopædia Britannica, from Encyclopaedia Britannica 2003 Ultimate Reference Suite CD-ROM. Copyright © 1994-2002 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. May 30 2002.</ref>
[edit] The First International
Karl Marx became a leading figure in the International and a member of its General Council. Proudhon's followers, the Mutualists, opposed Marx's state socialism, advocating political abstentionism and small property holdings. Mikhail Bakunin joined in 1868, allying with the anti-authoritarian socialist sections of the International, who advocated the revolutionary overthrow of the state and the collectivization of property. At first, the collectivists worked with the Marxists to push the First International in a more revolutionary socialist direction. Subsequently, the International became polarized into two camps, with Marx and Bakunin as their respective figureheads.
Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as authoritarian and predicted that, if a Marxist party came to power, its leaders would simply take the place of the ruling class they had fought against.<ref>Bakunin, Mikhail [1873] (1991). Statism and Anarchy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36973-8.</ref> In 1872, the conflict climaxed with a final split between the two groups, when, at the Hague Congress, Marx engineered the expulsion of Bakunin and James Guillaume from the International and had its headquarters transferred to New York. In response, the anti-authoritarian sections formed their own International at the St. Imier Congress, adopting a revolutionary anarchist program.<ref name=Graham-05/>
[edit] Anarchism and organized labor
Image:CNT tu votar y ellos deciden.jpg
The anti-authoritarian sections of the First International were the precursors of the anarcho-syndicalists, seeking to "replace the privilege and authority of the State" with the "free and spontaneous organization of labor."<ref> Resolutions from the St. Imier Congress, in Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas, Vol. 1, p.100 [11]</ref>
The Confédération Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labour, CGT), formed in France in 1895, was the first major anarcho-syndicalist movement, but it had been preceded by the Spanish Workers Federation in 1881. Anarchist trade union federations were of special importance in Spain. The most successful was the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Labour: CNT), founded in 1910. Before the 1940s, the CNT was the major force in Spanish working class politics and played a major role in the Spanish Civil War. The CNT was affiliated with the International Workers Association, a federation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions founded in 1922, with delegates representing two million workers from 15 countries in Europe and Latin America.
The largest organised anarchist movement today is in Spain, in the form of the Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) and the CNT. CGT membership was estimated to be around 100,000 for the year 2003.<ref>Carley, Mark "Trade union membership 1993-2003" (International:SPIRE Associates 2004)</ref> Other active syndicalist movements include the US Workers Solidarity Alliance and the UK Solidarity Federation. The revolutionary industrial unionist Industrial Workers of the World, claiming 2,000 paying members, and the International Workers Association, an anarcho-syndicalist successor to the First International, also remain active.
[edit] The Russian Revolution
Anarchists participated alongside the Bolsheviks in both February and October revolutions, many anarchists initially supporting the Bolshevik coup. However, the Bolsheviks soon turned against the anarchists and other left-wing opposition, a conflict that culminated in the 1921 Kronstadt rebellion. Anarchists in central Russia were either imprisoned or driven underground or joined the victorious Bolsheviks. In the Ukraine, anarchists fought in the civil war against Whites and then the Bolsheviks as part of the Makhnovshchina peasant army led by Nestor Makhno.
Expelled American anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were amongst those agitating in response to Bolshevik policy and the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising, before they left Russia. Both wrote classic accounts of their experiences in Russia, aiming to expose the reality of Bolshevik control. For them, Bakunin's predictions about the consequences of Marxist rule<ref>"You can see quite well that behind all the democratic and socialistic phrases and promises in Marx’s program for the State lies all that constitutes the true despotic and brutal nature of all states, regardless of their form of government." Bakunin, Mikhail (1872) "On the International Workingmen's Association and Karl Marx" (Bakunin on Anarchy, translated and edited by Sam Dolgoff, 1971)[12]</ref> had proved all too true.
The victory of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution and the resulting Russian Civil War did serious damage to anarchist movements internationally. Many workers and activists saw Bolshevik success as setting an example; Communist parties grew at the expense of anarchism and other socialist movements. In France and the US, for example, the major syndicalist movements of the CGT and IWW began to realign themselves away from anarchism and towards the Communist International.
In Paris, the Dielo Truda group of Russian anarchist exiles, which included Nestor Makhno, concluded that anarchists needed to develop new forms of organisation in response to the structures of Bolshevism. Their 1926 manifesto, called the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) <ref name=Platformtext>Dielo Trouda group [1926] (2006). Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft). Italy: FdCA. Retrieved on 2006-10-24.</ref>, was supported by some communist anarchists, though opposed by many others. Platformist groups today include the Workers Solidarity Movement in Ireland and the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists of North America.
[edit] The fight against fascism
In the 1920s and 1930s, the familiar dynamics of anarchism's conflict with the state were transformed by the rise of fascism in Europe. Italy saw the first struggles between anarchists and fascists. Anarchists played a key role in the anti-fascist organisation Arditi del Popolo. This group was strongest in areas with anarchist traditions and marked up numerous successful victories, including driving back Blackshirts in the anarchist stronghold of Parma in August 1922<ref>Holbrow, Marnie "Daring but Divided" (Socialist Review Nov 2002)[13]</ref>.
In France, where the fascists came close to insurrection in the February 1934 riots, anarchists divided over a 'united front' policy.<ref>Berry, David "Fascism or Revolution" (Le Libertaire August, 1936)[14]</ref> In Spain, the CNT initially refused to join a popular front electoral alliance and abstention by CNT supporters led to a right wing election victory. But in 1936, the CNT changed its policy and anarchist votes helped bring the popular front back to power. Months later, the ruling class responded with an attempted coup, and the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was underway.
In response to the army rebellion, an anarchist-inspired movement of peasants and workers, supported by armed militias, took control of Barcelona and of large areas of rural Spain where they collectivized the land. But even before the eventual fascist victory in 1939, the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with the Stalinists. The CNT leadership often appeared confused and divided, with some members controversially entering the government. According to George Orwell and other foreign observers, Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted both dissident Marxists and anarchists.
[edit] Issues in anarchism
[edit] Ends and means
Generally, anarchists advocate direct action and oppose voting in elections. Most anarchists feel that real change is not possible through voting. Further, many argue that voting is equivalent to condoning the state,<ref>*Peacott, Joe, "Voting Anarchists: An Oxymoron or What?" BAD Broadside #8, Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade 1992
- Ward, Colin "The Case Against Voting", originally published in New Society 15 May 1987; reprinted in Freedom Vol 48 No 6 June 1987.
- Choose and Lose - The anarchist case against voting and electoralism infoshop.org</ref> while others advocate a more pragmatic approach, including voting in referendums.<ref>Thinking about anarchism - Referendums Workers Solidarity No 69, published in March 2002 retrieved 7 September 2006</ref>
Direct action may be violent or non-violent. Although some anarchists believe that violence is justified in overthrowing existing authority, most anarchists reject terrorism as authoritarian. Mikhail Bakunin and Errico Malatesta, for example, wrote of violence as necessary in revolutionary settings, but denounced terrorism as counter-revolutionary.<ref>Bakunin, "The Program of the International Brotherhood" (1869) and Malatesta, "Violence as a Social Factor" (1895).</ref>
Anarchists have often been portrayed as dangerous and violent, due mainly to a number of high-profile violent acts, including riots, assassinations, insurrections, and terrorism by some anarchists, as well as persistently negative media portrayals.<ref>Albert, Michael Anarchism?!, Z Communications retrieved 6 September 2006</ref> Many anarchists do not see the destruction of property as a violent act. Anarchists see war, however, as an activity in which the state seeks to gain and consolidate power, both domestically and in foreign lands, and subscribe to Randolph Bourne's view that "war is the health of the state."<ref>War is the Health of the State</ref>
Many anarchists participate in subversive organizations as a means to undermine the Establishment, such as Food Not Bombs, radical labor unions, alternative media, and radical social centers. This is in accordance with the anarchist concept of Dual Power: creating the structures for a new anti-authoritarian society in the shell of the old, hierarchical one.
[edit] Capitalism
Most anarchist traditions not only seek rejection of the state, but also of capitalism, which they perceive as authoritarian, coercive, and exploitative.
The American individualist anarchists were "fervent anti-capitalists" who "saw no contradiction between their individualist stance and their rejection of capitalism." <ref>Brown, Susan Love, The Free Market as Salvation from Government: The Anarcho-Capitalist View, Meanings of the Market: The Free Market in Western Culture, edited by James G. Carrier, Berg/Oxford, 1997, p. 107 and p. 104)</ref> However, this opposition did not include opposition to the product of labor or capital goods ("means of production") run by individuals, but only "usury", i.e. rent, interest, and profit from other's labor (profit being defined as labor not receiving its "full product" under the labor theory of value). Such individualist anarchists support free trade, free competition, and varying levels of private property, like in mutualism and homesteading.<ref name="Madison">Madison, Charles A. (1945). "Anarchism in the United States". Journal of the History of Ideas 6 (1): 46-66.</ref><ref name="Madison2">Madison, Charles A. (1943). "Benjamin R. Tucker: Individualist and Anarchist". New England Quarterly 16 (3): 444-467.</ref> As Anarcho-capitalists support free-market capitalism without a state, which Murray Rothbard defines as "peaceful voluntary exchange" as opposed to state capitalism which he calls "violent expropriation."<ref>Rothbard, Murray N. The Future of Peace and Capitalism Modern Political Economy, James H. Weaver, ed. pp. 419-430, Chapter 28, (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1973)</ref>
Non-individualist anarchists, in contrast, follow Proudhon in opposing ownership of workplaces by capitalists and aim to replace wage labour by workers associations. These anarchists agree with Kropotkin's comment that "the origin of the anarchist inception of society" lies in "the criticism . . . of the hierarchical organisations and the authoritarian conceptions of society" rather than simply opposition to the state or government. <ref>'Anarchism, p. 158</ref> They argue that wage labour is hierarchical and authoritarian in nature and, consequently, capitalism cannot be anarchist. <ref>Morris, Brian, Anthropology and Anarchism, Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed (no. 45)"; Mckay, Iain, The legacy of Voltairine De Cleyre, Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, no. 44; L. Susan Brown, The Politics of Individualism</ref> Such anarchists would agree with scholar Jeremy Jennings when he argues that it is "hard not to conclude that these ideas [i.e. anarcho-capitalism] -- with roots deep in classical liberalism -- are described as anarchist only on the basis of a misunderstanding of what anarchism is." <ref>Contemporary Political Ideologies, Roger Eatwell and Anthony Wright (eds.), p. 142</ref>
In Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism, Peter Marshall argues that "few anarchists would accept the 'anarcho-capitalists' into the anarchist camp since they do not share a concern for economic equality and social justice. . . Anarcho-capitalists, even if they do reject the State, might therefore best be called right-wing libertarians rather than anarchists." <ref>Marshall, Peter Demanding the Impossible, (p. 565). Anarchists who agree with this include: John Clark, The Anarchist Moment; Albert Meltzer, Anarchism: Arguments for and Against; David Weick, Anarchist Justice; Donald Rooum, What is Anarchism?; Bob Black, The Libertarian as Conservative; Colin Ward, Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction; Morris, Brian, Anthropology and Anarchism, Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed (no. 45)"; Mckay, Iain, The legacy of Voltairine De Cleyre, Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, no. 44</ref>
[edit] Globalization
The majority of anarchists oppose neoliberal globalization as an attempt to use coercion on a global scale, carried out through institutions such as the World Bank, World Trade Organization, G8 and World Economic Forum. Anarchist groups, such as Reclaim the Streets<ref>Reclaim the Streets Donnacha DeLong, RTÉ News Online 2002 retrieved 5 September 2006</ref>, were among the instigators of the so-called anti-globalization movement<ref>The New Anarchists David Graeber, New Left Review 13, January-February 2002 retrieved 6 September 2006</ref>. The Carnival Against Capitalism on 18 June 1999 is generally regarded as the first of the major anti-globalization protests.<ref>G8 Summit - J18: Global Carnival Against Corporate Tyranny, London, England C. L. Staten, EmergencyNet News journalist, writing for RTÉ's website in 2002 retrieved 5 September 2006</ref> Anarchists, such as the WOMBLES, often played a major role in planning, organising and participating in the subsequent protests.<ref>WOMBLES wandering free Josie Appleton, spiked-politics, 2002 retrieved 5 September 2006</ref> The protests tended to be organised on anarchist direct action principles with a general tolerance for a range of different activities ranging from those who engage in tactical frivolity to the black blocs.<ref>Anarchism as a Scapegoat of the 21st century: violence, anarchism and anti-globalisation protests Thrall issue #21, 2001 retrieved 5 September 2006</ref>
[edit] Communism
While communism is proposed as a form of social and economic organisation by many anarchists, other anarchists consider it a danger to the liberty and free development of the individual.<ref>Communism and Anarchy by Peter Kropotkin</ref> Individualist anarchists oppose communism in all its forms. Individualist such as Benjamin Tucker, Victor Yarros, and Henry Appleton have denied that anarcho-communism is a genuine form of anarchism.<ref>For instance, Benjamin Tucker says, "Yes, genuine Anarchism is consistent Manchesterism, and Communistic or pseudo-Anarchism is inconsistent Manchesterism." (Tucker, Benjamin. Labor and Its Pay, from Individual Liberty: Selections from the Writings of Benjamin T. Tucker); Victor Yarros says, "There is no logical justification, no rational explanation, and no scientific reasoning has been, is, will be, or can be advanced in defence of that unimaginable impossibility, Communistic Anarchism." (Yarros, Victor S. A Princely Paradox, Liberty, Vol 4. No. 19, Saturday, April 9, 1887, Whole Number 97) Henry Appleton says, "All Communism, under whatever guise, is the natural enemy of Anarchism, and a Communist sailing under the flag of Anarchism is as false a figure as could be invented." (Appleton, Henry. Anarchism, True and False, Liberty 2.24, no. 50, 6 September 1884, p. 4.) Clarence Lee Swartz says, ""One of the tests of any reform movement with regard to personal liberty is this: Will the movement prohibit or abolish private property? If it does, it is an enemy of liberty. For one of the most important criteria of freedom is the right to private property in the products of ones labor. State Socialists, Communists, Syndicalists and Communist-Anarchists deny private property." (Swartz, Clarence Lee. What is Mutualism?)</ref> They rejected its strategies and argued that it is inherently authoritarian.<ref name="Brooks">Brooks, Frank H. (ed) (1994) The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881-1908), Transaction Publishers, p.76</ref> The socialist Proudhon also opposed communism, "whether of the utopian or the Marxist variety, [the criticism being] that it destroyed freedom by taking away from the individual control over his means of production."<ref> From Encyclopedia Britannica article "Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph" (2006)</ref> Anarchist communists reject the criticism, pointing to the principle of voluntary association that underpins the theory.
[edit] Gender
Anarcha-feminism is a kind of radical feminism that espouses the belief that patriarchy is a fundamental problem in society. However, it was not explicitly formulated as anarcha-feminism until early 1970s,<ref>Anarcho-Feminism - Two Statements - Who we are: An Anarcho-Feminist Manifesto</ref> 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.
[edit] Race
Black anarchism opposes the existence of a state, capitalism, and subjugation and domination of people of colour, and favours a non-hierarchical organization of society. Theorists include Ashanti Alston, Lorenzo Komboa Ervin, and Sam Mbah.
Since the late 1970s some anarchists have been involved in fighting the rise of neo-fascist groups. In Germany and Great Britain some anarchists worked within militant anti-fascist groups alongside members of the Marxist left. They advocated directly combating fascists with physical force rather than relying on the state. Since the late 1990s, a similar tendency has developed within US anarchism.
[edit] The environment
- See also: Green anarchism, Eco-anarchism, Social ecology, Anarcho-primitivism, Ecofeminism, and Green syndicalism
The environment and sustainability have been an issue for anarchists from at least as far back as Kropotkin's 'Fields, Factories and Workshops, but since the late 1970s anarchists in Anglosphere and Eu