theories and attitudes which consider the state, as compulsory government, to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable, and favors the absence of the state that creates an anarchy.[1][2][3][4][5] While some dictionaries define "anarchy" or "anarchism" as chaos and/or disorder [6][7][8][9]
this narrow scope of the term is not how it is used in this article.
Specific anarchists may have additional criteria for what constitutes anarchism, and they often disagree with each other on what these criteria are. According to The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, "there is no single defining position that all anarchists hold, and those considered anarchists at best share a certain family resemblance."[10]
There are many types and traditions of anarchism, not all of which are mutually exclusive.
stem -ιζειν, -izein). There is some ambiguity with the use of the terms "libertarianism" and "libertarian" in writings about anarchism. Since the 1890s from France,[27] the term "libertarianism" has often been used as a synonym for anarchism and was used almost exclusively in this sense until the 1950s in the United States;[28] its use as a synonym is still common outside the U.S.[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]
Accordingly, "
socialist anarchism,[37][38] to delineate it from "individualist libertarianism" (individualist anarchism). On the other hand, some use "libertarianism" to refer to individualistic free-market philosophy only, referring to free-market anarchism as "libertarian anarchism."[39][40]
Modern anarchism, however, sprang from the secular or religious thought of the Enlightenment, particularly Jean-Jacques Rousseau's arguments for the moral centrality of freedom.[44] Although by the turn of the 19th century the term "anarchist" had an entirely positive connotation,[45] it first entered the English language in 1642 during the English Civil War as a term of abuse used by Royalists to damn those who were fomenting disorder.[45] By the time of the French Revolution some, such as the Enragés, began to use the term positively,[46] in opposition to Jacobin centralisation of power, seeing "revolutionary government" as oxymoronic.[45]
From this climate
voluntary communities where all goods and services were private, with being "the first man to expound and formulate the doctrine now known as Anarchism."[49] The first to describe himself as an anarchist was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,[45] a French philosopher and politician, which led some to call him the founder of modern anarchist theory.[50]
Schools of thought
Main article:
Anarchist schools of thought
Anarchist ideas have only occasionally inspired political movements of any size, and "the tradition is mainly one of individual thinkers, but they have produced an important body of theory."[51] Anarchist schools of thought had been generally grouped in two main historical traditions, individualist and collectivist ones, which have some different origins, values and evolution.[5][12][52]
The individualist wing of anarchism emphasises negative liberty, i.e. opposition to state or social control over the individual, while those in the collectivist wing emphasise positive liberty to achieve one's potential and argue that humans have needs that society ought to fulfill, "recognizing equality of entitlement".[53] In chronological and theorical sense there are classical -those created throughout the 19th century- and post-classical anarchist schools -those created since the mid-20th century and after.
As conceived by William Godwin, it requires individuals to act in accordance with their own judgments and to allow every other individual the same liberty; conceived egoistically as by Max Stirner, it implies that 'the unique one' who truly 'owns himself' recognizes no duties to others; within the limit of his might, he does what is right for him.[70]
William Godwin's rationalism
In 1793, William Godwin, who has often
utilitarian basis opposed revolutionary action and saw a minimal state as a present "necessary evil" that would become increasingly irrelevant and powerless by the gradual spread of knowledge.[47][73]
Godwin advocated extreme individualism, proposing that all cooperation in labor be eliminated on the premise that this would be most conducive with the general good.[74][75] Godwin was a utilitarian who believed that all individuals are not of equal value, with some of us "of more worth and importance" than others depending on our utility in bringing about social good. Therefore he does not believe in equal rights, but the person's life that should be favored that is most conducive to the general good.[75]
Godwin opposed government because he saw it as infringing on the individual's right to "private judgement" to determine which actions most maximize utility, but also makes a critique of all authority over the individual's judgement. This aspect of Godwin's philosophy, stripped of utilitarian motivations, was developed into a more extreme form later by Stirner.[76]
The most extreme[77] form of individualist anarchism, called "egoism,"[77] was expounded by one of the earliest and best-known proponents of individualist anarchism, Max Stirner.[78] Stirner's The Ego and Its Own, published in 1844, is a founding text of the philosophy.[78] According to Stirner's conception, the only limitation on the rights of the individual is their power to obtain what they desire,[79] without regard for God, state, or moral rules.[80]
To Stirner, rights were spooks in the mind, and he held that society does not exist but "the individuals are its reality" – he supported a concept of property held by force of might rather than moral right.[81] By "property" he is not referring only to things but to other people as well.[82] Stirner advocated self-assertion and foresaw "associations of egoists" where respect for ruthlessness drew people together.[57] Even murder is permissible "if it is right for me."[83]
Stirner saw the state as illegitimate but did not see individuals as having a duty to eliminate it nor does he recommend that they try to eliminate it; rather, he advocates that they disregard the state when it conflicts with their autonomous choices and go along with it when doing so is conducive to their interests.[84] However, while he thought there was no duty to eliminate the state, he did think that it would eventually collapse as a result of the spread of egoism.[85]
"Egoism" has inspired many interpretations of Stirner's philosophy. It was re-discovered and promoted by German philosophical anarchist and
Sören Kierkegaard
.
Russian anarchists like
anarcho-feminist Emma Goldman.[86] Though Stirner's egoism is individualist, it has also influenced some anarcho-communists. "For Ourselves Council for Generalized Self-Management" discusses Stirner and speaks of a "communist egoism," which is said to be a "synthesis of individualism and collectivism," and says that "greed in its fullest sense is the only possible basis of communist society.[88]
European individualist anarchism proceeded from the roots laid by
Pierre Joseph Proudhon and Max Stirner. Proudhon was an early pioneer of anarchism as well as of the important individualist anarchist current of mutualism.[92][93] Stirner became a central figure of individualist anarchism through the publication of his seminal work The Ego and Its Own which is considered to be "a founding text in the tradition of individualist anarchism.".[78] Another early figure was Anselme Bellegarrigue.[94] Individualist anarchism expanded and diversified through Europe, incorporating influences from North American individualist anarchism
Mutualism began in 18th century English and French labor movements before taking an anarchist form associated with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in France and others in the United States.[97] Proudhon proposed spontaneous order, whereby organization emerges without central authority, a "positive anarchy" where order arises when everybody does “what he wishes and only what he wishes"[98] and where "business transactions alone produce the social order."[99]
Like Godwin, Proudhon opposed violent revolutionary action. He saw anarchy as "a form of government or constitution in which public and private consciousness, formed through the development of science and law, is alone sufficient to maintain order and guarantee all liberties. In it, as a consequence, the institutions of the police, preventive and repressive methods, officialdom, taxation, etc., are reduced to a minimum. In it, more especially, the forms of monarchy and intensive centralization disappear, to be replaced by federal institutions and a pattern of life based on the commune."[100]
By "commune", Proudhon meant local
Property is Theft!," along with his less famous declaration that "Property is Liberty,"[102][103] inspired different anarchist economic models
throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
Proudhon's ideas were introduced by
individualist anarchists in the United States including Benjamin Tucker and William Batchelder Greene.[105] Mutualist anarchism is concerned with reciprocity, free association, voluntary contract, federation, and credit and currency reform. According to Greene, in the mutualist system each worker would receive "just and exact pay for his work; services equivalent in cost being exchangeable for services equivalent in cost, without profit or discount."[106] Mutualism has been retrospectively characterized as ideologically situated between individualist and collectivist forms of anarchism.[107] Proudhon first characterized his goal as a "third form of society, the synthesis of communism and property."[108]
Unlike mutualists, collectivist anarchists oppose all private ownership of the means of production, instead advocating that ownership be collectivized.
This was to be achieved through violent revolution, first starting with a small cohesive group through acts of violence, or "
propaganda by the deed," which would inspire the workers as a whole to revolt and forcibly collectivize the means of production.[111] However, collectivization was not to be extended to the distribution of income, as workers would be paid according to time worked, rather than receiving goods being distributed "according to need" as in anarcho-communism. This position was criticised by later anarcho-communists as effectively "uphold[ing] the wages system".[114]
Anarchist communist and collectivist ideas were not mutually exclusive; although the collectivist anarchists advocated compensation for labor, some held out the possibility of a post-revolutionary transition to a communist system of distribution according to need.[115] Collectivist anarchism arose contemporaneously with Marxism but opposed the Marxist dictatorship of the proletariat, despite the stated Marxist goal of a collectivist stateless society.[116]
In anarchist communism, as money would be abolished, individuals would not receive direct compensation for labour (through sharing of profits or payment) but would have free access to the resources and surplus of the commune.[119] According to anarchist communist Peter Kropotkin and later Murray Bookchin, the members of such a society would spontaneously perform all necessary labour because they would recognize the benefits of communal enterprise and mutual aid.[120][page needed]
Kropotkin believed that private property was one of the causes of oppression and exploitation and called for its abolition,[121][122] advocating instead common ownership.[121] Kropotkin said that "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."[123] Kropotkin's work Mutual Aid criticized social Darwinism, arguing that cooperation is more natural than competition. Conquest of Bread was essentially a handbook on the organization of a society after the social revolution.
In response to those criticizing Kropotkin for supporting expropriation of homes and means of production from those who did not wish to take part in anarcho-communism, he replied that if someone did not want to join the commune they would be left alone as long as they are a "peasant who is in possession of just the amount of land he can cultivate," or "a family inhabiting a house which affords them just enough space... considered necessary for that number of people" or an artisan "working with their own tools or handloom."[124] 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."[124]
The status of anarchist communism within anarchism is disputed, because most individualist anarchists consider
communitarian philosophy, Some forms of anarchist communism are egoist,[126] and are very influenced by radical individualist philosophy, believing that anarcho-communism does not require a communitarian nature at all. Anarchist communist Emma Goldman blended the philosophies of both Max Stirner and Kropotkin in her own.[127]
Platformism is an anarchist communist tendency in the tradition of Nestor Makhno, who argued for the "vital need of an organization which, having attracted most of the participants in the anarchist movement, would establish a common tactical and political line for anarchism and thereby serve as a guide for the whole movement."[128]
In the early 20th century, anarcho-syndicalism arose as a distinct school of thought within anarchism.[129] With greater focus on the labour movement than previous forms of anarchism, syndicalism posits radical trade unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the state with a new society, democratically self-managed by the workers.
Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Important principles include workers' solidarity,
Its advocates propose labour organization as a means to create the foundations of a trade union centered anarchist society within the current system and bring about social revolution. An early leading anarcho-syndicalist thinker was Rudolf Rocker, whose 1938 pamphlet Anarchosyndicalism outlined a view of the movement's origin, aims and importance to the future of labour.[130][131]
Although more often associated with labor struggles of the early 20th century (particularly in
"Anarchism without adjectives", in the words of historian George Richard Esenwein, "referred to an
collectivist, mutualist, or individualist. For others,…[it] was simply understood as an attitude that tolerated the coexistence of different anarchist schools."[132]
"Anarchism without adjectives" emphasizes harmony among various anarchist factions and attempts to unite them around their shared
Post-left anarchy is a tendency which seeks to distance itself from the traditional "Left" and to escape the confines of ideology
in general. Post-leftists argue that anarchism has been weakened by its long attachment to contrary "leftist" movements, single issue causes and calls for a synthesis of anarchist thought, and a specifically anti-authoritarian revolutionary movement outside the leftist milieu.
Another recent form of anarchism critical of formal anarchist movements is
Alfredo M. Bonanno
.
Anarcho-capitalism
Main articles:
Free-market anarchism
Anarcho-capitalism
anarcho-capitalism within anarchism is disputed, particularly by communist anarchists.[143] Conversely, anarcho-capitalists sometimes argue that socialist schools of anarchism are themselves logically impossible.[144]
Anarcho-capitalists distinguish between
utilitarian formulations, anarcho-capitalism has a theory of legitimacy that supports private property as long as it was obtained by labor, trade, or gift.[147]
Proponents argue that in an anarcho-capitalist society, voluntary market processes would result in the provision of social institutions such as law enforcement, defence and infrastructure by competing for-profit firms, charities or voluntary associations rather than the state.[148] In Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism, law (the non-aggression principle) is enforced by the market but not created by it, while according to David D. Friedman's utilitarian version, the law itself is produced by the market.
Although the term anarcho-capitalism was coined by Rothbard, and its origin is attributed to 1960s United States, some historians, including Rothbard, trace the school of thought as far back as the mid-19th century, to market theorists such as Gustave de Molinari.[149][150] Anarcho-capitalism has drawn influence from pro-market theorists such as Molinari, Frédéric Bastiat, and Robert Nozick, as well as American individualist thinkers such as Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner.[151][152]
Anarcha-feminism is a synthesis of radical feminism and anarchism that views patriarchy (male domination over women) as a fundamental manifestation of compulsory government – to which anarchists are opposed. Anarcha-feminism was inspired in the late 19th century by the writings of early feminist anarchists such as Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman and Voltairine de Cleyre, and even Dora Marsden. Anarcha-feminists, like other radical feminists, criticize and advocate the abolition of traditional conceptions of family, education and gender roles.
Many
Susan Brown expressed the sentiment that "as anarchism is a political philosophy that opposes all relationships of power, it is inherently feminist."[159]
There have been several male anarcha-feminists, such as the
ifeminism" or "individualist feminism") that combines feminism with anarcho-capitalism or libertarianism, arguing that a pro-capitalist, anti-state position implies equal rights and empowerment for women.[161] Individualist anarchist feminism has grown from the US-based individualist anarchism
Green anarchism (or eco-anarchism)[162] is a school of thought within anarchism which puts an emphasis on environmental issues.[163] Important contemporary currents are anarcho-primitivism and social ecology. Many advocates of green anarchism and primitivism consider Fredy Perlman as the modern progenitor of their views.
Social ecologists, considered also a kind of socialist anarchists, often criticize the main currents of anarchism for their focus and debates about politics and economics, instead of a focus on
Veganarchism is the political philosophy of veganism (more specifically animal liberation) and green anarchism.[166] This encompasses viewing the state as unnecessary and harmful to both human and animals, whilst practising a vegan diet.[166]
Due to its links to active workers' movements, the International became a significant organization. Karl Marx became a leading figure in the International and a member of its General Council. Proudhon's followers, the mutualists, opposed Marx's state socialism, advocating political abstentionism and small property holdings.[170][171]
In 1868, following their unsuccessful participation in the League of Peace and Freedom (LPF), Mikhail Bakunin and his associates joined the First International – which had decided not to get involved with the LPF. They allied themselves with the federalist socialist sections of the International, who advocated the revolutionary overthrow of the state and the collectivization of property.
At first, the
centralist 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.[173][174]
In 1872, the conflict climaxed with a final split between the two groups at the
St. Imier Congress, adopting a revolutionary anarchist program.[175]
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."[176] In 1886, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU) of the United States and Canada unanimously set 1 May 1886, as the date by which the eight-hour work day would become standard.[177]
In response, unions across America prepared a general strike in support of the event.[178] Upon 3 May, in Chicago, a fight broke out when replacement workers attempted to cross the picket line. Police intervention led to the deaths of four men, enraging the workers of the city. The next day, 4 May, anarchists staged a rally at Chicago's Haymarket Square.[179] A bomb was thrown by an unknown party near the conclusion of the rally, killing an officer.[180] In the ensuing panic, police opened fire on the crowd and each other.[181] Seven police officers and at least four workers were killed.[182] Eight anarchists directly and indirectly related to the organizers of the rally were arrested and charged with the murder of the deceased officer. The men became international political celebrities among the labor movement. Four of the men were executed and a fifth committed suicide prior to his own execution.
The incident became known as the Haymarket affair, and was a setback for the labor movement and the struggle for the eight hour day. In 1890 a second attempt, this time international in scope, to organize for the eight hour day was made. The event also had the secondary purpose of memorializing workers killed as a result of the Haymarket affair.[183] The celebration of International Workers' Day on May Day became an annual event the following year.
A central debate concerned the relation between anarchism and syndicalism (or trade unionism). Malatesta and Monatte in particular opposed themselves on this issue, as the latter thought that syndicalism was revolutionary and would create the conditions of a social revolution, while Malatesta did not consider syndicalism by itself sufficient.[184] Malatesta thought that trade-unions were reformist, and could even be, at times, conservative. Along with Cornelissen, he cited as example US trade-unions, where trade-unions composed of qualified workers sometimes opposed themselves to non-qualified workers in order to defend their relatively privileged position.
The Spanish Workers Federation in 1881 was the first major anarcho-syndicalist movement; 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
International Workers Association
, an anarcho-syndicalist successor to the First International, also remain active.