Anarchism
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See also Criticisms of modern anarchy
'Template:Anarchism sidebar Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all forms of compulsory government.[1][2] 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."[3]
There are many types and traditions of anarchism, not all of which are mutually exclusive.[4][5][6] Anarchism is usually considered to be a radical left-wing ideology,[7] and much of anarchist economics and anarchist legal philosophy reflect anti-authoritarian interpretations of communism, collectivism, syndicalism or participatory economics; however, anarchism has always included an individualist strain,[7][8] including those who support capitalism (for example anarcho-capitalists, agorists, and other free-market anarchists) or similar market-oriented economic structures; for example, mutualists.[9][10][11] Others, such as panarchists and anarchists without adjectives, neither advocate nor object to any particular form of organization as long as it is not compulsory. Some anarchist schools of thought differ fundamentally, supporting anything from extreme individualism to complete collectivism.[2] However, the central tendency of anarchism is represented by communist anarchism, with anarcho-individualism being a philosophical/literary anarchist phenomenon rather than a social movement.[12] Some anarchists fundamentally oppose all forms of coercion, while others have supported the use of some coercive measures, including violent revolution and terrorism, on the path to anarchy.[13]
The term anarchism derives from the Greek ἀναρχος, anarchos, meaning "without rulers",[14][15] from the prefix ἀν- (an-, "without") + ἄρχή (archê, "sovereignty, realm, magistracy")[16] + -ισμός (-ismos, from a stem -ιζειν, -izein). Since the nineteenth century, the term "libertarianism" has often been used as a synonym for anarchism and was used almost exclusively in this sense until the 1970's in the United States; its use as a synonym is especially common outside the U.S.[17] Accordingly, "libertarian socialism" is used as a synonym for non-individualist anarchism.[18]
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Origins
Some claim anarchist themes can be found in the works of Taoist sages Laozi[19] and Zhuangzi. The latter has been translated, "There has been such a thing as letting mankind alone; there has never been such a thing as governing mankind [with success]," and "A petty thief is put in jail. A great brigand becomes a ruler of a State."[20] Diogenes of Sinope and the Cynics, and their contemporary Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, also introduced similar topics.[19][21]
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.[22] Although by the turn of the 19th century the term "anarchist" had an entirely positive connotation,[23] 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.[23] By the time of the French Revolution some, such as the Enragés, began to use the term positively,[24] in opposition to Jacobin centralisation of power, seeing "revolutionary government" as oxymoronic.[23] From this climate William Godwin developed what many consider the first expression of modern anarchist thought.[25] Godwin was, according to Peter Kropotkin, "the first to formulate the political and economical conceptions of anarchism, even though he did not give that name to the ideas developed in his work."[19][26] Godwin, a philosophical anarchist, opposed revolutionary action and saw a minimal state as a present "necessary evil"[27] that would become increasingly irrelevant and powerless by the gradual spread of knowledge.[25] Godwin advocated extreme individualism, proposing that all cooperation in labor be eliminated.[28] Godwin felt discrimination on any grounds besides ability was intolerable.
The first to describe himself as an anarchist was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon,[23] which led some to call him the founder of modern anarchist theory.[29] 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"[30] and where "business transactions alone produce the social order."[31] 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."[32] By "commune", Proudhon meant local self-government or according to literal translation, "municipality", rather than a communist arrangement.[33]
Schools of thought
Mutualism
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.[34] Proudhon's ideas were introduced by Charles A. Dana,[35] to individualist anarchists in the United States including Benjamin Tucker and William Batchelder Greene.[36]
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."[37] Mutualism has been retrospectively characterized as being ideologically situated between individualist and collectivist forms of anarchism.[38] Proudhon first characterized his goal as a "third form of society, the synthesis of communism and property."[39]
Individualist anarchism
Individualist anarchism comprises several traditions[40] which hold that "individual conscience and the pursuit of self-interest should not be constrained by any collective body or public authority."[41] Individualist anarchism is supportive of property being held privately, unlike the social/socialist/collectivist/communitarian wing which advocates common ownership.[42] Individualist anarchism has been espoused by individuals such as Max Stirner, William Godwin,[43] Henry David Thoreau,[44] Josiah Warren, and Murray Rothbard.
Egoism
"Egoism" is the most extreme[45] form of individualist anarchism, that was expounded by one of the earliest and best-known proponents of individualist anarchism, Max Stirner,[46] who wrote The Ego and Its Own (1844), a founding text of the philosophy.[46] Stirner's philosophy "Egoism" is a form of individualist anarchism according to which the only limitation on the rights of the individual is his power to obtain what he desires,[47] taking no notice of God, state, or moral rules.[48] To Stirner, rights were spooks in the mind, and he held that society does not exist but "the individuals are its reality" – he supported property by force of might rather than moral right.[49] Stirner preached self-assertion and foresaw "associations of egoists" where respect for ruthlessness drew people together.[43]
In Russia, individualist anarchism inspired by Stirner combined with an appreciation for Friedrich Nietzsche attracted a small following of bohemian artists and intellectuals such as Lev Chernyi, as well as a few lone wolves who found self-expression in crime and violence.[50] They rejected organizing, believing that only unorganized individuals were safe from coercion and domination, believing this kept them true to the ideals of anarchism.[51] This type of individualist anarchism inspired anarcho-feminist Emma Goldman.[50]
Though Stirner's egoism is individualist, it has also influenced some anarcho-communists.[52] Forms of libertarian communism such as Situationism are strongly Egoist in nature.[53]
The American tradition
- Further information: Anarchism in the United States
Another form of individualist anarchism was advocated by the "Boston anarchists,"[50] American individualists who supported private property exchangeable in a free market.[54] They advocated the protection of liberty and property by private contractors,[55] and endorsed exchange of labor for wages.[56] They did not have a problem that "one man employ another" or that "he direct him," in his labor but demanded that "all natural opportunities requisite to the production of wealth be accessible to all on equal terms and that monopolies arising from special privileges created by law be abolished."[57] They believed state monopoly capitalism (defined as a state-sponsored monopoly)[58] prevented labor from being fully rewarded. Even among the nineteenth century American individualists, there was not a monolithic doctrine, as they disagreed amongst each other on various issues including intellectual property rights and possession versus property in land.[59][60][61] A major cleft occurred later in the 19th century when Tucker and some others abandoned natural rights and converted to an "egoism" modeled upon Stirner's philosophy.[60] Some "Boston anarchists", like Tucker, identified themselves as "socialist" – a term which at the time denoted a broad concept – by which he meant a commitment to solving "the labor problem" by radical economic reform.[62] By the turn of the 20th century, the heyday of individualist anarchism had passed,[63] although it was later revived with modifications by Murray Rothbard and the anarcho-capitalists in the mid-twentieth century, as a current of the broader libertarian movement,[50][64] and the anti-capitalist strain by intellectuals such as Kevin Carson.
Social anarchism
Social anarchism is one of two different broad categories of anarchism, the other category being individualist anarchism. The term social anarchism is often used to identify communitarian forms of anarchism that emphasize cooperation and mutual aid. Social anarchism includes anarcho-collectivism, anarcho-communism, Libertarian socialism, anarcho-syndicalism, social ecology and sometimes mutualism.
Collectivist anarchism
Collectivist anarchism is a revolutionaryform of anarchism, commonly associated with Mikhail Bakunin and Johann Most.[65] [66] It is a specific tendency, not to be confused with the broad category sometimes called collectivist or communitarian anarchism.[67] Unlike mutualists, collectivist anarchists oppose all private ownership of the means of production, instead advocating that ownership be collectivized. This was to be initiated by 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.[65] 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".[68] 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.[69] Collectivist anarchism arose contemporaneously with Marxism but opposed the Marxist dictatorship of the proletariat, despite the stated Marxist goal of a collectivist stateless society.[70]
Anarchist communism
Anarchist communists propose that the freest form of social organisation would be a society composed of self-governing communes with collective use of the means of production, organized by direct democracy, and related to other communes through federation.[71]
However, some anarchist communists oppose the majoritarian nature of direct democracy, feeling that it can impede individual liberty and favor consensus democracy.[72] 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.[73] 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.[74] Kropotkin believed that private property was one of the causes of oppression and exploitation and called for its abolition,[75][76] advocating instead common ownership.[75] 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."[77] 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."[78] 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."[78]
The status of anarchist communism within anarchism is disputed, because most individualist anarchists consider communitarianism incompatible with political freedom.[79] However Anarcho communism does not always have a communitarian philosophy, Some forms of anarchist communism are strongly Egoist,[80] and are strongly 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.[81]
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."[82]
Anarcho-syndicalism
In the early 20th century, anarcho-syndicalism arose as a distinct school of thought within anarchism.[83] 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, direct action (such as general strikes and workplace recuperations), and workers' self-management. This is compatible with other branches of anarchism, and anarcho-syndicalists often subscribe to anarchist communist or collectivist anarchist economic systems.[84] 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.
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.[84][85]
Although more often associated with labor struggles of the early 20th century (particularly in France and Spain), many syndicalist organizations are active today, united across national borders by membership in the International Workers Association, including the Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (SAC) in Sweden, the Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI) in Italy, the CNT in Spain, and the Industrial Workers of the World in the United States.
Continues in Anarchism, part two
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