Anarchism is one of the most misunderstood
and poorly defined terms in the English language. Anarchism is a political
theory that aims to create a society which is without political, economic or
social hierarchies. Anarchists maintain that anarchy, the absence of rulers, is
a viable form of social system and so work for the maximization of individual
liberty and social equality. It is actually the idea that any form of
government is unnecessary and undesirable.
“Anarchism
is inspired by the moral-political ideal of a society untouched by relations of
power and domination among human beings. This ideal has most often expressed
itself in a doctrine advocating the total absence of government as the only
firm basis for individual liberty and societal progress -- a doctrine that some
argue animates even Marxism (since Marx believed that eventually the state
would wither away). Anarchism differs from political libertarianism in
upholding a lack of government rather than limited government. There are
several variants of anarchism, usually categorized by whether the variant is
collectivistic (e.g., anarcho-syndicalism) or individualistic (e.g.,
anarcho-capitalism) in orientation. In popular usage, the term is often colored
by the sometimes-violent anarchist political movement that was especially
active in the years around 1900.” (The Ism Book)
The anarchist philosophy can be found in almost
every country. Many prominent anarchists have come from France. One of
the most famous French anarchists was Prouhdon. Born in Battant, Burgundy
on January 15, 1809, Pierre- Joseph Prouhdon would become one of the best known
anarchist thinkers in the world. Proudhon was actually the first person to use
the term "Anarchy". He wrote many books about anarchy and his ideal
way of life. One of these books is titled Qu'est-ce que la propriete? or “What
is Property?” This book described the normal way of life as opposed to the way
of the anarchist. He became very popular as an anarchist philosopher and soon
arose to be very well known throughout the world.
Some anarchist schools of thought include
Philosophical Anarchism, Mutualism, Individualist Anarchism, and Social
Anarchism. These schools of thought also include several other branches of
their own. Because anarchism allows for minds to change and people to change,
the more modern theories and the more classical keep branching and growing.
Philosophical Anarchism contends that the
State lacks moral legitimacy but does not advocate revolution to eliminate it. Though
philosophical anarchism does not necessarily imply any action or desire for the
elimination of the State, philosophical anarchists do not believe that they
have an obligation or duty to obey the State, or conversely, that the State has
a right to command.
“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.” William Goldwin.
Notable members of the school of Philosophical
Anarchism include, William Goldwin, Victor
Yarros, Henry David Thoreau, and Robert Paul Wollff.
Mutualism, as a variety of anarchism, goes
back to P.J. Proudhon in France
and Josiah Warren in the U.S.
It favors, to the extent possible, an evolutionary approach to
creating a new society. It emphasizes the importance of peaceful activity
in building alternative social institutions within the existing society, and
strengthening those institutions until they finally replace the existing
statist system.
Mutualists belong to a non-collectivist
segment of anarchists. Although they favor democratic control when
collective action is required by the nature of production and other cooperative
endeavors, they do not favor collectivism as an ideal in itself. They are
not opposed to money or exchange. They believe in private property, so
long as it is based on personal occupancy and use. They favor a society
in which all relationships and transactions are non-coercive, and based on
voluntary cooperation, free exchange, or mutual aid. The
"market," in the sense of exchanges of labor between producers, is a
profoundly humanizing and liberating concept. What they oppose is the
conventional understanding of markets, as the idea has been co-opted and
corrupted by state capitalism.
Individualist anarchists were opposed to the
exploitation of labor, all forms of non-labor income (such as profits, interest
and rent) as well as capitalist property rights (particularly in land). While
aiming for a free market system, they considered laissez-faire capitalism to be
based on various kinds of state enforced class monopoly which ensured that
labor was subjected to rule, domination and exploitation by capital. As such it
is deeply anti-capitalist and many individualist anarchists, including its leading
figure Benjamin Tucker.
Benjamin Tucker, like all genuine
anarchists, was against both the state and capitalism, against both oppression
and exploitation. While not against the market and property he was firmly
against capitalism as it was, in his eyes, a state-supported monopoly of social
capital (tools, machinery, etc.) which allows owners to exploit their
employees, i.e., to avoid paying workers the full value of their labor. He
thought that the
"laboring
classes are deprived of their earnings by usury in its three forms, interest,
rent and profit."
Social anarchism has four major trends --
mutualism, collectivism, communism and syndicalism. The differences are not
great and simply involve differences in strategy. The one major difference that
does exist is between mutualism and the other kinds of social anarchism.
Mutualism is based around a form of market socialism -- workers' co-operatives
exchanging the product of their labor via a system of community banks.
Social anarchists share a firm commitment to
common ownership of the means of production (excluding those used purely by
individuals) and reject the individualist idea that these can be "sold
off" by those who use them. The reason, as noted earlier, is because if
this could be done, capitalism and statism could regain a foothold in the free
society. In addition, other social anarchists do not agree with the mutualist
idea that capitalism can be reformed into libertarian socialism by introducing mutual
banking. For them capitalism can only be replaced by a free society by social
revolution.
While there are many different types of
anarchism, there has always been two common positions at the core of all of
them(opposition to government and opposition to capitalism).
"Anarchism
. . . teaches the possibility of a society in which the needs of life may be
fully supplied for all, and in which the opportunities for complete development
of mind and body shall be the heritage of all . . . [It] teaches that the
present unjust organisation of the production and distribution of wealth must
finally be completely destroyed, and replaced by a system which will insure to
each the liberty to work, without first seeking a master to whom he [or she]
must surrender a tithe of his [or her] product, which will guarantee his
liberty of access to the sources and means of production. . . Out of the
blindly submissive, it makes the discontented; out of the unconsciously
dissatisfied, it makes the consciously dissatisfied . . . Anarchism seeks to
arouse the consciousness of oppression, the desire for a better society, and a
sense of the necessity for unceasing warfare against capitalism and the
State." Emma Goldman
Anarchism is an expression of the struggle
against oppression and exploitation, a generalization of working people's
experiences and analyses of what is wrong with the current system and an
expression of our hopes and dreams for a better future. This struggle existed
before it was called anarchism, but the historic anarchist movement (i.e.
groups of people calling their ideas anarchism and aiming for an anarchist
society) is essentially a product of working class struggle against capitalism
and the state, against oppression and exploitation, and for a free society of
free and equal individuals.
RSS Feed
Twitter
