Anarchism

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.