A Brief Intro to Anarchism

a brief introduction to anarchism

or

everything you always wanted to know about anarchism but were afraid to ask

Jesse Cohn

obligatory definitions

Anarchism means that you should be free; that no one should enslave you, boss you, rob you, or impose upon you.— Alexander Berkman

Anarchism is, already, and has always been, one of the main bases for human interaction. We self-organize and engage in mutual aid all the time.— David Graeber

what anarchism isn’t

What man loses through the social contract is his natural liberty . . .

. . . if only we had adhered to the simple, unchanging and solitary way of life that nature ordained for us.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau


• The closer human beings are to the beasts, the more deeply they are sunk into that miserable condition that the philosophers of the eighteenth century called “the state of nature” . . . and, as a result, the less they fulfill their potential.

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon


• The conception of justice cannot be a simple inborn tendency . . . its rudiments were always present in man, but these rudiments must be developed.

— Peter Kropotkin


• The issue is not whether people are “good enough” for a particular type of society; rather it is a matter of developing the kind of social institutions that are most conducive to expanding the potentialities we have . . .

— Paul Goodman


The philosopher-king . . . concerns himself only with the good of his flock or subjects.

— Plato

The role of the vanguard can only be filled by a party that is guided by advanced theory.

— V.I. Lenin


• Liberal model of social change– Experts assess

needs of community from outside

– Bureaucratic institutions deliver services to passive recipients

• Vanguardist model of social change– Theory represents

the total situation from an objective standpoint

– Theorists are entitled to speak for and dictate to others


• A scientific body entrusted with the government of society would soon end by devoting itself not to science but to quite another interest . . . perpetuating its own power and consolidating its position by rendering the society placed in its care even more stupid and consequently ever more in need of being governed and directed by such a body.

— Mikhail Bakunin


• The transcendental concepts . . . that we place like divinities at the summit of our intelligence are mere products of the analysis that we made from our own experience . . . We understand nature by doing.

• Power is immanent in society.

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon


There is no such thing as society.

— Margaret Thatcher

Hell is other people.

— Jean-Paul Sartre

what anarchism isn’t• Individuality is not to be confused with the

various ideas and concepts of Individualism . . . [or] economic laissez faire . . . That corrupt and perverse “individualism” is the strait-jacket of individuality. It has converted life into a degrading race for externals, for possession, for social prestige and supremacy . . . This “rugged individualism” has inevitably resulted in the greatest modern slavery.— Emma Goldman

what anarchism isn’t• I can feel free only in the presence of and

in relationship with other human beings . . . I am not myself free or human until or unless I recognize the freedom and humanity of everyone else.The freedom of others, far from negating or limiting my own, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation. It is the slavery of other men that sets up a barrier to my freedom . . .— Mikhail Bakunin

what anarchism IS

My freedom, multiplied by the freedom of all, extends to infinity.— Mikhail Bakunin

Multiply your associations and be free!— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

what anarchism IS

Searching for and developing potentials latent within the actual

what anarchism IS

Refusing to give orders or look for

answers from above or from

the outside

what anarchism IS

Organizing with others

horizontally to produce a greater

collective force

what anarchism IS

Refusing to subordinate the

local and the particular to the

universal

what anarchism IS

Developing new ways of thinking (a collective reason) through dialogue

and association (a collective being)

what anarchism IS

Refusing to privilege any one

perspective as absolute or

transcendent

what anarchism IS

Prefiguring desired futures in

present acts

what anarchism IS

Refusing to separate means

from ends

what anarchism IS• Searching for and

developing potentials latent within the actual

• Organizing with others horizontally to produce a greater collective force

• Developing new ways of thinking (a collective reason) through dialogue and association (a collective being)

• Prefiguring desired futures in present acts

• Refusing to give orders or look for answers from above or from the outside

• Refusing to subordinate the local and the particular to the universal

• Refusing to privilege any one perspective as absolute (fixed and perfect) or transcendent (all-inclusive)

• Refusing to separate means from ends

historical development

• 10,000 BCE – 700 CE: Stateless societies, gift economies gradually undermined by trade and warfare

• 500 BCE – 1700 CE: Expanding empires further damage surviving stateless societies; premodern social and spiritual movements prefigure modern anarchism

• 1700 – 1900 CE: Workers’ movements develop in response to industrial exploitation and imperialism


• 1840: Proudhon models “mutualist” economics on Mutuellistes workers’ association of Lyon; becomes first to call himself an “anarchist”

• 1840 – 1871: Growth of Proudhonian workers’ associations in Europe; Paris Commune

• 1850s – 1930s: Individualist anarchism flourishes in U.S. and Europe

• 1872: Bakunin and Marx split the First International


• 1876 – 1901: Period of “propaganda by the deed”; anarchism spreads to the Americas, Asia, Australia, and parts of Africa; rise of anarcho-communism

• 1883 – 1923: Rise of anarcho-syndicalism; syndicalist union membership worldwide nears two million mark

• 1912 – 1940s: Numerous anarchist revolts in Mexico, Ukraine, Italy, Spain, Korea, etc., followed by period of retreat


• 1960s – 1970s: partial revival of anarchism in global radical movements

• 1960s – 1980s: anarchism integrated into segments of global youth countercultures

• 1970s – 1980s: anarchist practices revived by anti-nuclear, environmental, and peace movements

• 1990s: anarchist practices become prevalent in global anti-capitalist movements

schools of anarchist thought

individualist anarchism

• Only voluntary, limited, and temporary forms of organization• Free exchange without the State• Emphasis on individual autonomy

social anarchism

• Organization crucial, but must be decentralized and non-authoritarian• Socialism without the State• Balance of autonomy and community

social anarchism

• Mutualism

• Anarcho-syndicalism

• Anarcho-communism

MutualismPierre-Joseph PROUDHON

(1805-1865)• Voluntary contracts between

individuals• Producer-consumer

cooperatives• Decentralized federations

instead of centralized States• Exchange economy without

rent, profit, or interest on loans

MutualismThe Proudhonian tradition in the U.S.

• Neighborhood movement

• Consumer and producer cooperatives

• Community Economic Development

• Local currencies• LETSystems

• Tool “libraries”• Community-Supported

Agriculture

• Permaculture

• Alternative technology• Community land trusts• Credit unions

• Microlending

Anarcho-syndicalismMikhail

BAKUNIN

(1814-1876)• Labor unions as means of

revolution and framework for new society

• Collective self-management in the workplace

• Limited wage system retained

Anarcho-syndicalismThe syndicalist tradition in the U.S.

• The Eight-Hour Day movement

• The Knights of Labor (1869-1949)

• The International Working People's Association (1883-1886)

• The Industrial Workers of the World (1905-present)

• Monkeywrenching and ecotage (IWW-Earth First!)

Anarcho-communismPeter

KROPOTKIN (1842-1921)

• No wage system or ownership of the means of production

• Community, rather than workplace, as the basic unit of organization

• Communist distributive ethic: from each according to ability, to each according to need

Anarcho-communismThe anarcho-communist tradition in the U.S.

• The Frayhayt Group

• La Questione Sociale

• Communes such as Stelton and Sunrise

• The Diggers

• The Weathermen

• Activist federations: SRAF, ACF, Love and Rage, NEFAC, etc.

• Libertarian Municipalism

“We need traditions!”

— Gustav Landauer

• “Cutting across the very legacy of domination is another: the legacy of freedom . . . [But] in our own time, these legacies are intertwined like strands . . . until the language of freedom becomes interchangeable with that of domination.”— Murray Bookchin

The challenge is to pick out the best, most emancipatory “strands” from a given piece of social fabric and to attempt to disentangle them from the rest, to weave them with other threads into better kinds of fabric.

The everyday life of a community needs to be critically analyzed:

– Which relationships work, and which are nonfunctional?

– Are there traditions of mutualism and cooperation existent which can help a community to realize its goals, or must new forms be created?

– How can the face-to-face primary ties which characterized prebureaucratic societies be recreated in the context of contemporary community?

– Is there an existing political sphere which can be expanded and/or transformed to empower the community?

– Are there existing functional or vestigial cooperative economic forms or traditions that can be utilized?

– From where does a community derive its values, its ethics, and the principles which orient its development?

The relational ties, cultural traditions, myths, folklore, spiritual beliefs, cosmology, ritual forms, political associations, technical skills, and knowledge of a community . . . must be brought together to provide a base for development.

— Daniel Chodorkoff

• Which relationships work, and which are nonfunctional?

• Are there traditions of mutualism and cooperation existent which can help a community to realize its goals, or must new forms be created?

• How can the face-to-face primary ties which characterized prebureaucratic societies be recreated in the context of contemporary community?

• Are there existing functional or vestigial cooperative economic forms or traditions that can be utilized?

• Is there an existing political sphere which can be expanded and/or transformed to empower the community?

• From where does a community derive its values, its ethics, and the principles which orient its development?

Controversies

• Individual direct action

• Repeatable tactic• Staking the self on

the act• Irrecuperable by

reformist organizations

• Asocial• Fails to prefigure the

end in the means• Martyrological

• Plays into the hands of the State

“Propaganda by the deed”

Controversies

• Ultimately superceded in practice by more effective processes, e.g.:

– Collective direct action– “Social” sabotage– Bottom-up organizing– Syndicalism as preparation– Education as capacitación– The general strike

“Propaganda by the deed”

Contemporary controversies

• Technology• Tactics• Movements

• The Welfare State• Nationalisms

Controversies: Technology

A) Science and technology both presuppose and reinforce domination and ecocide; it is naïve to think that we can use them for other purposes.

B) Certain sciences and technologies are presently useful and necessary and potentially both humane and ecologically sound.

Controversies: Tactics

A) Non-violence is ineffective in the face of violent State repression, lethal social conditions, and genocidal warfare. Moralizing about tactics only further disempowers the less powerful.

B) Means determine ends, and the use of violent means is inconsistent with peaceful ends. Moreover, violence, and even property destruction, plays into the hands of the State.

Controversies: Movements

A) Anarchists should not presume to lead social movements of the oppressed in a vanguardist fashion; rather, we should attempt to help existing movements to self-organize, even if they don’t share our goals.

B) To abandon, defer, or disguise our goals in order to serve others is either to manipulate them or to be manipulated by them; rather, we should organize our own movements and argue openly for what we want, finding allies where we can.

Controversies: The Welfare State

A) We must not engage in any kind of defense of the State for any reason; welfare systems merely stifle discontent and co-opt potential revolutionary actors, since they cannot afford to bite the hand that feeds them.

B) Allowing welfare systems to be destroyed serves corporate power and further disempowers the poor; it means sacrificing the direct interests of the oppressed in the present for the sake of a principle located in the future.

Controversies: Nationalisms

A) Even if we sympathize with the oppressed people who often engage in nationalist movements, we cannot support nationalist aspirations of any kind for any reason; they always create new forms of oppression.

B) As beneficiaries of national privilege, we have no right to tell others how they should seek freedom; rather, we should focus on opposing our common (imperialist/ colonialist) enemies.

Controversies

• What can our theoretical tradition and our history teach us about how to resolve or negotiate these ambiguities in our practice?

Technology

Tactics

Movements

The Welfare State

Nationalisms

A Brief Intro to Anarchism

Documents

Transcript of A Brief Intro to Anarchism