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anarchism originated as a term of abuse first used against early working class radicals including the diggers of the english revolution and the sans culottes of the french revolution whilst the term is still used in a pejorative way to describe any act that used violent means to destroy the
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organization of society it has also been taken up as a positive label by self defined anarchists the word anarchism is derived from the greek without archons ruler chief king anarchism as a political philosophy is the belief that rulers are unnecessary and should be abolished although there are differing
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interpretations of what this means anarchism also refers to related social movements that advocate the elimination of authoritarian institutions particularly the state the word anarchy as most anarchists use it does not imply chaos nihilism or anomie but rather a harmonious anti authoritarian society in place of what are regarded
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as authoritarian political structures and coercive economic institutions anarchists advocate social relations based upon voluntary association of autonomous individuals mutual aid and self governance while anarchism is most easily defined by what it is against anarchists also offer positive visions of what they believe to be a truly free society
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however ideas about how an anarchist society might work vary considerably especially with respect to economics there is also disagreement about how a free society might be brought about origins and predecessors kropotkin and others argue that before recorded history human society was organized on anarchist principles most anthropologists follow
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kropotkin and engels in believing that hunter gatherer bands were egalitarian and lacked division of labour accumulated wealth or decreed law and had equal access to resources william godwin anarchists including the the anarchy organisation and rothbard find anarchist attitudes in taoism from ancient china kropotkin found similar ideas in
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stoic zeno of citium according to kropotkin zeno repudiated the omnipotence of the state its intervention and regimentation and proclaimed the sovereignty of the moral law of the individual the anabaptists of one six th century europe are sometimes considered to be religious forerunners of modern anarchism bertrand russell in
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his history of western philosophy writes that the anabaptists repudiated all law since they held that the good man will be guided at every moment by the holy spirit from this premise they arrive at communism the diggers or true levellers were an early communistic movement during the time of
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the english civil war and are considered by some as forerunners of modern anarchism in the modern era the first to use the term to mean something other than chaos was louis armand baron de lahontan in his nouveaux voyages dans l am rique septentrionale one seven zero three where
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he described the indigenous american society which had no state laws prisons priests or private property as being in anarchy russell means a libertarian and leader in the american indian movement has repeatedly stated that he is an anarchist and so are all his ancestors in one seven nine three
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in the thick of the french revolution william godwin published an enquiry concerning political justice although godwin did not use the word anarchism many later anarchists have regarded this book as the first major anarchist text and godwin as the founder of philosophical anarchism but at this point no anarchist
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movement yet existed and the term anarchiste was known mainly as an insult hurled by the bourgeois girondins at more radical elements in the french revolution the first self labelled anarchist pierre joseph proudhon it is commonly held that it wasn t until pierre joseph proudhon published what is property
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in one eight four zero that the term anarchist was adopted as a self description it is for this reason that some claim proudhon as the founder of modern anarchist theory in what is property proudhon answers with the famous accusation property is theft in this work he opposed the
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institution of decreed property propri t where owners have complete rights to use and abuse their property as they wish such as exploiting workers for profit in its place proudhon supported what he called possession individuals can have limited rights to use resources capital and goods in accordance with principles
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of equality and justice proudhon s vision of anarchy which he called mutualism mutuellisme involved an exchange economy where individuals and groups could trade the products of their labor using labor notes which represented the amount of working time involved in production this would ensure that no one would profit
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from the labor of others workers could freely join together in co operative workshops an interest free bank would be set up to provide everyone with access to the means of production proudhon s ideas were influential within french working class movements and his followers were active in the revolution
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of one eight four eight in france proudhon s philosophy of property is complex it was developed in a number of works over his lifetime and there are differing interpretations of some of his ideas for more detailed discussion see here max stirner s egoism in his the ego and
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its own stirner argued that most commonly accepted social institutions including the notion of state property as a right natural rights in general and the very notion of society were mere illusions or ghosts in the mind saying of society that the individuals are its reality he advocated egoism and
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a form of amoralism in which individuals would unite in associations of egoists only when it was in their self interest to do so for him property simply comes about through might whoever knows how to take to defend the thing to him belongs property and what i have in
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my power that is my own so long as i assert myself as holder i am the proprietor of the thing stirner never called himself an anarchist he accepted only the label egoist nevertheless his ideas were influential on many individualistically inclined anarchists although interpretations of his thought are diverse
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american individualist anarchism benjamin tucker in one eight two five josiah warren had participated in a communitarian experiment headed by robert owen called new harmony which failed in a few years amidst much internal conflict warren blamed the community s failure on a lack of individual sovereignty and a lack
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of private property warren proceeded to organise experimenal anarchist communities which respected what he called the sovereignty of the individual at utopia and modern times in one eight three three warren wrote and published the peaceful revolutionist which some have noted to be the first anarchist periodical ever published benjamin
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tucker says that warren was the first man to expound and formulate the doctrine now known as anarchism liberty xiv december one nine zero zero one benjamin tucker became interested in anarchism through meeting josiah warren and william b greene he edited and published liberty from august one eight eight
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one to april one nine zero eight it is widely considered to be the finest individualist anarchist periodical ever issued in the english language tucker s conception of individualist anarchism incorporated the ideas of a variety of theorists greene s ideas on mutual banking warren s ideas on cost as
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the limit of price a heterodox variety of labour theory of value proudhon s market anarchism max stirner s egoism and herbert spencer s law of equal freedom tucker strongly supported the individual s right to own the product of his or her labour as private property and believed in
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a market economy for trading this property he argued that in a truly free market system without the state the abundance of competition would eliminate profits and ensure that all workers received the full value of their labor other one nine th century individualists included lysander spooner stephen pearl andrews
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and victor yarros the first international mikhail bakunin one eight one four one eight seven six in europe harsh reaction followed the revolutions of one eight four eight twenty years later in one eight six four the international workingmen s association sometimes called the first international united some diverse european
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revolutionary currents including anarchism due to its genuine links to active workers movements the international became signficiant from the start karl marx was a leading figure in the international he was elected to every succeeding general council of the association the first objections to marx came from the mutualists who
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opposed communism and statism shortly after mikhail bakunin and his followers joined in one eight six eight the first international became polarised into two camps with marx and bakunin as their respective figureheads the clearest difference between the camps was over strategy the anarchists around bakunin favoured in kropotkin s
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words direct economical struggle against capitalism without interfering in the political parliamentary agitation at that time marx and his followers focused on parliamentary activity bakunin characterised marx s ideas as authoritarian and predicted that if a marxist party gained to power its leaders would end up as bad as the
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ruling class they had fought against in one eight seven two the conflict climaxed with a final split between the two groups at the hague congress this is often cited as the origin of the conflict between anarchists and marxists from this moment the social democratic and libertarian currents of
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socialism had distinct organisations including rival internationals anarchist communism peter kropotkin proudhon and bakunin both opposed communism associating it with statism however in the one eight seven zero s many anarchists moved away from bakunin s economic thinking called collectivism and embraced communist concepts communists believed the means of production
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should be owned collectively and that goods be distributed by need not labor an early anarchist communist was joseph d jacque the first person to describe himself as libertarian unlike proudhon he argued that it is not the product of his or her labor that the worker has a right
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to but to the satisfaction of his or her needs whatever may be their nature he announced his ideas in his us published journal le libertaire one eight five eight one eight six one peter kropotkin often seen as the most important theorist outlined his economic ideas in the conquest
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of bread and fields factories and workshops he felt co operation is more beneficial than competition illustrated in nature in mutual aid a factor of evolution one eight nine seven subsequent anarchist communists include emma goldman and alexander berkman many in the anarcho syndicalist movements see below saw anarchist communism
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as their objective isaac puente s one nine three two comunismo libertario was adopted by the spanish cnt as its manifesto for a post revolutionary society some anarchists disliked merging communism with anarchism several individualist anarchists maintained that abolition of private property was not consistent with liberty for example benjamin
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tucker whilst professing respect for kropotkin and publishing his work described communist anarchism as pseudo anarchism propaganda of the deed johann most was an outspoken advocate of violence anarchists have often been portrayed as dangerous and violent due mainly to a number of high profile violent acts including riots assassinations
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insurrections and terrorism by some anarchists some revolutionaries of the late one nine th century encouraged acts of political violence such as bombings and the assassinations of heads of state to further anarchism such actions have sometimes been called propaganda by the deed one of the more outspoken advocates of
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this strategy was johann most who said the existing system will be quickest and most radically overthrown by the annihilation of its exponents therefore massacres of the enemies of the people must be set in motion most s preferred method of terrorism dynamite earned him the moniker dynamost however there
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is no consensus on the legitimacy or utility of violence in general mikhail bakunin and errico malatesta for example wrote of violence as a necessary and sometimes desirable force in revolutionary settings but at the same time they denounced acts of individual terrorism malatesta in on violence and bakunin when
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he refuted nechaev other anarchists sometimes identified as pacifist anarchists advocated complete nonviolence leo tolstoy whose philosophy is often viewed as a form of christian anarchism see below was a notable exponent of nonviolent resistance anarchism in the labour movement the red and black flag coming from the experience of
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anarchists in the labour movement is particularly associated with anarcho syndicalism anarcho syndicalism was an early two zero th century working class movement seeking to overthrow capitalism and the state to institute a worker controlled society the movement pursued industrial actions such as general strike as a primary strategy many
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anarcho syndicalists believed in anarchist communism though not all communists believed in syndicalism after the one eight seven one repression french anarchism reemerged influencing the bourses de travails of autonomous workers groups and trade unions from this movement the conf d ration g n rale du travail general confederation of
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work cgt was formed in one eight nine five as the first major anarcho syndicalist movement emile pataud and emile pouget s writing for the cgt saw libertarian communism developing from a general strike after one nine one four the cgt moved away from anarcho syndicalism due to the appeal
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of bolshevism french style syndicalism was a significant movement in europe prior to one nine two one and remained a significant movement in spain until the mid one nine four zero s the industrial workers of the world iww founded in one nine zero five in the us espoused unionism
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and sought a general strike to usher in a stateless society in one nine two three one zero zero zero zero zero members existed with the support of up to three zero zero zero zero zero though not explicitly anarchist they organized by rank and file democracy embodying a spirit
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of resistance that has inspired many anglophone syndicalists cnt propaganda from april two zero zero four reads don t let the politicians rule our lives you vote and they decide don t allow it unity action self management spanish anarchist trade union federations were formed in the one eight seven
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zero s one nine zero zero and one nine one zero the most successful was the confederaci n nacional del trabajo national confederation of labour cnt founded in one nine one zero prior to the one nine four zero s the cnt was the major force in spanish working class
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politics with a membership of one five eight million in one nine three four the cnt played a major role in the spanish civil war see also anarchism in spain syndicalists like ricardo flores mag n were key figures in the mexican revolution latin american anarchism was strongly influenced extending
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to the zapatista rebellion and the factory occupation movements in argentina in berlin in one nine two two the cnt was joined with the international workers association an anarcho syndicalist successor to the first international contemporary anarcho syndicalism continues as a minor force in many socities much smaller than in
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the one nine one zero s two zero s and three zero s the largest organised anarchist movement today is in spain in the form of the confederaci n general del trabajo and the cnt the cgt claims a paid up membership of six zero zero zero zero and received
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over a million votes in spanish syndical elections other active syndicalist movements include the us workers solidarity alliance and the uk solidarity federation the revolutionary industrial unionist industrial workers of the world also exists claiming two zero zero zero paid members contemporary critics of anarcho syndicalism and revolutionary industrial unionism
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claim that they are workerist and fail to deal with economic life outside work post leftist critics such as bob black claim anarcho syndicalism advocates oppressive social structures such as work and the workplace anarcho syndicalists in general uphold principles of workers solidarity direct action and self management the russian
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revolution the russian revolution of one nine one seven was a seismic event in the development of anarchism as a movement and as a philosophy anarchists participated alongside the bolsheviks in both february and october revolutions many anarchists initially supporting the bolshevik coup however the bolsheviks soon turned against the
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anarchists and other left wing opposition a conflict which culminated in the one nine one eight kronstadt rebellion anarchists in central russia were imprisoned or driven underground or joined the victorious bolsheviks in ukraine anarchists fought in the civil war against both whites and bolsheviks within the makhnovshchina peasant army
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led by nestor makhno expelled american anarchists emma goldman and alexander berkman before leaving russia were amongst those agitating in response to bolshevik policy and the suppression of the kronstadt uprising both wrote classic accounts of their experiences in russia aiming to expose the reality of bolshevik control for them
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bakunin s predictions about the consequences of marxist rule had proved all too true the victory of the bolsheviks in the october revolution and the resulting russian civil war did serious damage to anarchist movements internationally many workers and activists saw bolshevik success as setting an example communist parties grew
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at the expense of anarchism and other socialist movements in france and the us for example the major syndicalist movements of the cgt and iww began to realign themselves away from anarchism and towards the communist international in paris the dielo truda group of russian anarchist exiles which included nestor
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makhno concluded that anarchists needed to develop new forms of organisation in response to the structures of bolshevism their one nine two six manifesto known as the organisational platform of the libertarian communists was supported by some communist anarchists though opposed by many others the platform continues to inspire some
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contemporary anarchist groups who believe in an anarchist movement organised around its principles of theoretical unity tactical unity collective responsibility and federalism platformist groups today include the workers solidarity movement in ireland the uk s anarchist federation and the late north eastern federation of anarchist communists in the northeastern united
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states and bordering canada the fight against fascism spain one nine three six members of the cnt construct armoured cars to fight against the fascists in one of the collectivised factories in the one nine two zero s and one nine three zero s the familiar dynamics of anarchism s
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conflict with the state were transformed by the rise of fascism in europe in many cases european anarchists faced difficult choices should they join in popular fronts with reformist democrats and soviet led communists against a common fascist enemy luigi fabbri an exile from italian fascism was amongst those arguing
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that fascism was something different fascism is not just another form of government which like all others uses violence it is the most authoritarian and the most violent form of government imaginable it represents the utmost glorification of the theory and practice of the principle of authority in france where
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the fascists came close to insurrection in the february one nine three four riots anarchists divided over a united front policy in spain the cnt initially refused to join a popular front electoral alliance and abstention by cnt supporters led to a right wing election victory but in one nine
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three six the cnt changed its policy and anarchist votes helped bring the popular front back to power months later the ruling class responded with an attempted coup and the spanish civil war one nine three six three nine was underway in reponse to the army rebellion an anarchist inspired
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movement of peasants and workers supported by armed militias took control of the major city of barcelona and of large areas of rural spain where they collectivized the land but even before the eventual fascist victory in one nine three nine the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle
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with the stalinists the cnt leadership often appeared confused and divided with some members controversially entering the government stalinist led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted both dissident marxists and anarchists since the late one nine seven zero s anarchists have been involved in fighting the rise of neo fascist
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groups in germany and the united kingdom some anarchists worked within militant anti fascist groups alongside members of the marxist left they advocated directly combating fascists with physical force rather than relying on the state since the late one nine nine zero s a similar tendency has developed within us
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anarchism see also anti racist action us anti fascist action uk antifa religious anarchism leo tolstoy one eight two eight one nine one zero most anarchist culture tends to be secular if not outright anti religious however the combination of religious social conscience historical religiousity amongst oppressed social classes and
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the compatibility of some interpretations of religious traditions with anarchism has resulted in religious anarchism christian anarchists believe that there is no higher authority than god and oppose earthly authority such as government and established churches they believe that jesus teachings were clearly anarchistic but were corrupted when christianity was
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declared the official religion of rome christian anarchists who follow jesus directive to turn the other cheek are strict pacifists the most famous advocate of christian anarchism was leo tolstoy author of the kingdom of god is within you who called for a society based on compassion nonviolent principles and
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freedom christian anarchists tend to form experimental communities they also occasionally resist taxation many christian anarchists are vegetarian or vegan christian anarchy can be said to have roots as old as the religion s birth as the early church exhibits many anarchistic tendencies such as communal goods and wealth by
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aiming to obey utterly certain of the bible s teachings certain anabaptist groups of sixteenth century europe attempted to emulate the early church s social economic organisation and philosophy by regarding it as the only social structure capable of true obediance to jesus teachings and utterly rejected in theory all
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earthly hierarchies and authority and indeed non anabaptists in general and violence as ungodly such groups for example the hutterites typically went from initially anarchistic beginnings to as their movements stabalised more authoritarian social models chinese anarchism was most influential in the one nine two zero s strands of chinese
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anarchism included tai xu s buddhist anarchism which was influenced by tolstoy and the well field system neopaganism with its focus on the environment and equality along with its often decentralized nature has lead to a number of neopagan anarchists one of the most prominent is starhawk who writes extensively
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about both spirituality and activism anarchism and feminism emma goldman early french feminists such as jenny d h ricourt and juliette adam criticised the mysogyny in the anarchism of proudhon during the one eight five zero s anarcha feminism is a kind of radical feminism that espouses the belief that
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patriarchy is a fundamental problem in society while anarchist feminism has existed for more than a hundred years its explicit formulation as anarcha feminism dates back to the early seven zero s during the second wave feminist movement anarcha feminism views patriarchy as the first manifestation of hierarchy in human
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history thus the first form of oppression occurred in the dominance of male over female anarcha feminists then conclude that if feminists are against patriarchy they must also be against all forms of hierarchy and therefore must reject the authoritarian nature of the state and capitalism anarcho primitivists see the
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creation of gender roles and patriarchy a creation of the start of civilization and therefore consider primitivism to also be an anarchist school of thought that addresses feminist concerns eco feminism is often considered a feminist variant of green anarchist feminist thought anarcha feminism is most often associated with early
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two zero th century authors and theorists such as emma goldman and voltairine de cleyre although even early first wave feminist mary wollstonecraft held proto anarchist views and william godwin is often considered a feminist anarchist precursor it should be noted that goldman and de cleyre though they both opposed
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the state had opposing philosophies as de cleyre explains miss goldman is a communist i am an individualist she wishes to destroy the right of property i wish to assert it i make my war upon privilege and authority whereby the right of property the true right in that which
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is proper to the individual is annihilated she believes that co operation would entirely supplant competition i hold that competition in one form or another will always exist and that it is highly desirable it should in the spanish civil war an anarcha feminist group free women organized to defend
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both anarchist and feminist ideas in the modern day anarchist movement many anarchists male or female consider themselves feminists and anarcha feminist ideas are growing the publishing of quiet rumors an anarcha feminist reader has helped to spread various kinds of anti authoritarian and anarchist feminist ideas to the broader
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movement wendy mcelroy has popularized an individualist anarchism take on feminism in her books articles and individualist feminist website anarcho capitalism murray rothbard one nine two six one nine nine five anarcho capitalism is a predominantly united states based theoretical tradition that desires a stateless society with the economic system
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of free market capitalism unlike other branches of anarchism it does not oppose profit or capitalism consequently most anarchists do not recognise anarcho capitalism as a form of anarchism murray rothbard s synthesis of classical liberalism and austrian economics was germinal for the development of contemporary anarcho capitalist theory he
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defines anarcho capitalism in terms of the non aggression principle based on the concept of natural law competiting theorists use egoism utilitarianism used by david friedman or contractarianism used by jan narveson some minarchists such as ayn rand robert nozick and robert a heinlein have influenced anarcho capitalism some anarcho
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capitalists along with some right wing libertarian historians such as david hart and ralph raico considered similar philosophies existing prior to rothbard to be anarcho capitalist such as those of gustave de molinari and auberon herbert opponents of anarcho capitalists dispute these claims the place of anarcho capitalism within anarchism
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and indeed whether it is a form of anarchism at all is highly controversial for more on this debate see anarchism and anarcho capitalism anarchism and the environment since the late one nine seven zero s anarchists in anglophone and european countries have been taking action for the natural environment
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eco anarchists or green anarchists believe in deep ecology this is a worldview that embraces biodiversity and sustainability eco anarchists often use direct action against what they see as earth destroying institutions of particular importance is the earth first movement that takes action such as tree sitting another important component
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is ecofeminism which sees the domination of nature as a metaphor for the domination of women green anarchism also involves a critique of industrial capitalism and for some green anarchists civilization itself primitivism is a predominantly western philosophy that advocates a return to a pre industrial and usually pre agricultural
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society it develops a critique of industrial civilization in this critique technology and development have alienated people from the natural world this philosophy develops themes present in the political action of the luddites and the writings of jean jacques rousseau primitivism developed in the context of the reclaim the streets
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earth first and the earth liberation front movements john zerzan wrote that civilization not just the state would need to fall for anarchy to be achieved anarcho primitivists point to the anti authoritarian nature of many primitive or hunter gatherer societies throughout the world s history as examples of anarchist
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societies other branches and offshoots anarchism generates many eclectic and syncretic philosophies and movements since the western social formet in the one nine six zero s and one nine seven zero s a number new of movements and schools have appeared most of these stances are limited to even smaller
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numbers than the schools and movements listed above hakim bey post left anarchy post left anarchy also called egoist anarchism seeks to distance itself from the traditional left communists liberals social democrats etc and to escape the confines of ideology in general post leftists argue that anarchism has been weakened
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by its long attachment to contrary leftist movements and single issue causes anti war anti nuclear etc it calls for a synthesis of anarchist thought and a specifically anti authoritarian revolutionary movement outside of the leftist milieu it often focuses on the individual rather than speaking in terms of class
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or other broad generalizations and shuns organizational tendencies in favor of the complete absence of explicit hierarchy important groups and individuals associated with post left anarchy include crimethinc the magazine anarchy a journal of desire armed and its editor jason mcquinn bob black hakim bey and others for more information
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see infoshop org s anarchy after leftism section and the post left section on anarchism ws see also post left anarchy post structuralism the term postanarchism was originated by saul newman first receiving popular attention in his book from bakunin to lacan to refer to a theoretical move towards a
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synthesis of classical anarchist theory and poststructuralist thought subsequent to newman s use of the term however it has taken on a life of its own and a wide range of ideas including autonomism post left anarchy situationism post colonialism and zapatismo by its very nature post anarchism rejects the
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idea that it should be a coherent set of doctrines and beliefs as such it is difficult if not impossible to state with any degree of certainty who should or shouldn t be grouped under the rubric nonetheless key thinkers associated with post anarchism include saul newman todd may gilles
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deleuze and f lix guattari external reference postanarchism clearinghouse see also post anarchism insurrectionary anarchism insurrectionary anarchism is a form of revolutionary anarchism critical of formal anarchist labor unions and federations insurrectionary anarchists advocate informal organization including small affinity groups carrying out acts of resistance in various struggles and mass
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