Anarchism handout

Core Ideals

Quotes

• Anti-capitalist in nature, like socialism & communism
• However, unlike them, anarchism is individualistic
• Driven by liberty and freedom above all.

• Rejects all involuntary forms of hierarchy, even the idea of the nation state itself along with government
• Instead, anarchism believes in
• Cooperation
• Direct action (instead of democratic/electoral politics, political action is directly taken. For example, a strike)
• Mutual aid (an act of solidarity that builds sustained networks between neighbors where people work cooperatively to meet the needs of everyone in the community)
• (“solidarity, not charity”)
• Belief in sexual and gender autonomy/choice
• Anarcho-syndicalism
• Belief that the working class can gain influence and ultimately control from capitalists by organizing labour as a whole class rather than by individual trades or industrial ties.
• The hope is to get rid of the wage system, replacing it with a form of democratic workers’ self-management. Replace bosses with the democratically elected managers from the working class.
• Mutualism, influential anarchist PJ Proudhon's theory
• A society formed of independent peasants and artisans (skilled workers), with factories and utilities run by associations of workers, all united by a system of mutual credit founded on people’s banks.
• In place of the centralized state, the enemy of all anarchists, a federal system of autonomous local communities and industrial associations, bound by contract and mutual interest rather than laws.

"I build no system. I ask an end to privilege, the abolition of slavery, equality of rights, and the reign of law. Justice, nothing else; that is the alpha and omega of my argument: to others I leave the business of governing the world." -Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, "What is Property?" (1840)

"Anarchism's outward form is a free, non-governed society, which offers freedom, equality and solidarity for its members. Its foundations are to be found in man’s sense of mutual responsibility, which has remained unchanged in all places and times. This sense of responsibility is capable of securing freedom and social justice for all men by its own unaided efforts. It is also the foundation of true communism." - Nestor Makhno, "The Anarchist Revolution" (1920s)

Anarchism

"The state's behaviour is violence, and it calls its violence 'law'; that of the individual, 'crime'"- Max Stirner, "The Ego And Its Own"

Fast Facts

• Year(s) founded: 19th century, roots in Enlightenment

• Countries: None
• Settlements such as Makhnovshchina in Ukraine duiring early Russian Revolution

• Symbol(s): Anarchist “A” over a circle, red and black flag, black flag

• Enemy: Fascism, democrats, totalitarianism, capitalism, scientific communism

“I am a fanatic lover of liberty, considering it as the unique condition under which intelligence, dignity and human happiness can develop and grow… No, I mean the only kind of liberty that is worthy of the name, liberty that consists in the full development of all the material, intellectual and moral powers that are latent in each person; liberty that recognizes no restrictions other than those determined by the laws of our own individual nature, which cannot properly be regarded as restrictions since these laws are not imposed by any outside legislator beside or above us, but are immanent and inherent, forming the very basis of our material, intellectual and moral being — they do not limit us but are the real and immediate conditions of our freedom.” - Mikhail Bakunin, "La Commune de Paris et la notion de l'état"

"Sociability is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle... we at once see that those animals which acquire habits of mutual aid are undoubtedly the fittest... we may safely say that mutual aid is as much a law of animal life as mutual struggle; but that as a factor of evolution, it most probably has a far greater importance, inasmuch as it favors the development of such habits and characters as insure the maintenance and further development of the species..."- Peter Kropotkin, "Mutual Aid as a Factor in Evolution" (1915)

Important Figures

PeterKropotkin

Pierre-JosephProudhon

MaxStirner

MikhailBakunin

NestorMakhno