Anarchists are supporters of the socio-political movement, rejecting all coercive power, especially state power, and depicting the future society as a union of free communities. They are divided into a number of movements and directions, including anarchist-communists and anarchist-individualists.
Supporters of the destruction of state power as a result of a spontaneous, “spontaneous” revolt of the masses. The main ideologists of anarchism were M. Stirner, P. Proudhon, and in Russia - M. Bakunin, P. Kropotkin. In a figurative sense, the word “anarchy” means chaos, disorder, lack of organization and control.
With the participation of Kropotkin, the magazine “Bread and Freedom” arose in London in 1903. Supporters of the magazine were called “grain volunteers.” This movement dominated in Russia until mid-1905, and the first anarchist organization in the country arose in 1903 in Bialystok. In 1904, there were 15 anarchist organizations in Russia, and during the revolution of 1905-1907. the ranks of anarchists grew, their associations existed in the 90s populated areas. By 1917, there were anarchists and their organizations in Petrograd, Moscow, Tula, Orel, Chisinau, etc.
After February Revolution anarchism was represented by two movements: anarcho-communism and anarcho-syndicalism. Some anarchists participated in the October Socialist Revolution, but the majority towards the establishment Soviet power was hostile. Anarchists opposed labor discipline, against the creation of a regular Red Army, defended the principles of partisanship, and justified desertion.
There are many types and traditions of anarchism, and not all of them are mutually exclusive: as a rule, specific anarchists are supporters of several subtypes of anarchism at the same time as complementary to each other: for example, an anarchist can simultaneously be a supporter of stateless communist ideas and feminism.
Some modern anarchists even support capitalist relations (for example, market anarchists, agorists, etc.), some are supporters of market relations, but at the same time deny capitalism (mutualists).
The theory of anarchism revolves around seven basic principles:
1. lack of power
2. freedom from coercion
3. freedom of association
4. mutual assistance
5. variety
6. equality
7. brotherhood
Anarchists believe that in place of power the principle of real grassroots initiative should be introduced, when people themselves, collectively, will solve public issues, and individually (without harm to others) their personal issues. In order to solve any problems that concern society as a whole, as well as implement projects that affect broad sections of society, the initiative must be built from the bottom up, and not vice versa, as is the case in the modern world.
What does it mean to be an anarchist? In a general sense, anarchy means little or no power. The ideas of society are extreme voluntarism, which is possible with universal cooperation, without dictators and despots exploiting the weaker sections of society, if that were possible. Critics of anarchism describe many types of negative stereotypes of the idea. They paint pictures of evil and violent gangs causing damage to government property, mass theft, looting, robberies, robberies, assaults and causing general chaos. Although some violent groups claim to be anarchists, most avowed anarchists these days are peaceful and against government protests. However, it is clear that law enforcement officers should demand equality.
Anarchy can arise as a result of economic or political collapse accompanied by lawlessness, that is: could you find an unruly mob led by strong hooligans? People would try to hide, protecting their property on their own, with the help of friends and family. The “police” could be volunteers, local squads, temporary prisons and courts are overburdened, people are likely in mass confusion, there are gangsters, gangs, violence and general disorder everywhere. Streets will be blocked and authorities are issuing strict decrees on security, curfews, confiscation of weapons and stockpiling of food and fuel.
Anarchism is not a single unified belief system, but consists of a number of deformations.
Steps
Read about the history of anarchism. Read about anarchist movements during the Spanish Revolution of 1936, the Makhnovist uprising in Ukraine, in Paris in 1968, the black protests today, and movement events such as the protest demonstration during the WTO meeting in Seattle.
Concept and assessment of the negative implications of anarchy. Reflect on the negative connotations based on what you have learned about anarchism. There are many negative stereotypes about anarchism. Many associate anarchism with violence, arson and vandalism. Like any system of thought, you need to try to appreciate how people create and practice anarchism.
Check out anarchist symbols and flags. Like all political movements and public organizations, in order to identify themselves and their principles, anarchists use symbolism. Symbols vary by location and change over time.
Study capitalism, Marxism, fascism and other political ideologies. Know your “competitors”. Know what is important about other systems of thought so you can emphasize how your point of view is preferable.
- Understand the arguments for government control, law and order. Know that nationhood is based on the idea that human beings cannot effectively organize themselves on an equal basis. They need centralized state, to defend against totalitarian power, to support the people in the fight against violence, gangs, to have more general laws and moral principles and systems of currency circulation/money, trade and commerce/economics to prevent conflicts at the international, national, state, and local levels, group and personal.
Take your time. You develop a worldview. Don't rush into it because it's weird or because you're bored. Consider carefully each thinker's point of view and each principle. What makes sense to you?
Live like an anarchist
- Think about your own relationships. Do you have equal relationships with friends, family members, loved ones, colleagues? If you have power over them and they don't agree with it, find a way to fix the situation. Talk to them about your anarchist beliefs. Explain that you want to create an egalitarian relationship. This could be a public utopian group.
Start with yourself, live by personal principles. Exercise as much control as possible over your own life. Nobody owns you, but you live in society. No power over you is legitimate unless you violate the rights of others or voluntarily grant power to others in work, play, or social governance, just as you should not have power over others unless they agree.
Consider your relationship to hierarchical authority. Many anarchists have problems with the state, hierarchical religion and large regimented organizations. Think about your relationship to each of these objects.
Promote equality, but understand that without the government coercing individuals, this would not be possible. Think gender equality, sexual equality, racial equality, religious equality, equal opportunity and pay equality. Solidarity through the dream of unsanctioned/uncoerced equality is a fundamental principle of anarchism, which detractors would call mob rule.
- Help those who are unfairly wronged by the “system”. Promote selection and commitment to work in a chosen professional field in order to gain knowledge, experience and skills to advance in career ladder. Women continue to be a less skilled, lower paid category of people in the workplace. Help secure the right to equal pay in your chosen profession. Racial minorities are often subject to rights violations. Help promote racial diversity. Try these opportunities and what they offer to society.
- Remember that using big government to reinforce the government's views on equality is socialism or Marxism. The main idea of anarchism is that you earn what you deserve, and if the government takes away your income, then it goes against these beliefs.
Find people who share similar beliefs. Find a community of people who believe the same things as you and live in a small informal circle of friends (perhaps a commune). You need to rely on others. It's unavoidable. You can learn from each other, teach each other and expand your circle of acquaintances.
Today, just walking down the street, you can replace many representatives of various subcultures. They all have some distinctive external signs, and they all adhere to certain principles and views. How do anarchists differ from everyone else and, in general, who is an anarchist and what is the meaning of this word?
Anarchists are those people who adhere to free thinking, which includes such norms and theories that oppose the manifestation of any kind of coercive government controlled. Roughly speaking, to briefly answer who an anarchist is, he is a person who advocates complete freedom of thought and action (but within the framework of a personally established order).
Anarchists are against any exploitation of man, which is assumed under any operating state system. At the same time, instead of the existing system, the establishment of cooperation between individuals is assumed. The basis of any such cooperation is the following principles: personal interest, mutual assistance, voluntary consent, responsibility.
What do anarchists do?The activities of an anarchist can be classified as active and passive. The passive one is that a person simply adheres to the principles of anarchism, reads relevant literature, and goes to meetings where the latest political events are discussed.
Active activity is aimed at changing the existing order. Anarchists issue special booklets to promote new members to their community and try to engage in political activity, solve local problems.
How to become an anarchist?
It is worth delving into any movement with a detailed study of its essence - only in this case will you be able to understand the full meaning of the ideas and principles embedded in it. Start reading relevant literature. You can start with Kropotkin and Bakunin.
Next, search for existing anarchist movements. If there are any, then join them, and if there are none, then create your own. It is worth noting that in today's time of popularity social networks Creation new group in terms of interests there is nothing complicated.
Then you will have to decide for yourself which direction to move. There are several options for development: simply expand the list of movement participants who support the principles of anarchism; try to gain political influence.
Famous anarchists
One of the famous anarchists is, oddly enough, Nestor Makhno, who actively fought both the whites and the reds in the twenties of the 20th century.
If you look deeper into history, Diogenes of Sinope is considered the first anarchist. He strongly despised any manifestation of power and at the same time believed that everything could be controlled by virtue alone.
The main theorist of the world anarchist movement is considered to be M. Bakunin, who in the 19th century managed not only to create a unified worldview in many European countries, but also to form completely autonomous organizations.
Also a famous theoretician of this movement was Peter Kropotkin. He advocated the creation of free communes without the participation of any manifestation of power. Such communes would have to be governed by all people on the basis of the principles of goodness, wisdom and faith.
It is important to say that they are actively beginning to wonder who anarchists are and what they are doing, at a time when the pressure of the state regime is becoming unbearable for ordinary person. People completely stop believing in the institution of power and are looking for a way out in other, more optimal, areas of government.
In sociology and political science, anarchism is understood as a philosophy and ideology that is based on a unique understanding of freedom. Final goal true anarchist - the elimination of all types of coercion and exploitation in. Representatives of this movement believe that power over needs cooperation with the complete destruction of the privileges of individuals and social groups.
Anarchists defend the view that social institutions and social relations should be based on voluntary consent, interest, and mutual assistance of all participants in social interaction. According to anarchists, any type of government, even the most democratic, must be eliminated.
Features of modern anarchism
There are several types of anarchism, which do not exclude, but complement each other. Some of these movements are built on extreme leftist views and can be directed not only against the state, but also against the bourgeois system as a whole, including private property and free market relations. In this the left anarchists are somewhat close to communist ideology, although the similarity here is only external. One of the differences between anarchism and communism is the cultivation of the ideology of individualism rather than collectivism.
Opposite views are characteristic of so-called “market” anarchists. They partially support capitalist relations, but only in that part that relates to an economy free from external control. Today, adherents of such views in anarchism constitute a minority, inferior to the left wing of the movement.
Being mainly supporters of individualism, anarchists do not have a clear answer to the question of the principles of building their movement. Some recognize the need for a certain relationship, others categorically oppose this, preferring to build activities on the principles of personal acquaintance of participants in the anarchist movement.
There are also disagreements between different groups of anarchists regarding the possibility of using violent methods. Someone is against coercion in principle, adhering to ideology. But there are also those who are convinced that organized violence is the only way to advance their views and fight for the ideals of anarchism. Supporters of this approach are aware of the inconsistency of the proposed means with the very foundations of the ideology of this movement.
Material from Maoist Wikipedia
Anarchism(from Greek - anarchy, anarchy) - one of the varieties of utopian socialism, which advocates the abolition of all political power in society and the state in any historical conditions. Anarchists declare themselves enemies of state power in general, and in particular they are irreconcilable enemies of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Under the guise of negating politics, anarchists subjugate “the working class to bourgeois politics...”. Lenin pointed out that anarchism gave nothing but common phrases against exploitation; anarchism does not understand the reasons for exploitation, does not see that the development of society leads to socialism, does not understand “class struggle as the creative force for the implementation of socialism”
There are several varieties of anarchism: anarcho-individualism, anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-communism. Anarcho-individualism is the most extreme form of individualism. The ideologist of early anarcho-individualism, the German Caspar Schmidt (1806-1856) (his pseudonym Max Stirner is better known) wrote: “For me, there is nothing higher than me... I declare war on every state, even the most democratic.” The anarchist Proudhon (1809-1865) tried to introduce anarchist ideology into the consciousness of the working class in France and other countries with his theory of “mutual services,” a free contract of autonomous individuals.
Proudhonism promoted the petty-bourgeois utopian idea of creating a “people's bank”, through which the exchange of the products of their labor would be established between workers and the exploitation of man by man within the framework of the bourgeois system would be eliminated. This idea was beneficial to the bourgeoisie, as it distracted the working class from the struggle for power, from the socialist revolution. The harmful anarchist utopias of Max Stirner and Proudhon were first exposed by Marx and Engels in The Holy Family, The German Ideology, and The Poverty of Philosophy. The predecessor of Russian Social Democracy, N. G. Chernyshevsky, sharply criticized Proudhon.
Anarcho-syndicalism (“syndicates” are trade unions in France and other countries) developed in France, Spain, Italy and other countries. Like all anarchists, anarcho-syndicalists deny the need for a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. They are generally opposed to political struggle and political parties working class. They attribute a primary role to trade unions, and consider the strike to be the main method of struggle against the bourgeoisie. A prominent Russian anarchist and the worst enemy of the theory and practice of scientific socialism was Bakunin (see). Marx and Engels waged an irreconcilable struggle with Bakunin and Bakunism.
One of the forms of anarchism is the anarcho-communism of P. A. Kropotkin (1842-1921). Kropotkin put the interests of society above the selfish interests of the individual, but, being an idealist in understanding history and an opponent of scientific socialism, he highlighted the role of moral influence on the exploiting classes and the government.
Marxism exposed the theory and practice of anarchism as a movement hostile to the fundamental interests of the proletariat and all working masses. While anarchism puts the individual and his interests at the forefront, Marxism puts the interests of the working masses at the forefront. Only the liberation of the masses from the oppression and slavery of capital can liberate the individual and create conditions for the comprehensive physical and spiritual development of individuals. Marxism proved that to implement socialism, a socialist revolution is necessary, establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The attitude of the RMP to anarchism
We define the contradiction between us and the anarchists at the moment as a contradiction within the people. Historically, anarchists could be both on the side of progress and revolution, and take objectively reactionary positions. Incompetent political behavior during the period of the “Paris Commune”, support for the rebellion in Kronstadt, terrorist activities against the Bolsheviks (the explosion of the Moscow city committee in 1919), disruptive activities during civil war in Spain 1936-1939 - this is an incomplete list of examples of the historical sins of anarchism. At the same time, for communists today anarchists are the closest allies, at least in the anti-fascist and anti-imperialist struggle.
We disagree with them on the following points:
- Organization. Anarchists strive for an organization of a non-authoritarian type (with the right of a minority or individual member not to obey the decision of the majority), often completely amorphous and without statutes (which nevertheless often leads to informal leadership). We, as supporters of the Leninist tradition, stand for: a) for the conformity of the form of organization with the tasks of the struggle at the current stage b) for the creation of a revolutionary party on the basis of democratic centralism, which implies the existence of a leadership democratically elected for a certain period and compliance by the minority of the party with the decisions of the majority.
- The attitude of the organization towards the masses. We deduce the need for organization from the varying degrees of consciousness of representatives of the exploited classes. A small part of the proletariat under strong ideological influence ruling class, may have an openly reactionary consciousness (not to mention the labor aristocracy). The bulk of the proletariat has an intermediate, unformed consciousness, which is usually expressed in apoliticality and reformism. Part of the proletariat is aware of the long-term interests of its class, expressed in the need to overthrow the power of the exploiting classes. Considering the conscious, revolutionary part of the proletariat as an exponent of the progressive development of society, we recognize its leading role in relation to the more conservative layers of the proletariat. Anarchists, on the other hand, rely on the “initiative minority” and refuse to lead the masses, striving to replace the actions of the masses with the actions of “revolutionary activists”.
- The question of political power. Anarchists usually ignore the issues of seizing political power and organizing the suppression of the overthrown exploiting classes, and issues of confronting the capitalist encirclement. Considering the main and primary task of the revolution to be “the elimination of all political power,” they oppose any dictatorship, including. against the dictatorship of the proletariat. We believe that the condition for the elimination of any political power, the personification of which is the state, is the initial resolution of the contradiction between the exploiters and the exploited. This contradiction can only be resolved through the class struggle of the proletariat, overthrowing the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and establishing its own dictatorship (to suppress internal reaction and resistance to imperialism), and further transforming the economy towards socialism and communism. Classes, class struggle, and therefore necessity proletarian dictatorship persist until the victory of the proletarian revolution on a worldwide scale and the implementation of communism.
In general, the most critical thing for anarchism is its theoretical poverty in comparison with Marxism (which includes dialectical and historical materialism as methods of understanding reality).
Marx and Engels on anarchism
"Revolution is undoubtedly the most authoritarian thing possible. Revolution is an act in which part of the population imposes its will on another part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannons, that is, extremely authoritarian means. And if the victorious party does not want to lose the fruits of its efforts ", it must maintain its dominance through the fear that its weapons inspire in the reactionaries. If the Paris Commune had not relied on the authority of the armed people against the bourgeoisie, would it have lasted longer than one day?"
Lenin and Stalin on anarchism
“Between socialism and anarchism lies a whole abyss, which provocateurs of the detective police or newspaper servants of reactionary governments vainly try to present as non-existent. The worldview of the anarchists is a bourgeois worldview turned inside out. Their individualistic theories, their individualistic ideal are in direct opposition to socialism. Their views do not express the future of the bourgeois system, moving toward the socialization of labor with unstoppable force, and the present and even past of this system, the dominance of blind chance over the isolated, lonely, small producer. Their tactics, which boil down to the denial of political struggle, separate the proletarians and turn them in fact into passive participants one or another bourgeois policy, because real detachment from politics is impossible and unfeasible for the workers."
The difference between the views of Marxists and anarchists on the issue of the state (“State and Revolution”)
“The difference between Marxists and anarchists is that (1) the former, setting as their goal the complete destruction of the state, recognize this goal as feasible only after the destruction of classes socialist revolution, as a result of the establishment of socialism, leading to the withering away of the state; the latter want the complete destruction of the state from today to tomorrow, without understanding the conditions for the feasibility of such destruction. (2) The first recognize it as necessary that the proletariat, having won political power, completely destroy the old state machine, replacing it with a new one, consisting of an organization of armed workers, similar to the Commune; the latter, defending the destruction of the state machine, have a completely unclear idea of what the proletariat will replace it with and how it will use revolutionary power; anarchists even deny the use of state power by the revolutionary proletariat, its revolutionary dictatorship. (3) The former require the preparation of the proletariat for revolution through the use of a modern state; Anarchists deny this."
J.V. Stalin’s work “Anarchism or Socialism?” is devoted to criticism of anarchism.
Sources
- Brown Zak, “Maoism or Anarchism? Criticism of anarchism from a Maoist point of view"
- on Maoism.Ru.
