anarchism

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The A in the circle: A widely used anarchist symbol

Anarchism (derived from ancient Greek ἀναρχία anarchia ' lack of domination'; derivation from α privativum and ἀρχή arche 'domination') is a political theory of ideas and philosophy that rejects the rule of people over people and any kind of hierarchy as a form of oppression of freedom . This is opposed to a society in which individuals come together on a voluntary basis, self-determined and federally in collectives of various kinds such as municipalities as the smallest unit of coexistence, cooperatives and syndicates as the basis of production.

There are many, sometimes very different, currents within anarchism. Basically, anarchy means the abolition of hierarchical structures - up to and including the dissolution of state organization of human society. The focus is on freedom, self-determination , equality , self-realization of individuals and collective self-administration . Anarchism is understood by its representatives in a social revolutionary sense as a synthesis between individual freedom as in liberalism and social responsibility for the community as in socialism .

People who live according to these principles or strive for a society free of domination are known as anarchists. Sometimes the adjective libertarian (German: liberal) is used as a synonym for “anarchistic” in German-speaking countries .

Currents

Classifications

Peter Kropotkin

An important element of anarchism is inner pluralism , which manifests itself in differently shaped currents, which mostly complement each other in their emphases. All currents agree in the rejection of the state - especially in its form of monarchy and dictatorship - militarism and clericalism .

In the secondary academic literature, different definitions and delimitations of directions of anarchism are discussed. As early as 1894, Rudolf Stammler distinguished between “individualistic” and “collectivistic” variants of anarchist ideas. In a representation from 1937 Albert Weisbord further distinguished the following directions:

  1. liberal-anarchist
    1. libertarian ( Godwin )
    2. mutualistic ( Proudhon )
    3. American-Liberal ( Thoreau , Warren , Tucker )
  2. communist-anarchist
    1. collectivist ( Bakunin )
    2. communist ( Kropotkin , Most , "Chicago Martyrs" ).

In 1977 Franz Neumann suggested a distinction between the following currents, which was then widely received:

  1. Individual anarchism (Godwin, Stirner , Bellegarrigue )
  2. Social anarchism (Proudhon, Landauer )
  3. Collective anarchism (Bakunin)
  4. Communist anarchism (Kropotkin, Cafiero , Most)
  5. Anarcho-Syndicalism ( Pelloutier , Monatte , CNT )
  6. "New anarchism and student movement"

In 1972, Erwin Oberländer made a similar difference

  1. Individualistic anarchism (Bellegarigue, Tucker , Landauer)
  2. Collectivist anarchism (Bakunin, formerly Kropotkin, Adhémar Schwitzguébel )
  3. Communist anarchism (Cafiero, Kropotkin, Reclus , Merlino , Goldman , Most)
  4. "Anarchism and the trade union movement" (Pelloutier, Monatte, Machnowschtschina , CNT and others)
  5. "Anarchism Today" ( Colin Ward , William O. Reichert )

In his monograph from 1984 David L. Miller also differentiated a “philosophical anarchism” from “individualistic” and “collectivistic” anarchism, which provides a category for authors like Stirner or Godwin, whose work precedes the usual assumptions of an “anarchist movement” ( this is mostly not considered tangible in secondary literature until the 1860s). In 1992, Peter Marshall presented an influential, geographically structured presentation that also includes non-Western traditions, especially Daoism , but also e.g. B. Gandhi includes, as well as "American individualists and communists" and also deals with connections between anarchism and the " New Right ". The inclusion of certain classics is often controversial both among the representatives of anarchist ideas and in secondary literature, for example with regard to Stirner's.

basic forms

Mikhail Bakunin. (Photograph by Félix Nadar , ca.1860)

From the history of trade union organization and mutual support (French: assistance mutuelle ), mutualism has emerged, which aims at a social symbiosis in a system free of domination. Mutualism was mainly shaped by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and contains revolutionary elements. At the center, however, is a reform of the credit and currency system with the aim of eliminating profit . The 'concept of anarchist federalism ' drafted by Proudhon is based on the networking of communal structures and is also a basic principle in subsequent concepts of anarchism.

The collectivist anarchism is mainly based on the ideas of Mikhail Bakunin and members of the Jura Federation . Instead of private ownership of the means of production, the means of work should be owned by manageable collectives and controlled and administered by the producers themselves. Workers should be paid by democratic institutions based on the time they have worked. This income should be used to purchase items in a community market. Federal structures should completely replace the state and other centralized institutions.

Supporters of communist anarchism demand a complete break with capitalism and the abolition of money . The direct remuneration is to be replaced by free access to the joint work product. Peter Kropotkin , as the most important theoretician of communist anarchism, opposes economic value in general; be it money, work or goods. He sees private property as a reason for oppression and exploitation and instead proposes comprehensive collectivization .

The individualist anarchism is formed in the 19th century in North America Anglo-Saxon doctrine that the individual , is watching and its interests as the center of society not unlike the aforementioned socially oriented forms and in opposition to collectivism is. The individualistic trend in the USA was developed primarily by Benjamin Tucker . In Germany he was represented by the anarchist and writer John Henry Mackay , who mainly referred to Benjamin Tucker and Max Stirner . Individual anarchism is often described as an extreme form of liberalism .

The contrast between individualism - egoism and collectivism - altruism is an important anarchist dispute.

More currents

Voltairine de Cleyre , a representative of anarchism without adjectives

Because of the large number of content-related overlapping, but in detail quite different anarchist manifestations , the term " anarchism without adjectives " is used for anarchism in general, as it was represented by Fernando Tarrida del Mármol . The term is applied either across the board to anarchism when a specific classification is rejected, or when its followers are tolerant of the various currents .

The most well-known and internationally most strongly organized direction is anarcho-syndicalism . His idea is to unite the wage earners in trade unions , which differ from the bargaining parties by supporting revolutionary syndicalism . The largest anarcho-syndicalist union in Spain in the 1930s, with almost two million members, was the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), which was reorganized after the era of Franquism .

Anarcho-pacifism (also non-violent anarchism ) stands for the purely non-violent implementation . This is primarily about the merging of anarchism with the nonviolent theory of action or with theories of the nonviolent revolution. In this context, criticism of violence is also understood as an important part of anarchist criticism of rule.

Christian anarchists , too , are mostly strictly pacifist. They deny the rule of the churches and priests as well as the state and believe that freedom speaks directly through the teaching of Jesus .

A current of Jewish anarchism, represented for example by Bernard Lazare , emerged from the experiences of various anti-Semitic pogroms in the late 19th century. The idea, also known as 'anarchist Zionism', was a Jewish social system without a state. Working with Zionist socialists , many Jewish settlements in Palestine ( kibbutzim ) were organized under a British mandate according to anarchist ideas.

Other schools of thought emerged through the connection of anarchist ideas with other religious thought traditions, such as Islam , Buddhism and Hinduism .

From reflection on the defeat of anarchism in Ukraine, platformism was developed, which calls for a stronger community, clear understanding of the ideological orientation and commitment in practice. A similar model is represented by "Especifismo" in South America.

The insurrectionary anarchism or insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary theory and practice within the libertarian movement that formal organizations how grassroots unions and federations opposes based on a political program and regular meetings. Instead, insurrectionists advocate direct action and cooperation in informal, small, autonomous grassroots groups, the affinity groups .

The Anarchokapitalismus advocates a shaped by the free market, voluntary Übereinkunften and voluntary contractual commitments society that completely dispensed with state institutions and procedures. The relationship between these ideas and their representatives and precursors to other forms of anarchism is controversial. The Anarchist FAQ writes that anarcho-capitalism originated in liberalism , not anarchism, and ignores the history of anarchism's economic ideas that have always been anti-capitalist. There is no connection between anarcho-capitalist theorists and the anarchist political movement. In contrast, Stefan Blankertz sees anarchism in general as a radical form of liberalism.

Newer approaches

Emma Goldman

The French variant of anarchism of 1968, situationism , was evident in the student movement and the May riots . Demands were, among other things, the abolition of goods, work, hierarchies, and the abolition of the separation between art and life.

The Anarchafeminism is a neologism of the 1970s and combines the radical feminism with the anarchist idea. There are already forerunners in the anarchist movement, for example Emma Goldman combined the struggle for female equality with the struggle for freedom of rule.

The definition of neo-anarchism describes the historical manifestation in the course of the 1968 movement in Germany, in which theoretical anarchism was rediscovered and freedom of hierarchy found its way into progressive and “left” groups.

Eco-anarchism is the term used to describe the connection between the rejection of man's rule over man and the rejection of man's rule over nature. A significant trend in North America is primitivism , which advocates a return to pre-industrial forms of economic activity.

"Folk-Anarchy", also the "little-a-anarchism", are "post-left" anarchist currents developed in the USA. These approaches can be found in networks such as CrimethInc. and the Curious George Brigade, who oppose nostalgic theory and personal references and call for a " do it yourself " practice: "an anarchy created by ordinary people who live extraordinary lives, called folk anarchy."

Postanarchism is not a unified theory, but rather is a collective term for postmodern , post-feminist and poststructuralist debates from an anarchist perspective. The prefix “Post” stands for a questioning and rejection of some basic assumptions of classical anarchism, not for giving up anarchist goals. The extremely positive view of people and the world of anarchism in the 19th century is considered outdated by post-anarchism. To him, rule shows itself to be changed and expanded, exploitation is juxtaposed with subjugating subjectivation , Foucault's positive concept of power is adapted. Post- anarchism also deals with post-colonialism and anti-racism .

Libertarian communalism is a reformist-oriented, practical draft for democratic self-government by communities on the basis of ecology, voluntariness and federalism and was implemented in the Kurdish areas at the time of the Syrian civil war.

The English-language term equivalent to libertarian, libertarian , has been a connection between anarchism and capitalism since the 1950s.

history

precursor

Diogenes of Sinope based on a painting by John William Waterhouse . Diogenes was one of the early social critics and preached the needlessness as the basis of freedom.

The historian Peter Marshall describes Daoism as "the first clear expression of anarchist sensitivity" and its main work Daodejing by Laozi as "one of the greatest anarchist classics." The Taoists rejected governments and strived for a life in natural and spontaneous harmony, whereby the harmony of the People with nature played a significant role. In the course of time Daoism developed a regular system of political ethics and dispensed with cults and the formation of a priestly caste. Daoism was thus also the most important countercurrent to authoritarian and bureaucratic Confucianism , which later became the Chinese state religion.

The first forerunners of anarchism in Europe can be found in ancient Greek philosophy . The historian Max Nettlau sees the mere existence of the word “An-Archia” as evidence “that there were people who consciously rejected the rule, the state.” Diogenes of Sinope preached from the 5th century BC (approx - 324 BC) the return to a natural life. He and the students of the school of the Cynics , which he founded, saw the original needlessness as a desirable state. According to the Cynics, social harmony would exist instead of mutual struggle and social conflict, since these arise from man's greed for material possessions and the pursuit of honor.

The historian Georg Adler sees the ideas of anarchism developed for the first time in world history in the teachings of Zeno von Kition (approx. 333–262 BC) . Zeno, the founder of the Stoa , was a great critic of Plato's ideal of a society that should find a moral coexistence with absolute state power. In contrast to Plato, Zeno drafted his own ideal of a free stateless community that would better suit human nature. Instead of following the written law, people should follow their true natural urges through insight. This would lead people to love others and to justice. Just as there is unity, harmony and equilibrium in external nature, so would this also apply in human society. From this follows the negation of the law, the courts, the police, school, marriage, money, the state religion and the state. Man would live in perfect equality across all national borders. Everyone should work voluntarily according to their abilities and be allowed to consume according to their needs.

In late antiquity and in the Middle Ages, there were various persecuted sects and heretics with liberal characteristics. However, anarchist elements were first documented in the Middle Ages by the heretic Amalrich von Bena and his followers, the Amalricans . The same applies to the Christian-mystical brothers and sisters of the free spirit in the 12th and 13th centuries who placed themselves outside of society and its laws.

One of the forerunners of anarchism is Étienne de La Boétie (1530–1563), who at the age of 18 wrote the fundamental work Discours de la servitude volontaire ou le Contr'un (German: From voluntary servitude or against one [the monarch ]) wrote. The basic question of the Discours de la servitude is: Where does it come from that an entire people can be tortured, mistreated and directed against their will by a single person. Monarchs don't rely on repression just to maintain their rule. Much more important for Étienne de la Boétie is the fact that the subjects voluntarily surrender to their servitude and only then transfer power to one person. If the subjects refused to serve the monarch, the monarch would in turn no longer have any power. La Boétie first formulated a basic criticism of anarchism, the master / bondage relationship in society, for the modern era.

In 1649, a year of great social unrest, the religious-anarchist movement of the Diggers arose in England under the influence of Gerrard Winstanley . The Diggers tried to break the existing social order and the rule of the large landowners by founding small, agricultural communities on an egalitarian basis. Through the voluntary union of all common people, the rulers should be starved if they do not join the communes. As early as 1651, the colonies of the jointly managed dissident group were destroyed again by the authorities and local landowners.

William Godwin was an English scholar and critic of the authoritarian development of the French Revolution . In 1793, in his main work Inquiry concerning political justice , he formulated that any form of authority should be viewed as an interference with private judgment. With his ideas Godwin had already anticipated almost all essential points of the anarchist theory.

Anarchism versus Marxism

Illustration from the French edition of Kropotkin's Anarchism , 1913

From the ideas of the Enlightenment , combined with the increasing radical currents of revolutionary liberalism since the French Revolution of 1789 and various early socialist approaches, the ideas of modern anarchism developed at about the same time as the communist ideas of Weitling and Marx and increasingly in mutual delimitation . The political differences between communists and anarchists led to historically conflictual situations in the labor movement and the political left as a whole; Conflicts that continue to the present day.

Only Pierre-Joseph Proudhon refers to himself as an anarchist and provides the essential elements of anarchism in his work Qu'est-ce que la propriété? ou recherches sur le principe du droit et du gouvernement (1840) (English: What is property? Investigations into the origin and foundations of law and rulership ) together. He formulates: " Property is theft ", whereby he understood property as a prerequisite for income without work . In doing so, he placed private ownership of means of production, apartment buildings, securities and the like at the center of his criticism of the prevailing political and social conditions in capitalism . This, like the bourgeois state, which is supposed to protect it, must be fought directly and immediately and replaced by self-organized forms of common property.

Proudhon dealt with Karl Marx in an exchange of letters. It turned out that they assessed both issues such as power and freedom of the individual or the role of the collective as a revolutionary subject very differently. Proudhon argued more strongly with philosophical and ethical principles, while Marx criticized these as merely moral ideals and lacked a scientific analysis of the contradictions between capital and labor.

Proudhon's followers Mikhail Bakunin (collectivist anarchism) and later Pyotr Alexejewitsch Kropotkin ( communist anarchism ) combined his theories with the agitation for a social revolution , which is necessary for the radical overturning of property relations. Bakunin rejected the leading role of a revolutionary cadre party as well as state hierarchies and thus rejected Marx's call for the establishment of communist parties as well as the thesis of the “ dictatorship of the proletariat ”, which should lead to a classless society . He did not believe that the workers first had to gain political state power so that socialism could be built up and the state wither, but wanted to abolish it directly. He called this conception "anti-authoritarian socialism"; a concept that was rejected by the Marxists as a "petty-bourgeois-pseudo-revolutionary ideology".

Between 1864 and 1872 were anarchists and Marxists in the politically divergent yet from a variety groups of the labor movement existing International Association organized (IAA). When the ideological conflict between the supporters of Bakunin on the one hand and those of Marx on the other had escalated, Bakunin was expelled from the IAA in 1872 at Marx's instigation. The ideological conflict that led to the dissolution of the IAA in 1876 (today also known as the “First International ”) marks the first fundamental turning point in the history of socialism and the international labor movement - even before they were further split up on the change of 19. to the 20th century into a reform-oriented (social democratic) and a revolutionary (communist) wing.

Since the breakup of the IAA - according to Rudolf Rocker - anarchists have set themselves apart  from Marxism in the following points:

  • Rejection of the Marxist “theories of fate” coined by Hegel. In history there is no inevitability at all ("historical necessities", "inevitability of historical events"), "only conditions that are tolerated and which sink into nothing as soon as people see through their causes and rebel against it" (Rocker) .
  • Rejection of "historical materialism". Not all “political and social events” could be explained from the economic situation.
  • Anarchism understands people as acting individuals, rejects the view of people as a mass.
  • Fundamental rejection of a state. Handing over the means of production from the private sector to a state “only leads to a dictatorship by the state” (Rocker).
  • Rejection of laws and legislators. Decisions are made decentrally, collectively and by consensus. “Only the free agreement that 'could' be the only moral bond of all social relationships between people” (Rocker).
  • Rejection of a transition phase from capitalism to socialism. The “will to power” must be fought in principle in a free society.
  • radical rejection of all capitalist terms:
All concepts of value as we know them today are all capitalist concepts. Air, sunlight, rain, soil moisture, humus, in short, many of the most important factors of production are today capitalistically worthless because they could not be monopolized. (...) With the cessation of the concept of property in the means of production, every concept of value for the individual also ceases. ( Pierre Ramus , Franz Barwich )

Individual representatives also question the concept of social class, such as Errico Malatesta at the Amsterdam congress .

The propaganda indeed

The French anarchist Ravachol was an advocate of the propaganda of the deed through violence: In revenge for killed demonstrators, he carried out bomb attacks and was guillotined for them .

From the late 1870s onwards, anarchist and exemplary actions were referred to as propaganda of deed . They should "wake up" society and create sympathy among the population in order to serve as a means for political and social change. Due to the relative accumulation of attacks in various countries at the end of the 19th century, public opinion reduced anarchism to terrorist attacks , a view that is still widespread today.

Journalistic supporters of the Narodniki attacks on Tsar Alexander II included, for example, individual social democratic politicians in the German Reich such as Wilhelm Hasselmann and Johann Most . With the exclusion of these two protagonists of the social-revolutionary-anarchist faction of the SPD forerunner party SAP in 1880, the German social democracy attempted to get rid of its anarchist wing while the repressive socialist law was in force . Hasselmann and Most, for example, in the first social democratic, then anarchist magazine Freiheit , which was published in London and distributed illegally in the German Empire, also called for open violence against the anti-socialist repression of the German government under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and the SAP leadership adopted an overly moderate stance in their purely verbal opposition to the system, continued their social revolutionary agitation in exile in the USA after they were expelled from the party .

A few years earlier, symbolic attacks on Kaiser Wilhelm I and the kings of Spain and Italy had taken place. On June 24, 1894, however, the young Italian immigrant Sante Geronimo Caserio , who was part of the anarchist environment, killed the French President Carnot . This was the culmination of a whole series of anarchist-motivated attacks in France. Another example is Leon Czolgosz , who shot US President William McKinley on September 6, 1901 in Buffalo, New York . McKinley died eight days later.

The 90s of the 19th century were referred to as a "decade of bombs". Attacks with dynamite - a brand new invention - were rapidly directed against monarchs, presidents, ministers, police chiefs or officers, and judges who had condemned anarchists. Others met official buildings. The individual violent attacks and assassinations towards the end of the 19th century, described by Peter Kropotkin on the occasion of an international revolutionary congress in London in 1881 as counterproductive or ineffective , were increasingly rejected by other anarchists.

Early 20th century

Anarchists played a role in many labor movements , uprisings, and revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries. These include, for example, the Mexican Revolution from 1910 to 1919 with the peasant army under the leadership of Emiliano Zapata , the October 1917 Revolution in Russia and the peasant and partisan movement named after its leader Nestor Makhno , the Machnowzi between 1917 and 1921 in the Ukraine ; Even in the short-lived Munich soviet republic of 1919, anarchists such as Gustav Landauer and the poet Erich Mühsam were at times involved in the council government. The anarcho-syndicalist International Workers' Association (IAA), founded in 1922, is still active in industrial action in many countries in America and Europe.

In the early 20th century, groups of anarchists in Russia were ousted by the communist Bolsheviks and, towards the end of the Russian Revolution, fell victim to purges (the suppression of the uprising in Kronstadt and the anarchist peasant movement Machnovshchina ).

Spanish Republic

Flag of the CNT-FAI

In the Spanish Civil War , which took place from June 1936 to April 1939 between various groups of Republicans and the fascist movement under General Franco , anarchism has so far been most powerful. In particular, the influential anarcho-syndicalist union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), with its militant arm, the anarchist Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), controlled large parts of eastern Spain.

Germany during the Nazi dictatorship

Legal political activity by anarchists in Germany was not possible during the National Socialist regime. As early as 1933, shortly after Hitler came to power , prominent spokesmen of the anarchists were sent to concentration camps . Many of them were murdered, such as the poet and publicist Erich Mühsam . Young and lesser-known activists tried to organize anti-fascist resistance groups with the black crowds , but the Gestapo removed them . Most of them emigrated. Many of the emigrated German anarchists, including Augustin Souchy , joined the struggle of the International Brigades on the side of the CNT / FAI against Franco in Spain from 1936 during the civil war there . Hundreds of anarchists who remained in Germany were taken into " protective custody ", sentenced in show trials and taken to concentration camps, from where some were forced into the SS special unit Dirlewanger at the end of World War II .

post war period

German Democratic Republic

For a short time there was a resurgence of anarchism under the Soviet occupation forces , mainly by syndicalist workers. After the war, a new group of freedom-minded people had formed around Wilhelm Jelinek in Zwickau . Jelinek was the chairman of the works council of a large industrial company. This group sent circular letters to at least 18 different places in the Soviet zone and also maintained correspondence with anarchists in other zones of Germany. Through verbal and written agitation he succeeded in spanning a wide-meshed network over the entire eastern zone and later GDR . “In Zwickau, as unbelievable as it sounds, an information center for all-German anarchism was set up. In mid-1948 she called a secret conference in Leipzig of all anti-authoritarians from different directions living under the Soviet occupation forces. ” Circulars from the Zwickau Circle fell into the hands of the state organs. The State Security Service became aware and arrested all participants. After the end of the war until the demolished conference in 1948, the anarchist groups in the Soviet occupation zone were so strong that they were even able to support the West German anarchists with a duplicating machine and money. It is known from some places in the GDR that some former members of the FAUD joined the SED, most of whom were "cleared out" in the 1950s. Until the fall of the Berlin Wall , anarchist activities were limited to the publication of leaflets and some magazines.

Federal Republic of Germany

With the student movement in the late 1960s , public interest in anarchism increased. There was an anarchist current within the student movement. Anarchists were also represented in the Socialist German Student Union (SDS), which developed into the collecting basin for the entire movement. Furthermore, anarchism had a theoretical and practical meaning for the New Social Movements (NSB). Within the Autonomen , as the left-wing radical wing of the NSB, there was and is a large libertarian current. A nationwide organized alliance of anarcho-pacifist reference groups was the Federation of Nonviolent Action Groups (FöGA), which existed from 1980 to the 1990s and which has published the magazine Graswurzelrevolution for years . In 1989 the "Initiative for an Anarchist Federation in Germany" (I-AFD) was founded. It survived the turn of the millennium and was later absorbed into the "Forum of German-speaking Anarchists" (since 2013 the Federation of German-speaking Anarchists ). In the early 21st century, several local groups of the Anarchist-Syndicalist Youth were formed.

At times, especially in the 1970s, the Red Army Faction (RAF) was also referred to as "anarchist" in the mass media, along with other similarly acting groups associated with left-wing terrorism. However, this assignment was based on a substantively incorrect or, in practice, narrowed understanding of anarchism. It occupied the widespread, polarizing and unspecified catchphrase anarchy in the sense of anomie . The RAF, which based its actions and attacks on a Marxist-Leninist understanding of anti-imperialism , had no anarchist frame of reference itself. The erroneous external attribution as "anarchist" was based primarily on their extreme militancy , with which their main actors took action against symbolic figures of the ruling state and economic structures in politics , economy and justice to the point of fatal consequences for others and themselves .

German constitution protection authorities classify anarchism under the heading of left-wing extremism on the grounds that it strives for a “state and domination-free society” , for example in the federal constitution protection report from 2012.

International

In Europe and the Americas, the supraregional anarchist federations were reconstituted and merged in 1968 to form the International of Anarchist Federations . In the USA and Great Britain , punk emerged as an anarchist subculture in the late 1970s . Above all, the members of the band Crass should be mentioned here as committed anarchists and pacifists . After the disintegration of the centralized states of the Warsaw Pact, further anarchist federations formed there, some of which joined the International. There have been international libertarian book fairs in more than ten countries since the mid-1990s .

Anarchism in the Present

Fuck the elections, against any representation, against any authority, for personal responsibility and autonomy, for anarchy. Poster in Vienna, 2016
A contemporary poster in Greek. "So you get up again! They failed to bring you to your knees. The spirit that drives you to destroy the state and all rule is not the result of any adolescent drive, but the expression of a natural PASSION for FREEDOM that springs from the depths of your soul. " M. Bakunin

All over the world there are local anarchist groups that propagate different currents and are differently organized. The spectrum of activities ranges from the publication of newspapers and the implementation of direct actions to anarchist living and working collectives . Political influence is usually limited. The anarchism in the Netherlands in the mid-1960s with the Provo movement currently playing. After the economic crisis in Argentina in 2000, a few hundred, mostly Peronist -oriented companies were put into self-administration, but they participate in normal global economic events and only pursue a limited mutualistic approach. Likewise, the autonomous - and punk -, especially anarcho-punk scenes, are considered to be strongly influenced by anarchism. The squatter and free shop movements are also considered anarchist inspired. At the beginning of the 3rd millennium, the Kurdish movement adapted a contemporary, pragmatic form of ecological and democratic self-government from anarchist discourses in the form of democratic confederalism .

Organizations

The International of the Anarchist Federations (IFA) and the international anarchist prisoner aid organization Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) should be mentioned as important international groups .

There are several hundred anarchist grassroots organizations and libertarian groups around the world that organize themselves in local organizations. In Germany, the Federation of Liberal Socialists (1947 to around 1970; successor organization to the FAUD) was the largest organization after the Second World War ; today the anarcho-syndicalist union of the Free Workers' Union (FAU) is a member of the International Confederation of Workers (IAA) ). The Federation of German-Speaking Anarchists (FdA), the successor organization founded in 2003 to the initiative launched in 1989 to establish an anarchist federation in Germany , is associated with the IFA . Several local groups of the anarcho-syndicalist youth exist since 2009 .

Periodicals

The most important German-language periodicals are the “ Direct Action ” of the anarcho-syndicalist organization FAU-IAA, which has changed from print to digital medium, the anarcho-pacifist “ grassroots revolution ” and its separate supplement “Utopia”, which was discontinued in 2011. Neznam , a journal for research on anarchism, has been published every six months since 2015 . The Federation of German-Speaking Anarchists has published the monthly magazine "Gǎidào" since 2011. The quarterly “ Black Thread ” has been discontinued since 2004.

The English-language magazine “Abolishing the Borders from Below” appeared in Berlin from 2001 to 2010. The self-organization magazine “ Contraste ” and the ecologically oriented “ Green Leaf ” are included in the anarchist environment . " Die Aktion " has since been discontinued . The organization Socialiste Libertaire publishes the “Rébéllion” in German and French.

Anarchist or anarcho-syndicalist weekly newspapers appear with “ Umanità Nova ” in Italy, “ le monde libertaire ” in France and “ Arbetaren ” in Sweden.

Forms of action

Anarchism seeks to act directly socially or politically. Ideally, non-violence is the goal of anarchy. Various forms of action are derived from this approach, such as, for example, usually non-violent civil disobedience or direct action , i.e. strike , general strike , sabotage , occupation and squatting, and militant actions.

The line between violence and non-violence in anarchy is tied to "necessities": "True anarchist violence ends where the need for defense and liberation ends," wrote Errico Malatesta , a major activist and spokesman for Italian anarchists, in 1924 at the time of the fascist dictatorship in Italy. For the establishment and maintenance of anarchy, counterviolence was widely regarded as a legitimate means against domination in the early 20th century.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, propaganda was indeed a widespread form of action intended to spread anarchist ideas through exemplary actions. The form of action became known primarily through attacks on exposed leaders from business and politics. In the revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries, anarchists played a role and, for example, as partisan movements, such as the Machnowzi during the Russian civil war , were also of military importance.

In the late 20th century, new forms such as communication guerilla , black block , clown army and guerrilla gardening were added.

Symbols

The symbols of anarchism include a wide variety of signs. The most common are the A in a circle, a black or diagonal black divided flag and the black star.

See also

Portal: Anarchism  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the subject of anarchism

literature

Introductions

classic

Modern approaches

Criticism of anarchism

  • Wolfgang Harich : On the criticism of revolutionary impatience. A settlement with the old and the new anarchism. Verlag May 8, Berlin 1998. ISBN 3-931745-06-6
  • Ute Nicolaus: Sovereign and Martyr . Publishing house Königshausen & Neumann. Literary studies series. Volume 506. P. 39, 40. Florens Christian Rank: Critique of Anarchism: The problem of violence. ISBN 3-8260-2789-2
  • C. Roland Hoffmann-Negulescu: Anarchy, minimal state, world state. Critique of libertarian legal and state theory . Chapter IV., Anarchy, State and Utopia . S. 83. Tectum Verlag , Marburg 2011. ISBN 3-8288-8303-6

media

Web links

Wiktionary: Anarchism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Anarchism  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Anarchism  - Sources and Full Texts

Texts

criticism

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerhard Göhler and Ansgar Klein: Anarchism . In: Hans-Joachim Lieber (ed.): Political theories from antiquity to the present . Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 1993, p. 580; Peter Lösche : Anarchism . In: Dieter Nohlen (Ed.): Lexicon of Politics, Vol. 7: Political Terms . directmedia, Berlin 2004, p. 34.
  2. ↑ Library of the Free : What is Anarchism . In: Anarchist Federation Berlin (ed.): Document A . Berliner Anarchistisches Jahrbuch 2007, p. 44 PDF
  3. ↑ Gotelind Müller: China, Kropotkin und der Anarchismus , Harrasowitz, Wiesbaden 2001, 20-28 ( available from Google Books) gives a brief overview of the history of research, which is also used for the following overview .
  4. ^ R. Stammler: Die Theorie des Anarchismus , Berlin 1894, here after G. Müller, lc, 23.
  5. ^ A. Weisbord: The Conquest of Power. Liberalism, Anarchism, Syndicalism, Socialism, Fascism and Communism , 2 volumes, New York 1937, here after G. Müller, lc, 23.
  6. ↑ Art. Anarchism , in: Franz Neumann (ed.): Handbook of political theories and ideologies , Reinbek, Baden-Baden 1977, 222-296, here after G. Müller, lc, 24.
  7. ↑ Erwin Oberländer (ed.): Der Anarchismus , Ölten / Freiburg 1972, here after G. Müller, lc, 24f.
  8. ↑ D. Miller: Anarchism , London 1984, here after G. Müller, lc, 25.
  9. ↑ P. Marshall: Demanding the Impossible. A History of Anarchism , London 1992, here after G. Müller, lc, 26.
  10. ↑ Cf. for example Gotelind Müller: China, Kropotkin und der Anarchismus , Harrasowitz, Wiesbaden 2001, 27f ( available from Google Books).
  11. ^ Henry J. Silverman: American radical thought. The libertarian tradition. Heath 1970, p. 140.
  12. ↑ Michail Bakunin: Revolutionary Catechism . 1866.
  13. ↑ Michail Bakunin: Statehood and Anarchy (1873) . Berlin 2007, p. 389ff.
  14. ↑ An Anarchist FAQ. A.3.2 Are there different types of social anarchism? ( Memento from July 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) ( mirror )
  15. ↑ Max Nettlau : Anarchists and Social Revolutionaries. The historical development of anarchism in the years 1880–1886 . Asy-Verlag, Berlin 1931, p. 7.
  16. ^ Peter Kropotkin: The Conquest of Bread . Putnam 1907, p. 202.
  17. ↑ Max Stirner . - DadAWeb
  18. ↑ Hans Popper: The free organized community of the Jewish Yishuv (residents) in Palestine . Verlag Klaus Guhl, Berlin 1987
  19. ↑ Appendix: Anarchism and "anarcho" -capitalism in the Anarchist FAQ v. 14.0; see. older version (v. 5.2): 5 - Anarchism and “anarcho” -capitalism ( Memento of May 29, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) An Anarchist FAQ, accessed on March 16, 2008. [Website no longer accessible]; and v. 8.5 .
  20. ^ Lexicon of economic education , Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 8th edition, ISBN 978-3-486-58042-6 , p. 13 (keyword anarchism ).
  21. ↑ Curious George Brigade: DIY. About anarchy and dinosaurs . Unrast Verlag , Münster 2006, ISBN 3-89771-444-2 .
  22. ↑ Jürgen Mümken: Post anarchism - Anarchist theory (in) the postmodern
  23. ↑ Murray Bookchin: The Next Revolution. Libertarian Communalism and the Future of the Left. Foreword: Ursula K. Le Guin , 2015, ISBN 978-3-89771-594-3 .
  24. ↑ Henning Ottmann : History of political thinking , Volume 3.3: The modern age. The political currents in the 19th century . JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2016, p. 198.
  25. ↑ Peter Marshall : Demanding the Impossible - A History of Anarchism . London, HarperCollins 1992. Quoted from: Horst Stowasser : Anarchy! Idea, history, perspectives. Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 2007, p. 181.
  26. ↑ Horst Stowasser : Anarchy! Idea, history, perspectives. Edition Nautilus, Hamburg 2007, p. 181ff.
  27. ↑ Jochen Schmück: Anarchy - On the history of a stimulus and catchphrase quoted by Max Nettlau: History of anarchy . Volume I: The Early Spring of Anarchy. Your historical development from the beginning to the year 1864 . Berlin 1925 [exp. Reprint o. O .: Library Thélème 1993], p. 17. Christian Meier is also of the opinion that the negative meaning that the term anarchy acquired in ancient Greece can be traced back to the existence of “ concrete anarchist groups ”. In his opinion, however, these groups did not represent any declared anti- statistical views; rather, they were concerned with the “wildly roaring abandonment of a crowd” or the “cheeky lack of control of a sailor camp.” Cf. Ludz and Meier: Anarchy, Anarchism, Anarchist . P. 50.
  28. ↑ Georg Adler : History of Socialism and Communism from Plato to the Present . Hirschfeld, Leipzig 1899, p. 47.
  29. ↑ a b Georg Adler : History of Socialism and Communism from Plato to the Present . Hirschfeld, Leipzig 1899, p. 46ff.
  30. ↑ Max Nettlau : The early spring of anarchy. Your historical development from the beginning to the year 1864 . Verlag Der Syndikalist, Berlin 1925, p. 23.
  31. ↑ Étienne de La Boétie : Of the voluntary servitude of people in the Gutenberg-DE project
  32. ^ Markus Henning: William Godwin . Entry in the Lexicon of Anarchy .
  33. ↑ Pierre Joseph Proudhon: What is property. First memorandum. Investigations into the origin and foundations of law and rule . Monte Verità 1992, ISBN 978-3-900434-30-4 , p. 219.
  34. ↑ Krüschedt, Fritz (1910–1978) from Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands, accessed on August 20, 2009.
  35. ^ Günter Bartsch : Communism, Socialism, Anarchism . Herder Verlag , 1982.
  36. ↑ Anarchists in the GDR . Tobacco shop . April 12, 1984. Retrieved August 27, 2012.
  37. ↑ Knowing and wanting. Anarchism and Syndicalism in Magdeburg . ( Memento from August 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Troublemaker . Issue 12.
  38. ↑ Author: Bernd Drücke. From September 15, 2009 . “Anarchy in East Germany. Without the environmental papers and the telegraph , the turning point in 1989 would not have happened ”. About the libertarian press in the GDR. Retrieved May 17, 2012.
  39. ↑ Libertarian Days on Anarchismus.de .
  40. ↑ Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (ed.): Verfassungsschutzbericht 2012 . Berlin 2012, pp. 150, 154, 156.
  41. ^ No Pasar - A look into self-managed factories Self-published by CHILAVERT, Buenos Aires 2007
  42. ↑ Günter Hoerig: German-language anarchist periodicals today (PDF file), DadA studies, Volume 1, December 2017
  43. ↑ Ne znam - Journal for Research on Anarchism
  44. ↑ fda-ifa.org/category/gai-dao/
  45. ↑ Schwarzer Faden magazine for lust and freedom ( Memento from July 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  46. ↑ site Rebellion / Organization Socialiste Libertaire
  47. ↑ a b c Errico Malatesta: Anarchy and violence . 1924 "Anarchy means non-violence, means non-rule of man over man, non-coercion through the violence of the will of one or more over that of the others."