Anti-authoritarian socialism

The anti-authoritarian socialism is a collective term for numerous political ideologies, which mainly consistently from authoritarian and totalitarian define socialism. In particular, the organization of the state as well as activities in a revolutionary party and the dictatorship of the proletariat were and are rejected. Anti-authoritarian socialism has a long history and is wide-ranging.

history

Probably the best-known representatives of authoritarian and anti-authoritarian socialism were Karl Marx and Michail Bakunin , who represented opposing views of socialism . On the one hand, Marxism and Bakunin's collectivist anarchism . For example, the Jura Federation , the resulting anarcho-syndicalism (which played a role especially in the Spanish Civil War in 1936) to council communism and libertarian socialism are directions that are counted as anti-authoritarian socialism. Characteristics were and are: rejection of authoritarian, hierarchical and military systems of power, rule of people over people and a pronounced freedom of thought. Anti-authoritarian socialism was relatively well represented in the 1968 movement .

In Bakunin-Anarchism versus Marx-Communism , the author Ch. Rutz compared the communist ideas of Marx and the anarchist ideas of Bakunin in search of alternative models of society that are organized in an anti-authoritarian manner.

The philosopher Max Stirner already criticized the collective power of communism with the words: “By abolishing all personal property, communism only pushes me back into dependence on another, namely on the general public or as a whole, and no matter how loud it is attacking the state, what it intends to do, is itself again a state, a status, a condition that hinders my free movement, a supremacy over me ”. M. Bakunin also criticized the authoritarian state communism: “I abhor communism because it is the negation of freedom and because I cannot imagine anything worthy of human beings without freedom. I am not a communist because communism concentrates and allows all the power of society to be concentrated in the state, because it must necessarily lead to the centralization of property in the hands of the state ... ”.

In the past there were organizations and associations such as the Syndicalist Women’s Association (1921), the League of Dominant Socialists (1920), the Federation of Liberal Socialists (1947 to 1970), the Anti-Authoritarian International and the Free Workers' Union of Germany , which still exists today , who represented anti-authoritarian socialism .

In the 20th century it was parts of the political left and the youth movement who again propagated anti-authoritarian socialism: the New Left , the German student movement of the 1960s , anarcho-syndicalism and, to some extent, the women's movement , the new social movements , the spontaneous movement and the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition (APO). The anti-authoritarian-socialist upbringing of children played an important role here. The anti-authoritarian socialists had spread terror in the Federal Republic because, for the first time in the history of Germany, the universities had become the basis of a social revolutionary movement. The grassroots revolution initiatives also play a role that cannot be overlooked in Germany with regard to anti-authoritarian socialism. “Our conception of an anti-authoritarian, socialist revolution with forms of struggle of nonviolent, civil resistance is much older than the magazine Graswurzelrevolution. People who understand the social revolution as a fight against weapons instead of a fight with weapons have had many generational experiences with bitter defeats and with Pyrrhic victories behind them - and ahead of them ”. In the 1960s and 1970s it was also groups of the internationally revolting youth movement ( counterculture ) who advocated anti-authoritarian socialism. A confrontation took place between the anti-authoritarian current and the traditionally oriented socialist supporters. The urge and longing for a "different (alternative) life" and a new, anti-authoritarian politics were strongly represented. In the Netherlands it was the Provo movement , in the USA the Youth International Party , in Denmark the Free City Christiania , in Germany the new social movements and others.

further reading

• Peter Mosler: What we wanted, what we became. Evidence of the student revolt . Reinbek near Hamburg 1988, ISBN 3-499-12488-2 .
• Ingrid Gilcher-Holtey: The 1968 Movement - Germany, Western Europe, USA . Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-47983-9 .
• Michael Bakunin: The revolutionary question. Federalism, socialism, anti-theologism . From the French by Michael Halfbrodt, ed. v. Wolfgang Eckhardt. Unrast Verlag, Münster 2000
• Simon Kiessling: The anti-authoritarian revolt of the 68s . The study deals with the anti-authoritarian revolt from its beginnings in the “Subversive Action” through the Socialist German Student Union and Commune I to the New Women's Movement. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-412-33705-6 .
• Walter Hollstein : The opposite society . Rowohlt Verlag, rororo-Sachbuch 7454, Reinbek 1982, ISBN 3-499-17454-5 .

See also

• Anti-authoritarians
• Libertarianism
• Anti-Authoritarian International

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Charlie Rutz: Bakunin – Anarchism versus Marx – Communism . January 5, 2008. Retrieved May 19, 2010
2. ↑ Helmut Stockhammer: Anarchism and the theory of council democracy . Presentation in: Sociological seminar: General sociology including social research . Linz January 20, 1969. The quotations are taken from this paper.
3. ↑ Hubert Kleinert : Myth 1968 . Federal Agency for Civic Education , March 19, 2008. 5 pages. Retrieved August 11, 2012
4. ↑ 1960s, anti-authoritarian socialist upbringing of children. Retrieved May 19, 2010
5. ↑ Bernd Rabehl: Is red the same as brown? In: Der Spiegel . No. 8 , 1970 ( online - via Hans G Helms: "Fetish Revolution").
6. ↑ S. Münster: 25 years of the grassroots revolution . ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 19, 2010 
7. ↑ Axel Schildt: The new left . Federal Agency for Political Education . Retrieved May 19, 2010