Anarchist schools of thought

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anarchism is a political philosophy with many heterogeneous and diverse schools of thought, united by a common opposition to compulsory rule. Anarchist schools of thought are characterised by "the belief that government is both harmful and unnecessary", but may differ fundamentally, supporting anything from extreme individualism to complete collectivism.^[1]

Anarchist anthropologist David Graeber has noted that while schools of Marxism always have founders (e.g. Leninism, Maoism, Lacanianism), schools of anarchism "almost invariably emerge from some kind of organizational principle or form of practice", citing anarcho-syndicalism, insurrectionary anarchism and platformism as examples.^[2]

[edit] Mutualism

Main article: Mutualism (economic theory)

Mutualism began in 18th century English and French labor movements, then took an anarchist form associated with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in France and others in the US.^[3] This influenced individualist anarchists in the United States such as Benjamin Tucker and William B. Greene. Even before Proudhon, Josiah Warren proposed similar ideas^{[4][not in citation given]} after participating in a failed Owenite experiment.^[5] In the 1840s and 1850s, Charles A. Dana,^[6] and William B. Greene introduced Proudhon's works to the US. Greene adapted Proudhon's mutualism to American conditions and introduced it to Benjamin R. Tucker.^[7]

Mutualist anarchism is concerned with reciprocity, free association, voluntary contract, federation, and credit and currency reform. Many mutualists believe a market without government intervention drives prices to labor-costs, eliminating profit, rent, and interest according to the labor theory of value. Firms would be forced to compete over workers just as workers compete over firms, raising wages.^[8][9] Some see mutualism as between individualist and collectivist anarchism.^[10] This is suggested by the mutualists' own writings; in What Is Property?, Proudhon develops a concept of "liberty", equivalent to "anarchy", which is the dialectical "synthesis of communism and property."^[11] Greene, influenced by Pierre Leroux, sought mutualism in the synthesis of three philosophies — communism, capitalism and socialism.^[12] Later individualist anarchists used the term mutualism but retained little emphasis on synthesis, while social anarchists such as the authors of An Anarchist FAQ claim mutualism as a subset of their philosophical tradition.^[13]

[edit] Individualist anarchism

Main article: Individualist anarchism

Individualist anarchism is comprised of "several traditions"^[14] which hold that "individual conscience and the pursuit of self-interest should not be constrained by any collective body or public authority."^[15] It has had several major influences: Thomas Jefferson, Pierre Proudhon's mutualism, and the natural rights theory of classical liberalism, among others. Individualist anarchism has been particularly strong in the USA from the time of Warren through to Murray Rothbard (who called his philosophy "anarcho-capitalism"),^[16][17] Kevin Carson,^[18] and others.

In the mid 19th century in the US, Henry David Thoreau foresaw "the inevitability of self-government accompanied by atrophy of the State", arguing the state's only power was what individuals cede to it,^[19] but offered no practical program for social change.

[edit] Stirner's egoism

Max Stirner, one of the earliest and best-known proponents of individualist anarchism^[20] wrote The Ego and Its Own (1844), a "founding text" of the philosophy.^[20] Stirner's philosophy was an "egoist" form of individualist anarchism where the individual does as he pleases, taking no notice of God, state, or moral rules.^[21] Society has no responsibility for its members.^[22] To Stirner, rights are spooks in the mind, and society does not exist but "the individuals are its reality." Stirner preached self-assertion and foresaw "associations of egoists" where respect for ruthlessness drew people together.^[23] Stirner supported property a matter of might rather than moral right: "What my might reaches is my property; and let me claim as property everything I feel myself strong enough to attain, and let me extend my actual property as fast as 'I' entitle, that is, empower myself to take..."^[24] He influenced American individualist anarchists and Emma Goldman, who lectured on his thought.^[25]

[edit] The Boston anarchists

A "less radical"^[26] form of individualist anarchism was advocated by the "Boston anarchists," who were individualists supporting private property and a free market.^[27] For them, liberty and property should be protected by private contractors funded in a free market, not by the state.^[28] Like Marxists and social anarchists, they believed that state monopoly capitalism (identified as a state-sponsored monopoly^[29]) didn't fully reward labor. But unlike social anarchists, individualists endorsed exchange of labor for wages.^[30] The nineteenth century individualists argued state imposed economic regulation put the means of production in few hands,^[31] and that by having a free-market private ownership would be dispersed. Individualists like Tucker wanted more self-employment, but didn't want to prevent people from "carrying on business for themselves or from assuming relations between themselves as employer and employee if they prefer."^[32]

Individualists disagreed on various issues. Spooner supported intellectual property rights^[33] and permitted absentee land ownership.^[34] Steven T. Byington also opposed Benjamin Tucker's occupancy and use requirements.^[35] While all supported private property and free markets (causing some to consider them pro-capitalist), some, like Tucker, called themselves socialist. (At the time, "the term socialism was a broad concept," with Tucker understanding "socialism" to refer to many ideas aimed to solve "the labor problem" by radically changing the economy.^[36]) They also called themselves anti-capitalist, defining "capitalism" as state-maintained monopolization of capital.^[37] A major cleft occurred later in the 19th century when Tucker, and some others, abandoned natural rights and converted to an "egoism" modeled upon Stirnerism, claiming the only right naturally existing is the "right of might" and that other rights only come into existence if people decide to limit their might over each other.^[38]

By the beginning of the twentieth century, individualist anarchism in America was declining — "the heyday of individualist anarchism had passed", in the words of Paul Avrich.^[39]

It was later revived with modifications by Murray Rothbard and the anarcho-capitalists in the mid-twentieth century, forming part of the broader movement known as libertarianism.^[40][41] Rothbard said "individualist anarchists could easily incorporate" Austrian economics, discard their monetary theories, which he argued were flawed, and "reconsider the nature and justification of the economic categories of interest, rent and profit."^[42] Today, most who call themselves individualist anarchists follow Rothbard's economics.^[43]

[edit] Social anarchism

Main article: Social anarchism

Social anarchism is an umbrella term used to identify a broad category of anarchism independent of individualist anarchism. Where individualist forms of anarchism emphasize personal autonomy and the rational nature of human beings, social anarchism sees "individual freedom as conceptually connected with social equality and emphasize community and mutual aid."^[44] Social anarchism is used to specifically describe anarchist tendencies within anarchism that have an emphasis on the communitarian and cooperative aspects of anarchist theory and practice. Social anarchism includes (but is not limited to) collectivist anarchism, anarcho-communism, libertarian socialism, anarcho-syndicalism and social ecology.^[13]

[edit] Collectivist anarchism

Main article: Collectivist anarchism

Collectivist anarchism is most commonly associated with Mikhail Bakunin and the anti-authoritarian section of the First International (1864-1876). Unlike mutualists, collectivist anarchists oppose all private ownership of the means of production, instead advocating that ownership be collectivized. Workers would be compensated for their work on the basis of the amount of time they contributed to production, rather than goods being distributed "according to need" as in anarcho-communism. By the early 1880s, most of the European anarchist movement had adopted an anarcho-communist position,^{[citation needed]} advocating the abolition of wage labour and distribution according to need rather than labor, although the early anarchist movement in Spain is sometimes associated with collectivism. Although the collectivist anarchists advocated compensation for labor, some held out the possibility of a post-revolutionary transition to a communist system of distribution according to need.^[45] Collective anarchism arose contemporaneously with Marxism but opposed the Marxist dictatorship of the proletariat, despite Marxism striving for a collectivist stateless society.^[46]

Some collectivist anarchists do not oppose the use of currency. Some support workers being paid based on the amount of time they contributed to production. These salaries would be used to purchase commodities in a communal market.^[47] This contrasts with anarcho-communism where wages would be abolished, and where individuals would take freely from a storehouse of goods "to each according to his need." Many modern-day collectivist anarchists hold their form of anarchism as a permanent society rather than a carryover to anarcho-communism or a gift economy. Some collectivist anarchists such as proponents of participatory economics believe in remuneration and a form of credit but do not believe in money or markets.

[edit] Anarchist communism

Main article: Anarchist communism

Anarchist communists propose that a society composed of a number of self-governing communes with collective use of the means of production, with direct democracy as the political organizational form, and related to other communes through federation would be the freest form of social organisation.^[48] However, some anarchist communists oppose the majoritarian nature of direct democracy, feeling that it can impede individual liberty and favor consensus democracy.^[49] Joseph Déjacque was an early anarchist communist and the first person to describe himself as "libertarian".^[50] Other important anarchist communists include Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman and Errico Malatesta.

In anarchist communism, individuals would not receive direct compensation for labour (through sharing of profits or payment), but would instead have free access to the resources and surplus of the commune.^[51] Anarchist communists believe that the value of labor cannot be measured, since the value of every creation is relative to the creator, and the creation of all products is made possible by the labor of past generations.^{[citation needed]} They believe everyone should be free to consume without the restraint of arbitrary measurement of the worth of their labor. According to Kropotkin and later Murray Bookchin, the members of such a society will spontaneously perform all necessary labour because they will recognize the benefits of communal enterprise and mutual aid.^{[citation needed]} Kropotkin in particular, on the basis of his biological research and experimentation, believed that humans and human society are more inclined towards efforts for mutual benefit than toward competition and strife.^[52] Kropotkin believed that private property was one of the causes of oppression and exploitation and called for its abolition,^[53][54] but he only opposed ownership, not possession.^[55]

Some anarcho-syndicalists saw anarchist communism as their objective; for example, the Spanish CNT adopted Isaac Puente's 1932 El comunismo libertario^[48] as its manifesto for a post-revolutionary society. Platformism is an anarchist communist tendency in the tradition of Nestor Makhno who argued for the "vital need of an organization which, having attracted most of the participants in the anarchist movement, would establish a common tactical and political line for anarchism and thereby serve as a guide for the whole movement."^[56] Some anarcho-communists are strongly influenced by radical individualist and egoist philosophy and believe that anarcho-communism does not require a communitarian nature at all. Forms of libertarian communism such as Situationism are strongly Egoist in nature.^[57] Anarcho-communist Emma Goldman was influenced by both Stirner and Kropotkin and blended their philosophies together in her own, as shown in books of hers such as Anarchism And Other Essays.^[58]

[edit] Anarcho-syndicalism

Main articles: Syndicalism and Anarcho-syndicalism

In the early twentieth century anarcho-syndicalism arose as a distinct school of thought within anarchism. More heavily focused on the labour movement than previous forms of anarchism, syndicalism posits radical trade unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the state with a new society, democratically self-managed by the workers. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Important principles of syndicalism include workers' solidarity, direct action (such as general strikes and workplace recuperations), and workers' self-management.

Anarcho-syndicalism and other branches of anarchism are not mutually exclusive: anarcho-syndicalists often subscribe to communist or collectivist anarchism. Its advocates propose labour organization as a means to create the foundations of a non-hierarchical anarchist society within the current system and bring about social revolution. According to An Anarchist FAQ, anarcho-syndicalist economic systems often take the form of either a collectivist anarchist economic system or a anarcho-communist economic system.^[13]

Rudolf Rocker is considered a leading anarcho-syndicalist theorist.^[13] He outlined a view of the origins of the movement, what it sought, and why it was important to the future of labour in his 1938 pamphlet Anarchosyndicalism.^[59] Although more frequently associated with labor struggles of the early twentieth century (particularly in France and Spain), many syndicalist organizations are active today, including the SAC in Sweden, the USI in Italy, and the CNT in Spain. A number of these organizations are united across national borders by membership in the International Workers Association.

[edit] Contemporary developments

Anarchism generates many eclectic and syncretic philosophies and movements. Since the revival of anarchism in the mid 20th century,^[60] a number of new movements and schools have appeared. Anarchist anthropologist David Graeber has posited a rupture between generations of anarchism, with those "who often still have not shaken the sectarian habits of the last century" contrasted with the younger activists who are "much more informed, among other elements, by indigenous, feminist, ecological and cultural-critical ideas", and who by the turn of the 21st century formed "by far the majority" of anarchists.^[2]

[edit] Anarcho-pacifism

Main article: Anarcho-pacifism

Anarcho-pacifism is a form of anarchism that emerged shortly before World War II, emphasizing the complete rejection of violence in any form for any purpose.^[61] Although commonly associated with religious forms of anarchism, such as Christian anarchism or Buddhist anarchism, irreligious or anti-religious strains of anarcho-pacifism were present in the anarcho-punk scene of the 1970s, spearheaded by Crass. Historical advocates of pacifist anarchism include the Christian anarchist Leo Tolstoy, Jean Paul-Sartre and Mohandas Gandhi who considered violence to be the root of societies problems and the state as the manifestation of violence. ^[62][61] It was an influential force in the nuclear disarmament movements that followed World War II.

[edit] Contemporary free market anarchism

[edit] Anarcho-capitalism

Main articles: Anarcho-capitalism and Anarchism and anarcho-capitalism

Anarcho-capitalism (also referred to as private property anarchism or a type of free-market anarchism^[64]) is a political philosophy (whose status within anarchism is disputed^[65]) which has its most significant following in the United States.^[66] It is "based on a belief in the freedom to own private property, a rejection of any form of governmental authority or intervention, and the upholding of the competitive free market as the main mechanism for social interaction."^[67] Anarcho-capitalists, like earlier American anarchists such as Benjamin Tucker, would like for all services, including law enforcement and security, to be performed by multiple private providers all competing for business, rather than by a monopolist state agency funded by taxation. Anarcho-capitalism's leading proponents include Murray Rothbard, David D. Friedman, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, and Walter Block. It has been influenced by pro-market libertarians such as Gustave de Molinari, Frederic Bastiat, and Robert Nozick.

Although anarcho-capitalism was also influenced by Tucker and Spooner,^[68] it rejects their labor theory of value in favor of the neo-classical marginalist view. Thus, many anarcho-capitalists, like most modern economists,^{[citation needed]} do not believe that prices in a free market are, or would be, proportional to labor (nor that "usury" or "exploitation" necessarily occurs where they are disproportionate). Anarcho-capitalists such as Rothbard, believe that different prices of goods and services in a market, whether completely free or not, are ultimately the result of goods and services having different marginal utilities rather than the fact they contain differing amounts of labor - and that there is nothing unjust about this. Anarcho-capitalists also disagree with Tucker that interest would disappear with unregulated banking and money issuance. Rothbard believed that people in general do not wish to lend their money to others without compensation, so there is no reason why this would change where banking is unregulated (nor does he agree that unregulated banking would increase the supply of money).^[69] Rothbard defined free-market capitalism as "peaceful voluntary exchange", in contrast to "state capitalism" which he defined as a collusive partnership between business and government that uses coercion to subvert the free market.^[70]

Anarcho-capitalism has a theory of legitimacy that supports private property as long as it was obtained by labor, trade, or gift.^[71] Anarcho-capitalists support the liberty of individuals to be self-employed or to contract to be employees of others, whichever they prefer. David Friedman has expressed preference for a society where "almost everyone is self-employed."^[72] Most anarcho-capitalists believe that in the absence of the institutionalized aggression carried on by the state, non-coercive capitalism would naturally and inevitably develop through market processes, and thus other forms of aggression would be diminished. Hence, Rothbard's statement that "capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism."^[73]

[edit] Market left-libertarianism

Main article: left-libertarianism

Some market-oriented anarchist philosophies are considered left-libertarian. Mutualism, initially developed in the 19th century, has reemerged in the 21st century, incorporating modern economic ideas such as marginal utility theory. Kevin A. Carson's book Studies in Mutualist Political Economy was influential in this regard, updating the labor theory of value in response to Austrian economics. Agorism, an anarchist tendency founded by Samuel Edward Konkin III, advocates counter-economics – working in untaxed black or grey markets and boycotting as much as possible the unfree taxed market – with the intended result that private voluntary institutions emerge and out-compete statist ones. Geoanarchism, an anarchist form of Henry George's philosophy, is considered left-libertarian because it assumes land to be initially owned in common, so that when land is privately appropriated the proprietor pays rent to the community. These philosophies share similar concerns and are collectively known as left-libertarianism.^[74]

[edit] Autarchism

Main article: Autarchism

Autarchism is a philosophy subscribed to by Robert LeFevre, who stated “Autarchy is self-rule. It means that each person rules himself, and no other.” ^[75] Autarchism rejects compulsory government and supports "private capitalism."^[76]

[edit] Crypto-anarchism

Main article: Crypto-anarchism

Crypto-anarchism is a cyberspatial realization of anarcho-capitalism^[77] that expounds the use of strong public-key cryptography to enforce privacy and individual freedom. Crypto-anarchists aim to create cryptographic software that can be used to evade prosecution and harassment by the state while sending and receiving information in computer networks. The use of such software renders the connection between the identity of a certain user or organisation and their pseudonym is almost entirely unprovable unless the user reveals the connection. It is even difficult to say which country's laws would be ignored, as even the location (country) of a given user is unknown. In this sense, the encrypted anonymous networks (known as "cipherspace") are an independent, lawless territory; this does not restrict participants from voluntarily create new laws using smart contracts or online reputation-dependent systems. Cryptoanarchism is a variant of technocapitalism, and is distinct from infoanarchism, an umbrella term for those opposed to intellectual property.

[edit] Anarcha-feminism

Main article: Anarcha-feminism

Anarcha-feminism (occasionally called anarcho-feminism) is a form of anarchism that synthesizes radical feminism and anarchism that views patriarchy (male domination over women) as a fundamental manifestation of involuntary hierarchy which anarchists often oppose. Anarcha-feminism was inspired in the late 19th century by the writings of early feminist anarchists such as Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman and Voltairine de Cleyre. Anarcha feminists like other radical feminists criticize and advocate the abolition of traditional conceptions of family, education and gender roles. Anarcha-feminists are especially critical of marriage for instance the feminist anarchist Emma Goldman has argued that marriage is a purely economic arrangement... [woman] pays for it with her name, her privacy, her self-respect, her very life."^[78]. Anarcha-feminists also often criticize the views of some of the traditional anarchists such as Mikhail Bakunin who have believed that patriarchy is only a minor problem and is dependent only on the existence of the state and capitalism and will disappear soon after such institutions are abolished. Anarcha feminists by contrast view patriarchy as a fundamental problem in society and believe that the feminist struggle against sexism and patriarchy is a essential component of the anarchist struggle against the state and capitalism. As Susan Brown puts it, "as anarchism is a political philosophy that opposes all relationships of power, it is inherently feminist". ^[79]

Anarcho-primitivism has been cited^{[attribution needed]} as a form of anarchism that addresses feminist concerns. Anarcho-primitivists, inspired by the work of anthropologists such as Jared Diamond^[80] and Eleanor Leacock - who describe a typically egalitarian relationship between men and women in foraging societies - believe that agriculture not only gave rise to forms of domination such as class distinctions but to patriarchy and sexism as well.^[81]

[edit] Green anarchism

Main article: Green Anarchism

Green anarchism advocates a return to a pre-industrial and usually pre-agricultural society.^[82] 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, although when primitivism emerged it was influenced more directly by the works of theorists such as the Frankfurt School Marxists Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse; anthropologists Marshall Sahlins and Richard Lee; and others such as Lewis Mumford, Jean Baudrillard and Gary Snyder. Many advocates of green anarchism and primitivism consider Fredy Perlman as the modern progenitor of their views.

Some green anarchists, identifying themselves as anarcho-primitivists, advocate a complete process of 'rewilding' and a return to nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles while many green anarchists only wish to see an end to industrial society and do not necessarily oppose domestication or agriculture. Key theorists in the former category include Derrick Jensen and John Zerzan while the 'Unabomber' Theodore Kaczynski belongs in the latter.^{[dubious – discuss]} Still, many green anarchists decide to skirt these issues entirely, focusing not on a post-revolutionary future, but on defense of the earth and social revolution in the present. Today there is disagreement between primitivists and followers of more traditional forms of anarchism, such as the social ecology of Murray Bookchin and class struggle anarchism, although many green anarchists do advocate class struggle.

[edit] Anarcho-primitivism

Anarcho-primitivism is a form of green anarchism that believes civilization and technology inevitably lead to inequality and are incompatible with anarchism and in effect must be abolished. Anarcho-primitivists often criticize traditional anarchism for supporting civilization and technology which Anarcho-primitivists believe are inherently based on domination and exploitation and instead advocate the process of rewilding or reconnecting with the natural environment. Much of the Anarcho-Primitivist critique of civilization. Anarcho-primitivists (despite their opposition to science) often use the writings of anthropologists such as Jared diamond who wrote the worst mistake in the history of the human race that have portrayed indigenous societies as egalitarian to support their critique of civilization.

[edit] Eco-anarchism

Eco-anarchism is a subset of green anarchism that argues that society is best organized into small Eco-villages (somewhat similar to the Kibbutz) consisting of no more than 150 people. Although Eco anarchists like Anarcho-Primitivists hold bands or tribes in high regard for their functionality and their Anarchic structure Eco-anarchism in contrast to Anarcho-primitivism does not believe in the total elimination of industrial and agricultural technology and instead just believes that small scale eco-villages are preferable to large scale urbanized forms of social organization. Eco anarchists like neo tribalists often argue that life in small scale Eco-villages is preferable to life in large scale urbanized societies because of an Evolutionary Principle or the idea invented by the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss that humans evolved to live in such societies and are thus are better suited to such an environment. Eco-anarchism often combines elements of many earlier preexisting philosophies such as Deep ecology Social ecology primitivism, Neo-tribalism, bioregional democracy, Eco-feminism, pacifism and secession.

[edit] National-Anarchism

Main articles: National-Anarchism and Anarchism and nationalism

National-Anarchism is a syncretic political movement that developed in the 1990s out of a Third Positionist attempt to reconcile anarchism with nationalism and in some cases voluntary racial separatism.^[83] National-Anarchists advocate a decentralised social order wherein like-minded individuals voluntarily establish and maintain distinct communities,^[83] a preference that was foreshadowed by the advocacy by white nationalists of "leaderless resistance" in the 1980s.^[84] National-Anarchists often support the existence of an economic system that has elements of distributism and mutualism and tend to emphasize the role of small businesses and workers' cooperatives in the economy.^[85] Mikhail Bakunin and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon are cited by National-Anarchists as influences for their conceptions of decentralised voluntary societies, while Ernst Jünger's revolutionary conservative ideal of the Anarch is central to the philosophy.^[86]

Like anarcho-communism and anarcho-capitalism, National-Anarchism's legitimacy as a genuinely anarchist philosophy has been disputed by others in anarchist movements due to a perceived contradiction between anarchism and nationalism (a charge also leveled at anarchism and anarcho-capitalism). It has been attacked by groups such as International Workers of the World, Anti-Fascist Action,^[83] and Green Anarchy as a crypto-fascist movement that uses environmentalism and anarchism as a trojan horse to lure adherents from philosophies traditionally hostile to nationalism.^[84] Similarly, white nationalists have described National-Anarchism as a communist ideology and as a plot backed by "Jewish plutocrats" to infiltrate and destroy white nationalism.^{[87][unreliable source?]}

[edit] Especifismo

Especifismo emerged out of nearly 50 years of anarchist experiences in South America starting with the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU), founded in 1956 by anarchists who saw the need for an organization which was specifically anarchist. It has been summmarised as:
"The need for specifically anarchist organization built around a unity of ideas and praxis. The use of the specifically anarchist organization to theorize and develop strategic political and organizing work. Active involvement in and building of autonomous and popular social movements, which is described as the process of "social insertion."^[88]
Other organisations that hold to Especifismo include Federação Anarquista Gaúcha (FAG), the Federação Anarquista Cabocla (FACA), and the Federação Anarquista do Rio de Janeiro (FARJ) (all in Brazil). Especifismo is considered to have come to broadly similar conclusions to the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) leading to the argument that it is properly considered a new form of Platformism

[edit] Post-left anarchy

Post-left anarchy seeks to distance itself from the traditional "left" - communists, socialists, social democrats, etc. - and to escape the confines of ideology in general. Post-leftists argue that anarchism has been weakened 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. 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.

[edit] Post-anarchism

The term post-anarchism was originated by Saul Newman, and first received popular attention in his book From Bakunin to Lacan to refer to a theoretical move towards a 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 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 should not be grouped under the rubric. Nonetheless key thinkers associated with post-anarchism include Saul Newman, Todd May, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari.

[edit] 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 organizations called base structures, which can include exploited individuals who are not anarchists. Proponents include Wolfi Landstreicher and Alfredo M. Bonanno, author of works including "Armed Joy" and "The Anarchist Tension". This tendency is represented in the US in magazines such as Willful Disobedience and Killing King Abacus.

[edit] Analytical anarchism

Analytical anarchism, which partly began as a response to analytical Marxism, is a recent development in academia that uses the methods of analytical philosophy to clarify or defend anarchist theory.^[89] Analytical anarchists include Robert Paul Wolff, Alan Carter, and Michael Taylor. Wolff argues that we have no obligation to obey the state, while Carter argues that the state cannot be trusted to liberate the people, and Taylor uses game theory to argue that cooperation is possible without the state.^[90]

[edit] Anarchism without adjectives

Main article: Anarchism without adjectives

Anarchism without adjectives, in the words of historian George Richard Esenwein, "referred to an unhyphenated form of anarchism, that is, a doctrine without any qualifying labels such as communist, collectivist, mutualist, or individualist. For others, ... [it] was simply understood as an attitude that tolerated the coexistence of different anarchist schools".^[91] Anarchism without adjectives emphasizes harmony between various anarchist factions and attempts to unite them around their shared anti-authoritarian beliefs. The expression was coined by Cuban-born Fernando Tarrida del Mármol, who used it in Barcelona in November 1889 as a call for tolerance, after being troubled by the "bitter debates" between the different movements.^[92]

To these anarchists the economic preferences are considered to be of "secondary importance" to abolishing all authority,^{[citation needed]} with free experimentation the one rule of a free society. Rudolf Rocker said that the different types of anarchism presented "only different methods of economy, the practical possibilities of which have yet to be tested, and that the first objective is to secure the personal and social freedom of men no matter upon which economics basis this is to be accomplished."^[93]

Voltairine de Cleyre was an anarchist without adjectives who initially identified herself as an individualist anarchist but later espoused a collectivist form of anarchism,^[94] while refusing to identify herself with any of the contemporary schools. She commented that "Socialism and Communism both demand a degree of joint effort and administration which would beget more regulation than is wholly consistent with ideal Anarchism; Individualism and Mutualism, resting upon property, involve a development of the private policeman not at all compatible with my notion of freedom" although she stopped short of denouncing these tendencies as un-anarchistic.^[95] Errico Malatesta was another proponent of anarchism without adjectives, stating that "[i]t is not right for us, to say the least, to fall into strife over mere hypotheses."^[96] Fred Woodworth is a contemporary anarchist without adjectives.^[97]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Anarchist Theory FAQ by Bryan Caplanes:Escuelas anarquistas