Anarchist political economy

Anarchism encompasses 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. Since anarchism is opposed to the state, issues and disagreements within anarchism tend to revolve around political economy - questions about human beings ought to relate to each other and the world around them as economic actors. On these questions anarchist thinkers differ fundamentally, supporting anything from extreme individualism to complete collectivism.

Mutualism

Main article: Mutualism (economic theory)

Mutualist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was the first self-described anarchist.

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. This influenced individualist anarchists in the United States such as Benjamin Tucker and William B. Greene. 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.

Some see mutualism as between individualist and collectivist anarchism. 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." Greene, influenced by Pierre Leroux, sought mutualism in the synthesis of three philosophies — communism, capitalism and socialism. Later individualist anarchists used the term mutualism but retained little emphasis on synthesis. Proudhon emphasised associations amongst producers, and Dyer D. Lum emphasised labor unionism.

Even before Proudhon, Josiah Warren proposed similar ideas after participating in a failed Owenite experiment. In the 1840s and 1850s, Charles A. Dana, 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.

Individualist anarchism

Main article: Individualist anarchism

Max Stirner

Individualist anarchism is comprised of "several traditions" which hold that "individual conscience and the pursuit of self-interest should not be constrained by any collective body or public authority." 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"), Kevin Carson, and others.

In the early 18th 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, but offered no practical program for social change.

Max Stirner's Egoism

Max Stirner, one of the earliest and best-known proponents of individualist anarchism wrote The Ego and Its Own (1844), a "founding text" of the philosophy. 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. Society has no responsibility for its members. 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. Sitrner 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 fas as I entitle, that is, empower myself to take..." He influenced American individualist anarchists and Emma Goldman, who lectured on his thought.

Benjamin Tucker

The Boston Anarchists

A "less radical" form of individualist anarchism was advocated by the "Boston anarchists," who were individualists supporting private property and a free market. For them, liberty and property should be protected by private contractors funded in a free market, not by the state. Like Marxists and social anarchists, they believed that state monopoly capitalism (identified as a state-sponsored monopoly) didn't fully reward labor. But unlike social anarchists, individualists endorsed exchange of labor for wages. The nineteenth century individualists argued state imposed economic regulation put the means of production in few hands, 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."

Individualists disagreed on various issues. Spooner supported intellectual property rights and permitted absentee land ownership. Steven T. Byington also opposed Benjamin Tucker's occupancy and use requirements. 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.) They also called themselves anti-capitalist, defining "capitalism" as state-maintained monopolization of capital. 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.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, individualist anarchism in America was declining. 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. Rothbard said "individualist anarchists could easily incorporate" Austrian economics, discard their monetary theories, arguing they were flawed, and "reconsider the nature and justification of the economic categories of interest, rent and profit." Today, most who call themselves indivdualist anarchists follow Rothbard's economics.

Collectivist anarchism

Main article: Collectivist anarchism

Mikhail Bakunin

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, 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. Collective anarchism arose contemporaneously with Marxism but opposed the Marxist dictatorship of the proletariat, despite Marxism striving for a collectivist stateless society.

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. 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.

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. However, some anarchist communists oppose the majoritarian nature of direct democracy, feeling that it can impede individual liberty and favor consensus democracy. Joseph Déjacque was an early anarchist communist and the first person to describe himself as "libertarian". Other important anarchist communists include Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman and Errico Malatesta.

Anarcho-communist Peter Kropotkin believed that in anarchy, workers would spontaneously self-organize to produce goods in common for all society.

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. 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. 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. 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. Kropotkin believed that private property was one of the causes of oppression and exploitation and called for its abolition, but he only opposed ownership, not possession.

Some anarcho-syndicalists saw anarchist communism as their objective; for example, the Spanish CNT adopted Isaac Puente's 1932 El comunismo libertario 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." 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. 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.

Anarcho-syndicalism

Main articles: Syndicalism and Anarcho-syndicalism

A common anarcho-syndicalist flag.

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.

Rudolf Rocker was one of the most popular voices in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. 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. Although more frequently associated with labor struggles of the early twentieth century (particularly in France and Spain), many syndicalist organizations are active today.

Anarcho-capitalism

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

File:Murray Rothbard.JPG

Murray Rothbard

Anarcho-capitalism (also referred to as private property anarchism or a type of free-market anarchism) is a political philosophy (whose status within anarchism is disputed) which has its most significant following in the United States. 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." 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, it rejects their labor theory of value in favor of the neo-classical marginalist view. Thus, many anarcho-capitalists, like most modern economists, 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). 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.

Anarcho-capitalism has a theory of legitimacy that supports private property as long as it was obtained by labor, trade, or gift. 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." 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."

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, 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 with 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 outcompete 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.

Green anarchism

Main article: Green Anarchism

Green and black flag of Green Anarchism.

Green anarchism advocates a return to a pre-industrial and usually pre-agricultural society. 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 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. 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.

Anarchism without adjectives

Main article: Anarchism without adjectives

Voltairine de Cleyre

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". 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.

To these anarchists the economic preferences are considered to be of "secondary importance" to abolishing all authority, 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."

Voltairine de Cleyre was an anarchist without adjectives who initially identified herself as an individualist anarchist but later espoused a collectivist form of anarchism, 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. 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." Fred Woodworth is a contemporary anarchist without adjectives.

Contemporary developments

Anarchism generates many eclectic and syncretic philosophies and movements. Since the 1960s and 1970s a number of new movements and schools have appeared.

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."
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

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.

Post-anarchism

The term post-anarchism was originated by Saul Newman, first receiving 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.

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.

Small 'a' anarchism

Small 'a' anarchism (sometimes known as "little a") is a term used in two different, but not unconnected contexts. Dave Neal posited the term in opposition to big 'A' Anarchism in the article Anarchism: Ideology or Methodology?. While big 'A' Anarchism referred to ideological Anarchists, small 'a' anarchism was applied to their methodological counterparts; those who viewed anarchism as "a way of acting, or a historical tendency against illegitimate authority." As an anti-ideological position, small 'a' anarchism shares some similarities with post-left anarchy. David Graeber and Andrej Grubacic offer an alternative use of the term, applying it to groups and movements organising according to or acting in a manner consistent with anarchist principles of decentralisation, voluntary association, mutual aid, the network model, and crucially, "the rejection of any idea that the end justifies the means, let alone that the business of a revolutionary is to seize state power and then begin imposing one's vision at the point of a gun."

See also: crypto-anarchism, anarcho-primitivism, infoanarchism.