Individualist anarchism refers to several
traditions of thought within the anarchist
movement that emphasize the individual and
his will over external determinants such as
groups, society, traditions and ideological
systems. Individualist anarchism is not a
single philosophy, but it refers to a group
of individualistic philosophies that sometimes
are in conflict. Benjamin Tucker, a famous
19th century individualist anarchist, held
that "if the individual has the right to govern
himself, all external government is tyranny".
== Overview ==
Among the early influences on individualist
anarchism were William Godwin, Josiah Warren
("sovereignty of the individual"), Max Stirner
(egoism), Lysander Spooner ("natural law"),
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (mutualism), Henry
David Thoreau (transcendentalism), Herbert
Spencer ("law of equal liberty") and Anselme
Bellegarrigue.Individualist anarchism of different
kinds have a few things in common. These are
the following:
The concentration on the individual and their
will in preference to any construction such
as morality, ideology, social custom, religion,
metaphysics, ideas or the will of others.
The rejection of or reservations about the
idea of revolution, seeing it as a time of
mass uprising which could bring about new
hierarchies. Instead, they favor more evolutionary
methods of bringing about anarchy through
alternative experiences and experiments and
education which could be brought about today.
This is also because it is not seen as desirable
for individuals to wait for revolution to
start experiencing alternative experiences
outside what is offered in the current social
system.
The view that relationships with other persons
or things can be in one's own interest only
and can be as transitory and without compromises
as desired since in individualist anarchism
sacrifice is usually rejected. In this way,
Max Stirner recommended associations of egoists.
Individual experience and exploration therefore
is emphasized.The egoist form of individualist
anarchism, derived from the philosophy of
Max Stirner, supports the individual doing
exactly what he pleases—taking no notice
of God, state, or moral rules. To Stirner,
rights were spooks in the mind, and he held
that society does not exist but "the individuals
are its reality"—he supported property by
force of might rather than moral right. Stirner
advocated self-assertion and foresaw "associations
of egoists" drawn together by respect for
each other's ruthlessness.
For American anarchist historian Eunice Minette
Schuster, American individualist anarchism
"stresses the isolation of the individual
– his right to his own tools, his mind,
his body, and to the products of his labor.
To the artist who embraces this philosophy
it is "aesthetic" anarchism, to the reformer,
ethical anarchism, to the independent mechanic,
economic anarchism. The former is concerned
with philosophy, the latter with practical
demonstration. The economic anarchist is concerned
with constructing a society on the basis of
anarchism. Economically he sees no harm whatever
in the private possession of what the individual
produces by his own labor, but only so much
and no more. The aesthetic and ethical type
found expression in the transcendentalism,
humanitarianism, and romanticism of the first
part of the nineteenth century, the economic
type in the pioneer life of the West during
the same period, but more favorably after
the Civil War". It is for this reason that
it has been suggested that in order to understand
American individualist anarchism one must
take into account "the social context of their
ideas, namely the transformation of America
from a pre-capitalist to a capitalist society
[...] the non-capitalist nature of the early
U.S. can be seen from the early dominance
of self-employment (artisan and peasant production).
At the beginning of the 19th century, around
80% of the working (non-slave) male population
were self-employed. The great majority of
Americans during this time were farmers working
their own land, primarily for their own needs"
and so "[i]ndividualist anarchism is clearly
a form of artisanal socialism [...] while
communist anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism
are forms of industrial (or proletarian) socialism".Contemporary
individualist anarchist Kevin Carson characterizes
American individualist anarchism saying that
"[u]nlike the rest of the socialist movement,
the individualist anarchists believed that
the natural wage of labor in a free market
was its product, and that economic exploitation
could only take place when capitalists and
landlords harnessed the power of the state
in their interests. Thus, individualist anarchism
was an alternative both to the increasing
statism of the mainstream socialist movement,
and to a classical liberal movement that was
moving toward a mere apologetic for the power
of big business".
In European individualist anarchism, a different
social context helped the rise of European
individualist illegalism and as such "[t]he
illegalists were proletarians who had nothing
to sell but their labour power, and nothing
to discard but their dignity; if they disdained
waged-work, it was because of its compulsive
nature. If they turned to illegality it was
due to the fact that honest toil only benefited
the employers and often entailed a complete
loss of dignity, while any complaints resulted
in the sack; to avoid starvation through lack
of work it was necessary to beg or steal,
and to avoid conscription into the army many
of them had to go on the run". A European
tendency of individualist anarchism advocated
violent individual acts of individual reclamation,
propaganda by the deed and criticism of organization.
Such individualist anarchist tendencies include
French illegalism and Italian anti-organizational
insurrectionarism. Bookchin reports that at
the end of the 19th century and the beginning
of the 20th "it was in times of severe social
repression and deadening social quiescence
that individualist anarchists came to the
foreground of libertarian activity – and
then primarily as terrorists. In France, Spain,
and the United States, individualistic anarchists
committed acts of terrorism that gave anarchism
its reputation as a violently sinister conspiracy".Another
important tendency within individualist anarchist
currents emphasizes individual subjective
exploration and defiance of social conventions.
Individualist anarchist philosophy attracted
"amongst artists, intellectuals and the well-read,
urban middle classes in general". As such,
Murray Bookchin describes a lot of individualist
anarchism as people who "expressed their opposition
in uniquely personal forms, especially in
fiery tracts, outrageous behavior and aberrant
lifestyles in the cultural ghettos of fin
de siecle New York, Paris and London. As a
credo, individualist anarchism remained largely
a bohemian lifestyle, most conspicuous in
its demands for sexual freedom ('free love')
and enamored of innovations in art, behavior,
and clothing". In this way, free love currents
and other radical lifestyles such as naturism
had popularity among individualist anarchists.
For Catalan historian Xavier Diez, individualist
anarchism "under its iconoclastic, antiintelectual,
antitheist run, which goes against all sacralized
ideas or values it entailed, a philosophy
of life which could be considered a reaction
against the sacred gods of capitalist society.
Against the idea of nation, it opposed its
internationalism. Against the exaltation of
authority embodied in the military institution,
it opposed its antimilitarism. Against the
concept of industrial civilization, it opposed
its naturist vision".In regards to economic
questions, there are diverse positions. There
are adherents to mutualism (Proudhon, Émile
Armand and early Benjamin Tucker), egoistic
disrespect for "ghosts" such as private property
and markets (Stirner, John Henry Mackay, Lev
Chernyi and later Tucker) and adherents to
anarcho-communism (Albert Libertad, illegalism
and Renzo Novatore). Anarchist historian George
Woodcock finds a tendency in individualist
anarchism of a "distrust (of) all co-operation
beyond the barest minimum for an ascetic life".On
the issue of violence opinions have gone from
a violentist point of view mainly exemplified
by illegalism and insurrectionary anarchism
to one that can be called anarcho-pacifist.
In the particular case of Spanish individualist
anarchist Miguel Gimenez Igualada, he went
from illegalist practice in his youth towards
a pacifist position later in his life.
== Early influences ==
=== William Godwin ===
William Godwin can be considered an individualist
anarchist and philosophical anarchist who
was influenced by the ideas of the Age of
Enlightenment, and developed what many consider
the first expression of modern anarchist thought.
According to Peter Kropotkin, Godwin "the
first to formulate the political and economical
conceptions of anarchism, even though he did
not give that name to the ideas developed
in his work". Godwin advocated extreme individualism,
proposing that all cooperation in labor be
eliminated. Godwin was a utilitarian who believed
that all individuals are not of equal value,
with some of us "of more worth and importance"
than others depending on our utility in bringing
about social good. Therefore, he does not
believe in equal rights, but the person's
life that should be favored that is most conducive
to the general good. Godwin opposed government
because it infringes on the individual's right
to "private judgement" to determine which
actions most maximize utility, but also makes
a critique of all authority over the individual's
judgement. This aspect of Godwin's philosophy,
minus the utilitarianism, was developed into
a more extreme form later by Stirner.Godwin
took individualism to the radical extent of
opposing individuals performing together in
orchestras, writing in Political Justice that
"everything understood by the term co-operation
is in some sense an evil". The only apparent
exception to this opposition to cooperation
is the spontaneous association that may arise
when a society is threatened by violent force.
One reason he opposed cooperation is he believed
it to interfere with an individual's ability
to be benevolent for the greater good. Godwin
opposes the idea of government, but wrote
that a minimal state as a present "necessary
evil" that would become increasingly irrelevant
and powerless by the gradual spread of knowledge.
He expressly opposed democracy, fearing oppression
of the individual by the majority, though
he believed it to be preferable to dictatorship.
Godwin supported individual ownership of property,
defining it as "the empire to which every
man is entitled over the produce of his own
industry". However, he also advocated that
individuals give to each other their surplus
property on the occasion that others have
a need for it, without involving trade (e.g.
gift economy). Thus while people have the
right to private property, they should give
it away as enlightened altruists. This was
to be based on utilitarian principles and
he said: "Every man has a right to that, the
exclusive possession of which being awarded
to him, a greater sum of benefit or pleasure
will result than could have arisen from its
being otherwise appropriated". However, benevolence
was not to be enforced, being a matter of
free individual "private judgement". He did
not advocate a community of goods or assert
collective ownership as is embraced in communism,
but his belief that individuals ought to share
with those in need was influential on the
later development of anarcho-communism.
Godwin's political views were diverse and
do not perfectly agree with any of the ideologies
that claim his influence as writers of the
Socialist Standard, organ of the Socialist
Party of Great Britain, consider Godwin both
an individualist and a communist; Murray Rothbard
did not regard Godwin as being in the individualist
camp at all, referring to him as the "founder
of communist anarchism"; and historian Albert
Weisbord considers him an individualist anarchist
without reservation. Some writers see a conflict
between Godwin's advocacy of "private judgement"
and utilitarianism as he says that ethics
requires that individuals give their surplus
property to each other resulting in an egalitarian
society, but at the same time he insists that
all things be left to individual choice. As
noted by Kropotkin, many of Godwin's views
changed over time.
William Godwin's influenced "the socialism
of Robert Owen and Charles Fourier. After
success of his British venture, Owen himself
established a cooperative community within
the United States at New Harmony, Indiana
during 1825. One member of this commune was
Josiah Warren (1798–1874), considered to
be the first individualist anarchist. After
New Harmony failed Warren shifted his ideological
loyalties from socialism to anarchism (which
was no great leap, given that Owen's socialism
had been predicated on Godwin's anarchism)".
=== Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ===
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) was the
first philosopher to label himself an "anarchist".
Some consider Proudhon to be an individualist
anarchist while others regard him to be a
social anarchist. Some commentators do not
identify Proudhon as an individualist anarchist
due to his preference for association in large
industries, rather than individual control.
Nevertheless, he was influential among some
of the American individualists—in the 1840s
and 1850s, Charles A. Dana and William B.
Greene introduced Proudhon's works to the
United States. Greene adapted Proudhon's mutualism
to American conditions and introduced it to
Benjamin Tucker.Proudhon opposed government
privilege that protects capitalist, banking
and land interests and the accumulation or
acquisition of property (and any form of coercion
that led to it) which he believed hampers
competition and keeps wealth in the hands
of the few. Proudhon favoured a right of individuals
to retain the product of their labour as their
own property, but believed that any property
beyond that which an individual produced and
could possess was illegitimate. Thus he saw
private property as both essential to liberty
and a road to tyranny, the former when it
resulted from labour and was required for
labour and the latter when it resulted in
exploitation (profit, interest, rent and tax).
He generally called the former "possession"
and the latter "property". For large-scale
industry, he supported workers associations
to replace wage labour and opposed the ownership
of land.
Proudhon maintained that those who labour
should retain the entirety of what they produce
and that monopolies on credit and land are
the forces that prohibit such. He advocated
an economic system that included private property
as possession and exchange market, but without
profit, which he called mutualism. It is Proudhon's
philosophy that was explicitly rejected by
Joseph Dejacque in the inception of anarcho-communism,
with the latter asserting directly to Proudhon
in a letter that "it is not the product of
his or her labour that the worker has a right
to, but to the satisfaction of his or her
needs, whatever may be their nature". An individualist
rather than anarcho-communist, Proudhon said
that "communism [...] is the very denial of
society in its foundation" and famously declared
that "property is theft!" in reference to
his rejection of ownership rights to land
being granted to a person who is not using
that land.
After Dejacque and others split from Proudhon
due to the latter's support of individual
property and an exchange economy, the relationship
between the individualists (who continued
in relative alignment with the philosophy
of Proudhon) and the anarcho-communists was
characterised by various degrees of antagonism
and harmony. For example, individualists like
Tucker on the one hand translated and reprinted
the works of collectivists like Mikhail Bakunin
while on the other hand rejected the economic
aspects of collectivism and communism as incompatible
with anarchist ideals.
==== Mutualism ====
Mutualism is an anarchist school of thought
which can be traced to the writings of Pierre-Joseph
Proudhon, who envisioned a society where each
person might possess a means of production,
either individually or collectively, with
trade representing equivalent amounts of labor
in the free market. Integral to the scheme
was the establishment of a mutual-credit bank
which would lend to producers at a minimal
interest rate only high enough to cover the
costs of administration. Mutualism is based
on a labor theory of value which holds that
when labour or its product is sold, in exchange
it ought to receive goods or services embodying
"the amount of labor necessary to produce
an article of exactly similar and equal utility".
Some mutualists believe that if the state
did not intervene, as a result of increased
competition in the marketplace, individuals
would receive no more income than that in
proportion to the amount of labor they exert.
Mutualists oppose the idea of individuals
receiving an income through loans, investments
and rent as they believe these individuals
are not labouring. Some of them argue that
if state intervention ceased, these types
of incomes would disappear due to increased
competition in capital. Though Proudhon opposed
this type of income, he expressed: "I never
meant to [...] forbid or suppress, by sovereign
decree, ground rent and interest on capital.
I believe that all these forms of human activity
should remain free and optional for all".
Insofar as they ensure the workers right to
the full product of their labor, mutualists
support markets and private property in the
product of labor. However, they argue for
conditional titles to land, whose private
ownership is legitimate only so long as it
remains in use or occupation (which Proudhon
called "possession"). Proudhon's Mutualism
supports labor-owned cooperative firms and
associations for "we need not hesitate, for
we have no choice [...] it is necessary to
form an ASSOCIATION among workers [...] because
without that, they would remain related as
subordinates and superiors, and there would
ensue two [...] castes of masters and wage-workers,
which is repugnant to a free and democratic
society" and so "it becomes necessary for
the workers to form themselves into democratic
societies, with equal conditions for all members,
on pain of a relapse into feudalism". As for
capital goods (man-made, non-land, "means
of production"), mutualist opinion differs
on whether these should be commonly managed
public assets or private property.
Following Proudhon, mutualists originally
considered themselves to be libertarian socialists.
However, "some mutualists have abandoned the
labor theory of value, and prefer to avoid
the term "socialist." But they still retain
some cultural attitudes, for the most part,
that set them off from the libertarian right".
Mutualists have distinguished themselves from
state socialism and do not advocate social
control over the means of production. Benjamin
Tucker said of Proudhon that "though opposed
to socializing the ownership of capital, Proudhon
aimed nevertheless to socialize its effects
by making its use beneficial to all instead
of a means of impoverishing the many to enrich
the few [...] by subjecting capital to the
natural law of competition, thus bringing
the price of its own use down to cost".
=== Max Stirner ===
Johann Kaspar Schmidt (October 25, 1806 – June
26, 1856), better known as Max Stirner (the
nom de plume he adopted from a schoolyard
nickname he had acquired as a child because
of his high brow, in German 'Stirn'), was
a German philosopher, who ranks as one of
the literary fathers of nihilism, existentialism,
post-modernism and anarchism, especially of
individualist anarchism. Stirner's main work
is The Ego and Its Own, also known as The
Ego and His Own (Der Einzige und sein Eigentum
in German, which translates literally as The
Only One [individual] and his Property). This
work was first published in 1844 in Leipzig
and has since appeared in numerous editions
and translations.
==== Egoism ====
Max Stirner's philosophy, sometimes called
egoism, is a form of individualist anarchism.
Stirner was a Hegelian philosopher whose "name
appears with familiar regularity in historically
oriented surveys of anarchist thought as one
of the earliest and best-known exponents of
individualist anarchism". In 1844, his The
Ego and Its Own (Der Einzige and sein Eigentum
which may literally be translated as The Unique
Individual and His Property) was published,
which is considered to be "a founding text
in the tradition of individualist anarchism".
Stirner does not recommend that the individual
try to eliminate the state, but simply that
they disregard the state when it conflicts
with one's autonomous choices and go along
with it when doing so is conducive to one's
interests. He says that the egoist rejects
pursuit of devotion to "a great idea, a good
cause, a doctirine, a system, a lofty calling,"
saying that the egoist has no political calling,
but rather "lives themselves out" without
regard to "how well or ill humanity may fare
thereby". Stirner held that the only limitation
on the rights of the individual is that individual's
power to obtain what he desires. He proposes
that most commonly accepted social institutions—including
the notion of State, property as a right,
natural rights in general, and the very notion
of society—were mere spooks in the mind.
Stirner wants to "abolish not only the state
but also society as an institution responsible
for its members". Stirner advocated self-assertion
and foresaw Union of egoists, non-systematic
associations, which Stirner proposed in as
a form of organization in place of the state.
A Union is understood as a relation between
egoists which is continually renewed by all
parties' support through an act of will. Even
murder is permissible "if it is right for
me", though it is claimed by egoist anarchists
that egoism will foster genuine and spontaneous
union between individuals.
For Stirner, property simply comes about through
might: "Whoever knows how to take, to defend,
the thing, to him belongs property". He further
says: "What I have in my power, that is my
own. So long as I assert myself as holder,
I am the proprietor of the thing" and that
"I do not step shyly back from your property,
but look upon it always as my property, in
which I respect nothing. Pray do the like
with what you call my property!". His concept
of "egoistic property" not only a lack of
moral restraint on how one obtains and uses
things, but includes other people as well.
His embrace of egoism is in stark contrast
to Godwin's altruism. Stirner was opposed
to communism, seeing it as a form of authority
over the individual.
This position on property is much different
from the Native American, natural law, form
of individualist anarchism, which defends
the inviolability of the private property
that has been earned through labor and trade.
However, Benjamin Tucker rejected the natural
rights philosophy and adopted Stirner's egoism
in 1886, with several others joining with
him. This split the American individualists
into fierce debate, "with the natural rights
proponents accusing the egoists of destroying
libertarianism itself." Other egoists include
James L. Walker, Sidney Parker, Dora Marsden
and John Beverly Robinson.
In Russia, individualist anarchism inspired
by Stirner combined with an appreciation for
Friedrich Nietzsche attracted a small following
of bohemian artists and intellectuals such
as Lev Chernyi, as well as a few lone wolves
who found self-expression in crime and violence.
They rejected organizing, believing that only
unorganized individuals were safe from coercion
and domination, believing this kept them true
to the ideals of anarchism. This type of individualist
anarchism inspired anarcha-feminist Emma Goldman.Though
Stirner's philosophy is individualist, it
has influenced some libertarian communists
and anarcho-communists. "For Ourselves Council
for Generalized Self-Management" discusses
Stirner and speaks of a "communist egoism",
which is said to be a "synthesis of individualism
and collectivism" and says that "greed in
its fullest sense is the only possible basis
of communist society". Forms of libertarian
communism such as Situationism are influenced
by Stirner. Anarcho-communist Emma Goldman
was influenced by both Stirner and Peter Kropotkin
and blended their philosophies together in
her own as shown in books of hers such as
Anarchism And Other Essays.
=== Early American individualist anarchism
===
==== Josiah Warren ====
Josiah Warren is widely regarded as the first
American anarchist and the four-page weekly
paper he edited during 1833, The Peaceful
Revolutionist, was the first anarchist periodical
published, an enterprise for which he built
his own printing press, cast his own type
and made his own printing plates. Warren was
a follower of Robert Owen and joined Owen's
community at New Harmony, Indiana. Warren
termed the phrase "Cost the limit of price",
with "cost" here referring not to monetary
price paid but the labor one exerted to produce
an item. Therefore, "[h]e proposed a system
to pay people with certificates indicating
how many hours of work they did. They could
exchange the notes at local time stores for
goods that took the same amount of time to
produce". He put his theories to the test
by establishing an experimental "labor for
labor store" called the Cincinnati Time Store
where trade was facilitated by notes backed
by a promise to perform labor. The store proved
successful and operated for three years after
which it was closed so that Warren could pursue
establishing colonies based on mutualism.
These included Utopia and Modern Times. Warren
said that Stephen Pearl Andrews' The Science
of Society (published in 1852) was the most
lucid and complete exposition of Warren's
own theories. Catalan historian Xavier Diez
report that the intentional communal experiments
pioneered by Warren were influential in European
individualist anarchists of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries such as Émile Armand
and the intentional communities started by
them.
==== Henry David Thoreau ====
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) was an important
early influence in individualist anarchist
thought in the United States and Europe. Thoreau
was an American author, poet, naturalist,
tax resister, development critic, surveyor,
historian, philosopher and leading transcendentalist.
He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection
upon simple living in natural surroundings;
and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument
for individual resistance to civil government
in moral opposition to an unjust state. His
thought is an early influence on green anarchism,
but with an emphasis on the individual experience
of the natural world influencing later naturist
currents, simple living as a rejection of
a materialist lifestyle and self-sufficiency
were Thoreau's goals and the whole project
was inspired by transcendentalist philosophy.
Many have seen in Thoreau one of the precursors
of ecologism and anarcho-primitivism represented
today in John Zerzan. For George Woodcock,
this attitude can be also motivated by certain
idea of resistance to progress and of rejection
of the growing materialism which is the nature
of American society in the mid 19th century.The
essay Civil Disobedience (Resistance to Civil
Government) was first published in 1849. It
argues that people should not permit governments
to overrule or atrophy their consciences and
that people have a duty to avoid allowing
such acquiescence to enable the government
to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau
was motivated in part by his disgust with
slavery and the Mexican–American War. The
essay later influenced Mohandas Gandhi, Martin
Luther King, Jr., Martin Buber and Leo Tolstoy
through its advocacy of nonviolent resistance.
It is also the main precedent for anarcho-pacifism.
The American version of individualist anarchism
has a strong emphasis on the non-aggression
principle and individual sovereignty. Some
individualist anarchists such as Thoreau do
not speak of economics, but simply the right
of "disunion" from the state and foresee the
gradual elimination of the state through social
evolution.
== Developments and expansion ==
=== 
Free love, anarcha-feminism and LGBT issues
===
An important current within individualist
anarchism is free love. Free love advocates
sometimes traced their roots back to Josiah
Warren and to experimental communities, and
viewed sexual freedom as a clear, direct expression
of an individual's self-ownership. Free love
particularly stressed women's rights since
most sexual laws, such as those governing
marriage and use of birth control, discriminated
against women. The most important American
free love journal was Lucifer the Lightbearer
(1883–1907) edited by Moses Harman and Lois
Waisbrooker but also there existed Ezra Heywood
and Angela Heywood's The Word (1872–1890,
1892–1893). M. E. Lazarus was also an important
American individualist anarchist who promoted
free love. John William Lloyd, a collaborator
of Benjamin Tucker's periodical Liberty, published
in 1931 a sex manual that he called The Karezza
Method: Or Magnetation, the Art of Connubial
Love.In Europe, the main propagandist of free
love within individualist anarchism was Émile
Armand. He proposed the concept of la camaraderie
amoureuse to speak of free love as the possibility
of voluntary sexual encounter between consenting
adults. He was also a consistent proponent
of polyamory. In France, there was also feminist
activity inside individualist anarchism as
promoted by individualist feminists Marie
Küge, Anna Mahé, Rirette Maitrejean and
Sophia Zaïkovska.The Brazilian individualist
anarchist Maria Lacerda de Moura lectured
on topics such as education, women's rights,
free love and antimilitarism. Her writings
and essays garnered her attention not only
in Brazil, but also in Argentina and Uruguay.
She also wrote for the Spanish individualist
anarchist magazine Al Margen alongside Miguel
Gimenez Igualada.In Germany, the Stirnerists
Adolf Brand and John Henry Mackay were pioneering
campaigners for the acceptance of male bisexuality
and homosexuality.
=== Freethought ===
Freethought as a philosophical position and
as activism was important in both North American
and European individualist anarchism, but
in the United States freethought was basically
an anti-Christian, anti-clerical movement
whose purpose was to make the individual politically
and spiritually free to decide for himself
on religious matters. A number of contributors
to Liberty were prominent figures in both
freethought and anarchism. The individualist
anarchist George MacDonald was a co-editor
of Freethought and for a time The Truth Seeker.
E.C. Walker was co-editor of Lucifer, the
Light-Bearer. Many of the anarchists were
ardent freethinkers; reprints from freethought
papers such as Lucifer, the Light-Bearer,
Freethought and The Truth Seeker appeared
in Liberty. The church was viewed as a common
ally of the state and as a repressive force
in and of itself.In Europe, a similar development
occurred in French and Spanish individualist
anarchist circles: "Anticlericalism, just
as in the rest of the libertarian movement,
is another of the frequent elements which
will gain relevance related to the measure
in which the (French) Republic begins to have
conflicts with the church [...] Anti-clerical
discourse, frequently called for by the french
individualist André Lorulot, will have its
impacts in Estudios (a Spanish individualist
anarchist publication). There will be an attack
on institutionalized religion for the responsibility
that it had in the past on negative developments,
for its irrationality which makes it a counterpoint
of philosophical and scientific progress.
There will be a criticism of proselitism and
ideological manipulation which happens on
both believers and agnostics". This tendencies
will continue in French individualist anarchism
in the work and activism of Charles-Auguste
Bontemps and others. In the Spanish individualist
anarchist magazine Ética and Iniciales, "there
is a strong interest in publishing scientific
news, usually linked to a certain atheist
and anti-theist obsession, philosophy which
will also work for pointing out the incompatibility
between science and religion, faith and reason.
In this way there will be a lot of talk on
Darwin's theories or on the negation of the
existence of the soul".
=== Anarcho-naturism ===
Another important current, especially within
French and Spanish individualist anarchist
groups was naturism. Naturism promoted an
ecological worldview, small ecovillages and
most prominently nudism as a way to avoid
the artificiality of the industrial mass society
of modernity. Naturist individualist anarchists
saw the individual in his biological, physical
and psychological aspects and avoided and
tried to eliminate social determinations.
An early influence in this vein was Henry
David Thoreau and his famous book Walden.
Important promoters of this were Henri Zisly
and Émile Gravelle who collaborated in La
Nouvelle Humanité followed by Le Naturien,
Le Sauvage, L'Ordre Naturel and La Vie Naturelle.This
relationship between anarchism and naturism
was quite important at the end of the 1920s
in Spain, when "[t]he linking role played
by the 'Sol y Vida' group was very important.
The goal of this group was to take trips and
enjoy the open air. The Naturist athenaeum,
'Ecléctico', in Barcelona, was the base from
which the activities of the group were launched.
First Etica and then Iniciales, which began
in 1929, were the publications of the group,
which lasted until the Spanish Civil War.
We must be aware that the naturist ideas expressed
in them matched the desires that the libertarian
youth had of breaking up with the conventions
of the bourgeoisie of the time. That is what
a young worker explained in a letter to 'Iniciales'
He writes it under the odd pseudonym of 'silvestre
del campo', (wild man in the country). "I
find great pleasure in being naked in the
woods, bathed in light and air, two natural
elements we cannot do without. By shunning
the humble garment of an exploited person,
(garments which, in my opinion, are the result
of all the laws devised to make our lives
bitter), we feel there no others left but
just the natural laws. Clothes mean slavery
for some and tyranny for others. Only the
naked man who rebels against all norms, stands
for anarchism, devoid of the prejudices of
outfit imposed by our money-oriented society".
The relation between anarchism and naturism
"gives way to the Naturist Federation, in
July 1928, and to the lV Spanish Naturist
Congress, in September 1929, both supported
by the Libertarian Movement. However, in the
short term, the Naturist and Libertarian movements
grew apart in their conceptions of everyday
life. The Naturist movement felt closer to
the Libertarian individualism of some French
theoreticians such as Henri Ner (real name
of Han Ryner) than to the revolutionary goals
proposed by some Anarchist organisations such
as the FAI, (Federación Anarquista Ibérica)".
=== Individualist anarchism and Friedrich
Nietzsche ===
The thought of German philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche has been influential in individualist
anarchism, specifically in thinkers such as
France's Émile Armand, the Italian Renzo
Novatore and the Colombian Biofilo Panclasta.
Robert C. Holub, author of Nietzsche: Socialist,
Anarchist, Feminist posits that "translations
of Nietzsche's writings in the United States
very likely appeared first in Liberty, the
anarchist journal edited by Benjamin Tucker".
=== Anglo-American individualist anarchism
===
==== 
American mutualism and individualist utopianism
====
For American anarchist historian Eunice Minette
Schuster, "[i]t is apparent [...] that Proudhonian
Anarchism was to be found in the United States
at least as early as 1848 and that it was
not conscious of its affinity to the Individualist
Anarchism of Josiah Warren and Stephen Pearl
Andrews [...] William B. Greene presented
this Proudhonian Mutualism in its purest and
most systematic form". William Batchelder
Greene (1819–1878) is best known for the
works Mutual Banking(1850), which proposed
an interest-free banking system; and Transcendentalism,
a critique of the New England philosophical
school. He saw mutualism as the synthesis
of "liberty and order". His "associationism
[...] is checked by individualism [...] "Mind
your own business," "Judge not that ye be
not judged." Over matters which are purely
personal, as for example, moral conduct, the
individual is sovereign, as well as over that
which he himself produces. For this reason
he demands "mutuality" in marriage – the
equal right of a woman to her own personal
freedom and property and feminist and spiritualist
tendencies".Contemporary American anarchist
Hakim Bey reports that "Steven Pearl Andrews
[...] was not a fourierist (see Charles Fourier),
but he lived through the brief craze for phalansteries
in America & adopted a lot of fourierist principles
& practices [...] a maker of worlds out of
words. He syncretized Abolitionism, Free Love,
spiritual universalism, (Josiah) Warren, & (Charles)
Fourier into a grand utopian scheme he called
the Universal Pantarchy [...] He was instrumental
in founding several "intentional communities,"
including the "Brownstone Utopia" on 14th
St. in New York, & "Modern Times" in Brentwood,
Long Island. The latter became as famous as
the best-known fourierist communes (Brook
Farm in Massachusetts & the North American
Phalanx in New Jersey) – in fact, Modern
Times became downright notorious (for "Free
Love") & finally foundered under a wave of
scandalous publicity. Andrews (& Victoria
Woodhull) were members of the infamous Section
12 of the 1st International, expelled by Marx
for its anarchist, feminist, & spiritualist
tendencies".
==== Boston anarchists ====
Another form of individualist anarchism was
found in the United States as advocated by
the so-called Boston anarchists. By default,
American individualists had no difficulty
accepting the concepts that "one man employ
another" or that "he direct him", in his labor
but rather demanded that "all natural opportunities
requisite to the production of wealth be accessible
to all on equal terms and that monopolies
arising from special privileges created by
law be abolished".They believed state monopoly
capitalism (defined as a state-sponsored monopoly)
prevented labor from being fully rewarded.
Voltairine de Cleyre summed up the philosophy
by saying that the anarchist individualists
"are firm in the idea that the system of employer
and employed, buying and selling, banking,
and all the other essential institutions of
Commercialism, centred upon private property,
are in themselves good, and are rendered vicious
merely by the interference of the State".Even
among the 19th-century American individualists,
there was not a monolithic doctrine as they
disagreed amongst each other on various issues
including intellectual property rights and
possession versus property in land. A major
schism occurred later in the 19th century
when Tucker and some others abandoned their
traditional support of natural rights as espoused
by Lysander Spooner and converted to an "egoism"
modeled upon Max Stirner's philosophy. Lysander
Spooner besides his individualist anarchist
activism was also an important anti-slavery
activist and became a member of the First
International.Some Boston anarchists, including
Benjamin Tucker, identified themselves as
socialists, which in the 19th century was
often used in the sense of a commitment to
improving conditions of the working class
(i.e. "the labor problem"). The Boston anarchists
such as Tucker and his followers continue
to be considered socialists due to their opposition
to usury. They do so because as the modern
economist Jim Stanford points out there are
many different kinds of competitive markets
such as market socialism and capitalism is
only one type of a market economy. By around
the start of the 20th century, the heyday
of individualist anarchism had passed.
==== American individualist anarchism and
the labor movement ====
George Woodcock reports that the American
individualist anarchists Lysander Spooner
and William B. Greene had been members of
the socialist First InternationalTwo individualist
anarchists who wrote in Benjamin Tucker's
Liberty were also important labor organizers
of the time. Joseph Labadie (April 18, 1850
– October 7, 1933) was an American labor
organizer, individualist anarchist, social
activist, printer, publisher, essayist and
poet. In 1883, Labadie embraced a non-violent
version of individualist anarchism. Without
the oppression of the state, Labadie believed,
humans would choose to harmonize with "the
great natural laws [...] without robbing [their]
fellows through interest, profit, rent and
taxes". However, he supported community cooperation
as he supported community control of water
utilities, streets and railroads. Although
he did not support the militant anarchism
of the Haymarket anarchists, he fought for
the clemency of the accused because he did
not believe they were the perpetrators. In
1888, Labadie organized the Michigan Federation
of Labor, became its first president and forged
an alliance with Samuel Gompers. A colleague
of Labadie's at Liberty, Dyer Lum was another
important individualist anarchist labor activist
and poet of the era. A leading anarcho-syndicalist
and a prominent left-wing intellectual of
the 1880s, he is remembered as the lover and
mentor of early anarcha-feminist Voltairine
de Cleyre. Lum was a prolific writer who wrote
a number of key anarchist texts and contributed
to publications including Mother Earth, Twentieth
Century, The Alarm (the journal of the International
Working People's Association) and The Open
Court among others. Lum's political philosophy
was a fusion of individualist anarchist economics—"a
radicalized form of laissez-faire economics"
inspired by the Boston anarchists—with radical
labor organization similar to that of the
Chicago anarchists of the time. Herbert Spencer
and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon influenced Lum
strongly in his individualist tendency. He
developed a "mutualist" theory of unions and
as such was active within the Knights of Labor
and later promoted anti-political strategies
in the American Federation of Labor. Frustration
with abolitionism, spiritualism and labor
reform caused Lum to embrace anarchism and
radicalize workers. Convinced of the necessity
of violence to enact social change he volunteered
to fight in the American Civil War, hoping
thereby to bring about the end of slavery.
Kevin Carson has praised Lum's fusion of individualist
laissez-faire economics with radical labor
activism as "creative" and described him as
"more significant than any in the Boston group".
==== American egoism ====
Some of the American individualist anarchists
later in this era, such as Benjamin Tucker,
abandoned natural rights positions and converted
to Max Stirner's egoist anarchism. Rejecting
the idea of moral rights, Tucker said that
there were only two rights, "the right of
might" and "the right of contract". He also
said after converting to Egoist individualism
that "[i]n times past [...] it was my habit
to talk glibly of the right of man to land.
It was a bad habit, and I long ago sloughed
it off [...] Man's only right to land is his
might over it". In adopting Stirnerite egoism
in 1886, Tucker rejected natural rights which
had long been considered the foundation of
libertarianism. This rejection galvanized
the movement into fierce debates, with the
natural rights proponents accusing the egoists
of destroying libertarianism itself. So bitter
was the conflict that a number of natural
rights proponents withdrew from the pages
of Liberty in protest even though they had
hitherto been among its frequent contributors.
Thereafter, Liberty championed egoism although
its general content did not change significantly.Several
periodicals were undoubtedly influenced by
Liberty's presentation of egoism. They included
I published by Clarence Lee Swartz, edited
by William Walstein Gordak and J. William
Lloyd (all associates of Liberty); and The
Ego and The Egoist, both of which were edited
by Edward H. Fulton. Among the egoist papers
that Tucker followed were the German Der Eigene,
edited by Adolf Brand; and The Eagle and The
Serpent, issued from London. The latter, the
most prominent English-language egoist journal,
was published from 1898 to 1900 with the subtitle
"A Journal of Egoistic Philosophy and Sociology".American
anarchists who adhered to egoism include Benjamin
Tucker, John Beverley Robinson, Steven T.
Byington, Hutchins Hapgood, James L. Walker,
Victor Yarros and Edward H. Fulton. Robinson
wrote an essay called "Egoism" in which he
states that "[m]odern egoism, as propounded
by Stirner and Nietzsche, and expounded by
Ibsen, Shaw and others, is all these; but
it is more. It is the realization by the individual
that they are an individual; that, as far
as they are concerned, they are the only individual".
Walker published the work The Philosophy of
Egoism in which he argued that egosim "implies
a rethinking of the self-other relationship,
nothing less than "a complete revolution in
the relations of mankind" that avoids both
the "archist" principle that legitimates domination
and the "moralist" notion that elevates self-renunciation
to a virtue. Walker describes himself as an
"egoistic anarchist" who believed in both
contract and cooperation as practical principles
to guide everyday interactions". For Walker,
"what really defines egoism is not mere self-interest,
pleasure, or greed; it is the sovereignty
of the individual, the full expression of
the subjectivity of the individual ego".Italian
anti-organizationalist individualist anarchism
was brought to the United States by Italian
born individualists such as Giuseppe Ciancabilla
and others who advocated for violent propaganda
by the deed there. Anarchist historian George
Woodcock reports the incident in which the
important Italian social anarchist Errico
Malatesta became involved "in a dispute with
the individualist anarchists of Paterson,
who insisted that anarchism implied no organization
at all, and that every man must act solely
on his impulses. At last, in one noisy debate,
the individual impulse of a certain Ciancabilla
directed him to shoot Malatesta, who was badly
wounded but obstinately refused to name his
assailant".Enrico Arrigoni (pseudonym Frank
Brand) was an Italian American individualist
anarchist Lathe operator, house painter, bricklayer,
dramatist and political activist influenced
by the work of Max Stirner. He took the pseudonym
Brand from a fictional character in one of
Henrik Ibsen's plays. In the 1910s, he started
becoming involved in anarchist and anti-war
activism around Milan. From the 1910s until
the 1920s, he participated in anarchist activities
and popular uprisings in various countries
including Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Argentina
and Cuba. He lived from the 1920s onwards
in New York City, where he edited the individualist
anarchist eclectic journal Eresia in 1928.
He also wrote for other American anarchist
publications such as L' Adunata dei refrattari,
Cultura Obrera, Controcorrente and Intesa
Libertaria. During the Spanish Civil War,
he went to fight with the anarchists, but
he was imprisoned and was helped on his release
by Emma Goldman. Afterwards, Arrigoni became
a longtime member of the Libertarian Book
Club in New York City. His written works include
The Totalitarian Nightmare (1975), The Lunacy
of the Superman (1977), Adventures in the
Country of the Monoliths (1981) and Freedom:
My Dream (1986).
==== Anarcho-capitalism ====
Without the labor theory of value, 19th century
individualist anarchists approximate the modern
movement of anarcho-capitalism. As economic
theory changed, the popularity of the labor
theory of classical economics was superseded
by the subjective theory of value of neo-classical
economics. Murray Rothbard, a student of Ludwig
von Mises, combined Mises' Austrian School
of economics with the absolutist views of
human rights and rejection of the state he
had absorbed from studying the individualist
American anarchists of the 19th century such
as Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker. In
the mid-1950s, Rothbard wrote an article under
a pseudonym, saying that "we are not anarchists
[...] but not archists either [...] Perhaps,
then, we could call ourselves by a new name:
nonarchist", concerned with differentiating
himself from communist and socialistic economic
views of other anarchists (including the individualist
anarchists of the 19th century). There is
a strong current within anarchism which does
not consider that anarcho-capitalism can be
considered a part of the anarchist movement
due to the fact that anarchism has historically
been an anti-capitalist movement and for definitional
reasons which see anarchism incompatible with
capitalist forms.Though anarcho-capitalism
has been regarded by some as a form of individualist
anarchism, anarcho-capitalist author Murray
Rothbard stated that individualist anarchism
is different from capitalism due to the individualist
anarchists retaining the labor theory of value
and many writers deny that anarcho-capitalism
is a form of anarchism at all, or that capitalism
itself is compatible with anarchism.
===== Agorism =====
Agorism was developed from anarcho-capitalism
in the late 20th century by Samuel Edward
Konkin III. The goal of agorists is a society
in which all "relations between people are
voluntary exchanges – a free market". Agorists
are market anarchists. Most agorists consider
that property rights are natural rights deriving
from the primary right of self-ownership.
Because of this, they are not opposed in principle
to collectively held property if individual
owners of the property consent to collective
ownership by contract or other voluntary mutual
agreement. However, agorists are divided on
the question of intellectual property rights.
==== Left-wing market anarchism ====
Left-wing market anarchism, a form of left-libertarianism,
individualist anarchism and libertarian socialism,
is associated with scholars such as Kevin
Carson, Roderick T. Long, Charles Johnson,
Brad Spangler, Samuel Edward Konkin III, Sheldon
Richman, Chris Matthew Sciabarra and Gary
Chartier, who stress the value of radically
free markets, termed "freed markets" to distinguish
them from the common conception which these
libertarians believe to be riddled with statist
and capitalist privileges. Referred to as
left-wing market anarchists or market-oriented
left-libertarians, proponents of this approach
strongly affirm the classical liberal ideas
of self-ownership and free markets while maintaining
that taken to their logical conclusions, these
ideas support anti-capitalist, anti-corporatist,
anti-hierarchical, pro-labor positions in
economics; anti-imperialism in foreign policy;
and thoroughly liberal or radical views regarding
such cultural issues as gender, sexuality
and race.
The genealogy of contemporary market-oriented
left-libertarianism, sometimes labeled "left-wing
market anarchism", overlaps to a significant
degree with that of Steiner–Vallentyne left-libertarianism
as the roots of that tradition are sketched
in the book The Origins of Left-Libertarianism.
Carson–Long-style left-libertarianism is
rooted in 19th-century mutualism and in the
work of figures such as Thomas Hodgskin and
the individualist anarchists Benjamin Tucker
and Lysander Spooner. While with notable exceptions
market-oriented libertarians after Tucker
tended to ally with the political right, relationships
between such libertarians and the New Left
thrived in the 1960s, laying the groundwork
for modern left-wing market anarchism. Left-wing
market anarchism identifies with Left-libertarianism
(or left-wing libertarianism) which names
several related but distinct approaches to
politics, society, culture, and political
and social theory, which stress both individual
freedom and social justice. Unlike right-libertarians,
they believe that neither claiming nor mixing
one's labor with natural resources is enough
to generate full private property rights and
maintain that natural resources (land, oil,
gold, trees) ought to be held in some egalitarian
manner, either unowned or owned collectively.
Those left-libertarians who support private
property do so under the condition that recompense
is offered to the local community.
==== Post-left anarchy and insurrectionary
anarchism ====
Murray Bookchin has identified post-left anarchy
as a form of individualist anarchism in Social
Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable
Chasm where he identifies "a shift among Euro-American
anarchists away from social anarchism and
toward individualist or lifestyle anarchism.
Indeed, lifestyle anarchism today is finding
its principal expression in spray-can graffiti,
post-modernist nihilism, antirationalism,
neo-primitivism, anti-technologism, neo-Situationist
'cultural terrorism', mysticism, and a 'practice'
of staging Foucauldian 'personal insurrections'".
Post-left anarchist Bob Black in his long
critique of Bookchin's philosophy called Anarchy
After Leftism said about post-left anarchy
that "[i]t is, unlike Bookchinism, "individualistic"
in the sense that if the freedom and happiness
of the individual – i.e., each and every
really existing person, every Tom, Dick and
Murray – is not the measure of the good
society, what is?".A strong relationship does
exist between post-left anarchism and the
work of individualist anarchist Max Stirner.
Jason McQuinn says that "when I (and other
anti-ideological anarchists) criticize ideology,
it is always from a specifically critical,
anarchist perspective rooted in both the skeptical,
individualist-anarchist philosophy of Max
Stirner. Bob Black and Feral Faun/Wolfi Landstreicher
also strongly adhere to stirnerist egoist
anarchism. Bob Black has humorously suggested
the idea of "marxist stirnerism".Hakim Bey
has said: "From Stirner's "Union of Self-Owning
Ones" we proceed to Nietzsche's circle of
"Free Spirits" and thence to Charles Fourier's
"Passional Series", doubling and redoubling
ourselves even as the Other multiplies itself
in the eros of the group". Bey also wrote:
"The Mackay Society, of which Mark & I are
active members, is devoted to the anarchism
of Max Stirner, Benj. Tucker & John Henry
Mackay [...] The Mackay Society, incidentally,
represents a little-known current of individualist
thought which never cut its ties with revolutionary
labor. Dyer Lum, Ezra & Angela Haywood represent
this school of thought; Jo Labadie, who wrote
for Tucker's Liberty, made himself a link
between the American "plumb-line" anarchists,
the "philosophical" individualists, & the
syndicalist or communist branch of the movement;
his influence reached the Mackay Society through
his son, Laurance. Like the Italian Stirnerites
(who influenced us through our late friend
Enrico Arrigoni) we support all anti-authoritarian
currents, despite their apparent contradictions".As
far as posterior individualist anarchists,
Jason McQuinn for some time used the pseudonym
Lev Chernyi in honor of the Russian individualist
anarchist of the same name while Feral Faun
has quoted Italian individualist anarchist
Renzo Novatore and has translated both Novatore
and the young Italian individualist anarchist
Bruno Filippi
Egoism has had a strong influence on insurrectionary
anarchism, as can be seen in the work of Wolfi
Landstreicher. Feral Faun wrote in 1995: In
the game of insurgence – a lived guerilla
war game – it is strategically necessary
to use identities and roles. Unfortunately,
the context of social relationships gives
these roles and identities the power to define
the individual who attempts to use them. So
I, Feral Faun, became [...] an anarchist [...] a
writer [...] a Stirner-influenced, post-situationist,
anti-civilization theorist [...] if not in
my own eyes, at least in the eyes of most
people who've read my writings.
=== European individualist anarchism ===
European individualist anarchism proceeded
from the roots laid by William Godwin, Pierre-Joseph
Proudhon and Max Stirner. Proudhon was an
early pioneer of anarchism as well as of the
important individualist anarchist current
of mutualism. Stirner became a central figure
of individualist anarchism through the publication
of his seminal work The Ego and Its Own which
is considered to be "a founding text in the
tradition of individualist anarchism". Another
early figure was Anselme Bellegarrigue. Individualist
anarchism expanded and diversified through
Europe, incorporating influences from North
American individualist anarchism.
European individualist anarchists include
Albert Libertad, Bellegarrigue, Oscar Wilde,
Émile Armand, Lev Chernyi, John Henry Mackay,
Han Ryner, Adolf Brand, Miguel Gimenez Igualada,
Renzo Novatore and currently Michel Onfray.
Important currents within it include free
love, anarcho-naturism and illegalism.
==== France ====
From the legacy of Proudhon and Stirner there
emerged a strong tradition of French individualist
anarchism. An early important individualist
anarchist was Anselme Bellegarrigue. He participated
in the French Revolution of 1848, was author
and editor of Anarchie, Journal de l'Ordre
and Au fait ! Au fait ! Interprétation de
l'idée démocratique and wrote the important
early Anarchist Manifesto in 1850. Catalan
historian of individualist anarchism Xavier
Diez reports that during his travels in the
United States "he at least contacted (Henry
David) Thoreau and, probably (Josiah) Warren".
Autonomie Individuelle was an individualist
anarchist publication that ran from 1887 to
1888. It was edited by Jean-Baptiste Louiche,
Charles Schæffer and Georges Deherme.Later,
this tradition continued with such intellectuals
as Albert Libertad, André Lorulot, Émile
Armand, Victor Serge, Zo d'Axa and Rirette
Maitrejean, who in 1905 developed theory in
the main individualist anarchist journal in
France, L'Anarchie. Outside this journal,
Han Ryner wrote Petit Manuel individualiste
(1903). In 1891, Zo d'Axa created the journal
L'En-Dehors.
Anarcho-naturism was promoted by Henri Zisly,
Emile Gravelle and Georges Butaud. Butaud
was an individualist "partisan of the milieux
libres, publisher of "Flambeau" ("an enemy
of authority") in 1901 in Vienna" and most
of his energies were devoted to creating anarchist
colonies (communautés expérimentales) in
which he participated in several.In this sense,
"the theoretical positions and the vital experiences
of [F]rench individualism are deeply iconoclastic
and scandalous, even within libertarian circles.
The call of nudist naturism, the strong defence
of bith control methods, the idea of "unions
of egoists" with the sole justification of
sexual practices, that will try to put in
practice, not without difficulties, will establish
a way of thought and action, and will result
in sympathy within some, and a strong rejection
within others".
French individualist anarchists grouped behind
Émile Armand, published L'Unique after World
War II. L'Unique went from 1945 to 1956 with
a total of 110 numbers. Gérard de Lacaze-Duthiers
was a French writer, art critic, pacifist
and anarchist. Lacaze-Duthiers, an art critic
for the Symbolist review journal La Plume,
was influenced by Oscar Wilde, Friedrich Nietzsche
and Max Stirner. His (1906) L'Ideal Humain
de l'Art helped found the "artistocracy movement"—a
movement advocating life in the service of
art. His ideal was an anti-elitist aestheticism:
"All men should be artists". Together with
André Colomer and Manuel Devaldes, in 1913
he founded L'Action d'Art, an anarchist literary
journal. After World War II, he contributed
to the journal L'Unique. Within the synthesist
anarchist organization, the Fédération Anarchiste,
there existed an individualist anarchist tendency
alongside anarcho-communist and anarchosyndicalist
currents. Individualist anarchists participating
inside the Fédération Anarchiste included
Charles-Auguste Bontemps, Georges Vincey and
André Arru. The new base principles of the
francophone Anarchist Federation were written
by the individualist anarchist Charles-Auguste
Bontemps and the anarcho-communist Maurice
Joyeux which established an organization with
a plurality of tendencies and autonomy of
federated groups organized around synthesist
principles. Charles-Auguste Bontemps was a
prolific author mainly in the anarchist, freethinking,
pacifist and naturist press of the time. His
view on anarchism was based around his concept
of "Social Individualism" on which he wrote
extensively. He defended an anarchist perspective
which consisted on "a collectivism of things
and an individualism of persons".In 2002,
Libertad organized a new version of the L'EnDehors,
collaborating with Green Anarchy and including
several contributors, such as Lawrence Jarach,
Patrick Mignard, Thierry Lodé, Ron Sakolsky
and Thomas Slut. Numerous articles about capitalism,
human rights, free love and social fights
were published. The EnDehors continues now
as a website, EnDehors.org.
The prolific contemporary French philosopher
Michel Onfray has been writing from an individualist
anarchist perspective influenced by Nietzsche,
French post-structuralists thinkers such as
Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze; and Greek
classical schools of philosophy such as the
Cynics and Cyrenaics. Among the books which
best expose Onfray's individualist anarchist
perspective include La sculpture de soi : la
morale esthétique (The Sculpture of Oneself:
Aesthetic Morality), La philosophie féroce
: exercices anarchistes, La puissance d'exister
and Physiologie de Georges Palante, portrait
d'un nietzchéen de gauche which focuses on
French individualist philosopher Georges Palante.
==== Illegalism ====
Illegalism is an anarchist philosophy that
developed primarily in France, Italy, Belgium
and Switzerland during the early 1900s as
an outgrowth of Stirner's individualist anarchism.
Illegalists usually did not seek moral basis
for their actions, recognizing only the reality
of "might" rather than "right"; and for the
most part, illegal acts were done simply to
satisfy personal desires, not for some greater
ideal, although some committed crimes as a
form of propaganda of the deed. The illegalists
embraced direct action and propaganda of the
deed.Influenced by theorist Max Stirner's
egoism as well as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (his
view that "Property is theft!"), Clément
Duval and Marius Jacob proposed the theory
of la reprise individuelle (individual reclamation)
which justified robbery on the rich and personal
direct action against exploiters and the system.Illegalism
first rose to prominence among a generation
of Europeans inspired by the unrest of the
1890s, during which Ravachol, Émile Henry,
Auguste Vaillant and Sante Geronimo Caserio
committed daring crimes in the name of anarchism
in what is known as propaganda of the deed.
France's Bonnot Gang was the most famous group
to embrace illegalism.
==== Italy ====
In Italy, individualist anarchism had a strong
tendency towards illegalism and violent propaganda
by the deed similar to French individualist
anarchism, but perhaps more extreme and which
emphazised criticism of organization be it
anarchist or of other type. In this respect,
we can consider notorious magnicides carried
out or attempted by individualists Giovanni
Passannante, Sante Caserio, Michele Angiolillo,
Luigi Luccheni and Gaetano Bresci who murdered
King Umberto I. Caserio lived in France and
coexisted within French illegalism and later
assassinated French President Sadi Carnot.
The theoretical seeds of current insurrectionary
anarchism were already laid out at the end
of 19th century Italy in a combination of
individualist anarchism criticism of permanent
groups and organization with a socialist class
struggle worldview. During the rise of fascism,
this thought also motivated Gino Lucetti,
Michele Schirru and Angelo Sbardellotto in
attempting the assassination of Benito Mussolini.
During the early 20th century, the intellectual
work of individualist anarchist Renzo Novatore
came to importance and he was influenced by
Max Stirner, Friedrich Nietzsche, Georges
Palante, Oscar Wilde, Henrik Ibsen, Arthur
Schopenhauer and Charles Baudelaire. He collaborated
in numerous anarchist journals and participated
in futurism avant-garde currents. In his thought,
he adhered to Stirnerist disrespect for private
property, only recognizing property of one's
own spirit. Novatore collaborated in the individualist
anarchist journal Iconoclasta! alongside the
young Stirnerist illegalist Bruno Filippi.The
individualist philosopher and poet Renzo Novatore
belonged to the leftist section of the avant-garde
movement of futurism alongside other individualist
anarcho-futurists such as Dante Carnesecchi,
Leda Rafanelli, Auro d'Arcola and Giovanni
Governato. There was also Pietro Bruzzi who
published the journal L'Individualista in
the 1920s alongside Ugo Fedeli and Francesco
Ghezzi, but who fell to fascist forces later.
Bruzzi also collaborated with the Italian
American individualist anarchist publication
Eresia of New York City edited by Enrico Arrigoni.
In 1945 in Italy during the Founding Congress
of the Italian Anarchist Federation, there
was a group of individualist anarchists led
by Cesare Zaccaria who was an important anarchist
of the time. Later during the IX Congress
of the Italian Anarchist Federation in Carrara
in 1965, a group decided to split off from
this organization and created the Gruppi di
Iniziativa Anarchica. In the 1970s, it was
mostly composed of "veteran individualist
anarchists with an of pacifism orientation,
naturism".In the famous Italian insurrectionary
anarchist essay written by an anonymous writer,
"At Daggers Drawn with the Existent, its Defenders
and its False Critics", there reads: "The
workers who, during a wildcat strike, carried
a banner saying, 'We are not asking for anything'
understood that the defeat is in the claim
itself ('the claim against the enemy is eternal').
There is no alternative but to take everything.
As Stirner said: 'No matter how much you give
them, they will always ask for more, because
what they want is no less than the end of
every concession'". The contemporary imprisoned
Italian insurrectionary anarchist philosopher
Michele Fabiani writes from an explicit individualist
anarchist perspective in such essays as Critica
individualista anarchica alla modernità ("Individualist
Anarchist Critique of Modernity") Horst Fantazzini
(March 4, 1939 – December 24, 2001) was
an Italian-German individualist anarchist
who pursued an illegalist lifestyle and practice
until his death in 2001. He gained media notoriety
mainly due to his many bank robberies through
Italy and other countries. In 1999, the film
Ormai è fatta! appeared based on his life.
==== Spain ====
While Spain was influenced by American individualist
anarchism, it was more closely related to
the French currents. Around the start of the
20th century, individualism in Spain gathered
force through the efforts of people such as
Dorado Montero, Ricardo Mella, Federico Urales,
Miguel Gimenez Igualada, Mariano Gallardo
and J. Elizalde who translated French and
American individualists. Important in this
respect were also magazines such as La Idea
Libre, La revista blanca, Etica, Iniciales,
Al margen, Estudios and Nosotros. The most
influential thinkers there were Max Stirner,
Émile Armand and Han Ryner. Just as in France,
the spread of Esperanto and anationalism had
importance just as naturism and free love
currents. Later, Armand and Ryner themselves
started writing in the Spanish individualist
press. Armand's concept of amorous camaraderie
had an important role in motivating polyamory
as realization of the individual.Catalan historian
Xavier Diez reports that the Spanish individualist
anarchist press was widely read by members
of anarcho-communist groups and by members
of the anarcho-syndicalist trade union CNT.
There were also the cases of prominent individualist
anarchists such as Federico Urales and Miguel
Gimenez Igualada who were members of the CNT
and J. Elizalde who was a founding member
and first secretary of the Iberian Anarchist
Federation (IAF).Spanish individualist anarchist
Miguel Giménez Igualada wrote the lengthy
theory book called Anarchism espousing his
individualist anarchism. Between October 1937
and February 1938, he was editor of the individualist
anarchist magazine Nosotros in which many
works of Armand and Ryner appeared. He also
participated in the publishing of another
individualist anarchist maganize Al Margen:
Publicación quincenal individualista. In
his youth, he engaged in illegalist activities.
His thought was deeply influenced by Max Stirner,
of which he was the main popularizer in Spain
through his own writings. He published and
wrote the preface to the fourth edition in
Spanish of The Ego and Its Own from 1900.
He proposed the creation of a "Union of egoists"
to be a federation of individualist anarchists
in Spain, but it did not succeed. In 1956,
he published an extensive treatise on Stirner,
dedicated to fellow individualist anarchist
Émile Armand. Afterwards, he traveled and
lived in Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico.Federico
Urales was an important individualist anarchist
who edited La Revista Blanca. The individualist
anarchism of Urales was influenced by Auguste
Comte and Charles Darwin. He saw science and
reason as a defense against blind servitude
to authority. He was critical of influential
individualist thinkers such as Nietzsche and
Stirner for promoting an asocial egoist individualism
and instead promoted an individualism with
solidarity seen as a way to guarantee social
equality and harmony. He was highly critical
of anarcho-syndicalism, which he viewed as
plagued by excessive bureaucracy; and he thought
that it tended towards reformism. Instead,
he favored small groups based on ideological
alignment. He supported and participated in
the establishment of the IAF in 1927.In 1956,
Miguel Giménez Igualada—on exile escaping
from Franco's dictatorship—published an
extensive treatise on Stirner which he dedicated
to fellow individualist anarchist Émile Armand.
On the subject of individualist anarchist
theory, he publisheds Anarchism in 1968 during
his exile in Mexico from Franco's dictatorship
in Spain. He was present in the First Congress
of the Mexican Anarchist Federation in 1945.In
2000, Ateneo Libertario Ricardo Mella, Ateneo
Libertario Al Margen, Ateneu Enciclopèdic
Popular, Ateneo Libertario de Sant Boi and
Ateneu Llibertari Poble Sec y Fundació D'Estudis
Llibertaris i Anarcosindicalistes republished
Émile Armand's writings on free love and
individualist anarchism in a compilation titled
Individualist anarchism and Amorous camaraderie.
Recently, Spanish historian Xavier Diez has
dedicated extensive research on Spanish individualist
anarchism as can be seen in his books El anarquismo
individualista en España: 1923–1938 and
Utopia sexual a la premsa anarquista de Catalunya.
La revista Ética-Iniciales(1927–1937) which
deals with free love thought as present in
the Spanish individualist anarchist magazine
Iniciales.
==== Germany ====
In Germany, the Scottish-German John Henry
McKay became the most important propagandist
for individualist anarchist ideas. He fused
Stirnerist egoism with the positions of Benjamin
Tucker and actually translated Tucker into
German. Two semi-fictional writings of his
own, Die Anarchisten and Der Freiheitsucher,
contributed to individualist theory through
an updating of egoist themes within a consideration
of the anarchist movement. English translations
of these works arrived in the United Kingdom
and in individualist American circles led
by Tucker. McKay is also known as an important
European early activist for gay rights.
Using the pseudonym Sagitta, Mackay wrote
a series of works for pederastic emancipation,
titled Die Buecher der namenlosen Liebe (Books
of the Nameless Love). This series was conceived
in 1905 and completed in 1913 and included
the Fenny Skaller, a story of a pederast.
Under the same pseudonym, he also published
fiction, such as Holland (1924) and a pederastic
novel of the Berlin boy-bars, Der Puppenjunge
(The Hustler) (1926).
Adolf Brand (1874–1945) was a German writer,
Stirnerist anarchist and pioneering campaigner
for the acceptance of male bisexuality and
homosexuality. In 1896, Brand published a
German homosexual periodical, Der Eigene.
This was the first ongoing homosexual publication
in the world. The name was taken from writings
of egoist philosopher Max Stirner (who had
greatly influenced the young Brand) and refers
to Stirner's concept of "self-ownership" of
the individual. Der Eigene concentrated on
cultural and scholarly material and may have
had an average of around 1,500 subscribers
per issue during its lifetime, although the
exact numbers are uncertain. Contributors
included Erich Mühsam, Kurt Hiller, John
Henry Mackay (under the pseudonym Sagitta)
and artists Wilhelm von Gloeden, Fidus and
Sascha Schneider. Brand contributed many poems
and articles himself. Benjamin Tucker followed
this journal from the United States.Der Einzige
was a German individualist anarchist magazine.
It appeared in 1919 as a weekly, then sporadically
until 1925 and was edited by cousins Anselm
Ruest (pseudonym for Ernst Samuel) and Mynona
(pseudonym for Salomo Friedlaender). Its title
was adopted from the book Der Einzige und
sein Eigentum (The Ego and Its Own) by Max
Stirner. Another influence was the thought
of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
The publication was connected to the local
expressionist artistic current and the transition
from it towards Dada.
==== United Kingdom and Ireland ====
The English Enlightenment political theorist
William Godwin was an important influence
as mentioned before. The Irish anarchist writer
of the Decadent Movement Oscar Wilde influenced
individualist anarchists such as Renzo Novatore
and gained the admiration of Benjamin Tucker.
In his important essay The Soul of Man under
Socialism from 1891, Wilde defended socialism
as the way to guarantee individualism and
so he saw that "[w]ith the abolition of private
property, then, we shall have true, beautiful,
healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his
life in accumulating things, and the symbols
for things. One will live. To live is the
rarest thing in the world. Most people exist,
that is all". For anarchist historian George
Woodcock, "Wilde's aim in The Soul of Man
under Socialism is to seek the society most
favorable to the artist [...] for Wilde art
is the supreme end, containing within itself
enlightenment and regeneration, to which all
else in society must be subordinated [...] Wilde
represents the anarchist as aesthete". Woodcock
finds that "[t]he most ambitious contribution
to literary anarchism during the 1890s was
undoubtedly Oscar Wilde The Soul of Man under
Socialism" and finds that it is influenced
mainly by the thought of William Godwin.In
the late 19th century in the United Kingdom,
there existed individualist anarchists such
as Wordsworth Donisthorpe, Joseph Hiam Levy,
Joseph Greevz Fisher, John Badcock Jr., Albert
Tarn and Henry Albert Seymour who were close
to the United States group around Benjamin
Tucker's magazine Liberty. In the mid-1880s,
Seymour published a journal called The Anarchist
and also later took a special interest in
free love as he participated in the journal
The Adult: A Journal for the Advancement of
Freedom in Sexual Relationships. The Serpent,
issued from London, was the most prominent
English-language egoist journal and published
from 1898 to 1900 with the subtitle "A Journal
of Egoistic Philosophy and Sociology". Henry
Meulen was another British anarchist who was
notable for his support of free banking.
In the United Kingdom, Herbert Read was influenced
highly by egoism as he later approached existentialism
(see existentialist anarchism). Albert Camus
devoted a section of The Rebel to Stirner.
Although throughout his book Camus is concerned
to present "the rebel" as a preferred alternative
to "the revolutionary", he nowhere acknowledges
that this distinction is taken from the one
that Stirner makes between "the revolutionary"
and "the insurrectionist". Sidney Parker is
a British egoist individualist anarchist who
wrote articles and edited anarchist journals
from 1963 to 1993 such as Minus One, Egoist,
and Ego. Donald Rooum is an English anarchist
cartoonist and writer with a long association
with Freedom Press. Rooum stated that for
his thought, "[t]he most influential source
is Max Stirner. I am happy to be called a
Stirnerite anarchist, provided 'Stirnerite'
means one who agrees with Stirner's general
drift, not one who agrees with Stirner's every
word". An Anarchist FAQ reports: "From meeting
anarchists in Glasgow during the Second World
War, long-time anarchist activist and artist
Donald Rooum likewise combined Stirner and
anarcho-communism".
In the hybrid of post-structuralism and anarchism
called post-anarchism, Saul Newman has written
a lot on Stirner and his similarities to post-structuralism.
He writes: Max Stirner's impact on contemporary
political theory is often neglected. However
in Stirner's political thinking there can
be found a surprising convergence with poststructuralist
theory, particularly with regard to the function
of power. Andrew Koch, for instance, sees
Stirner as a thinker who transcends the Hegelian
tradition he is usually placed in, arguing
that his work is a precursor poststructuralist
ideas about the foundations of knowledge and
truth.
Newman has published several essays on Stirner.
"War on the State: Stirner and Deleuze's Anarchism"
and "Empiricism, Pluralism, and Politics in
Deleuze and Stirner" discusses what he sees
are similarities between Stirner's thought
and that of Gilles Deleuze. In "Spectres of
Stirner: A Contemporary Critique of Ideology",
he discusses the conception of ideology in
Stirner. In "Stirner and Foucault: Toward
a Post-Kantian Freedom", similarities between
Stirner and Michel Foucault. He also wrote
"Politics of the Ego: Stirner's Critique of
Liberalism".
==== Russia ====
Individualist anarchism was one of the three
categories of anarchism in Russia, along with
the more prominent anarcho-communism and anarcho-syndicalism.
The ranks of the Russian individualist anarchists
were predominantly drawn from the intelligentsia
and the working class. For anarchist historian
Paul Avrich, "[t]he two leading exponents
of individualist anarchism, both based in
Moscow, were Aleksei Alekseevich Borovoi and
Lev Chernyi (Pavel Dmitrievich Turchaninov).
From Nietzsche, they inherited the desire
for a complete overturn of all values accepted
by bourgeois society political, moral, and
cultural. Furthermore, strongly influenced
by Max Stirner and Benjamin Tucker, the German
and American theorists of individualist anarchism,
they demanded the total liberation of the
human personality from the fetters of organized
society".Some Russian individualists anarchists
"found the ultimate expression of their social
alienation in violence and crime, others attached
themselves to avant-garde literary and artistic
circles, but the majority remained "philosophical"
anarchists who conducted animated parlor discussions
and elaborated their individualist theories
in ponderous journals and books".Lev Chernyi
was an important individualist anarchist involved
in resistance against the rise to power of
the Bolshevik Party as he adhered mainly to
Stirner and the ideas of Tucker. In 1907,
he published a book entitled Associational
Anarchism, in which he advocated the "free
association of independent individuals". On
his return from Siberia in 1917, he enjoyed
great popularity among Moscow workers as a
lecturer. Chernyi was also Secretary of the
Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups, which
was formed in March 1917. He was an advocate
"for the seizure of private homes", which
was an activity seen by the anarchists after
the October Revolution as direct expropriation
on the bourgoise. He died after being accused
of participation in an episode in which this
group bombed the headquarters of the Moscow
Committee of the Communist Party. Although
most likely not being really involved in the
bombing, he might have died of torture.Chernyi
advocated a Nietzschean overthrow of the values
of bourgeois Russian society, and rejected
the voluntary communes of anarcho-communist
Peter Kropotkin as a threat to the freedom
of the individual. Scholars including Avrich
and Allan Antliff have interpreted this vision
of society to have been greatly influenced
by the individualist anarchists Max Stirner
and Benjamin Tucker. Subsequent to the book's
publication, Chernyi was imprisoned in Siberia
under the Russian Czarist regime for his revolutionary
activities.On the other hand, Aleksei Borovoi
(1876?–1936) was a professor of philosophy
at Moscow University, "a gifted orator and
the author of numerous books, pamphlets, and
articles which attempted to reconcile individualist
anarchism with the doctrines of syndicallism".
He wrote among other theoretical works Anarkhizm
in 1918, just after the October Revolution;
and Anarchism and Law. For him, "the chief
importance is given not to Anarchism as the
aim but to Anarchy as the continuous quest
for the aim". He manifests there that "[n]o
social ideal, from the point of view of anarchism,
could be referred to as absolute in a sense
that supposes it's the crown of human wisdom,
the end of social and ethical quest of man".
=== Latin American individualist anarchism
===
Argentine anarchist historian Angel Cappelletti
reports that in Argentina "[a]mong the workers
that came from Europe in the 2 first decades
of the century, there was curiously some stirnerian
individualists influenced by the philosophy
of Nietzsche, that saw syndicalism as a potential
enemy of anarchist ideology. They established
[...] affinity groups that in 1912 came to,
according to Max Nettlau, to the number of
20. In 1911 there appeared, in Colón, the
periodical El Único, that defined itself
as 'Publicación individualista'".Vicente
Rojas Lizcano, whose pseudonym was Biófilo
Panclasta, was a Colombian individualist anarchist
writer and activist. In 1904, he began using
the name Biofilo Panclasta. Biofilo in Spanish
stands for "lover of life" and Panclasta for
"enemy of all". He visited more than fifty
countries propagandizing for anarchism which
in his case was highly influenced by the thought
of Stirner and Nietszche. Among his written
works there are Siete años enterrado vivo
en una de las mazmorras de Gomezuela: Horripilante
relato de un resucitado(1932) and Mis prisiones,
mis destierros y mi vida (1929) which talk
about his many adventures while living his
life as an adventurer, activist and vagabond
as well as his thought and the many times
he was imprisoned in different countries.
Maria Lacerda de Moura was a Brazilian teacher,
journalist, anarcha-feminist and individualist
anarchist. Her ideas regarding education were
largely influenced by Francisco Ferrer. She
later moved to São Paulo and became involved
in journalism for the anarchist and labor
press. There she also lectured on topics including
education, women's rights, free love and antimilitarism.
Her writings and essays garnered her attention
not only in Brazil, but also in Argentina
and Uruguay. In February 1923, she launched
Renascença, a periodical linked with the
anarchist, progressive and freethinking circles
of the period. Her thought was mainly influenced
by individualist anarchists such as Han Ryner
and Émile Armand. She maintained contact
with Spanish individualist anarchist circles.Horst
Matthai Quelle was a Spanish language German
anarchist philosopher influenced by Max Stirner.
In 1938 at the beginning of the German economic
crisis and the rise of Nazism and fascism
in Europe, Quelle moved to Mexico. Quelle
earned his undergraduate degree, master's
and doctorate in philosophy at the National
Autonomous University of Mexico, where he
returned as a professor of philosophy in the
1980s. He argued that since the individual
gives form to the world, he is those objects,
the others and the whole universe. One of
his main views was a "theory of infinite worlds"
which for him was developed by pre-socratic
philosophers.During the 1990s in Argentina,
there appeared a Stirnerist publication called
El Único: publicacion periódica de pensamiento
individualista.
== Criticisms ==
Philosopher Murray Bookchin criticized individualist
anarchism for its opposition to democracy
and its embrace of "lifestylism" at the expense
of class struggle. Bookchin claimed that individualist
anarchism supports only negative liberty and
rejects the idea of positive liberty. Philosopher
Albert Meltzer proposed that individualist
anarchism differs radically from revolutionary
anarchism and that it "is sometimes too readily
conceded 'that this is, after all, anarchism'".
He claimed that Benjamin Tucker's acceptance
of the use of a private police force (including
to break up violent strikes to protect the
"employer's 'freedom'") is contradictory to
the definition of anarchism as "no government".Philosopher
George Bernard Shaw initially had flirtations
with individualist anarchism before coming
to the conclusion that it was "the negation
of socialism, and is, in fact, unsocialism
carried as near to its logical conclusion
as any sane man dare carry it". Shaw's argument
was that even if wealth was initially distributed
equally, the degree of laissez-faire advocated
by Tucker would result in the distribution
of wealth becoming unequal because it would
permit private appropriation and accumulation.
According to academic Carlotta Anderson, American
individualist anarchists accept that free
competition results in unequal wealth distribution,
but they "do not see that as an injustice".
Tucker explained: "If I go through life free
and rich, I shall not cry because my neighbor,
equally free, is richer. Liberty will ultimately
make all men rich; it will not make all men
equally rich. Authority may (and may not)
make all men equally rich in purse; it certainly
will make them equally poor in all that makes
life best worth living".
== Footnotes ==
α^ The term "individualist anarchism" is
often used as a classificatory term, but in
very different ways. Some sources, such as
An Anarchist FAQ, use the classification "social
anarchism/individualist anarchism". Some see
individualist anarchism as distinctly non-socialist
and use the classification "socialist anarchism/individualist
anarchism" accordingly. Other classifications
include "mutualist/communal" anarchism.β^
Michael Freeden identifies four broad types
of individualist anarchism. He says the first
is the type associated with William Godwin
that advocates self-government with a "progressive
rationalism that included benevolence to others".
The second type is the amoral self-serving
rationality of egoism as most associated with
Max Stirner. The third type is "found in Herbert
Spencer's early predictions, and in that of
some of his disciples such as Donisthorpe,
foreseeing the redundancy of the state in
the source of social evolution". The fourth
type retains a moderated form of egoism and
accounts for social cooperation through the
advocacy of market relationships.γ^ See for
example the Winter 2006 issue of the Journal
of Libertarian Studies dedicated to reviews
of Kevin Carson's Studies in Mutualist Political
Economy. Mutualists compose one bloc, along
with agorists and geo-libertarians, in the
recently formed Alliance of the Libertarian
Left.δ^ Though this term is non-standard
usage—by "left"—agorists mean "left" in
the general sense used by left-libertarians
as defined by Roderick T. Long, i.e. as "an
integration, or I'd argue, a reintegration
of libertarianism with concerns that are traditionally
thought of as being concerns of the left.
That includes concerns for worker empowerment,
worry about plutocracy, concerns about feminism
and various kinds of social equality".ε^
Konkin wrote the article "Copywrongs" in opposition
to the concept and Schulman countered SEK3's
arguments in "Informational Property: Logorights".ζ^
Individualist anarchism is also known by the
terms "anarchist individualism", "anarcho-individualism",
"individualistic anarchism", "libertarian
anarchism", "anarcho-libertarianism", "anarchist
libertarianism" and "anarchistic libertarianism
