Social anarchism (sometimes referred to as
socialist anarchism or anarcho-socialism)
is a non-state form of socialism and is considered
to be the branch of anarchism that sees individual
freedom as being interrelated with mutual
aid.Social anarchist thought emphasizes community
and social equality as complementary to autonomy
and personal freedom, through norms maintained,
such as freedom of speech, in a decentralized
federalism, balanced with freedom of interaction
in thought.
It is, also, advocated that the conversion
of a proportion of present-day (and future)
productive private property be made into social
property, to offer individual empowerment
through easier access to such as tools or
parts, or a sharing of the commons, while
retaining respect for personal property.
The term is used to describe the theory—contra
anarchist individualism— that places an
emphasis on the communitarian and cooperative
aspects in anarchist theory while, also, opposing
authoritarian forms of communitarianism associated
with groupthink and collective conformity,
and instead favouring a reconciliation between
individuality and sociality.
Illegitimate authority is removed through
inspection and vigilance.
While self-determination is asserted, as is
worker's self-management, and education and
empowerment emphasized, both individually
and through interaction with the community,
a do-it-youself (DIY) mentality is combined
with educational efforts within the social
realm.
It is considered an umbrella term that includes
(but is not limited to) the post-capitalist
economic models of anarcho-communism, collectivist
anarchism and (sometimes) mutualism; as well
as the trade union approach of anarcho-syndicalism,
the social struggle strategies of platformism
and specifism and the environmental philosophy
of social ecology.
The term "social anarchism" is often used
interchangeably with libertarian socialism,
left-libertarianism or left anarchism.
It emerged in the late 19th century as a distinction
from individualist anarchism.
== Historical currents ==
=== Mutualism ===
Mutualism, originally developed by Pierre-Joseph
Proudhon, emerged from early 19th century
socialism and is generally considered a market-oriented
strand within the libertarian socialist tradition.
Mutualists typically accept property rights,
but with brief abandonment time periods.
In a community in which mutuality property
rules were upheld, a landowner would need
to make (more or less) continuous use of his/her
land; if he/she failed to do so, his/her ownership
rights would be extinguished and the land
could be homesteaded by someone else.
A mutualist property regime is often described
as one rooted in "possession", "occupancy-and-use",
or "usufruct".Nevertheless, mutualism is also
associated with the economic views of 19th
century American individualist anarchists
such as Benjamin Tucker and William Batchelder
Greene.
Today, Kevin Carson is a contemporary mutualist
and author of Studies in Mutualist Political
Economy who describes this work as "an attempt
to revive individualist anarchist political
economy, to incorporate the useful developments
of the last hundred years, and to make it
relevant to the problems of the twenty-first
century".
=== Collectivist anarchism ===
Collectivist anarchism (also known as anarcho-collectivism)
is a revolutionary form of anarchism, commonly
associated with Mikhail Bakunin and James
Guillaume.
It is a specific tendency, not to be confused
with the broad category sometimes called collectivist
or communitarian anarchism.The tendency emerged
from the most radical wing of mutualism during
the late 1860s.
Unlike mutualists, collectivist anarchists
oppose all private ownership of the means
of production, instead advocating that ownership
be collectivized, being made the joint property
of the commune (municipality).
This was to be achieved through violent revolution,
first starting with a small cohesive group
through acts of armed insurrection, or "propaganda
by the deed", which would inspire the workers
and peasants as a whole to revolt and forcibly
collectivize the means of production.
However, collectivization was not to be extended
to the distribution of income as workers would
be paid according to time worked, rather than
receiving goods being distributed "according
to need" as in anarcho-communism.
This position was criticised by later anarcho-communists
as effectively "uphold[ing] the wages system".Anarchist
communist and collectivist ideas were not
mutually exclusive.
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, claiming that this would become more
feasible once technology and productivity
had evolved to a point where "production outstrips
consumption" in a relative sense.
Collectivist anarchism arose contemporaneously
with Marxism, but it opposed the Marxist dictatorship
of the proletariat despite the stated Marxist
goal of a collectivist stateless society.
=== Anarcho-communism ===
Anarcho-communism (also known as anarchist
communism and occasionally as free communism)
is a theory of anarchism that advocates the
abolition of the state, markets, money, capitalism
and private property.
Politically, anarchist communists advocate
replacing the nation-state and representative
government with a voluntary confederation
of free communes (self-governing municipalities),
with the commune replacing the nation as the
core unit of social-political administration.
Economically, anarchist communists believe
in converting private property into the commons
or public goods while retaining respect for
personal property).
In practice, this means common ownership of
the means of production, direct democracy
with production organised through a horizontal
network of voluntary associations and consumption
based on the guiding principle: "From each
according to his ability, to each according
to his needs".
Some forms of anarchist communism such as
insurrectionary anarchism are strongly influenced
by egoism and radical individualism, believing
anarcho-communism is the best social system
for the realization of individual freedom.
Most anarcho-communists view anarcho-communism
as a way of reconciling the opposition between
the individual and society.The ideas associated
with anarchist communism developed out of
radical socialist currents after the French
revolution, but was first formulated as such
in the Italian section of the First International.
The theoretical work of Peter Kropotkin took
importance later as it expanded and developed
pro-organizationalist and insurrectionary
anti-organizationalist sections.In terms of
its vision for a post-capitalist economy,
it differs from anarcho-syndicalism in seeing
the centre of political-economic organisation
as the commune, rather than the workplace,
with economic issues being administered primarily
on a communal (territorial), rather than unionist
(industrial), basis.
Though most anarcho-syndicalists agree with
the communist method of distribution—"From
each according to his ability, to each according
to his needs"—they disagree with the commune-based
method of organising production and structuring
society; making them communists in one sense,
but not the other.
To date, the best known examples of an anarchist
communist society (i.e. established around
the ideas as they exist today and achieving
worldwide attention and knowledge in the historical
canon), are the anarchist territories during
the Spanish Revolution and the Free Territory
during the Russian Revolution.
Through the efforts and influence of the Spanish
Anarchists during the Spanish Revolution within
the Spanish Civil War, starting in 1936 anarchist
communism existed in most of Aragon, parts
of the Levante and Andalusia as well as in
the stronghold of anarchist Catalonia before
being crushed by the combined forces of the
regime that won the war, Adolf Hitler, Benito
Mussolini, Spanish Communist Party repression
(backed by the Soviet Union) as well as economic
and armaments blockades from the capitalist
countries and the Spanish Republic itself.
During the Russian Revolution, anarchists
such as Nestor Makhno worked to create and
defend—through the Revolutionary Insurrectionary
Army of Ukraine—anarchist communism in the
Free Territory of the Ukraine from 1919 before
being conquered by the Bolsheviks in 1921.
=== Anarcho-syndicalism ===
In the late 19th and early 20th century, revolutionary
syndicalism emerged as a form of radical trade
union activism, sharing a close relationship
with social anarchists of both the collectivist
and communist tendencies.
In the early 1920s, anarcho-syndicalism arose
as a distinct school of thought within anarchism.With
greater focus 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.
Like anarchist-communists, 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 include workers' solidarity,
direct action (such as general strikes and
workplace recuperations) and workers' self-management
of enterprises and the economy as a whole.
In terms of post-capitalist vision, anarcho-syndicalists
most often subscribe to communist or collectivist
anarchist economic systems on the issue of
distributing goods.
The aim is to use a radical trade union movement
to achieve either a collectivist or communist
(moneyless) mode of distribution; or first
the former and then the latter, once a certain
degree of technical-productive capacity has
enabled production to outstrip consumption,
making a moneyless economy more viable.
However, anarcho-syndicalists differ from
anarcho-communists on wanting federations
of (trade-based) workers' syndicates as the
locus of organising the economy, rather than
confederations of (territory-based) free communes.
Its advocates propose labour organization
as a means to create the foundations of a
trade union centered anarchist society within
the current system and bring about social
revolution.
An early leading anarcho-syndicalist thinker
was Rudolf Rocker, whose 1938 pamphlet Anarchosyndicalism
outlined a view of the movement's origin,
aims and importance to the future of labour.Although
more often associated with labor struggles
of the early 20th century (particularly in
France and Spain), many syndicalist organizations
are active today, united across national borders
by membership in the International Workers'
Association, including the Central Organisation
of the Workers of Sweden in Sweden, the Italian
Syndicalist Union in Italy, the National Confederation
of Labour and the General Confederation of
Labour in Spain, the Workers Solidarity Movement
of Ireland and the Industrial Workers of the
World in the United States.
=== Platformism and specifism ===
Platformism is a tendency (or organized school
of thought) within the anarcho-communist movement
which stresses the need for tightly organized
anarchist organizations that are able to influence
working class and peasant movements to achieve
anarchist communism.
It is in many ways identical to specifism
(especifismo) and has an antecedent in the
work of Mikhail Bakunin, advocating a strategy
of "organisational dualism", which entails:
(1) building specifically anarchist organisations
with a general agreement on ideas and practices;
and (2) anarchists working within broader
popular organisations and movements that aren't
specifically anarchist, hoping to maintain
theoretical consistency as well as pushing
popular movements in a more anarchistic direction
from within.
Platformist/specifist groups reject the model
of Leninist vanguardism.
They instead aim to "make anarchist ideas
the leading ideas within the class struggle",
while also opposing the anarcho-syndicalist
tendency of seeing the class struggle and
anarchist struggle as synonymous; holding
that non-union political organisations are
a necessary part of achieving anarchist ends.
According to the Organisational Platform for
a General Union of Anarchists, the four main
principles by which an anarchist-communist
organisation should operate are:
Ideological Unity: A general agreement on
anarchist theoretical issues.
Tactical Unity: A general agreement on strategy
and tactics for achieving anarchist ends.
Collective Responsibility: A coherence between
individual acts and actions of the organisation.
Federalism: The autonomy of individual chapters
within the organisation.In general, these
groups aim to win the widest possible influence
for anarcho-communist ideas and methods in
the working class and peasantry (the popular
classes), oriented towards "ordinary" people,
rather than to the extreme left milieu.
This usually entails a willingness to work
in single-issue campaigns, trade unionism
and community groups and to fight for immediate
reforms while linking this to a project of
building popular consciousness and organisation.
They therefore reject approaches that they
believe will prevent this, such as insurrectionist
anarchism, as well as "views that dismiss
activity in the unions" or that dismiss anti-imperialist
movements.The name "platformist" derives from
the 1926 Organisational Platform of the General
Union of Anarchists (Draft).
This was published by the Group of Russian
Anarchists Abroad, in their journal Dielo
Truda ("Workers' Cause" in Russian).
The group, which consisted of exiled Russian
anarchist veterans of the 1917 October Revolution
(notably Nestor Makhno who played a leading
role in the anarchist revolution in the Ukraine
of 1918–1921), based the Platform on their
experiences of the revolution and the eventual
victory of the Bolsheviks over the anarchists
and other groups.
The Platform attempted to address and explain
the anarchist movement's failures during the
Russian Revolution outside of the Ukraine.
The document drew both praise and criticism
from anarchists worldwide and sparked a major
debate within the anarchist movement.
Today, platformism is an important current
in international anarchism.
Around thirty platformist and specifist organisations
are linked together in the Anarkismo.net project,
including groups from Africa, Latin America,
North America and Europe.
Further theoretical developments of platformism/specifism
include the Manifesto of Libertarian Communism
(1953) by Georges Fontenis and Social Anarchism
and Organisation (2008) by FARJ (Anarchist
Federation of Rio de Janeiro).
== Contemporary currents ==
More recent political tendencies which emerged
out of social anarchism are the post-capitalist
economic models of inclusive democracy and
participatory economics, both of which could
be regarded as updated forms of the collectivist
anarchism of Mikhail Bakunin, as well as the
environmental philosophy of social ecology
and its associated politics of Post-Scarcity
Anarchism and Communalism.
=== Inclusive Democracy ===
Inclusive Democracy is a political theory
and political project that aim for direct
democracy, economic democracy in a stateless,
moneyless and marketless economy, self-management
(democracy in the social realm) and ecological
democracy.
The theoretical project of Inclusive Democracy
(ID; as distinguished from the political project
that is part of the democratic and autonomy
traditions) emerged from the work of political
philosopher, former academic and activist
Takis Fotopoulos in Towards An Inclusive Democracy
and was further developed by him and other
writers in the journal Democracy & Nature
and its successor The International Journal
of Inclusive Democracy, an electronic journal
freely available and published by the International
Network for Inclusive Democracy.
According to Arran Gare, Towards an Inclusive
Democracy "offers a powerful new interpretation
of the history and destructive dynamics of
the market and provides an inspiring new vision
of the future in place of both neo-liberalism
and existing forms of socialism".
As David Freeman points out, although Fotopoulos'
approach "is not openly anarchism, yet anarchism
seems the formal category within which he
works, given his commitment to direct democracy,
municipalism and abolition of state, money
and market economy".
=== Participism ===
Participism is a 21st century form of libertarian
socialism which comprises two related economic
and political systems called participatory
economics or "parecon" and participatory politics
or "parpolity".
Parecon is an economic system proposed primarily
by activist and political theorist Michael
Albert and radical economist Robin Hahnel,
among others.
It uses participatory decision making as an
economic mechanism to guide the production,
consumption and allocation of resources in
a given society.
Proposed as an alternative to contemporary
capitalist market economies and also an alternative
to centrally planned socialism or coordinatorism,
it is described as "an anarchistic economic
vision" and it could be considered a form
of socialism as under Parecon, the means of
production are owned by the workers.
The underlying values that Parecon seeks to
implement are equity, solidarity, diversity,
workers' self-management and efficiency (efficiency
here means accomplishing goals without wasting
valued assets).
It proposes to attain these ends mainly through
the following principles and institutions:
workers' and consumers' councils utilizing
self-managerial methods for decision making,
balanced job complexes, remuneration according
to effort and sacrifice and participatory
planning.
Under parecon, the current monetary system
would be replaced with a system of non-transferable
"credit", which would cease to exist upon
purchase of a commodity.
Parpolity is a theoretical political system
proposed by Stephen R. Shalom.
It was developed as a political vision to
accompany Parecon.
The values on which parpolity is based are
freedom, self-management, justice, solidarity
and tolerance.
According to Shalom, the goal is to create
a political system that will allow people
to participate as much as possible in a face
to face manner.
Participism as a whole is critical of aspects
of modern representative democracies and capitalism
arguing that the level of political control
by the people is not sufficient.
To address this problem, parpolity suggests
a system of "Nested Councils", which would
include every adult member of a given society.
With five levels of nested councils it is
thought, could represent the population of
the United States.
Under participism, the state as such would
dissolve into a mere coordinating body made
up of delegates, who would be recallable at
any time by the nested council below them.
=== Social ecology and Communalism ===
Social ecology is closely related to the work
and ideas of Murray Bookchin and influenced
by anarchist Peter Kropotkin.
Social ecologists assert that the present
ecological crisis has its roots in human social
problems and that the domination of human-over-nature
stems from the domination of human-over-human.Bookchin
later developed a political philosophy to
complement social ecology that he called Communalism
(spelled with a capital "C" to differentiate
it from other forms of communalism).
While originally conceived as a form of social
anarchism, he later developed Communalism
into a separate ideology that incorporates
what he saw as the most beneficial elements
of anarchism, Marxism, syndicalism and radical
ecology.
Politically, Communalists advocate a network
of directly democratic citizens' assemblies
in individual communities/cities organized
in a confederal fashion.
This method used to achieve this is called
libertarian municipalism, which involves the
establishment of face-to-face democratic institutions
that are to grow and expand confederally with
the goal of eventually replacing the nation
state.
Unlike anarchists, Communalists are not opposed
to taking part in parliamentary politics—especially
municipal elections—as long as candidates
are libertarian socialist and anti-statist
in outlook.
Economically, Communalism favours the abolition
of markets and money and the transition to
an economy similar to libertarian communism
and according to the principle "From each
according to his ability, to each according
to needs".
== See also ==
Social anarchists (category)
== References ==
== External links ==
Media related to Social anarchism at Wikimedia
Commons
