Déjacque particularly focused his critique on private commerce, such as that espoused by Proudhon and by the Ricardian socialists of the 1820s and 1830s. He advocated workers' right to the satisfaction of their needs, rather than to keep the product of their own labour, as he felt the latter would inevitably lead to capital accumulation. He thus advocated for all property to be held under common ownership and for "unlimited freedom of production and consumption", subordinated only to the authority of the "statistics book". In order to guarantee the universal satisfaction of needs, Déjacque saw the need for the abolition of forced labour through workers' self-management, and the abolition of the division of labour through integrating the proletariat and the intelligentsia into a single class. In order to achieve this vision of a communist society, he proposed a transitionary period of in which direct democracy and direct exchange would be upheld, positions of state would undergo democratization, and the police and military would be abolished.[17]
Déjacque's communist platform, outlined in his Humanisphere (1859), preceded the program of the 1871 Paris Commune, and anticipated the anarcho-communism later elaborated by Errico Malatesta (1853-1932), Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) and Luigi Galleani (1862-1931).[18]
Formulation in the International Workingmen's Association
The International Workingmen's Association (IWA) was established in 1864,[19] at a time when a formalised anarchist movement did not yet exist. Of the few individual anarchists who were influential at this time, it was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, with his conception of federalism and his advocacy of abstentionism, who inspired many of the French delegates who founded the IWA and laid the groundwork for the growth of anarchism.[20] Among the French delegates were a more radical minority that opposed Proudhon's mutualism, which held the nuclear family as its base social unit. Led by the trade-unionist Eugène Varlin, the radicals advocated for a "non-authoritarian communism", which upheld the commune as the base social unit and advocated for the universal access to education.[21] The entry of Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876) into the IWA in 1868 first infused the federalists with a programme of revolutionary socialism and anti-statism, which agitated for workers' self-management and direct action against capitalism and the state.[22]
By this time, the Marxists of the IWA had begun to denounce their anti-authoritarian opponents as "anarchists", a label previously adopted by Proudhon and Déjacque and later accepted by the anti-authoritarians themselves.[23] Following the defeat of the Paris Commune in 1871, the IWA split over questions of socialist economics and the means of bringing about a classless society.[24]Karl Marx, who favoured the conquest of state power by political parties, banned the anarchists from the IWA.[25] The anarchist faction around the Jura Federation resolved to reconstitute as their own Anti-Authoritarian International, which they constructed as a more decentralised and federal organisation.[26] Two of the IWA's largest branches, in Italy and Spain, repudiated Marxism and adopted the anti-authoritarian platform.[27]
James Guillaume, whose work set the foundation for the development of communism from collectivism.
As a collectivist, Bakunin had himself opposed communism, which he regarded as an inherently authoritarian ideology.[28] But with Bakunin's death in 1876, the anarchists began to shift away from his theory of collectivism and towards an anarchist communism.[29] The term "anarchist communism" was first printed in François Dumartheray's February 1876 pamphlet, To manual workers, supporters of political action.[30]Élisée Reclus was quick to express his support for anarchist communism,[31] at a meeting of the Anti-Authoritarian International in Lausanne the following month.[32]James Guillaume's August 1876 pamphlet, Ideas on Social Organisation, outlined a proposal by which the collective ownership of the means of production could be used in order to transition towards a communist society.[33] Guillaume considered a necessary prerequisite for communism would be a general condition of abundance, which could set the foundation for the abandonment of exchange value and the free distribution of resources.[34] This program for anarcho-communism was adopted by the Italian anarchists,[35] who had already begun to question collectivism.[36]
Although Guillaume had himself remained neutral throughout the debate, in September 1877, the Italian anarcho-communists clashed with the Spanish collectivists in Verviers at what would be the Anti-Authoritarian International's final congress.[37] Alongside the economic question, the two factions were also divided by the question of organisation. While the collectivists upheld trade unions as a means for achieving anarchy, the communists considered them to be inherently reformist and counter-revolutionary organisations, prone to bureaucracy and corruption. Instead, the communists preferred small, loosely-organised affinity groups, which they believed closer conformed to anti-authoritarian principles.[38]
As anarcho-communism emerged in the mid-19th century, it had an intense debate with Bakuninistcollectivism and, within the anarchist movement, over participation in the workers' movement, as well as on other issues. So in Kropotkin's anarcho-communist theory of evolution, the risen people themselves are meant to be the rational industrial manager rather than a working class organized as enterprise.[7]
Between 1880 and 1890, with the "perspective of an immanent revolution", which was "opposed to the official workers' movement, which was then in the process of formation (general Social Democratisation) [anarchist communists] were opposed not only to political (statist) struggles but also to strikes which put forward wage or other claims, or which were organised by trade unions." However, "[w]hile they were not opposed to strikes as such, they were opposed to trade unions and the struggle for the eight-hour day. This anti-reformist tendency was accompanied by an anti-organisational tendency, and its partisans declared themselves in favor of agitation amongst the unemployed for the expropriation of foodstuffs and other articles, for the expropriatory strike and, in some cases, for 'individual recuperation' or acts of terrorism."[7]
Most anarchist publications in the United States appeared in Yiddish, German, or Russian. However, the American anarcho-communist journal The Firebrand was published in English, permitting the dissemination of anarchist communist thought to English-speaking populations in the United States.[42]
According to the anarchist historian Max Nettlau, the first use of the term "libertarian communism" came with the 1880 Le Havre anarchist congress used the phrase to identify its doctrines more clearly.[43][44] The French anarchist journalist Sébastien Faure, later founder and editor of the four-volume Anarchist Encyclopedia, started the weekly paper Le Libertaire (The Libertarian) in 1895.[45]
The Dielo Truda platform in Spain also met with strong criticism. Miguel Jimenez, a founding member of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI, founded in 1927), summarized this as follows: too much influence in it of Marxism, it erroneously divided and reduced anarchists between individualist anarchists and anarcho-communist sections, and it wanted to unify the anarchist movement along the lines of the anarcho-communists. Jimenez saw anarchism as more complex than that, that anarchist tendencies are not mutually exclusive as the platformists saw it and that both individualist and communist views could accommodate anarchosyndicalism.[48] Sébastian Faure had strong contacts in Spain, so his proposal had more impact on Spanish anarchists than the Dielo Truda platform, even though individualist anarchist influence in Spain was less intense than it was in France. The main goal there was reconciling anarcho-communism with anarcho-syndicalism.[49]
In Spain, the national anarcho-syndicalist trade union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) initially refused to join a popular-front electoral alliance, and abstention by CNT supporters led to a right-wing election victory. In 1936, the CNT changed its policy, and anarchist votes helped bring the popular front back to power. Months later, the former ruling class responded with an attempted coup, which led to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939.[51] In response to the army rebellion, an anarchist-inspired movement of peasants and industrial workers, supported by armed militias, took control of Barcelona and of large areas of rural Spain, where they collectivized the land.[52] However, even before the fascist victory in 1939, the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with the Stalinists, who controlled the distribution of military aid from the Soviet Union to the Republican cause. The events known as the "Spanish Revolution" was a workers' social revolution that began during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and, more broadly, libertarian socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country for two to three years, primarily in Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, and parts of the Levante. Much of Spain's economy was put under worker control; in anarchist strongholds like Catalonia, the figure was as high as 75%, but lower in areas with heavy Communist Party of Spain influence, as the Soviet-allied party actively resisted attempts at collectivization-enactment. Factories were run through worker committees, and agrarian areas became collectivized and ran as libertarian communes.
Anarchist Gaston Leval estimated that about eight million people participated directly or at least indirectly in the Spanish Revolution,[53] which historian Sam Dolgoff claimed was the closest any revolution had come to realizing a free, stateless mass society.[54] Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted both dissident Marxists and anarchists.[55]
An anti-fascist poster from the libertarian socialist factions of Madrid, Spain, reading "The surveillance of the city must be ensured by the Antifascist Popular Guard" as a warning against Nationalist terrorism
Post-war years
Anarcho-communism entered into internal debates over the organization issue in the post-World War II era. Founded in October 1935, the Anarcho-Communist Federation of Argentina (FACA, Federación Anarco-Comunista Argentina) in 1955 renamed itself the Argentine Libertarian Federation. The Fédération Anarchiste (FA), founded in Paris on 2 December 1945, elected the platformist anarcho-communist George Fontenis as its first secretary the following year. It was composed of a majority of activists from the former FA (which supported Volin's Synthesis) and some members of the former Union Anarchiste (which supported the CNT-FAI support to the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War), as well as some young Resistants.[56] In 1950 a clandestine group formed within the FA called Organisation Pensée Bataille (OPB), led by George Fontenis.[57]
The new decision-making process was founded on unanimity: each person has a right of veto on the orientations of the federation. The FCL published the same year Manifeste du communisme libertaire. Several groups quit the FCL in December 1955, disagreeing with the decision to present "revolutionary candidates" to the legislative elections. On 15–20 August 1954, the Ve intercontinental plenum of the CNT took place. A group called Entente anarchiste appeared, which was formed of militants who did not like the new ideological orientation that the OPB was giving the FCL seeing it was authoritarian and almost Marxist.[58] The FCL lasted until 1956, just after participating in state legislative elections with ten candidates. This move alienated some members of the FCL and thus produced the end of the organization.[57] A group of militants who disagreed with the FA turning into FCL reorganized a new Federation Anarchiste established in December 1953.[57] This included those who formed L'Entente anarchiste, who joined the new FA and then dissolved L'Entente. The new base principles of the FA were written by the individualist anarchist Charles-Auguste Bontemps and the non-platformist anarcho-communist Maurice Joyeux which established an organization with a plurality of tendencies and autonomy of groups organized around synthesist principles.[57] According to historian Cédric Guérin, the new Federation Anarchiste identity included the unconditional rejection of Marxism, motivated in significant part by the previous conflict with George Fontenis and his OPB.[57] In the 1970s, the French Fédération Anarchiste evolved into a joining of the principles of synthesis anarchism and platformism.[57]
↑ Also known as anarcho-communism[1][2][3] or libertarian communism.[4][5]
Related Research Articles
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is against all forms of authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies and voluntary free associations. A historically left-wing movement, anarchism is usually described as the libertarian wing of the socialist movement.
Anarchism in Spain has historically gained some support and influence, especially before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, when it played an active political role and is considered the end of the golden age of classical anarchism.
According to different scholars, the history of anarchism either goes back to ancient and prehistoric ideologies and social structures, or begins in the 19th century as a formal movement. As scholars and anarchist philosophers have held a range of views on what anarchism means, it is difficult to outline its history unambiguously. Some feel anarchism is a distinct, well-defined movement stemming from 19th-century class conflict, while others identify anarchist traits long before the earliest civilisations existed.
The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front, formerly known as the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZabFed), is a platformist–especifista anarchist political organisation in South Africa, based primarily in Johannesburg. The word zabalaza means "struggle" or "active rebellion" in isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati and isiNdebele. Initially, as ZabFed, it was a federation of pre-existing collectives, mainly in Soweto and Johannesburg. It is now a unitary organisation based on individual applications for membership, describing itself as a "federation of individuals". Historically the majority of members have been people of colour. Initially the ZACF had sections in both South Africa and Swaziland. The two sections were split in 2007, but the Swazi group faltered in 2008. Currently the ZACF also recruits in Zimbabwe. Members have experienced oppression in South Africa and Swaziland.
Joseph Déjacque was a French political journalist and poet. A house painter by trade, during the 1840s, he became involved in the French labour movement and taught himself how to write poetry. He was an active participant in the French Revolution of 1848, fighting on the barricades during the June Days uprising, for which he was arrested and imprisoned. He quickly became a target for political repression by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte's government, which imprisoned him for his poetry and forced him to flee into exile. His experiences radicalised him towards anarchism and he regularly criticised republican politicians for their anti-worker sentiment.
Mutualism is an anarchist school of thought and anti-capitalist market socialist economic theory that advocates for workers' control of the means of production, a market economy made up of individual artisans and workers' cooperatives, and occupation and use property rights. As proponents of the labour theory of value and labour theory of property, mutualists oppose all forms of economic rent, profit and non-nominal interest, which they see as relying on the exploitation of labour. Mutualists seek to construct an economy without capital accumulation or concentration of land ownership. They also encourage the establishment of workers' self-management, which they propose could be supported through the issuance of mutual credit by mutual banks, with the aim of creating a federal society.
Carlo Cafiero was an Italian anarchist that led the Italian section of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA). An early leader of the Marxist and anarchist communist movements in Italy, he was a key influence in the development of both currents.
Anarchism without adjectives is a pluralist tendency of anarchism that opposes sectarianism and advocates for cooperation between different anarchist schools of thought. First formulated by the Spanish anarchists Ricardo Mella and Fernando Tarrida del Mármol, as a way to bridge the ideological divide between the collectivists and communist factions, it was later adopted by the Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta and the American individualist Voltairine de Cleyre.
Sébastien Faure was a French anarchist, convicted sex offender, freethought and secularist activist and a principal proponent of synthesis anarchism.
Communization theory refers to a tendency on the ultra-left that understands communism as a process that, in a social revolution, immediately begins to replace all capitalist social relations with communist ones, rejecting transitional stages. Thus it rejects the role of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which it sees as reproducing capitalism. There exist two broad trends within communization theory: a ‘Marxist’ one and an ‘Anarchist’ one.
The Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth, sometimes abbreviated as Libertarian Youth, is a anarcho-syndicalist organisation created in 1932 in Madrid.
Anarchism in France can trace its roots to thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who grew up during the Restoration and was the first self-described anarchist. French anarchists fought in the Spanish Civil War as volunteers in the International Brigades. According to journalist Brian Doherty, "The number of people who subscribed to the anarchist movement's many publications was in the tens of thousands in France alone."
Fernando Tarrida del Mármol was a mathematics professor born in Cuba and raised in Catalonia best known for proposing "anarchism without adjectives", the idea that anarchists should set aside their debates over the most preferable economic systems and acknowledge their commonality in ultimate aims.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to anarchism:
Anarchism in Venezuela has historically played a fringe role in the country's politics, being consistently smaller and less influential than equivalent movements in much of the rest of South America. It has, however, had a certain impact on the country's cultural and political evolution.
Collectivist anarchism, also called anarchist collectivism and anarcho-collectivism, is an anarchist school of thought that advocates the abolition of both the state and private ownership of the means of production. In their place, it envisions both the collective ownership of the means of production and the entitlement of workers to the fruits of their own labour, which would be ensured by a societal pact between individuals and collectives. Collectivists considered trade unions to be the means through which to bring about collectivism through a social revolution, where they would form the nucleus for a post-capitalist society.
Anarchism and libertarianism, as broad political ideologies with manifold historical and contemporary meanings, have contested definitions. Their adherents have a pluralistic and overlapping tradition that makes precise definition of the political ideology difficult or impossible, compounded by a lack of common features, differing priorities of subgroups, lack of academic acceptance, and contentious historical usage.
Anarchism in Switzerland appeared, as a political current, within the Jura Federation of the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), under the influence of Mikhail Bakunin and Swiss libertarian activists such as James Guillaume and Adhémar Schwitzguébel. Swiss anarchism subsequently evolved alongside the nascent social democratic movement and participated in the local opposition to fascism during the interwar period. The contemporary Swiss anarchist movement then grew into a number of militant groups, libertarian socialist organizations and squats.
The General Secretary or Secretary General of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo is the head of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions. The position is elected by a congress or plenary session of the confederation. The position's powers are limited to technical and administrative affairs.
François Dumartheray (1842-1931) was a French anarcho-communist activist. He was a member of the International Workingmen's Association and the Jura Federation, and collaborated with Peter Kropotkin in the journal Le Révolté.
↑ Bookchin, Murray (2 February 2017). To Remember Spain: The Anarchist and Syndicalist Revolution of 1936. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021. In anarchist industrial areas like Catalonia, an estimated three-quarters of the economy was placed under workers' control, as it was in anarchist rural areas like Aragon. [...] In the more thoroughly anarchist areas, particularly among the agrarian collectives, money was eliminated and the material means of life were allocated strictly according to need rather than work, following the traditional precepts of a libertarian communist society.
↑ Compare: Sandle, Mark (22 May 2014) [2006]. "The rise of 'modern' communism". Communism. Short Histories of Big Ideas. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN9781317869894. Retrieved 30 November 2024. 'Communism' as a concept began to circulate in France in the ferment created after the 1830 revolution, but emerged in the 1840s to designate those groups who adhered to the views of Cabet. [...] In opposition to the socialists, the 'communists' emphasized revolution, militancy, class struggle and radical egalitarianism. [...] The origins of communism as an organized movement which emphasized and propagated these themes can be traced to the 1830s. [...] In 1836 in Paris a small group of German exiles formed the League of the Just, dedicated to carrying on the Babouvist tradition of revolution and radicalism.
↑ Paris, Jean-Michel (2014). "L'Humanitaire (1841): Naissance d'une presse anarchiste?" (in French). L'Harmattan. Retrieved 30 November 2024. En juillet 1841 paraît L'Humanitaire, un journal qu'on prétend communiste mais qui est aussitôt condamné par tous les périodiques communistes. Franchement matérialiste et même anarchiste, ce journal est assurément un témoin original de la formation d'idéologies radicales, sous la Monarchie de Juillet.
↑ Pengam 1987, p.62: "[...] the communists around the journal L'Humanitaire, organe de la science sociale advocated a programme of action very close to that of Dézamy, proposing, among other things, the abolition of marriage. In addition, they made travel one of the principal characteristics of communist society, because it would bring about mixing of the races and interchange between industrial and agricultural activities. This group also identified itself with the Babouvist Sylvain Maréchal for having proclaimed 'anti-poitical and anarchist ideas'."
↑ Dézamy, Théodore (1843). Code de la communauté. p.236. Retrieved 16 December 2024. L'état, a proprement parler, n'est qu'une collection de communes toutes égales entre elles, mais une collection harmonieuse et intelligente.
↑ Falk, Candace, ed. (2005). Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Vol. 2: Making Speech Free, 1902–1909. University of California Press. p.551. ISBN978-0-520-22569-5. Free Society was the principal English-language forum for anarchist ideas in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century.
↑ Nettlau 1996, p.145 this led to the adoption of the term 'libertarian communism' at the French regional Congress at Le Havre
↑ Compare: Woodcock, George (2022) [1986]. L'anarchisme: Une histoire des idées et mouvements libertaires (in French). Translated by Calvé, Nicolas. Lux Éditeur. ISBN9782898330537. Retrieved 16 December 2024. En 1877 [...] Varlam Tcherkezichvili, prince géorgien actif parmi les anarchists de Suisse dans les années 1870, affirme que l'ensemble du milieu a accepté l'idée de communisme libertaire sans en utiliser le nom. [...] L'étape qui consacrera l'appellation de 'communiste libertaire' sera franchie en 1880 lorsque Kropotkine, Reclus et Cafiero convaincront les participants à un Congrès de la Fédération jurassienne d'adopter le communisme libertaire comme doctrine économique.
↑ Garner 2008: "Jiménez evitó ahondar demasiado en sus críticas hacia la naturaleza abiertamente marxista de algunas partes de la Plataforma, limitándose a aludir a la crítica de Santillán en La Protesta, que afirmaba que los rusos no habían sido el único grupo responsable de permitir la infiltración de las ideas marxistas, lo que iba claramente dirigido a los sindicalistas de España17. Jiménez aceptó que la Plataforma había sido un intento encomiable de resolver el eterno problema de la desunión dentro de las filas anarquistas, pero consideraba que el programa ruso tenía sus defectos. La Plataforma se basaba en una premisa errónea sobre la naturaleza de las tendencias dentro del movimiento anarquista: dividía a los anarquistas en dos grupos diferentes, individualistas y comunistas, y con ello rechazaba la influencia de los primeros y proponía la unificación del movimiento anarquista en torno a la ideas de los segundos. Jiménez afirmaba que la realidad era mucho más compleja: esas diferentes tendencias dentro del movimiento anarquista no eran contradictorias ni excluyentes. Por ejemplo, era posible encontrar elementos en ambos grupos que apoyaran las tácticas del anarcosindicalismo. Por tanto, rechazaba el principal argumento de los plataformistas según el cual las diferentes tendencias se excluían entre sí."
↑ Garner 2008: "Debido a sus contactos e influencia con el movimiento del exilio español, la propuesta de Faure arraigó más en los círculos españoles que la Plataforma, y fue publicada en las prensas libertarias tanto en España como en Bélgica25. En esencia, Faure intentaba reunir a la familia anarquista sin imponer la rígida estructura que proponía la Plataforma, y en España se aceptó así. Opuesta a la situación de Francia, en España la influencia del anarquismo individualista no fue un motivo serio de ruptura. Aunque las ideas de ciertos individualistas como Han Ryner y Émile Armand tuvieron cierto impacto sobre el anarquismo español, afectaron sólo a aspectos como el sexo y el amor libre."
↑ Guérin 2000: "Si la critique de la déviation autoritaire de la FA est le principal fait de ralliement, on peut ressentir dès le premier numéro un état d'esprit qui va longtemps coller à la peau des anarchistes français. Cet état d'esprit se caractérise ainsi sous une double forme: d'une part un rejet inconditionnel de l'ennemi marxiste, d'autre part des questions sur le rôle des anciens et de l'évolution idéologique de l'anarchisme. C'est Fernand Robert qui attaque le premier: "Le LIB est devenu un journal marxiste. En continuant à le soutenir, tout en reconnaissant qu'il ne nous plaît pas, vous faîtes une mauvaise action contre votre idéal anarchiste. Vous donnez la main à vos ennemis dans la pensée. Même si la FA disparaît, même si le LIB disparaît, l'anarchie y gagnera. Le marxisme ne représente plus rien. Il faut le mettre bas; je pense la même chose des dirigeants actuels de la FA. L'ennemi se glisse partout."
Kinna, Ruth (December 2012). "Anarchism, Individualism and Communism: William Morris's Critique of Anarcho-communism". In Prichard, Alex; Kinna, Ruth; Pinta, Saku; Berry, Dave (eds.). Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red. Palgrave Macmillan. pp.35–56. ISBN978-0-230-28037-3.
Nappalos, Scott (2012). "Ditching Class: The Praxis of Anarchist Communist Economics". In Shannon, Deric; Nocella, Anthony J.; Asimakopoulos, John (eds.). The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics. AK Press. pp.291–312. ISBN978-1-84935-094-5. LCCN2011936250.
Ramnath, Maia (2019). "Non-Western Anarchisms and Postcolonialism". In Adams, Matthew S.; Levy, Carl (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp.677–695. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_38. ISBN978-3319756196. S2CID150357033.
Shannon, Deric (2019). "Anti-Capitalism and Libertarian Political Economy". In Adams, Matthew S.; Levy, Carl (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp.91–106. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_5. ISBN978-3319756196. S2CID158841066.
External links
Anarkismo.net – anarchist communist news maintained by platformist organizations with discussion and theory from across the globe
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
