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Home , Collectivist anarchism, Mikhail Bakunin, Platformism

Anarchy Symbol - The “circle-A,” a common anarchist symbol.© maryvalery/Fotolia &

• Some background – by John • Challenging questions by Pam To Begin…… The terms ‘Anarchy’ or ‘Anarchism’ What do most people think is meant by these terms? DERIVATION

mid 16th century: via medieval Latin from Greek anarkhia, from anarkhos, from an- ‘without’ + arkhos ‘chief, ruler’. DEFINITION: ANARCHY GENERAL: • a situation in which there is no organization and control, especially in , because there is no effective POLITICS & GOVERNMENT: • a lack of organization and control in a society or group, esp. because either there is no government or it has no power From : https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ DEFINITION: ANARCHISM IN POLITICS • the political belief that there should be little or no formal or official organization to society but that people should work freely together. • It is an anti-authoritarian political and that rejects deemed unjust. • It advocates their replacement with self-managed, self- governed based on voluntary, institutions. Its central disagreement with other ideologies is that it holds the to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful. • However, it does seem that the various strands of Anarchism don’t always fully follow these principles. (More in outline later) SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT GENERALLY GROUPED INTO TWO MAIN TRADITIONS: : • emphasises negative (the absence of obstacles, barriers or constraints including opposition to state or social control over the individual) and emphasizes the individual and their will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions and ideological systems. : • sees individual freedom as interrelated with mutual aid and emphasizes community and social equality as complementary to autonomy and personal freedom. An Array of Strands - that can be bewildering

Some Examples: • Individualist anarchism, Egoist anarchism • Social anarchism • Mutualism, , Anarcho- • Insurrectionary anarchism • Green anarchism, Anarcho-primitivism, Anarcho-naturalism, Social ecology • Anarcha-, Anarcho-pacifism, Religious anarchism • Left-wing market anarchism • Anarcho- • Anarcho-transhumanism • Synthesis anarchism • • Anarcho- • SOME OF THESE TERMS ARE SIMILAR SOME NOT. KEY FACTS - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon • Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was the first person to refer to himself as an "anarchist“ – according to in “What Is ?”, published in 1840, he defined anarchy as "the absence of a master, of a sovereign" and wrote: "As man seeks in equality, so society seeks order in anarchy".

• Who was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon?

• Who were his contemporaries? Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809 – 1865) KEY FACTS - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Who was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon? In Outline: • He was a French politician and the founder of mutualist philosophy. Some commentators suggest that Mutualists are more concerned with association, and so are situated somewhere between Individualist and Social or Collectivist Anarchism. • He is considered by many to be the "father of anarchism". • However, the English philosopher (1756 - 1836) is usually credited with founding ‘’, and is often called the ‘father of modern Anarchism’………….but that’s another story. • Proudhon became a member of the French Parliament after the of 1848; thereafter he referred to himself as a federalist. • His best-known assertion is that "property is theft!", contained in his first major work, What Is Property? Or, an Inquiry into the Principle of Right and Government published in 1840. KEY FACTS - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Who was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon? In More Detail: • Proudon was Born into poverty as the son of a cooper and tavern keeper. • At the age of nine he worked as a cowherd in the Jura Mountains. • Nevertheless, at an early age he showed the signs of intellectual brilliance, and won a scholarship to the college at Besançon. • Eventually, in 1838, a scholarship awarded by the Besançon Academy enabled him to study in Paris. Now, with leisure to formulate his ideas, he wrote his first significant book, Qu’est-ce que la propriété? (1840; What Is Property?). This created a sensation, for Proudhon not only declared, “I am an anarchist”; he also stated, “Property is theft!” • The slogan, “Property is theft!”, gained him notoriety and attention (possibly sought by using such striking phrases) However, he did not attack property in the generally accepted sense but only the kind of property by which one man exploits the labour of another. KEY FACTS - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Key aspects of his thoughts and life • Property in another sense - the right of the farmer to possess the land he works and the craftsman his workshop and tools—he regarded as essential for the preservation of liberty, and his principal criticism of Communism, whether of the utopian or the Marxist variety, was that it destroyed freedom by taking away from the individual control over his . • In 1843 he went to to work as managing clerk in a water transport firm and encountered a weavers’ secret society, the Mutualists whose doctrine was that factories of the dawning industrial age could be operated by associations of workers and that these workers, by economic action rather than by violent revolution, could transform society. • Proudhon accepted their views and later paid tribute to his Lyonnais working-class mentors by adopting the name of Mutualism for his own form of Anarchism. A one-sentence answer is that mutualism consists of people voluntarily banding together for the common purpose of mutual assistance. KEY FACT - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

• The publication of ‘What is Property’attracted the attention of the French authorities. It also attracted the scrutiny of , who started a correspondence with its author. The two influenced each other and they met in Paris while Marx was exiled there. • Their friendship finally ended when Marx responded to Proudhon's ‘The System of Economic Contradictions’ or ‘The Philosophy of Poverty’ with the provocatively titled ‘The Poverty of Philosophy’. • The dispute became one of the sources of the split between the Anarchist and Marxist wings of the International Worker’s Association. KEY FACT - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Who were his contemporaries?

• Proudhon (1809-1865) was the primary proponent of Mutualism or anarcho-mutualism and influenced many future ‘Individualist Anarchist’ and ‘Social Anarchist’ thinkers. • He believed to be achievable in a peaceful manner. • On his visits to Paris, he made the acquaintance of Karl Marx, (1818 – 1883), Mikhail Bakunin, (1811 – 1 July 1876) and the Russian Socialist and writer Aleksandr Herzen. • Other contempories (though they may not have met) were, Max Stirner (1806 -1856) part of the subject of Pam’s follow-on presentation KEY FACTS – Marx & Engels Who were his contemporaries?

• Another contemporary of Proudhon was the sometimes anglicised Frederick Engels (1820-1895) – the German philosopher, communist, social scientist, journalist and businessman. Its unclear as to whether they ever met. • However, Engels met Marx for the first time in late November 1842 but they were not impressed with each other. However when meeting for a second time, in Paris on 28 August 1844, the two quickly became close friends and remained so for their entire lives. • The rest is history – so to speak.

• AS AN ASIDE – Engel’s father was an owner of large textile factories in Salford, England and in Barmen, Prussia (what is now in Wuppertal, ). Engels developed what is now known as Marxist theory together with Karl Marx and in 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research in English cities. In 1848, Engels co-authored with Marx and also authored and co-authored (primarily with Marx) many other works. MAX STIRNER AND PETER KOROPOTKIN.

• Anarchism is a political doctrine that states human communities could flourish without a need for government or laws. Government corrupts human nature and our natural sentiments. • Two important anarchists are the ‘Individualist’ Max Stirner and the ‘Generalist’ Peter Koropotkin. MAX STIRNER (1806 - 1856)

• Born in Beyruth, Barvaria. • He attended Hegel’s lectures and had frequent debates with him, Marx and others at a wine bar. He died in from an infected insect bite. • Stirner is outside anarchist philosophy which emphasises community and collective organisation. He argues for individual freedom. He asserts that such notions as law, right, morality, religion are artificial concepts. • Stirner introduces the idea of “”. This means that an individual should assert her/his self as the only legitimate reason for acting. He is against the idea of revolution as he considers this to be a futile approach as it will only result in the replacement of one state for another. Max Stirner as portrayed in sketches by Max Stirner

• Stirner’s major work is “The Ego and It’s Own“(1845) In this work Stirner attacks Prussian and western . As an aside, • “I have made several efforts to read this book, but have continually found it incomprehensive.” ()[I think he meant incomprehensible]. • Stirner argues that the only reality is the ‘individual ego’: things have value only in so far as they serve the ego. The individual must become conscious of his power over his own ideas. When ideas escape the ego’s control (ie ideas other than one’s own) they dominate the ego. • He argues that this is not only true of the old ideas of Church and State, but also new ideas such as humanism and . Max Stirner

• To be free – to be one’s “creature” and one’s own “creator” means dislocating the person from the traditional role assigned to God(s). “What I have in my power, that I may own. So long as I assert myself …. “ • Stirner argues that it is only when one realises that all sacred proof such as law, right, morality, religion etc are nothing other than artificial concepts – and not to be obeyed - that one can be free. • Society is just a spook, not an actual entity. Individuals are its reality. • Stirner’s egoism does not in any way deny altruism because our own self-image is gratified by assisting others. Max Stirner

• The question is do we help others for our own good or their good or for both? Max Stirner

Union of Egoists This is what Stirner proposed instead of State: • The Union would be voluntary. • Individuals would freely associate. • The Union would be continually renewed by all individuals’ support through an act of will. • The Union is not seen as an authority above a person’s own will.

Just like our philosophy group! Max Stirner and Engels

Stirner associated with Engles, but Engles felt he took the notion of anarchy too far. He wrote this poem about Stirner:

Look at Stirner, look at him, the peaceful enemy of all constraint For the moment, he is still drinking beer, Soon he will be drinking blood as though it were water, When others cry savagely “down with the kings”. Stirner immediately supplements “down with the laws also”. Stirner full of dignity proclaims; You bend your willpower and you dare to call yourselves free. You become accustomed to slavery Down with dogmatism, down with law.

(Friedrich Engels) (1842 – 1921)

• Born into an aristocratic family in , but dropped his princely title. • Spent five years exploring . • Advocated the abolition of serfdom. Was imprisoned twice. He defended anarchism against . • Kropotkin declared that any external authority is corrupt by definition. It is up to the oppressed masses to arrange the system under which they live. Writing: – “We are so perverted by an education which from infancy kills in us the spirit of revolt, and to develop that of submission to authority; we are so perverted by this existence under the ferrule {unusual use of word, but US meaning state rule} of a law, which regulates every event in life – our birth, our education, our development, our love, our friendship – that, if this state of things continues, we shall lose all initiative, all habit of thinking for ourselves….” Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin, Russian: (1842 –1921) Peter Kropotkin

He further writes: • “Peoples without political organisation………… have perfectly understood that the man that is called ‘criminal’ is simply unfortunate; that the remedy is not to flog him, to chain him up, or to kill him on the scaffold or in prison, but to help him by the most brotherly care, by treatment had an idea of a Union of egoists based on equality, by the usages of life amongst honest men.” • “No more laws! No more judges! Liberty, equality and practical human sympathy are the only effectual barriers we can oppose to the antisocial instincts of certain among us.” Peter Kropotkin • Kropotkin cited the Life Boat institution as an example of the kind of voluntary and non-coercive organisation envisaged by anarchists that could provide a worldwide service without the principle of authority intervening. He cited two other examples of the way in which local groups can combine to provide a network of functions without any central authority: the post office and the railways. • “You can post a letter to Chile or China confident that it will get there, as a result of freely-arrived-at agreements between different national post offices, without there being any central authority over all. Or you can travel across Europe and Asia over the lies of a dozen different railway systems, public and private, without any kind of central railway authority. Coordination requires neither uniformity nor bureaucracy.” Peter Kropotkin

• I asked a Polish neighbour of mine who is a Jehovah’s Witness what was her view of anarchism. Here is her response. • “I’m not in favour of anarchism because there is no such thing as individual freedom.” (Hannah)

What is our response? One for Bryn & LaPlace THE END