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| − | Where does [[anarchism]] come from? We can do no better than quote the [[The Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists]] produced by participants of the [[Makhnovist movement]] in the Russian Revolution (see Section A.5.4). They point out that: | + | #REDIRECT [[An Anarchist FAQ - Where does anarchism come from?]] |
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| − | <blockquote>''"The class struggle created by the enslavement of workers and their aspirations to liberty gave birth, in the oppression, to the idea of anarchism: the idea of the total negation of a social system based on the principles of classes and the State, and its replacement by a free non-statist society of workers under self-management.
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| − | "So anarchism does not derive from the abstract reflections of an intellectual or a philosopher, but from the direct struggle of workers against capitalism, from the needs and necessities of the workers, from their aspirations to liberty and equality, aspirations which become particularly alive in the best heroic period of the life and struggle of the working masses.
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| − | "The outstanding anarchist thinkers, Bakunin, Kropotkin and others, did not invent the idea of anarchism, but, having discovered it in the masses, simply helped by the strength of their thought and knowledge to specify and spread it."'' [pp. 15-16]</blockquote>
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| − | Like the anarchist movement in general, the Makhnovists were a mass movement of working class people resisting the forces of authority, both Red (Communist) and White (Tsarist/Capitalist) in the Ukraine from 1917 to 1921. As Peter Marshall notes ''"anarchism . . . has traditionally found its chief supporters amongst workers and peasants."'' ['''Demanding the Impossible''', p. 652]
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| − | [[anarchism|Anarchism]] was created in, and by, the [[struggle]] of the oppressed for [[freedom]]. For [[Peter Kropotkin|Kropotkin]], for example, ''"Anarchism . . . originated in everyday struggles"'' and ''"the Anarchist movement was renewed each time it received an impression from some great practical lesson: it derived its origin from the teachings of life itself"'' (see also section J.5). ['''Evolution and Environment''', p. 58 and p. 57] For [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|Proudhon]], ''"the proof"'' of his [[mutualism|mutualist ideas]] lay in the ''"current practice, revolutionary practice"'' of ''"those labour associations . . . which have spontaneously . . . been formed in [[Paris]] and [[Lyon]] . . . [show that the] organisation of credit and organisation of labour amount to one and the same."'' ['''No Gods, No Masters''', vol. 1, pp. 59-60] Indeed, as one [[historian]] argues, there was ''"close similarity between the associational ideal of Proudhon . . . and the program of the Lyon Mutualists"'' and that there was ''"a remarkable convergence [between the ideas], and it is likely that [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|Proudhon]] was able to articulate his positive program more coherently because of the example of the silk workers of Lyon. The socialist ideal that he championed was already being realised, to a certain extent, by such workers."'' [[[K. Steven Vincent]], '''Piere-Joseph Proudhon and the Rise of French Republican Socialism''', p. 164]
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| − | Thus [[anarchism]] comes from the fight for [[liberty]] and our desires to lead a fully [[human life]], one in which we have time to [[live]], to [[love]] and to [[play]]. It was not created by a few people divorced from life, in ivory towers looking down upon [[society]] and making [[judgement]]s upon it based on their notions of what is [[right]] and [[wrong]]. Rather, it was a product of [[working class]] [[struggle]] and [[resistance]] to [[authority]], [[oppression]] and [[exploitation]]. As [[Albert Meltzer]] put it, ''"[t]here were never theoreticians of Anarchism as such, [a] writer comes along and writes down what has already been worked out in practice by workers and peasants; he/she is attributed by bourgeois historians as being a leaders, and by successive bourgeois historians as being a leader, and by successive bourgeois writers (citing the bourgeois historians) as being one more case that proves the working class relies on the bourgeois leaders."'' ['''Anarchism: Arguments for and against''', pp. 10-12] In [[Peter Kropotkin|Kropotkin's]] eyes, all [[anarchist writers]] did was to ''"work out a general expression of [anarchism's] principles, and the theoretical and scientific basis of its teachings"'' derived from the experiences of working class people in struggle as well as analysing the evolutionary tendencies of society in general. ['''Op. Cit.''', p. 57]
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| − | However, [[anarchistic tendencies]] and [[anarchist organisations|organisations]] in [[society]] have existed long before [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon|Proudhon]] put pen to paper in [[1840]] and declared himself an [[anarchist]]. While [[anarchism]], as a specific [[political theory]], was born with the rise of [[capitalism]] (Anarchism ''"emerged at the end of the eighteenth century . . .[and] took up the dual challenge of overthrowing both Capital and the State."'' [[[Peter Marshall]], '''Op. Cit.''', p. 4]) [[anarchist writers]] have analysed [[history]] for [[libertarian tendencies]]. [[Peter Kropotkin|Kropotkin]] argued, for example, that ''"from all times there have been Anarchists and Statists."'' ['''Op. Cit.''', p. 16] In '''Mutual Aid''' (and elsewhere) [[Peter Kropotkin|Kropotkin]] analysed the [[libertarian]] aspects of previous [[society|societies]] and noted those that successfully implemented (to some degree) [[anarchist organisations|anarchist organization]] or aspects of [[anarchism]]. This was particularly the case with indigenous peoples, for example most [[Native American tribes]] organised themselves in a very anarchistic manner.
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| − | [[Peter Kropotkin|Kropotkin]] recognised this tendency of actual examples of anarchistic ideas to predate the creation of the "official" [[anarchist movement]] and argued that:
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| − | <blockquote>''"From the remotest, stone-age antiquity, men [and women] have realised the evils that resulted from letting some of them acquire personal authority. . . Consequently they developed in the primitive clan, the village community, the medieval guild . . . and finally in the free medieval city, such institutions as enabled them to resist the encroachments upon their life and fortunes both of those strangers who conquered them, and those clansmen of their own who endeavoured to establish their personal authority."'' ['''Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets''', pp. 158-9]</blockquote>
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| − | [[Peter Kropotkin|Kropotkin]] placed the [[struggle]] of [[working class]] people (from which [[modern anarchism]] sprung) on par with these older forms of popular organisation. He argued that ''"the labour combinations. . . were an outcome of the same popular resistance to the growing power of the few -- the capitalists in this case"'' as were the clan, the village community and so on, as were ''"the strikingly independent, freely federated activity of the 'Sections' of Paris and all great cities and many small 'Communes' during the French Revolution"'' in 1793. ['''Op. Cit.''', p. 159]
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| − | Thus, while [[anarchism]] as a [[political theory]] is an expression of [[working class]] [[struggle]] and [[self-activity]] against [[capitalism]] and the [[modern state]], the ideas of [[anarchism]] have continually expressed themselves in action throughout [[human existence]]. Most indigenous peoples in [[North America]] and elsewhere, for example, practised [[anarchism]] for thousands of years before [[anarchism]] as a specific [[political theory]] existed. Similarly, [[anarchistic tendencies]] and [[anarchist organisations|organisations]] have existed in every major [[revolution]] -- the [[New England]] Town Meetings during the [[American Revolution]], the [[Paris|Parisian]] 'Sections' during the [[French Revolution]], the workers' [[council]]s and [[factory]] [[committee]]s during the [[Russian Revolution]] to name just a few examples (see [[Murray Bookchin]]'s '''The Third Revolution''' for details). This is to be expected if [[anarchism]] is, as we argue, a product of [[resistance]] to [[authority]] then any [[society]] with [[authority|authorities]] will provoke resistance to them and generate anarchistic tendencies (and, of course, any [[society|societies]] without [[authority|authorities]] cannot help but being anarchistic).
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| − | In other words, [[anarchism]] is an expression of the [[struggle]] against [[oppression]] and [[exploitation]], a generalisation of working people's experiences and analyses of what is wrong with the current system and an expression of our [[hope]]s and [[dream]]s for a [[better future]]. This [[struggle]] existed before it was called [[anarchism]], but the [[history|historic]] [[anarchist movement]] (i.e. groups of people calling their ideas [[anarchism]] and aiming for an [[anarchist society]]) is essentially a product of [[working class]] [[struggle]] against [[capitalism]] and the [[state]], against [[oppression]] and [[exploitation]], and '''for''' a [[free society]] of [[free individuals|free]] and [[equal individuals]].
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| − | ==Credits==
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| − | *Adapted from: [http://www.infoshop.org/faq/ An Anarchist FAQ]
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| − | [[Category:Anarchism]]
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