Major conflicts within anarchist thought
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[edit] Tolerance vs. Expansionism
Since any belief consistent with anti-imposed hierarchy is anarchist, there are vastly different and often opposing ideas about: what constitutes aggression, what is valid property, and what forms and conventions societies should adopt. As a result, there is difference of opinion within each school about how to react to, or interact with, those with opposing ideologies.
The tolerant attitude is to live with it - let reality be the judge. One should not use force to promote your program. Those who take this panarchist approach to 'foreign policy' generally predict that, since their system is better, it will attract more people in the long run. Benjamin Tucker is a good example of this tolerant approach.
[edit] Individualism vs. collectivism
While most anarchists favor collective property, some, such as individualist anarchists of historical note support a right to private property. These include Benjamin Tucker and Lysander Spooner. Tucker argues that collectivism in property is absurd: "That there is an entity known as the community which is the rightful owner of all land, Anarchists deny...I...maintain that ‘the community’ is a non-entity, that it has no existence..." He was particularly adamant in his opposition to "communism," even to the point of asserting that those who opposed a right to private property were not anarchists: "Anarchism is a word without meaning, unless it includes the liberty of the individual to control his product or whatever his product has brought him through exchange in a free market—that is, private property. Whoever denies private property is of necessity an Archist." However, these individuals opposed property titles to unused land.
[edit] Violence and non-violence
Anarchists have often been portrayed as dangerous and violent, due mainly to a number of high-profile violent acts including riots, assassinations, and insurrections involving anarchists. Since the 1970s, the punk image of irresponsible youths has also been associated with anarchist symbolism, so furthering the association with violence.
The use of terrorism and assassination, however, is condemned by most anarchist ideology, though there remains no consensus on the legitimacy or utility of violence.
Some anarchists share Leo Tolstoy's Christian anarchist belief in nonviolence. These anarcho-pacifists advocate nonviolent resistance as the only method of achieving a truly anarchist revolution. They often see violence as the basis of government and coercion and argue that, as such, violence is illegitimate, no matter who is the target. Some of Proudhon's French followers even saw strike action as coercive and refused to take part in such traditional socialist tactics.
Other anarchists advocate Marshall Rosenberg's non-violent communication that relates to peoples fundamental needs and feelings using strategies of requests, observations and empathy yet providing for the use of protective force while rejecting pacifism as a compromising strategy of the left that just perpetuates violence.
Other anarchists, such as Mikhail Bakunin and Errico Malatesta saw violence as a necessary and sometimes desirable force. Malatesta took the view that it is "necessary to destroy with violence, since one cannot do otherwise, the violence which denies [the means of life and for development] to the workers" (Umanità Nova, number 125, September 6, 1921[1]).
Between 1894 and 1901, individual anarchists assassinated numerous heads of state, including:
- French President Sadi Carnot (1894);
- Empress consort Elisabeth of Austria (1898);
- King Umberto I of Italy (1900); and
- United States President William McKinley (1901).
Such "propaganda of the deed" was not popular among anarchists, and many in the movement condemned the tactic. For example, McKinley's assassin, Leon Czolgosz, claimed to be a disciple of Emma Goldman, but she disavowed any association with him.
Goldman included in her definition of anarchism the observation that all governments rest on violence, and this is one of the many reasons they should be opposed. Goldman herself didn't oppose tactics like assassination until she went to Russia, where she witnessed the violence of the Russian state and the Red Army. From then on she condemned the use of terrorism, especially by the state, and advocated violence only as a means of self-defense.
Depictions in the press and popular fiction (for example, a malevolent bomb-throwing anarchist in Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent) helped create a lasting public impression that anarchists are violent terrorists. This perception was enhanced by events such as the Haymarket Riot, where anarchists were blamed for throwing a bomb at police who came to break up a public meeting in Chicago.
More recently, anarchists have been involved in protests against World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings across the globe, which the media has described as violent or riots. Traditionally, May Day in London has also been a day of marching, but in recent years the Metropolitan Police have warned that a "hardcore of anarchists" are intent on causing violence. Anarchists often respond that it is the police who initiate violence at these demonstrations, with anarchist who are otherwise peaceful sometimes forced to defend themselves. The anarchists involved in such protests often formed black blocs at these protests and some engaged in property destruction, vandalism, or in violent conflicts with police, though others stuck to non-violent principles.
Those participating in black blocs distinguish between "violence" and "property destruction": they claim that violence is when a person inflicts harm to another person, while property destruction or property damage is not violence, although it can have indirect harm such as financial harm. Most anarchists, do not consider the destruction of property to be violent, as do most activists who believe in non-violence.
[edit] Pacifism
Some anarchists consider Pacifism (opposition to war) to be inherent in their philosophy. Some anarchists take it further and follow Leo Tolstoy's belief in non-violence (note, however, that these anarcho-pacifists are not necessarily Christian anarchists as Tolstoy was), advocating non-violent resistance as the only method of achieving a truly anarchist revolution.
Anarchist literature often portrays war as an activity in which the state seeks to gain and consolidate power, both domestically and in foreign lands. Many anarchists subscribe to Randolph Bourne's view that "war is the health of the state"[2]. Anarchists believe that if they were to support a war they would be strengthening the state — indeed, Peter Kropotkin was alienated from other anarchists when he expressed support for the British in World War I.
Just as they are critical and distrustful of most government endeavours, anarchists often view the stated reasons for war with a cynical eye. Since the Vietnam War protests in North America and, most recently, the protests against the war in Iraq, much anarchist activity has been anti-war based.
Many anarchists in the current movement however, reject complete pacifism, (although groups like Earth First!, and Food Not Bombs are based on principles of non-violence), and instead are in favor of self-defense, and sometimes violence against oppressive and authoritarian forces which they in fact also consider as defensive violence. Anarchists are skeptical however of winning a direct armed conflict with the state, and instead concern themselves mostly with organizing.
[edit] Parliamentarianism
While most anarchists firmly oppose voting, or otherwise participating in the State institution, there are a few that disagree. The prominent anarchist, Proudhon, stood for election to the French Constituent Assembly twice in 1848. Paul Brousse developed a concept Libertarian municipalism in Switzerland in the 1890s which involved participating in local elections.
Cf: The Ethics of Voting by George H. Smith.
[edit] Anarcho-capitalism
Anarcho-capitalism (also referred to as "market anarchism" and "right anarchism") is a movement largely descended from the classical liberal and libertarian traditions and not from mainstream anarchism, as well as influences from Individualist anarchism. Unlike traditional anarchists (as described through much of this article), they define "anarchism" simply as opposition to the State rather than an opposition to hierarchy in general. They believe that the state is unjust, and that non-state capitalism (the free market) is the most just and efficient method of social order and organization.
Anarcho-capitalism's place in the larger anarchist movement is hotly contested by many traditional anarchists, who believe anarchism to be inherently anti-capitalist. See also: Anarchism and anarcho-capitalism.
[edit] Racism
A major area of conflict amongst anarchist is how honest to be about the racism which has existed within the anarchist movement since the days of Proudhon and Bakunin who were both noted Eurocentrists and anti-semites. Many anarchists want to dismiss this as being completely unimportant, suggesting for instance that "everyone" at the time was racist. Other anarchists want to simply ignore the problem, not even wishing to make a denial as anarchism, unlike ideologies such as Marxism, are not defined by individual theorists, but by concepts they proposed.
[edit] See also
- Anarchism and anarcho-capitalism
- Anarchism and capitalism
- Anarchism and Marxism
- Anarchism and nationalism
