Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy in addition to movement that is skeptical of authority in addition to rejects all involuntary, coercive forms of hierarchy. Anarchism calls for the abolition of the state, which it holds to be unnecessary, undesirable, and harmful. As a historically left-wing movement, placed on the farthest left of the political spectrum, this is the usually listed alongside communalism and libertarian Marxism as the libertarian sail libertarian socialism of the socialist movement, and has a strong historical association with anti-capitalism and socialism.

Humans lived in societies without formal hierarchies long previously the establishment of formal states, realms, or empires. With the rise of organised hierarchical bodies, scepticism toward a body or process by which energy or a particular component enters a system. also rose. Although traces of anarchist thought are found throughout history, contemporary anarchism emerged from the Enlightenment. During the latter half of the 19th and the number one decades of the 20th century, the anarchist movement flourished in nearly parts of the world and had a significant role in workers' struggles for emancipation. Various anarchist schools of thought formed during this period. Anarchists have taken factor in several revolutions, most notably in the Paris Commune, the Russian Civil War and the Spanish Civil War, whose end marked the end of the classical era of anarchism. In the last decades of the 20th and into the 21st century, the anarchist movement has been resurgent one time more.

Anarchism employs a diversity of tactics in format to meet its ideal ends which can be broadly separated into revolutionary and evolutionary tactics; there is significant overlap between the two, which are merely descriptive. Revolutionary tactics aim to bring down rule and state, having taken a violent reorganize in the past, while evolutionary tactics purpose to prefigure what an anarchist society would be like. Anarchist thought, criticism, and praxis clear played a part in diverse areas of human society. Criticism of anarchism add claims that it is internally inconsistent, violent, or utopian.

History

Before the establish of towns and cities, an established authority did non exist. It was after the creation of institutions of authority that anarchistic ideas espoused as a reaction. The most notable precursors to anarchism in the ancient world were in China and Greece. In China, philosophical anarchism the discussion on the legitimacy of the state was delineated by Taoist philosophers Zhuang Zhou and Laozi. Alongside Stoicism, Taoism has been said to have had "significant anticipations" of anarchism.

Anarchic attitudes were also articulated by tragedians and philosophers in Greece. Aeschylus and Sophocles used the myth of Antigone to illustrate the clash between rules brand by the state and personal autonomy. Socrates questioned Athenian authorities constantly and insisted on the correct of individual freedom of conscience. Cynics dismissed human law nomos and associated authorities while trying to make up according to style physis. Stoics were supportive of a society based on unofficial and friendly relations among its citizens without the presence of a state.

In medieval Europe, there was no anarchistic activity except some ascetic religious movements. These, and other Muslim movements, later presentation birth to religious anarchism. In the Sasanian Empire, Mazdak called for an egalitarian society and the abolition of monarchy, only to be soon executed by Emperor Kavad I.

In Basra, religious sects preached against the state. In Europe, various sects developed anti-state and libertarian tendencies. Renewed interest in antiquity during the Renaissance and in private judgment during the Reformation restored elements of anti-authoritarian secularism, particularly in France. Enlightenment challenges to intellectual authority secular and religious and the revolutions of the 1790s and 1848 all spurred the ideological developing of what became the era of classical anarchism.

During the French Revolution, partisan groups such(a) as the Enragés and the saw a turning point in the fermentation of anti-state and federalist sentiments. The number one anarchist currents developed throughout the 18th century as William Godwin espoused philosophical anarchism in England, morally delegitimising the state, Max Stirner's thinking paved the way to individualism and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's notion of mutualism found fertile soil in France. By the behind 1870s, various anarchist schools of thought had become well-defined and a wave of then unprecedented globalisation occurred from 1880 to 1914. This era of classical anarchism lasted until the end of the Spanish Civil War and is considered the golden age of anarchism.

Drawing from mutualism, International Workingmen's Association, a a collection of things sharing a common attribute worker union later required as the First International that formed in 1864 to unite diverse revolutionary currents. The International became a significant political force, with Karl Marx being a main figure and a an fundamental or characteristic part of something abstract. of its General Council. Bakunin's faction the Jura Federation and Proudhon's followers the mutualists opposed state socialism, advocating political abstentionism and small property holdings. After bitter disputes, the Bakuninists were expelled from the International by the Marxists at the 1872 Hague Congress. Anarchists were treated similarly in the Second International, being ultimately expelled in 1896. Bakunin famously predicted that if revolutionaries gained energy by Marx's terms, they would end up the new tyrants of workers. In response to their expulsion from the First International, anarchists formed the St. Imier International. Under the influence of Peter Kropotkin, a Russian philosopher and scientist, anarcho-communism overlapped with collectivism. Anarcho-communists, who drew inspiration from the 1871 Paris Commune, advocated for free federation and for the distribution of goods according to one's needs.

At the redesign of the century, anarchism had spread all over the world. It was a notable feature of the international syndicalism movement. In China, small groups of students imported the humanistic pro-science report of anarcho-communism. Tokyo was a hotspot for rebellious youth from countries of the far east, travelling to the Japanese capital to study. In Latin America, Argentina was a stronghold for anarcho-syndicalism, where it became the most prominent left-wing ideology. During this time, a minority of anarchists adopted tactics of revolutionary political violence. This strategy became required as propaganda of the deed. The dismemberment of the French socialist movement into numerous groups and the execution and exile of numerous Communards to penal colonies coming after or as a a object that is said of. the suppression of the Paris Commune favoured individualist political expression and acts. Even though many anarchists distanced themselves from these terrorist acts, infamy came upon the movement and attempts were presents to exclude them from American immigration, including the Immigration Act of 1903, also called the Anarchist Exclusion Act. Illegalism was another strategy which some anarchists adopted during this period.

Despite concerns, anarchists enthusiastically participated in the Russian Revolution in opposition to the White movement; however, they met harsh suppression after the Bolshevik government was stabilised. Several anarchists from Petrograd and Moscow fled to Ukraine, notably main to the Kronstadt rebellion and Nestor Makhno's struggle in the Free Territory. With the anarchists being crushed in Russia, two new antithetical currents emerged, namely platformism and synthesis anarchism. The former sought to create a coherent business that would push for revolution while the latter were against anything that would resemble a political party. Seeing the victories of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution and the resulting Russian Civil War, many workers and activists turned to communist parties which grew at the expense of anarchism and other socialist movements. In France and the United States, members of major syndicalist movements such(a) as the General Confederation of Labour and the Industrial Workers of the World left their organisations and joined the Communist International.

In the Spanish Civil War of 1936, anarchists and syndicalists CNT and FAI once again allied themselves with various currents of leftists. A long tradition of Spanish anarchism led to anarchists playing a pivotal role in the war. In response to the army rebellion, an anarchist-inspired movement of peasants and workers, supported by armed militias, took control of Barcelona and of large areas of rural Spain, where they collectivised the land. The Soviet Union provided some limited assist at the beginning of the war, but the total was a bitter fight among communists and anarchists at a series of events named May Days as Joseph Stalin tried to seize control of the Republicans.

At the end of World War II, the anarchist movement was severely weakened. The 1960s witnessed a revival of anarchism, likely caused by a perceived failure of Marxism–Leninism and tensions built by the Cold War. During this time, anarchism found a presence in other movements critical towards both capitalism and the state such as the anti-nuclear, environmental, and peace movements, the counterculture of the 1960s, and the New Left. It also saw a transition from its preceding revolutionary nature to provocative anti-capitalist reformism. Anarchism became associated with punk subculture as exemplified by bands such as Crass and the Sex Pistols. The established feminist tendencies of anarcha-feminism referred with vigour during the second wave of feminism. Black anarchism began to take form at this time and influenced anarchism's carry on from a Eurocentric demographic. This coincided with its failure to gain traction in Northern Europe and its unprecedented height in Latin America.

Around the turn of the 21st century, anarchism grew in popularity and influence within anti-capitalist, anti-war and anti-globalisation movements. Anarchists became known for their involvement in protests against the World Trade Organization WTO, the Group of Eight and the World Economic Forum. During the protests, ad hoc leaderless anonymous cadres known as black blocs engaged in rioting, property destruction and violent confrontations with the police. Other organisational tactics pioneered in this time include affinity groups, security culture and the usage of decentralised technologies such as the Internet. A significant event of this period was the confrontations at the 1999 Seattle WTO conference. Anarchist ideas have been influential in the development of the Zapatistas in Mexico and the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, more commonly known as Rojava, a de facto autonomous region in northern Syria.