What is Anarchism?

Anarchists aim to build an ecologically sustainable and deeply participatory society in which all people have access to the things they need, decisions are made by those most directly affected by them, and all people are free and equal.

Some of the core tenets of anarchism are mutual aid, direct action, voluntary association, decentralization, and self determination.

“Anarchy” is often attributed to Greek words meaning “without rulers.”

To learn more information about anarchism and anarchist ideas check out some of these introductory materials from others in the movement:

• Anarchy 101 (Bob Black)
• A Brief History of Anarchism (Noam Chomsky, In These Times)
• An Anarchist FAQ (Infoshop)
• What I Believe (Emma Goldman)
• Fighting for Our Lives (Crimethinc)
• Autonomy: Creating Spaces for Freedom
• Love And Freedom: A Gentle Introduction to Anarchy (Jamie Heckert)
• Are You an Anarchist? The Answer May Surprise You (David Graeber):
• What is Anarchism?
• Anarchism: A Documentary
• Life Without Law (Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness)
• The Political Philosophy of Anarchism (The Seattle Free Press)
• Noam Chomsky: The Kind of Anarchism I Believe in, and What’s Wrong with Libertarians(Modern Success Magazine)
• Anarchism (Wikipedia)
• About Anarchism (Nicolas Walter)
• What is Anarchism? (Donald Rooum et al)
• Anarchy (Errico Malatesta)

Books

• Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism – Peter Marshall
• Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction – Colin Ward
• Anarchism and Syndicalism in the Colonial and Postcolonial World, 1870-1940 – Steven Hirsch and Lucien van der Walt
• ABC of Anarchist Communism – Alexander Berkman
• Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism – Lucien van der Walt
• The Dispossessed – Ursula K Leguin
• Against the Day – Thomas Pynchon
• The Fifth Sacred Thing – Starhawk
• Anarchy Alive – Uri Gordon

Let’s face it, we live in a time where surveillance devices are all around us, be it police with video cameras, CCTV or citizens with mobile phones. So when we decide to take to the streets to oppose the state and their police, it’s wise to hid our identity.

We live in an era censorship, surveillance, and artificial intelligence – where the powers that exist strategically engage in tactics, and utilize to control and eliminate dissent. As  empowered individuals we must learn and understand basic security culture.

Even if one’s actions will manifest as something seemingly subtle and beneficial for our society and our community, those in power fear the collective force of individuals working against the state accepted norms, and one may likely come face-to-face with agent provocateurs, undercover police, and other agents of the state who work directly to infiltrate and otherwise control the power of the collective community.

As one prepares for action remember to take the steps necessary to protect oneself and your comrades from being manipulated, injured, or otherwise twisted into the tactics of the state and the structures we work to dismantle.

For more tips on security culture check out these links:

• What is Security Culture?

The more autonomous and horizontally democratic an affinity group or campaign is, the more effective it is, as all people involved can have an input and feel a part of the project.

Although often basic, this information is essential for the smooth-running of an organisation and sticking to these simple guidelines can make the difference between a long lasting successful affinity group and a failure.

Below, one can find resources and tips on many aspects of organising, from facilitating meetings and financing your group, to structure and making decisions.

• Workplace organising
• Community organising
• How to start a group
• Basic principles of revolutionary organisation
• Coming up with a strategy and set of principles
• Decision making and organisational form
• Financing a group
• Handling difficult behaviour in meetings
• How to organise and facilitate meetings effectively
• Successful delegation guide
• Taking meeting minutes guide
• Building a solidarity network guide
• Federations and networks guide
• Media and publicity guide
• Housing guide
• Personal guides
• Demonstrations and law enforcement

The term “anarchy” is derived from the Greek “anarchos” (“without ruler”). Up until the 19th Century, the term was generally used in a positive manner, to describe a coherent political belief, and it was only later that it became used pejoratively (to mean something akin to chaos).

There is no single defining position that all Anarchists hold, beyond their rejection of compulsory government or “the state”, and proponents may support anything from extreme individualism (the political outlook that stresses human independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty) to complete collectivism (the political outlook that stresses human interdependence and the importance of the collective). Thus, there are any number of diverse schools of thought within Anarchism.

As a collective – Paper Revolution chooses to extend revolutionary solidarity to all of our comrades by acknowledging ‘Anarchism without Adjectives’. The school by which one connects with or studies creates a path from one’s own individual perspective toward radical self-empowerment and actualization.

Anarchism is the political philosophy which rejects (and supports the elimination of ) compulsory government or compulsory rule, and holds that society can (and should) be organized without a coercive state. This may, or may not, involve the rejection of any authority at all. Anarchists believe that government is both harmful and unnecessary. This does not necessarily mean that we, as a society, are without rules – but rather – we become liberated from the violence and corruption of the state, the elite, and those who falsely assume roles of authority over individuals.

Anarchism contends that the state lacks moral legitimacy, that there is no individual obligation or duty to obey the state and, conversely, that the state has no right to command individuals. Anarchism calls for gradual change to free all individual from the oppressive laws and social constraints of the modern state.

The use of the phrase anarchism without adjectives was an attempt to show greater tolerance between anarchist tendencies and to be clear that anarchists should not impose a preconceived economic plan on anyone—even in theory. Anarchists without adjectives tended either to reject all particular anarchist economic models as faulty, or take a pluralist position of embracing them all to a limited degree in order that they may keep one another in check.

The roots of the origin arguments can be found in the development of anarcho-communism, after Bakunin’s death in 1876. In the 1920s “synthesis anarchism” emerged as a form of anarchist organizations based on anarchism-without-adjectives principles.

“Anarchism without Adjectives” is a historic part of anarchist tradition, an attempt at bringing together diverse ideas and people under their common goals to effectively implement change. In the words of historian George Richard Esenwein, “[Anarchism without Adjectives] referred to an unhyphenated form of anarchism, that is, a doctrine without any qualifying labels such as communist, collectivist,mutualist, or individualist. For others, … [it] was simply understood as an attitude that tolerated the coexistence of different anarchist schools.” 

The originators of the expression were Cuban-born Fernando Tarrida del Mármol and Ricardo Mella, who were troubled by the bitter debates between mutualist, individualists, and communist anarchists in the 1880s.

Pierre Proudhon

French mutualist philosopher and first person to call themselves an ‘anarchist’.

• What is Property? – Influential work on the concept of property in which Proudhon declared “property is theft!”.
• The Philosophy of Poverty
• The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century
• The Principle of Federation

Mikhail Bakunin

Russian revolutionary, considered the original theorist of collectivist anarchism.

• Mikhail Bakunin, 1814-1876 – biography.
• Basic Bakunin – Anarchist Federation – Pamphlet outlining the key features of Bakunin’s ideas.
• Marxism, freedom and the state – Collection writings touching on his controversy with Marx over the nature of the state and its role in the liberation of the international working class.
• God and State – Classic and highly influential atheist text setting out the anarchist critique of religion as bound up in legitimising the state.
• The Paris Commune and the Idea of the State – A critique of the state and analysis of the events surrounding the 1871 Paris Commune.
• A Critique of the German Social Democratic Program – An early and powerful critique of the statist, reformist, class-collaborationist and counter-revolutionary tendencies of emerging social democracy.

Peter Kropotkin

Russian revolutionary (as well as scientist, zoologist, geographer and evolutionary theorist!) who was the first to advocate a communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations between workers – anachist-communism.

• The Conquest of Bread – Classic work explaining the defects of feudal and capitalist economic systems and how they can be replaced by a decentralised economic system based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation.
• Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution – Kropotkin’s response to Social Darwinism in which he explains the phenomenon of co-operation in evolution.
• Fields, Factories and Workshops – Hugely influential work outlining how a society based on mutual aid and voluntary association could work.
• Anarchism; & Anarchist communism – Two excellent essays explaining the history of anarchism and the inseparable relationship between anarchism and communism.
• Memoirs of a Revolutionist – Autobiography recounting his aristocratic beginnings to his transformation into the revolutionary he would be for the rest of his life.
• The State–Its Historic Role – Classic work on the state and its function in society.
• Act for Yourselves: Articles from Freedom 1886-1907 – Collection of articles written for Freedom newspaper.

In a world ruled by ceaseless capitalist competition, where people are pitted to work against each other, anarchists offer a different vision: Mutual Aid.

Errico Malatesta

Highly influential Italian anarchist-communist who wrote and spoke widely across Italy and spent many years either in jail or in exile.

• Errico Malatesta, 1853-1932 – biography.
• Anarchy – Malatesta’s best known work, a pamphlet on what anarchism means.
• Anarchism and organisation – Essay on the importance of organisation to anarchism.
• Syndicalism and anarchism – Essay on the relationship of anarchists to the labour movement.
• At the cafe – A primer on the fundamentals of anarcho-communism, described through conversations.

Emma Goldman

Lithuanian-born anarchist who emigrated to the USA, where she became highly involved in radical unions, anti-war and feminist activism. Became known as “the most dangerous woman in America”.

• Emma Goldman, 1869-1940 – biography.
• Anarchism and Other Essays – collection of Goldman’s classic essays on anarchism and other subjects.
• Living My Life, 2 Vols. – Two volume autobiography taking her from her birthplace in Tsarist Russia to the socialist enclaves of Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
• My Disillusionment in Russia – excellent book on the degeneration of the Russian revolution.
• Red Emma – play written by Carol Bolt.

Alexander Berkman

Lithuanian-born anarchist-communist Alexander “Sasha” Berkman, who became a leading figure in the American anarchist movement and was sent to prison for attempting to assassinate Henry Clay Frick, the steel boss responsible for the deaths of workers in the 1892 Homestead strike.

• Alexander Berkman, 1870-1936 – Biography.
• What is anarchism? – Absolutely indispensable classic introduction to anarchism.
• Prison memoirs of an anarchist – Autobiographical account of his experience in prison after being sentenced to 22 years for the attempted assassination of an industrialist.
• The Russian Tragedy – Berkman’s anaylsis the failure of the Russian Revolution, written 1922.
• The Bolshevik Myth – Book describing his experiences in post-revolution Russia from 1920 to 1922
• The Kronstadt Rebellion – Berkman’s analysis of the crushing of the Kronstadt uprising by the Bolshevik government.

Rudolf Rocker

Prominent anarcho-syndicalist who organised extensively amongst the Jewish community in the East End of London.

• Rudolf Rocker, 1873-1958 – biography.
• Anarcho-syndicalism – Definitive extended work on anarcho-syndicalism.
• Anarchism and Anarcho-syndicalism – Two essays introducing first the concept of anarchist politics and then its manifestation in anarcho-syndicalism.
• Nationalism and Culture – Classic text on nationalism and culture.
• The Tragedy of Spain – Rocker’s history of the Spanish Civil War.
• The Truth About Spain – Analysis of the situation in Spain, with much on the Spanish anarchist organizations the CNT (Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo) and FAI (Federacion Anarquista Iberica).

Nestor Makhno

Ukrainian anarchist-communist who led a revolutionary army during the 1917 Russian revolution which fought against both the old Tsarist regime and the new Bolshevik one.

• Nesto Makhno, 1889-1934 – biography.
• The struggle against the state and other essays – Collection of essays dealing with both Makhno’s experiences during the Russian Revolution and wider questions of organisation.
• Organisational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) – Written by the Dielo Truda group, a group of exiled anarchists who had taken part in the Russian revolution (and of which Makhno was a member), ‘The Platform’ would become a highly debated and influential text on anarchist organisation.

Daniel Guerin

French anarchist and revolutionary supporter of gay liberation.

• Daniel Guerin, 1904-1988 – biography.
• No Gods, No Masters: an anthology of anarchism – Classic anthology of anarchism bringing together unpublished documents, letters, debates and more, showing the history, organisation and practice of the movement.
• Anarchism: from theory to practice – Book about the theoretical basis of anarchism, and its practical application to the real world in selected historical examples.

Albert Meltzer

British anarcho-syndicalist print worker who fiercely opposed individualist strains within anarchism and was a major figure in the British anarchist movement.

• Albert Meltzer, 1920-1996 – Biography.
• I couldn’t paint golden angels: Sixty years of commonplace life and anarchist agitation – A lively and witty account of a working class boy who went on to put in 60 years of activism, Meltzer’s autobiography doubles as a first-person history of the British and European anarchist movements.
• Anarchism: arguments for and against – Short book answering some common criticisms of anarchism while offering a critical view of the anarchist movement itself.
• The floodgates of anarchy – Book co-written with Stuart Christie, it presents an argument against class-based society and hierarchy and advocates for a free and equal society based on individual dignity and merit.

Murray Bookchin

American libertarian socialist and founder of social ecology who severely criticised individualist and spiritual elements within radical politics.

• Bookchin remembered – Obituary written by Iain Mackay.
• Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism – Essay against the increasingly individualist, misanthropic, mystical and anti-organisational trends in US anarchism.
• Listen, Marxist! – An anarchist criticism of Marxism, aimed predominantly at the Maoist Progressive Labor Party in America.
• Post-Scarcity Anarchism – Collection of essays envisioning an anarchist society without scarce resources, if we rely on technology.
• Anarchism, Marxism and The Future of The Left – Collection of texts including accounts of his years as a teenage Communist during the Great Depression, his experiences and reflections on the 1960s and his vision of a libertarian communist society, libertarian politics and the future of anarchism.
• The Spanish Anarchists: The Heroic Years 1868-1936 – History of the day-to-day activism of Spanish anarchists in the decades leading up to the famous civil war and revolution of 1936.