What Is: ANARCHY

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What is Anarchism? Is it more than an edgy buzzword and a patch on a denim jacket? Do Anarchists exist today? What are some misconceptions about Anarchism and is Anarchism possible?

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Kat Blaque
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Music
Intro ► Rougher Than Riddim - Titus 12

[KatBlaque]

Who are your favorite Anarchists on Youtube? Link them!

[PhilosophyTube]

This was cool! Anarchist theory in the last 20 or so years has moved away from this very individualist focus though; some of what you described here sounds closer to libertarianism? I really recommend Purkis & Bowen's "Changing Anarchism;" it's free online.

[MrTacticalinuit]

Most anarchists are communists. Most of us have a very collective view of things, just that its workers or peoples collectives.

But freedom of association, to choose where and with whom you work is essential, we need a society free of coercion and therefore we need freedom of association.

A lot of anarchists aren't opposed to violence when it is done to liberate the people. But we recognize that the general population doesn't yet understand anarchist principles and would see revolutionary acts as senseless violence. Though the revolution itself (taking control of workplaces, living spaces and neighborhoods) could happen pretty peacefully, most of us think the state and capitalists will react violently and try to suppress free territories and workplaces. Hence the revolution must have an armed defence. The people must protect their freedom.

[HawkmanWalker]

anarcho-capitalism is reactionary entryism. anarchism is socialism. again first book to describe anarchy as a positive is arguing against capitalism, private property and the state and how they are interrelated

[zelenisok]

You got that definition in the beginning upside down. The start of Anarchism is opposition of hierarchy, and after (and because of it) comes the opposition to the state. Anarchism was established Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Proudhon chose the name Anarchism because Anarchy etymologically means "without rulership", he wanted to signify opposition to ruler positions, to relations of ruling, of superiority and subordination, of order taking and order obeying, anarchy as opposed to hierarchy. His primary target wasn't actually the state, it was capitalism, and the capitalist boss who is a ruler over the workers. His most famous proclamation was that "property is theft", and his idea was that property should be abolished and replaced by possession. Possession is also called occupancy-and-use, or the phrase "use rights instead of property rights" is used, and most important implication of this in practice is that the means of production would belong to the workers using them, and not to the capitalists. Regarding the state, Proudhon was of course opposed to it due to his opposition of hierarchy, but at first he thought that the state could be used and reformed (decentralized, and made non-hierarchical and non-compulsory), but after becoming a member of parliament and seeing the workings of the state first-hand, he rejected that view. He still remained a gradualist, thinking that people should form worker coops, and various grassroots organizations, which would gradually replace the state and capitalism; it is only with the activism of Bakunin and people around him that anarchism became revolutionary, in the sense of wanting a massive uprising which would overthrow the state and capitalists.

The defining features of Anarchism are that it is the ideology advocating 1. there being a general preference for non-hierarchical relations, 2. abolition of the state and it's replacement by free association, and 3. abolition of property and it's replacement by possession; Anarchy then being a society based on those three things.

Anarchist political organization (organization to defend against outside attack and inside anti-social behavior) can have three possible forms: 1. The insurrectionary anarchist option, where affinity groups, movements, informal groups form to do that job, almost no one advocates this, but it existed historically as a view held by some, so i thought i'd mention it. 2. The anarcho-invididualist option, where security firms would offer their services on the market (those firms would be worker coops, as a consequence of the first and third tenets of anarchism); 3. The social anarchist option, where the free commune does that. The free commune is also called the free municipality, commune actually means municipality in French. The free commune is a voluntary, (directly) democratic body of all or most people in some settlement, or part of a large settlement, whose primary purpose is political organization of the members of the commune. Those communes then form federations, and throughout history of anarchism, the main anarchist answer on the question of "what to replace the state with?" has been - a federation of free communes.

Anarchism economic organization can have four possible types: 1. Anarcho-individualism, which is a market system, where worker coops exchange goods and services using money. 2. Anarcho-mutualism, which a mixed system, with both market and non-market functioning, so workers coops exchange goods and services using money, but also some non-market organizations exist. It has two forms, a milder form, with smaller non-market institutions like friendly societies, mutual credit banks, and organizations for using alternative currencies (like eg the concept of the Cincinnati time store); and a stronger form, as advocated by Proudhon, where the workers would form agro-industrial federations. The AIF would be an economy-wide federation of workplaces which would deal with building roads, railways, canals, and infrastructure in general (doing this stuff in coordination with the communes), also offering (interest-free) credit, investment, and giving insurance to people (for healthcare, pensions, etc), and maybe some other similar things, however the people in the AIF themselves decide. 3. Anarcho-collectivism, where workplaces would be in federations through which they would have non-market production and distribution; remuneration being done primarily via the principle of "to each according to their labor", so, some form of labor vouchers, although, of course, people unable to work would nevertheless receive those vouchers, and some things (like eg healthcare) would not be charged. The historical idea of how this would work was that the workplaces would basically fuse with free communes in whose territory they are, and the communes then being bodies for both political and economic organization. And there's 4. anarcho-communism, which would be a non-market economy, just the distribution would be done via the principle "to each according to their needs/ desires". Of course, these organizations are non-compulsory, based on free association, as Malatesta said "free and voluntary communism is ironical if one has not the possibility to live in a different regime - collectivist, mutualist, individualist - as one wishes, always on condition that there is no oppression or exploitation of others." Of these four types of anarchist economy i enumerated, the latter three are often called social anarchism. There's also "anarchism without adjectives", people accepting that position basically don't care which of the four types of anarchist economy will be established, just that anarchism gets established.

There are three additional points about anarchist tendencies. First point, there are various types of anarchism which are focus tendencies, like anarcha-feminism, queer anarchism, green anarchism, etc; all anarchists, due to their opposition to hierarchy - are feminist and queer-inclusive, and all are environmentalists, it's just people in these tendencies decided to focus more on those issues, and there is general anarchist support for their work. Second point, there are tendencies of anarchism comprised of anarchists accepting some position which is not accepted by anarchists in general, like anarcho-pacifism, veganarchism, christian anarchism, etc. Third point, there are tendencies of anarchism concerning anarchist organization and strategy, these are also in a way focus tendencies, and there is mutual support between these tendencies. Here we have anarcho-syndicalism, which, as it's name says, is about building anarchist industrial unions; it focuses on labor struggles, not just with the aim of improving lives of people, but it also sees the general strike as the best way to usher in a revolution. Anarcho-syndicalists see the federation of anarchist industrial unions as the organization through which the revolution will be conducted, and through which the workers will organize the economy in the post-revolutionary society. The IWA-AIT, International Workers' Association, is the international organization following this tendency. There's also especifism (platformism being the developed form of it) where the focus is on building specifically anarchist organizations with high degree of theoretical (and practical) unity, like everyone in them agreeing on anarcho-communism as a goal, and a massive uprising as a method of establishing it, and similar things, and also striving for a high degree of unity of action. Their preferred strategy is social insertion, anarchists joining various labor and social movements and struggles, improving society through them, and influencing people in them to become revolutionary, or at least move in that direction. The international Anarkismo network is of this tendency. And there's synthesis anarchism, which basically started as a reaction to especifism/ platformism, which it saw as too strict, and is about building anarchist organizations where there's a higher degree of diversity of views and actions, the IFA, International of Anarchist Federations, follows this tendency.

[AdamRainStopper]

included "anarcho" CAPITALISM?!?!?!

[miss_ry]

Not trying to be an ass, but I suggest people check out Stimulator here on YouTube. He has really good videos. And he's an Anarchist. It's always better to hear about Anarchism and what it is directly from someone who is an Anarchist. This is an informative video, but it's more on the historical informative side; doesn't really do justice to its current ideological views.

[kirsten]

Anarcho Capitalism is not Anarchy.

Capitalism is an inherently hierarchical system that needs to be deconstructed in order for Anarchism to exist. Anarchism is a society free of unjustifiable hierarchical structures, and leaders having to rule over the individual.

[Ballpython]

Anarchist since i was 15 years old today i'm 43 and still proud to be a Anarchist

[acanthusleaves]

Great video as always Kat!! Well explained and thought-provoking. The video editing and graphics are nicely put together, you can really see the massive amounts of effort that were put into this!

[CodexEntry]

My only complaint about this video is the views on the anarchist examinations of crime. I, personally, don't believe at all that crime would just 'vanish', but rather that it would be drastically reduced, and for the remain crime that would exist, it would be best for local democratic committees to examine the evidence and decide what to do with the person in question. For instance, say there was someone who routinely murdered people, I'd say let the committee he belongs to decide what to do with him, be that commitment to a mental health facility or incarceration for the sake of the protection of others. However, it should absolutely not be left to any one person or one body, and the ultimate goal should always be rehabilitation rather than punishment.

[mikehaskel]

Maybe you'll get to it in the video on Communism you've promised, but the analysis you attribute to Anarchism seems incomplete. Toward the end you ask what would happen to class if it weren't for a central government, but the government isn't the main driver of class, at least not since the 18th century when most of the quotes you gave seem to come from. If you leave the power structure of corporate capital in place, but destroy the only institution even capable of opposing it (the state), you're asking for serious problems!

[joshipgirl]

Kat! This video is so good! I see why it was such a long struggle getting it done now lol. Awesome stuff, makes me proud to be a patron :)

[tristanmontgrain]

The Rejecting hierarchy is correct, but I would add the Caveat, that we believe hierachies must justify themselves to be legitimate, I'm saying this as an Anarchist myself, also Anarcho-Capitalism is not Anarchism, it reject the early Anarchist principles such as opposition to Capitalism. Also capitalism in itself is a Hierarchy. and I do support violence with the caveat that it helps push Social progress, not with the intention of staring a revolution. Because a revolution that doesn't​ understand it's own goals will ultimately fail.

[BreakinBoog]

Fantastic video! It's nice, as an anarchist, getting a bit of representation from bigger youtubers. Only two big things I'd like to suggest including: First, Anarchists typically oppose indiscriminate violence, as you said, but we are not opposed to violence as a rule, particularly when it comes to opposing Fascists. Fascism is a violent ideology, and most Anarchists believe it must be opposed by violent means.

Second, the one thing I'd like to add in is that the Anarchist's principles are not built solely off of the belief in personal freedom, but in the understanding that personal freedom and communal freedom are inherently intertwined. One individual is not free so long as any other individual is exploited, oppressed, or otherwise threatened. Until we all live as equals, freedom is just a matter of privilege.

[Sharkbeautifly]

It's finally here. Awesome video as usual

[sisterimmaculata]

Everytime I think I've seen all the amazing styles Kat can rock she comes back with a new one.
Leave something for the rest of us, woman!

[seedyoda]

Glad you mentioned Winstanley and Godwin, two of my favourites (notice that the first syllables of each of their surnames are, respectively, "Win" and "God."). In addition to them, there is also Mikhail Bakunin (who was perhaps the archetypal anarchist), Pyotr Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Rudolf Rocker (very important, in my opinion), Bertrand Russell (like Godwin, he did not use the word "anarchist" to describe himself, but had _very strong_ anarchist tendencies), and Camillo Berneri.

[punkorifik]

❤ it! Also got a little excited by the Kevin Logan cameo haha!

[Thevietvegan]

I really enjoy how educational this series is. Thank you for this :) I've always -thought- I knew what they were but this just is more detailed and in depth. Thanks!