O anarchism is a political theory that emerged with the French politician Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and had great publicity with the Russian Mikhail Bakunin. Its main characteristic is the total suppression of the State and the elimination of the capitalism. The word anarchy derives from greek an (it is not arches (government).
Read too: Differences between socialism and anarchism
Origin of anarchism
Anarchist thought arose with the ideas of the French politician and philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865). Member of the French Parliament, for a time, and hailing from a family of petty bourgeois, Proudhon severely criticized the state's presence in political organizations and the acquisition of property toilet.
According to the French, private property, the greatest symbol of capitalism, was the greatest reason for human misfortune, and State was just a repressive apparatus created to control people's lives and keep them stuck in capitalist logic.
Another great thinker of anarchism was the Russian political theorist Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876). Bakunin met Proudhon's ideals and the socialism of Marx and Engels. He diverged from the theorists communists, in particular, on the question of the presence of the State in popular revolutions, and also raised the a more radical degree the ideas of the French Proudhon.
For Bakunin, a bloody revolution, from terrorist actions that would once again overthrow the State and implement a direct democratic political system, based on self-management and without political leadership figures.
Anarchism emerged as a response to capitalism, which created an extremely unequal system in Europe, causing the possibility of accumulation of goods by a small portion of the population and misery for a majority.
Like socialism, anarchism arose from the observation of inequalities and the perception of the economically excluded strata of capital, but producers of goods (for Marx they were the factory workers; for Bakunin, it was the peasants).
Characteristics of anarchism
the anarchist thought went through some modifications between its classical authors and other twentieth-century theorists. Proudhon criticized the state, defended its suppression from politics, he was also against capitalism and private property. Bakunin was more radical in implanting the idea of a terrorist anarchism, implanted through a popular revolution based on popular agitation, force and violent demonstrations.
the italian anarchist Errico Malatesta was even more radical, as it managed to spread anarchist thought and insufflate the masses against the State several times. It is clear, however, that there are two common points that define anarchist thinking: the overthrow of capitalism and the extinction of the State.
Anarchism's basic principle the democratic self-management of politics, that is, in the anarchist system there is no government, there is no State, there are no leaders, there are no economic institutions, and the law is created and exercised by the participation of the entire population.
Anarchism preaches the appreciationgivesfreedomindividual, from the extinction of capitalism and state institutions, that is why it is also called communismlibertarian. For anarchists, there must not be any kind of repressive force on human freedom, so the state must be extinguished.
The human being must have the principlegivesfreedom as the driving force of its action, because in the anarchist view, if allhasatsameconditions socioeconomic conditions and submit to the same self-managed legal conditions (subject to a common law that does not privileges some and absolve others and do not have institutions as the central figure), actions against the common good tend to to decrease.
the beginning of freedom anarchist is highto themaximum, by concluding that the human being must have total direction and control of his individual life, as long as nointerfereatlifealien. As such, anarchists see most laws as control devices that just keep people conforming to the current order.
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Is anarchism on the left?
There are theses that try to relate anarchist thinking to right-wing economic thinking, due to libertarianism, which took anarchist elements and brought them closer to economic liberalism. However, it should be noted that the anarchism is against capitalism, approaching, at this point, the vision of the left, which aims to establish an egalitarian economic system.
You anarcho-capitalists are represented by theorists who developed, from the second half of the 20th century, political theories that unite the right to private property, à absenceinstate and the free market in economic management.
For anarcho-capitalists, all services, from the most basic to the most complex, must be offered by the private sector and have their prices regulated by the market. There would be, therefore, the extinction of the State and the collection of taxes, and those who cannot pay for the services do not have access to them.
This vision comes close to anarchism only in the concept of extinction of the State, but goes a long way when proposing the existence of a free liberal capitalism. Historically, the anarchism is much closer to left economic and political thinking, for focusing on the extinction of capitalism and the end of social inequality.
Read too: difference between left and right
Anarchism and Communism
Like the scientific socialism of Marx and Engels, anarchism emerges as a response to the unequal living conditions of European workers in the 18th century. However, there are fundamental differences that distinguish the two systems, and the main one is the question of the state. For the communists, the bourgeois state should be abolished, as it served the capitalist logic and was an element of the superstructure.
However, it was necessary to create a socialist state that would gradually reduce the difference in social classes through statist actions until the state ended, forming a communist society.
For anarchists, the state was capitalist logic itself andapitalism would only end with the total suppression of the state. According to anarchist thought, the reformist (anti-revolution) socialists did nothing more than “manage the intolerable and intolerable of capitalism”|1|. However, in terms of social struggle, defense of equality and the end of capitalism, anarchists and socialists are closer, at least theoretically.
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Anarchism and Fascism
Anarchists were strong enemies of Fascists in Italy. Fascist theory, essentially totalitarian, foresees the creation of a strong State that controls not only political life, but also the private lives of people. O over-control by the state, allied to the defense of private property and the functioning of a capitalism submitted to a strong State, aroused the anarchist struggle against the Italian fascist government.
Figures like Errico Malatesta were key players in this fight, who made clear the connection of anarchist thought with any conservative thought and with any type of government that would restrict fundamental human freedom. To acquire more knowledge about this subject, access this text: Fascism in Italy.
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Anarchism in Brazil
with the big Italian immigration to work on the coffee plantations, especially after the abolition of slavery, anarchist thought entered our country with force. Several peasant workers brought with them books, pamphlets and anarchist ideals, and spread them around here.
Between 1890 and 1894, a self-managed anarchist colony operated in Paraná lands, the Cecília Colony. Anarchists also promoted protests, pickets and strikes, which led to a government fear of political destabilization that motivated President Afonso Pena to sanction, in 1907, the Adolfo Gordo Law, a law for the expulsion of foreign immigrants that caused any kind of political unrest or instability in Brazil.
THE dissolution of labor unions it was also a more subtle tactic of acting against anarchist thought in our country, which despite not being organized by institutional leaders, takes over the union debates (as happened in part of Europe, founding anarcho-syndicalistism) to organize.
Summary
19th century political theory;
Contrary to Capitalism;
Advocates the suppression of the state;
Bakunin and Proudhon are the leading theorists;
Advocates extremist actions for the dissolution of the State and the capitalist order;
It's a left-wing political theory.
Grades
|1| RABBIT, P. A (org.). History of Anarchism. São Paulo: Intermezzo Editorial, 2016, p. 11.
by Francisco Porfirio
Sociology Professor