Portal:Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which consider the state to be unnecessary, harmful, or otherwise undesirable, and favour instead a stateless society or anarchy.<Individual anarchists may have additional criteria for what they conceive to be anarchism, and there is often broad disagreement concerning these broader conceptions. According to The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, "there is no single defining position that all anarchists hold, and those considered anarchists at best share a certain family resemblance."

There are many types and traditions of anarchism, not all of which are mutually exclusive. Strains of anarchism have been divided into the categories of socialist and individualist anarchism or similar dual classifications. Anarchism is often considered to be a radical left-wing ideology, and much of anarchist economics and anarchist legal philosophy reflect anti-statist interpretations of communism, collectivism, syndicalism or participatory economics; however, anarchism has always included an individualist strain, with that strain supporting a market economy and private property, or egoism.

Others, such as panarchists and anarchists without adjectives, neither advocate nor object to any particular form of organization as long as it is not compulsory. Some anarchist schools of thought differ fundamentally, supporting anything from extreme individualism to complete collectivism. The central tendency of anarchism as a social movement have been represented by communist anarchism, with individualist anarchism being primarily a philosophical or literary phenomenon. Some anarchists fundamentally oppose all forms of aggression, supporting self-defense or non-violence, while others have supported the use of some coercive measures, including violent revolution and terrorism, on the path to an anarchist society. (read more...)

Credit: Ben Schumin

The Resistin Radicatz, a radical cheerleading group, perform in front of AFL–CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. on October 17, 2004.

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• ...that the parents of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini gave him the middle name "Amilcare" in honour of the revolutionary anarchist Amilcare Cipriani (pictured)?
• ...that Lewis Call developed an account of post-anarchism based on the work of philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and cyberpunks such as William Gibson?
• ...that John Turner was the first person to be ordered deported from the United States for violation of the 1903 Anarchist Exclusion Act?
• ...that Milly Witkop and her common-law husband Rudolf Rocker, both notable anarchist activists and writers, were rejected admission to the United States in 1898, because they refused to get legally married?
• ...that the anarcho-capitalist contingent of the Young Americans for Freedom was excommunicated from the group after one of them burned a draft card during the 1969 convention, an event credited with spawning the modern libertarian movement?

“ Yes, our first ancestors, our Adams and our Eves, were, if not gorillas, very near relatives of gorillas, omnivorous, intelligent and ferocious beasts, endowed in a higher degree than the animals of another species with two precious faculties - the power to think and the desire to rebel. These faculties, combining their progressive action in history, represent the essential factor, the negative power in the positive development of human animality, and create consequently all that constitutes humanity in man. The Bible, which is a very interesting and here and there very profound book when considered as one of the oldest surviving manifestations of human wisdom and fancy, expresses this truth very naively in its myth of original sin. Jehovah, who of all the good gods adored by men was certainly the most jealous, the most vain, the most ferocious, the most unjust, the most bloodthirsty, the most despotic, and the most hostile to human dignity and liberty - Jehovah had just created Adam and Eve, to satisfy we know not what caprice; no doubt to while away his time, which must weigh heavy on his hands in his eternal egoistic solitude, or that he might have some new slaves. He generously placed at their disposal the whole earth, with all its fruits and animals, and set but a single limit to this complete enjoyment. He expressly forbade them from touching the fruit of the tree of knowledge. He wished, therefore, that man, destitute of all understanding of himself, should remain an eternal beast, ever on all-fours before the eternal God, his creator and his master. But here steps in Satan, the eternal rebel, the first freethinker and the emancipator of worlds. He makes man ashamed of his bestial ignorance and obedience; he emancipates him, stamps upon his brow the seal of liberty and humanity, in urging him to disobey and eat of the fruit of knowledge. ” —Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State, 1871.

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• 1854 - French anarchist painter Charles Angrand was born.
• 1890 - Max Nettlau published "The Historical Development of Anarchism" in Freiheit.
• 1945 - Julius Nolden, the former head of the Free Workers' Union of Germany, was freed from a German prison on arrival of the Allies.

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