Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy opposing domination and involuntary hierarchy, especially the state, and advocating voluntary, decentralized forms of social organization.

Political authority: The claimed right to make binding decisions for a political community. Anarchists question whether any institution can rightfully command people without their consent.
Federation: A political arrangement in which autonomous groups coordinate through shared bodies while retaining substantial self-government. Federation links local autonomy to wider cooperation in many anarchist proposals.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: A French socialist thinker whose writings developed an influential early theory of anarchism and mutualism. His 1840 book argued that property could function as domination and proposed mutualist alternatives.
Marxism: A tradition of social and political thought centered on class struggle, historical materialism, and the critique of capitalism. Anarchists and Marxists share opposition to capitalism but dispute the state’s role in revolution.
Spanish Revolution of 1936: A social revolution during the Spanish Civil War that brought extensive worker and peasant collectivization, especially in Catalonia and Aragon. Anarchist organizations helped drive one of history’s largest experiments in collectivized self-management.
Hierarchy: An arrangement that ranks people or groups and grants unequal power or status. Anarchism opposes social hierarchies when they enable domination or unjustified authority.
Consensus decision-making: A group process that seeks a decision acceptable to all participants, often through discussion and revision. Anarchist groups use consensus to limit coercion and keep decisions accountable to participants.
Mikhail Bakunin: A Russian revolutionary and anarchist theorist who advocated collective action against state and capitalist authority. His conflicts with Marx shaped anarchism’s opposition to centralized revolutionary leadership.
State socialism: A socialist system in which the state owns or directs major economic activity. Anarchists reject state control as a route to emancipation, warning it can preserve domination.
Anarcho-syndicalism: An anarchist strategy that uses revolutionary labor unions and direct action to replace capitalism and the state. It translated anti-authoritarian politics into mass union organizing and workplace struggle.

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