Déjacque particularly focused his critique on private commerce, such as that espoused by Proudhon and by theRicardian socialists of the 1820s and 1830s. He advocated workers' right to the satisfaction of their needs, rather than to keep the product of their own labour, as he felt the latter would inevitably lead tocapital accumulation. He thus advocated for all property to be held under common ownership and for "unlimited freedom of production and consumption", subordinated only to the authority of the "statistics book". In order to guarantee the universal satisfaction of needs, Déjacque saw the need for the abolition offorced labour throughworkers' self-management, and the abolition of thedivision of labour through integrating theproletariat and theintelligentsia into a single class. In order to achieve this vision of a communist society, he proposed a transitionary period of in whichdirect democracy anddirect exchange would be upheld, positions of state would undergodemocratization, and thepolice andmilitary would be abolished.[12]
TheInternational Workingmen's Association (IWA) was established in 1864,[14] at a time when a formalised anarchist movement did not yet exist. Of the few individual anarchists who were influential at this time, it was Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, with his conception offederalism and his advocacy ofabstentionism, who inspired many of the French delegates who founded the IWA and laid the groundwork for the growth of anarchism.[15] Among the French delegates were a more radical minority that opposed Proudhon's mutualism, which held thenuclear family as its base social unit. Led by the trade-unionistEugène Varlin, the radicals advocated for a "non-authoritarian communism", which upheld thecommune as the base social unit and advocated for theuniversal access to education.[16] The entry ofMikhail Bakunin into the IWA in 1868 first infused the federalists with a programme ofrevolutionary socialism andanti-statism, which agitated forworkers' self-management anddirect action against capitalism and the state.[17]
By this time, theMarxists of the IWA had begun to denounce theiranti-authoritarian opponents as "anarchists", a label previously adopted by Proudhon and Déjacque and later accepted by the anti-authoritarians themselves.[18] Following the defeat of theParis Commune in 1871, the IWA split over questions ofsocialist economics and the means of bringing about aclassless society.[19]Karl Marx, who favoured the conquest of state power by political parties, banned the anarchists from the IWA.[20] The anarchist faction around theJura Federation resolved to reconstitute as their ownAnti-Authoritarian International, which they constructed as a more decentralised and federal organisation.[21] Two of the IWA's largest branches, inItaly andSpain, repudiated Marxism and adopted the anti-authoritarian platform.[22]
James Guillaume's work set the foundation for the development of communism from collectivism.
As acollectivist, Bakunin had himself opposed communism, which he regarded as an inherentlyauthoritarian ideology.[23] But with Bakunin's death in 1876, the anarchists began to shift away from his theory of collectivism and towards an anarchist communism.[24] The term "anarchist communism" was first printed inFrançois Dumartheray's February 1876 pamphlet,To manual workers, supporters of political action.[25]Élisée Reclus was quick to express his support for anarchist communism,[26] at a meeting of the Anti-Authoritarian International inLausanne the following month.[27]James Guillaume's August 1876 pamphlet,Ideas on Social Organisation, outlined a proposal by which thecollective ownership of themeans of production could be used in order to transition towards acommunist society.[28] Guillaume considered a necessary prerequisite for communism would be a general condition ofabundance, which could set the foundation for the abandonment ofexchange value and the free distribution of resources.[29] This program for anarcho-communism was adopted by theItalian anarchists,[30] who had already begun to question collectivism.[31]
Although Guillaume had himselfremained neutral throughout the debate, in September 1877, the Italian anarcho-communists clashed with theSpanish collectivists inVerviers at what would be the Anti-Authoritarian International's final congress.[32] Alongside the economic question, the two factions were also divided by the question of organisation. While the collectivists upheldtrade unions as a means for achieving anarchy, the communists considered them to be inherentlyreformist andcounter-revolutionary organisations, prone tobureaucracy andcorruption. Instead, the communists preferred small, loosely-organisedaffinity groups, which they believed closer conformed to anti-authoritarian principles.[33]
As anarcho-communism emerged in the mid-19th century, it had an intense debate withBakuninistcollectivism and, within the anarchist movement, over participation in the workers' movement, as well as on other issues. So in Kropotkin's anarcho-communist theory of evolution, the risen people themselves are meant to be the rational industrial manager rather than a working class organized as enterprise.[7]
Between 1880 and 1890, with the "perspective of animmanent revolution", which was "opposed to the official workers' movement, which was then in the process of formation (generalSocial Democratisation) [anarchist communists] were opposed not only to political (statist) struggles but also to strikes which put forward wage or other claims, or which were organised by trade unions." However, "[w]hile they were not opposed to strikes as such, they were opposed to trade unions and the struggle for theeight-hour day. This anti-reformist tendency was accompanied by an anti-organisational tendency, and its partisans declared themselves in favor of agitation amongst the unemployed for the expropriation of foodstuffs and other articles, for the expropriatory strike and, in some cases, for 'individual recuperation' or acts of terrorism."[7]
Most anarchist publications in the United States appeared in Yiddish, German, or Russian. However, the American anarcho-communist journalThe Firebrand was published in English, permitting the dissemination of anarchist communist thought to English-speaking populations in the United States.[37]
According to the anarchist historianMax Nettlau, the first use of the term "libertarian communism" came with the 1880Le Havre anarchist congress used the phrase to identify its doctrines more clearly.[38][39]The French anarchist journalistSébastien Faure, later founder and editor of the four-volumeAnarchist Encyclopedia, started the weekly paperLe Libertaire (The Libertarian) in 1895.[40]
TheDielo Truda platform in Spain also met with strong criticism. Miguel Jimenez, a founding member of theIberian Anarchist Federation (FAI, founded in 1927), summarized this as follows: too much influence in it ofMarxism, it erroneously divided and reduced anarchists between individualist anarchists and anarcho-communist sections, and it wanted to unify the anarchist movement along the lines of the anarcho-communists. Jimenez saw anarchism as more complex than that, that anarchist tendencies are not mutually exclusive as theplatformists saw it and that both individualist and communist views could accommodateanarcho-syndicalism.[43] Sébastian Faure had strong contacts in Spain, so his proposal had more impact on Spanish anarchists than the Dielo Truda platform, even though individualist anarchist influence in Spain was less intense than it was in France. The main goal there was reconciling anarcho-communism withanarcho-syndicalism.[44]
The most extensive application of anarcho-communist ideas happened in the anarchist territories during theSpanish Revolution of 1936.[45]
In Spain, the national anarcho-syndicalist trade unionConfederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) initially refused to join a popular-front electoral alliance, and abstention by CNT supporters led to a right-wing election victory. In 1936, the CNT changed its policy, and anarchist votes helped bring the popular front back to power. Months later, the former ruling class responded with an attemptedcoup, which led to the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War of 1936–1939.[46] In response to the army rebellion, ananarchist-inspired movement of peasants and industrial workers, supported by armed militias, took control ofBarcelona and of large areas of rural Spain, where theycollectivized the land.[47] However, even before the fascist victory in 1939, the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter struggle with theStalinists, who controlled the distribution of military aid from theSoviet Union to the Republican cause. The events known as the "Spanish Revolution" was a workers'social revolution that began during the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War in 1936 and resulted in the widespread implementation ofanarchist and, more broadly,libertarian socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country for two to three years, primarily inCatalonia,Aragon,Andalusia, and parts ofthe Levante. Much ofSpain's economy was put under worker control; inanarchist strongholds like Catalonia, the figure was as high as 75%, but lower in areas with heavyCommunist Party of Spain influence, as theSoviet-allied party actively resisted attempts atcollectivization-enactment. Factories were run through worker committees, andagrarian areas became collectivized and ran as libertariancommunes.
AnarchistGaston Leval estimated that about eight million people participated directly or at least indirectly in the Spanish Revolution,[48] which historianSam Dolgoff claimed was the closest any revolution had come to realizing a free,stateless mass society.[49] Stalinist-led troops suppressed the collectives and persecuted bothdissident Marxists and anarchists.[50]
Ananti-fascist poster from the libertarian socialist factions ofMadrid, reading "The surveillance of the city must be ensured by the Antifascist Popular Guard" as a warning againstNationalist terrorism
Anarcho-communism entered into internal debates over the organization issue in the post-World War II era. Founded in October 1935, the Anarcho-Communist Federation of Argentina (FACA, Federación Anarco-Comunista Argentina) in 1955 renamed itself theArgentine Libertarian Federation. TheFédération Anarchiste (FA), founded in Paris on 2 December 1945, elected the platformist anarcho-communist George Fontenis as its first secretary the following year. It was composed of a majority of activists from the former FA (which supportedVolin'sSynthesis) and some members of the former Union Anarchiste (which supported the CNT-FAI support to the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War), as well as some youngResistants.[51]In 1950 a clandestine group formed within the FA called Organisation Pensée Bataille (OPB), led by George Fontenis.[52]
The new decision-making process was founded onunanimity: each person has a right of veto on the orientations of the federation. The FCL published the same yearManifeste du communisme libertaire. Several groups quit the FCL in December 1955, disagreeing with the decision to present "revolutionary candidates" to the legislative elections. On 15–20 August 1954, the Ve intercontinental plenum of the CNT took place. A group calledEntente anarchiste appeared, which was formed of militants who did not like the new ideological orientation that the OPB was giving the FCL seeing it was authoritarian and almost Marxist.[53] The FCL lasted until 1956, just after participating in state legislative elections with ten candidates. This move alienated some members of the FCL and thus produced the end of the organization.[52] A group of militants who disagreed with the FA turning into FCL reorganized a new Federation Anarchiste established in December 1953.[52] This included those who formedL'Entente anarchiste, who joined the new FA and then dissolved L'Entente. The new base principles of the FA were written by the individualist anarchistCharles-Auguste Bontemps and the non-platformist anarcho-communistMaurice Joyeux which established an organization with a plurality of tendencies and autonomy of groups organized aroundsynthesist principles.[52] According to historian Cédric Guérin, the new Federation Anarchiste identity included the unconditional rejection ofMarxism, motivated in significant part by the previous conflict with George Fontenis and his OPB.[52] In the 1970s, the FrenchFédération Anarchiste evolved into a joining of the principles ofsynthesis anarchism andplatformism.[52]
Anarchist communists reject the belief that "wage labour is necessary because people are selfish by human nature." Most would point to examples of humans being willing to sacrifice time or resources for others and believe that systems of wage labor and state taxation serve more to restrict that instinct to help others rather than ensuring a society continues to function. Anarcho-communists generally do not agree with the belief in a pre-set "human nature", arguing that human culture and behavior are primarily determined bysocialization and themode of production. Many anarchist communists, likePeter Kropotkin, also believe that thehuman evolutionary tendency is forhumans to cooperate for mutual benefit and survival instead of existing as lone competitors, a position that Kropotkin argued for at length.[54]
While anarchist communists such asPeter Kropotkin andMurray Bookchin believed that the members of such a society would voluntarily perform all necessary labour because they would recognize the benefits of communal enterprise and mutual aid,[54][55][56][57] other anarchist communists such as Nestor Makhno and Ricardo Flores Magón argue that all those able to work in an anarchist communist society should be obligated to do so, excepting groups like children, the elderly, the sick, or the infirm.[58][59][60][61] Kropotkin did not thinklaziness orsabotage would be a significant problem in an authentically anarchist-communist society. However, he did agree that a freely associated anarchist commune could, and probably should, deliberately disassociate from those not fulfilling their communal agreement to do their share of work.[62]Peter Gelderloos, based on theKibbutz, argues that motivation in a moneyless society would be found in the satisfaction of work, concern for the community, competition for prestige, and praise from other community members.[63]
Anarchist communists support communism as a means for ensuring the greatest freedom and well-being for everyone, rather than only the wealthy and powerful. In this sense, anarchist communism is a profoundlyegalitarian philosophy.
Kropotkin said that the main authoritarian mistakes in communist experiments of the past were their being based on "religious enthusiasm"[64] and the desire to live "as a family"[65] where the individual had to "submit to the dictates of a punctilious morality".[66] For him, anarcho-communism should be based on the right of free association and disassociation for individuals and groups and on significantly lowering the number of hours each individual dedicates to necessary labor.[66] He says that "to recognise a variety of occupations as the basis of all progress and to organise in such a way that man may be absolutely free during his leisure time, whilst he may also vary his work, a change for which his early education and instruction will have prepared him—this can easily be put in practice in a Communist society—this, again, means the emancipation of the individual, who will find doors open in every direction for his complete development".[66]
Peter Kropotkin argued that individuals sacrificing themselves for the "greater", or being ruled by the "community" or "society", is not possible because society is composed of individuals rather than being a cohesive unit separate from the individual and argue that collective control over the individual is tyrannical and antithetical to anarchism.[67] Others such asLucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt argue that "[t]he anarchists did not [...] identify freedom with the right of everybody to do exactly what one pleased but with a social order in which collective effort and responsibilities—that is to say, obligations—would provide the material basis and social nexus in which individual freedom could exist." They argued that "genuine freedom and individuality could only exist in a free society" and that in contrast to "misanthropic bourgeois individualism" anarchism was based in "a deep love of freedom, understood as a social product, a deep respect for human rights, a profound celebration of humankind and its potential and a commitment to a form of society where a 'true individuality' was irrevocably linked to 'the highest communist socieability'".[68]
Alexander Berkman advocated for profit to be replaced with communities of common property, where all group members shared possessions
Anarchist communists counter the capitalist conception that communal property can only be maintained by force and that such a position is neither fixed in nature[54] nor unchangeable in practice, citing numerous examples of communal behavior occurring naturally, even within capitalist systems.[69] Anarchist communists call for the abolition ofprivate property while maintaining respect forpersonal property. As such, the prominent anarcho-communistAlexander Berkman maintained that "The revolution abolishes private ownership of the means of production and distribution, and with it goes capitalistic business. Personal possession remains only in the things you use. Thus, your watch is your own, but the watch factory belongs to the people. Land, machinery, and all other public utilities will be collective property, neither to be bought nor sold. Actual use will be considered the only title-not to ownership but to possession. The organization of the coal miners, for example, will be in charge of the coal mines, not as owners but as the operating agency. Similarly will the railroad brotherhoods run the railroads, and so on. Collective possession, cooperatively managed in the interests of the community, will take the place of personal ownership privately conducted for profit."[70]
Free association of communes as opposed to the nation-state
Representative government has accomplished its historical mission; it has given a mortal blow to court-rule; and by its debates it has awakened public interest in public questions. But to see in it the government of the future socialist society is to commit a gross error. Each economic phase of life implies its own political phase; and it is impossible to touch the very basis of the present economic life—private property—without a corresponding change in the very basis of the political organization. Life already shows in which direction the change will be made. Not in increasing the powers of the State, but in resorting to free organization and free federation in all those branches which are now considered as attributes of the State.
^Bookchin, Murray (2 February 2017).To Remember Spain: The Anarchist and Syndicalist Revolution of 1936. Archived fromthe original on 23 October 2021.In anarchist industrial areas like Catalonia, an estimated three-quarters of the economy was placed under workers' control, as it was in anarchist rural areas like Aragon. [...] In the more thoroughly anarchist areas, particularly among the agrarian collectives, money was eliminated and the material means of life were allocated strictly according to need rather than work, following the traditional precepts of a libertarian communist society.
^Falk, Candace, ed. (2005).Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Vol. 2: Making Speech Free, 1902–1909. University of California Press. p. 551.ISBN978-0520225695.Free Society was the principal English-language forum for anarchist ideas in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century.
^Nettlau 1996, p. 145 this led to the adoption of the term 'libertarian communism' at the French regional Congress at Le Havre
^Compare:Woodcock, George (2022) [1986].L'anarchisme: Une histoire des idées et mouvements libertaires (in French). Translated by Calvé, Nicolas. Lux Éditeur.ISBN978-2898330537. Retrieved16 December 2024.En 1877 [...] Varlam Tcherkezichvili, prince géorgien actif parmi les anarchists de Suisse dans les années 1870, affirme que l'ensemble du milieu a accepté l'idée de communisme libertaire sans en utiliser le nom. [...] L'étape qui consacrera l'appellation de 'communiste libertaire' sera franchie en 1880 lorsque Kropotkine, Reclus et Cafiero convaincront les participants à un Congrès de la Fédération jurassienne d'adopter le communisme libertaire comme doctrine économique.
^Garner 2008: "Jiménez evitó ahondar demasiado en sus críticas hacia la naturaleza abiertamente marxista de algunas partes de la Plataforma, limitándose a aludir a la crítica de Santillán en La Protesta, que afirmaba que los rusos no habían sido el único grupo responsable de permitir la infiltración de las ideas marxistas, lo que iba claramente dirigido a los sindicalistas de España17. Jiménez aceptó que la Plataforma había sido un intento encomiable de resolver el eterno problema de la desunión dentro de las filas anarquistas, pero consideraba que el programa ruso tenía sus defectos. La Plataforma se basaba en una premisa errónea sobre la naturaleza de las tendencias dentro del movimiento anarquista: dividía a los anarquistas en dos grupos diferentes, individualistas y comunistas, y con ello rechazaba la influencia de los primeros y proponía la unificación del movimiento anarquista en torno a la ideas de los segundos. Jiménez afirmaba que la realidad era mucho más compleja: esas diferentes tendencias dentro del movimiento anarquista no eran contradictorias ni excluyentes. Por ejemplo, era posible encontrar elementos en ambos grupos que apoyaran las tácticas del anarcosindicalismo. Por tanto, rechazaba el principal argumento de los plataformistas según el cual las diferentes tendencias se excluían entre sí."
^Garner 2008: "Debido a sus contactos e influencia con el movimiento del exilio español, la propuesta de Faure arraigó más en los círculos españoles que la Plataforma, y fue publicada en las prensas libertarias tanto en España como en Bélgica25. En esencia, Faure intentaba reunir a la familia anarquista sin imponer la rígida estructura que proponía la Plataforma, y en España se aceptó así. Opuesta a la situación de Francia, en España la influencia del anarquismo individualista no fue un motivo serio de ruptura. Aunque las ideas de ciertos individualistas como Han Ryner y Émile Armand tuvieron cierto impacto sobre el anarquismo español, afectaron sólo a aspectos como el sexo y el amor libre."
^Guérin 2000: "Si la critique de la déviation autoritaire de la FA est le principal fait de ralliement, on peut ressentir dès le premier numéro un état d'esprit qui va longtemps coller à la peau des anarchistes français. Cet état d'esprit se caractérise ainsi sous une double forme : d'une part un rejet inconditionnel de l'ennemi marxiste, d'autre part des questions sur le rôle des anciens et de l'évolution idéologique de l'anarchisme. C'est Fernand Robert qui attaque le premier : "Le LIB est devenu un journal marxiste. En continuant à le soutenir, tout en reconnaissant qu'il ne nous plaît pas, vous faîtes une mauvaise action contre votre idéal anarchiste. Vous donnez la main à vos ennemis dans la pensée. Même si la FA disparaît, même si le LIB disparaît, l'anarchie y gagnera. Le marxisme ne représente plus rien. Il faut le mettre bas; je pense la même chose des dirigeants actuels de la FA. L'ennemi se glisse partout."
^Berneri, Camilo (1983). "The Problem of Work". In Richards, Vernon (ed.).Why Work? : Arguments for the Leisure Society. Freedom Press. p. 74.ISBN0900384255.
^Kropotkin 1901: "nearly all communities were founded by an almost religious wave of enthusiasm. People were asked to become 'pioneers of humanity;' to submit to the dictates of a punctilious morality, to become quite regenerated by Communist life, to give all their time, hours of work and of leisure, to the community, to live entirely for the community. This meant acting simply like monks and to demand—without any necessity—men to be what they are not."
^Kropotkin 1901: "The second mistake lay in the desire to manage the community after the model of a family, to make it 'the great family' They lived all in the same house and were thus forced to continuously meet the same 'brethren and sisters.' It is already difficult often for two real brothers to live together in the same house, and family life is not always harmonious; so it was a fundamental error to impose on all the 'great family' instead of trying, on the contrary, to guarantee as much freedom and home life to each individual."
^Primoratz, Igor; Pavković, Aleksandar (2007).Patriotism : philosophical and political perspectives. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.ISBN978-0754689782.OCLC318534708.
Kinna, Ruth (December 2012). "Anarchism, Individualism and Communism: William Morris's Critique of Anarcho-communism". In Prichard, Alex; Kinna, Ruth; Pinta, Saku; Berry, Dave (eds.).Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red.Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 35–56.ISBN978-0230280373.
Nappalos, Scott (2012). "Ditching Class: The Praxis of Anarchist Communist Economics". In Shannon, Deric; Nocella, Anthony J.; Asimakopoulos, John (eds.).The Accumulation of Freedom: Writings on Anarchist Economics.AK Press. pp. 291–312.ISBN978-1849350945.LCCN2011936250.
Shannon, Deric (2019). "Anti-Capitalism and Libertarian Political Economy". In Adams, Matthew S.; Levy, Carl (eds.).The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 91–106.doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_5.ISBN978-3319756196.S2CID158841066.
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