Social anarchism, also known asleft-wing anarchism orsocialist anarchism, is ananarchist tradition that seesindividual liberty andsocial solidarity as mutually compatible and desirable.
It advocates for asocial revolution to eliminate hierarchical power structures, such ascapitalism and thestate. In their place, social anarchists encourage voluntarysocial collaboration throughmutual aid and envision non-hierarchical forms ofsocial organization, such as networks of popular assemblies and worker cooperatives.
Identified with the socialist tradition ofMikhail Bakunin andPeter Kropotkin, social anarchism is often contrasted withindividualist anarchism.
Social anarchism is opposed to all forms of hierarchicalpower structures, andoppression, including (but not limited to) theState andcapitalism.[1] Social anarchism seesliberty as interconnected withsocial solidarity,[2] and considers the maximization of one to be necessary for the maximization of the other.[3] As such, social anarchism seeks to guarantee equal rights to freedom and material security for all persons.[4]
Social anarchism envisions the overthrow of capitalism and the state in asocial revolution,[5] which would establish afederal society ofvoluntary associations andlocal communities,[6] based on a network ofmutual aid.[7]
The key principles that form the core of social anarchism includeanti-capitalism,anti-statism andprefigurative politics.[8]
As ananti-capitalist ideology, social anarchism is opposed to the dominant expressions of capitalism, including the expansion oftransnational corporations throughglobalization.[9] It comprises one of the main forms ofsocialism, alongsideutopian socialism,democratic socialism andauthoritarian socialism.[10] Social anarchism rejects private property, particularly private ownership of themeans of production, as the principal source ofsocial inequality.[11] As such, social anarchists typically opposepropertarianism, as they consider it to exacerbate social andeconomic inequality, suppressindividual agency and require the maintenance of hierarchical institutions.[12]
Social anarchists argue that the abolition of private property would lead to the development of new socialmores, encouraging mutualrespect for individual freedom and the satisfaction of individual needs.[13] Social anarchism therefore advocates thebreaking up of monopolies and the institution ofcommon ownership over the means of production.[14] Instead of capitalist markets, with their profit motives and wage systems, social anarchism desires to organise production through acollective system ofworker cooperatives,agricultural communes andlabour syndicates.[15]
While social anarchism has rejected the statism ofOrthodox Marxism, it has also drawn from Marxist critiques of capitalism, particularlyMarx's theory of alienation.[16] Social anarchists have also been reluctant to adopt the Marxist centring of theproletariat as revolutionary agents, instead identifying the revolutionary potential of thesocially excluded segments of society.[17]
As ananti-statist ideology, social anarchism opposes the concentration of power in the form of a State.[18] To social anarchists, the state is a type of coercive hierarchy designed to enforce private property and to limit individual self-development.[19] Social anarchists reject bothcentralised andlimited forms of government, instead upholdingsocial collaboration as a means to achieve aspontaneous order, without anysocial contract supplantingsocial relations.[20] Social anarchists believe that the abolition of the state will lead to greater "freedom,flourishing andfairness".[21]
In the place of a state structure, social anarchists desireanarchy, which can be defined as a society without government.[22] Social anarchists oppose the use of a state structure to achieve their goals of astateless andclassless society,[23] as they consider statism to be an inherentlycorrupting influence.[24] They thus have criticised the Marxist conception of the "dictatorship of the proletariat", which they consider to beelitist,[25] and have rejected the possibility of a "withering away of the state".[26]
However, some social anarchists such asNoam Chomsky sometimes hold state hierarchy to be preferable to economic hierarchy, and thus lend their support towelfare state programs likeuniversal health care that can improve people's material conditions.[19]
Alongside its opposition to political and economic hierarchies, social anarchism upholdsprefigurative politics, considering it necessary for the means to achieve anarchy be consistent with that end goal.[27] Social anarchism prefigures itself throughparticipatory andconsensus decision-making, which are capable of generating the diversification ofpolitical values,tactics andidentities.[28]
Social anarchism therefore promotesself-organization and the cultivation of aparticipatory culture, encouraging individuals to "do things for themselves".[1] Social anarchism upholdsdirect action as a means for people to themselves resist oppression,[29] without subordinating their own agency todemocratic representatives orrevolutionary vanguards.[30] Social anarchists thus reject thepolitical party model of organization,[16] instead preferring forms offlat organization without any fixed leadership.[31]
Characterised by its loose definition and ideological diversity,[32] social anarchism has lent itself tosyncretism, both drawing from and influencing other ideological critiques of oppression,[33] and giving way to a number of differentanarchist schools of thought.[34]
While early forms of anarchism were largely individualistic, the influence ofLeft Hegelianism infused anarchism with socialistic tendencies, leading to the constitution of social anarchism.[35] Over time, the question of the economic makeup of a future anarchist society drove the development of social anarchist thought.[36] The first school of social anarchism was formulated byPierre-Joseph Proudhon, whose theory ofmutualism retained a form of private property,[37] advocating for enterprises to beself-managed byworker cooperatives, which would compensate its workers inlabour vouchers issued by "people's banks".[38] This was later supplanted byMikhail Bakunin'scollectivist anarchism, which advocated for thecollective ownership of all property, but retained a form ofindividual compensation.[39] This finally led to the development ofanarcho-communism byPeter Kropotkin, who considered that resources should be freely distributed "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs", without money or wages.[40] Social anarchists also adopted the strategy ofsyndicalism, which sawtrade unions as the basis for a newsocialist economy,[41] withanarcho-syndicalism growing to its greatest influence during theSpanish Revolution of 1936.[42]
The main division within social anarchism is over the means for achieving anarchy, withphilosophical anarchists advocating for peaceful persuasion,[43] whileinsurrectionary anarchists advocated for "propaganda of the deed".[44] The former have upheld ananarchist form of education, free fromcoercion anddogmatism, in order to establish a self-governing society.[45] The latter have participated in rebellions in which theyexpropriated andcollectivised property, and replaced the state with a network of autonomous and federally-linked communes.[46] The aim was to build a socialist society, without using the state, from the bottom-up.[46]
Principles of social anarchism, such as decentralisation, anti-authoritarianism and mutual aid, later held a key influence on thenew social movements of the late-20th century.[47] It was particularly influential within theNew Left andgreen politics,[48] with thegreen anarchist tendency ofsocial ecology drawing directly from social anarchism.[49] Social anarchist strategies of direct action and spontaneity also formed the foundation of theblack bloc tactic, which has become a staple ofcontemporary anarchism.[50] The social anarchist principle of prefiguration has also been shared by sections of anti-state Marxism, particularly that ofautonomism.[51]
In the contemporary era, anarcho-communism and anarcho-syndicalism are the dominant tendencies of social anarchism.[52]
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Social anarchism is commonly distinguished fromindividualist anarchism,[53] the latter of which favoursindividual sovereignty andproperty,[54] and can even oppose all forms ofsocial organization altogether.[55] While individualists worry that social anarchism could lead totyranny of the majority and forcedcollaboration, social anarchists criticise individualism for encouragingcompetition andatomizing individuals from each other.[56] Individualism was heavily criticised by classical social anarchists,[57] such as Bakunin and Kropotkin, who held that the liberty of a few individuals was potentially harmful to the equality of all mankind.[58]
However, this distinction is also contested,[59] as anarchism itself is often seen as a synthesis ofliberal individualism andsocial egalitarianism.[60] Some social anarchists, such asEmma Goldman andHerbert Read, were even directly inspired by the individualist philosophy ofMax Stirner.[61] Social anarchism generally attempts to reconcile individual freedoms with the freedom of others, in order to maximise the freedom of everyone and allow for individuality to flourish.[13] Individualists and social anarchists have even been able to cooperate by upholding "communal individuality", emphasising both individual freedom and community strength.[56] Some social anarchists have argued that the divisions between them and the individualists can be overcome, by emphasising their shared commitment to anti-capitalism and anti-authoritarianism.[62] But others draw the line at forms of individualism that uphold hierarchical power relations.[63]
In his 1995 book,Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism,Murray Bookchin defined social anarchism in contrast to what he called "lifestyle anarchism".[64] According to Bookchin, it was impossible for the two tendencies to coexist, claiming there to be an "unbridgeable chasm" that separated them from each other.[65] Bookchin held social anarchism to be the only genuine form of anarchism, considering individualism to be inherently oppressive.[66] But his separation of the two tendencies has been criticised and even rejected entirely by other anarchists.[67] His analysis has been criticised as "reductive" and "undialectical", due to his failure to recognise the many connections and interrelations between the two tendencies.[68]
Although sometimes considered a form of individualist anarchism,[69]anarcho-capitalism is typically rejected as a legitimateanarchist school of thought by social anarchists, who upholdanti-capitalism as a central principle.[70] The two have engaged in a contested debate over the term "libertarian", which was initially a synonym for the "left-libertarian" social anarchism but was later also claimed by "right-libertarian" anarcho-capitalists, with each rejecting the "libertarian" credentials of the other.[71] In contrast, social anarchists acceptAmerican individualist anarchists likeBenjamin Tucker andLysander Spooner as genuine, due in part to their opposition to capitalism.[72] In turn, modern anti-capitalist individualists likeKevin Carson have drawn inspiration from social anarchism, while retaining theirpro-market views.[73] Libertarian scholar Roderick T. Long has thus suggested that left-wing market anarchists could use their position tomediate between social anarchists and anarcho-capitalists, arguing for anecumenical view of anarchism and libertarianism.[74]
Social anarchism valuessocial equality, in that it is opposed to the inequalities produced by hierarchies. It is not opposed to all inequality, instead seeing inequalities based on need, that require fundamentally different treatment, to be acceptable and sometimes desirable. Social anarchism sees inequalities of rank or hierarchy, or gross material inequalities, as damaging to society and individuals.[75] Social anarchists believe that a society organised non-hierarchically would eliminate much of the inequality that presently exists.[76] The goal of social anarchism cannot be understood to be equality alone.[77]
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