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...)

Engraving of the seven anarchists sentenced to death in the aftermath of the Haymarket affair, a bombing in Chicago, United States in 1886. The event was a significant milestone in the history of anarchism and of anarchism in the United States, and marked the beginning of the annual tradition of May Day labor movement protests.

• ... that the Russian anarcho-syndicalist newspaper Golos Truda (header pictured) relocated from New York to Petrograd when its entire editorial staff decided to move to Russia following the February Revolution?
• ... that Pierre Monatte was one of the few French trade-unionists and members of the French Left to oppose the Union sacrée national bloc during World War I?
• ... that the Situationist pamphlet On the Poverty of Student Life accused French students of taking refuge from their ideological subservience in miserabilism and bohemianism?
• ... that there were two unrelated Jewish anarchists named Alexander Schapiro active in Russia during the civil war, one in the Bolshevik government and the other leading a cadre of anarchist revolutionaries against it?
• ... that post-anarchism theorist Saul Newman saw the publication of volume one of Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas as a sign of a resurgent interest in anarchist philosophy?

• 1919 - Russian Civil War: Various Ukrainian Red Army brigades are reorganized into the 7th Ukrainian Soviet Division, the anarchist Nestor Makhno is appointed as its commander.
• 1920 - A paymaster and a security guard were killed and robbed of over $15,000 in South Braintree, Massachusetts, a crime for which anarchists Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (pictured) would be blamed and executed.
• 1968 - Mujeres Libres founding member Amparo Poch y Gascón died, on her birthday.
• 2011 - Mexico: An uprising in Cherán expels cartels, police and politicians, establishing the town as a self-governing community.

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