Understanding Anarchism

As the 2008 Greek riots continue and headlines report them to be anarchist uprisings, many may be wondering: What is anarchism? To begin with, let me just point out that it is not what people generally associate with anarchy. As far as popular understanding goes, anarchism means chaos, disorder, savagery, etc. From the very beginning, we can see how misunderstood this political ideology is.

The word anarchism is a combination of the Greek prefix an (or, a) which means ‘not’ or ‘without’, as in anaemia (without blood), atheist (without God), agnostic (without knowledge) or apolitical (not political), and the word archos, which means ‘master’, ‘ruler’. So, anarchism literally means ‘without a ruler’, and that is what it essentially stands for: The absence of any form of authority and hierarchy. Anarchists believe in a classless society without authority, coercive power and without government itself.

Although such idea has existed for a very long time – the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tse sometimes being considered the precursor to anarchism -, it wasn’t until the 19th century that the word anarchism was used. The French political philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was the first person in history to call himself an anarchist, popularising the expression thereafter.

Deeply embedded in the anarchist ideal is the utter importance of freedom, which is the main reason why all forms of authority are rejected. In fact, there exist so many anarchist schools of thought that rejection of authority and government is virtually the only thing they all have in common – and even so a few types of anarchism tolerate the existence of a minimal government in order for society to function. Anarchist philosophy is so diverse that it ranges from individualist to collectivist and from anarcho-communist to (quite surprisingly) anarcho-capitalist, though the definition of the latter as anarchism is disputed.

Broadly speaking, the ideal anarchist society would include: participation of all citizens in the decision-making process; absolute individual freedom; no military, police or other type of coercive forces; the absence of any hierarchical structure, including organised religion; total equality among sexes and races; collective ownership of the means of production and equal share of profit (where profit is acceptable); abolition of private property; rejection of capitalism (except for anarcho-capitalism); lack of nationalism (a natural consequence of rejection of the State). State bureaucracy would be eliminated and society would be organised and administered locally through direct democracy in workers/local councils. Local autonomous communities, in turn, would form a loose federation among themselves. As we can see, the true meaning of anarchism is far from what its popular meaning has come to represent. Far from preaching chaos and disorder, anarchism actually proposes a simplification of that order in a way that our freedom within society is maximised while injustice is reduced or eliminated.