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Anarchist communism
Anarchist communism[a] is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that
advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retention of personal
property and collectively-owned items, goods, and services.[7] It supports social ownership of
property[8][9] and the distribution of resources "From each according to his ability, to each
according to his needs".[10]

Anarchist communism was first formulated as such in the Italian section of the International
Workingmen's Association.[11] The theoretical work of Peter Kropotkin took importance later as it
expanded and developed pro-organizationalist and insurrectionary anti-organizationalist section.
[12] Examples of anarchist communist societies are the anarchist territories of the Makhnovshchina

during the Russian Revolution,[13] and those of the Spanish Revolution, most notably
revolutionary Catalonia.[14]

History

Forerunners
The modern current of communism was founded by the Neo-Babouvists of the journal
L'Humanitaire, who drew from the "anti-political and anarchist ideas" of Sylvain Maréchal. The
foundations of anarcho-communism were laid by Théodore Dézamy in his 1843 work Code de la
Communauté, which was formulated as a critique of Étienne Cabet's utopian socialism. In his
Code, Dézamy advocated the abolition of money, the division of labour and the state, and the
introduction of common ownership of property and the distribution of resources "from each
according to their ability, to each according to their needs". In anticipation of anarchist
communism, Dézamy rejected the need for a transitional stage between capitalism and
communism, instead calling for immediate communisation through the direct cessation of
commerce.[15]

Following the French Revolution of 1848, Joseph Déjacque formulated a radical form of
communism that opposed both the revolutionary republicanism of Auguste Blanqui and the
mutualism of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Déjacque opposed the authoritarian conception of a
"dictatorship of the proletariat", which he consided to be inherently reactionary and counter-
revolutionary. Instead, he upheld the autonomy and self-organisation of the workers, which he saw
expressed during the June Days uprising, against the representative politics of governmentalism.
Opposed not just to government, but to all forms of oppression, Déjacque advocated for a social
revolution to abolish the state, as well as religion, the nuclear family and private property. In their
place, Déjacque upheld a form of anarchy based on the free distribution of resources.[16]

Déjacque particularly focused his critique on private commerce, such as that espoused by

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Proudhon and the Ricardian socialists. He considered a


worker's right to be to the satisfaction of their needs, rather
than to keep the product of their own labour, as he felt the
latter would inevitably lead to capital 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 of forced labour through
Painting of the June Days uprising, workers' self-management, and the abolition of the division of
which Joseph Déjacque considered
labour through integrating the proletariat and the intelligentsia
to be a social revolution by the
proletariat.
into a single class. In order to achieve this vision of a
communist society, he proposed a transitionary period of in
which direct democracy and direct exchange would be upheld,
positions of state would undergo democratization, and the police and military would be abolished.
[17]

Déjacque's communist platform outlined in his Humanisphere preceded the program of the Paris
Commune, and would anticipate the anarcho-communism later elaborated by Errico Malatesta,
Peter Kropotkin and Luigi Galleani.[18]

Formulation in the International Workingmen's Association


The International Workingmen's Association (IWA) was
established in 1864,[19] at a time when a formalised anarchist
movement did not yet exist. Of the few individual anarchists
that were influential at this time, it was Pierre-Joseph
Proudhon's conception of federalism and his advocacy of
abstentionism that inspired many of the French delegates that
founded the IWA and lay the groundwork for the growth of
anarchism.[20] Among the French delegates were a more
radical minority that opposed Proudhon's mutualism, which
held the nuclear family as its base social unit. Led by the trade
unionist Eugène Varlin, the radicals advocated for a "non-
authoritarian communism", which upheld the commune as the
base social unit and advocated for the universal access to
education.[21] It was the entry of Mikhail Bakunin into the IWA
that first infused the federalists with a programme of Mikhail Bakunin, leader of the anti-
revolutionary socialism and anti-statism, which agitated for authoritarian faction within the
workers' self-management and direct action against capitalism International Workingmen's
and the state.[22] Association.

By this time, the Marxists of the IWA had begun to denounce


their anti-authoritarian opponents as "anarchists", a label previously adopted by Proudhon and
Déjacque and later accepted by the anti-authoritarians themselves.[23] Following the defeat of the

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Paris Commune in 1871, the IWA split over questions of socialist economics and the means of
bringing about a classless society.[24] Karl Marx, who favoured the conquest of state power by
political parties, banned the anarchists from the IWA.[25] The anarchist faction around the Jura
Federation resolved to reconstitute as their own Anti-Authoritarian International, which was
constructed as a more decentralised and federal organisation.[26] Two of the IWA's largest
branches, in Italy and Spain, repudiated Marxism and adopted the anti-authoritarian platform.[27]

As a collectivist, Bakunin had himself opposed communism,


which he considered to be an inherently authoritarian ideology.
[28] But with Bakunin's death in 1876, the anarchists began to

shift away from his theory of collectivism and towards an


anarchist communism.[29] The term "anarchist communism"
was first printed in François Dumartheray's February 1876
pamphlet, To manual workers, supporters of political action.
[30] Élisée Reclus was quick to express his support for anarchist

communism,[31] at a meeting of the Anti-Authoritarian


International in Lausanne the following month.[32] James
Guillaume's August 1876 pamphlet, Ideas on Social
Organisation, outlined a proposal by which the collective
ownership of the means of production could be used in order to
transition towards a communist society.[33] Guillaume
James Guillaume, whose work set
considered a necessary prerequisite for communism would be a
the foundation for the development general condition of abundance, which could set the foundation
of communism from collectivism. for the abandonment of exchange value and the free
distribution of resources.[34] This program for anarcho-
communism was adopted by the Italian anarchists,[35] who had
already begun to question collectivism.[36]

Although Guillaume had himself remained neutral throughout the debate, in September 1877, the
Italian anarcho-communists clashed with the Spanish collectivists at what would be the Anti-
Authoritarian International's final congress in Verviers.[37] Alongside the economic question, the
two factions were also divided by the question of organisation. While the collectivists upheld trade
unions as a means for achieving anarchy, the communists considered them to be inherently
reformist and counter-revolutionary organisations that were prone to bureaucracy and corruption.
Instead, the communists preferred small, loosely-organised affinity groups, which they believed
closer conformed to anti-authoritarian principles.[38]

In October 1880, a Congress of the defunct International's Jura Federation adopted Carlo Cafiero's
programme of Anarchy and Communism, which outlined a clear break with Guillaume's
collectivist programme.[39] Cafiero rejected the use of an exchange value and the collective
ownership of industry, which he believed would lead to capital accumulation and consequently
social stratification. Instead Cafiero called for the abolition of all wage labour, which he saw as a
relic of capitalism, and for the distribution of resources "from each according to their ability, to
each according to their needs".[40]

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Organizationalism vs. insurrectionarism and


expansion
As anarcho-communism emerged in the mid-19th century, it
had an intense debate with Bakuninist collectivism and, within
the anarchist movement, over participation in the workers'
movement, as well as on other issues. So in "the theory of the
revolution" of anarcho-communism as elaborated by Peter
Kropotkin and others, "it is the risen people who are the real
agent and not the working class organised in the enterprise (the
cells of the capitalist mode of production) and seeking to assert
itself as labour power, as a more 'rational' industrial body or
social brain (manager) than the employers".[12]

Between 1880 and 1890, with the "perspective of an immanent


revolution", who was "opposed to the official workers' Carlo Cafiero, who led the break
movement, which was then in the process of formation (general from collectivist anarchism with the
first programme for anarchist
Social Democratisation). They were opposed not only to
communism.
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 the eight-
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."[12]

Even after Peter Kropotkin and others overcame their initial


reservations and decided to enter labor unions, there remained "the
anti-syndicalist anarchist-communists, who in France were grouped
around Sébastien Faure's Le Libertaire. From 1905 onwards, the
Luigi Galleani was an
Russian counterparts of these anti-syndicalist anarchist-communists
influential anarchist advocate
become partisans of economic terrorism and illegal of insurrectionary anarchism
'expropriations'."[41] Proponents and activists of these tactics, among
others, included Johann Most, Luigi Galleani, Victor Serge, Giuseppe
Ciancabilla, and Severino Di Giovanni.

By the 1880s, anarcho-communism was already present in the United States, as seen in the journal
Freedom: A Revolutionary Anarchist-Communist Monthly by Lucy Parsons and Lizzy Holmes.[42]
Another anarcho-communist journal later appeared in the United States called The Firebrand.
Most anarchist publications in the United States were in Yiddish, German, or Russian, but Free
Society was published in English, permitting the dissemination of anarchist communist thought to
English-speaking populations in the United States.[43] Around that time, these American anarcho-
communist sectors debated with the individualist anarchist group around Benjamin Tucker.[44]

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According to the anarchist historian Max Nettlau, the first use of the term "libertarian
communism" was in November 1880, when a French anarchist congress employed it to identify its
doctrines more clearly.[5] The French anarchist journalist Sébastien Faure, later founder and editor
of the four-volume Anarchist Encyclopedia, started the weekly paper Le Libertaire (The
Libertarian) in 1895.[45]

Methods of organizing: platformism vs. synthesism


In Ukraine, the anarcho-communist guerrilla leader Nestor Makhno led
an independent anarchist army during the Russian Civil War. A
commander of the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, Makhno
led a guerrilla campaign opposing both the Bolshevik "Reds" and
monarchist "Whites". The Makhnovist movement made various tactical
military pacts while fighting various reaction forces and organizing an
anarchist society committed to resisting state authority, whether
capitalist or Bolshevik.[46][47]

The Platform attracted strong criticism from many sectors of the


anarchist movement of the time, including some of the most influential
anarchists such as Volin, Errico Malatesta, Luigi Fabbri, Camillo Berneri,
Nestor Makhno, 1921
Max Nettlau, Alexander Berkman,[48] Emma Goldman, and Grigorii
Maksimov.[49] Malatesta, after initially opposing the Platform, later
agreed with the Platform, confirming that the original difference of opinion was due to linguistic
confusion: "I find myself more or less in agreement with their way of conceiving the anarchist
organisation (being very far from the authoritarian spirit which the "Platform" seemed to reveal)
and I confirm my belief that behind the linguistic differences really lie identical positions."[50]

Two texts made by the anarchist communists Sébastien Faure and Volin as responses to the
Platform, each proposing different models, are the basis for what became known as the
organization of synthesis, or simply synthesism.[51] Volin published in 1924 a paper calling for "the
anarchist synthesis" and was also the author of the article in Sébastien Faure's Encyclopedie
Anarchiste on the same topic.[52] The primary purpose behind the synthesis was that the anarchist
movement in most countries was divided into three main tendencies: communist anarchism,
anarcho-syndicalism, and individualist anarchism,[52] and so such an organization could contain
anarchists of these three tendencies very well. Faure, in his text "Anarchist synthesis", has the view
that "these currents were not contradictory but complementary, each having a role within
anarchism: anarcho-syndicalism as the strength of the mass organizations and the best way for the
practice of anarchism; libertarian communism as a proposed future society based on the
distribution of the fruits of labor according to the needs of each one; anarcho-individualism as a
negation of oppression and affirming the individual right to development of the individual, seeking
to please them in every way.[51] The Dielo Truda platform in Spain also met with strong criticism.
Miguel Jimenez, a founding member of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI), summarized this as
follows: too much influence in it of Marxism, 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. He saw anarchism as more

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complex than that, that anarchist tendencies are not mutually


exclusive as the platformists saw it and that both individualist
and communist views could accommodate anarchosyndicalism.
[53] 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 with anarcho-
syndicalism.[54]

Spanish Revolution of 1936


The most extensive
application of anarcho-
communist ideas happened
in the anarchist territories
during the Spanish
[55] Sébastien Faure, French anarcho-
Revolution. communist proponent of synthesis
anarchism
In Spain, the national
anarcho-syndicalist trade
union Confederación
Nacional del Trabajo
initially refused to join a
CNT-FAI Anarchists during the popular front electoral
Spanish Revolution of 1936 alliance, and abstention by
CNT supporters led to a
right-wing election victory.
The flag initially designed and used
In 1936, the CNT changed its policy, and anarchist votes helped
by the anarcho-syndicalist CNT–FAI
bring the popular front back to power. Months later, the former
confederation of labor unions during
ruling class responded with an attempted coup causing the the Spanish Civil War representing
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).[56] In response to the army the anarchist faction of the conflict.
rebellion, an anarchist-inspired movement of peasants and Today, the flag is commonly used by
industrial workers, supported by armed militias, took control of anarcho-communists, anarcho-
Barcelona and large areas of rural Spain, where they syndicalists, libertarian socialists,
and, more generally, social
collectivized the land.[57] However, even before the fascist
anarchists alike.
victory in 1939, the anarchists were losing ground in a bitter
struggle with the Stalinists, who controlled the distribution of
military aid to the Republican cause from the Soviet Union. The events known as the Spanish
Revolution was a workers' social revolution that began during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil
War in 1936 and resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and, more broadly,
libertarian socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country for two to
three years, primarily Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, and parts of the Levante. Much of Spain's
economy was put under worker control; in anarchist strongholds like Catalonia, the figure was as
high as 75%, but lower in areas with heavy Communist Party of Spain influence, as the Soviet-allied

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party actively resisted attempts at collectivization enactment. Factories were run through worker
committees, and agrarian areas became collectivized and ran as libertarian communes. Anarchist
historian Sam Dolgoff estimated that about eight million people participated directly or at least
indirectly in the Spanish Revolution,[58] which he claimed "came closer to realizing the ideal of the
free stateless society on a vast scale than any other revolution in history".[59] Stalinist-led troops
suppressed the collectives and persecuted both dissident Marxists and anarchists.[60]

Although every sector of the stateless parts of Spain had


undergone workers' self-management, collectivization of
agricultural and industrial production, and in parts using
money or some degree of private property, heavy regulation of
markets by democratic communities, other areas throughout
Spain used no money at all, and followed principles in
accordance with "From each according to his ability, to each
according to his needs". One such example was the libertarian
communist village of Alcora in the Valencian Community,
where money was absent, and the distribution of properties
and services was done based upon needs, not who could afford
them.[61]

Post-war years
Anarcho-communism entered into internal debates over the
An anti-fascist poster from the
organization issue in the post-World War II era. Founded in
libertarian socialist factions of
October 1935, the Anarcho-Communist Federation of Madrid, Spain, reading "The
Argentina (FACA, Federación Anarco-Comunista Argentina) in surveillance of the city must be
1955 renamed itself the Argentine Libertarian Federation. The ensured by the Antifascist Popular
Fédération Anarchiste (FA) was founded in Paris on 2 Guard" as a warning of Nationalist
December 1945 and elected the platformist anarcho- terrorism
communist George Fontenis as its first secretary the following
year. It was composed of a majority of activists from the former
FA (which supported Volin's Synthesis) 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 young Resistants. In 1950 a clandestine group formed within the FA called
Organisation Pensée Bataille (OPB), led by George Fontenis.[62] The Manifesto of Libertarian
Communism was written in 1953 by Georges Fontenis for the Federation Communiste Libertaire
of France. It is one of the key texts of the anarchist-communist current known as platformism.[63]
The OPB pushed for a move that saw the FA change its name to the Fédération Communiste
Libertaire (FCL) after the 1953 Congress in Paris, while an article in Le Libertaire indicated the
end of the cooperation with the French Surrealist Group led by André Breton.

The new decision-making process was founded on unanimity: each person has a right of veto on
the orientations of the federation. The FCL published the same year Manifeste 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

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intercontinental plenum of the CNT took place. A group called Entente 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.[64] 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.[62] A group of militants who disagreed
with the FA turning into FCL reorganized a new Federation Anarchiste established in December
1953.[62] This included those who formed L'Entente anarchiste, who joined the new FA and then
dissolved L'Entente. The new base principles of the FA were written by the individualist anarchist
Charles-Auguste Bontemps and the non-platformist anarcho-communist Maurice Joyeux which
established an organization with a plurality of tendencies and autonomy of groups organized
around synthesist principles.[62] According to historian Cédric Guérin, "the unconditional rejection
of Marxism became from that moment onwards an identity element of the new Federation
Anarchiste". This was motivated in a significant part by the previous conflict with George Fontenis
and his OPB.[62]

In Italy, the Italian Anarchist Federation was founded in 1945 in Carrara. It adopted an
"Associative Pact" and the "Anarchist Program" of Errico Malatesta. It decided to publish the
weekly Umanità Nova, retaking the name of the journal published by Errico Malatesta. Inside the
FAI, the Anarchist Groups of Proletarian Action (GAAP) was founded, led by Pier Carlo Masini,
which "proposed a Libertarian Party with an anarchist theory and practice adapted to the new
economic, political and social reality of post-war Italy, with an internationalist outlook and
effective presence in the workplaces [...] The GAAP allied themselves with the similar development
within the French Anarchist movement", as led by George Fontenis.[65] In the early seventies, a
platformist tendency emerged within the Italian Anarchist Federation, which argued for more
strategic coherence and social insertion in the workers' movement while rejecting the synthesist
"Associative Pact" of Malatesta, which the FAI adhered to. These groups started organizing
themselves outside the FAI in organizations such as O.R.A. from Liguria, which organized a
Congress attended by 250 delegates of groups from 60 locations. This movement was influential in
the autonomia movements of the seventies. They published Fronte Libertario: della lotta di classe
in Bologna and Comunismo libertario from Modena.[66] The Federation of Anarchist Communists
(Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici), or FdCA, was established in 1985 in Italy from the fusion
of the Organizzazione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica (Revolutionary Anarchist Organisation) and the
Unione dei Comunisti Anarchici della Toscana (Tuscan Union of Anarchist Communists).

The International of Anarchist Federations (IAF/IFA) was founded during an international


anarchist conference in Carrara in 1968 by the three existing European anarchist federations of
France (Fédération Anarchiste), Italy (Federazione Anarchica Italiana), and Spain (Federación
Anarquista Ibérica) as well as the Bulgarian federation in French exile. These organizations were
also inspired by synthesist principles.[52]

Contemporary times
The synthesist Italian Anarchist Federation and the platformist Federation of Anarchist
Communists continue to exist today in Italy, but insurrectionary anarchism continues to be
relevant, as the recent establishment of the Informal Anarchist Federation shows.

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In the 1970s, the French Fédération Anarchiste evolved into a joining of the principles of synthesis
anarchism and platformism.[62] Later the platformist organizations Libertarian Communist
Organization (France) in 1976 and Alternative libertaire in 1991 appeared, with this last one
existing until today alongside the synthesist Fédération Anarchiste. Recently, platformist
organizations founded the now-defunct International Libertarian Solidarity network and its
successor, the Anarkismo network, which is run collaboratively by roughly 30 platformist
organizations worldwide.

Economic theory
The abolition of money, prices, and wage labor are central to anarchist communism. With the
distribution of wealth being based on self-determined needs, people would be free to engage in
whatever activities they found most fulfilling and would no longer have to engage in work for which
they have neither the temperament nor the aptitude.[67][68]

Anarcho-communists argue that there is no good way of measuring the value of any person's
economic contributions because all wealth is a common product of current and preceding
generations.[69] For instance, one could not measure the value of a factory worker's daily
production without considering how transportation, food, water, shelter, relaxation, machine
efficiency, emotional mood, etc., contributed to their production. To honestly give numerical
economic value to anything, an overwhelming amount of externalities and contributing factors
would need to be considered—especially current or past labor contributing to the ability to utilize
future labor. As Kropotkin put it: "No distinction can be drawn between the work of each man.
Measuring the work by its results leads us to absurdity; dividing and measuring them by hours
spent on the work also leads us to absurdity. One thing remains: put the needs above the works,
and first of all recognize the right to live, and later on, to the comforts of life, for all those who take
their share in production.."[70]

Communist anarchism shares many traits with collectivist anarchism, but the two are distinct.
Collectivist anarchism believes in collective ownership, while communist anarchism negates the
entire concept of ownership in favor of the concept of usage.[71]

Gift economies and commons-based organizing


Traditional societies dominated by gift exchange were small in scale and geographically remote
from each other. Market exchange dominated as states formed to regulate trade and commerce
within their boundaries. Nonetheless, gift exchange continues to play an essential role in modern
society.[72] Contrary to popular conception, there is no evidence that societies relied only on barter
before using money for trade.[73] Instead, non-monetary societies operated primarily along the
principles of gift economics, and in more complex economies, on debt.[74][75][76] When barter
occurred, it was usually between strangers or would-be enemies.[77]

The expansion of the Internet has witnessed a resurgence of the gift economy, especially in the
technology sector. Engineers, scientists, and software developers create open-source software
projects. The Linux kernel and the GNU operating system are prototypical examples of the gift
economy's prominence in the technology sector and its active role in using permissive free software

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and copyleft licenses, which


allow free reuse of software
and knowledge. Other
examples include file-sharing,
the commons, and open
access. Anarchist scholar Uri
Gordon has argued:

The collaborative
Watercolor by James G. Swan development of free
depicting the Klallam people of chief
software like the
Chetzemoka at Port Townsend, with
Linux operating
one of Chetzemoka's wives
distributing potlatch system and
applications such as
OpenOffice clearly
approximate an The Conquest of Bread by Peter
Kropotkin, an influential work that
informational
presents the economic vision of
anarchist anarcho-communism
communism.
Moreover, for
anarchists it is
precisely the logic of
expropriation and
electronic piracy that
enables a radical
political extension of
the cultural ideals of
the free
manipulation,
circulation and use of
information
associated with the
"hacker ethic"
(Himanen 2001). The
space of illegality
created by P2P (peer-
to-peer) file-sharing
opens up the
possibility, not only
of the open
circulation of freely-
given information
and software as it is
on the Internet
today, but also of

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conscious copyright violation. The Internet, then, enables not only communist relations
around information, but also the militant contamination and erosion of non-communist
regimes of knowledge—a technological "weapon" to equalise access to information, eating
away at intellectual property rights by rendering them unenforceable.[78]

The interest in such economic forms goes back to Peter Kropotkin, who saw in the hunter-gatherer
tribes he had visited the paradigm of "mutual aid".[79]

Philosophical debates

Motivation
Anarchist communists reject the belief that wage labor 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 by socialization and the mode of production.
Many anarchist communists, like Peter Kropotkin, also believe that the human evolutionary
tendency is for humans to cooperate for mutual benefit and survival instead of existing as lone
competitors, a position that Kropotkin argued for at length.[79]

While anarchist communists such as Peter Kropotkin and Murray Bookchin believed that the
members of such a society would voluntarily perform all necessary labor because they would
recognize the benefits of communal enterprise and mutual aid,[79][80][81][82] 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.[83][84][85][86] Kropotkin did not think laziness or sabotage 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.[87] Peter Gelderloos,
based on the Kibbutz, 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.[88]

Freedom, work, and leisure


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 profoundly egalitarian philosophy.

Kropotkin said that the main authoritarian mistakes in communist experiments of the past were
their being based on "religious enthusiasm"[89] and the desire to live "as a family"[90] where the
individual had to "submit to the dictates of a punctilious morality".[91] For him, anarcho-

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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.[91] 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".[91]

Individualism and collectivism


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.[92] Others such as Lucien 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'".[93]

Egoist anarchist philosophical positions are essential in anarcho-communist insurrectionary


anarchism. After analyzing insurrectionary anarcho-communist Luigi Galleani's view on anarcho-
communism, post-left anarcho-communist Bob Black went as far as saying that "communism is the
final fulfillment of individualism [...] The apparent contradiction between individualism and
communism rests on a misunderstanding of both [...] Subjectivity is also objective: the individual
really is subjective. It is nonsense to speak of 'emphatically prioritizing the social over the
individual,' [...] You may as well speak of prioritizing the chicken over the egg. Anarchy is a
'method of individualization.' It aims to combine the greatest individual development with the
greatest communal unity."[94]

Property
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[79] nor unchangeable in
practice, citing numerous examples of communal behavior occurring naturally, even within
capitalist systems.[95] Anarchist communists call for the abolition of private property while
maintaining respect for personal property. As such, the prominent anarcho-communist Alexander
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.

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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."[69]

Free association of communes as opposed to the


nation-state
Anarcho-communism calls for a decentralized confederal form
in relationships of mutual aid and free association between
Alexander Berkman advocated for communes as an alternative to the centralism of the nation-
profit to be replaced with
state. Peter Kropotkin thus suggested:
communities of common property,
where all group members shared
possessions 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.

— Peter Kropotkin, Anarchist Communism: Its


Basis and Principles[96]

Opposition to patriotism
Dr Rob Sparrow outlined four main reasons why anarcho-communists oppose patriotism:[97]

▪ The belief in equality for all people


▪ The use of patriotism to subjugate the working class
▪ The association between patriotism and militarism
▪ The use of patriotism to encourage loyalty to the state

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See also
▪ Accumulation by dispossession ▪ Libertarian Communism
▪ Anarcho-communists (category) ▪ Libertarian Marxism
▪ Communalism ▪ Neozapatismo
▪ Communization ▪ Outline of libertarianism
▪ Consensus democracy ▪ Political views and activism of Rage Against
▪ Council communism the Machine
▪ Democratic confederalism ▪ Refusal of work
▪ Gift economy ▪ Social anarchism
▪ Workers' council

Notes
a. Also known as anarcho-communism,[1][2][3] communist anarchism,[4] or libertarian
communism.[5][6]

References
1. Hodges, Donald C. (2014). Sandino's Communism: Spiritual Politics for the Twenty-First
Century (https://books.google.com/books?id=Pu7zAgAAQBAJ). University of Texas Press. p. 3
(https://books.google.com/books?id=Pu7zAgAAQBAJ&q=Anarcho-communism&pg=PA3).
ISBN 978-0292715646. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20210722044609/https://book
s.google.com/books?id=Pu7zAgAAQBAJ) from the original on 22 July 2021. Retrieved
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2. Kinna, Ruth (2012). The Bloomsbury Companion to Anarchism (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=dNuoAwAAQBAJ). Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 329 (https://books.google.com/books?id=d
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J). Oxford University Press. pp. 130 (https://books.google.com/books?id=uXfJDgAAQBAJ&q=a
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mmunism), 424 (https://books.google.com/books?id=uXfJDgAAQBAJ&q=anarcho-communis
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4. McElroy, Wendy (2000). "The Schism Between Individualist and Communist Anarchism" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20210416071607/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/wendy-mcelroy-
the-schism-between-individualist-and-communist-anarchism). Journal of Libertarian Studies. 15
(1). Archived from the original (http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/wendy-mcelroy-the-schism-b
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6. Bolloten, Burnett (1991). The Spanish Civil War: Revolution and Counterrevolution (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=-VarDLHA3_YC&q=%22libertarian%20communism%22&pg=PA65).
University of North Carolina Press. p. 65. ISBN 978-0807819067. Archived (https://web.archiv
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7. Berkman 1972: "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."
8. Steele, David Ramsay (1992). From Marx to Mises: Post-capitalist Society and the Challenge
of Economic Calculation (https://books.google.com/books?id=_1K6AAAAIAAJ). Open Court.
p. 43. ISBN 978-0-87548-449-5. "One widespread distinction was that socialism socialised
production only while communism socialised production and consumption."
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Current and Emergent Paradigms (https://books.google.com/books?id=6MkTz6Rq7wUC&q=C
ommunist+anarchism+belives+in+collective+ownership&pg=PA131). Greenwood Publishing
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10. Fabbri, Luigi (13 October 2002) [1922]. "Anarchism and Communism" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20110629024338/http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/worldwidemovements/fab
brianarandcom.html). Northeastern Anarchist. No. 4. Archived from the original (http://dwardma
c.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/worldwidemovements/fabbrianarandcom.html) on 29 June
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11. Pernicone 1993, pp. 111–113.
12. Pengam 1987, pp. 74–75.
13. Skirda, Alexandre (2004) [1982]. Nestor Makhno: Anarchy's Cossack (https://libcom.org/library/
nestor-makhno-anarchys-cossack-alexandre-skirda). Translated by Sharkey, Paul. Edinburgh:
AK Press. p. 394. ISBN 1-902593-68-5. OCLC 58872511 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/58872
511).
14. Bookchin, Murray (2 February 2017). To Remember Spain: The Anarchist and Syndicalist
Revolution of 1936 (https://web.archive.org/web/20211023194646/http://www.revoltlib.com/%3
Fid%3D1045). Archived from the original (http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=1045) 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."
15. Pengam 1987, pp. 61–62.
16. Pengam 1987, pp. 62–64.
17. Pengam 1987, pp. 64–66.
18. Pengam 1987, pp. 66–67.
19. Chattopadhyay 2018, pp. 178–179; Graham 2019, p. 326; Pengam 1987, p. 67.
20. Graham 2019, pp. 326–327.
21. Graham 2019, pp. 327–328.
22. Graham 2019, pp. 329–332.
23. Wilbur 2019, pp. 217–218.

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24. Graham 2019, pp. 332–333; Pengam 1987, p. 67.


25. Graham 2019, p. 334.
26. Graham 2019, pp. 334–336.
27. Avrich 1971, p. 23; Graham 2019, pp. 335–336.
28. Chattopadhyay 2018, p. 169; Pengam 1987, p. 67; Pernicone 1993, p. 28; Turcato 2019,
p. 238.
29. Wilbur 2019, p. 214.
30. Esenwein 1989, p. 107; Marshall 1993, p. 437; Pengam 1987, pp. 68–69.
31. Esenwein 1989, p. 109; Graham 2019, p. 338; Pengam 1987, pp. 68–69.
32. Pengam 1987, pp. 68–69.
33. Esenwein 1989, p. 108; Marshall 1993, p. 437; Pengam 1987, pp. 67–68; Pernicone 1993,
pp. 111–112.
34. Esenwein 1989, p. 108; Graham 2019, p. 338; Pengam 1987, p. 68; Pernicone 1993, pp. 111–
112.
35. Graham 2019, p. 338; Marshall 1993, p. 437; Pengam 1987, pp. 68–69; Pernicone 1993,
pp. 110–111; Turcato 2019, p. 238.
36. Esenwein 1989, pp. 107–108; Pengam 1987, pp. 68–69; Pernicone 1993, pp. 110–111; Turcato
2019, p. 238.
37. Graham 2019, p. 339; Pengam 1987, p. 69.
38. Esenwein 1989, pp. 108–109.
39. Graham 2019, p. 340; Pengam 1987, p. 69.
40. Esenwein 1989, pp. 107–108; Pengam 1987, p. 69.
41. Pengam 1987, p. 75.
42. "Lucy Parsons: Woman Of Will" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200228235117/http://lucyparso
ns.org/biography-iww.php). Lucy Parsons Center. Archived from the original (http://lucyparson
s.org/biography-iww.php) on 28 February 2020.
43. Goldman, Emma (2005). Falk, Candace (ed.). Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the
American Years, Vol. 2: Making Speech Free, 1902–1909. University of California Press.
p. 551. ISBN 978-0-520-22569-5. "Free Society was the principal English-language forum for
anarchist ideas in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century."
44. Moran, Jessica (2004). "The Firebrand and the Forging of a New Anarchism: Anarchist
Communism and Free Love" (http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jessica-moran-the-firebrand-a
nd-the-forging-of-a-new-anarchism-anarchist-communism-and-free-lov#toc2). Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20210416131634/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/jessica-moran-the-
firebrand-and-the-forging-of-a-new-anarchism-anarchist-communism-and-free-lov#toc2) from
the original on 16 April 2021 – via The Anarchist Library. "Tucker and other individualist
anarchists argued in the pages of Liberty that anarchist communism was a misnomer because
communism implied state authority and true anarchists were against all forms of authority, even
the authority of small groups. To individualist anarchists, communistic anarchism, with its ideals
of "to each according to need, from each according to ability," necessarily implied authority
over others, because it did not privilege individual liberty as the highest virtue. But for anarchist
communist, who saw economic freedom as central, individual liberty without food and shelter
seemed impossible. Unlike the individualist tradition, whose ideas had had years of exposure
through the English language anarchist press in America with the publication of The Word from
1872 to 1893 and Liberty from 1881 to 1908, communistic anarchism had not been advocated
in any detail."

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45. Nettlau 1996, p. 162.


46. Yekelchyk, Serhy (2007). Ukraine : Birth of a Modern Nation. Oxford University Press. p. 80.
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47. Townshend, Charles, ed. (1997). The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern War (https://archiv
e.org/details/oxfordillustrate0000unse_i3j8). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198204275.
48. Black, Bob (2002). "Wooden shoes or platform shoes? on the organizational platform of the
libertarian communists" (https://archive.today/20130127030351/http://www.inspiracy.com/black/
wooden.html). inspiracy.com. Archived from the original (http://www.inspiracy.com/black/woode
n.html) on 27 January 2013.
49. "J.3.4 Why do many anarchists oppose the "Platform"?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20101007
160139/http://www.infoshop.org/page/AnarchistFAQSectionJ3). An Anarchist FAQ.
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3%20) on 7 October 2010. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
50. Malatesta, Errico. "On Collective Responsibility" (https://web.archive.org/web/2020122421093
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p://www.infoshop.org/page/AnarchistFAQSectionJ3). An Anarchist FAQ. Infoshop.org. Archived
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53. 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."
54. 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."

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55. Bookchin, Murray (2 February 2017). To Remember Spain: The Anarchist and Syndicalist
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56. Beevor, Antony (2006). The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. London:
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58. Dolgoff 1974.
59. Dolgoff 1974, p. 5.
60. Birchall, Ian (2004). Sartre Against Stalinism. Berghahn Books. p. 29. ISBN 978-1571815422.
61. Kaminski, Hanns-Erich (July 1961). "A Peasant Experiment" (https://web.archive.org/web/2021
0308190855/https://libcom.org/files/anarchy-005.pdf) (PDF). Anarchy. No. 5. pp. 156–158.
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63. Fontenis, Georges. "Manifesto of Libertarian Communism" (https://web.archive.org/web/20191
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64. 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."
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83. Dielo Trouda Editorial Group (2 November 1926). "Supplement to the Organizational Platform
(Questions and Answers)" (http://www.nestormakhno.info/english/supporg.htm). Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20210225043010/http://www.nestormakhno.info/english/supporg.htm)
from the original on 25 February 2021 – via The Nestor Makhno Archive.
84. Puente, Isaac (1982) [originally published 1932]. "Libertarian Communism" (https://libcom.org/a
rticle/libertarian-communism-isaac-puente). Anarchist Review. No. 6. Orkney: Cienfuegos
Press – via libcom.org.
85. Berneri, Camilo (1983). "The Problem of Work". In Richards, Vernon (ed.). Why Work? :
Arguments for the Leisure Society. Freedom Press. p. 74. ISBN 0-900384-25-5.
86. Flores Magón, Ricardo (2005) [23 September 1911]. "Manifesto". In Bufe, Charles; Verter,
Mitchell Cowen (eds.). Dreams of Freedom: A Ricardo Flores Magón Reader (https://archive.or
g/details/dreamsoffreedomr0000flor/). AK Press. pp. 139, 141, 144. ISBN 978-1-904859-24-6 –
via The Internet Archive.
87. Kropotkin, Peter (1906). "Chapter 12: Objections" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Conques
t_of_Bread/Chapter_12). The Conquest of Bread. New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons
– via Wikisource.
88. Gelderloos, Peter (2010). Anarchy Works. Ardent Press. ISBN 978-1-62049-020-4.

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89. 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."
90. 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."
91. Kropotkin 1901.
92. Kropotkin, Peter (1886). The Place of Anarchism in Socialistic Evolution (https://en.wikisourc
e.org/wiki/The_Place_of_Anarchism_in_Socialistic_Evolution). Translated by Glasse, Henry.
pp. 14–15 – via Wikisource.
93. Schmidt, Michael; van der Walt, Lucien (2009). Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics
of Anarchism and Syndicalism (Counter-Power vol 1). AK Press. p. 48.
ISBN 978-1-904859-16-1.
94. Black, Bob (2010). "Nightmares of Reason" (http://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Bob_Blac
k__Nightmares_of_Reason.html#toc22). The Anarchist Library. Archived (https://web.archive.o
rg/web/20101027102331/http://theanarchistlibrary.org/HTML/Bob_Black__Nightmares_of_Rea
son.html#toc22) from the original on 27 October 2010..
95. Ward, Colin (1973). Anarchism in Action. George Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-62963-318-6.
96. Kropotkin, Peter (1920). Anarchist Communism: Its Basis and Principles (https://en.wikisourc
e.org/wiki/Anarchist_Communism:_Its_Basis_and_Principles). London: Freedom Press – via
Wikisource.
97. Primoratz, Igor; Pavković, Aleksandar (2007). Patriotism : philosophical and political
perspectives. Aldershot, England: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-8978-2. OCLC 318534708 (http
s://www.worldcat.org/oclc/318534708).

Bibliography
▪ Avrich, Paul (1971) [1967]. The Russian Anarchists. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
ISBN 0-691-00766-7. OCLC 1154930946 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1154930946).
▪ Berkman, Alexander (1972) [1929]. What is Communist Anarchism?. New York: Dover
Publications. ISBN 0-486-22839-8. LCCN 79-188813 (https://lccn.loc.gov/79-188813).
OCLC 573111 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/573111).
▪ Chattopadhyay, Paresh (2018). "Anarchist Communism". Socialism and Commodity
Production. Leiden: Brill. pp. 169–185. doi:10.1163/9789004377516_008 (https://doi.org/10.116
3%2F9789004377516_008). ISBN 978-9004377516.
▪ Dolgoff, Sam (1974). The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self-Management in the Spanish
Revolution. Free Life Editions. ISBN 0-914156-03-9. LCCN 73-88239 (https://lccn.loc.gov/73-8
8239).
▪ Esenwein, George Richard (1989). Anarchist Ideology and the Working-class Movement in
Spain, 1868–1898. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520063983.

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▪ Garner, Jason (2008). "La búsqueda de la unidad anarquista: la Federación Anarquista Ibérica
antes de la II República" (https://web.archive.org/web/20121031042738/http://www.acracia.org/
Acracia/La_busqueda_de_la_unidad_anarquista.html). Germinal. Revista de Estudios
Libertarios (in Spanish). No. 6. Archived from the original (http://www.acracia.org/Acracia/La_b
usqueda_de_la_unidad_anarquista.html) on 31 October 2012.
▪ Graham, Robert (2019). "Anarchism and the First International". In Adams, Matthew S.; Levy,
Carl (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 325–342.
doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_19 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-319-75620-2_19).
ISBN 978-3319756196. S2CID 158605651 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:1586056
51).
▪ Guérin, Cédric (2000). "Pensée et action des anarchistes en France : 1950–1970" (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20070930014916/http://public.federation-anarchiste.org/IMG/pdf/Cedric_Gu
erin_Histoire_du_mvt_libertaire_1950_1970.pdf) (PDF) (in French). University of Lille III.
Archived from the original (http://public.federation-anarchiste.org/IMG/pdf/Cedric_Guerin_Histoi
re_du_mvt_libertaire_1950_1970.pdf) (PDF) on 30 September 2007.
▪ Kropotkin, Peter (1901). "Communism and Anarchy" (https://www.theanarchistlibrary.org/librar
y/petr-kropotkin-communism-and-anarchy) – via The Anarchist Library.
▪ Marshall, Peter H. (1993). Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. London:
Fontana Press. ISBN 978-0-00-686245-1. OCLC 1042028128 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1
042028128).
▪ Nettlau, Max (1996). A Short History of Anarchism. Freedom Press. ISBN 978-0900384899.
▪ Pengam, Alain (1987). "Anarcho-Communism" (https://books.google.com/books?id=dqmvCwA
AQBAJ&q=anarcho-communism+stateless+communism&pg=PA60). In Ribel, Maximilien;
Crump, John (eds.). Non-Market Socialism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 60–82. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-18775-1_4 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F
978-1-349-18775-1_4). ISBN 978-1-349-18775-1.
▪ Pernicone, Nunzio (1993). Italian Anarchism, 1864–1892. Princeton University Press.
ISBN 0-691-05692-7. LCCN 92-46661 (https://lccn.loc.gov/92-46661).
▪ Turcato, Davide (2019). "Anarchist Communism". In Adams, Matthew S.; Levy, Carl (eds.). The
Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 237–248. doi:
10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_13 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-319-75620-2_13).
ISBN 978-3319756196. S2CID 242094330 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:2420943
30).
▪ Wilbur, Shawn P. (2019). "Mutualism". In Adams, Matthew S.; Levy, Carl (eds.). The Palgrave
Handbook of Anarchism. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 213–224. doi:
10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_11 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-319-75620-2_11).
ISBN 978-3319756196. S2CID 242074567 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:2420745
67).

Further reading
▪ Arshinov, Peter; Makhno, Nestor; Mett, Ida; et al. (2006) [1926]. The Organizational Platform of
the General Union of Anarchists (http://www.nestormakhno.info/english/newplatform/org_plat.ht
m). Translated by McNab, Nestor. Delo Truda – via The Nestor Makhno Archive.
▪ Bookchin, Murray (1978). The Spanish Anarchists. New York: Harper & Row.
ISBN 0-06-090607-3.
▪ Cafiero, Carlo (2005) [1880]. "Anarchy and Communism" (https://www.marxists.org/subject/ana

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rchism/cafiero/anarchy-communism.htm). In Graham, Robert (ed.). Anarchism: A Documentary


History of Libertarian Ideas. Vol. 1. Montreal: Black Rose Books. ISBN 1-55164-250-6 – via
Marxists Internet Archive.
▪ Déjacque, Joseph (2012) [1854]. The Revolutionary Question (https://www.libertarian-labyrint
h.org/working-translations/joseph-dejacque-the-revolutionary-question/). Translated by Wilbur,
Shawn P. – via The Libertarian Labyrinth.
▪ Déjacque, Joseph (2012) [1858]. Hartman, Janine C.; Lause, Mark A. (eds.). In the Sphere of
Humanity (https://drc.libraries.uc.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/d32e8d93-3951-4120-809e-85
2a7ae85c66/content). University of Cincinnati.
▪ Dézamy, Théodore (1983) [1842]. "Théodore Dézamy: Philosophy of the Current Crisis". In
Corcoran, Paul E. (ed.). Before Marx: Socialism and Communism in France, 1830–48.
Macmillan. pp. 188–196. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-17146-0_4 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F97
8-1-349-17146-0_4). ISBN 978-1-349-17146-0.
▪ Flores Magón, Ricardo (1977). Poole, David (ed.). Land and liberty: anarchist influences in the
Mexican revolution. Montreal: Black Rose Books. ISBN 0-919-61830-8. OCLC 4916961 (http
s://www.worldcat.org/oclc/4916961).
▪ Galleani, Luigi (1982) [1925]. The End of Anarchism?. Translated by Sartin, Max; D’Attilio,
Robert. Orkney: Cienfuegos Press. OCLC 10323698 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10323698).
▪ 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.
ISBN 978-0-230-28037-3.
▪ Kropotkin, Peter (1974) [1899]. Ward, Colin (ed.). Fields, Factories and Workshops. New York:
Harper & Row. LCCN 74-9072 (https://lccn.loc.gov/74-9072).
▪ Kropotkin, Peter (2015) [1892]. The Conquest of Bread. London: Penguin Classics.
ISBN 978-0-141-39611-8. OCLC 913790063 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/913790063).
▪ Kropotkin, Peter (1970a) [1927]. "Anarchist Communism: Its Basis and Principles" (http://dward
mac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/kropotkin/revpamphlets/anarchistcommunism.html). In
Baldwin, Roger Nash (ed.). Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets (https://archive.org/details/kro
potkinsrevolu00krop). New York: Dover Publications. pp. 44–78. LCCN 77-111606 (https://lccn.l
oc.gov/77-111606). OCLC 943046641 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/943046641).
▪ Kropotkin, Peter (1970b) [1927]. "Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal" (http://dwardmac.pitze
r.edu/anarchist_archives/kropotkin/philandideal.html). In Baldwin, Roger Nash (ed.).
Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets (https://archive.org/details/kropotkinsrevolu00krop). New
York: Dover Publications. pp. 114–144. LCCN 77-111606 (https://lccn.loc.gov/77-111606).
OCLC 943046641 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/943046641).
▪ Mclaughlin, Paul (2007). Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical
Anarchism (https://books.google.com/books?id=kkj5i3CeGbQC). Aldershot: Ashgate
Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-6196-2. LCCN 2007007973 (https://lccn.loc.gov/2007007973).
▪ Malatesta, Errico (2014). Turcato, David (ed.). The Method of Freedom. Translated by Sharkey,
Paul. Edinburgh: AK Press. ISBN 978-1849351447. OCLC 859185688 (https://www.worldcat.or
g/oclc/859185688).
▪ Malatesta, Errico (2016). Turcato, David (ed.). The Complete Works of Errico Malatesta.
Translated by Sharkey, Paul. Edinburgh: AK Press. ISBN 978-1849352581. OCLC 974145362
(https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/974145362).
▪ 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. ISBN 978-1-84935-094-5.
LCCN 2011936250 (https://lccn.loc.gov/2011936250).

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▪ Puente, Isaac (1982) [1932]. "Libertarian Communism" (https://libcom.org/article/libertarian-co


mmunism-isaac-puente). Anarchist Review. No. 6. Orkney: Cienfuegos Press.
▪ Ramnath, Maia (2019). "Non-Western Anarchisms and Postcolonialism". In Adams, Matthew
S.; Levy, Carl (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
pp. 677–695. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_38 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-319-7562
0-2_38). ISBN 978-3319756196. S2CID 150357033 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:
150357033).
▪ 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 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-3
19-75620-2_5). ISBN 978-3319756196. S2CID 158841066 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/Cor
pusID:158841066).

External links
▪ Anarkismo.net (http://www.anarkismo.net/) – anarchist communist news maintained by
platformist organizations with discussion and theory from across the globe
▪ Anarchocommunism texts at The Anarchist Library (https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/topi
c/anarcho-communism)
▪ Kropotkin: The Coming Revolution (https://vimeo.com/30571222) – short documentary to
introduce the idea of anarcho-communism in Peter Kropotkin's own words

Anarcho-communist theorist archives

▪ Alexander Berkman (http://www.revoltlib.co ▪ Errico Malatesta (http://www.revoltlib.com/?i


m/?id=29) d=18)
▪ Luigi Galleani (http://www.revoltlib.com/?id= ▪ Nestor Makhno (http://www.revoltlib.com/?id
43) =55)
▪ Emma Goldman (http://www.revoltlib.com/?i ▪ Johann Most (http://www.revoltlib.com/?id=6
d=16) 1)
▪ Peter Kropotkin (http://www.revoltlib.com/?id ▪ Wayne Price (http://www.theanarchistlibrar
=17) y.org/authors/Wayne_Price.html)
▪ Ricardo Flores Magón (http://www.revoltlib.c ▪ Lucien van der Walt (http://lucienvanderwal
om/?id=54) t.wordpress.com/)

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