Portal:Anarchism

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

THE

NARCHISM PORTAL

Selected Anarchism-related content

Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is against all forms of authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies and voluntary free associations. As a historically left-wing movement, this reading of anarchism is placed on the farthest left of the political spectrum, usually described as the libertarian wing of the socialist movement (libertarian socialism).

Although traces of anarchist ideas are found all throughout history, modern anarchism emerged from the Enlightenment. During the latter half of the 19th and the first decades of the 20th century, the anarchist movement flourished in most parts of the world and had a significant role in workers' struggles for emancipation. Various anarchist schools of thought formed during this period. Anarchists have taken part in several revolutions, most notably in the Paris Commune, the Russian Civil War and the Spanish Civil War, whose end marked the end of the classical era of anarchism. In the last decades of the 20th and into the 21st century, the anarchist movement has been resurgent once more, growing in popularity and influence within anti-capitalist, anti-war and anti-globalisation movements. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article

Here, within the ring of hills, Bors had constructed an accurate and detailed reproduction of a society two centuries gone. The world as it had been in the old days. The time of governments. The time that had been pulled down by the Anarchist League.

Philip K. Dick, "The Last of the Masters"

"The Last of the Masters" (aka "Protection Agency") is a science fiction novelette by Philip K. Dick. The original manuscript of the story was received by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on July 15, 1953,^[1] and the story was published by the Hanro Corporation in the final issue of Orbit Science Fiction in 1954. It has since been reprinted in several Philip K. Dick story collections, beginning with The Golden Man in 1980.

"The Last of the Masters" depicts a society 200 years after a global anarchist revolution has toppled the national governments of the world (the exact year is unstated). Civilization has stagnated due to the loss of scientific knowledge and industry during the now-legendary revolt. Elsewhere, the last state, governing a highly centralized and efficient society, conceals itself from the Anarchist League, a global militia preventing the recreation of any government. When three agents of the League are sent to investigate rumors of the microstate's existence, the government arranges for them to be killed, leading to the death of one and the capture of another. Tensions rapidly escalate after the agents of the state realize that the third has escaped. Assuming he will report the state's existence, the government mobilizes for total war. In actuality, the surviving anarchist elects to attempt his comrades' rescue and assassinate the head of state: the last surviving "government robot".

The primary theme of the story is the conflict between anarchism and statism, the political and ethical dimensions of which are explored through the characters' dialogue. Though the attention the story received was limited prior to the author's death in 1982, it has since seen greater circulation in Philip K. Dick story collections, and has been reviewed and analyzed for its postmodern critique of technology and its political implications. (read more...)

More selected articles

References

^ Rickman 1989, p. 389

edit

Selected image

Credit: Michael B.

Industrial Workers of the World poster calling on workers to organise for a general strike. "Wage slavery" is a term used by critics of capitalism to equate the conditions of wage labour with slavery.

More selected images

Read more...

edit

Did you know?

... that the 1869 anarchist manifesto Catechism of a Revolutionary, which established the importance of Russian anarchist Sergey Nechayev (pictured), portrays the revolutionary as an amoral avenger?
... that Future Primitive and Other Essays by anarcho-primitivist philosopher John Zerzan is regarded as an underground classic by anarchists and technophobes alike?
... that many of the tendencies within anarchism criticized by Chaz Bufe in his pamphlet Listen, Anarchist! are thought to have stemmed from the movement's individualist, Stirnerite wing?
... that in his 2001 post-anarchist book From Bakunin to Lacan, Saul Newman questions how classical anarchism can refrain from reproducing the forms of oppression that it tries to overcome?
... that rather than await execution, Russian anarchist assassin Moishe Tokar doused himself in paraffin from his prison cell lamp and burned himself alive?

More did you know facts

edit

Selected quote

“

My second reason for not repeating EMMA GOLDMANN’S words is, that I, as an anarchist, have no right to advise another to do anything involving a risk to himself; nor would I give a fillip for an action done by the advice of some one else, unless it is accompanied by a well-argued, well-settled conviction on the part of the person acting, that it really is the best thing to do. Anarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. IT means self-responsibility, and not leader worship. I say it is your business to decide whether you will starve and freeze in sight of food and clothing, outside of jail, or commit some overt act against the institution of property and take your place beside TIMMERMANN and GOLDMANN. And in saying this I mean to cast no reflection whatever upon Miss Goldmann for doing otherwise. She and I hold many differing views on both Economy and Morals; and that she is honest in hers she has proven better than I have proven mine. Miss Goldmann is a communist; I am an individualist. She wishes to destroy the right of property, I wish to assert it. I make my war upon privilege and authority, whereby the right of property, the true right in that which is proper to the individual, is annihilated. She believes that co-operation would entirely supplant competition; I hold that competition in one form or another will always exist, and that it is highly desirable it should. But whether she or I be right, or both of us be wrong, of one thing I am sure; the spirit which animates EMMA GOLDMAN is the only one which will emancipate the slave from his slavery, the tyrant from his tyranny — the spirit which is willing to dare and suffer.

”

—Voltairine de Cleyre, In Defense of Emma Goldmann and the Right of Expropriation, December 16, 1893.

More selected quotes

More...

edit

Anniversaries for April 22

1873 - Luigi Lucheni (pictured) was born.
1891 - Ferdinando Nicola Sacco was born.
1897 - Pietro Acciarito tried to kill Umberto I of Italy by stabbing him.
1906 - The Paraguayan Regional Workers' Federation is founded.
1937 - Spanish Revolution: The Socialized Economy Regulatory Council is established by the CNT and UGT to socialize the city of Villena's economy.

More April anniversaries

edit

Relevant lists

Outline of anarchism

edit

Related portals

Parent portals

Socio-political portals

edit

Related WikiProjects

Parent projects

Economics · Philosophy
Politics · Sociology

Socio-political projects

Anarchism
Cooperatives · Fascism
Libertarianism · Marxism
Gender Studies · LGBT studies
Organized Labour · Socialism
Social and political philosophy

Topics

edit

Things you can do

Thank you for your interest in improving the coverage of anarchism on Wikipedia!

For tasks you can do, visit the anarchism cleanup listing, an automated list of articles needing improvement.

If you would like to help maintain the anarchism portal, a list of tasks needing attention is maintained on its talk page.

You are also invited to visit the Anarchism Task Force, a work group organizing the collective effort to improve anarchism's coverage on Wikipedia! If you are interested in joining it, please add your details to the list of participants.

edit