ANARCHY (INTRO)

Imagine the country that has no government, laws, or rules of behavior of any kind. Where
people can act in themselves best interest, and help their community voluntarily without any type of
repression. Is that country utopia or we just had to work much harder to achieve that? Can every
individual live the way he or she wants? Would it lead to chaos? Well, anarchists believed in this kind of
society, a country without norms, and economic stability.

WHAT IS ANARCHY?

 The term anarchy comes from the ancient Greek word anarchos, meaning “without
leaders or rulers.” As used today in political science and the area of international
relations, anarchy can refer to the reduction or total absence of conventional
government rule. It can also refer to any country or community that is temporarily or
permanently under no system of governmental control.
 Anarchy is a situation in which a government either does not exist or has no authority
or control over the people. The philosophy of anarchism suggests that societies can
survive and thrive only when operating under alternatives to traditional government
rule. While often misused in describing a state of violent lawlessness, chaos, and social
collapse, anarchy is synonymous with concepts such as freedom, liberty, independence,
and self-government.
 In theory, anarchism envisions a peaceful, kinder, and more equitable society.

KEY TAKEAWAYS: ANARCHY

 Anarchy is social and political theory calling for the replacement of government rule with a
system of self-government and unlimited individual liberty.
 Anarchy is also used negatively as a term describing violence, chaos, and social collapse.
 The two main schools of anarchist thought are individualist and social.
 Individualist anarchists oppose all forms of government authority and demand unchecked
individual freedom.
 Social anarchists that political power, economic resources, and wealth should be shared equally
by all members of the society.

ANARCHISTS

 Anarchists are individuals or groups that advocate anarchy. They believe that government
authority is unnecessary and potentially harmful to society. Instead, they believe people should
be allowed to rule themselves through voluntary political practices such as direct democracy.
Anarchists feel that such practices embody the attributes of equality, individualism, economic
self-reliance, and community interdependence.
SYMBOL OR ANARCHISM

 The black flag and black color, generally, represent anarchism

since 1880. Those symbols extended to all countries in Europe. In
France it was called “The black tape”, in Andalusia it was called
“Mano Negra”.

 In February 1921, when Peter Kropotkin, one of the creators of

this philosophy, died, thousands of people carried black slogans that read “Where is
government, there is no freedom!”
 The Black flag represents a negation of every repressive structure, not only governments but any
kind of laws and rules.
 Circle-A is probably the best-known symbol of anarchism. Big “A” rounded by big “O”. “A”
represents “anarchy”, and “O” represents “Order”. In short, that symbol means “Anarchy is
Order”.
 Anarchists also use black and red flags, where black means freedom and solidarity, and red
represents material and social equality.

ANARCHISM THROUGH HISTORY

 The Paris Commune of 1871 was probably the first attempt anarchic social organization that is
globally echoed.
 Even more interesting and extensive achievements, anarchic principles in society, was the
Spanish Civil War, during which time the workers, often as members of anarcho-syndicalist
organizations, proved the effectiveness of self-government public transport and manufacturing
companies – industrial and agriculture.
 Through horizontal assemblies were realized collectivization of land confiscated from
landowners in some cases has even been abolished and private ownership. But all this was
violently interrupted because of military defeat, namely, except that they fought against the
nationalists and fascists, led by Francisco Franco, the anarchists had to keep the Communist
Party, which had the support of Stalin, with the explicit prohibition of arms anarchists is an order
to sabotage the achievements anarchic organizations and individuals.

SOCIETY OF EQUALS

 Anarchy represents the society in which power and authority replace the self-organization, the
society of equality, equal and equitable distribution of all products, in short, a society in which
every person can meet their basic and other needs to the maximum extent, and that doing so
does not work to the detriment of others.

((((NOTE: That brings some questions… What about people who depend on other people? What
if individuals can’t work to help the community? How community without laws and rules can
help them? What about people incapacitated by mental retardation? In that case, anarchists said
that we should believe in common sense. Well, in the past few centuries humanity has shown
that common sense isn’t the right thing to reliance when hard times come.))))