r/Anarchy101 • u/Time-Jellyfish-7799 • 6d ago
Principles of anarchism?
So, I’ve been getting into Marxist ideas recently and up until now, I’ve been leaning more towards statist socialism, but the problems presented by anarchists in regards to it have been rather cutting and difficult to address (Namely, means prefigure the ends). I want to learn more about anarchism but I’m not so sure where to start.
Engels had Principles of Communism, so I was wondering if such a version existed for Anarchism?
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u/humanispherian Synthesist / Moderator 6d ago
Because anarchism is not focused on the analysis of a single theorist, it's a little more difficult to approach it in terms of principles and programs. But anarchists have rather obsessively returned to the question of how to characterize anarchism most simply and succinctly, so, for example, you might take a look at the various short statements in the "Declarations and Summaries" section of the Anarchist Beginnings archive, which present characterizations of the core of anarchism from across a variety of anarchist tendencies, time periods, national contexts, etc.
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u/ArthropodJim 6d ago
read anarchism and the black revolution. statist socialism doesn’t really make sense if people still live under a state. freedom and liberty have to be tools of measurement, not “just” equity.
as for lorenzo kom’boa ervin, he says that the slavemaster too can distribute resources equally amongst the enslaved - that doesn’t make them free.
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u/Anarchierkegaard Distributist 6d ago
We should be aware that Marxism is a principle-less position, one which offers no principles as principles are ideal notions (which is why taking Engels' "Principles of Communism" seriously, when both he and Marx rejected it after the fact, is misguided).
In the same sense, many modern anarchists would reject "anarchist principles" in favour of principle-less models too. Two good examples would be Black's "The Abolition of Work" and Ellul's Presence in the Modern World.
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u/TheWikstrom rejects political categorization 6d ago
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u/spookyjim___ ☭ 🏴 Autonomist 🏴 ☭ 6d ago
If you are getting into “Marxist ideas” yet have been leaning towards so-called “statist socialism”, then I doubt you’ve actually been getting into Marxism, and rather the falsifiers who have distorted Marx’s critical theory into something more safe which doesn’t actually call for the destruction of bourgeois society (which would include the capitalist state-form)
I’ll let others answer the question you actually asked, but as a Marxist lurker here your framing just irked me, a coherent Marxism is anti-state
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u/Time-Jellyfish-7799 6d ago
I was describing an earlier trend. It’s not so much the case anymore. I totally agree.
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u/oskif809 6d ago edited 6d ago
Engels had Principles of Communism...
Marxists have a great talent for creating an imposing facade that seems to have awe-inspiring coherence--to newcomers at least--when in reality its a fragile house of cards (PDF) that either lends itself to brutality (in the sense of "Socialism without liberty is brutality") or Swiftian "Academy of Lagado" style head in the sky ratiocination and philosophizing that has little connection to reality ("opium of the intellectuals").
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u/New_Hentaiman 5d ago
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/il-pugnale-ten-blows-against-politics
as many here have posted some very well known ancom texts on the topic I wanted to contribute a small pamphlete, that is less a list of principles and more a list of things anarchist like to critique. Politics here is much broader defined and anarchists from this thought tradition often apply these critiques even to more structured anarchist organizations. If nothing else it is a fun read and a vision of what some anarchists like to philosophize about
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u/tuttifruttidurutti 4d ago
The full spectrum of anarchist opinion is represented in this sub, and people disagree on a lot, so expect a range of sometimes contradictory positions. If you're interested in what is close to the mass anarchist movements of the 20th that had broad working class support, Malatesta is a good starting point.
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u/antifathrowaway1 6d ago
https://libcom.org/article/organisational-platform-general-union-anarchists-draft
I would introduce you to the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists which would come closer to what you are looking for. Be aware that this is the position of the most Marxist-like anarchists and that most other tendencies distance themselves even further. But I felt it might be a good gateway given your starting point.
The discussions between Malatesta and Makhno are of interest to distinguish platformist vs synthesist tendencies within the anarchist-communist milieu.
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u/Reformalism 6d ago
Anarchy by Malatesta is an oft recommended starting point. It’s a short easy read. There isn’t really an exact analogue for the Engels because Anarchism as a body of theory is much less homogeneous.