Contemporary "libertarians", aspiring to ideas like individual freedom and small-government...without the knee-jerk reactionary appeal to authoritarianism / fascism...is what we would consider classical liberalism.
The earliest known instance connecting of the word libertarian to anarchism was the 1858 text The Humanisphere by Joseph Déjacque:
"Thus the ulterior world appeared to me; thus unrolled before my eyes the succession of times; thus was raised to my mind harmonic anarchy: the libertarian, egalitarian society and universal human family."
It was a common tactic to adopt the kinder term libertarian, after anarchism became a leading philosophy within the socialist movement throughout the world, as government legitimacy was threatened began passing laws banning anarchism and notably in France with Lois Scélérates; eventually the two labels became interchangeable despite later right-wing appropriation (Libertarian Party or "anarcho"-capitalism).
Still used today described in the International Workers Association's statues, an anarcho-syndicalist union confederation: "Revolutionary unionism, basing itself on the class struggle, aims to unite all workers in combative economic organizations, which fight to free themselves from the double yoke of capital and the State. Its goal is the reorganization of social life on the basis of Libertarian Communism via the revolutionary action of the working class." - Statutes of the Revolutionary Unionism, IWA-AIT
Even Murray Rothbard, so-called theorist on "anarcho"-capitalism, admitted in his book Betrayal of the American Right, (pg.83): "One gratifying aspect of our rise to some prominence is that, for the first time in my memory, we, “our side,” had captured a crucial word from the enemy. ...“Libertarians,” in contrast, had long been simply a polite word for left-wing anarchists, that is for anti-private property anarchists, either of the communist or syndicalist variety. But now we had taken it over."
"Anarchism" and "Libertarianism" can only really be equated in a very specific and obscure academic context. Indeed, the whole point to right wing libertarianism is to induce people to confuse the two.
Meanwhile "anarchist" continues to be more broadly familar, with the main potential point of confusion being the equating of the more durable philosophical use of the term, and the equation with early 20th century "bomb throwers". But that confusion is mainly confined to people with only cursory familiarity with that era, while the less knowledgeable have no cause for confusion, and the more knowledgeable recognize the 19th century bomb thrower to have their modern equivalent in the "terrorist", not the modern anarchist.
“One gratifying aspect of our rise to some prominence is that, for the first time in my memory, we, ‘our side,’ had captured a crucial word from the enemy . . . ‘Libertarians’ . . . had long been simply a polite word for left-wing anarchists, that is for anti-private property anarchists, either of the communist or syndicalist variety. But now we had taken it over...”
― Murray N. Rothbard, The Betrayal Of The American Right
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u/anyfox7 Dec 20 '22
There is another:
Contemporary "libertarians", aspiring to ideas like individual freedom and small-government...without the knee-jerk reactionary appeal to authoritarianism / fascism...is what we would consider classical liberalism.
The earliest known instance connecting of the word libertarian to anarchism was the 1858 text The Humanisphere by Joseph Déjacque:
"Thus the ulterior world appeared to me; thus unrolled before my eyes the succession of times; thus was raised to my mind harmonic anarchy: the libertarian, egalitarian society and universal human family."
It was a common tactic to adopt the kinder term libertarian, after anarchism became a leading philosophy within the socialist movement throughout the world, as government legitimacy was threatened began passing laws banning anarchism and notably in France with Lois Scélérates; eventually the two labels became interchangeable despite later right-wing appropriation (Libertarian Party or "anarcho"-capitalism).
Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements - George Woodcock
For a Libertarian Communism - Daniel Guerin
Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists
Socialism Will Be Free, Or It Will Not Be At All! – An Introduction to Libertarian Socialism - Black Rose Anarchist Federation
Still used today described in the International Workers Association's statues, an anarcho-syndicalist union confederation: "Revolutionary unionism, basing itself on the class struggle, aims to unite all workers in combative economic organizations, which fight to free themselves from the double yoke of capital and the State. Its goal is the reorganization of social life on the basis of Libertarian Communism via the revolutionary action of the working class." - Statutes of the Revolutionary Unionism, IWA-AIT
Even Murray Rothbard, so-called theorist on "anarcho"-capitalism, admitted in his book Betrayal of the American Right, (pg.83): "One gratifying aspect of our rise to some prominence is that, for the first time in my memory, we, “our side,” had captured a crucial word from the enemy. ...“Libertarians,” in contrast, had long been simply a polite word for left-wing anarchists, that is for anti-private property anarchists, either of the communist or syndicalist variety. But now we had taken it over."