DOES ANARCHISM IMPLY VIOLENCE AND CHAOS?

DOES ANARCHISM  IMPLY  VIOLENCE AND CHAOS? 

Hugo Adan

7/30/20

I agree with the title of this article ,  BUT…

RICKARDS: AMERICANS SHOULD FEAR THE "ANARCHY FROM ABOVE" 

“A government may grow anarchic as much as a people?..."

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Does Anarchism implies violence and chaos?  If you say yes: then we live in anarchy since the declaration of American Independence (1776), a kind of absolutist order imposed by rich pilgrims to legally stole land from natives and impose racist oppression & exclusion on blacks and poor people.  Those pilgrims came from Europe escaping from the violent anarchy installed by  Govts after the emerging of capitalist system. The pilgrims imposed here the anarchist violence they suffer in Europe.

But real anarchist Mov in Europe, the labor,  worked  in the opposite direction. They were against the authoritarian dictatorship of capitalists. Starting with JJ ROUSSEAU who declared that they were born free but now they are living with the chains imposed by democratic theories of capitalist governments.  His studies on social inequality lead him to write  “The Social Contract” 1762,  in which he  defends the sovereignty of common  workers to associate and create  coops, the main task of anarchists.

Then comes Joseph Proudhon disciple of M Bakunin and both provide the basis for French syndicalism. To them anarchism is a type of ordered society  based on small units no depending on Central Govts  and organized under the principles of “mutualism”, like the Amish here in the US. 

The anarchist are not a political party. To Bakunin all political parties are a ‘variety  of absolutism’  that makes the difference with Marxist & other progressive org. But anarchists are not against them, they were part of the 1^st International and in many countries they are part of the PEOPLE FRONT  for SOCIALISM. Their main concern is org people for economic purposes. (I’m not anarchist but I did work with them in org coops in the Andes of Peru).

They do believe in federal principles of mutualism and/or communalism , in direct action for decentralization & federalism and I would say that they’ re experts in org small & middle size enterprise.  To Peter Kropotkin anarchism is a science, he wrote a book on it: ‘Modern Science & Anarchism’. There are more new books on this regard.

Saying that anarchism is violence and chaos is idiotic, though I accept these adjectives for the current ruling class. They do represent chaos & violence.

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