Introduction to Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy (a fancy way of saying 'plan to run society') that is the main focus of this wiki. It first emerged in 19th century Europe as split from the socialist movement arguing that the usual socialist comfort with authoritarianism would lead to disastrous results. Libertarian socialists began to argue that a decentralised and democratic system of self-governing communities was the best way to rid the world of capitalisms problems like pollution, poverty and alienation.

Main Principles of Anarchism

• Allowing people to control institutions relevant to them (ie their neighbourhood, school or workplace) via democratic assemblies and confederations.
• Focus on restorative and transformative justice.
• Creation of a culture emphasizing individuality, happiness, cooperation and social justice.

Key Concepts

Main Page: Concepts

• Democratic Assembly
• Confederation
• Commons
• Workers' Self-Management
• Democratic Education
• Cooperative

History

Main Article: History of Libertarian Socialism

It's been argued that Anarchism was the method of managing numerous ancient civilisations and emerged as a movement in early Christianity (and the many heretics of the middle ages) guilds, maroon communities, cooperatives and rebellious towns. But it became a self-aware, global philosophy in the 1800s, beginning in Western Europe and influencing several historical revolutions and becoming a guide to several new societies and new organisations.

FAQ

• Isn't anarchism an oxymoron?

No. First of all, we have to define both terms.

In 1900s USA, the word Libertarian was stolen from anarchists (Anarchism is left.) and used by advocates of little to no government in a capitalist system. Libertarian Socialists are opposed to this because there is still capitalism, and having every aspect of society controlled by the class that only wants profit could very easily go wrong. But generally, Libertarianism means freedom in some way or another. Freedom from what exactly? Usually the state. We believe in freedom from the state, but also freedom from capitalist society and all the evil that comes from it.

Socialism is a term used for many things, most are horrible misrepresentations of the true beliefs of socialists. But generally, socialists can agree that the whole point of socialism is to give control of the economy to the society. In other words, social ownership. Now, this social ownership can come in many forms. Namely, worker, citizen, council, union, cooperative, or some other form I forgot about. But the point is, everyone owns the means of production together in some way. Socialism is an ideology of liberation, cooperation, and democracy. Anyone who says otherwise is either uneducated or a liar.

Libertarian Socialists would like to combine these two terms. We want to make a society in which there is neither a state nor a capitalist to oppress you. Now you may be asking why either thing is bad? But that is a whole other question, and hopefully someone else will answer it, because I'm a lazy socialist and want to go eat my fruity pebbles.

• Why are you against the system?
• How would diplomacy work?
• How would defense work?
• How would crime be stopped?
• How would property work?
• How would work... work?
• How would the economy work?
• How would regulations work?
• How would education work?
• How would healthcare work?
• How would housing work?
• How would utilities work?
• How would transportation work?
• How would disaster response work?
• How would science work?
• How would environmental protection work?
• How would culture change?