Collectivist anarchism, also called anarchist collectivism and anarcho-collectivism, Buckley, A. M. (2011). ''Anarchism''. Essential Library
p. 97
"Collectivist anarchism, also called anarcho-collectivism, arose after mutualism." . is an

anarchist school of thought Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

that advocates the abolition of both the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

and

private ownership Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental Capacity (law), legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which is owned by a state entity, and from Collective ownership ...

of the

means of production In political philosophy, the means of production refers to the generally necessary assets and resources that enable a society to engage in production. While the exact resources encompassed in the term may vary, it is widely agreed to include the ...

. In their place, it envisions both the

collective ownership Collective ownership is the ownership of private property by all members of a group. The breadth or narrowness of the group can range from a whole society to a set of coworkers in a particular enterprise (such as one collective farm). In the la ...

of the means of production and the entitlement of workers to the fruits of their own labour, which would be ensured by a societal pact between individuals and collectives. Collectivists considered

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s to be the means through which to bring about collectivism through a social revolution, where they would form the nucleus for a post-capitalist society. The tendency was initially conceived as a synthesis of

social equality Social equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain public goods and social servi ...

and

liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

, by the Russian revolutionary socialist

Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, s ...

. It is commonly associated with the anti-authoritarian sections of the International Workingmen's Association and the early Spanish anarchist movement, with whom it continued to hold a strong influence until the end of the 19th century. Eventually, it was supplanted as the dominant tendency of anarchism by

anarcho-communism Anarchist communism is a far-left political ideology and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private real property but retention of personal property and collectively-owned items, goods, and se ...

, which advocated for the abolition of wages and the distribution of resources " from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs".

History

Collectivist anarchism was first formulated within the International Workingmen's Association (IWA), under the influence of

. Bakunin had been inspired by the traditional agrarian collectivism practiced by the Russian peasantry and wished to see its principles of

mutual aid Mutual aid is an organizational model where voluntary, collaborative exchanges of resources and services for common benefit take place amongst community members to overcome social, economic, and political barriers to meeting common needs. This ...

applied to industrial society, which he hoped to mobilise in favour of

and

. According to

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

and

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, ; ; 1809 – 19 January 1865) was a French anarchist, socialist, philosopher, and economist who founded mutualist philosophy and is considered by many to be the "father of anarchism". He was the first person to ca ...

's mutualism. Bakunin rejected the communist principle of " from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs", considering instead that resources would have to be distributed according to one's own labour. While Bakunin accepted Proudhon's organisational theory of

federalism Federalism is a mode of government that combines a general level of government (a central or federal government) with a regional level of sub-unit governments (e.g., provinces, State (sub-national), states, Canton (administrative division), ca ...

, he also rejected the mutualist centring of the independent

artisan An artisan (from , ) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art, sculpture, clothing, food ite ...

, instead considering the

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an e ...

to be the base social unit for organising society. Bakunin's collectivism had widespread appeal in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, where industrial workers and rural peasants found inspiration in its precepts of decentralisation and direct action. From the outset of anarchism's introduction to Spain in 1868, Spanish anarchists largely subscribed to collectivism, inspired by Bakunin's anarchist doctrine, while also drawing from the anti-authoritarianism and

espoused by Francesc Pi i Margall. Pi's influence on the collectivists was most pronounced in the work of Juan Serrano Oteiza, an early convert to collectivist anarchism who envisaged a federal society that upheld the

autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be ...

of the individual, trade union and municipality. But Serrano's collectivism differed from Pi's federalism by rejecting reformist political parties and instead upholding the

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

as the agents of revolutionary change. By the 1870s, the Spanish Regional Federation of the International Workingmen's Association (FRE-AIT) had widely disseminated the doctrine of collectivist anarchism, with its principles being widely adopted by workers' societies, many of which were not even anarchist themselves. Following the collapse of the FRE-AIT, in 1881, the Barcelona branch reconstituted the organisation as the Federation of Workers of the Spanish Region (FTRE), which was established according to the principles of collectivist anarchism.

Break with anarcho-communism

While anarchist theory in Spain remained stagnant, with collectivist positions staying largely unchanged, the international anarchist movement developed towards

and many anarchists began to adopt the theory of propaganda of the deed, in a process spearheaded by the Italian anarchists. Within the Jura Federation, collectivists led by Adhémar Schwitzguébel resisted the adoption of communism, but the transition from collectivism to communism went by largely without controversy. However, in Spain, where collectivist anarchists had been uniquely successful within the trade unionist movement, collectivism maintained its foothold for much longer than in other countries. It was only when their trade union activities began to be suppressed that the Spanish anarchists gravitated towards communism. Guillaume_james

The anarcho-communists criticized the collectivist model of workers' entitlement to the fruit of their labour, which they believed would disenfranchise non-producers and risk creating a new ruling class that determined wages. Instead, they advocate for the abolition of wage labour and its replacement with a system of solidarity, where all property was held in common. This development of collectivism into communism had been preceded by the writings of James Guillaume, who outlined a post-capitalist system where resources would be distributed " from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs", while the collectivist system would be used during the transition out of capitalism. In organizational terms, the communists opposed the trade unions advocated by the collectivists, viewing them as fundamentally reformist and bureaucratic, and thus as incompatible with anti-authoritarian models of organization. Instead, the communists preferred small

affinity group An affinity group is a group formed around a shared interest or common goal, to which individuals formally or informally belong. Affinity groups are generally precluded from being under the aegis of any governmental agency, and their purposes ...

s that could carry out violent attacks against the economic order, upholding the theory of propaganda of the deed. In 1884, the Seville Congress of the FTRE resulted in many anarchists leaving the organisation, as they no longer believed it to be the best vehicle for organising the working class towards a social revolution. This preceded a complete break between Spanish collectivists and communists, which took place the following year. Serrano attempted to defend the collectivism of the FTRE from the rise of communism, considering the two tendencies to be irreconcilably opposed to each other. But Serrano's arguments were unsuccessful in rallying support, as the more moderate collectivism began to give way to the more radical communism. Public debates on the merits of the two systems also lay the groundwork for the development of an intellectual tradition in Spanish anarchism.

Decline of collectivism

The rise of communism, which challenged the collectivist principles of the FTRE, eventually resulted in the organisation's dissolution. In 1888, the Catalan regional federation of the FTRE was reorganised into the Pact of Union and Solidarity (PUS), which nominally retained a collectivist orientation, but accepted members from all tendencies. The collectivist Ricardo Mella opposed the formation of the Pact, as he considered it to be a fundamentally communist organisation and worried it would undermine the FTRE. The collapse of the FTRE marked the supplanting of collectivism as the dominant anarchist ideology in Spain, as the communists consolidated control over the movement. Mella hoped to reconstitute the FTRE, refusing to even recognise its dissolution and proposing its reorganisation along more decentralised lines. But his efforts were ultimately futile, as most Spanish collectivists supported the dissolution of the FTRE. In the years that followed, efforts were made in the libertarian press to reconcile the split. In the pages of ', the collectivist made appeals against

dogma Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam ...

tism. Anarchists that opposed the schism eventually went on to establish the tendency of "

anarchism without adjectives Anarchism without adjectives is a Pluralism (political philosophy), pluralist tendency of anarchism that opposes sectarianism and advocates for cooperation between different anarchist schools of thought. First formulated by the Anarchism in Spain ...

", in order to overcome the ideological disputes between the two factions. The collectivist-communist debate also inspired

Errico Malatesta Errico Malatesta (4 December 1853 – 22 July 1932) was an Italian anarchist propagandist, theorist and revolutionary socialist. He edited several radical newspapers and spent much of his life exiled and imprisoned, having been jailed and expel ...

to develop towards a pluralist conception of anarchism. Although he personally favoured anarcho-communism, he distinguished between his desired ends and the means by which the social revolution would take place, believing that the organisation of society should be left to spontaneous development. He thus proposed a union between communists and collectivists, based on a common tactical line, arguing against dogmatism as an

authoritarian Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and ...

instinct. But in spite of his pluralist inclinations, Malatesta continued to argue against collectivism, considering it to be incompatible with anarchism. By the end of the 19th century, collectivism had been reduced to a minority tendency in Spain, subsumed by anarcho-communism. This also gave way to the development of

anarcho-syndicalism Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchism, anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade uni ...

, which united

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

and labour organizing, overcoming both the localism of the collectivists and the conspiratorial nature of the communists.

Later developments

Collectivist anarchism remained prominent in the rural areas of

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

, where local

skilled worker A skilled worker is any worker who has special skill, training, or knowledge which they can then apply to their work. A skilled worker may have learned their skills through work experience, on-the-job training, an apprenticeship program or f ...

s were attracted to the promises of collective labour, with individual ownership over the fruits of that labour. During the

Spanish Revolution of 1936 The Spanish Revolution was a social revolution that began at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, following the Spanish coup of July 1936, attempted coup to overthrow the Second Spanish Republic and arming of the worker movements an ...

, many of the ideas proposed by collectivist anarchism were put into practice, as the advance of the confederal militias gave way to the widespread collectivization of agriculture (around 35-40%) throughout the Spanish Republic. Modern descendants of collectivist anarchism include

participatory economics Participatory economics, often abbreviated parecon, is an economic system based on participatory decision making as the primary economic mechanism for allocation in society. In the system, the say in decision-making is proportional to the impa ...

, as advocated by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel, which takes up the collectivist model of remuneration.

People

* Ernest Cœurderoy * César De Paepe * Giuseppe Fanelli * * James Guillaume * Josep Llunas i Pujals * Ricardo Mella * Walery Mroczkowski * Adhémar Schwitzguébel * Juan Serrano Oteiza * Francesc Tomàs Oliver

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *

External links

* . Anarcho-communist

Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later s ...

's criticism of collectivist anarchism from '' The Conquest of Bread'' (1892). {{DEFAULTSORT:Collectivist Anarchism Anarchism Anarchist schools of thought Anti-capitalism Libertarian socialism Social anarchism Social theories Socialism