As part of this social revolution, anarchists established collectives, communes, and effectively organized industries as syndicates where they operated entirely under workers’ control. As many as 8 million Spanish citizens participated, which was more than a third of the country’s population at the time.
Yet, the social revolution was itself marred by factionalism and counterinsurgency — by communists both within Spain and from the Soviet Union itself — who believed in the necessity of a centralized state apparatus. Furthermore, once Franco ascended to power the anarchists were targeted by the state and often executed en masse. As the world became embroiled in World War II, the defeat of the Spanish anarchists marked the end of the Golden Age of Anarchism.
Contributions and legacy of classical anarchism
As we have seen in these experiments in anarchism, anarchists have been subject to state repression because their ideas represent an existential threat to more conventional forms of government and industry. Yet, the question of whether anarchism’s reputation for being linked to violence and terrorism is justified continues to be hotly debated. Simultaneously, such historical examples continue to serve as a rallying cry for anarchists and other leftist groups to this day.
Though short-lived they demonstrated that other possibilities exist for social organization. Some specific contributions of classical anarchist theory and practice include:
- A challenge to private property, authoritarianism, and capitalism
- An emphasis on mutual aid, self-organization, and cooperation
- Alternative modes of organization predicated on practices of consensus, direct democracy, and non-hierarchical decision making
Now, let’s turn to an exploration of contemporary anarchism — which bears important lineages but also decisive breaks from the classical anarchist canon.
Contemporary anarchism
The range of anarchist practices has only dovetailed since the Golden Age of Anarchism. Anarchist influences abound in examples spanning from the punk movement and the production of feminist zines to squatting, hacktivism and other culture jamming activities. While contemporary anarchism draws upon many of the same major tenets such as the rejection of authority, decentralization, and self-organization, contemporary anarchists tend to resist association with a static political ideology or canon of thinkers from the past. Instead, they seek to live anarchism in the present via tangible practices, and to bring about glimpses of what life could be like in the absence of governments, private property, and other forms of exploitation.
Key concepts
In contemporary times, there is a vast range of anarchist concepts and practices that are associated with anarchism. These can be roughly organized around a rejection of our current capitalist economic system, an emphasis on direct action, and direct-democratic decision making. Crucially, many contemporary anarchists emphasize that anarchism is more about practices than whether people explicitly identify themselves as anarchists.
Direct action
Anarchists of today often use methods of direct action to reach the wider public and reveal the systems of dominance we tend to take for granted. As Scott Branson explains in Practical Anarchism, direct action affords people the possibility to
