Libertarian Marxism

Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)
"What Is Libertarian Socialism?"
The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (2012). "Anarchism". In Gaus, Gerald F.; D'Agostino, Fred, eds. ''The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy''. p. 223. "In the meantime, anarchist theories of a more communist or collectivist character had been developing as well. One important pioneer is French anarcho-communistes Joseph Déjacque (1821–1864), who ..appears to have been the first thinker to adopt the term 'libertarian' for this position; hence 'libertarianism' initially denoted a communist rather than a free-market ideology." political philosophy within the socialist movement which rejects the state's control of the economy under state socialism. Overlapping with anarchism and libertarianism, libertarian socialists criticize wage slavery relationships within the workplace, emphasizing workers' self-management and decentralized structures of political organization. As a broad socialist tradition and movement, libertarian socialism includes anarchist, Marxist, and anarchist- or Marxist-inspired thought and other left-libertarian tendencies.

Libertarian socialism rejects the concept of a state."I1. Isn't libertarian socialism an oxymoron?"
. In ''An Anarchist FAQ''. "So, libertarian socialism rejects the idea of state ownership and control of the economy, along with the state as such. Through workers' self-management it proposes to bring an end to authority, exploitation, and hierarchy in production." It asserts that a society based on freedom and justice can only be achieved with the abolition of authoritarian institutions that control specific means of production and subordinate the majority to an owning class or political and economic elite. Libertarian socialists advocate for decentralized structures based on direct democracy and federal or confederal associations such as citizens'/popular assemblies, cooperatives, libertarian municipalism, trade unions and workers' councils. This is done within a general call for liberty and free association through the identification, criticism and practical dismantling of illegitimate authority in all aspects of human life. Libertarian socialism is distinguished from the authoritarian and vanguardist approach of Bolshevism/Leninism and the reformism of Fabianism/social democracy.

A form and socialist wing of left-libertarianism,Long, Roderick T. (2012). "Anarchism". In Gaus, Gerald F.; D'Agostino, Fred, eds. ''The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy''. p. 227. "In its oldest sense, it is a synonym either for anarchism in general or social anarchism in particular. Later it became a term for the left or Konkinite wing of the free-market libertarian movement, and has since come to cover a range of pro-market but anti-capitalist positions, mostly individualist anarchist, including agorism and mutualism, often with an implication of sympathies (such as for radical feminism or the labor movement) not usually shared by anarcho-capitalists. In a third sense it has recently come to be applied to a position combining individual self-ownership with an egalitarian approach to natural resources; most proponents of this position are not anarchists". past and present currents and movements commonly described as libertarian socialist include anarchism (especially anarchist schools of thought such as anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, collectivist anarchism, green anarchism, individualist anarchism, mutualism, and social anarchism) as well as communalism, some forms of democratic socialism, guild socialism, Marxism ( autonomism, council communism, left communism among others),Bookchin, Murray (1992)
"The Ghost of Anarcho-Syndicalism"
Graham, Robert
"The General Idea of Proudhon's Revolution"
participism, revolutionary syndicalism, and some versions of utopian socialism.Bromley, Kent (1906). "Preface". In Kropotkin, Peter. ''The Conquest of Bread''. New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Overview

Name

Libertarian socialism is also referred to as socialist libertarianismCarlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilburn R., ed. ''The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America''. London: Sage Publications. p. 1006. . "There exist three major camps in libertarian thought: right-libertarianism, socialist libertarianism, and left-libertarianism; the extent to which these represent distinct ideologies as opposed to variations on a theme is contested by scholars. .. cialist libertarians view any concentration of power into the hands of a few (whether politically or economically) as antithetical to freedom and thus advocate for the simultaneous abolition of both government ''and'' capitalism". and often used interchangeably with the terms anarcho-socialism, anarchist socialism, free socialism. stateless socialism, and socialist anarchism.

Definition

Libertarian socialism is a Western philosophy with diverse interpretations, although some general commonalities can be found in its many incarnations. It advocates a worker-oriented system of production and organization in the workplace that, in some aspects, radically departs from neoclassical economics in favour of democratic cooperatives or common ownership of the means of production (socialism). They propose that this economic system be executed in a manner that attempts to maximize the liberty of individuals and minimize the concentration of power or authority (libertarianism). Adherents propose achieving this through decentralization of political and economic power, usually involving the socialization of most large-scale private property and enterprise (while retaining respect for personal property). Libertarian socialism tends to deny the legitimacy of most forms of economically significant private property, viewing capitalist property relations as a form of domination that is antagonistic to individual freedom.

The first anarchist journal to use the term ''libertarian'' was ''Le Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social,'' and it was published in New York City between 1858 and 1861 by French libertarian communist Joseph Déjacque.The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective
"150 years of Libertarian". The next recorded use of the term was in Europe when ''libertarian communism'' was used at a French regional anarchist Congress at Le Havre (16–22 November 1880). January 1881 saw a French manifesto on "Libertarian or Anarchist Communism". Finally, 1895 saw leading anarchists Sébastien Faure and Louise Michel publish ''Le Libertaire'' in France. The term stems from the French cognate ''libertaire'' used to evade the French ban on anarchist publications. In this tradition, ''libertarianism'' is generally used as a synonym for anarchism, the term's original meaning. In the context of the European socialist movement, the term ''libertarian'' has been conventionally used to describe socialists who opposed authoritarianism and state socialism, such as Mikhail Bakunin and largely overlaps with social anarchism.Chomsky, Noam (2004). ''Language and Politics''. In Otero, Carlos Peregrín. AK Press. p. 739. However, individualist anarchism is also libertarian socialist. Non- Lockean individualism encompasses socialism, including libertarian socialism.

The association of socialism with libertarianism predates that of capitalism, and many anti-authoritarians still decry what they see as a mistaken association of capitalism with libertarianism in the United States. As Noam Chomsky put it, a consistent libertarian "must oppose private ownership of the means of production and wage slavery, which is a component of this system, as incompatible with the principle that labor must be freely undertaken and under the control of the producer". Terms such as ''anarchist socialism'', ''anarcho-socialism'', ''free socialism'', '' stateless socialism'', '' socialist anarchism ''and ''socialist libertarianism'' have all been used to refer to the anarchist wing of libertarian socialism or vis-à-vis authoritarian forms of socialism.

In a chapter of his ''Economic Justice and Democracy'' (2005) recounting the history of libertarian socialism, economist Robin Hahnel relates that the period where libertarian socialism had its most significant impact was at the end of the 19th century through the first four decades of the 20th century. According to Hahnel, "libertarian socialism was as powerful a force as social democracy and communism" in the early 20th century. The Anarchist St. Imier International, referred by Hahnel as the Libertarian International, was founded at the 1872 Congress of St. Imier a few days after the split between Marxists and libertarians at The Hague Congress of the First International, referred to by Hahnel as the Socialist International. This Libertarian International "competed successfully against social democrats and communists alike for the loyalty of anticapitalist activists, revolutionaries, workers, unions and political parties for over fifty years". For Hahnel, libertarian socialists "played a major role in the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. Libertarian socialists played a dominant role in the Mexican Revolution of 1911. Twenty years after World War I was over, libertarian socialists were still strong enough to spearhead the social revolution that swept across Republican Spain in 1936 and 1937".

On the other hand, a libertarian trend also developed within Marxism which gained visibility around the late 1910s mainly in reaction against Bolshevism and Leninism rising to power and establishing the Soviet Union. Libertarian socialists argue that these states were transitioning from capitalism to socialism following Leninist doctrine and never reached further stages of development. Libertarian socialists seek the abolition of the state without going through a state capitalist transitionary stage.

In his preface to Peter Kropotkin's book ''The Conquest of Bread'', Kent Bromley considered French utopian socialist Charles Fourier to be the founder of the libertarian branch of socialist thought instead of the authoritarian socialist ideas of the French François-Noël Babeuf and the Italian Philippe Buonarroti.

Anti-capitalism

According to John O'Neil, " is forgotten that the early defenders of commercial society like damSmith were as much concerned with criticising the associational blocks to mobile labour represented by guilds as they were to the activities of the state. The history of socialist thought includes a long associational and anti-statist tradition prior to the political victory of the Bolshevism in the east and varieties of Fabianism in the west".

Libertarian socialism is anticapitalist and can be distinguished from capitalist and right-libertarian principles, which concentrate economic power in the hands of those who own the most capital. Libertarian socialism aims to distribute power more widely among members of society. Libertarian socialism and right-libertarian ideologies such as neoliberalism differ in that advocates of the former generally believe that one's degree of freedom is affected by one's economic and social status. In contrast, advocates of the latter believe in the freedom of choice within a capitalist framework, specifically under capitalist private property. This is sometimes characterized as a desire to maximize free creativity in a society in preference to free enterprise.

Within anarchism emerged a critique of wage slavery which refers to a situation perceived as quasi-voluntary slavery, where a person's livelihood depends on wages, especially when the dependence is total and immediate. It is a negatively connoted term used to draw an analogy between slavery and wage labour by focusing on similarities between owning and renting a person. The term "wage slavery" has been used to criticize economic exploitation and social stratification, with the former seen primarily as unequal bargaining power between labour and capital (particularly when workers are paid comparatively low wages, e.g. in sweatshops) and the latter as a lack of workers' self-management, fulfilling job choices and leisure in an economy. Libertarian socialists believe that by valuing freedom, society works towards a system in which individuals have the power to decide economic issues along with political issues. Libertarian socialists seek to replace unjustified authority with direct democracy, voluntary federation and popular autonomy in all aspects of life, including physical communities and economic enterprises. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, thinkers such as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Karl Marx elaborated the comparison between wage labour and slavery in the context of a critique of societal property not intended for active personal use. Luddites emphasized the dehumanization brought about by machines, while later, Emma Goldman famously denounced wage slavery by saying: "The only difference is that you are hired slaves instead of block slaves".

Many libertarian socialists believe that large-scale voluntary associations should manage industrial production while workers retain rights to the individual products of their labour. They see a distinction between concepts of private property and personal possession. Private property grants an individual exclusive control over a thing whether it is in use or not, and regardless of its productive capacity, possession grants no rights to things that are not in use. Furthermore, " the separation of work and life is questioned and alternatives suggested that are underpinned by notions of dignity, self-realization and freedom from domination and exploitation. Here, a freedom that is not restrictively negative (as in neo-liberal conceptions) but is, as well, positive – connected, that is, to views about human flourishing – is important, a profoundly embedded understanding of freedom, which ties freedom to its social, communal conditions and, importantly, refuses to separate questions of freedom from those of equality".

Anti-authoritarianism and opposition to the state

Libertarian philosophy generally regards concentrations of power as sources of oppression that must be continually challenged and justified. Most libertarian socialists believe that when power is exercised as exemplified by the economic, social, or physical dominance of one individual over another, the burden of proof is always on the authoritarian to justify their action as legitimate when taken against its effect of narrowing the scope of human freedom. Libertarian socialists oppose rigid and stratified authority structures, whether political, economic, or social.

Instead of corporations and states, libertarian socialists seek to organize society into voluntary associations (usually collectives, communes, municipalities, cooperatives, commons, or syndicates) that use direct democracy or consensus for their decision-making process. Some libertarian socialists advocate combining these institutions using rotating, recallable delegates to higher-level federations. Spanish anarchism is a significant example of such federations in practice.

Contemporary examples of libertarian socialist organizational and decision-making models in practice include many anticapitalist and global justice movements, including Zapatista Councils of Good Government and the global Indymedia network (which covers 45 countries on six continents). There are also many examples of indigenous societies worldwide whose political and economic systems can be accurately described as anarchist or libertarian socialist, each uniquely suited to the culture that birthed it. For libertarians, that diversity of practice within a framework of common principles is proof of the vitality of those principles and their flexibility and strength.

Contrary to popular opinion, libertarian socialism has not traditionally been a utopian movement, tending to avoid dense theoretical analysis or prediction of what a future society would or should look like. The tradition instead has been that such decisions cannot be made now and must be made through struggle and experimentation so that the best solution can be arrived at democratically and organically and to base the direction for struggle on established historical examples. They point out that the success of the scientific method comes from its adherence to open rational exploration, not its conclusions, in sharp contrast to dogma and predetermined predictions. Noted anarchist Rudolf Rocker once stated: "I am an anarchist not because I believe anarchism is the final goal, but because there is no such thing as a final goal".

Because libertarian socialism encourages exploration and embraces a diversity of ideas rather than forming a compact movement, there have arisen inevitable controversies over individuals who describe themselves as libertarian socialists yet disagree with some of the core principles of libertarian socialism. Peter Hain interprets libertarian socialism as minarchist rather than anarchist, favouring radical decentralization of power without going as far as the complete abolition of the state. Libertarian socialist Noam Chomsky supports dismantling all forms of unjustified social or economic power while emphasizing that state intervention should be supported as temporary protection while oppressive structures remain in existence. Similarly, Peter Marshall includes "the decentralist who wishes to limit and devolve State power, to the syndicalist who wants to abolish it altogether. It can even encompass the Fabians and the social democrats who wish to socialize the economy but who still see a limited role for the State".Marshall, Peter (2009) 991 '' Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism'' (POLS ed.). Oakland, California: PM Press. p. 641. .

Proponents are known for opposing the existence of states or governments and refusing to participate in coercive state institutions. In the past, many refused to swear oaths in court or to participate in trials, even when they faced imprisonment or deportation. For Chamsy el-Ojeili, "it is frequently to forms of working-class or popular self-organization that Left communists look in answer to the questions of the struggle for socialism, revolution and post-capitalist social organization. Nevertheless, Left communists have often continued to organize themselves into party-like structures that undertake agitation, propaganda, education and other forms of political intervention. This is a vexed issue across Left communism and has resulted in a number of significant variations – from the absolute rejection of separate parties in favour of mere study or affinity groups, to the critique of the naivety of pure spontaneism and an insistence on the necessary, though often modest, role of disciplined, self-critical and popularly connected communist organizations".

Civil liberties and individual freedom

Libertarian socialists have been strong advocates and activists of civil liberties (including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and other civil liberties) that provide individual specific rights such as the freedom in issues of love and sex ( free love) and of thought and conscience (freethought). In this activism, they have clashed with state and religious institutions which have limited such rights. Anarchism has been an important advocate of free love since its birth. A strong tendency for free love later appeared alongside anarcha-feminism and advocacy of LGBT rights. Recently, anarchism has voiced opinions and taken action around certain sex-related subjects such as pornography, BDSM Anarchist Federation (18 December 2002)
"Interview with an anarchist dominatrix"
. ''Organise'' (59). and the sex industry.

Anarcha-feminism developed as a synthesis of radical feminism and anarchism that views patriarchy (male domination over women) as a fundamental manifestation of compulsory government. It was inspired by the late 19th-century writings of early feminist anarchists such as Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman, Voltairine de Cleyre and Virginia Bolten. Like other radical feminists, anarcha-feminists criticise and advocate the abolition of traditional conceptions of family, education and gender roles. Council communist Sylvia Pankhurst was also a feminist activist as well as a libertarian Marxist. Anarchists also took a pioneering interest in issues related to LGBTI persons. An important current within anarchism is free love. Free love advocates sometimes traced their roots back to the early anarchist Josiah Warren and experimental communities, who viewed sexual freedom as a clear, direct expression of an individual's self-ownership. Free love particularly stressed women's rights since most sexual laws discriminated against women: for example, marriage laws and anti-birth control measures.

Libertarian socialists have traditionally been sceptical of and opposed to organized religion. Freethought is a philosophical viewpoint that holds opinions should be formed based on science, logic and reason; and should not be influenced by authority, tradition, or other dogmas. The cognitive application of freethought is known as freethinking, and practitioners of freethought are known as freethinkers. In the United States, freethought was an anti-Christian and anti-clerical movement "whose purpose was to make the individual politically and spiritually free to decide for himself on religious matters". Some contributors to the anarchist journal ''Liberty'' were prominent figures in both anarchism and freethought. The individualist anarchist George MacDonald was co-editor of ''Freethought'' and ''The Truth Seeker''. E. C. Walker was also co-editor of ''Lucifer, the Light-Bearer'', another free love and freethought journal. McElroy, Wendy (1981)
"Culture of Individualist Anarchism in Late 19th Century America"
Mises Institute. ''The Journal of Libertarian Studies''. 5 (3). Retrieved 5 January 2020. ''Free Society'' (1895–1897 as ''The Firebrand''; 1897–1904 as ''Free Society'') was a major anarchist newspaper in the United States at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.Goldman, Emma; Falk, Candace (2003). ''Emma Goldman: Making Speech Free, 1902–1909''. University of California Press. p. 551. "''Free Society'' was the principal English-language forum for anarchist ideas in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century." The publication staunchly advocated free love and women's rights and critiqued comstockery—censorship of sexual information. In 1901, Catalan anarchist and freethinker Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia established modern or progressive schools in Barcelona in defiance of an educational system controlled by the Catholic Church. The schools' goal was to " educate the working class in a rational, secular and non-coercive setting". Fiercely anti-clerical, Ferrer believed in "freedom in education", education free from the authority of church and state.

Later in the 20th century, Austrian Freudo-Marxist Wilhelm Reich, who coined the phrase sexual revolution in one of his books from the 1940s, became a consistent propagandist for sexual freedom, going as far as opening free sex counseling clinics in Vienna for working-class patients (Sex-Pol stood for the German Society of Proletarian Sexual Politics). According to Elizabeth Danto, Reich offered a mixture of "psychoanalytic counseling, Marxist advice and contraceptives" and "argued for sexual expressiveness for all, including the young and the unmarried, with a permissiveness that unsettled both the political left and the psychoanalysts". The clinics were immediately overcrowded by people seeking help. During the early 1970s, the English anarchist and pacifist Alex Comfort achieved international celebrity for writing the sex manuals '' The Joy of Sex'' and ''More Joy of Sex''.

Political roots

Within early modern socialist thought

Peasant revolts in the post-Reformation era

For Roderick T. Long, libertarian socialists claim the 17th century English Levellers among their ideological forebears. p. 310: "LibSocs and LibCaps can both claim the seventeenth-century English Levellers and the eighteenth-century French Encyclopedists among their ideological forebears .."

Age of Enlightenment

For Long, libertarian socialists also often share a view of ancestry in the 18th-century French Encyclopédistes alongside Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine.

Noam Chomsky considers libertarian socialism "the proper and natural extension" of classical liberalism "into the era of advanced industrial society".Chomsky, Noam (2005)
''Government in the Future''
Seven Stories Pr. Open Media. . . Chomsky sees libertarian socialist ideas as the descendants of the classical liberal ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, arguing that his ideological position revolves around "nourishing the libertarian and creative character of the human being". Chomsky envisions an anarcho-syndicalist future with direct worker control of the means of production and government by workers' councils which would select representatives to meet together at general assemblies. In Jefferson's words, the point of this self-governance is to make each citizen "a direct participator in the government of affairs". Chomsky believes that there will be no need for political parties. Chomsky believes individuals can gain job satisfaction and a sense of fulfilment and purpose by controlling their productive life. Chomsky argues that unpleasant and unpopular jobs could be fully automated, carried out by specially renumerated workers, or shared among everyone.

Romantic era and utopian socialism

In his preface to Peter Kropotkin's book ''The Conquest of Bread'', Kent Bromley considered early French socialist Charles Fourier to be the founder of the libertarian branch of socialist thought as opposed to the authoritarian socialist ideas of François-Noël Babeuf and Philippe Buonarroti. Anarchist Hakim Bey describes Fourier's ideas as follows: "In Fourier's system of Harmony all creative activity including industry, craft, agriculture, etc. will arise from liberated passion – this is the famous theory of "attractive labor." Fourier sexualizes work itself – the life of the Phalanstery is a continual orgy of intense feeling, intellection, & activity, a society of lovers & wild enthusiasts". Fourierism manifested itself in the middle of the 19th century when hundreds of communes (phalansteries) were founded on Fourierist principles in France, North America, Mexico, South America, Algeria, and Yugoslavia. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Friedrich Engels and Peter Kropotkin read him with fascination, as did André Breton and Roland Barthes. In his influential work ''Eros and Civilization'', Herbert Marcuse praised Fourier by saying that he "comes closer than any other utopian socialist to elucidating the dependence of freedom on non-repressive sublimation".

Anarchist Peter Sabatini reports that in the United States in the early to mid-19th century, "there appeared an array of communal and "utopian" counterculture groups (including the so-called free love movement). William Godwin's anarchism exerted an ideological influence on some of this, but more so the socialism of Robert Owen and Charles Fourier. After success of his British venture, Owen himself established a cooperative community within the United States at New Harmony, Indiana during 1825. One member of this commune was Josiah Warren (1798–1874), considered to be the first individualist anarchist".

Within modern socialist thought

Anarchism

As Albert Meltzer and Stuart Christie stated in their book ''The Floodgates of Anarchy'':

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who is often considered the father of modern anarchism, coined the phrase "Property is theft!" to describe part of his view on the complex nature of ownership in relation to freedom. When he said property is theft, he was referring to the capitalist he believed stole profit from labourers. For Proudhon, the capitalist's employee was "subordinated, exploited: his permanent condition is one of obedience".

Seventeen years (1857) after Proudhon first called himself an anarchist (1840), anarcho-communist Joseph Déjacque was the first to describe himself as a libertarian. Outside the United States, the term libertarian generally refers to anti-authoritarian, anticapitalist ideologies.

Libertarian socialism has its roots in both classical liberalism and socialism, though it is often in conflict with liberalism (especially neoliberalism and right-libertarianism) and authoritarian state socialism simultaneously. While libertarian socialism has roots in socialism and liberalism, different forms have different levels of influence from the two traditions. For instance, mutualist anarchism is more influenced by liberalism, while communist and syndicalist anarchism are more influenced by socialism. However, mutualist anarchism originates in 18th- and 19th-century European socialism (such as Fourierian socialism), while communist and syndicalist anarchism have their earliest origins in early 18th-century liberalism (such as the French Revolution). Graham, Robert.'' Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas'' – Volume One: From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939), Black Rose Books, 2005

Anarchism posed an early challenge to the vanguardism and statism it detected in important sectors of the socialist movement. As such: "The consequences of the growth of parliamentary action, ministerialism, and party life, charged the anarchists, would be de-radicalism and embourgeoisiement. Further, state politics would subvert both true individuality and true community. In response, many anarchists refused Marxist-type organisation, seeking to dissolve or undermine power and hierarchy by loose political-cultural groupings or by championing organisation by a single, simultaneously economic and political administrative unit (Ruhle, syndicalism). The power of the intellectual and of science were also rejected by many anarchists: "In conquering the state, in exalting the role of parties, they ntellectualsreinforce the hierarchical principle embodied in political and administrative institutions". Revolutions could only come through force of circumstances and/or the inherently rebellious instincts of the masses (the "instinct for freedom") (Bakunin, Chomsky), or in Bakunin's words: "All that individuals can do is to clarify, propagate, and work out ideas corresponding to the popular instinct".

Marxism

Marxism started to develop a libertarian strand of thought after specific circumstances. Chamsy Ojeili said: "One does find early expressions of such perspectives in illiamMorris and the Socialist Party of Great Britain (the SPGB), then again around the events of 1905, with the growing concern at the bureaucratisation and de-radicalisation of international socialism". Morris established the Socialist League in December 1884, which by Friedrich Engels and Eleanor Marx encouraged. As the leading figure in the organization, Morris embarked on a relentless series of speeches and talks on street corners in working men's clubs and lecture theatres across England and Scotland. From 1887, anarchists began to outnumber socialists in the Socialist League.Beer, ''A History of British Socialism,'' vol. 2, p. 256. The 3rd Annual Conference of the League, held in London on 29 May 1887, marked the change with a majority of the 24 branch delegates voting in favour of an anarchist-sponsored resolution declaring: "This conference endorses the policy of abstention from parliamentary action, hitherto pursued by the League, and sees no sufficient reason for altering it". Morris played peacemaker, but he sided with the anti-Parliamentarians, who won control of the League, which consequently lost the support of Engels and saw the departure of Eleanor Marx and her partner Edward Aveling to form the separate Bloomsbury Socialist Society.

However, "the most important ruptures are to be traced to the insurgency during and after the First World War. Disillusioned with the capitulation of the social democrats, excited by the emergence of workers' councils, and slowly distanced from Leninism, many communists came to reject the claims of socialist parties and to put their faith instead in the masses". For these socialists, " e intuition of the masses in action can have more genius in it than the work of the greatest individual genius". Rosa Luxemburg's workerism and spontaneism are exemplary of positions later taken up by the far-left of the period—Antonie Pannekoek, Roland Holst and Herman Gorter in the Netherlands, Sylvia Pankhurst in Britain, Antonio Gramsci in Italy and György Lukács in Hungary. In these formulations, the dictatorship of the proletariat was to be the dictatorship of a class, "not of a party or of a clique". However, within this line of thought, " e tension between anti-vanguardism and vanguardism has frequently resolved itself in two diametrically opposed ways: the first involved a drift towards the party; the second saw a move towards the idea of complete proletarian spontaneity. ..The first course is exemplified most clearly in Gramsci and Lukacs. ..The second course is illustrated in the tendency, developing from the Dutch and German far-lefts, which inclined towards the complete eradication of the party form".

In the emerging Soviet Union, left-wing uprisings appeared against the Bolsheviks, a series of rebellions and uprisings against the Bolsheviks led or supported by left-wing groups including Socialist Revolutionaries,Carr, E.H. – The Bolshevik Revolution 1917–1923. W. W. Norton & Company 1985. Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and anarchists.Avrich, Paul. "Russian Anarchists and the Civil War", ''Russian Review'', Vol. 27, No. 3 (Jul., 1968), pp. 296–306. Blackwell Publishing Some supported the White Movement, while some tried to be an independent force. The uprisings started in 1918 and continued through the Russian Civil War and until 1922. In response, the Bolsheviks increasingly abandoned attempts to get these groups to join the government and suppressed them with force. '' "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder'' is a work by Vladimir Lenin attacking assorted critics of the Bolsheviks who claimed positions to their left.

For many Marxian libertarian socialists, "the political bankruptcy of socialist orthodoxy necessitated a theoretical break. This break took a number of forms. The Bordigists and the SPGB championed a super-Marxian intransigence in theoretical matters. Other socialists made a return "behind Marx" to the anti-positivist programme of German idealism. Libertarian socialism has frequently linked its anti-authoritarian political aspirations with this theoretical differentiation from orthodoxy. .. Karl Korsch ..remained a libertarian socialist for a large part of his life and because of the persistent urge towards theoretical openness in his work. Korsch rejected the eternal and static, and he was obsessed by the essential role of practice in a theory's truth. For Korsch, no theory could escape history, not even Marxism. In this vein, Korsch even credited the stimulus for Marx's Capital to the movement of the oppressed classes".

Several libertarian socialists, notably Noam Chomsky, believe that anarchism shares much in common with specific variants of Marxism, such as the council communism of Marxist Anton Pannekoek. In his '' Notes on Anarchism'', Chomsky suggests the possibility "that some form of council communism is the natural form of revolutionary socialism in an industrial society. It reflects the belief that democracy is severely limited when the industrial system is controlled by any form of autocratic elite, whether of owners, managers, and technocrats, a ' vanguard' party, or a State bureaucracy".

In the mid-20th century, some libertarian socialist groups emerged from disagreements with Trotskyism which presented itself as Leninist anti-Stalinism. As such, the French group Socialisme ou Barbarie emerged from the Trotskyist Fourth International, where Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort constituted a Chaulieu–Montal tendency in the French Parti Communiste Internationaliste in 1946. In 1948, they experienced their "final disenchantment with Trotskyism", leading them to break away to form Socialisme ou Barbarie, whose journal began appearing in March 1949. Castoriadis later said of this period that "the main audience of the group and of the journal was formed by groups of the old, radical left: Bordigists, council communists, some anarchists and some offspring of the German "left" of the 1920s". Also, in the United Kingdom, the group Solidarity was founded in 1960 by a small group of expelled members of the Trotskyist Socialist Labour League. Almost from the start, it was strongly influenced by the French Socialisme ou Barbarie group, in particular by its intellectual leader Cornelius Castoriadis, whose essays were among the many pamphlets Solidarity produced. The group's intellectual leader was Chris Pallis, who wrote under the name Maurice Brinton.

In 1969, French platformist anarcho-communist Daniel Guérin published an essay called "Libertarian Marxism?" in which he dealt with the debate between Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin at the First International and afterwards, he suggested that "Libertarian rxism rejects determinism and fatalism, giving the greater place to individual will, intuition, imagination, reflex speeds, and to the deep instincts of the masses, which are more far-seeing in hours of crisis than the reasonings of the 'elites'; libertarian rxism thinks of the effects of surprise, provocation and boldness, refuses to be cluttered and paralysed by a heavy 'scientific' apparatus, doesn't equivocate or bluff, and guards itself from adventurism as much as from fear of the unknown". In the United States, there existed from 1970 to 1981 the publication ''Root & Branch'' which had as a subtitle "A Libertarian Marxist Journal". In 1974, the journal ''Libertarian Communism'' was started in the United Kingdom by a group inside the SPGB.

Autonomist Marxism, neo-Marxism and Situationist theory are also regarded as anti-authoritarian variants of Marxism that are firmly within the libertarian socialist tradition. As such, " New Zealand, no situationist group was formed, despite the attempts of Grant McDonagh. Instead, McDonagh operated as an individual on the periphery of the anarchist milieu, co-operating with anarchists to publish several magazines, such as Anarchy and KAT. The latter called itself 'an anti-authoritarian spasmodical' of the 'libertarian ultra-left (situationists, anarchists and libertarian socialists)'".

Notable tendencies

Anarchist

Historically, anarchism and libertarian socialism have mainly been synonymous. Principally this regards the currents of classical anarchism, developed in the 19th century, in their commitments to autonomy and freedom, decentralization, opposing hierarchy, and opposing the vanguardism of authoritarian socialism.

Anarcho-syndicalist Gaston Leval explained: "We therefore foresee a Society in which all activities will be coordinated, a structure that has, at the same time, sufficient flexibility to permit the greatest possible autonomy for social life, or for the life of each enterprise, and enough cohesiveness to prevent all disorder. ..In a well-organised society, all of these things must be systematically accomplished by means of parallel federations, vertically united at the highest levels, constituting one vast organism in which all economic functions will be performed in solidarity with all others and that will permanently preserve the necessary cohesion".

Mutualism

Mutualism began as a 19th-century socialist movement adopted and developed by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon into the first anarchist economic theory. Mutualism is based on a version of the labour theory of value, holding that when labour or its product is sold, it ought to receive in exchange goods or services embodying "the amount of labor necessary to produce an article of exactly similar and equal utility". It considers anything less exploitation, labour theft, or usury. Mutualists advocate social ownership and believe a free labour market would allow for conditions of equal income in proportion to exerted labour.Tandy, Francis D., 1896, ''Voluntary Socialism'', chapter 6, paragraphs 9, 10, 15, 19 & 22. As Jonathan Beecher puts it, the mutualist aim was to "emancipate labor from the constraints imposed by capital". Proudhon believed that an individual only had a right to land while using or occupying it. If the individual ceases doing so, it reverts to unowned land.

Some individualist anarchists, such as Benjamin Tucker, were influenced by Proudhon's mutualism, but they did not call for association in large enterprises like him. Mutualist ideas found fertile ground in the 19th century in Spain. In Spain, Ramón de la Sagra established the anarchist journal ''El Porvenir'' in La Coruña in 1845, inspired by Proudhon's ideas."Anarchism"
at the '' Encyclopædia Britannica'' online. The Catalan politician Francesc Pi i Margall became the principal translator of Proudhon's works into SpanishGeorge Woodcock. ''Anarchism: a history of libertarian movements''. p. 357 and later briefly became president of Spain in 1873 while being the leader of the Democratic Republican Federal Party.

According to George Woodcock, " ese translations were to have a profound and lasting effect on the development of Spanish anarchism after 1870, but before that time Proudhonian ideas, as interpreted by Pi, already provided much of the inspiration for the federalist movement which sprang up in the early 1860's". According to the '' Encyclopædia Britannica'', " ring the Spanish revolution of 1873, Pi y Margall attempted to establish a decentralized, or ' cantonalist,' political system on Proudhonian lines". Kevin Carson is a contemporary mutualist theorist who is the author of ''Studies in Mutualist Political Economy''.

Social anarchism

Social anarchism is a branch of anarchism emphasizing social ownership, mutual aid and workers' self-management. Social anarchism has been the dominant form of classical anarchism and includes the major collectivist, communist and syndicalist schools of anarchist thought. Social anarchism is used in contrast to individualist anarchism to describe the theory that emphasizes the communitarian and cooperative aspects of anarchist theory while also opposing authoritarian forms of communitarianism associated with groupthink and collective conformity, favouring a reconciliation between individuality and sociality.

Social anarchists oppose private ownership of the means of production, seeing it as a source of inequality. Instead, they advocate social ownership through collective ownership as with Bakuninists and collectivist anarchists, common ownership as with communist anarchists, and cooperative ownership as with syndicalist anarchists; or other forms. Social anarchism comes in both peaceful and insurrectionary tendencies, as well as both platformist and anti-organizationalist tendencies. It has operated heavily within workers' movements, trade unions and labour syndicates, emphasizing the liberation of workers through class struggle.

The best-known examples of social anarchist societies are the Makhnovshchina, the Korean People's Association in Manchuria, and the anarchist territories of the Spanish Revolution.

Individualist anarchism

Individualist anarchism is a set of several traditions of thought within the anarchist movement that emphasize the individual and their will over external determinants such as groups, society, traditions and ideological systems."What do I mean by individualism? I mean by individualism the moral doctrine which, relying on no dogma, no tradition, no external determination, appeals only to the individual conscience
''Mini-Manual of Individualism'' by Han Ryner
/ref>"I do not admit anything except the existence of the individual, as a condition of his sovereignty. To say that the sovereignty of the individual is conditioned by Liberty is simply another way of saying that it is conditioned by itself.""Anarchism and the State" in ''Individual Liberty'' Anarchists such as Luigi Galleani and Errico Malatesta have seen no contradiction between individualist anarchism and social anarchism, with the latter especially seeing issues not between the two forms of anarchism but between anarchists and non-anarchists. Anarchists such as Benjamin Tucker argued that it was "not Socialist Anarchism against Individualist Anarchism, but of Communist Socialism against Individualist Socialism". Tucker further noted that "the fact that State Socialism has overshadowed other forms of Socialism gives it no right to a monopoly of the Socialistic idea".

Josiah Warren is widely regarded as the first American anarchist,Palmer, Brian (2010-12-29
What do anarchists want from us?
''Slate.com'' and the four-page weekly paper he edited in 1833, ''The Peaceful Revolutionist'', was the first anarchist periodical published.William Bailie, ''Josiah Warren: The First American Anarchist – A Sociological Study'', Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1906, p. 20 For American anarchist historian Eunice Minette Schuster, " is apparent ..that Proudhonian Anarchism was to be found in the United States at least as early as 1848 and that it was not conscious of its affinity to the Individualist Anarchism of Josiah Warren and Stephen Pearl Andrews .. William B. Greene presented this Proudhonian Mutualism in its purest and most systematic form". Later, the American individualist anarchist Benjamin Tucker "was against both the state and capitalism, against both oppression and exploitation. While not against the market and property, he was firmly against capitalism as it was, in his eyes, a state-supported monopoly of social capital (tools, machinery, etc.) which allows owners to exploit their employees, i.e., to avoid paying workers the full value of their labour. He thought that the "labouring classes are deprived of their earnings by usury in its three forms, interest, rent and profit", therefore "''Liberty'' will abolish interest; it will abolish profit; it will abolish monopolistic rent; it will abolish taxation; it will abolish the exploitation of labour; it will abolish all means whereby any labourer can be deprived of any of his product". This stance puts him squarely in the libertarian socialist tradition, and Tucker often referred to himself as a socialist and considered his philosophy anarchistic socialism.

The anarchist writer and Bohemian Oscar Wilde wrote in his famous essay '' The Soul of Man Under Socialism'' that " t is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine". For anarchist historian George Woodcock, "Wilde's aim in ''The Soul of Man Under Socialism'' is to seek the society most favorable to the artist ..for Wilde art is the supreme end, containing within itself enlightenment and regeneration, to which all else in society must be subordinated. ..Wilde represents the anarchist as aesthete". In a socialist society, people will have the possibility to realise their talents as "each member of the society will share in the general prosperity and happiness of the society". Wilde added that "upon the other hand, Socialism itself will be of value simply because it will lead to individualism" since individuals will no longer need to fear poverty or starvation. This individualism would, in turn, protect against governments "armed with economic power as they are now with political power" over their citizens. However, Wilde advocated non-capitalist individualism, saying that "of course, it might be said that the Individualism generated under conditions of private property is not always, or even as a rule, of a fine or wonderful type" a critique which is "quite true". In Wilde's imagination, in this way socialism would free men from manual labour and allow them to devote their time to creative pursuits, thus developing their soul. He ended by declaring: "The new individualism is the new hellenism".

Marxist

A broad scope of economic and political philosophies that draw on the anti-authoritarian aspects of Marxism have been described as "Libertarian Marxism", a tendency which emphasises autonomy, federalism and direct democracy. Wayne Price identified it most closely with the tendency of autonomist Marxism and identified libertarian characteristics within council communism, the Johnson–Forest Tendency, the Socialisme ou Barbarie group and the Situationist International, contrasting them with tendencies of Orthodox Marxism such as social democracy and Marxism-Leninism. Michael Löwy and Olivier Besancenot have identified Rosa Luxemburg, Walter Benjamin, André Breton and Daniel Guérin as prominent figures of libertarian Marxism.

Other

Other libertarian socialist currents include post-classical anarchist tendencies and tendencies that cannot be easily classified within the anarchist/Marxist division.

Within the labour movement and parliamentary politics

= Democratic socialism

=

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ran for the French constituent assembly in April 1848, but he was not elected, although his name appeared on the ballots in Paris, Lyon, Besançon, and Lille. He was successful in the complementary elections of June 4. The Catalan politician Francesc Pi i Margall became the principal translator of Proudhon's works into Spanish and later briefly became president of Spain in 1873 while being the leader of the Federal Democratic Republican Party.

For prominent anarcho-syndicalist Rudolf Rocker:

There was a strong left-libertarian current in the British labour movement, and the term "libertarian socialist" has been applied to many democratic socialists, including some prominent members of the British Labour Party. The Socialist League was formed in 1885 by William Morris and others critical of the authoritarian socialism of the Social Democratic Federation. It was involved in the new unionism, the rank-and-file union militancy of the 1880s–1890s, which anticipated syndicalism in some fundamental ways (Tom Mann, a New Unionist leader, was one of the first British syndicalists). Anarchists dominated the Socialist League by the 1890s. The Independent Labour Party (ILP), formed at that time, drew more on the nonconformist religious traditions in the British working class than on Marxist theory and had a libertarian socialist strain. Others in the tradition of the ILP and described as libertarian socialists included Michael Foot and, most importantly, G. D. H. Cole. Labour Party minister Peter Hain has written in support of libertarian socialism, identifying an axis involving a "bottom-up vision of socialism, with anarchists at the revolutionary end and democratic socialists uch as himselfat its reformist end" as opposed to the axis of state socialism with Marxist–Leninists at the revolutionary end and social democrats at the reformist end. Another recent mainstream Labour politician who has been described as a libertarian socialist is Robin Cook. Defined in this way, libertarian socialism in the contemporary political mainstream is distinguished from modern social democracy and democratic socialism principally by its political decentralism rather than by its economics. The multi-tendency Socialist Party USA also has a strong libertarian socialist current.

Currently in the United States, there is a caucus within the larger Democratic Socialists of America called the Libertarian Socialist Caucus: "The LSC promotes a vision of 'libertarian socialism'—a traditional name for anarchism—that goes beyond the confines of traditional social democratic politics".

Within the New Left

The emergence of the New Left in the 1960s led to a revival of interest in libertarian socialism. The New Left's critique of the Old Left's authoritarianism was associated with a strong interest in personal liberty and autonomy, which led to a rediscovery of older socialist traditions, such as left communism, council communism, and the Industrial Workers of the World.

Market anarchism

Market anarchism is a left-libertarian and individualist anarchist form of libertarian socialismChartier, Gary; Johnson, Charles W. (2011). ''Markets Not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism Against Bosses, Inequality, Corporate Power, and Structural Poverty''. Brooklyn, NY: Minor Compositions/Autonomedia. p. back cover. "It introduces an eye-opening approach to radical social thought, rooted equally in libertarian socialism and market anarchism." that stresses the value of radically free markets, termed freed markets to distinguish them from the common conception which these libertarians believe to be riddled with statist and capitalist privileges.Gillis, William (2011). "The Freed Market." In Chartier, Gary and Johnson, Charles. ''Markets Not Capitalism''. Brooklyn, NY:Minor Compositions/Autonomedia. pp. 19–20. Referred to as left-wing market anarchists or market-oriented left-libertarians,Sheldon Richman (3 February 2011)
"Libertarian Left: Free-market anti-capitalism, the unknown ideal"
''The American Conservative''. . Retrieved 5 March 2012. proponents of this approach strongly affirm the classical liberal ideas of self-ownership and free markets while maintaining that taken to their logical conclusions, these ideas support anticapitalist,Gary Chartier has joined Kevin Carson, Charles W. Johnson and others (echoing the language of Benjamin Tucker and Thomas Hodgskin) in maintaining that, because of its heritage and its emancipatory goals and potential, radical market anarchism should be seen by its proponents and by others as part of the socialist tradition and that market anarchists can and should call themselves socialists. See Gary Chartier, "Advocates of Freed Markets Should Oppose Capitalism". "Free-Market Anti-Capitalism?" session, annual conference of the Association of Private Enterprise Education (Cæsar's Palace, Las Vegas, NV, 13 April 2010); Gary Chartier
"Advocates of Freed Markets Should Embrace 'Anti-Capitalism'"
Gary Chartier
''Socialist Ends, Market Means: Five Essays''
Cp. Tucker, "Socialism." anti-corporatist, anti-hierarchical, pro-labour positions in economics; anti-imperialism in foreign policy; and thoroughly liberal or radical views regarding cultural and social issues such as gender, sexuality and race.

See also

* ''Freiwirtschaft'' ("free economy"), idea based on the "natural economic order"
* Mao-Spontex, Western Europe political movement of the 1960s–70s combining Maoism and spontaneism
* Sociocracy, governance system using consent, rather than majority voting
* Libertarianism, a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core principle

References

Sources

*
* '' Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas.'' Robert Graham, editor.
** ''Volume One: From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)'' Black Rose Books, Montréal and London 2005. .
** ''Volume Two: The Anarchist Current (1939–2006)'' Black Rose Books, Montréal 2007. .
*
* An Anarchist FAQ by Iain McKay (ed.), Volume 1 (2008), se
"A.1.3 Why is anarchism also called libertarian socialism?"
* ''Anarchy: A Graphic Guide'', Clifford Harper (Camden Press, 1987): An overview, updating Woodcock's classic, and illustrated throughout by Harper's woodcut-style artwork.
* ''The Anarchist Reader'', George Woodcock (ed.) (Fontana/Collins 1977; ): An anthology of writings from anarchist thinkers and activists including Proudhon, Kropotkin, Bakunin, Malatesta, Bookchin, Goldman and many others.
* '' Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward''. David Goodway. Liverpool University Press. 2006 .
* ''The Anarchist Turn''. Edited by Jacob Blumenfeld, Chiara Bottici and Simon Critchley. Pluto Press. March 19, 2013. .

''Anarchism: From Theory to Practice''
by Daniel Guérin. Monthly Review Press. 1970. .
* ''Anarchy through the times'' by Max Nettlau. Gordon Press. 1979. .
* 'Autonomia: Post-Political Politics'' ed. Sylvere Lotringer & Christian Marazzi. New York: Semiotext(e), 1980, 2007. , .
* ''L'Autonomie. Le mouvement autonome en France et en Italie'', éditions Spartacus 1978.
*
Critical Theory and Libertarian Socialism: Realizing the Political Potential of Critical Social Theory.
' Charles Masquelier. Bloomsbury Academic. 2014.
* '' Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism'' by Peter Marshall. PM Press. 2010. .
* ''Beyond post-socialism. Dialogues with the far-left'' by Chamsy el- Ojeili. Palgrave Macmillan. 2015.
* ''People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy'' (2nd ed.) by Harold Barclay, Left Bank Books, 1990 .
*
Pioneers of Anti-Parliamentarism
' by Guy Aldred. Glasgow: Bakunin Press.
* ''The Political Theory of Anarchism'' by April Carter. Harper & Row. 1971. .
*
* ''Late modernity, individualization and socialism: An Associational Critique of Neoliberalism''. Matt Dawson. Palgrave MacMillan. 2013.
* ''Libertarian Socialism: A Better Reconciliation between Equality and Self-Ownership'' by Vrousalis, Nicholas. Social Theory & Practice 37, 2011.
* ''Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red'' Edited By Alex Prichard, Ruth Kinna, Saku Pinta and Dave Berry. Palgrave Macmillan, December 2012 .
* ''Libertarianism without Inequality'' by Otsuka, Michael. Oxford University Press 2003.
* ''Non-Leninist Marxism: Writings on the Workers Councils'' (a collection of writings by Gorter, Pannekoek, Pankhurst, and Ruhle). Red and Black Publishers, St Petersburg, Florida, 2007. .
* ''Revolutionary Peacemaking: Writings for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence'' by Daniel Jakopovich. Democratic Thought, 2019. .
* The International Communist Current, itself a Left Communist grouping, has produced a series of studies of what it views as its own antecedents. The book on the German-Dutch current, which is by Philippe Bourrinet (who later left the ICC), in particular contains an exhaustive bibliography.
** ''The Italian Communist Left 1926–1945'' .
** ''The Dutch-German Communist Left'' .
** ''The Russian Communist Left, 1918–1930'' .
** ''The British Communist Left, 1914–1945'' .
* Benjamin Noys (ed)
''Communization and its Discontents: Contestation, Critique, and Contemporary Struggles.''
Minor Compositions, Autonomedia. 2011. 1st ed.

External links

*

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