What is Anarcho-Communism?
Anarcho-communism is a branch of anarchism that combines the abolition of the state with common ownership of property. It aims for a society of self-governing communes and workers' associations in which money and wages no longer exist. Goods would be distributed by the principle 'from each according to ability, to each according to needs'. Unlike Marxist communism, it rejects any transitional state. Unlike some other anarchist schools, it rejects payment based on hours worked. It is one of the most widely held positions within the anarchist tradition.
Core beliefs
- The state, capitalism and wage labor should all be abolished together.
- Land, tools and workplaces should belong to the community as a whole.
- Goods should be distributed by need, not by individual contribution.
- Society should be organized as a federation of free communes and associations.
- Mutual aid, not competition, is the natural basis of social life.
- Change should come from people's direct action, not from elections or parties.
History
Anarchist communism took shape in the 1870s among members of the anti-authoritarian wing of the First International, including Italian anarchists such as Errico Malatesta and Carlo Cafiero. They moved beyond Mikhail Bakunin's collectivism, which paid workers according to their labor. Peter Kropotkin became its leading theorist. In The Conquest of Bread (1892) he described how an anarchist communist society could provide for everyone, and in Mutual Aid (1902) he argued that cooperation is as important in evolution as competition. In the twentieth century, anarcho-communist ideas were present in the Ukrainian movement led by Nestor Makhno and among Spanish anarchists during the civil war that began in 1936.
Variants
Platformism, based on a 1926 document by exiled Russian and Ukrainian anarchists, calls for tightly organized anarchist federations with shared strategy. Synthesis anarchism instead brings together anarchists of different schools in looser groups. Insurrectionary anarchism rejects formal organizations in favor of small affinity groups. Social ecology, developed by Murray Bookchin, links anarcho-communist ideas with environmental concerns and municipal assemblies. Anarcho-syndicalism shares similar goals but focuses on trade unions as the main vehicle of change.
Criticisms
Economists in the free-market tradition argue that without prices and money, a society cannot know what to produce or how to allocate scarce goods efficiently. Liberal and conservative critics question whether people would work without wages and whether disputes could be resolved fairly without courts or police. Marxist critics argue that dismantling the state at once leaves a revolution open to defeat by organized opponents. Individualist anarchists argue that common ownership can limit personal freedom and the right to keep the results of one's work.
In practice
Anarcho-communist ideas were partly put into practice during the Spanish Civil War, when peasants and workers in Aragon and Catalonia formed collectives, some of which abolished money internally. The Free Territory in southern Ukraine from 1918 to 1921 also drew on these ideas. Both experiments ended through military defeat. Today, anarcho-communist ideas influence some cooperatives, intentional communities, mutual aid networks and social movements.