Anarcho communism

Question 1

How do anarcho communists view human nature?

Answer 1

• Most closely associated with Kropotkin and his positive view of the human capacity for cooperation, expressed in his theory of mutual aid.
• Stated that nature was not ‘red in tooth and claw’ with those species that cooperate being the winners in the struggle to survive in his book Mutual Aid (1902).
• Rejects the social Darwinist view that people are competitive, suggesting that ‘all those animals which have attained the highest position of their respective have done’. Underpins his belief that anarchist ideas of a ‘perfect’ order and society are feasible.

Question 2

How do anarcho communists view economic freedom?

Answer 2

• View all forms of private property as theft. Deviating from collective anarchism, anarcho communists believe that the product of individuals’ labour should be held in common too. Principle of ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their need’ highlights in regard to human nature, the capacity for mutual aid and altruism.
• Argue that a capitalist society is oppressive because it pits people against each other in a competitive struggle. The kind of mutually beneficial society that they envisage ensures all people are equal and that the economic outcomes will ensure equality.

Question 3

How do anarcho communists view society?

Answer 3

• Kropotkin focuses on the commune, made up on the entire local population rather than the collective made up of producers and consumers.
• The communes would be small scale, allowing for direct democracy and all the wealth would be held in common. Whilst anarcho communism shares the idea of democracy with the normative ideologies, they reject the rhetoric of national direct democracy or representative systems. They represent the tyranny of the majority and because elected representatives do not necessarily reflect the will of the people.
• As people would be free to join which community they wished, they would not be subjected to any force. ‘Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals’ - Emma Goldman, Anarchism and other essays (1910).