What are the largest anarchist organisations internationally by membership? I am curious about the relative popularity of different anarchist ideologies, to understand if say, anarcho-capitalism is more or less popular worldwide than anarcho-syndicalism, or something else.
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8And, as a mere opinion, I think we should not mix anarcho-capitalism with classical (leftist) anarchism. True, they both want the abolition of state, but their motives are completely different and there are lots of politics in which they oppose. It sounds like mixing Hannibal Lecter and a surgeon because they both spend time amputating human limbs... – SJuan76 Aug 23 '16 at 17:27
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2@SJuan76 Excellent points. Regarding the latter, this is precisely why I ask, because I would agree that anarcho-capitalism isn't anarchism in any traditional or historical or indeed philosophical or practical sense. BUT, like the term "libertarian" it is being co-opted by its rivals, so the question of how many people are on each side is surely more important than ever to gauge which way the popular definition swings? – Aug 23 '16 at 17:47
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4CNT (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo) has some 50 000 members (down from about 1.5 million before the civil war and banning under Franco). – liftarn Feb 25 '19 at 09:21
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3Hmm, I'm not sure which one is biggest, CNT or CGT. There is also CNT-f in France (although they prefer to avoid the anarchist connotation). All of these follow some model of anarcho-syndicalism. There is also a lot of mutualism (including companies based on it). As for smaller groups, and from my own experience, I would argue that the norm is feminist, green, antifa, and pacifist movements with no unique model concerning economics but very homogeneous in ethics. – armatita Feb 25 '19 at 09:46
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This heavily depends on how you qualify "movement" and how you measure popularity.
The most active revolutionary Anarchists worldwide are:
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation
The Worker's Party of Kurdistan
Anarchism was also saw increased popularity in Greece after EU crisis, however there are no clear organizations with mass support that I can point to.
The societies oppose nationalism - identification with one's own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations according to Oxford Languages - and support some form of direct democracy. The Kurdish movement also practices Democratic confederalism which is partially based on the ideas of American anarchist Murray Bookchin and the zapatistas were partially inspired by the ideas of social Anarchism (& AnarcoSyndicalism according to the Anarcho-Syndicalist Review article written by Anarchist Andrew Flood), so they are at least anarchist adjacent and based around libertarian socialism.
Tyler Mc
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2The PKK has clear and definite ties to the DFNS, but the most active party in the region is the Democratic Union Party (PYD). The ideology of the PYD (as developed by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan) has been proliferated through the TEV-DEM coalition. The PKK itself is less influential in Syria. – esnowrackley Feb 25 '19 at 05:19
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7To be clear, these movements are significantly influenced by anarchist thought, but AFAIK they do not explicitly claim this as their primary political ideology. – Brian Z Feb 25 '19 at 18:12
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2I would seriously question the classification of either of those revolutionary movements as "Anarchist". Both are basically nationalist movements and neither self-identify as anarchist movements. – ohwilleke Mar 09 '23 at 19:13
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@ohwilleke The Zapatistas don't identify as anarchists because they reject all labels and are considered to be close to syndicalists by some actual anarchists (http://abahlali.org/node/6664#attachments). Plus, they are not nationalists, they believe in internationalism, cooperatives, and radical democracy, unlike nationalists who tend to be anti-democracy, anti-outsider, and think their society is so great that others should be murdered or subjugated. If anything, the cartels they fight are more nationalists – Tyler Mc Aug 26 '23 at 16:15
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@TylerMc Most of the 19th century nationalist movements that shaped modern Western Europe were pro-democracy and didn't favor murdering outsiders and also favored internationalism. The fact that a movement rejects all labels doesn't mean that labels aren't accurately applied to a movement. – ohwilleke Aug 28 '23 at 16:05
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@ohwilleke it kind of does and that is wrong. Most of the 19th century nationalist movements were outright hostile to democracy and literally created the idea that democracy is literally just tyranny. Most of those movements made it so people either couldn't vote based on things like poll taxes or other BS to make it nearly impossible to vote and hated internationalism. Don't know where you're getting your information since most of these were built on colonialism and specifically making sure that only people of certain countries could vote and were more oligarchy than democracy – Tyler Mc Sep 03 '23 at 15:11
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@ohwilleke basically groups like The zapatistas that reject all Labels want to make sure all can vote and are truly internationalist cuz they want anyone following similar ideas overseas to vote and be independent. Old nationalists and a lot of nationalists today hate democracy, only wanting people of a certain skin type or religion with a certain amount of wealth to have any actual say and they believe that other nations only exist to be colonies instead of being their own independent place where the people get to have a say, which is closer to nationalistic naziism than internationalism – Tyler Mc Sep 03 '23 at 15:15
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@TylerMc This is not a historically accurate characterization of nationalist movements. And, indeed, the main colonial powers did not have strong nationalist movements, while nationalist movements themselves supported other countries likewise seeking recognition for their nation. – ohwilleke Sep 03 '23 at 15:46
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@ohwilleke nationalism: identification with one's own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations. Colonialism: the process of a country taking full or partial political control of a dependent country, territory, or people which is inherently nationalistic! Nothing you said is accurate and just wrong with history! Colonial powers are strong nationalist movements based on the idea that your own country comes first and no one else matters. Look at Britain with India and the Nazis for examples! – Tyler Mc Sep 03 '23 at 19:09
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@TylerMc Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal (i.e. the main European colonial powers) all lacked a strong nationalist movement because they were nation-states from the start. Finland, Greece, Germany, and Italy would be more typical of European nationalist movements and none of them were significant colonial powers. Colonialism also undermines the national basis of your state. – ohwilleke Sep 03 '23 at 21:13
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@ohwilleke everything you just said was wrong and what the heck are you talking about. Spain and Portugal has such strong nationalist movements that they were literal fascist dictators for a Time and everything you just said was incorrect. Britain was always strongly nationalistic which is why they had an actual empire. Colonialism does not undermine the national basis, it increases the basis because it's based on the idea that only your state matters and other people only exist to be your slaves which is the definition of nationalism – Tyler Mc Sep 04 '23 at 15:08
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@ohwilleke basically fascism is built on Ultra nationalism as well as authoritarian regimes like those of Napoleon back in the days when France was a literal dictatorship and the authoritarian policies of britain. The whole point of colonialism is to double down on nationalism and the idea that you are better than all the others who only exist to be your slaves. That is the epitome of nationalism and genuine Democratic Society that are internationalist are pretty much the opposite of that. By your logic the United Nations is nationalist somehow but actual nationalist dictatorships aren't – Tyler Mc Sep 04 '23 at 15:11
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@ohwilleke okay so I edited the article to add information on how both ideas are literally not nationalistic and are literally inspired by Anarchist ideas according to actual anarchists and sources. Even if these aren't Anarchist these are libertarian socialist ideologies inspired by anarchism with actual evidence and debates to back it up. End of discussion – Tyler Mc Sep 04 '23 at 15:24
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@TylerMc The point seems to be that there's a difference between founders nationalism and the nationalism of an established nation. The former is usually mixed with themes of unity, equality, self-determination and emancipation. Picture a colonialist country where the people realize themselves as one group in one collective struggle where the goal is to have a country of their own by getting rid of the oppressor. While beyond that short period of the creation of a nation, nationalism is usually more of a chauvinist theme with national supremacy or meant to shut up dissent. – haxor789 Sep 05 '23 at 13:09
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This heavily depends, but I believe one of the largest movements is anarcho-mutualism because there is a community actively practicing it called FEJUVE or The Federation of Neighborhood Councils-El Alto. As Emily Achtenberg said in her 2004 book Community Organizing and Rebellion: Neighborhood Councils in El Alto, Bolivia, the community's informal economy is most like anarcho-mutualism: an anarchist school of thought that advocates a socialist society based on free markets and usufructs - the right to have property if it is actively being occupied or used to provide goods/services for the community. Back in 2008, FEJUVE was estimated to have a population of 114,000 and the community has been around since 1979, so it has lasted for forty-three years.
Tyler Mc
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2I'd never seen usufructs mentioned in connection with political ideology before, and looked it up and learned a lot from doing so. Thanks for the pointer. – ohwilleke Mar 09 '23 at 22:11
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In addition to the other answers, I believe the most popular kind of anarchism is democratic confederalism: a political concept of having a society based on democratic self-organization with a confederation based on autonomy, direct democracy, political ecology, feminism, multiculturalism, self-defense, self-governance and elements of a cooperative economy. It is currently being practiced in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria or Rojava. It has been around since 2012 and since 2018, it has a population of over 2 million. It is libertarian socialist to some, but democratic confederalism is literally inspired partially by the ideas of anarchist Murray Bookchin according to one of the founders of the ideology Abdullah Öcalan, so it is not completely disconnected from anarchism and is even described as being deeply inspired by anarchism in the text Stateless Democracy written in 2015 Renée In der Maur & Jonas Staal.
Tyler Mc
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This too doesn't really sound like "anarchism" and doesn't really self-identify as an anarchist political movement. The wikipedia description of this ideology, for example, characterizes it as "libertarian socialism" without any mention of anarchism in a long political theory aritcle on the ideology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_confederalism – ohwilleke Mar 09 '23 at 19:16
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2@ohwilleke: probably closer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_anarchism One might even say that "social anarchism" is a contradiction in terms, in particular since Bookchin said it has an "unbridgeable chasm" to individual anarchism. – the gods from engineering Mar 09 '23 at 22:42
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2@ohwilleke: OTOH stranger tems have been coined https://en.unesco.org/courier/enero-1984/george-orwell-tory-anarchist – the gods from engineering Mar 09 '23 at 22:48
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1@ohwilleke With all due respect "What sounds like anarchism" to you? At various times in history "libertarian" and "socialism" would have been used synonymous to anarchism and probably only aren't today as they got co-opted by "right wing libertarians" and "Marxist(-Leninists)" who use the terms quite differently from their original meaning. So what is anarchism and why isn't it that? – haxor789 Mar 10 '23 at 11:18
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@Fizz To be fair to Orwell though that description of his happened before 1936 and quite a lot has changed for him since then. But there's also the "anarcho-monarchism" of Tolkien. – haxor789 Mar 10 '23 at 11:20
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@haxor789 "Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessarily limited to, governments, nation states, and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state with stateless societies or other forms of free associations." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism A movement whose ultimate goal to establish a replacement traditional national government isn't anarchism. – ohwilleke Mar 10 '23 at 13:59
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@ohwilleke This doesn't really answer the question though. Like self-organization, decentralization, direct democracy self-governance are all in the ballpark of "free association" and abolishing social hierarchies and authority. And your initial critic of "libertarian socialism" is according to wikipedia directly linking to (social) anarchism. So at least theoretically there's some close relation, whether that is the same in practical application or whether it's as many nationalist movements just a nice story is a different question, but apparently it's an anarchist story or why isn't it? – haxor789 Mar 10 '23 at 14:19
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@haxor789 Who is it any different from a New England town meeting form of organization which few people would consider to be anarchist? – ohwilleke Mar 10 '23 at 14:48
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@ohwilleke a New England town meeting has a monopoly on violence to back it, no direct democracy on the state/federal level, and the town's cops are no citizens in uniform or volunteer but enforcers for the state with no legal obligation to protect people according to the US constitution – Tyler Mc Aug 26 '23 at 16:16
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1@ohwilleke And wikipedia and other sources say it is inspired by the ideas of social anarchist Murray Bookchin & is described as being anarchist inspired in the text Stateless Democracy. – Tyler Mc Sep 03 '23 at 19:22
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Autonomism is one of them. As I have mentioned before, it is the main ideology of the Barcelona Squatters Movement that has been around since the year 2000 and it is an ideology that is anti-capitalist and post-Marxist, allowing members of the working class to operate in small autonomous movements instead of some strong centralized authority. This ideology is also partially practiced by other movements such as the Blitz House movement in Norway and the homeless workers movement in Brazil.
Tai Q
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