Anarchism

Traditions Anarcha-feminism Anarchist communism Anarcho-primitivism Anarcho-syndicalism Christian anarchism Eco-anarchism Individualist anarchism Anarchism is derived from the word anarchist, which originated as a term of abuse, first used against early working class radicals including the Diggers of the English Revolution and the sans-culottes of the French Revolution. ... File links The following pages link to this file: Anarchism Anarchy Individualist anarchism Libertarianism Anarcho-Communism Libertarian socialism The Angry Brigade Haymarket Riot Anarcho-syndicalism Anarchist law Anarcho-punk List of creative works about anarchism Spanish Revolution Freedom Press Confederación Nacional del Trabajo Primitivism Green anarchism WOMBLES Squamish Five... Anarcha-feminism combines anarchism with feminism. ... Anarchist communism, also known as Communist anarchism, Anarcho-communism, or Libertarian communism, is a political ideology related to Libertarian socialism. ... Green and black flag of Anarcho-Primitivism. ... Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labor movement, hence the syndicalism qualification. ... Christian anarchism (also known as Christian libertarianism) is the belief that the only source of authority to which Christians are ultimately answerable is God, embodied in the teachings of Jesus. ... Eco-anarchism argues that small eco-villages (of no more than a few hundred people) are a scale of human living preferable to civilization, and that infrastructure and political systems should be re-organized to ensure that these are created. ... Individualist anarchism is a philosophical tradition that opposes collectivism and has a particularly strong emphasis on the supremacy and autonomy of the individual. ... Anarchism in culture Anarchism and religion Anarchism and society Anarchism and the arts Anarcho-punk Anarchists have traditionally been skeptical and opposed to organized religion. ... This article discusses the anarchist critiques of society and proposed solutions from the anarchist perspective. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The anarchy symbol commonly used by anarcho-punks Anarcho-punk (sometimes known as peace-punk) is a subgenre of the punk rock movement consisting of groups and bands promoting specifically anarchist ideas. ... Anarchist theory Anarchist economics Anarchism and capitalism Anarchism and Marxism Anarchist law Anarchist symbolism Anarchism without adjectives Post-left anarchy Anarchist economics entails theory and praxis relating to economic activity within the philosophical outlines of anarchism. ... Though the libertarian socialist critique of capitalism is rooted in socialist theory, there are certain key distinctions in their critiques, which this article attempts to elucidate. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article discusses various anarchist symbols, including the circle-A and the black flag. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Post-left anarchy is a recent current in anarchist thought that seeks to distance itself from the traditional left and to escape the confines of ideology in general. ... Relevant lists Anarchists Books Communities Concepts Creative works Musicians Organizations Websites The following is a list of individuals who have been regarded as anarchists by themselves or others, arranged by surname. ... Frederic Bastiat, The Law Radical classical liberalism Davidson & Rees-Mogg, The Sovereign Individual Historians look at technology & implications David Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom Classic utilitarian defense of anarchism Auberon Herbert, The Right and Wrong of Compulsion by the State Albert Jay Nock, Our Enemy the State Oppenheimers thesis... This is a list of past and present anarchist communities. ... These are concepts which, although not exclusive to anarchism, are significant in historical and/or modern anarchist circles. ... // Visual Art Freddie Baer André Breton Carlo Carrà Flavio Constantini Mike Flugennock Clifford Harper Jay Kinney (Anarchy Comics) Arthur Moyse Latuff Laura Norder Donald Rooum (Wildcat Comics, see Freedom newspaper) Mark Rothko Winston Smith Seth Tobocman Camille Pissarro Gee Vaucher John Yates Donald Judd Music A Silver Mt. ... The following is a list of notable anarchist musicians. ... This list uses the word organization in its loosest sense. ... Political philosophies descibed as anarchist show overwhelming diversity. ...

Anarchist law refers to a concept about the law to use in anarchies, although some people define anarchies as communities without any law. Law (from the Old Norse lagu) in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, intended to provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments of/for those who do... In the realist theory of International Relations, the anarchical system that all states find themselves in is the lack of clear organisation of states into a hieracical order that is found within states. ...

In the hypothesis of such systems, law—it is said—would have to exist in a way that it would be effective without the need for any authority, given that in this vision it is considered that an authority normally uses physical force, emotional manipulation or propaganda to enforce the law in hierarchical societies. In politics, authority generally refers to the ability to make laws, independent of the power to enforce them, or the ability to permit something. ... The monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force is a political concept formalized by the sociologist Max Weber, in his 1918 speech Politik als Beruf (Politics as a Vocation). ... North Korean propaganda showing a soldier destroying the United States Capitol building. ... For the various types of hierarchy, see hierarchy (disambiguation) A hierarchy (in Greek: Ιεραρχία, it is derived from ιερός-hieros, sacred, and άρχω-arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. ... ...

A contradiction in terms?

While some anarchist theorists would claim that anarchy and the law contradict each other, others claim that "anarchy means no rulers, not no rules"—in other words, that an anarchist society should have rules, but that these would exist only to the extent that they were considered just by the members of the society, and hence obeyed voluntarily and by the wish for self-respect and for respect for and from others.

Properly, "no rulers" would be anarchonism.

Examples of anarchist law

Usenet law (netiquette)

Usenet is a form of discussion forum, part of the Internet, whose main legal system is called netiquette. Although there is hierarchy in the naming system of the Usenet, the codes of behaviour are generally non-hierarchical. Some aspects of this law are similar to law in hierarchical societies, for example, people are expected not to "attack" others, but the meaning of the word "attack" differs. In fact, an existing noun has been converted into a verb in order to describe an attack by one person on others in a usenet group: attacking is referred to as flaming. Usenet is a distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ... Netiquette (neologism, a portmanteau formed from Internet etiquette) is a catch-all term for the conventions of politeness recognised on Usenet, in mailing lists, and on other electronic forums such as internet message boards. ... Flaming is the act of posting messages that are deliberately hostile and insulting, usually in the social context of a discussion board (usually on the Internet). ...

Non-hierarchical media law

The most well-known functioning non-hierarchical media network is probably "Indymedia", or Independent Media Centers (IMCs). Indymedia has a de facto set of laws, called the "draft unity criteria" and the "draft membership criteria", which new local groups of people wishing to start autonomous media collectives are encouraged to follow. Given the fluid and non-coercive nature of non-hierarchical societies, these laws are still "draft" versions, but in practice, most of the local collectives attempt to and more or less succeed in following these laws. Apart from polite and constructive discussion in openly archived mailing lists, in the tradition of the Usenet, the action most closely resembling coercion is the possibility of removing the HTML link to a local Indymedia site from the official list of all local sites, but without actually closing down the site or even attempting to close it down. Even this barely "coercive" enforcement mechanism is only carried out if the local collective requests it. The Independent Media Center, also called Indymedia or the IMC, is a loose network of amateur or alternative media organizations and journalists who organize into decentralized collectives, normally around geographic locations. ... Usenet is a distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ... A piece of HTML code with syntax highlighting In computing, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a markup language designed for the creation of web pages with hypertext and other information to be displayed in a web browser. ...

Internal non-hierarchical business law

Some contemporary businesses claim to function within the spirit of anarchism, for example where every employee takes turns in having

• "coordinating" roles, such as working in a business department;
• "work" roles, such as editing books in a publishing company; and
• "menial" roles, such as answering the phones and cleaning the toilet.

Empirical research and documentation on examples on anarchist legal systems within non-hierarchical businesses is a field of legal studies which is still very young and will possibly develop further in the future, as more anarchist businesses are created.

Anarchist business law

The Digital Monetary Trust, an anonymous financial system that exists totally inside cyberspace, has voluntarily submitted to audits of its operations and third-party arbitration over disputes in order to maintain the confidence of its customers, because they have no recourse to any government. Digital Monetary Trust is an anonymous internet banking system using electronic money. ...

Anarchist software law (Copyleft)

The GNU General Public License (GPL) for publishing software, and similar licenses like the GNU Free Documentation License, are often considered examples of anarchist law. Although the GPL is a legal document which gains its authority from hierarchical legal systems, some claim that it is one of the most concrete elements of anarchist law. However, this is a moot point in the absence of any demonstration that the terms of the license could be enforced without such a legal system in place. On the other hand, the GPL's main goal is to prevent the conversion of free software into proprietary software through use of copyright and nondisclosure agreements. With no legal system in place, there could be no copyright, and nondisclosure agreements could not be enforced, so much of the GPL's purpose would be fulfilled automatically. It would, however, be impossible to enforce the GPL's terms against distributing binary programs while withholding the source code. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... The GNU logo The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is the most popular free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. ... GNU logo The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free content, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU project. ... Copyright symbol. ... An executable or executable file, in computer science, is a file whose contents are meant to be interpreted as a program by a computer. ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ...

Anarchist law in international political action groups

One example of anarchist law of an international political action coalition (which says that it is not an "organisation"), is the set of "Organisational Principles" of Peoples' Global Action. This includes rules to avoid hierarchy, for example, Peoples Global Action demonstrators in Prague in September 2000. ...

4. ... No organisation or person represents the PGA, nor does the PGA represent any organisation or person.

This is to discourage domination of one group over another while encouraging coordination and communication. There are rules for creating committees to organise international conferences, but these rules limit the power of these committees.

Decision-making in non-hierarchical societies

The laws for decision-making, including decisions about the de facto laws themselves, are still being vigorously debated among non-hierarchical societies. A common technique is formal consensus, including techniques for ensuring that decisions can be made within reasonable timelines and avoiding endless turning around in circles, but various forms of supermajority voting or consensus minus one are also used in some groups. Consensus has two common meanings. ... A supermajority or a qualified majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level or type of support which exceeds a simple majority in order to have effect. ...

Some also say that consensus is a method for decision-making, not a principle, and that the best principle for decision-making in a human society should be that everyone can make a decision to the degree that they can expect to be affected by the decision. This principle is considered a fundamental value of the participatory economics model. Consensus has two common meanings. ... Participatory economics, often abbreviated parecon, is a proposed economic system that uses participatory decision making as a economic mechanism to guide the allocation of resources and consumption in a given society. ...

See also

• anarchism
• consensus decision-making
• consuetudinary
• custom (law)
• jurisprudence
• law
• legitimacy (political science)
• legal system
• polycentric law
• rule of law

Anarchism is derived from the word anarchist, which originated as a term of abuse, first used against early working class radicals including the Diggers of the English Revolution and the sans-culottes of the French Revolution. ... Consensus decision-making is a decision process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also to resolve or mitigate the objections of the minority to achieve the most agreeable decision. ... Consuetudinary (Med. ... In law, custom, or customary law consists of established patterns of behaviour that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting. ... Jurisprudence is the scientific study of law through a philosophical lens. ... Law (from the Old Norse lagu) in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, intended to provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide punishments of/for those who do... Legitimacy in political science, is the popular acceptance of a governing regime or law as an authority. ... Polycentric law, as opposed to monopoly statist law, refers to a set of competing or overlapping legal systems and jurisdictions. ... The rule of law implies that government authority may only be exercised in accordance with written laws, which were adopted through an established procedure. ...

External links

• RFC 1855: Netiquette Guidelines. Deleware Technical and Community College. URL accessed on December 15, 2005.
• "Example of non-hierarchical media law." Accessed December 15, 2005.
• About Us. South End Press. URL accessed on December 15, 2005. - Self-description of internal anarchist law in a 25-year old business
• Organisational Principles. Peoples' Global Action (PGA). URL accessed on December 15, 2005. - an example of the legal system of an international political action group
• An Anarchist FAQ. Infoshop.org. URL accessed on December 15, 2005.
• Anarchist Law: Some Hard Questions. Attack the System. URL accessed on December 15, 2005.
• The Anarcho-Libertarian Utopia — A Critique.