Anarchism facts for kids

This symbol is often used by anarchists. The "o" represents order, and the "a" represents anarchy. It means both go together.

Anarchism is a philosophical movement and political movement, that is against all enforced kinds of hierarchy. For example, anarchism says that the government is harmful and not needed. It also says that people's actions should never be forced by other people. Anarchism is called a libertarian form of socialism.

Anarchism is a group of ideas centered on the belief that government is both harmful and not needed. The word "anarchism" is from the Greek αναρχία, which means "without rulers", not "without rule"; it is also sometimes translated as "without government".

In the common language, the word anarchy is often used to describe chaos or anomie. However, anarchists usually do not want this. Rather, they define "anarchy" as a way of relations between people. They believe that, once put into place, these relations work on their own. Anarchists are usually opposed by the systems they wish to remove.

Principles

Individual freedom, voluntary association, and being against the state are important beliefs of anarchism. There are also big differences between anarchist philosophies on things like whether violence can be used to bring about anarchy; the best type of economy; the relationship between technology and hierarchy; the idea of equality; and the usefulness of some organization. The word "authority" is not clear, but anarchists are not against some types of authority (e.g. the authority of someone skilled in self-defence over someone that wants to learn self-defence), they are only against control by force.

Images for kids

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  Wilhelm Weitling is an example of a writer who added to anarchist theory without using the exact term.

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  Zeno of Citium (c. 334 – c. 262 BC), whose Republic inspired Peter Kropotkin

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  Mikhail Bakunin opposed the Marxist aim of dictatorship of the proletariat and allied himself with the federalists in the First International before his expulsion by the Marxists.

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  Nestor Makhno seen with members of the anarchist Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine

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  Rojava's support efforts for workers to form cooperatives is exemplified in this sewing cooperative.

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  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon is the primary proponent of mutualism and influenced many future individualist anarchist and social anarchist thinkers.

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  Lawrence Jarach (left) and John Zerzan (right) are two prominent contemporary anarchist authors, with Zerzan being a prominent voice within anarcho-primitivism and Jarach a notable advocate of post-left anarchy.

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  Black bloc protesters parading anarcho-communism imagery such as the motto "No War but the Class War"

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  Collection of anarcha-feminist protests, symbols, and flags

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  Les chataigniers a Osny (1888) by anarchist painter Camille Pissarro is a notable example of blending anarchism and the arts.

See also

In Spanish: Anarquismo para niños