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Anarchism is the anti-state wing of the socialist movement. Anarchists are libertarian socialists. We believe that a new world is not only possible, but necessary. We want a stateless, classless, socialist society free from all forms of domination – a new world rooted in the principles of self-management, solidarity, direct democracy, ecological sustainability, and cooperation. 

Anarchists are opposed to all relationships and structures of exploitation and domination, including heteropatriarchy, capitalism, white supremacy, the state, imperialism, and settler colonialism. We believe that a new society can only be brought into being through an international social revolution carried out by the direct action of independent mass movements around the globe. 

Libertarian-oriented movements can be found in various times and places throughout world history, but the anarchist movement emerged as a distinct form of libertarian socialism out of the debates within a growing working class movement linked to the International Workingmen’s Association—also known as the First International—in the late 1860s. Born in opposition to the exploitative conditions of industrial capitalism and the modern nation-state, anarchism has since spread throughout the world, playing a significant role in revolutionary movements in North America, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and beyond. 

In this section of our website you will find introductory resources dealing with anarchist theory and history, an analysis page with references that inform our organization’s understanding of the world, and a page with key texts regarding anarchist political organization and strategy.

Jump to: Getting Started • History • Anarchist Analysis • Especifismo, Political Organization & Strategy • Anarchist Feminism

GETTING STARTED

Below are some basic introductions to anarchist politics through theory and history. The resources gathered here should not be taken as exhaustive, but as a gateway to further study.

HISTORY

ANARCHIST ANALYSIS

We have gathered here resources and references that we’ve found especially helpful in developing our analysis of the System of Domination—the phrase we use to refer to the social, political, cultural, and economic structures which, interlocking, form the total system that we live under and reproduce in everyday life.

For a further exploration of the System of Domination, refer to the structural analysis section of Black Rose / Rosa Negra’s program, Turning the Tide: An Anarchist Program for Popular Power.

ESPECIFISMO, POLITICAL ORGANIZATION & STRATEGY

Here you will find key texts on anarchist political organization and strategy. We foreground especifismo, a strategic and organizational tendency developed in Latin America that has greatly influenced our organization. Especifismo emphasizes the need for a specific anarchist political organization, unified around shared ideas and methods, to develop theory and strategy for intervention into mass social movements. The aim of this intervention is not to dominate or control social movements, but rather to participate within them as co-equal members introducing the anarchist principles of direct democracy, class independence, direct action, self management and federalism, internationalism, and transversality.

ANARCHIST FEMINISM

The struggle against patriarchy, and within it, particular forms of domination on the basis of gender or sexuality have been present within the anarchist movement from its earliest iterations. From the attention paid by Paris Communard Louise Michel to the specific type of domination experienced by women, to Emma Goldman’s involvement in the illegal provision of contraceptives in the United States, to the formation of revolutionary women’s organizations like La Voz de la Mujer in Argentina, the Sindicato de culinarias in Bolivia, and Mujeres Libres during the Spanish Civil War, anarchists have insisted on the need to struggle against all forms of domination.