A Zoomer’s Simplified Introduction to Anarcho-Communism
A society where we can all prosper, eat, and be gay.
Neo-liberalism has overtaken the globe like covid-19. It’s easy to get lost in complaining about the world’s issues with climate change, poverty, hunger, and all that other stuff, without asking where it all comes from. Because the thing is, none of it’s by accident.
Capitalism often gets the blame for these issues by many educated folk on the matter. It seems to be clear that this system isn’t working for most people and we need radical solutions like Anarchism and communism. However, it’s easy for people who have no idea what they are thinking or talking about, say some very wrong things about the subject.
Many critics who have bought into the red scare propaganda, whether they’re liberal or fascist, will point out how communism has never worked in past attempts. That communism is an immoral ideology where government has too much power, and a system in which 999 Bagazillion people starved to death. That anarchism is when there is pure chaos with no rules.
These are all common myths that have been fed to the public since the early 20th century to keep the masses from critically thinking about this hierarchal system. People just have no clue to what communism or anarchism actually are. I, a 16 year old who spends too much time reading, am here to fix that of course.
I obviously can’t explain every aspect of these theories, which is where old white guys from the 19th to 20th century come in. Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Pierre Joseph Proudhon, Peter Kropotkin, and many others are great writers and revolutionaries who you can learn a lot more from. With all due respect however, a lot of what these guys wrote were, indeed, boring as hell to read. So hopefully you can read this blog without scrolling on TikTok a quarter of the way through. Even though you probably are going to anyway.
I write this mainly for the purpose of educating people my age on the wonderful ideology I subscribe too. Anarcho-communsim is a beautiful outlook to have for a future that can maximize our freedoms and happiness. So how about I redpill you to revolt and seize the means of production.
What is Anarcho-Communism?
To understand anarcho-communism, you first have to understand our current system of capitalism. Capitalism is a free market economic system in which the means of production are privately owned by individuals. This means that business is operated under an autocratic hierarchy that worryingly resembles feudalism. You’ll have an owner (boss, CEO, etc.) who hires workers to do all the labor. The majority of the resources from this labor is taken by the owner, while the workers get slim pickings. Owners are also the ones that pick managers and supervisors, regardless of what the workers want.
This is in contrast to socialism, a transitionary stage between capitalism and communism. Socialism is a de-commodified economic system in which the means of production are collectively owned by the working class. This system gets rid of the owner entirely, so that the workers get the full product of their labor. The workers also get to make the decisions for how they manage the business. This includes democratically electing the managers, supervisors, and leaders. So think of socialism as simply applying our democratic values of our government to the economy.
Now that you understand capitalism and socialism, now I can explain anarcho-communism. Anarcho-communism is basically the combination between anarchist and marxist (communist) ideology. But what is anarchist or communist ideology, Angel? Well, anarchism is a philosophical theory in which we abolish and/or question all unjust hierarchy. That’s a huge oversimplification of the philosophy, but for the sake of an introduction, that’s all you have to know. Communism is a political ideology advocating for a stateless, classless, and moneyless society. Again, oversimplified, but that’s what it is.
So how would this theory actually work in the real world? I think the best way to answer that would be to explain each of the three main points of communism. Abolishing the state, class, and money.
Abolish State
Abolishing the state? But isn’t communism when the government has all the power to control all the economy? No, quite the opposite actually. While “communist” aligned nations in history (U.S.S.R, China, etc.) have turned into totalitarian autocracies, those weren’t true representations of the ideology.
So why would we want to get rid of government entirely? Abolishing the state doesn’t mean we would have no governance or leadership what so ever. The state refers specifically to a centralized power that has a monopoly on violence and oppression. Abolishing this would include replacing it with a less oppressive form of government.
An anarchist government would be decentralized in its nature. It would work with several different communities throughout the nation, each democratically electing a council of representatives. These councils would all come together to make policy and laws for the country. This would end the government’s monopoly on violence, while making sure we have a democracy that truly represents the will of the people.
Abolish Class
Like we established, capitalism creates a class hierarchy between owners and workers. Many will argue that this hierarchy is a good thing, since people who worker harder deserve a higher placement in society. The problem, however, is that’s not really how it ends up working in practice. Meritocracy is pretty much impossible, under capitalism or communism. Do you really think that Jeff Bezos worked harder than a single parent working 2 jobs to feed their family?
The main issue with the class distinction is that it requires exploitation in its nature. Anyone you ask will tell you that they would rather own a business than work for someone else. Being a worker just sucks, man. Crypto bros online will say to just start a business yourself. It’s is fine advice on an individual level, but it’s not something that everyone can do. Because if everyone is an owner, who’s gonna then work for you? Capitalism requires the exploitation of a working class for it to function, no way to get around it.
So if we get rid of class, does that mean everyone is going to be exactly the same? No, because our identity should not be determined by our wealth. I never understood how getting rid of wealth distinctions would rip everyone of their individuality. It also plays into the stereotype that communism is only about collectivism. While community plays a huge role into it, individual rights are really the back bone of the ideology, especially with anarchism.
Another point often brought up is something along the lines of “So you want doctors to get paid the same as garbage men?” It sounds like a reasonable critique and all, but if you really think about it, why should a doctor get paid more than a garbage man? Sure their job is harder and it requires much more skilled training, but the value they add to society is the exact same, from a consequentialist perspective. You can argue against that all you want, but without that garbage man picking up your trash, society will crumble on itself.
The fact of the matter is that every job has value to society, with obvious exemptions. We need to end this idea that some people deserve a worse life for working a “less” valuable job.
Abolishing Money
This one might be the most radical ask of them all. A world without money? Why would anyone work without a monetary incentive? Money did have a valuable purpose at one point, that’s why we made it. But in the modern day world, it just doesn’t really make too much sense.
For one, money is supposed to abstractly represent tradable labor, right? If that’s the case, it’s really bad at it. Money just isn’t a good measure for how much labor something is worth. There’s just way too many factors and subjectivity towards it all that there’s no possible way to empirically measure any of it. The problem is that most people who have wealth didn’t really earn it. They either have exploited others for it and/or inherited it from family. In other words, we can’t have money without corruption.
But more importantly, for those who say that no one would work without money, think about why people need money. Yes, you work for the money, but you also trade that money for shelter, food, clothing, etc. Essentially, you trade your labor for money, and then you trade that money for survival. If you think about it, you’re not really working for money, you’re working for survival. So what if we just got rid of the middle man between that process?
A moneyless society would work around something called a gift economy. The way it works is that you would offer labor to the community in something your especially talented in, as everyone else would. Resources would then be given by what you and others actually need. This is what the quote “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”, from Karl Marx, actually means. Without money, the incentive would be the survival directly itself. Because if you don’t work, then the community fails, including you.
So yeah, communism doesn’t mean you get to live for free without working a day in your life. A world without money shouldn’t be that hard to grasp. I mean capitalism is only like 400 years old. Do you really people before capitalism were just doing nothing with their time? Like we were just stuck in the stone age for thousands of years and Adam Smith randomly came along to finally advance us along. This seems to show a poor understanding of human nature entirely. People want fulfillment in their lives, they want to feel like they matter. Money are just numbers on a screen at the end of the day, so we should focus more on real life rewards.
Conclusion
So those are the basics of anarcho-communist theory. Remember, this is simply only an introduction to the ideology. There’s so much that I couldn’t talk about in this blog, so I really do recommend you learn more from much more informed people than I. “The Conquest of Bread” by Peter Kropotkin would be a great first book to read, considering Kropotkin was the major advocate of anarcho-communist thought. I really do hope this cleared up a lot of the misconceptions of anarchism and communism. Considering my teacher called Justin Trudeau a communist today, a lot of people really should give this article a read.
