Anarcho-hybridism
Anarcho-hybridism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought which advocates for the Near-Abolishment- of the state, capitalism and wage labor through countless reforms opposed to the established status Quo. A belief in an anarchist party used as an oxymoron, as a tool of the state to dismantle the state into federated directly democratic assemblies and local councils controlled by the people, and numerous economic reforms to empower worker co-operatives in hopes for society to gradually replace capitalism with worker control of the means of production through the means of a so-called Economic War Struggle, otherwise known as Wirtschaftskrieg. Anarcho-Hybridism is about the pursuit of an anarchist society without the need of a bloody revolution, but instead, by a dualist Counter-Power Anarchist party that conquers the state from within and defeats capitalism by giving the working class aid to build their own worker-owned cooperatives, while decentralizing and destroying the state from within by spreading direct democracy in commune councils. An "Anarchist Party" - as a paradoxical oxymoron - to slowly use the apparatus of the State to dismantle the State itself - since our struggle is not revolutionary but instead an economic war where cooperatives owned by the proletariat will outcompete once and for all, the Bourgeoisie's markets.[1] Anarcho-Hybridism developed as an off-shoot leftist ideology inspired by Proudhonic Anarchist Mutualism, Communalism, Democratic Confederalism, Market Socialism, Syndicalism and finally a new form of Georgism . Hybrids attempt to mix these leftist ideologies together to create a new Hybrid Ideology which makes use of diverse praxis to achieve the Anarcho-Communist Utopia. Market Socialism in this sense, is seen as a stepping stone towards Anarcho-Communism. It is a synthesis of Individualism and Collectivist Anarchism, and believes that in order for Freedom to be granted to humanity, individual freedom and collective freedom mustbe equally respected. The Method to defeat reactionaries according to Hybrids is through an economic war between worker Co-operatives and Capitalist private Corporations, and also through creating a non-hierarchical, ceremonial, symbolic and consultative state, that is merely powerless, and acts as a hollow shell gradually, to prevent any stronger state from over-taking it once again.
Origins[edit]
The Origins of Hybridism are coming from, Anarchist Giosue' Agius,a young Maltese Far-Left Anarchist Writer and Political Activist studying at university of Malta, who authored the book called The Conquest Of State as a basis for his Hybrid Theory.
Theory[edit]
The Hybrid Theory is a complex theory of various ideas. Simply put Hybrids believe in a a Political party with Anarchist leanings[1] that will participate in electoral politics, and once elected, the party will initiate and economic war, to making Co-operatives powerful, and capitalist companies weaker, in hopes that Co-operatives will outcompete them in market competition once and for all. This can be done, by taxing and regulating capitalist to reduce incentive for private property, and reducing taxation on cooperatives to increase inventive for co-operative ownership. Other policies including not taxing co-operative workers on their income, while taxing capitalist workers on their income. The Anarchist state would also give privileges and benefits to co-operatives workers, while reducing benefits for capitalism. Hybrids also believe like their fellow mutualists in dual power, free contracts and federations, while also like syndicalist, they believe in empowering Unions, like communalists and Democratic Confederalist they believe in the state transferring their power to the people,[2] in their own federated nested local councils and assemblies, giving them the power of direct democracy, and also to co-joint operations with the anarchist party itself. Slowly and gradually the State will disintegrate as it gives it's power voluntarily to these local councils, and on the other hand capitalism will disintegrate as cooperatives start to replace them gradually. The goal is, much like with any real anarchist ideology, to replace the state with councils and to give the means of production to the working class. But crucially the state is not supposed to be dismantled completely because if there is no state then reactionaries might appear and form a new state. The state should therefore be transformed into a Consultative, Ceremonial, Symbolic and non- hierarchical one. To quote the book:
“Hybridists want to change the state from violent to peaceful, from protector of the bourgeois to protector of the proletariat, from hierarchical to non-hierarchical, from bureaucratic to a collective, From centralized to decentralized, from controlling, to being controlled by the people, from authoritarian to consultative, from an aspect of daily life, to a symbolic state, From important, to ceremonial.”[1]
Another difference is that rather than state socialism which seeks to give the means of production to the state and have the state be controlled by the working class is that hybridism wants both the state and the means of production to be owned by the people and workers directly.
Libertarian Socialism[edit]
Hybridism can be best described as Libertarian Socialism since the fullness of Libertarianism and Socialism can be found in the Hybrid Ideology. Like Many libertarians, Hybrid want to minimize government power, by abolishing the police force, abolishing prisons, abolishing and disbanding the military, dividing and federating the state, and also dividing the state into smaller assemblies and local councils that make use of Direct Democracy. Courts are replaced with purely forms of Restorative Justice, Prisons are replaced with Zones of rehabilitation, the law is relaxed, merciful and forgiving. The police force is in the hands of local councils, and people elect their own officers using direct democracy. Gradually destroying the state, through using it's powers to break it's own chains of oppression.[3]
Education[edit]
Hybrids like Classical Anarchist, such as William Godwin and Percy Shelley, also believe in the power of educating the masses, to bring about social change. Education must at all costs be free, and new policies should focus on making the ignorant intelligent.[4]
Reformer Hybrids[edit]
Hybridism puts lots of emphasis on co-ops and their economic power. The goal is to slowly phase out capitalist businesses by having worker co-ops compete with them. This is called the economic war. But how would the worker co-ops stand a chance against the global capitalists? That’s where the state comes in. The state would financially support worker co-ops. This means providing funding for them, cutting their taxes, imposing tariffs on foreign competitors, increasing taxes on capitalist, not taxing the income of employees of co-ops. All of those are measures which are supposed to help worker co-ops to outcompete with capitalist enterprises. Making use of Mutual Credit free banking or credit unions,[5] in order to do this hybridism aims for a form of market socialism, at least as a transitionary step. What happens after that is kinda not that well specified and left up to the communes, this way the means of production would be in the hands of the workers Other things the party would do once in power would include abolishing the police, military and prisons, introduce a relaxed law for minor offenses like smoking weed or speeding. The state would engage in foreign aid including in capitalist countries in order to help suffering people and increase the support for Anarcho-hybridism. They would Increase the prevalence of direct democracy by letting the people vote online. It would also abolish the positions of leadership like prime ministers and all ministers as a matter of fact. The anarchist party itself doesn’t have a leader either, only a speaker.
Revolutionary Hybrids[edit]
There are two kinds of hybridism. They are: reformist and revolutionary. The reformist Hybrids focus on using their political party to use policies to outcompete capitalists. The revolutionary Hybrids simply means that once the anarchist party is in power it uses the means of the state like the police and military to forcefully take the means of production from the capitalists.
Criticism of Revolution[edit]
Like Max Stirner, Egoist Anarchists and Christian Anarchists, the Hybrids are critical of the revolution, and they believe that a revolution is authoritarian, as described by Friedrich Engels. According to Hybrids, Revolution is both Violent and authoritarian, making it just as deceitful as the state who is also authoritarian and violent. They also believe that the revolution as a social movement, is a method of over-turning one ideal, to replace it with another,[6] to sum it up from the book, Those that want to destroy the state, seek to control it, those that want to reform the state, seek to transform it. According to Hybrids, nothing guarantees that once the state is destroyed, someone else won't try to build a new state thereafter. While they are critical of the revolution, they are still supportive of intentional communities, supportive of General Strikes, Non-Violent peaceful movements, and also some form of insurrection. Although they criticize the notion of revolution, they still believe that Revolution is a final alternative, should all else fail.
References[edit]
This article "Anarcho-hybridism" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Anarcho-hybridism. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Agius, Giosue (April 2, 2020). The Conquest Of State. Black Anarchist Press. ISBN 979-8603922423. Search this book on
- ↑ Öcalan, Abdullah (2017). The political thought of Abdullah Öcalan : Kurdistan, woman's revolution and democratic confederalism (International Initiativeition ed.). 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA: Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-7453-9976-8. Search this book on
- ↑ Chomsky, Noam (2013). On anarchism. United States of America: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-241-96960-1. Search this book on
- ↑ Godwin, William (2013). An enquiry concerning political justice. Oxford University Press: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-964262-5. Search this book on
- ↑ Proudhon, Pierre Joseph (August 5, 2018). What Is Property?: Or, an Inquiry Into the Principle of Right and of Government. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 978-1724874825. Search this book on
- ↑ The ego and his own : the case of the individual against authority. Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0486445816. Search this book on
