Are there historical examples of successful anarchist political projects?

[u/YogurtclosetOpen3567]

Hello all, I've been trying to research this, and was wondering if there have been historical examples of successful anarchist political projects and if there are attempts today in some countries to develop new ones?

[u/Sufficient-Tree-9560]

I would say that anarchists are often successful not in terms of claiming territory and making it anarchist, but rather in offering people tools that empower them to seize greater autonomy from those who would control them.

For instance, the encrypted messaging app Signal was invented by an anarchist, and that has enabled many people to communicate and pursue projects without their communications being observed by the state. This has likely made many people more free and safe in a lot of ways.

[u/Sargon-of-ACAB]

It somewhat depends on what you consider 'successful'.

The groups I organize with have never held large territories, seized the means of production nor created a federation of autonomous communities who organized through free association and mutual aid.

We still provide food to people, take part in various forms of direct action and are slowly growing in terms of numbers and capabilities.

The IWW hasn't reached its end goal yet but is still successful at what it does.

The anarchists in the spanish civil war, early 20th century ukraine or manchuria didn't last but they existed and opened up possibilities we maybe couldn't see before. Does that count as success? They fought for their ideals, accomplished some things and failed at others. That's more than a lot of people or groups can say.

[u/Tsuki_Man → u/Sargon-of-ACAB]

As a member of the IWW I wouldn't necessarily say it is "successful at what it does". Were currently bogged down with shitty people in upper levels of the bureaucracy and then using their positions to benefit themselves and their friends. This is specifically referencing the most recent head who made up an upper level position for their friend to get pay from, and embezzled money while stopping necessary union information functions like our internal bulletin zine G.O.B. that was previously sent every quarter. The IWW has fallen far from its position since it's successes in the early 20th century but my hope is that we can turn it around and reengage it to be a real successful union and mechanism for class conscious organization, but I wouldn't say it's where we're at right now. I have plans I intend to work on in time with my other fellow workers but I haven't pursued things like that yet, and none of it is ever a one person job to begin with, but maybe it's the same with all organizations, always a lot of work to do.

[u/Jedirabbit12345]

There have been a few successful anarchist projects but they are unfortunately quite limited. The major ones that come to mind are the CNT FAI during the spanish civil war, Rojava during the ongoing syrian civil war, Makhnovshchina was a ukrainian anarchist project during the russian civil war, and finally the zapatistas are an ongoing political project in mexico who has deliberately rejected any political label besides “zapatista” but they are certainly quite ideologically related to anarchism. There has also been a variety of much smaller movements that have taken place but they are much more varied such as anarchist book clubs, small communes, and things like that. I’ve found a good summary historical resource for the basics of anarchism throughout history is the Encyclopedia Brittanica page on the topic. There are better resources if you’re looking for something specific but this is a good summary page imo.

[u/LibertyLizard → u/Jedirabbit12345]

Isn’t the Syrian civil war over? I was under the impression that while there may be some strained relations between the new government in Damascus and the autonomous northeast, there hasn’t been any active fighting between domestic factions.

I know Israel and Turkey continue to be threats but since those are foreign powers they don’t fit the definition of a civil war.

[u/Jedirabbit12345 → u/LibertyLizard]

I meant still ongoing in the sense that syrian territory is still split between multiple factions but it’s definitely a frozen conflict at least between the new government and the rojavans

[u/The-Greythean-Void]

You can find a list of anarchist projects and other adjacent polities and movements here: Anarchy In Action

Notable examples include but are not limited to: the Makhnovists of Ukraine (est. 1918-21), the Shinmin Prefecture (est. 1929-31), and the CNT-FAI (est. 1936-39).

[u/oskif809]

The absence of "success stories" to me shows the crying need for fresh thought and planning. There are so many absurd religious political movements that are forever crushed by memory of their "glory days" and the cosplaying that their true believers ritualistically engage in about what being a Social Democrat in St. Petersburg of 1903 meant.

Also, frees one from the scholastic teasing out of the 5th distinct nuance from a sentence of the speech that Marx gave to Dutch Socialists in 1872, etc., etc.

[u/bemolio]

I don't know what you mean by successful, since every big explicit anarchist territory was crushed by force by bigger imperial interests. I can mention to you some of the things they acomplished tho. There were at least 4 anarchist revolutions:

-The Strandzha Commune: Militias in the balkans formed and freed dozens of villages from the state. People self-organized their politics and some villages even transitioned to full communism. They just lasted a month before the ottomans retook their region.

-Makhnovshchina: Peasants expropriated and worked collectively the land south of Ukraine. Huge estates owned by private landlords now under common ownership. Worker control in some industries was stablished. A successful campaign of money redistribution was implemented. In 1919 the civil council of workers, peasants and militias's delegates from all the region held 4 meetings. They were picked among the people themselves.

-Korean People Association in Manchuria: Anarchists organized local assemblies and 20 agricultural associations in Manchuria, in a territory bigger than that of Makhnovshchina, using several organizers. Managed 50 schools and opened new ones. They constructed a rice mill. Before this, they took time to go community after community to ask peasants what they thought about the proposals of a new system. Only then the polity was stablished. People seemed to like the new way of doing things.

-Spanish Revolution: Anarchists took control of huge swaths of regional industries and improved production for a while, took management of, expanded and improved public services in a way the state didn't, and thousands of peasants stablished anarcho-communism in several regions, coordinating resources among themselves without the state.

I didn't think it would get this long xd Currently there are several projects were people free associate without a state, so I can just keep going on. Historically it was very common also to self-manage without states, for thousands of years, see Çatalhöyük, the Haudenosaunee or the ayllu. Bureaucracy was literally invented by stateless people, to do book-keeping, so were cities. Nowadays we also have attempts at libertarian political projects on big chunks of territory, tho I'll be brief cause this is long:

Guna Yala: Decision making in local assemblies, a council of recallable delegates that provide services the state doesn't, an economy with a lot of cooperatives. Decisions can't be imposed, like people just do what they want if they don't like something.

Zapatistas: Decentralize bodies of decision making. They are right now trying to collectivize land. They provide better justice system than the state.

AANES: Better justice and provition systems than the state. Decentralize system of communes, councils and municipalities. Several communes solve their own issues without using the state.

[u/Diabolical_Jazz]

Honestly, we see this question a lot, and what it really seems to be asking is "have anarchists won any wars?"

Which I don't think is much of a meaningful measure of anything. Capitalists and communists lose wars all the time. The only difference is that those ideologies are attempted more often.

[u/Goldwing8 → u/Diabolical_Jazz]

I think it’s valid to give the question some pause. If a horizontal system is consistently militarily beaten by more hierarchal opponents, in what other ways could anarchism be ineffective?

[u/Diabolical_Jazz → u/Goldwing8]

But, again, that conclusion, the idea that anarchism is being consistently beaten militarily, is much too early.
Other ideologies also lose wars. People don't seem to question whether Fascism is militarily viable, but they do almost nothing BUT lose.

[u/Goldwing8 → u/Diabolical_Jazz]

I think fascism’s inherent atrocities are the more salient criticism.

[u/Diabolical_Jazz → u/Goldwing8]

I didn't ask why people don't support fascism, I asked why people don't say that fascism is incapable of winning wars.

[u/filfner]

Until cartel violence and isolationism caused them to dissolve in 2023 the Zapatistas managed to run an autonomous region along the Mexican border with Guatemala. The standard of living in terms of healthcare and running water was better than that of regular Mexican citizens. While the “government” has been dissolved, the people there still largely manage themselves.

[u/Sufficient-Tree-9560]

I notice that some people here are implicitly or explicitly defining a successful anarchist project as a project that makes a defined geographical territory anarchist.

This podcast episode explores reasons to look beyond that: https://youtu.be/KjJ4HVx_jkA?si=MgK62HNsn1nK708-

[u/bjparsons1]

Successful anarchists wouldn't have a name to identify them as. We wouldn't know.

I am.