FWS: No Gods No Masters No Nazis: Anarchism, Antifascism, and the Left

3.0 credits · Undergraduate

Anarchism. What is it good for? A political philosophy and approach to social organization that arose simultaneously with other grand “–isms,” anarchism, more than any other idea and practice, has been condensed down by its critics into a vague set of caricatures. This course takes anarchism seriously as a social and political practice and tradition, one rooted in the left-wing critique of the state and capitalism. Questions we will consider include: What has anarchism been historically? Would we be better off thinking in terms of anarchisms? What have been the basic principles that are foundational to most anarchist movements? Autonomy? Self-management? Non-hierarchy? Consensus? What about the issue of violence? At what points, and why, has anarchism resonated with people, been suppressed, gone underground, and subsequently re-emerged? Why has anarchism refused to go away? Is antifascism anarchist? And what is an anarcho-syndicalist anyway?!