Capitalism and the state involves itself in the lives of all individuals. These two systems have come to define and influence our values. Both exist currently as globally dominant forms of social organization. These two concepts come with the promises of safety and freedom. Yet time after time it can be seen that capitalism and the state are detrimental to these concepts. To understand how neither follow through on these promises and explore what the alternative is, the two must be further defined.
Capitalism
The simple definition of capitalism follows as privately controlled production of goods according to the forces of a market system. The first main defining feature can be said to be the means of production such as land, factories, and inventions that are privately owned by individuals or organizations. An example of this would be how workers produce for a factory yet the owner of the factory is the one who profits from their labor. The second central feature of capitalism would be commodity production. Described simply as products made for exchange on a market system.
State
The concept of the state and government is any default form of organization in a region. However, this hides the true nature of the state. The state is defined more accurately as a centralized form of government to impose control. It is often distinguished by its monopoly on violence and as an instrument for a ruling class to enact their will. The act to govern others in this context is an inherently top-down form of action. Even democracies and republics fall under this definition. A democratic state is still taking part in the centralization of authority and monopoly on “legitimate” violence exercised on behalf of a ruling class. To say a democratic state is no different from a dictatorship would be completely inaccurate but both states are still defined by these same manners.
Issues
One of the main aspects of capitalism and the state is the promise of freedom and security. Neither fulfills these promises. Capitalism does not make us free. The vast majority of individuals are left with only their labor to sell to survive. In fact, an alarming forty-four percent of Americans are said to be low-wage workers. The top one percent of U.S. households hold more than the bottom fifty percent combined. These conditions add already to the reality that when someone only has their labor to sell they are not freely choosing. It is not a free choice to choose between which entity or individual should get rich off your labor. If a group of people laid claim to all the lands around you and now say that your choice is to serve one of them to survive then that is not freedom. The state in turn is said to guarantee our security. A system of invasive surveillance is put in place to ensure our protection. Yet these same systems of surveillance are used to go after protestors. The state with this same logic goes on to carry out drone strikes at the expense of civilian lives. The two individuals known for speaking out against these instances, Daniel Hale and Edward Snowden, are persecuted by the state for their actions. It is not uncommon either for so-called democracies to uphold and aid outright dictatorships either, such as American relations with Saudi Arabia and Chinese relations with North Korea. This is done in the name of security yet all this does is erode away at our security. The state is often seen as completely separate from capitalism but the two in fact feed each other. The workplace itself is an authoritarian construct where the individual is subject to the authority of whatever existing form of ownership may exist. Capitalism through the process of competition between owners extracting profit from the labor of their workers leads to a ruling class of people defined by their wealth. This wealth in turn is used to influence the politics of the state to further their own interests. This can be seen with the prevalence of the prison industrial complex and military industrial complex. The prison industrial complex was born out of the many benefits that various companies affiliated with the construction of prisons, management of prisoners, and use of prison labor. America despite defining itself as a free country in fact has one of the largest prison populations in the world as a result of this. The military industrial complex was born out of similar conditions with various corporations, defense contractors, and private military contractors finding profits in war. The state as a result has become a means to achieve even more profits to this end. One example is Lockheed Martin which in 2017 had $44.9 billion in arms sales as a result. Such companies exert a disproportionate amount of influence upon state policy to further achieve such ends. The state as an institution is effectively governed by the ones who have the most wealth. In turn, it is designed first and foremost to protect their interest and not the average individual. Even reforms that provide benefits in various communities are made in part to placate the population. Often this is done out of an interest to ensure a healthy willing pool of workers still exists to extract more wealth from. Numerous other issues can be raised with capitalism and the state but this brings us no closer to the possible solution.
The Alternative
The alternative is not more state, more capitalism, or both. The alternative to capitalism and the state is anarchy. This is not anarchy in the sense of a chaotic bloodbath with no organization and rampant murder. Anarchy as in the simple absence of rulers. It is a form of organization without the existence of hierarchical structures based upon the evolutionary concept of mutual aid. That is to say, it is a voluntary exchange of resources and services for the mutual benefit of all involved. Individuals exist as social creatures. It is in our nature to organize but it is not a necessary factor of organization for there to be a hierarchy. It is not necessary for us to impose a government upon ourselves that is vested with ludicrous amounts of authority over our lives as individuals to experience safety and security.
The Alternative Explored
There are numerous alternatives that can be done instead of resorting to police and courts as the sole mediators and arbitrators of complex issues. The damage of many so-called crimes can in fact be traced to the criminalization of the act itself such as with the use of drugs. Marijuana in recent times is an example of how decriminalization leads to fewer families being broken apart by the justice system and a safer society where users are far less incentivized to resort to unsafe measures. An anarchist society by its nature relies on mutual aid to function. Mutual aid at its most basic can be described as voluntary reciprocal exchange. This in turn means that state services such as healthcare are not abolished and replaced by private institutions but are effectively made essential for people to be provided with the means to truly live freely as individuals. Private ownership is abolished and the relations of production are changed according to this same basis of mutual aid. Production is not done purely for the sake of products to exchange on a market system but rather to meet the various needs that interconnected individuals face in order to function. Needs provided for in turn lead to the freedom for people to further explore and achieve what they can to the best of their ability. Labor and innovation are shared in a manner to reduce the amount of necessary labor for all involved. In fact, an example of this in nature can be seen in a species often mischaracterized as constant workers. Ants do not have all ants constantly working. They often actually have a large portion that in fact do not need to work unless absolutely necessary. The existence of “laziness” only really exists as a concept in a society that bases its logic of production not around sustainability and need but rather on growth for the sake of growth. Capitalism calls for constant accumulation and production. Work is glorified and needed for such a system to function to a point that worker wages in fact do not match the rise of worker productivity over the years. Current times have seen millions of Americans alone quitting their jobs. Constant work is being demanded yet conditions are not improving. This is capitalism functioning as intended. Extract as much value for as little pay as possible to produce profits. Anarchism would mean the absence of an inherently hierarchical institution like capitalism which promotes the growth of a ruling class for the rest to work for. This in turn would mean a radical new way of approaching productivity and even distribution.
Examples
One such window into how a post-capitalist society may function without the centralized planning of an entity such as the USSR would be the Really Really Free Market projects which institute gift economies in modern forms. They are horizontally organized and help promote the free sharing of goods. This also serves as an excellent example of the logic behind mutual aid. Numerous past demonstrations and examples of anarchism in action exist throughout history such as with the Ukraine Free Territory, Shinmin Commune, and Syndicalist Catalonia. The Ukraine Free Territory was an area that various peasants and workers came to organize in the absence of a state entity during the Russian civil war. During this period they saw some of the first secular publicly available schools form. Farms and railroads became collectivized without the need for a murderous centralized state to do so and demonstrated success in providing for the needs of the people. The Shinmin Commune involved the creation of give-away shops, worker cooperatives, and autonomous schools. Syndicalist Catalonia was a massive experiment that demonstrated many of the same characteristics of the previous examples given. This time organization was done through the various trade unions seizing control. Workers had control of the factories, militias were organized to fight the fascist backed forces of Fransico Franco, and saw the rights of women advanced in the form of groups such as Mujeres Libres. These past examples do not serve as blueprints to repeat but rather as lessons to learn from. More modern ongoing examples of anarchism in practice include the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca, Puerto Real, and Exarcheia. The many various communities and examples are just a few of the many windows into what a society absent of capitalism and the state can be. They vary in their forms and approaches to organization despite sharing the label of anarchism. There is no one single blueprint but rather a variety of unique solutions born out of an analysis of hierarchical structures. No amount of theorizing can substitute for the lessons provided by examples in history.
Conclusion
Anarchism as a proposed alternative to capitalism and the state is not simply an untested idea being proposed. It is an active, fluid, and diverse movement that changes and learns according to conditions that may exist. Numerous examples of explicitly anarchist and even non-anarchist projects serve as insights into how such a concept may be applied and take shape. With decentralization and an absence of hierarchy being defining features, it will form differently according to the unique conditions that an individual or community may face. The choice is not only between capitalism and the state. There exists a realistic alternative and it is anarchy.