A ideology and philosophy first coined by Peter Kropotkin in Conquest of Bread. It is the idea of a
society based around a loosely connected of
free-association communes based off of a gift economy.
Anarchism being a ideology rejecting heirarchial
government and authority in favor of
free-associations and Communism being an economic philosophy promoting economic equality. Anarchist Communism is, but one idea regarding the economic structure of an anarchist thought, other ideologies include Anarchist Syndicalism, Anarchist
Capitalism, Anarchist Collectivism, and Anarchist Individualism and others.
Anarchist Communism was a prominent ideology in the
American anarchist movement in the early 1900s with prominent thinkers such as Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Earlier Anarchists who could be identified as Anarchist Communists included Dyer D. Lum, August Spies, and many of the Haymarket Martyrs who were executed as a result of the Haymarket Riots in 1886.
Anarchist Communism as an active and serious ideology in recent years especially after the USSR persecuted and imprisoned many members of the Anarchist movement during the years under Lenin and
Stalin among others. A small comeback of Anarchist thought including Anarchist
Communist thought has come about within the Anarcho-Punk and Crust Punk musics along with other leftist subcultures.
Anarchist Communism has recieved a negative stigma (along with all other forms of Anarchist thought) as a result of many anti-anarchist propaganda and laws (such as a law exiling
non-citizen anarchists) in America, the USSR, and the commericalization of the symbology and ideas.
The symbol of Anarchist Communism and Anarchist Syndicalism is a red and black flag, with half being one color and the other half being the other color split diaganolly.
