Editing Anarchism and violence (section)

===Discourse on violent and non-violent means===
Some anarchists see violent revolution as necessary in the abolition of capitalist society, while others advocate non-violent methods.  
[[Errico Malatesta]], an [[anarchist-communist|anarcho-communist]], propounded that it is "necessary to destroy with violence, since one cannot do otherwise, the violence which denies [the means of life and for development] to the workers."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/anarchists/malatesta/rev_haste.html |title=The revolutionary haste by Errico Malatesta<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=2003-01-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030210201006/http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/anarchists/malatesta/rev_haste.html |archive-date=2003-02-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref> As he put it in ''[[Umanità Nova]]'' (no. 125, September 6, 1921):

{{quote|It is our aspiration and our aim that everyone should become socially conscious and effective; but to achieve this end, it is necessary to provide all with the means of life and for development, and it is therefore necessary to destroy with violence, since one cannot do otherwise, the violence that denies these means to the workers.<ref>[[Umanità Nova]], n. 125, September 6, 1921. A translation can be found at [http://www.marxists.org/archive/malatesta/1921/09/haste.htm The revolutionary haste by Errico Malatesta]. Retrieved June 17, 2006.</ref>}}

Anarchists with this view advocate violence insofar as they see it to be necessary in ridding the world of exploitation, and especially states.

[[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]] argued in favor of a [[non-violent revolution]] through a process of [[dual power]] in which libertarian socialist institutions would be established and form associations enabling the formation of an expanding network within the existing state-capitalist framework with the intention of eventually rendering both the state and the capitalist economy obsolete. The progression towards violence in anarchism stemmed, in part, from the massacres of some of the communes inspired by the ideas of Proudhon and others. Many anarcho-communists began to see a need for revolutionary violence to counteract the violence inherent in both capitalism and government.<ref>Goldman, Emma. 'Anarchism and Other Essays' Mother Earth (1910) p. 113.</ref>

[[Anarcho-pacifism]] is a tendency within the anarchist movement which rejects the use of violence in the struggle for social change.<ref name="Anarchism 1962">{{Cite book |last=Woodcock |first=George |title=[[Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements]] |year=1962}}</ref> The main early influences were the thought of [[Henry David Thoreau]]<ref name="ppu.org.uk"/> and [[Leo Tolstoy]].<ref name="Anarchism 1962"/><ref name="ppu.org.uk"/> It developed "mostly in Holland, Britain, and the United States, before and during the Second World War".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodcock |first=George |title=[[Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements]] |year=1962}}, p. 21: "Finally, somewhat aside from the curve that runs from [[anarchist individualism]] to [[anarcho-syndicalism]], we come to [[Tolstoyanism]] and to pacifist anarchism that appeared, mostly in Holland, Britain, and the United states, before and after the Second World War and which has continued since then in the deep in the anarchist involvement in the protests against nuclear armament."</ref> Opposition to the use of violence has not prohibited anarcho-pacifists from accepting the principle of resistance or even [[Nonviolent revolution|revolutionary action]] provided it does not result in violence; it was in fact their approval of such forms of opposition to power that lead many anarcho-pacifists to endorse the [[anarcho-syndicalist]] concept of the general strike as the great revolutionary weapon. Later anarcho-pacifists have also come to endorse the non-violent strategy of dual power.

Other anarchists have believed that violence is justified, especially in [[self-defense]], as a way to provoke social upheaval which could lead to a social revolution.

[[Peter Gelderloos]] criticizes the idea that nonviolence is the only way to fight for a better world. According to Gelderloos, pacifism as an ideology serves the interests of the state and is hopelessly caught up psychologically with the control schema of patriarchy and white supremacy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gelderloos|first=Peter|title=How Nonviolence Protects the State|year=2007|publisher=South End Press|location=Cambridge, MA|isbn=978-0-89608-772-9|page=128}}</ref> The influential publishing collective [[CrimethInc.]] notes that "violence" and "nonviolence" are politicized terms that are used inconsistently in discourse, depending on whether or not a writer seeks to legitimize the actor in question. They argue that "[i]t's not strategic [for anarchists] to focus on delegitimizing each other's efforts rather than coordinating to act together where we overlap". For this reason, both CrimethInc. and Gelderloos advocate for [[diversity of tactics]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://crimethinc.com/2012/03/27/the-illegitimacy-of-violence-the-violence-of-legitimacy|title=CrimethInc.: The Illegitimacy of Violence, the Violence of Legitimacy|first=CrimethInc Ex-Workers|last=Collective|website=CrimethInc.|date=27 March 2012 }}</ref> [[Albert Meltzer]] criticised extreme pacifism as authoritarian, believing that "The cult of extreme nonviolence always implies an elite." However, he did believe that less extreme pacifism was compatible with anarchism.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meltzer|first=Albert|url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/albert-meltzer-anarchism-arguments-for-and-against#toc14|title=Anarchism: Arguments for and Against|date=1981|publisher=Cienfuegos Press|isbn=978-0-904564-44-0|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Berkman with Frick (1892).jpg|thumb|[[Alexander Berkman]]'s attempt to assassinate industrialist [[Henry Clay Frick]], as illustrated by W. P. Snyder for ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'' in 1892.<ref name="Gage2009"/>|alt=Two men are sitting at a desk while a third man enters the office carrying a gun]]

[[File:Bomb French Chamber 1893.jpg|thumb|right|Artist's rendition of the bomb thrown by the anarchist [[Auguste Vaillant]] into the Chamber of Deputies of the French National Assembly in December 1893<ref name="Abidor"/>]]