Editing Autarky (section)

=== 19th and early 20th centuries ===
In some areas of the [[antebellum South]], the enslaved and free black populations forged self-sufficient economies in an effort to avoid reliance on the larger economy controlled by the [[Planter class|planter aristocracy]]. In eastern North Carolina [[Maroon (people)|maroon]] communities, often based in swampy areas, used a combination of agriculture and fishing to forge a "hidden economy" and secure survival.{{sfn|Cecelski|2012|pp=128–130}} The relative self-reliance of these maritime African-American populations provided the basis for a strongly abolitionist political culture{{sfn|Cecelski|2012|pp=179–201}} that made increasingly radical demands after the start of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Due to tense relations with some Union commanders and political factions during and after that war, these communities "focused their organizing efforts on developing their own institutions, their own sense of self-reliance, and their own political strength".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway and the Slaves' Civil War |last=Cecelski |first= David S. |date=2015 |isbn=978-1469621906 |location=London |publisher=[[University of Carolina Press]] |oclc=900011294}}</ref>

Autarkic ambitions<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America |last=Lawrence |first=Goodwyn |isbn=978-0195024173 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |oclc=3650099 |year=1978 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/populistmomentsh0000good}}</ref> can also be seen in the [[People's Party (United States)|populist]] backlash to the exploitations of free trade in the late 19th-century and in many early [[Utopian socialism|utopian socialist]] movements. [[Benefit society|Mutual aid societies]] like the [[National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry|Grange]] and [[Sovereigns of Industry]] attempted to set up self-sufficient economies (with varying degrees of success) in an effort to be less dependent on what they saw as an exploitative economic system and to generate more power to push for reforms.

Early socialist movements used these autarkic efforts to build their base with institutions like the [[Bourse du Travail|Bourse du travail]], socialist canteens and food assistance. These played a major role in securing workers' loyalty and building those parties into increasingly powerful institutions (especially in Europe) throughout the late 19th and early 20th-centuries. Through these cooperatives,<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Guns of August: The proud tower |last1=Tuchman |first1=Barbara W. |year=2012 |publisher=Library of America |last2=MacMillan |first2=Margaret |isbn=978-1598531459 |location=New York |page=1046 |oclc=731911132}}</ref> "workers bought Socialist bread and Socialist shoes, drank Socialist beer, arranged for Socialist vacations and obtained a Socialist education."

Local and regional farming autarkies in many areas of Africa and Southeast Asia were displaced<ref>{{Cite book|title=Seeing like a state : how certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed|last=Scott|first= James C.|year=1998|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0300070163|location=New Haven|oclc=37392803|url=https://archive.org/details/seeinglikestateh00scot_0}}</ref> by European colonial administrations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who sought to push [[smallholding|smallholder]] villages into larger plantations that, while less productive, they could more easily control. The self-sufficient communities and societies ended by colonialism were later cited as a useful example by African anarchists<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mbah |first1=Sam |title=African anarchism: The History of a Movement |year=1997 |publisher=See Sharp Press |last2=Igariwey |first2=I. E. |isbn=1884365051 |location=Tucson |pages=27–53 |oclc=37510629}}</ref> in the late 20th century.

Communist movements embraced or dismissed autarky as a goal at different times. In her survey of [[anarchism]] in the late 1800s, [[Voltairine de Cleyre|Voltairine De Cleyre]] summarized the autarkic goals of early anarchist socialists and communists as "small, independent, self-resourceful, freely-operating communes".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The selected works of Voltairine de Cleyre: poems, essays, sketches and stories, 1885–1911 |last1=De Cleyre |first1=Voltairine |author1-link=Voltairine de Cleyre |last2=Berkman |first2=Alexander |author2-link=Alexander Berkman |last3=Havel |first3=Hippolyte |author3-link=Hippolyte Havel |year=2016 |isbn=978-1849352567 |location=Chico |oclc=938996661 |publisher=[[AK Press]]}}</ref> In particular, [[Peter Kropotkin]] advocated local and regional autarky integrating agriculture and industry, instead of the international division of labor.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kinna |first=Ruth |author-link=Ruth Kinna |s2cid=143622322 |year=2007|title=Fields of Vision: Kropotkin and Revolutionary Change |journal=SubStance |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=67–86 |doi=10.1353/sub.2007.0032 |jstor=25195126 |issn=0049-2426}}</ref> His work repeatedly held up communities "that needed neither aid or protection from without" as a more resilient model.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kropotkin |first=Petr Alekseevich |author-link=Peter Kropotkin |title=Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution |title-link=Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution |date=2006 |publisher=Dover Publications |isbn=0486449130 |edition=Dover Publications |location=Mineola |page=119 |oclc=62282705}}</ref>

Some socialist communities like [[Charles Fourier]]'s [[Phalanstère|phalansteries]] strove for self-sufficiency. The early [[Soviet Union|USSR]] in the [[Russian Civil War]] strove for a self-sufficient economy with [[war communism]],<ref>{{Cite book |title=Red victory: A History of the Russian Civil War |last=Lincoln |first=W. Bruce |year=1999 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=978-0306809095 |location=New York |oclc=40510540}}</ref> but later pursued international trade vigorously under the [[New Economic Policy]]. However, while the Soviet government during the latter period encouraged international trade, it also permitted and even encouraged local autarkies in many peasant villages.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The making of the Soviet system: essays in the social history of interwar Russia |last=Lewin |first=Moshe |date=1994 |publisher=New Press |isbn=978-1565841253 |location=New York |oclc=30841557}}</ref>

Sometimes leftist groups clashed over autarkic projects. During the [[Spanish Civil War]], the anarcho-syndicalist [[Confederación Nacional del Trabajo|CNT]] and the socialist [[Unión General de Trabajadores|UGT]] had created economic cooperatives in the [[Levante, Spain|Levante]] that they claimed were "managing the economic life of the region independent of the government".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Story of the iron column: militant anarchism in the Spanish Civil War |last1=Abel |first1=Paz |last2=Sharkey |first2=Paul |isbn=978-1849350655 |location=Oakland, CA |page=170 |oclc=896845543 |date=2011 |publisher=[[AK Press]]}}</ref> But communist factions responded by cracking down on these cooperatives in an attempt to place economic control back in the hands of the central government.

Some right-wing totalitarian governments have claimed autarky as a goal, developing national industry and imposing high tariffs but have crushed other autarkic movements and often engaged in extensive outside economic activity. In 1921, Italian [[Italian Fascism|fascists]] attacked existing left-wing autarkic projects at the behest of large landowners, destroying roughly 119 labor chambers, 107 cooperatives and 83 peasant offices that year alone.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Italian fascism: its origins & development |last=De Grand |first=Alexander J. |year=2000 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |isbn=978-0803266223 |edition=3rd |location=Lincoln |pages=31–33 |oclc=42462895}}</ref> [[Nazi Germany]] under economics minister [[Hjalmar Schacht]], and later [[Walther Funk]], still pursued major international trade, albeit under a different system, to escape the terms of the [[Treaty of Versailles]], satisfy business elites and prepare for war. The regime would continue to conduct trade, including with countries like the United States, including connections with major companies like [[IBM]] and [[The Coca-Cola Company|Coca-Cola]].<ref name="ibm">{{Cite book |last=Edwin |first=Black |url=https://archive.org/details/ibmholocaustt00blac |title=IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful corporation |date=2001 |publisher=Crown Publishers |isbn=978-0609607992 |location=New York |oclc=45896166}}</ref>