I’ve long considered myself an anarchist and while I’m not very well read, I’m also not a baby anarchist. I haven’t read too many books on theory, instead I mostly learn from podcasts and discussions with peers. For whatever reason, I struggle to find the mental energy to get through books. I’m vaguely familiar with communalism but I’m still struggling with conflicting information.
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Is communalism compatible with anarchism? I’ve come across people who identify as both as well as communalists who view their philosophy and goals as distinct from anarchism.
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Is communalism statist or anti-statist? I’ve heard it described as anti-statist, yet depictions of it (when distinguished from anarchism) sound to me like they aim to establish a highly decentralized and directly democratic confederation of states.
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How do anarchists and communalists in this community feel about the others’ praxis? I’m intrigued by both, including especifismo and libertarian municipalism.
Communalism was theorized in the mid 20th century, we already had nation states and supranational bodies like the UN in existence. It is not a primitivist program. Instead of centralized national governance, it calls for a federation of communes and lays out a mechanism for them to make decisions over large amounts of territory/large populations as necessary via instantly-recallable delegates & community assemblies.
For perspective, hierarchical systems are not very good at governing large scale complex populations, as we can see from all available evidence.