My Stance on Property

Personally, I am not a dogmatist or ideologue. When it comes to the question of property, or how this and that should be done under anarchism, I don’t think that there is any one right way or single perfect solution. I believe that we ought to always consider the “particular circumstances of time and place.” What is the best arrangement under these particular circumstances is not necessarily the best arrangement under other circumstances.

I tend to think that modern America, and most other wealthy industrialized societies, would thrive and prosper most with a system that blends georgism, mutualism, and municipal socialism (along libertarian municipalist lines)—and this blend is what I have called Anarchist Social Democracy. However, I think that the Federation of Northern Syria-Rojava has made the right choice by embracing communism and trying to achieve a communistic society—because full communism does seem to be the best option for Rojava, given the circumstances. The people of Rojava have wisely chosen communist anarchism as their model. Likewise, the libertarian communistic arrangements of the old Russian obshchina/mirs under the volost system were the best option given the necessity of collective collaboration in agriculture in medieval Russia. (The sad truth of Russia is that they had a decent communistic arrangement until the rise of the Soviet Union and the introduction of Marxist-Leninism.) Under Western European mercantilism with its individualistic mode of production, usufructuary private property arrangements would probably have been tolerable if not ideal.

I am a libertarian socialist or anarchist, and I fall within the camp of anarchists that advocate direct democracy. I don’t believe in any system imposed by force. I think we need to establish institutions of direct democracy. We need local general assemblies of direct democracy confederated into an anarchistic system of governance. I prefer that the democratic confederation be consensus-oriented. I’m not quite sure what sort of property arrangements would arise from general consensus. I doubt that communism would arise if we had a consensus process or direct democracy in America. However, I do think that people would debate and discuss various options and ultimately settle on some mutually agreeable arrangement that is in everyone’s self-interest. In my opinion, the process is more important than the end result.