"PROPERTY IS THEFT"

Anarchists oppose private property (meaning land and means of production, in particular) and class distinctions based on wealth as innately and ultimately oppressive. Once you have established property rights, you will begin to have some people growing more powerful at the expense of their neighbors, as they acquire (by whatever means) more land. These people become the owning or ruling class.

Acting selfishly, they thereby gain considerable power. By owning the land, they decide what gets done (or doesn't get done) on it. They, in effect, become the government.

For those who have no land, it is a bad arrangement; they are forced to work for one of the owners, or starve. Thus, what should be fundamental rights, the rights to life and liberty, become commodities to be exchanged for money, which is then used to buy the very things the landowner deprives the person of in the first place--food, shelter, etc.

Logically, the landowners strive to protect their holdings. This thinking eventually yields the state, whose purpose is to protect the interests of the landed elite, through government and law enforcement. States exist to ensure that property remains in private, and not public hands--note that even socialist states do this; in the place of private owners, you have party members. They are largely interchangeable. What's important here is that some people are freed from the necessity of work by virtue of their ill-gotten wealth.

This is why anarchists condemn the idea of private property: it produces class distinctions and a disparity of income, and leads to poverty for many and the creation of the state, which invariably becomes oppressive over time. For the inordinate gain of an elite, many are made to suffer. Capitalists say the equivalent of "stuff it" to the rest of us, and are backed by the power of the state. Some gain, and many lose. Is this a just social arrangement?

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