A phrase used by
George Orwell in
Homage to Catalonia to describe the way in which the command structure of the
anarchist militias of the
Spanish Civil War functioned.
Anarchists hate
hierarchy, so they didn’t have any in their militias. Everyone was paid the same.
Officers were chosen
democratically on the basis of their
skill,
leadership ability, and
character. ("Hierarchy" here refers to an institutionalized
power structure, as in a traditional
military; leadership does not imply hierarchy.) This required the
soldiers to understand why
orders had to be followed, which required that they have
political consciousness. Orders were given "as
comrade to comrade and not as
superior to
inferior". According to Orwell, this did require time to develop, but then again, so did
traditional methods of training troops, and the anarchist soldiers were motivated by "class-
loyalty" whereas traditional troops were motivated by
fear. Apparently such troops were better than one would expect.