REAL LIVE RED BLOODED ANARCHY
mattd
mattd at useoz.com
Sat Dec 29 18:12:20 PST 2001
Anarchy: Revolution is the Solution.
by Vigil ANti 11:40am Sat Dec 29 '01 (Modified on 4:16pm Sat Dec 29 '01)
Reform is ineffective and only serves to further strengthen the Complex.
Anarchy holds many ideas worth considering in the quest towards a sane world.
A.1 What is anarchism?
Anarchism is a political theory which aims to create anarchy, "the absence
of a master, of a sovereign." [P-J Proudhon, What is Property , p. 264] In
other words, anarchism is a political theory which aims to create a society
within which individuals freely co-operate together as equals. As such
anarchism opposes all forms of hierarchical control - be that control by
the state or a capitalist - as harmful to the individual and their
individuality as well as unnecessary.
In the words of anarchist L. Susan Brown:
"While the popular understanding of anarchism is of a violent, anti-State
movement, anarchism is a much more subtle and nuanced tradition then a
simple opposition to government power. Anarchists oppose the idea that
power and domination are necessary for society, and instead advocate more
co-operative, anti-hierarchical forms of social, political and economic
organization." [The Politics of Individualism, p. 106]
However, "anarchism" and "anarchy" are undoubtedly the most misrepresented
ideas in political theory. Generally, the words are used to mean "chaos" or
"without order," and so, by implication, anarchists desire social chaos and
a return to the "laws of the jungle."
This process of misrepresentation is not without historical parallel. For
example, in countries which have considered government by one person
(monarchy) necessary, the words "republic" or "democracy" have been used
precisely like "anarchy," to imply disorder and confusion. Those with a
vested interest in preserving the status quo will obviously wish to imply
that opposition to the current system cannot work in practice, and that a
new form of society will only lead to chaos. Or, as Errico Malatesta
expresses it:
"since it was thought that government was necessary and that without
government there could only be disorder and confusion, it was natural and
logical that anarchy, which means absence of government, should sound like
absence of order." [Anarchy, p. 12].
Anarchists want to change this "common-sense" idea of "anarchy," so people
will see that government and other hierarchical social relationships are
both harmful and unnecessary:
"Change opinion, convince the public that government is not only
unnecessary, but extremely harmful, and then the word anarchy, just because
it means absence of government, will come to mean for everybody: natural
order, unity of human needs and the interests of all, complete freedom
within complete solidarity." [Ibid., pp. 12-13].
This FAQ is part of the process of changing the commonly-held ideas
regarding anarchism and the meaning of anarchy.
A.1.1 What does "anarchy" mean?
The word "anarchy" is from the Greek, prefix an (or a), meaning "not," "the
want of," "the absence of," or "the lack of", plus archos, meaning "a
ruler," "director", "chief," "person in charge," or "authority." Or, as
Peter Kropotkin put it, Anarchy comes from the Greek words meaning
"contrary to authority." [Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets, p. 284]
While the Greek words anarchos and anarchia are often taken to mean "having
no government" or "being without a government," as can be seen, the strict,
original meaning of anarchism was not simply "no government." "An-archy"
means "without a ruler," or more generally, "without authority," and it is
in this sense that anarchists have continually used the word. For example,
we find Kropotkin arguing that anarchism "attacks not only capital, but
also the main sources of the power of capitalism: law, authority, and the
State." [Op. Cit., p. 150] For anarchists, anarchy means "not necessarily
absence of order, as is generally supposed, but an absence of rule."
[Benjamin Tucker, Instead of a Book, p. 13] Hence David Weick's excellent
summary:
"Anarchism can be understood as the generic social and political idea that
expresses negation of all power, sovereignty, domination, and hierarchical
division, and a will to their dissolution. . . Anarchism is therefore more
than anti-statism . . . [even if] government (the state) . . . is,
appropriately, the central focus of anarchist critique." [Reinventing
Anarchy, p. 139]
For this reason, rather than being purely anti-government or anti-state,
anarchism is primarily a movement against hierarchy. Why? Because hierarchy
is the organizational structure that embodies authority. Since the state is
the "highest" form of hierarchy, anarchists are, by definition, anti-state;
but this is not a sufficient definition of anarchism. This means that real
anarchists are opposed to all forms of hierarchical organization, not only
the state. In the words of Brian Morris:
"The term anarchy comes from the Greek, and essentially means 'no ruler.'
Anarchists are people who reject all forms of government or coercive
authority, all forms of hierarchy and domination. They are therefore
opposed to what the Mexican anarchist Flores Magon called the 'sombre
trinity' -- state, capital and the church. Anarchists are thus opposed to
both capitalism and to the state, as well as to all forms of religious
authority. But anarchists also seek to establish or bring about by varying
means, a condition of anarchy, that is, a decentralized society without
coercive institutions, a society organised through a federation of
voluntary associations." ["Anthropology and Anarchism," Anarchy: A Journal
of Desire Armed, no. 45, p. 38]
Reference to "hierarchy" in this context is a fairly recent development --
the "classical" anarchists such as Proudhon, Bakunin and Kropotkin did use
the word, but rarely (they usually preferred "authority," which was used as
short-hand for "authoritarian"). However, it's clear from their writings
that theirs was a philosophy against hierarchy, against any inequality of
power or privileges between individuals. Bakunin spoke of this when he
attacked "official" authority but defended "natural influence," and also
when he said:
"Do you want to make it impossible for anyone to oppress his fellow-man?
Then make sure that no one shall possess power." [The Political Philosophy
of Bakunin, p. 271]
As Jeff Draughn notes, "while it has always been a latent part of the
'revolutionary project,' only recently has this broader concept of
anti-hierarchy arisen for more specific scrutiny. Nonetheless, the root of
this is plainly visible in the Greek roots of the word 'anarchy.'" [Between
Anarchism and Libertarianism: Defining a New Movement]
We stress that this opposition to hierarchy is, for anarchists, not limited
to just the state or government. It includes all authoritarian economic and
social relationships as well as political ones, particularly those
associated with capitalist property and wage labor. This can be seen from
Proudhon's argument that "Capital . . . in the political field is analogous
to government . . . The economic idea of capitalism . . . [and] the
politics of government or of authority . . . [are] identical . . . [and]
linked in various ways. . . What capital does to labor . . . the State
[does] to liberty . . ." [quoted by Max Nettlau, A Short History of
Anarchism, pp. 43-44] Thus we find Emma Goldman opposing capitalism as it
involved people selling their labor and so ensuring that "the worker's
inclination and judgement are subordinated to the will of a master." [Red
Emma Speaks, p. 36] Forty years earlier Bakunin made the same point when he
argued that under the current system "the worker sells his person and his
liberty for a given time" to the capitalist in exchange for a wage [Op.
Cit., p. 187].
Thus "anarchy" means more than just "no government," it means opposition to
all forms of authoritarian organization and hierarchy. In Kropotkin's
words, "the origin of the anarchist inception of society . . . [lies in]
the criticism . . . of the hierarchical organizations and the authoritarian
conceptions of society; and . . . the analysis of the tendencies that are
seen in the progressive movements of mankind." [Kropotkin's Revolutionary
Pamphlets, p. 158] Thus any attempt to assert that anarchy is purely
anti-state is a misrepresentation of the word and the way it has been used
by the anarchist movement. As Brian Morris argues, "when one examines the
writings of classical anarchists. . . as well as the character of anarchist
movements. . . it is clearly evident that it has never had this limited
vision [of just being against the state]. It has always challenged all
forms of authority and exploitation, and has been equally critical of
capitalism and religion as it has been of the state." [Op. Cit., p. 40]
And, just to state the obvious, anarchy does not mean chaos nor do
anarchists seek to create chaos or disorder. Instead, we wish to create a
society based upon individual freedom and voluntary co-operation. In other
words, order from the bottom up, not disorder imposed from the top down by
authorities.
A.1.2 What does "anarchism" mean?
To quote Peter Kropotkin, Anarchism is "the no-government system of
socialism." [Kropotkin's Revolutionary Pamphlets, p. 46]. In other words,
"the abolition of exploitation and oppression of man by man, that is the
abolition of private property [i.e. capitalism] and government." [Errico
Malatesta, "Towards Anarchism," in Man!, M. Graham (Ed), p. 75]
Anarchism, therefore, is a political theory that aims to create a society
which is without political, economic or social hierarchies. Anarchists
maintain that anarchy, the absence of rulers, is a viable form of social
system and so work for the maximization of individual liberty and social
equality. They see the goals of liberty and equality as mutually
self-supporting. Or, in Bakunin's famous dictum:
"We are convinced that freedom without Socialism is privilege and
injustice, and that Socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality."
[The Political Philosophy of Bakunin, p. 269]
The history of human society proves this point. Liberty without equality is
only liberty for the powerful, and equality without liberty is impossible
and a justification for slavery.
While there are many different types of anarchism (from individualist
anarchism to communist-anarchism -- see section A.3
<http://flag.blackened.net/sai/faq/secA3.html> for more details), there has
always been two common positions at the core of all of them -- opposition
to government and opposition to capitalism. In the words of the
individualist-anarchist Benjamin Tucker, anarchism insists on "the
abolition of the State and the abolition of usury; on no more government of
man by man, and no more exploitation of man by man." [cited in Native
American Anarchism - A Study of Left-Wing American Individualism by Eunice
Schuster, p. 140] All anarchists view profit, interest and rent as usury
(i.e. as exploitation) and so oppose them and the conditions that create
them just as much as they oppose government and the State.
More generally, in the words of L. Susan Brown, the "unifying link" within
anarchism "is a universal condemnation of hierarchy and domination and a
willingness to fight for the freedom of the human individual." [The
Politics of Individualism, p. 108] For anarchists, a person cannot be free
if they are subject to state or capitalist authority.
So Anarchism is a political theory which advocates the creation of anarchy,
a society based on the maxim of "no rulers." To achieve this, "[i]n common
with all socialists, the anarchists hold that the private ownership of
land, capital, and machinery has had its time; that it is condemned to
disappear: and that all requisites for production must, and will, become
the common property of society, and be managed in common by the producers
of wealth. And. . . they maintain that the ideal of the political
organization of society is a condition of things where the functions of
government are reduced to minimum. . . [and] that the ultimate aim of
society is the reduction of the functions of government to nil -- that is,
to a society without government, to an-archy" [Peter Kropotkin, Op. Cit.,
p. 46]
Thus anarchism is both positive and negative. It analyses and critiques
current society while at the same time offering a vision of a potential new
society -- a society that fulfills certain human needs which the current
one denies. These needs, at their most basic, are liberty, equality and
solidarity, which will be discussed in section A.2
<http://flag.blackened.net/sai/faq/secA2.html>.
Anarchism unites critical analysis with hope, for, as Bakunin pointed out,
"the urge to destroy is a creative urge." One cannot build a better society
without understanding what is wrong with the present one.
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