Anarchists are often mentioned in the newspaper and TV coverage of globalisation protests. They are often portrayed as violent criminals. Almost never are the ideas of anarchism explained. I'll take this time to outline some ideas to help your childish understanding of the subject.
First of all though I'd like to point out that rape, murder, looting and the emergence of feudalism and micro (later macro) dictatorships are happening in all areas of the world. America is leading the way. Just look at how they murdered 1000's in a false-flag operation known as 11/9 - Documentary in order to murder 10's of 1000's in the middle east while accelerating America's emerging police state
and protecting the dollar from the euro - Petrodollar Cycle
Secondly, forms of anarchy exist throughout the world today in rural populations. i.e. the Hadzi of Tanzania
The Spanish Revolution revealed that Anarchy can work successfully in city populations.
These did not fail, it's more a case of being crushed by Fascism (a.k.a. Capitalism). The betrayal of the Commies didn't help either.
Anarchism is a most misunderstood set of ideas. It is constantly portrayed as meaning chaos and violence. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anarchists believe in creating a classless society. They oppose capitalism as a system that puts the profits of a small minority of bosses before the needs of the vast majority. It is a system based on the exploitation of workers, a system that inevitably causes poverty, starvation and war. Anarchists oppose authority in the sense of opposing the 'right' of any small minority to have power over everyone else. They oppose the State (meaning government, army, police, courts) as an institution whose purpose is to enforce the will of a minority on the majority.
Anarchists believe in class struggle, that the bosses and workers have no common interest and that the workers must organise to take over the running of society. Ordinary workers are quite capable of running society. It would be done through a system of workers' councils with mass democracy which would be far more rational democratic and efficient than the existing set-up. Anarchists stand up for the freedom of the individual and oppose all oppression on the basis of race, sex or sexual orientation. The only limit on individual freedom should be that it does not interfere with the freedom of others.
From early on the anarchists opposed the building of bureaucratic State Capitalism in Russia. Initially they supported the revolution but were against the attempts of the Bolsheviks to take power into their own hands and create the seeds of the "dictatorship of the party". Anarchists hold that how you organise will reflect the type of society you want. Small minorities can not liberate the working class, the working class will have to emancipate itself. Democracy and accountability are the cornerstone of anarchist organisation. Direct action is the method. Rather than relying on small groups they say workers do have the power and strength to change society. That strength lies in their ability to organise at the place of work, a strength that should be used not only to win immediate reforms from the bosses but eventually to overthrow the whole system of capitalism. This belief is central to anarchism Anarchists do not only want workers' control of industry, they want a society where all relationships of authority are abolished and people do not look to others to run their lives.
Unfortunately, there are no anarchist/direct action groups anywhere near me, I've checked.
However, for anyone out there who wants advise on personal 'direct action' - SHOPLIFT!!! if possible get all your friends to start shoplifting.
This is beneficial in many ways
1. It fucks with the only thing companies care about - profit...
2. It's fun, that burst of adrenaline ahhh...
3. You can have all the best food and drink - no need for cheap processed shite on the five finger discount.
4. It leads to generosity because there's always plenty to share.
5. You can sell on e-gay, in order to buy the stuff that's not nickable.
Attack private property that's in public space.
VANDALIZE!!! - Companies spend millions on advertising but with a thick marker pen or paint you can advertise the truth about them on their billboards for free.
As well as shoplifting, just destroy products in supermarkets i.e. poke holes in the wrappers, pour liquids on floor etc.
Another justified target is big bro, at any opportunity destroy CCTV cameras or spray paint the lens.
Sabotage your workplace, get sacked.
As for 'passive resistance' - sign on, get housing benefit, take out unsecured loans with no intention of paying them back, refuse to pay tax
Basically, anything that costs corporations and/or the Government money, getting arrested costs the government tons, getting the gaol cost the government even more. Make them raise taxes and hit the poor harder (well they're not gonna tax the rich). They don't care about demonstrations and marches anymore, they actually help organize them because it makes people feel like they've been heard when really they've just been pacified. You've got to stop paying them and drain them as much as possible.
It's funny to note that the white bands and t-shirts in the G8 'make poverty history' were made in sweatshops in the EPZ.
You won't break the system, it'll break itself. But you can have fun helping to accelerate its demise. The important part for anarchists comes after the revolution in ensuring that power stays diluted and the land stays collectivised.
(disclaimer: most of this advice is illegal and you may get into trouble, but only if you get caught)
1 comment:
Perhaps reading is not a strong point of yours. Anarchy is exactly what these places have. Anarchism is not. Those letters make a large difference - about the difference between my statement and yours. I realise that anarchists use a different definition of the word than the rest of the world but to assume that I would be using the (tiny) minority definition rather than the accepted one is obtuse at best.
Nevertheless, excepting the fact that your misplaced patronising is based on your mistake, rather than mine... your arguments still don't hold water. What you have made is a classic 'straw-man' argument. Reprinted from your favourite reference source, wikipedia, just in case you don't know what one is:
Present a misrepresentation of the opponent's position, refute it, and pretend that the opponent's actual position has been refuted.
So ignoring that, why don't you explain, in short words if it helps:
1. How such a successful and in your opinion ultimately dominant social order as anarchism can ever work when every time it has been tried it has failed. (Failed means not succeeded - which it hasn't. More claims of sabotage by other systems do not hold water by virtue of there being no evidence to support this claim and simple evolutionary basis).
2. How point 1. can be overcome as it is a direct result of human nature, not capitalism.
3. How you stealing from some independent vendor affects the bottom line of some big multinational (I'll go into this in a bit more detail below as it is a fundamental flaw in your theory and self-indulgent practice of your claimed ideals).
4. How you can make any comparison between small communities and their success with anarchy (there are notable successes with communism too) and larger scale society.
Now, surely you realise that the corporations you resent so much build the actions of people such as yourself - stealing, stock damage - into their business? The price you pay includes the cost to cover all these losses. So they don't actually give a shit. They also have insurance. Who pays for that? Ultimately, all the other insurers with that company. At the end of the day, all the costs are passed back to the customer - and the only customers who feel it are the people who can't pass it onto their customers, because they don't have any - that being Joe Public. So for all your shoplifting and vandalism all you've done is taken money out of the pocket of some poor bastard who can't afford to feed his family because some dickhead keeps nicking all the Rizla in Asda.
And that's just as long as you only take from the big chains. The smaller, independent shops - that directly hurts them. They're not really capitalists - just dudes trying to make a living. And the whole raising taxes thing - as you yourself said - it doesn't affect the rich, only the poor. You're not gonig to cause a social revolt - maybe just a little more misery among the most unfortunate members of our society anyway.
If you take away people's prospects of livelihood, you are not an anarchist - this has nothing to do with their ideals. That's in effect what you are proposing - trying to justify it by saying your putting it to the man is just childish.
Communism makes far more sense as an ideal than anarchism anyway. But neither work. Simple as that. Bottom line is that your actions will not change anything. All they do is expose you to the risk of getting your head kicked in by some bouncers, losing your freedom by potentially getting put in jail, and all the knock-on effects that it has on your family by you not being there.
I also notice no replies to the other commenters who have also made equally valid rebuttals of your points.
You are welcome to start your own anarchist club if you were actually inclined enough to bother. Your passive actions (which largely just excuse your own bad behaviour) are the mark of someone who has no strength to their claimed convictions - you aren't doing anything positive. You aren't getting involved in politics. You aren't writing letters. You aren't doing anything which is any effort to yourself. You are instead meeting other goals - getting stuff you want for free. Acting like a tit and excusing your behaviour with some claim that it is for the greater good. I mean, you got chucked out of the student union for God's sake. The mean bouncers you were assaulting were some skinny computing students who were the last sort of people someone of your convictions should have given aggro to. And that chick whose nose you redistributed a few years back - did you think she might have joined the police at some far off point in the future? And the lady who lived downstairs who you frightened into calling the police, who then 'assaulted you' (an action which there is no witness to other than yourself) - this doesn't mean they didn't, but it's not like they were knocking doors looking for someone to beat up. She may have been a nosy, intolerant neighbour. But you frightening her half to death is just thuggery. I spoke to the poor, terrified woman. She didn't want to answer the door. This was a few days after the event. She was selling her flat and moving back to her last city, all because of you. Proud of yourself? I don't think I ever have been, or ever will be again, so ashamed. Nothing - nothing - can ever justify your behaviour. And you sit here on your made up pedestal trying to excuse several years of being a total scumbag by trying to say that it's George Bush's fault and that none of your drunken brawling would have happened if only everyone could get along like the Tanzanians.
You are acting like a spoilt little boy who, rather than admit each fault, makes another two and says it was all part of the masterplan. How your brawling opened your eyes to the injustices in the world. How stealing some carrots is justified by some philosopher whose worls you are currently reading.
Get a fucking grip. Seriously. You have a loving family - despite all that you have done - who all despreately want you to grow up and be a man. You have two beautiful, healthy daughters who need you to be with them, not stoned in a jail cell. You have a partner who has stood beside you despite all of your shit. Someday I hope you will realise that there are a lot of very important things which you are too pigheaded to appreciate which you have and don't seem to care about enough to even try and change.
And enough of this silly argument. It was fun enough to take apart but we have all had enough. It doesn't hold water. It never will. It doesn't excuse your behaviour - not now, not then, and not in the future. Why don't you put some of your wasted talent to some use before it really is too late? And eventually, it will be.
I mean, come on, are you really fooling yourself here?
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