So I've been thinking a lot about the A-word a lot lately. Both a joke and a cause to fight for, depending on who you ask. Detractors claim that anarchy is either all ego-inflating status gaining talk or mindless pointless action. Proponents claim they are fighting the good fight. Fight a great battle. Fighting against a many headed hydra which deserves to die.
I suspect everyone is right.
From the black bloc to the protesters, from crimethinc to food not bombs, it isn't a myth to say that Anarchism is having little impact on society. After countless numbers of pamphlets and thousands of direct actions. Capitalism still advances relentlessly, grinding human souls into the dust. Anarchists are not taken seriously as a whole, and main stream society still sees anarchy as no government at all and people running around killing each other and raping their daughters. Everything has been, needless to say, quite ineffective on a large scale. This is why many anarchists give up and go home. Or drop in and get jobs. Or sell drugs and move on.
And yet, I said everyone was right, didn't I? Which means the fight is worth fighting. Because while Anarchists are not effective overall, the Capitalist machine still is forcing us to spend large swaths of our lives doing things we hate, for money we don't care about, to buy things we get tired of in a week. A system in which the poor are literally worked to death to make others wealthy. A system in which even conditions are so bad, for some, that nets are put over windows to prevent suicide. Capitalism still produces a society in which we feel dead in our souls (if you like) and sick in our hearts. Any struggle against such a monster as that is worth fighting, at least in my estimation.
So what is the solution? We need something concrete and we need to create instead of destroy. People look at senseless destruction and it either frightens them, or they ask what good it is. People look ideas, which are our creations, and they ask how they will work in real life. What we need is a working community in modern times, that maintains a modern standard of living, as living proof that anarchism is possible. We need a big building filled with anarchists, and this building has to have all the comforts of home. Internet, electricity, the whole nine yards. Everything people are used to in THEIR homes. So that when people come to us to see how we live, we can show them that we live like them, except without all the bullshit that they don't like. We need a society in which the jobs of its occupants are not working, but pursuing art and science and their very own projects, whatever they may be, that will make them happy. What we NEED is a little Anarchist Island floating about in a big old capitalist sea. When people come to us and see that we live life in which we all work together to be able to do what we want and still live just as comfortably as they do, they WILL join us. They have literally no reason not to.
An example of this working in recent history is the Kibbutzim of Palestine. For those of you that don't know, The Jewish nation of Israel was literally created by the united nations. They went to Palestine post WW2 and they asked who was living the better lives, the Palestinians or the Jews? The Jews had created a network of communities that were far more successful than the country they existed in. They were cleaner, they were safer, they were less harsh and more educated. The nations of the world saw this, and literally gave the lands to the Jews to form a nation with, dissolving Palestine in large part.
This is what we need to do here in America. Create these communities and let them speak for us as to why we should exist. Except we need to do this in urban areas, building by building, neighborhood by neighborhood, until Anarchists run whole cities, and then we will have the authority to change things. Then we will have a say and people will know we exist. And they will see that our ideas, varied as they are, are right.
So you ask me, we need all of this. That is obvious. I agree. Now how do we get it? We need a new type of organization. One that combines the direct action of the black bloc with the pamphlets of the protesters, and the services of organizations such as food not bombs. This new organization needs to be part political party, part activist front, part intellectual organization, and even part gang. The strong arm of the black bloc needs to acquire the materials needed to support the anarchists and pay for the buildings, the men of plans and ideas are needed to recruit people to the cause and interact with the larger world on our behalf, as well as to fundraise, and the folks that work in areas like food not bombs are needed to glue it all together and make it all work. And yes, we need a leaders. People willing and able to take the best routes to forward our cause and to keep all the many anarchists from giving up or splintering off. We need to decide to start getting serious. We need to venture into areas both legal and illegal to create these communities, these Modern communities, these full-service societies that will prove to the world that we are legitimate. We need to stop discussing what it means to BE anarchists and BECOME anarchists.
Do we need the protesters and the idea men? yes but we need them recruiting and fundraising.
Do we need the guerrilla fighters? yes, but we need them protecting our events, getting the materials that are needed to create our society, and to keep the authorities from destroying us.
Do we need the Anarchists who create resources like FNB and various food and mechanical co-ops, as well as legal teams? Yes, but we need them outreaching to the world, not the anarchists, and we need them to help do the things that need doing in our communities.
We need to come together, in short, and we need to take a few pages from the Capitalist world and get organized and get moving.
P.S. There are obviously a lot of things I didn't cover here. And the group or picture I've painted may not sound very anarchist at all, but those are questions I can answer and are exactly what I'm trying to avoid talking about here.
I want to hear ideas for this organization, for this plan.
I WANT TO HEAR WHAT YOU THINK WE NEED TO MAKE THIS WORK, NOT IF IT CAN OR CANNOT WORK, AS THIS IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF ARGUMENT THAT SKEWERS US.
I suspect everyone is right.
From the black bloc to the protesters, from crimethinc to food not bombs, it isn't a myth to say that Anarchism is having little impact on society. After countless numbers of pamphlets and thousands of direct actions. Capitalism still advances relentlessly, grinding human souls into the dust. Anarchists are not taken seriously as a whole, and main stream society still sees anarchy as no government at all and people running around killing each other and raping their daughters. Everything has been, needless to say, quite ineffective on a large scale. This is why many anarchists give up and go home. Or drop in and get jobs. Or sell drugs and move on.
And yet, I said everyone was right, didn't I? Which means the fight is worth fighting. Because while Anarchists are not effective overall, the Capitalist machine still is forcing us to spend large swaths of our lives doing things we hate, for money we don't care about, to buy things we get tired of in a week. A system in which the poor are literally worked to death to make others wealthy. A system in which even conditions are so bad, for some, that nets are put over windows to prevent suicide. Capitalism still produces a society in which we feel dead in our souls (if you like) and sick in our hearts. Any struggle against such a monster as that is worth fighting, at least in my estimation.
So what is the solution? We need something concrete and we need to create instead of destroy. People look at senseless destruction and it either frightens them, or they ask what good it is. People look ideas, which are our creations, and they ask how they will work in real life. What we need is a working community in modern times, that maintains a modern standard of living, as living proof that anarchism is possible. We need a big building filled with anarchists, and this building has to have all the comforts of home. Internet, electricity, the whole nine yards. Everything people are used to in THEIR homes. So that when people come to us to see how we live, we can show them that we live like them, except without all the bullshit that they don't like. We need a society in which the jobs of its occupants are not working, but pursuing art and science and their very own projects, whatever they may be, that will make them happy. What we NEED is a little Anarchist Island floating about in a big old capitalist sea. When people come to us and see that we live life in which we all work together to be able to do what we want and still live just as comfortably as they do, they WILL join us. They have literally no reason not to.
An example of this working in recent history is the Kibbutzim of Palestine. For those of you that don't know, The Jewish nation of Israel was literally created by the united nations. They went to Palestine post WW2 and they asked who was living the better lives, the Palestinians or the Jews? The Jews had created a network of communities that were far more successful than the country they existed in. They were cleaner, they were safer, they were less harsh and more educated. The nations of the world saw this, and literally gave the lands to the Jews to form a nation with, dissolving Palestine in large part.
This is what we need to do here in America. Create these communities and let them speak for us as to why we should exist. Except we need to do this in urban areas, building by building, neighborhood by neighborhood, until Anarchists run whole cities, and then we will have the authority to change things. Then we will have a say and people will know we exist. And they will see that our ideas, varied as they are, are right.
So you ask me, we need all of this. That is obvious. I agree. Now how do we get it? We need a new type of organization. One that combines the direct action of the black bloc with the pamphlets of the protesters, and the services of organizations such as food not bombs. This new organization needs to be part political party, part activist front, part intellectual organization, and even part gang. The strong arm of the black bloc needs to acquire the materials needed to support the anarchists and pay for the buildings, the men of plans and ideas are needed to recruit people to the cause and interact with the larger world on our behalf, as well as to fundraise, and the folks that work in areas like food not bombs are needed to glue it all together and make it all work. And yes, we need a leaders. People willing and able to take the best routes to forward our cause and to keep all the many anarchists from giving up or splintering off. We need to decide to start getting serious. We need to venture into areas both legal and illegal to create these communities, these Modern communities, these full-service societies that will prove to the world that we are legitimate. We need to stop discussing what it means to BE anarchists and BECOME anarchists.
Do we need the protesters and the idea men? yes but we need them recruiting and fundraising.
Do we need the guerrilla fighters? yes, but we need them protecting our events, getting the materials that are needed to create our society, and to keep the authorities from destroying us.
Do we need the Anarchists who create resources like FNB and various food and mechanical co-ops, as well as legal teams? Yes, but we need them outreaching to the world, not the anarchists, and we need them to help do the things that need doing in our communities.
We need to come together, in short, and we need to take a few pages from the Capitalist world and get organized and get moving.
P.S. There are obviously a lot of things I didn't cover here. And the group or picture I've painted may not sound very anarchist at all, but those are questions I can answer and are exactly what I'm trying to avoid talking about here.
I want to hear ideas for this organization, for this plan.
I WANT TO HEAR WHAT YOU THINK WE NEED TO MAKE THIS WORK, NOT IF IT CAN OR CANNOT WORK, AS THIS IS EXACTLY THE KIND OF ARGUMENT THAT SKEWERS US.
