Anarchism: Encyclopedia II - Anarchism - Issues

Anarchism - Issues

Anarchism - Conceptions of an anarchist society

See also: Anarchism and Society

Many political philosophers justify support of the state as a means of regulating violence, so that the destruction caused by human conflict is minimized and fair relationships are established. Anarchists argue that pursuit of these ends does not justify the establishment of a state, and in fact many argue that the state is incompatible with those goals. Anarchists argue that the state helps to create a monopoly on violence, and uses force and violence to expand and protect elite interests. Much effort has been dedicated to explaining how anarchist societies would handle criminality.

Anarchism - Environmentalism

See also: Green anarchism

Eco-anarchism generally is a belief in deep ecology, direct action against earth-destroying institutions and systems, and generally a critique of industrial capitalism, although generally not against civilization per se.

There is a significant anarchist element to the environmental movement, including those that are known as eco-anarchists and green-anarchists. Eco-anarchism is generally a broad term that broadly refers to anarchists engaged in the earth liberation movement. The largest segment of 'eco-anarchists' is the Earth First! movement, a network of various collectives formed along anarchist principles. Earth First! generally engages in direct action and eco-defense, such as tree sitting and 'locking down'. In the modern anarchist movement, eco-anarchists generally adhere to deep ecology, which is a worldview that embraces biodiversity and sustainability. Eco-feminism is also sometimes considered the form of eco-anarchist feminism.

Anarchism - Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression

Anti-Racist Action is a loose federation of groups that focus on confronting (sometimes violently) racist agitators, such as the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazis when they appear in public. ARA chapters like many of anti-authoritarian networks, organize themselves as autonomous collectives, linking up in larger networks when needed. Like activists in black bloc, ARA members often dress in black and cover their faces to avoid being identified by police and fascist groups. Not all members or ARA are anarchists, but many are.

Black anarchism opposes the existence of a state, capitalism, and subjugation and domination of people of color, and favors a non-hierarchical organization of society. Black anarchists, recognizing that anarchism has traditionally been European or white-based, seek to forge their own movement that represents their own identity and tailored to their own unique situation. Ashanti Alston, one of the most noted proponent of black anarchism, says "Every time I hear someone talk about my people as if we are just some "working class" or "proletariat" I wanna get as far away from that person or group as possible, anarchist, Marxist, whatever" (Beyond Nationalism, but Not Without It). Opponents of this perspective within the Anarchist People of Color camp insist that opposing authority yet placing the needs of people of color above others represents reverse-racism, and that black nationalism would mean using force to exclude people based on the color of their skin and is utterly incompatible with anarchism. Also pointed out is that one cannot deny a "white nationalism" if one is to have a "black nationalism" and thus it is best that neither exist at all. While Alston supported a nationalist position in the first issue of his publication, it was a far milder version of the position Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin has taken and Alston cannot be seen as totally supporting nationalism or trying to purge anarchism of "non black people".

Anarchist People of Color was created as a forum for non-Caucasian anarchists to express their thoughts about racial issues within the anarchist movement, particularly within the United States. The network of activists has grown in recent years, and has put on various conferences, drawing hundreds.

The Zapatista movement is another cultural sovereignty group, aiming to end the 500 year oppression of the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, Mexico. Also, indigenous people in Miskitia (the Atlantic Autonomous Zone of Nicaragua) also struggle for sovereignty.[20] Many of these movements, which share many of the same ideas and critiques of anarchism, have strongly been supported by anarchists, and the anarchist movement.

Anarchism - Neo-imperialism and Globalization

Neo-imperialism refers to the process of persuading rulers of (generally) lesser developed countries (LDCs) to alter political and economic policies in exchange for receiving loans from other states or, more commonly, through loans by state cartels such as the World Bank. In effect, third world rulers give concessions and coercive monopolies to foreign corporations in return for monetary bribes that they often use to consolidate their own power. In most cases, much of the money loaned to these LDCs is returned to the privileged foreign corporations. Thus, these foreign loans amount to subsidies to crony corporations favored by the loaner nation's rulers. This collusion is sometimes referred to as the corporatocracy. All anarchists oppose neo-imperialism and the state cartels which carry it out, including the World Bank, World Trade Organization and Group of Eight, and the World Economic Forum.

Since the late 1990s, anarchists have been known for their involvement in protests against World Trade Organization and other cartels listed above. One of the more successful anti-globalization mobilizations was the protest against the WTO Meeting of 1999 in Seattle. At these large protests, anarchist organizing of various activist and collective organizations has taken place, often with tens of thousands of people. This organization without any central hierarchy or leadership, takes place through the use of affinity groups, and spokescouncils, which work using delegates to speak for larger collectives. Anarchists also engage in medical teams, indymedia work, and are most known however for the black bloc tactic.

Anarchists have also been active in protesting and organizing against the war on terror, and most importantally the war on iraq. Anarchists have been largely at the forefront of the counter recruiting movement, which works to teach the realities of military recruiting to those interested in joining the military.

Anarchism - Parallel structures

See also: anarchist economics

Anarchists engage in building parallel structures and organizations, such as Food Not Bombs, radical labor unions, infoshop and radical social centers, new sets of schooling systems, media in various forms, organizing around housing and land issues, and work toward accountability with police and other institutions through such tools as consensus decision-making. This is in line with the general anarchist concept of creating "dual-power", the idea of creating the structures for a new anti-authoritarian society in the shell of the old, hierarchical one.

Anarchism - Technology

See also: Crypto-anarchism and Cypherpunk.

Some have said that recent technological developments have made the anarchist cause both easier to advance and more conceivable to people. Public key cryptography and the Internet have made anonymous digital currencies such as e-gold an alternative to statist fiat money. Many people use cell phones or the Internet to form loose communities that could be said to be organized along anarchist lines. Some of these communities have as their purpose the production of information in a non-commodified or use-value format, a goal made attainable by the availability of personal computing, desktop publishing, and digital media. These things have made it possible for individuals to share music files over the Internet. There are also open source programming communities, who donate their time and offer their product for free. Examples include Usenet, the free software movement (including the GNU/Linux community and the wiki paradigm), and Indymedia.

Some anarchists see information technology as the way to replace hierarchy, defeat monopoly, and prevent war, and support culture jamming in particular as a way to do so. Some writers — particularly Iain M. Banks, who has written quite extensively in the science fiction genre about The Culture, a futuristic society which has disposed of government — have theorised that anarchism would be inevitable with the technological advances that would make travelling and living in space plausible [21]. The Electro-anarchy Collective poses a similar theory that technological power will naturally overthrow human government (although some question their anarchist credentials, claiming that technological governance is no less oppressive than human governance).

It has also been argued that the free software movement is an example of anarchic organization, this being an example not of hierarchical business, but of voluntary association for the production of a good.

Anarchism - Pacifism

Some anarchists consider Pacifism (opposition to war) to be inherent in their philosophy. Some anarchists take it further and follow Leo Tolstoy's belief in non-violence (note, however, that these anarcho-pacifists are not necessarily Christian anarchists as Tolstoy was), advocating non-violent resistance as the only method of achieving a truly anarchist revolution.

Anarchist literature often portrays war as an activity in which the state seeks to gain and consolidate power, both domestically and in foreign lands. Many anarchists subscribe to Randolph Bourne's view that "war is the health of the state"[22]. Anarchists believe that if they were to support a war they would be strengthening the state — indeed, Peter Kropotkin was alienated from other anarchists when he expressed support for the British in World War I.

Just as they are critical and distrustful of most government endeavours, an*archists often view the stated reasons for war with a cynical eye. Since the Vietnam War protests in North America and, most recently, the protests against the war in Iraq, much anarchist activity has been anti-war based.

Many anarchists in the current movement however, reject complete pacifism, (although groups like Earth First!, and Food Not Bombs are based on principles of non-violence), and instead are in favor of self-defense, and sometimes violence against oppressive and authoritarian forces which they in fact also consider as defensive violence. Anarchists are skeptical however of winning a direct armed conflict with the state, and instead concern themselves mostly with organizing. Most anarchists however, do not consider the destruction of property to be violent, as do most activists who believe in non-violence.

In contrast, many in the anarchist movement see non-violence as only a tactical issue for each specific action, which relies on the nature and actions of your opponent and the context of the goal which they strive for. Relying on the critique of pacifism put forward by Ward Churchill, they recognize almost all successful liberation struggles have had armed or violent components, including the Indian Independence Movement, the United States Civil Rights Movement, the South African Civil Rights Movement, or the Zapatistas. In contrast, those without significant armed struggle factions when facing an oppressor willing to crush or annihiliate the rebelling faction fail horribly, such as Jewish pacifist resistance to the Holocaust.

Anarchism - Parliamentarianism

In general terms, the anarchist ethos opposes voting in elections, because voting amounts to condoning the state. However, there have been some anarchists who have run for office or advocated voting. The general opinion among anarchists is a general disrespect for the electoral process. Some individualist anarchists have been completely opposed to voting under all circumstances. Wendy McElroy, anarcho-feminist writer, expounded this view in her essay Why I Would Not Vote Against Hitler.

Voluntaryism is an anarchist school of thought which emphasizes "tending your own garden" and "neither ballots nor bullets." The anarchist case against voting is explained in The Ethics of Voting by George H. Smith. (Also see "Voting Anarchists: An Oxymoron or What?" by Joe Peacott, and writings by Fred Woodworth).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Issues", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki