

                       Section J - What do anarchists do?

   This section discusses what anarchists get up to. There is little point
   thinking about the world unless you also want to change it for the
   better. And by trying to change it, you change yourself and others,
   making radical change more of a possibility. Therefore anarchists give
   their whole-hearted support to attempts by ordinary people to improve
   their lives by their own actions. We urge "emancipation through
   practical action" recognising that the "collective experience" gained
   in "the collective struggle of the workers against the bosses" will
   transform how they see the world and the world itself. [Bakunin, The
   Basic Bakunin, p. 103] Ultimately, "[t]he true man does not lie in the
   future, an object of longing, but lies, existent and real, in the
   present." [Stirner, The Ego and Its Own, p. 327]

   Anarchism is more than just a critique of statism and capitalism or a
   vision of a freer, better way of life. It is first and foremost a
   movement, the movement of working class people attempting to change the
   world. Therefore the kind of activity we discuss in this section of the
   FAQ forms the bridge between capitalism and anarchy. By self-activity
   and direct action, people can change both themselves and their
   surroundings. They develop within themselves the mental, ethical and
   spiritual qualities which can make an anarchist society a viable
   option. As Noam Chomsky argues:

     "Only through their own struggle for liberation will ordinary people
     come to comprehend their true nature, suppressed and distorted
     within institutional structures designed to assure obedience and
     subordination. Only in this way will people develop more humane
     ethical standards, 'a new sense of right', 'the consciousness of
     their strength and their importance as a social factor in the life
     of their time' and their capacity to realise the strivings of their
     'inmost nature.' Such direct engagement in the work of social
     reconstruction is a prerequisite for coming to perceive this 'inmost
     nature' and is the indispensable foundations upon which it can
     flourish" ["preface", Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism, p. iii]

   In other words, anarchism is not primarily a vision of a better future,
   but the actual social movement which is fighting within the current
   unjust and unfree society for that better future and to improve things
   in the here and now. Without standing up for yourself and what you
   believe is right, nothing will change. Thus anarchy can be found
   "wherever free thought breaks loose from the chains of dogma; wherever
   the spirit of inquiry rejects the old formulas, wherver the human will
   asserts itself through independent actions; wherever honest people,
   rebelling against all enforced discipline, join freely together in
   order to educate themselves, and to reclaim, without any master, their
   share of life, and the complete satisfaction of their needs." [Elise
   Reclus, quoted by John P. Clark and Camille Martin (ed.), Anarchy,
   Geography, Modernity, p. 62]

   For anarchists, the future is already appearing in the present and is
   expressed by the creativity of working class self-activity. Anarchy is
   not some-day-to-be-achieved utopia, it is a living reality whose growth
   only needs to be freed from constraint. As such anarchist activity is
   about discovering and aiding emerging trends of mutual aid which work
   against capitalist domination, so the Anarchist "studies society and
   tries to discover its tendencies, past and present, its growing needs,
   intellectual and economic, and in his [or her] ideal he merely points
   out in which direction evolution goes." [Peter Kropotkin, Anarchism, p.
   47] Indeed, as we discussed in [1]section I.2.3, the future structures
   of a free society are created in the struggles against oppression
   today.

   The kinds of activity outlined in this section are a general overview
   of anarchist work. It is by no means exclusive -- we are sure to have
   left something out. However, the key aspect of real anarchist activity
   is direct action - self-activity, self-help, self-liberation and
   solidarity ("We wish," as French syndicalist Fernand Pelloutier wrote,
   "that the emancipation of the people might be the work of the people
   themselves." [quoted by Jeremy Jennings, Syndicalism in France, p.
   18]). Such activity may be done by individuals (for example, propaganda
   work), but usually anarchists emphasise collective activity. This is
   because most of our problems are of a social nature, meaning that their
   solutions can only be worked on collectively. Individual solutions to
   social problems are doomed to failure, at best slowing down what they
   are opposed to (most obviously, ethical consumerism as discussed in
   [2]section E.5). In addition, collective action gets us used to working
   together, promoting the experience of self-management and building
   organisations that will allow us to actively manage our own affairs.
   Also, and we would like to emphasise this, it can be fun to get
   together with other people and work with them, it can be fulfilling and
   empowering.

   Anarchists do not ask those in power to give up that power. No, we
   promote forms of activity and organisation by which all the oppressed
   can liberate themselves by their own hands. In other words, we do not
   think that those in power will altruistically renounce that power or
   their privileges. Instead, the oppressed must take the power back into
   their own hands by their own actions. We must free ourselves, no one
   else can do it for use.

   Here we will discuss anarchist ideas on struggle, what anarchists
   actually (and, almost as importantly, do not) do in the here and now
   and the sort of alternatives anarchists try to build within statism and
   capitalism in order to destroy them. As well as a struggle against
   oppression, anarchist activity is also struggle for freedom. As well as
   fighting against material poverty, anarchists combat spiritual poverty.
   By resisting hierarchy we emphasis the importance of living and of life
   as art. By proclaiming "Neither Master nor Slave" we urge an ethical
   transformation, a transformation that will help create the possibility
   of a truly free society. This point was stressed by Emma Goldman after
   she saw the defeat of the Russian Revolution by a combination of
   Leninist politics and capitalist armed intervention:

     "revolution is in vain unless inspired by its ultimate ideal.
     Revolutionary methods must be in tune with revolutionary aims . . .
     In short, the ethical values which the revolution is to establish
     must be initiated with the revolutionary activities . . . The latter
     can only serve as a real and dependable bridge to the better life if
     built of the same material as the life to be achieved." [Red Emma
     Speaks, p. 404]

   In other words, anarchist activity is more than creating libertarian
   alternatives and resisting hierarchy, it is about building the new
   world in the shell of the old not only with regards to organisations
   and self-activity, but also within the individual. It is about
   transforming yourself while transforming the world (both processes
   obviously interacting and supporting each other) for while "we
   associate ourselves with others in working for . . . social revolution,
   which for us means the destruction of all monopoly and all government,
   and the direct seizure by the workers of the means of production" we do
   not forget that "the first aim of Anarchism is to assert and make good
   the dignity of the individual human being." [Charlotte Wilson,
   Anarchist Essays, p. 43 and p. 51]

   By direct action, self-management and self-activity we can make the
   words first heard in Paris, 1968 a living reality: "All power to the
   imagination!"
   Words, we are sure, previous generations of anarchists would have
   whole-heartedly agreed with. There is a power in humans, a creative
   power, a power to alter what is into what should be. Anarchists try to
   create alternatives that will allow that power to be expressed, the
   power of imagination.

   Such a social movement will change how we act as individuals, with
   anarchists seeking to apply our principles in our daily lives as much
   as our daily struggles. This means that libertarians must change how we
   relate to our comrades and fellow workers by applying our egalitarian
   ideals everywhere. Part of the task of anarchists is to challenge
   social hierarchies everywhere, including in the home. As Durruti put
   it:

     "When will you stop thinking like the bourgeoisie, that women are
     men's servants? It's enough that society is divided into classes.
     We're not going to make even more classes by creating differences
     between men and women in our own homes!" [quoted by Abel Paz,
     Durruti in the Spanish Revolution, p. 341]

   So we have a interactive process of struggle and transformation of both
   society and the individuals within it. In the sections that follow we
   will discuss the forms of self-activity and self-organisation which
   anarchists think will stimulate and develop the imagination of those
   oppressed by hierarchy, build anarchy in action and help create a free
   society.

References

   1. file://localhost/home/mauro/baku/debianize/maint/anarchy/secI2.html#seci23
   2. file://localhost/home/mauro/baku/debianize/maint/anarchy/secE5.html
