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Thinking about Anarchism
What is Anarchism
ANARCHISM IS a much maligned and
misunderstood set of ideas. It has
come to symbolise, to many people, a
society of destruction and disorder.
Yet nothing could be further from the
truth. Anarchism has been
deliberately slandered and
misrepresented, not only by those
running this society but also by most
on the Left. Deliberately, for the
reason that its uncompromising and
radical critique of society and how to
change it poses a challenge that can
not be met except by slander. Its roots
and association with the working
class of all countries tells the real
truth.
Anarchism views society, what it is and how
it should be, on the basis of two fundamental
pillars. These are the economic nature of
society and the manner in which political
power is organised. We believe that the
economic system under which we presently
live must be abolished. We also say that the
political institutions of capitalism, which are
hierarchical and authoritarian, must go too.
These institutions serve the employer class
and will have to be replaced with ones based
on mass participatory democracy and freedom.
WORKERS COUNCILS
In the new economic order the workers of the
world will own and share all the wealth they
produce. Decisions will be made through
workplace and community councils which will
be federated at all levels and centrally co-
ordinated. Thus political power will not be
organised in a hierarchical manner, where a
central government tells everyone else what
to do.
Those socialists who follow the ideas of Lenin
hold that such a society can only be built by
using the State structures, albeit a "workers
state", under the leadership of their Party.
Anarchists reject this since both the State
and Party are hierarchical and authoritarian.
They are diametrically opposed to the aims
and organisation of the new society.
STATE CAPITALISM
Rather than building a real socialist society
where both economic and political power
would be everyone's possession and nobody's
property, these people end up building
societies that are no more than State
Capitalism like Russia was and China still is.
In these countries ordinary people do not
have any say in how things are run or in the
decisions that effect them. They are ordered
about and exploited just as happens in the
"free world".
Anarchists predicted this long before it was
confirmed by the betrayal of the Russian
revolution, when the workers' soviets and
factory committees were suppressed by the
Bolshevik state. After all, the means you use
and what you end up with are connected.
Thus, if the structures used to build socialism
are hierarchical and undemocratic you should
not be surprised if the society you end up
with is hierarchical and undemocratic. This
scientific law seemingly escapes some self-
proclaimed followers of "scientific socialism".
FREEDOM
The question of freedom is not just a subject
for some mere philosophical debate. It is at
the very heart of revolutionary change and
socialism. A successful revolution is not just
a shift in economic power from the employers
to the workers.
It is a time of real freedom. It is a time when
the shackles of the old oppressive order are
thrown off and the workers movement
explodes into a recreativity as it copes with
organising every facet of society so that the
needs of all are met. Everyone can get
involved, through their assemblies and
delegate councils, in decision making and
planning that used to be the sole concern of
central government. Freedom of ideas,
criticism and input will not only be a practical
reality but a necessity.
Capitalist society is organised in a top-down
way. Orders come from the top and those at
the bottom obey them. The institutions by
which the bosses rule, the Government and
the State, are built so that the rule of a
minority over the majority is possible.
Control of political freedom, ideas and
information is fundamental to their working.
Participation is strictly limited so that most
people never have any say.
WORKERS STATES
That is why we wish to abolish these
structures. They can never be used to create
socialism but instead will actively sabotage
the workers' cause. The "workers states"
advocated by the Leninists for the transition
to socialism have proven to be its greatest
enemy. Only workers' councils can form the
basis of the new society.
We stand uncompromisingly for a new world.
One which will be owned and managed by all
those who work. It will be organised from
the bottom up and production will be to meet
peoples' needs, not for the private profit of a
few. Anarchist society will make real the old
call "from each according to ability, to each
according to need". Every individual will
enjoy complete control of her/his life with no
limit on their freedom as long as they do not
encroach on the freedom of anyone else.
Now, isn't that something worth struggling
for?
Kevin Doyle
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The Workers Solidarity Movement can be contacted at
PO Box 1528, Dublin 8, Ireland
Some of our material is available via the Spunk press electronic archive
by FTP to etext.archive.umich.edu or 141.211.164.18
or by gopher ("gopher etext.archive.umich.edu")
in the directory /pub/Politics/Spunk/texts/groups/WSM