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<title>Section J - What do anarchists do?</title>
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<h1>Section J - What do anarchists do?</h1>
<p>
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 <i>"<b>emancipation through practical action</b>"</i>
recognising that the <i>"collective experience"</i> gained in <i>"the
collective struggle of the workers against the bosses"</i> will transform
how they see the world and the world itself. [Bakunin, <b>The Basic Bakunin</b>,
p. 103] Ultimately, <i>"[t]he true man does not lie in the future, an object
of longing, but lies, existent and real, in the present."</i> [Stirner,
<b>The Ego and Its Own</b>, p. 327]
</p><p>
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:
<blockquote>
<i>"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"</i> [<i>"preface"</i>, Rudolf
Rocker, <b>Anarcho-Syndicalism</b>, p. iii]
</blockquote></p><p>
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 <i>"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."</i> [Elise Reclus, quoted by John P. Clark and Camille Martin (ed.),
<b>Anarchy, Geography, Modernity</b>, p. 62]
</p><p>
For anarchists, the future is <b>already appearing in the present</b> 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 <i>"studies society
and tries to discover its <b>tendencies</b>, past and present, its growing
needs, intellectual and economic, and in his [or her] ideal he merely points
out in which direction evolution goes."</i> [Peter Kropotkin, <b>Anarchism</b>,
p. 47] Indeed, as we discussed in <a href="secI2.html#seci23">section I.2.3</a>,
the future structures of a free society are created in the struggles against
oppression today.
</p><p>
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 <b>real</b> anarchist
activity is <b><i>direct action</i></b> - self-activity, self-help,
self-liberation and solidarity (<i>"We wish,"</i> as French syndicalist
Fernand Pelloutier wrote, <i>"that the emancipation of the people might
be the work of the people themselves."</i> [quoted by Jeremy Jennings,
<b>Syndicalism in France</b>, 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
<a href="secE5.html">section E.5</a>).
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 <b>fun</b> to get together with other people and work
with them, it can be fulfilling and empowering.
</p><p>
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 <b>back</b>
into their own hands by their own actions. We must free ourselves,
no one else can do it for use.
</p><p>
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 <b>living</b>
and of <b>life as art.</b> By proclaiming <i><b>"Neither Master nor Slave"</b></i>
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:
</p><p><blockquote>
<i>"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."</i> [<b>Red Emma Speaks</b>, p. 404]
</p><p></blockquote>
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 <i>"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"</i> we do not forget that <i>"the first aim of
Anarchism is to assert and make good the dignity of the individual human
being."</i> [Charlotte Wilson, <b>Anarchist Essays</b>, p. 43 and p. 51]
</p><p>
By direct action, self-management and self-activity we can make the words
first heard in Paris, 1968 a living reality: <i><b>"All power to the
imagination!"</i></b> 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 <i>what is</i> into <i>what should be</i>. Anarchists
try to create alternatives that will allow that power to be expressed, the
power of imagination.
</p><p>
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:
</p><p><blockquote>
<i>"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!"</i> [quoted by
Abel Paz, <b>Durruti in the Spanish Revolution</b>, p. 341]
</blockquote>
</p><p>
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.
</p>
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