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<TITLE>I.2 Is this a blueprint for an anarchist society?</TITLE>
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<H1>I.2 Is this a blueprint for an anarchist society? </h1>
<p>
No, far from it. There can be no such thing as a "blueprint" for a free
society. All we can do here is indicate those general features that we
believe a free society <b>must</b> have in order qualify as truly libertarian.
For example, a society based on hierarchical management in the workplace
(like capitalism) would not be libertarian, nor would it remain anarchist
for long, as private or public states would soon develop to protect the
power of those in the top hierarchical positions. Beyond such general
considerations, however, the specifics of how to structure a
non-hierarchical workplace must remain open for discussion and
experimentation.
<p>
So, this section of the anarchist FAQ should not be regarded as a detailed
plan. Anarchists have always been reticent about spelling out their
vision of the future in too much detail. For it would be contrary to
anarchist principles to dogmatise about the precise forms the new society
must take. Free people will create their own alternative institutions in
response to conditions specific to their area, and it would be
presumptuous of us to attempt to set forth universal policies in advance.
Not only that, given the ways in which our own unfree society has shaped
our ways of thinking, it's probably impossible for us to imagine what new
forms will arise once humanity's ingenuity and creativity is unleashed by
the removal of its present authoritarian fetters.
<p>
Nevertheless, anarchists have been willing to specify some broad
principles indicating the general framework within which they expect the
institutions of the new society to grow. It is important to emphasize that
these principles are not the arbitrary creations of intellectuals in ivory
towers. Rather, they are based on the actual political and economic
structures that have arisen <b>spontaneously</b> whenever the working class has
attempted to throw off its chains during eras of heightened revolutionary
activity, such as the Paris Commune, the Spanish Revolution, and the
Hungarian uprising of 1956, to name a few. Thus, for example, it is clear
that democratic workers' councils are basic libertarian-socialist forms,
since they have appeared during all revolutionary periods -- a fact that
is not surprising considering that they are rooted in traditions of
communal labor, shared resources, and participatory decision making that
stretch back tens of thousands of years, from the clans and tribes of
prehistoric times through the "barbarian" agrarian village of the
post-Roman world to the free medieval city, as Kropotkin documents in his
classic study <b>Mutual Aid</b>.
<p>
So, when reading these sections, please remember that this is just an
attempt to sketch the outline of a possible future. It is in no way an
attempt to determine <b>exactly</b> what a free society would be like, for such
a free society will be the result of the actions of all of society, not
just anarchists. As Malatesta argues, <i>"None can judge with certainty who
is right and who is wrong, who is nearest to the truth, or which is the
best way to achieve the greatest good for each and everyone. Freedom
coupled by experience, is the only way of discovering the truth and what
is best; and there is no freedom if there is a denial of the freedom to
err"</i> [<b>Malatesta: Life and Ideas</b>, p. 49]
<p>
<a name="seci21"><h2>I.2.1 Why discuss what an anarchist society would be like at all? </h2>
<p>
Partly, in order to indicate why people should become anarchists. Most
people do not like making jumps in the dark, so an indication of what
anarchists think a desirable society would look like may help those people
who are attracted intellectually by anarchism, inspiring them to become
committed as well to its practical realization. Partly, it's a case
of learning from past mistakes. There have been numerous anarchistic
social experiments on varying scales, and its useful to understand what
happened, what worked and what did not. In that way, hopefully, we will
not make the same mistakes twice.
<p>
However, the most important reason for discussing what an anarchist
society would look like is to ensure that the creation of such a society
is the action of as many people as possible. As Errico Malatesta indicated
in the middle of the Italian <i>"Two Red Years"</i> (see <a HREF="secA5.html#seca55">section A.5.5</a>), <i>"either
we all apply our minds to thinking about social reorganisation, and right
away, at the very same moment that the old structures are being swept
away, and we shall have a more humane and more just society, open to
future advances, or we shall leave such matters to the 'leaders' and we
shall have a new government."</i> [<b>The Anarchist Revolution</b>, p. 69]
<p>
Hence the importance of discussing what the future will be like in the
here and now. The more people who have a fairly clear idea of what a free
society would look like, the easier it will be to create that society and
ensure that no important matters are left to the "leaders" to decide for
us. The example of the Spanish Revolution comes to mind. For many years
before 1936, the CNT and FAI put out publications discussing what an
anarchist society would look like (for example, <b>After the Revolution</b> by
Diego Abel de Santallian and <b>Libertarian Communism</b> by Isaac Puente). In
fact, anarchists had been organising and educating in Spain for almost
seventy years before the revolution. When it finally occurred, the
millions of people who participated already shared a similar vision
and started to build a society based on it, thus learning firsthand where
their books were wrong and which areas of life they did not adequately
cover.
<p>
So, this discussion of what an anarchist society might look like is not a
drawing up of blueprints, nor is it an attempt to force the future into
the shapes created in past revolts. It is purely and simply an attempt to
start people discussing what a free society would be like and to learn
from previous experiments. However, as anarchists recognise the
importance of building the new world in the shell of the old, our ideas of
what a free society would be like can feed into how we organise and
struggle today. And vice versa; for how we organise and struggle today
will have an impact on the future.
<p>
As Malatesta pointed out, such discussions are necessary and essential,
for <i>"[i]t is absurd to believe that, once government has been destroyed
and the capitalists expropriated, 'things will look after themselves'
without the intervention of those who already have an idea on what has to
be done and who immediately set about doing it. . . . [for] social life,
as the life of individual's, does not permit of interruption"</i> [<b>Op. Cit.
</b>, p. 121]
<p>
We hope that this Section of the FAQ, in its own small way, will encourage
as many people as possible to discuss what a libertarian society would be
like and use that discussion to bring it closer.
<p>
<a name="seci22"><h2>I.2.2 Will it be possible to go straight to an anarchist society from capitalism?</h2>
<p>
Possibly. It depends on the social situation and what anarchists you
ask. For example, Bakunin and other collectivists have doubted the
possibility of introducing a communistic system instantly after a
revolution. Some anarchists, like the individualists, do not support the
idea of revolution and instead see anarchist alternatives growing within
capitalism and slowly replacing it. For Kropotkin and many other
anarcho-communists, communistic anarchy can, and must, be introduced at
once in order to ensure a successful revolution.
<p>
One thing that all anarchists do agree on is that it's essential for both
the state and capitalism to be undermined as quickly as possible. It's
true that in the course of social revolution we anarchists may not be able
to stop a new state being created or the old one surviving. It all depends
on the balance of support for anarchist ideas in the population and how
willing people are to introduce them. There is no doubt, though, that for
a social revolt to be fully anarchist, the state and capitalism must be
destroyed and new forms of oppression and exploitation not put in their
place.
<p>
Most anarchists, however, agree that an anarchist society cannot be
created overnight, for to assume so would be to imagine that anarchists
could enforce their ideas on a pliable population. Libertarian socialism
can only be created from below, by people who want it and understand it,
organising and liberating themselves. The results of the Russian
Revolution should have cleared away long ago any contrary illusions about
how to create "socialist" societies. The lesson from every revolution is
that the mistakes made by people in liberating themselves are always
minor compared to the results of creating authorities, who eliminate such
"ideological errors" by destroying the freedom to make mistakes. For
freedom is the only real basis on which socialism can be built.
<p>
Therefore, most anarchists would support Malatesta's claim that <i>"[t]o
organise a [libertarian] communist society on a large scale it would be
necessary to transform all economic life radically, such as methods of
production, of exchange and consumption; and all this could not be
achieved other than gradually, as the objective circumstances permitted
and to the extent that the masses understood what advantages could be
gained and were able to act for themselves"</i> [<b>Malatesta: Life and Ideas</b>,
p. 36]
<p>
One thing is certain: an anarchist social revolution or mass movement
will need to defend itself against attempts by statists and capitalists to
defeat it. Every popular movement, revolt, or revolution has had to face a
backlash from the supporters of the status quo. An anarchist revolution or
mass movement will face (and indeed has faced) such counter-movements.
<p>
However, this does not mean that the destruction of the state and
capitalism need be put off until after the forces of reaction are defeated
(as Marxists usually claim). A social revolution can only be defended by
anti-statist means, for example arming the people and organising popular
militias, as the Mexican, Ukrainian, and Spanish anarchists did.
<p>
So, given an anarchist revolution which destroys the state, the type and
nature of the economic system created by it will depend on local
circumstances and the level of awareness in society. The individualists
are correct in the sense that what we do now will determine how the future
develops. Obviously, any <i>"transition period"</i> starts in the <b>here and now,</b>
as this helps determine the future. Thus, while social anarchists usually
reject the idea that capitalism can be reformed away, we agree with the
individualists that it is essential for anarchists to be active today in
constructing the ideas, ideals and new liberatory institutions of the
future society within the current one. The notion of waiting for the
"glorious day" of total revolution is not one held by anarchists.
<p>
Thus, all the positions outlined at the start of this section have a grain
of truth in them. This is because, as Malatesta put it, <i>"We are, in any
case, only one of the forces acting in society, and history will advance,
as always, in the direction of the resultant of all the [social] forces."</i>
[<b>Op. Cit.</b>. p. 109] This means that different areas will
experiment in different ways, depending on the level of awareness which
exists there -- as would be expected in a free society which is created by
the mass of the people.
<p>
Ultimately, the most we can say about the timing and necessary conditions
of revolution is that an anarchist society can only come about once people
liberate themselves (and this implies an ethical and psychological
transformation), but that this does not mean that people need to be
"perfect" nor that an anarchist society will come about "overnight,"
without a period of self-activity by which individuals reshape and change
themselves as they are reshaping and changing the world about them.
<p>
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