Anarchy Works

Anarchism is the boldest of revolutionary social movements 10 emerge from the struggle against capitalism-it aims for a world free from all forms of domination and exploitation. But al its heart is a simple and convincing proposition: people know how lo live their own lives and organize themselves better than any expert could. Others cynically claim that we need a government to protect us. They claim anarchy is impractical and utopian: it would never work. On the contrary, anarchist practice already has a long record, and has often worked quite well. T he histories in this book show that an anarchist society can succeed at enabling all its members to meet their needs and desires.

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Anarchy Works by Peter Gelderloos Ardent Press, 2010 No copyright

Ardent Press is a group engaged in research, publishing, and local projects. For more information, please visit ardentpress.org

This book is set in Gentium.

No more talk about the old days, it's time for something great. I want you to get out and make it work...

ThomYorke.

Dedicated to the wonderful people ofRuinAmalia, La Revoltosa, and the Kyiv infoshop, for making anarchy work. Although this book started out as an individual project, in the end a great many people, most of whom prefer to remain anonymous, helped make it possible through proofreading, fact-checking, recommending sources, editing, and more. To acknowledge only a small part of this help, the author would like to thankjohn,jose, Vila Kula, aaaa!, L,j, and G for providing computer access throughout a year of moves, evictions, crashes, viruses, and so forth. Thanks tojessie Dodson and Katie Clark for helping with the research on another project, that I ended up using for this book. Also thanks to C and E, for lending their passwords for free access to the databases of scholarly articles available to university students but not to the rest of us.

There are hidden stories all around us, growing in abandoned villages in the mountains or vacant lots in the city, petrifying beneath our feet in the remains ofsocieties like nothing we've known, whispering to us that things could be different. But the politician you know is lying to you, the manager who hires and firesyou, the landlord who evicts you, the president ofthe bank that owns your house, the professor who grades your papers, the cop who rolls your street, the reporter who informs you, the doctor who medicates you, the husband who beats you, the mother who spanks you, the soldier who kills foryou, and the social worker who fits your past and future into a folder in a filing cabinet all ask "WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITHOUT US?

It would be anarchy."

And the daughter who runs away from home, the bus driver on the picket line, the veteran who threw back his medal but holds on to his rifle, the boy saved from suicide by the love ofhis friends, the maid who must bow to those who can't even cook for themselves, the immigrant hiking across a desert to find her family on the other side, the kid on his way to prison because he burned down a shopping mall they were building over his childhood dreams, the neighbor who cleans up the syringes from the vacant lot, hoping someone will tum it into a garden, the hitchhiker on the open road, the college dropout who gave up on career and health insurance and sometimes even food so he could write revolutionary poetry for the world, maybe all ofus can feel it: our bosses and tormentors are afraid ofwhat they would do without us, and their threat is a promisethe best parts ofour lives are anarchy already.

Introduction

Anarchy would never work

1

What exactly is anarchism? A note on inspiration

4

The tricky topic of representation

7

2

I. Human Nature

Aren't people naturally selfish? Aren't people naturally competitive?

11 16

Haven't humans always been patriarchal? Aren't people naturally warlike? Aren't domination and authority natural?

22

A broader sense of self

44

27

32

2. Decisions

How will decisions be made? How will decisions be enforced?

48

Who will settle disputes?

70

Meeting in the streets

72

65

3. Economy

Without wages, what is the incentive to work? Don't people need bosses and experts?

81

Who will take out the trash?

90

Who will take care of the elderly and disabled? How will people get healthcare?

94

76

92

What about education?

97

What about technology? How will exchange work?

102 108

What about people who still want a consumerist lifestyle? What about building and organizing large, spread-out infrastructure? How will cities work?

112 118

What about drought, famine, or other catastrophes? Meeting our needs without keeping count

128 129

111

4. Environment

What's to stop someone from destroying the environment? What about global environmental problems, like climate change? The only way to save the planet

134 143 148

5. Crime

Who will protect us without police? What about gangs and bullies? What's to stop someone from killing people? What about rape, domestic violence, and other forms of social harm? Beyond individualjustice

152 165 168 170 178

6. Revolution

How could people organized horizontally possibly overcome the state? How do we know revolutionaries won't become new authorities?

184 203

How will communities decide to organize themselves at first? How will reparations for past oppressions be worked out? How will a common, anti-authoritarian, ecological ethos come about? A revolution that is many revolutions

218 223 226 238

7. Neighboring Societies

Could an anarchist society defend itself from an authoritarian neighbor? what will we do about societies that remain very patriarchal, or racist? What will prevent constant warfare and feuding? Networks not borders

242 249 251 257

8. The Future

Won't the state just reemerge over time? What about other problems we can't foresee? Making anarchy work

260 264 265

It Works When We Make It Work

268

Bibliography

272

Introduction

Anarchy would never work Anarchism is the boldest of revolutionary social movements to emerge from the struggle against capitalism-it aims for a world free from all forms of domination and exploitation. But at its heart is a simple and convincing proposition: people know how to live their own lives and organize themselves better than any expert could. Others cynically claim that people do not know what is in their best interests, that they need a government to protect them, that the ascension of some political party could somehow secure the interests of all members of society. Anarchists counter that decision-making should not be centralized in the hands of any government, but instead power should be decentralized: that is to say, each person should be the center of society, and all should be free to build the networks and associations they need to meet their needs in common with others. The education we receive in state-run schools teaches us to doubt our ability to organize ourselves. This leads many to conclude anarchy is impractical and utopian: it would never work. On the contrary, anarchist practice already has a long record, and has often worked quite well. The official history books tell a selective story, glossing over the fact that all the components of an anarchist society have existed at various times, and innumerable stateless societies have thrived for millennia.How would an anarchist society compare to statist and capitalist societies? It is apparent that hierarchical societies work well according to certain criteria. They tend to be extremely effective at conquering their neighbors and securing vast fortunes for their rulers. On the other hand, as climate change, food and water shortages, market instability, and other global crises intenSify, hierarchical models are not proving to be particularly sustainable. The histories in this book show that an

1

introduction anarchist society can do much better at enabling all its members to meet their needs and desires. The many stories, past and present, that demonstrate how anarchy works have been suppressed and distorted because of the revolutionary conclusions we might draw from them. We can live in a society with no bosses, masters, politicians, or bureaucrats; a society with no judges, no police, and no criminals, no rich or poor; a society free of sexism, homophobia, and transphobia; a sOciety in which the wounds from centuries of enslavement, colonialism, and genocide are finally allowed to heaL The only things stopping us are the prisons, programming, and paychecks of the powerful, as well as our own lack of faith in ourselves. of course, anarchists do not have to be practical to a fault. If we ever win the freedom to run our own lives, we'll probably come up with entirely new approaches to organization that improve on these tried and true forms. So let these stories be a starting point, and a challenge. What exactly is anarchisml volumes have been written to answer this question, and millions of people have dedicated their lives to creating, expanding, defining, and fighting for anarchy. There are countless paths to anarchism and countless beginnings: workers in 19th century Europe fighting against capitalism and believing in themselves instead of the ideologies of authoritarian political parties; indigenous peoples fighting colonization and reclaiming their traditional, horizontal cultures; high school students waking up to the depth of their alienation and unhappiness; mystics from China one thousand years ago or from Europe five hundred years ago, Daoists or Anabaptists, fighting against government and organized religion; women rebelling against the authoritarianism and sexism of the Left. There is no Central Committee giving out membership cards, and no standard doctrine. Anarchy means different things to different people. 2

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