Contemporary examples of Social Anarchism or Anarcho-Syndicalism

[redcoyote89]

Hi, im very well familar with historical experiments/examples of Anarchism, those being the CNT in Spain, the Kibbutzs in Israel and to some degree the Zapatista run villages/towns in Chiampas.

My question is, are there any current examples of Anarchism being put into practice? Or at least places were resources are owned collectively by the local population or places with a relatively high commitment to workerplace democracy?

[Potemkin]

The Zapatistas are still around. Also, there are some anarchistic tendencies in Oaxaca.

In the US, there are the Revolutionary Autonomous Communities in Los Angeles, along with the Black Riders (who might not be explicitly anarchist -- they are CRIPS and BLOODS trying to unify the gangs and point them in a more revolutionary direction). I think NEFAC on the east coast (and into Canada) does a bit of social organizing. Depending on your definition, you could also include things like CopWatch, Critical Mass, and Food Not Bombs.

Also, Freetown Christiania in Denmark... I'm sure others here could cite more examples. Hope this helps!

[Omi]

I think the squatting movement in europe, who are highly or to some extent fully influenced by anarchism, created a lot of working examples of collectives and modes of social organizing who can also be seen as working examples of anarchism in practice. :)

[Pogue]

The internet, wikipedia etc.

[Jack]

Yahoo Answers, the epitome of gift economy. Except the administration restricts people from answering more questions than they could.

[mykittyhasaboner]

^^ Why do the two posters above site internet sites as examples of anarchism, how the hell is Yahoo Answers the epitome of a gift economy? Internet sites aren't collectively owned and operated, and just because any one can edit Wikipedia doesn't anarchist. As for Yahoo Answers, it isn't an economy, so your comment is foolish.

[Ismail]

^^ Why do the two posters above site internet sites as examples of anarchism, how the hell is Yahoo Answers the epitome of a gift economy? Internet sites aren't collectively owned and operated, and just because any one can edit Wikipedia doesn't anarchist. As for Yahoo Answers, it isn't an economy, so your comment is foolish.You could technically call them (or rather the Internet) Socially Anarchist, but it still seems ridiculous. ("The internet allows you to post anything!" "HELL YEAH ANARCHISM IN ACTION")

[autotrophic]

I would argue that many parts of Venezuela has some social anarchistic aspects. Obviously Hugo Chavez is not an anarchist, all the state-owned industries are not anarchistic, etc., but there have been many examples of workers self-management of factories. There are also community councils that are very democratic in their nature. This kind of way of organization seems fairly similar to anarcho-syndicalism (which historically has the best examples of modern, actually existing socialism/anarchism).
Other countries in South America have the same type of workers self management and community councils as well.

Also, my knowledge is very limited, I've only watched John Pilgers The War on Democracy and read a few online articles, but it seems that while not completely anarchist, it has many anarchist similarities.