How would Anarchism work in a big city?

[Habermas]

The thread says it all, in a big city how would anarchism work? I can totally see it working on some type of rural area but in terms of a huge city like NYC or Shanghai how would it work thanks!

[Blake's Baby]

It wouldn't work 'in a big city', it work as a worldwide system.

Direct democracy in neighbourhoods and workplaces; collective decision-making at the lowest levels of competence; integration of 'town' and 'country'...

[Teacher]

It would work great. After waking up at 1 PM and taking a few bong hits, all 20 million people could gather together and let everyone take turns getting on the microphone to say their opinions/do slam poetry. The crowd could wave their hands in the air to signal whether they agree or disagree with something and take more bong hits in between speeches.

[G4b3n]

It would work great. After waking up at 1 PM and taking a few bong hits, all 20 million people could gather together and let everyone take turns getting on the microphone to say their opinions/do slam poetry. The crowd could wave their hands in the air to signal whether they agree or disagree with something and take more bong hits in between speeches.

Well, among a few theoretical errors and misunderstandings, you forgot the part where we all drop acid and hold hands bobbing our heads to the rhythm of the bongos.

[Slavic]

It would work great. After waking up at 1 PM and taking a few bong hits, all 20 million people could gather together and let everyone take turns getting on the microphone to say their opinions/do slam poetry. The crowd could wave their hands in the air to signal whether they agree or disagree with something and take more bong hits in between speeches.

And that's when I became a reactionary.

[Brosa Luxemburg]

It would work great. After waking up at 1 PM and taking a few bong hits, all 20 million people could gather together and let everyone take turns getting on the microphone to say their opinions/do slam poetry. The crowd could wave their hands in the air to signal whether they agree or disagree with something and take more bong hits in between speeches.

This is the greatest description of Anarchism I have ever read.

[Brosa Luxemburg]

As far as this question goes, I think "cities" as they function now would have to go, but if even a resemblance where to exist in a communist world (minus state and classes) then it would be managed through decentralized, bottom up councils which, at the base, would be as big as realistically possible (whether that would be made up of several blocks, a block, or simply apartment buildings) and then federate out into bigger organizations that would simply serve to coordinate decisions already made at the bottom and would have no administrative power. These kind of questions are a bit silly though, as we can't really know how this will work out until the ways of relating to each other and to society are developed through actual experience. Anyway, here are some articles I thought you might be interested in. They're not made by anarchists (well, Camatte kind of flirts with anarcho-primitivism I guess) but they're still very good. One article describes why a stateless and classless world would abolish cities and the other talks about technology, science, and it's service to capital.

http://libcom.org/library/human-species-earths-crust-amadeo-bordiga

http://www.marxists.org/archive/camatte/agdom.htm

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

It would work great. After waking up at 1 PM and taking a few bong hits, all 20 million people could gather together and let everyone take turns getting on the microphone to say their opinions/do slam poetry. The crowd could wave their hands in the air to signal whether they agree or disagree with something and take more bong hits in between speeches.

Fuck this gross caricature of anarchism! It is thoroughly dishonest to present things in such a way as to willfully leave out hitting the bong and gardening naked.

[Zhi]

There would be no such thing as cities. A city, when you truly perceive it is an extrapolation of the state's power into the inner most part of people lives. A city is also the epitome of how deep the division of labour affects our lives. A city is fundamentally based on the foundation of the division of labour, because that is why they occurred; concentrated groups of people with varying skills in a specialised industry. Abolish the state abolish the city.

[Red Commissar]

There would be no such thing as cities. A city, when you truly perceive it is an extrapolation of the state's power into the inner most part of people lives. A city is also the epitome of how deep the division of labour affects our lives. A city is fundamentally based on the foundation of the division of labour, because that is why they occurred; concentrated groups of people with varying skills in a specialised industry. Abolish the state abolish the city.

Yeah, I was under the impression that cities as we know them probably wouldn't exist in such a society, since they themselves are a product of the current system. Populations would probably be less densely distributed I imagine. That being said though it's not an instantaneous transformation- what to do in the aftermath is a legitimate question.

[The Intransigent Faction]

There would be no such thing as cities. A city, when you truly perceive it is an extrapolation of the state's power into the inner most part of people lives. A city is also the epitome of how deep the division of labour affects our lives. A city is fundamentally based on the foundation of the division of labour, because that is why they occurred; concentrated groups of people with varying skills in a specialised industry. Abolish the state abolish the city.

This. Also, a trademark feature of municipal politics is the shifting of blame between different levels of government (the Mayor of Toronto will complain to the Premier about lack of funding, who in turn will blame the federal government, which in turn will criticize provincial and/or municipal policies in an attempt to shift the blame back 'down the ladder', and I'm sure municipal politics in the U.S. isn't altogether different in this respect). This is decidedly inefficient. Presumably, in an autonomous anarchist society, resource distribution would be more cooperatively, and hence more effectively, coordinated to the point where different areas wouldn't be in conflict with each other.

[Zhi]

Also to note there are practical limitations in working in a community with eight million people or more, I mean seriously such a feat would be impossible regardless of the organisational structure(s).