Misconceptions About Anarchism

[RedLenin]

1. Anarchists do not oppose organization. Anarchists believe in non-hierarchial organization through direct democracy and a delegate system of elected, mandated, and recallable delegates.

2. Anarchists are not opposed to voting in all forms. Anarchists oppose participation in statist politics but do not oppose voting as a means of self-management.

3. Anarchists do not wish to create an anarchist/communist society "over night". We realize that revolution is a process not an event. We also recongnize that we must work here and now to ensure anarchisms future.

4. Anarchists do not support terrorism despite the period of propaganda by the deed. We wish not to see the deaths of the people who make up the bourgeiosie but the death of the bourgeioisie as a social relationship. You cannot destroy a social relationship by blowing it up.

5. Anarchists do not oppose leadership. Elected, mandated, and recallable leaders fit into the organizational structure of anarchism.

6. Anarchists do not oppose all authority. When a new worker looks up to a skilled one, that is authority, but we do not oppose it. We oppose coercive authority and hierarchy.

If you have any more feel free to add them. This also might serve as a good sticky.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29 2005, 01:49 PM
3. Anarchists do not wish to create an anarchist/communist society "over night". We realize that revolution is a process not an event. We also recongnize that we must work here and now to ensure anarchisms future.
So what transitional stages do you envision, between capitalism and complete anarchy or however you would describe your ultimate goal?

[Asmoo]

4. Anarchists do not support terrorism despite the period of propaganda by the deed. We wish not to see the deaths of the people who make up the bourgeiosie but the death of the bourgeioisie as a social relationship. You cannot destroy a social relationship by blowing it up.

You cannot destroy a "social relationship", actually it's not even a "social relationship". Would you refer to the relation between exploiter and exploited as a social one? Capital needs labour--> Labour doesn't need capital. The capitalist fully depends on his workers but the workers only depend on his property, that would be the means of production. ---> Abolition of private property!!! You can end this - how you call it "social relationship" or as I refer to as "exploitation" - only by transforming private property into "state property".

[aberos]

could anarchism not be considered only a transient state of true communism somewhere between utopia and socialism?

[Asmoo]

Dude there is nothing between science (socialism) and utopia. Read Friedrich Engel's Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. :D

[JazzRemington]

Originally posted by Severian+Mar 30 2005, 04:35 AM--> (Severian @ Mar 30 2005, 04:35 AM)
[email protected] 29 2005, 01:49 PM
3. Anarchists do not wish to create an anarchist/communist society "over night". We realize that revolution is a process not an event. We also recongnize that we must work here and now to ensure anarchisms future.
So what transitional stages do you envision, between capitalism and complete anarchy or however you would describe your ultimate goal? [/b]
Not a seperate transitional phase in the sense that Marxism does. What is ment here is simply people forming relationships and organizations that are anarchist (mutualistic relationships, anarcho-communist communes, etc.) all within the current system, at least as far as one can go within capitalism and the State.

This does not deny that there will be a need for a violent revolution, just that if one DOES come about there will be a larger chance of success because 1) there will be a majority wanting anarchy and 2) we will already have our post-revolution world figured out and working.

[The Feral Underclass]

Anarchist paradigm for transition (http://www.revolutionaryleft.com/index.php?showtopic=34437)