Sociology of the Anarchists - Gozips.uakron.edu - The University of ...

meetings and congregate, as well as to sell radical literature and propagate the cause. 49
TAZs are also sometimes simply called “autonomous zones” or “a-zones”.
Feminism:
Dark Star Collective (2002), Beallor (?), CRIFA (1983), MASS (n.d.), Epstein (1991)
In Welsh's (1997) review of two books by Alberto Melucci, he ascertains Melucci's
thought that “new social movements have to transform themselves into durable
organisations in order to achieve this remain problematic in terms of anarchist and
libertarian approaches... SMOs [social movement organizations] reproduce hierarchies
and bureaucratic structures which are antithetical to grassroots movements” (Welsh 1997,
p. 167). [Other Welsh comments could go in “Micro-interaction” subsection....?!?!]
Religion and Spirituality
Although many anarchists are either agnostic or atheist 50 , a good number openly identify
with some form of organized religion or unorganized spirituality. Also, there are a
number of religions/philosophies that have been argued to be anarchistic in nature, or at
least compatible with anarchism.
Taoism has been referenced (TAO n.d.) as having an anarchistic bent and understanding
of human nature. According to TAO, Taoist philosophy argues that
Left to themselves [humans] live in natural harmony and
spontaneous order. But when they are coerced and ruled,
their natures become vicious. It follows that princes and
rulers should not coerce their people into obeying artificial
laws, but should leave them to follow their natural
dispositions. To attempt to govern people with manmade
laws and regulations is absurd and impossible: 'as well try
to wade through the sea, to hew a passage through a river,
or make a mosquito fly away with a mountain!'... Human
beings are ultimately individuals but they are also social
beings, part of the whole. Anticipating the findings of
modern ecology, the Taoists believed that the more
individuality and diversity there is, the greater the overall
harmony. The spontaneous order of society does not
exclude conflict but involves a dynamic interplay of
opposite forces. (p.?)
49 See Bey 1991, pp 95-141 for more on TAZs. For more on infoshops see Atton (2003) and O'Connor
(1999). For an anarchist critique of problems with infoshops, see Sigal (2003).
50 See a classical declaration of atheism by Bakunin (1916/1970). According to the 2002 Infoshop.org user
survey 65 percent considered themselves not religious–including agnostic and atheist (Williams 2004b).
[ Williams 55 ] [ this is a draft. do not cite. ]