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ORGANIZATION If you want to build a free society, the parts are all at hand. - Colin Ward Another key sociological concept is organization. Thought by most to be oxymoronic, anarchists are in reality some of the most highly organized individuals on the Left (a label some of them resent, incidentally). Anarchists, therefore, believe in order and organization, just not of a hierarchical or authoritarian kind. Although this is proorganization attitude is not 100 percent a part of anarchist philosophy, it has enjoyed overwhelming support in most anarchist circles. “Green anarchists” or the controversial “primitivist” factions of anarchism do not always paint a flattering portrait of organization, and some writers, such as Zerzan (cite?) are openly hostile to all organization, seeing it as a keystone of civilization (also an enemy). 58 Such modern “anarchists” would be of the few considered “pro-chaos”. Anarchists who totally reject any organization are in the minority. According to Graeber (2002): in North America especially, this is a movement about reinventing democracy. It is not opposed to organization. It is about creating new forms of organization. It is not lacking in ideology. Those new forms of organization are its ideology. It is about creating and enacting horizontal networks instead of top-down structures like states, parties or corporations; networks based on principles of decentralized, non-hierarchical consensus democracy. Ultimately, it aspires to be much more than that, because ultimately it aspires to reinvent daily life as whole. (p. 70, emphasis in original) The anarchist approach to political organization was set-in stone when Bakunin and his followers were ejected from the First International by Marx. This schism helped to clarify the many differences in tactics and philosophy between the State socialists and antiauthoritarian socialists. From Bakunin's “secret societies” to the groupos affinidad of the CNT-FAI, or from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) to the Direct Action Network (DAN) 59 , anarchists have organized themselves in non-hierarchical ways for over a century. However, anarchists differ from most leftists and socialists in that they do not form political parties (at least in an electoral sense). Some anarchists do vote, but they all recognize the severe limitations of electoral politics, and consequently form non-electoral 58 See Sheppard (2003b), which contrasts primitivism with anarchism. 59 See Polletta (2001) for a look into the NYC-DAN. [ Williams 64 ] [ this is a draft. do not cite. ]
organizations. This differs from recent leftist efforts to create “third parties” in the US, such as the Green Party, the New Party, and the (non-candidate) Labor Party, or in the case of socialist-communist-alphabet-soup political parties—Communist Party USA, Socialists Workers Party, Revolutionary Communist Party, Socialist Labor Party, World Workers Party, Socialist Party, ad naseum. Anarchistic Organizational Forms Some anarchist methods and organizational formations follow. They are subsequently followed by a sociological critique of organization theory. It should be noted that nonanarchists often use these organization forms, too. Thus, they are anarchistic forms as opposed to anarchist forms of organization. These organizations are listed below in Table XXX. Type Scale/Scope Decision making Table 5. Organizational Forms In/ Out Composition Type Pri./ Sec. Function Affinity group Multi-use C in Individuals normative P latent Bloc protest in Individuals/affinity groups coercive manifest Cluster C Affinity groups utilitarian dysfuncti on Coalition Broad/diverse DD/C in Organizations/individu als ... ... Collective DD/C in Individuals P Cooperative Producer/cons umer Council in Individuals (producers or consumers) Federation DD/C in Organizations Network DD/C Spokescouncil C in Affinity groups/clusters ~S Union/Syndicate Producer DD in Individuals (workers) Source: Author's analysis. Notes: DD=direct democracy/C=consensus; P=Primary org/S=Secondary org Affinity groups (similar to “cells” 60 ) were devised during the Spanish Civil War, from 1936-1937, first used by the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI), the two main organizations that facilitated a short-lived anarchist society in Catalonia. Respectively, they were an anarcho-syndicalist union and an anarchist federation that did the main self-defense of the revolution against Franco and the fascists, and later the Stalinist-aligned Communists. 60 An attempt to differentiate between a “cell” and an “affinity group” can be found in the Curious George Brigade's (2003) chapter “Clique, Cell, or Affinity Group?”, pp 50-51. [ Williams 65 ] [ this is a draft. do not cite. ] P
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Sociology of the Anarchists Analysi
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Index of Tables Table 1. Social Mov
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A NOTE ON SCHOLARSHIP Revolutions a
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INTRODUCTION We make the world sign
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RESEARCH ISSUES The power to think
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The increased focus upon anarchism
Page 13 and 14: camps of both the conflict and orde
Page 15 and 16: See the Models appendix for more on
Page 17 and 18: type of authority (particularly whe
Page 19 and 20: with much of this thinking, particu
Page 21 and 22: International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Page 23 and 24: a non-coercive consensus can actual
Page 25 and 26: develop more empathy for them (and
Page 27 and 28: they could get it for free? Of cour
Page 29 and 30: CrimethInc 29 , and interacted more
Page 31 and 32: domestic workers. Of course, anarch
Page 33 and 34: of the song, however. It is a sort
Page 35 and 36: VALUES Which side are you on? - Ata
Page 37 and 38: members are rotated overtime to dis
Page 39 and 40: ACADEMIA'S ANARCHISTIC “WANNABES
Page 41 and 42: SOCIAL MOVEMENTS When spiders unite
Page 43 and 44: Missing, again, is any discussion o
Page 45 and 46: Chomsky quotes Octave Mirbeau: “a
Page 47 and 48: information exchange. The Independe
Page 49 and 50: components of social movements incl
Page 51 and 52: actions (opposing police brutality,
Page 53 and 54: Individual anarchists also have qui
Page 55 and 56: meetings and congregate, as well as
Page 57 and 58: Labor Movement and New Social Movem
Page 59 and 60: anarchism”. Western US anarchists
Page 61 and 62: ● Map successive additions of IMC
Page 63: A 2002 user survey of the popular w
Page 67 and 68: auspice of the United States govern
Page 69 and 70: and hierarchical authority structur
Page 71 and 72: hierarchy of positions.” 6. Incen
Page 73 and 74: Anarchist Black Cross Earth First!
Page 75 and 76: Started Minneapolis, MN 1987 Slogan
Page 77 and 78: Critical Mass's only real credo is
Page 79 and 80: actions, cut up thousands of potato
Page 81 and 82: Michigan for example) might skew th
Page 83 and 84: Since many anarchists were engaged
Page 85 and 86: commitment does not conflict with f
Page 87 and 88: each IMCs webpage to “about” pa
Page 89 and 90: A look at the December 1999 archive
Page 91 and 92: Further, the focus upon anarchists
Page 93 and 94: Section Chief of the FBI stated tha
Page 95 and 96: TEACHING Everywhere not only educat
Page 97 and 98: my own attitudes that we should not
Page 99 and 100: The methods elaborated by McKeachie
Page 101 and 102: I'd be happy to do the same for oth
Page 103 and 104: The main points I would like the st
Page 105 and 106: Amster 2002 Carswell 2001 - clamor
Page 107 and 108: * Atkinson, Ian. 2001. “May Day 2
Page 109 and 110: * Boyle, Michael P., Michael R. McC
Page 111 and 112: * Corbridge, Stuart. 2003. “Count
Page 113 and 114: Ehrlich, Howard. 2002. “On the Wa
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* Gordon, Linda. 2002. “Social Mo
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* Johnson, Ana Gutierrez and Willia
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Social Movements, Conflicts and Cha
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Quarterly, 83 (3), September: 726-7
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* Przeworski, Adam. 2003. “Freedo
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* Shantz, Jeffrey. 2002. “Judi Ba
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* Thies, Clifford F. 2000. “The S
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Wood, Lesley J. 2004. “Bridging t
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APPENDIX: GLOSSARY What does anarch
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Sexuality: thought, identity, and a
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Compatibility model: anarchism inte
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Socialist model: anarchism has trad
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Index will be too huge and unwieldy
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