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anarchism: a beginner’s guide
2. operate on collective principles;
3. introduce means of self-assessment and criticism;
4. mount educational programmes – particularly in ‘issues of political
struggle’;
5. directly challenge and assault the equivalent state structures that
the alternative seeks to replace or make redundant. 60
Provided the action meets these conditions, then any kind of
alternative institution – be it a co-operative venture or a workermanaged
business – can be used as a platform for anarchist communitarianism.
Other communitarians go further to suggest that the
subject and success of community actions are less important than
the process of engagement. For example, John Schumacher argues
‘the making is never over – the making is community’. He quotes
David Wieck: ‘nothing secures anarchist society, whether of large
extent or of commune-size or consisting of two persons, except
continuous realization of the human potential for free engagement
and disagreement’. 61 It’s difficult to see how this approach usefully
addresses existing asymmetries of power.
summary
This chapter has examined three ways in which anarchists have
attempted to outline their visions of anarchy. It looked first at
arguments about ‘primitive’ or preliterate ways of life and examined
the ways in which anarchists have evaluated traditional societies as
models for anarchy. The second section discussed a variety of anarchist
responses to utopianism and outlined two utopias: Maximoff’s
anarcho-syndicalist model and Graham Purchase’s eco-anarchy.
Finally, the chapter reviewed examples of practical anarchy – anarchosyndicalism
and community. In the post-war period, communitarians
have consciously developed their models of anarchy as
alternatives to anarcho-syndicalism. Yet Souchy’s observations of the
conviviality of Spanish anarcho-syndicalists, on the one hand, and
the willingness of anti-globalizers to reflect on the organizational
potential of local networking initiatives, on the other, suggests that
there might be relationship between the two. If they are treated as
alternative choices, there is a danger that the intuitive appeal of
anarchy will exist in an inverse relation to the clarity of its
objectives.