Another World is Possible

[TGN]

Here's a one page article by Ad Bustersmagazine suggesting that anarchism is a viable alternative to neoliberalism.

Another World is Possible - Adbusters | Journal of the mental environment

The article cites the Spanish Revolution, which had a strong anarchist/syndicalist component in support of its position and even includes quotes from Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, which was his first-hand account of his experience as a member of the POUM militia, which fought alongside anarchist militias during the Spanish Civil War.

Today, anarchists have been involved in alternative globalization protests, hurricane relief after the Katrina and super storm Sandy disasters, formation of the Occupy movement and so on. Historically, they were involved in the labor (where they played an energetic role in winning the 8 hour workday, feminists and anti-nuke movements. Areas such as the Exarchia district in Athens have a strong anarchist presence today, while whole territories such as Chiapas and purportedly Rojava are supposedly partially influenced by anarchist ideas.

Marina Sitrin, in her recent article "The Anarchist Spirit" even notes that many of today's social movements (like the Recuperdad in Argentina) around the world have included horizontal or anarchist-like organizational principles on their own.

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/anarchist-spirit-horizontalism

"The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing. To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia

 

[Renae]

Here's a one page article by Ad Bustersmagazine suggesting that anarchism is a viable alternative to neoliberalism.

Another World is Possible - Adbusters | Journal of the mental environment

The article cites the Spanish Revolution, which had a strong anarchist/syndicalist component in support of its position and even includes quotes from Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, which was his first-hand account of his experience as a member of the POUM militia, which fought alongside anarchist militias during the Spanish Civil War.

Today, anarchists have been involved in alternative globalization protests, hurricane relief after the Katrina and super storm Sandy disasters, formation of the Occupy movement and so on. Historically, they were involved in the labor (where they played an energetic role in winning the 8 hour workday, feminists and anti-nuke movements. Areas such as the Exarchia district in Athens have a strong anarchist presence today, while whole territories such as Chiapas and purportedly Rojava are supposedly partially influenced by anarchist ideas.

Marina Sitrin, in her recent article "The Anarchist Spirit" even notes that many of today's social movements (like the Recuperdad in Argentina) around the world have included horizontal or anarchist-like organizational principles on their own.

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/anarchist-spirit-horizontalism

"The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing. To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia

Wrong ****ing forum, the tinfoil hattery is down the hall....

/boggle

 

[Skeptic Bob]

I am definitely an anarchist at heart, but humanity as a whole isn't evolved enough yet to pull it off.

 

[TheGoverness]

Here's a one page article by Ad Bustersmagazine suggesting that anarchism is a viable alternative to neoliberalism.

Another World is Possible - Adbusters | Journal of the mental environment

The article cites the Spanish Revolution, which had a strong anarchist/syndicalist component in support of its position and even includes quotes from Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, which was his first-hand account of his experience as a member of the POUM militia, which fought alongside anarchist militias during the Spanish Civil War.

Today, anarchists have been involved in alternative globalization protests, hurricane relief after the Katrina and super storm Sandy disasters, formation of the Occupy movement and so on. Historically, they were involved in the labor (where they played an energetic role in winning the 8 hour workday, feminists and anti-nuke movements. Areas such as the Exarchia district in Athens have a strong anarchist presence today, while whole territories such as Chiapas and purportedly Rojava are supposedly partially influenced by anarchist ideas.

Marina Sitrin, in her recent article "The Anarchist Spirit" even notes that many of today's social movements (like the Recuperdad in Argentina) around the world have included horizontal or anarchist-like organizational principles on their own.

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/anarchist-spirit-horizontalism

"The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing. To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia

Nah, I'll pass. I'm not a big fan of anarchy, anyways.

 

[Helix]

I am definitely an anarchist at heart, but humanity as a whole isn't evolved enough yet to pull it off.

certainly not at this point. the best case scenario is a centralized, anti-competitive corporate state, as the next biggest power fills the void left by government. worse than that would be regional warlords aggregating after years of chaos. both of these options strike me as decidedly dystopian.

 

[Tigerace117]

Here's a one page article by Ad Bustersmagazine suggesting that anarchism is a viable alternative to neoliberalism.

Another World is Possible - Adbusters | Journal of the mental environment

The article cites the Spanish Revolution, which had a strong anarchist/syndicalist component in support of its position and even includes quotes from Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, which was his first-hand account of his experience as a member of the POUM militia, which fought alongside anarchist militias during the Spanish Civil War.

Today, anarchists have been involved in alternative globalization protests, hurricane relief after the Katrina and super storm Sandy disasters, formation of the Occupy movement and so on. Historically, they were involved in the labor (where they played an energetic role in winning the 8 hour workday, feminists and anti-nuke movements. Areas such as the Exarchia district in Athens have a strong anarchist presence today, while whole territories such as Chiapas and purportedly Rojava are supposedly partially influenced by anarchist ideas.

Marina Sitrin, in her recent article "The Anarchist Spirit" even notes that many of today's social movements (like the Recuperdad in Argentina) around the world have included horizontal or anarchist-like organizational principles on their own.

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/anarchist-spirit-horizontalism

"The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing. To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia

Mid 1990s Somalia doesn't strike me as a good example to emulate.

 

[TheGoverness]

Mid 1990s Somalia doesn't strike me as a good example to emulate.

What ever do you mean? Somalia is something the USA and the rest of the world should aspire to be, man.

 

[Tigerace117]

What ever do you mean? Somalia is something the USA should aspire to be, man.

You betcha :mrgreen:

 

[Van Basten]

Anarchism is an intriguing thought exercise and nothing else.

But gotta feed that fetish for champagne revolutionism!

 

[Henrin]

I am definitely an anarchist at heart, but humanity as a whole isn't evolved enough yet to pull it off.

No real reason to not embrace it if that is what you believe.

Anyway, I don't think any system really works for all people.

 

[Henrin]

certainly not at this point. the best case scenario is a centralized, anti-competitive corporate state, as the next biggest power fills the void left by government. worse than that would be regional warlords aggregating after years of chaos. both of these options strike me as decidedly dystopian.

You are aware that the state is just the end result of warlords, right?

 

[Velvet Elvis]

Anarchy is like Taco Bell.

Good in very small doses. Too much and it just turns into a sprint to the toilet.

 

[FieldTheorist]

I'm in principle for anarchism, but like most things the devil is in the details. Strictly speaking, anarchism means a lot of things, from anarcho-syndicalism/communism/capitalism, which are pretty wildly different, to simple social anarchism, which strives for an organized society without leaders (unions and syndicates being canonical examples). It's why I support organized labor, labor unions being represented at corporate boards (if we're to even allow corporations, which isn't something I really would agree to), promoting and maintaining healthy democratic governments, and weakening the power of massive amalgamations of private wealth.

While I like many of the ideas from anarcho-syndicalism/social anarchism/libertarian socialism, I'm largely a democratic socialist. Economics is a pretty complex subject, and I don't think any human being has the right solution. But it is fair to say that I support a decreased role of leaders/rulers and an increased role in democratic agreement. But life is messy, so it's full of unclear lines.

 

[TGN]

I am definitely an anarchist at heart, but humanity as a whole isn't evolved enough yet to pull it off.

"Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said 'Senor' or 'Don' or even 'Usted'; everyone called everyone else 'Comrade' and 'Thou,' and said 'Salud!' instead of 'Buenas Dias.' Tipping had been forbidden by law since the time of Primo de Rivera; almost my first experience was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy. There were no private motor cars, they had all been commandeered, and alll the trams and taxis and much of the other transport were painted red and black. The revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the Ramblas, the wide central artery of the town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and fro, the loud-speakers were bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into the night...There was no unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low; you saw very few conspicuously destitute people, and no beggars except the gypsies. Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine. In the barbers' shops were Anarchist notices (the barbers were mostly Anarchists) solemnly explaining that barbers were no longer slaves. In the streets were coloured posters appealing to prostitutes to stop being prostitutes." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia

But the people already pulled it off. And what about the present-day examples cited by Sitrin?

Tigerace117

You don't know what anarchism is. It is a socialist society based on the principles of self-management, mutual aid, decentralization, egalitarianism, etc. and was formed by 19th century intellectuals. Ⓐ

How is Somalia an example of this? Oh, wait...it isn't.

"As far as my purely personal preferences went I would have liked to join the Anarchists." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia

Orwell was there. How about you?

 

[poweRob]

DAMMIT! I thought it was going to be about colonizing mars or something cool like that.

 

[TheGoverness]

DAMMIT! I thought it was going to be about colonizing mars or something cool like that.

I know right? I was sorely disappointed.

 

[Skeptic Bob]

"Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said 'Senor' or 'Don' or even 'Usted'; everyone called everyone else 'Comrade' and 'Thou,' and said 'Salud!' instead of 'Buenas Dias.' Tipping had been forbidden by law since the time of Primo de Rivera; almost my first experience was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy. There were no private motor cars, they had all been commandeered, and alll the trams and taxis and much of the other transport were painted red and black. The revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the Ramblas, the wide central artery of the town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and fro, the loud-speakers were bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into the night...There was no unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low; you saw very few conspicuously destitute people, and no beggars except the gypsies. Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine. In the barbers' shops were Anarchist notices (the barbers were mostly Anarchists) solemnly explaining that barbers were no longer slaves. In the streets were coloured posters appealing to prostitutes to stop being prostitutes." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia

But the people already pulled it off. And what about the present-day examples cited by Sitrin?

Tigerace117

You don't know what anarchism is. It is a socialist society based on the principles of self-management, mutual aid, decentralization, egalitarianism, etc. and was formed by 19th century intellectuals. Ⓐ

How is Somalia an example of this? Oh, wait...it isn't.

"As far as my purely personal preferences went I would have liked to join the Anarchists." George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia

Orwell was there. How about you?

Anarchism can work on small scales for a time. But given human nature I just don't see how it can work on large scales for extended periods of time. There are humans who will accumulate enough power to come in and conquer the anarchist society. For better or worse, governments are very good at amassing power. An anarchist society will not be able to stand up to that indefinitely.

It is possible that we as a species either through biological evolution or technology may eventually leave the desire for power and violence behind. When that happens then anarchism on a large scale may be feasible. But at that point we would probably be a different species altogether.

 

[instagramsci]

If anarchists could stop arguing amongst themselves for 10 minutes maybe they could actually get something done

Sent from my 6045I using Tapatalk

 

[TGN]

"Essentially, the contention is that our currently dominant power systems cannot long survive in space; beyond a certain technological level a degree of anarchy is arguably inevitable and anyway preferable." Iain M. Banks - A Few Notes on the Culture

Don't worry powerRob, we'll get there. I've read somewhere that Elon Musk is a fan of the Culture series.

BrewerBob:

Kropotkin believed cooperation was one of the most important factor of our evolution and wrote about such in his book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution .

You might want to read a little on Zomia, a wide spread region in present-day SE asia where close to a hundred million people are purportedly living an autonomous existence beyond the reach of very powerful state actors. It was the subject of anthropologist and political science professor James Scott's book The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia.
The Battle Over Zomia - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"One of the largest remaining nonstate spaces in the world, if not the largest,·is the vast expanse of uplands, variously termed the Southeast Asian massif
and, more recently, Zomia.22 This great mountain realm on the marches of mainland Southeast Asia, China, India, and Bangladesh sprawls across
roughly 2.5 million square kilometers-an area roughly the size of Europe. As one of the first scholars to identify the massif and its peoples as a single
object of study, Jean Michaud has traced its extent: "From north to south, it includes southern and western Sichuan, all ofGuizhou and Yunnan, western
and northern Guangxi, western Guangdong, most of northern Burma with an adjacent segment of extreme [north]eastern India, the north and west of
Thailand, practically all ofLaos above the Mekong Valley, northern and central Vietnam along the Annam Cordillera, and the north and eastern fringes
of Cambodia...Rough calculations would put Zomia minority populations alone at
around eighty million to one hundred million.24" James C. Scott - The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia

 

[poweRob]

If anarchists could stop arguing amongst themselves for 10 minutes maybe they could actually get something done

Sent from my 6045I using Tapatalk

Well if they did, I know what they'd tear down... but what would they ever build?

 

[TGN]

Well if they did, I know what they'd tear down... but what would they ever build?

The new world in the shell of the old.

 

[poweRob]

The new world in the shell of the old.

It was a trick question. Anarchists don't build.

 

[Helix]

You are aware that the state is just the end result of warlords, right?

in our case, it's the end result of votes. unfortunately, most voters are currently being corralled into two gerrymandered tribes.

 

[TGN]

"It was a trick question. Anarchists don't build."

They built schools.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escuela_Moderna

And unions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederación_Nacional_del_Trabajons.

And mutual aid centers.


Looks like you were the one tricked.

 

[Henrin]

in our case, it's the end result of votes. unfortunately, most voters are currently being corralled into two gerrymandered tribes.

Not even the point. Government didn't spring up by consent. They sprung up in the beginning from groups conquering each other. Most people have this idea in their head that you avoid warlords by supporting the state, but that position only exposes how little they know of history.