An Anarchist FAQ

del.icio.us del.icio.us
Digg Digg
Furl Furl
Reddit Reddit
Rojo Rojo
Add to OnlyWire

"An Anarchist FAQ" is an online FAQ written by an international work group of anarchists connected through the internet. It documents anarchist theory and ideas while presenting arguments in favor of anarchism. It also explores debates internal to the anarchist movement, and counters common arguments against anarchism. It has been in constant evolution since 1995. While it was started as a critique of anarcho-capitalism, by the time it was officially released it had become a general introduction to anarchism.

The FAQ is published under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (copyleft) and it is dedicated "to the millions of anarchists, living and dead, who tried and are trying to create a better world." It was officially released on July 19, 1996 "to celebrate the Spanish Revolution of 1936 and the heroism of the Spanish anarchist movement."

Contents

History

The FAQ was started in 1995 when a group of anarchists got together in order to write an FAQ arguing against capitalist claims of being anarchists. Those who were involved in the project had spent many hours in on-line debate with self-described anarcho-capitalists concerning whether or not capitalism and anarchism are compatible. Eventually, a group of net-activists decided to produce a FAQ explaining their thoughts on why anarchism and capitalism are incompatible. While the FAQ was written by many collaborators, the main contributors are listed in the introduction as Iain McKay (primary contributor and editor), Gary Elkin, Dave Neal and Ed Boraas, who refer to themselves as "The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective."[1] However, the editors eventually decided that an Anarchist FAQ which focused on anarchism itself would be a better idea than one solely devoted to refuting the notion of anarcho-capitalism, and so the Anarchist FAQ was born. The authors acknowledge that "it still bears some of the signs of its past-history. For example it gives the likes of Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and so on, far too much space outside of Section F - they really are not that important."[cite this quote]

The FAQ thanks the following people for their contributions: Andrew Flood, Mike Ballard, Francois Coquet, Jamal Hannah, Mike Huben, Greg Alt, Chuck Munson, Pauline McCormack, Nestor McNab, Kevin Carson, Shawn Wilbur, "and our comrades on the anarchy, oneunion and organise! mailing lists."

A 748-page version of the FAQ is due to be published in paperback as An Anarchist FAQ: v. 1 by AK Press on June 30, 2008.[2]

A 2003 Critical Studies in Media Communication study declared the FAQ the most prominent core anarchist website, finding that it received incoming links from 20% of the anarchist websites studied.[3]

Content

Part of the
Philosophy series on
Anarchism
"Circle-A" anarchy symbol
Schools
Theory · Practice
Issues
History
Culture
Economics
By region
Lists
Related topics
Anarchism portal
Philosophy portal
Politics portal

The editors of the FAQ identify themselves as belonging to the social anarchist branch of anarchism (defined as anarchist-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, collectivist-anarchism and Proudhon's mutualism,[4]. Despite this, the FAQ presents and describes other anarchist schools of thought such as individualist anarchism, anarcha-feminism, and some lesser known theories like platformism and anarcho-primitivism. It cites references from a variety of authors from these schools, and its bibliography contains over five hundred sources.

Given the wide range of anarchist ideas, the authors acknowledge that many anarchists will not agree with everything that the FAQ says.[1] However, they express their belief that "most anarchists will agree with most of what we present and respect those parts with which they do disagree with as genuine expressions of anarchist ideas and ideals."

The FAQ also explains disputes within anarchist thought, such as where and why social anarchists and individualist anarchists disagree.[4]As social anarchists, the writers also explain their own views on individualist anarchism, arguing that it has contradictions and "many flaws", and stating that it would lead to a "hierarchical and non-anarchist" society.[5] However, they acknowledge its importance within the anarchist movement.

The FAQ does not accept anarcho-capitalism as part of anarchism. The FAQ writers explain and criticise anarcho-capitalism in sections F and, to some extent, G of the FAQ. They claim that "outside the net [anarcho-capitalists] are irrelevant and on the net they are just annoying" and call the arguments of anarcho-capitalists "inane'".[1] A critique of Bryan Caplan's "Anarchism Theory FAQ" is also presented in the first appendix, along with arguments that Caplan's FAQ distorts anarchism's relationship with anarcho-capitalism.

Influence and reception

The FAQ has been complimented by several sources. The anarcho-syndicalist Solidarity Federation called it an "invaluable resource" and "highly recommended" for people wishing "to gain a better understanding of anarchism" [6]. Flint Jones, a member of NEFAC, hailed the FAQ as "the most comprehensive [anarchist] resource available"[7] The Workers Solidarity Movement, an Irish anarchist group, called it "the primary source of information about anarchism on the world wide web".[8] French anarchist Norman Baillargeon calls it a "monumental and essential FAQ dedicated to anarchism"[9] The FAQ has been cited by Harvard resident fellow Joseph Reagle "[as] an exemplar of the principles [of community governance]."[10]

In recent years the FAQ has been cited in various published works, such as Viable Utopian Ideas: Shaping a Better World (2003) by Arthur B Shostak,[11] and Utopia and Organization (2002) by Michael Parker.[12] It has been described as "very comprehensive", by Paul Graham and John Hoffman in their Introduction to Political Ideologies (2006).[13] Various versions of the FAQ have been translated into 8 languages, and it has been included in every stable Debian release since 1999.[14]

Anarcho-capitalist theorist David D. Friedman criticized the FAQ for misrepresenting some of his positions on anarchism in Medieval Iceland (in what was formally Section F9), accusing the authors of "not car[ing] whether what they publish is true".[15] The FAQ contributors admitted that they made mistakes, particularly in the initial version of this section produced in 1996, but claim that all mistakes were subsequently fixed when they became aware of them.[16] and reject Friedman's claim that they are uninterested in the truth.[17]

Mutualist and individualist anarchist Kevin A. Carson, while calling the FAQ a "[m]onumental compendium on anarchist history, theory and practice", disagreed with the FAQ's analysis of anarcho-capitalism.[18] He referred to the FAQ's treatment of anarcho-capitalism to be "probably the FAQ's weakest spot", continuing "[While] I consider anarcho-capitalism to be considerably diverged from classical individualist anarchism, [I] also reject any blanket assertion that they can't be 'real anarchists.'"[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c An Anarchist FAQ - Introduction
  2. ^ (2008) in Iain Mckay: An Anarchist FAQ. Stirling: AK Press. ISBN 1902593901. OCLC 182529204. 
  3. ^ Owens, Lynn; L. Kendall Palmer (2003), "Making the News: Anarchist Counter-Public Relations on the World Wide Web", Critical Studies in Media Communication 20 (4): 335-361 
  4. ^ a b An Anarchist FAQ - A.3 What types of anarchism are there?
  5. ^ Section G.4
  6. ^ Direct Action, no. 44, page 30
  7. ^ Anarchist Organization: an Oxymoron, or Not? - Infoshop.org
  8. ^ Workers Solidarity, no. 62
  9. ^ L'order moins le pouvoir: Histoire et actualité de l'anarchisme
  10. ^ Why the Internet is Good - Community governance that works well
  11. ^ Shostak, Arthur (2003). Viable Uptopian Ideas. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 9780765611048. 
  12. ^ Parker, Martin (2002). Utopia and Organization. Cambridge: Blackwell Pub. ISBN 9781405100724. 
  13. ^ Hoffman, John (2006). Introduction to Political Ideologies. New York: Longman. ISBN 9781405824392. 
  14. ^ Debian - Details of package anarchism in etch
  15. ^ Friedman, David D. "Iceland Anarch FAQ2 reply". Retrieved on 2007-08-12.
  16. ^ Infoshop.org - An Anarchist FAQ after ten years
  17. ^ An Anarchist FAQ, David Friedman and Medieval Iceland accessed 27 July 2008
  18. ^ Carson, Kevin A. "Mutualist. Org: Free Market Anti-Capitalism: Links". Retrieved on 2007-12-14.
  19. ^ Carson, Kevin A. "Anarchist FAQ Update". Retrieved on 2007-08-12.

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Anarchist_FAQ"

This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.