A. An anarchist economy is a �mixed� economy. Although wealth is held in common, how that wealth is created and services are delivered is a matter of individual choice. Some people may find it easier to work in a co-operative or collective setting; others may work in partnerships or as individuals. The thing that all people involved in the creation of goods and the delivery of services in an anarchist society have in common is that they don�t employ labour or have to sell their labour in order to survive. Each individual decides whether they will work in a collective or individual setting. The goods they create and services they deliver is property that can potentially be accessed by all members of that community. Individual security within an anarchist community is directly related to the health of the community as a whole. Communities that work towards the common goal of sharing the goods produced and services provided in that community, with other members of their community, are more likely to feel and be much more secure than individuals who have to compete in a market place dominated by monopolies.
of an anarchist society that produce wealth and deliver services is based on the need to satisfy human need, not create profits for the sake of creating profits. Within an anarchist society, labour isn�t a commodity that can be bought and sold on an open market. Each person decides whether they want to provide their labour to benefit the community they live in and whether they want to work as individuals, in partnership, collectives or co-operatives within that community.
Q. WOULD AN ANARCHIST SOCIETY RISE FROM THE ASHES OF THE OLD?
A. Yes and no. Whether an anarchist society rises Phoenix, like from the ashes of the old, is dependent to a large degree on the influence that anarchists had in the old society. The destruction of a society through armed conflict or a natural disaster isn't the best recipe for the creation of an egalitarian community. People trying to survive will do whatever it takes to survive. In such a situation, they are willing to tolerate the loss of whatever freedoms they enjoyed for survival.
How people organise and who fill the power vacuum that is created, is related to what disciplinary elements of the old society are left and the role opposition forces played in that community before disaster struck. People will not 'naturally' adopt libertarian forms of organisation and create an egalitarian community as a direct result of a disaster. They may be forced to temporarily adopt collective forms of organisation to survive; a new group may, through its access to weapons, be able to impose its will on the community. Poorly fed, fear stricken people don't have much interest in anything else than the amelioration of the situation they find themselves in. How this occurs is of little interest to them.
Radical egalitarian social change is more likely to occur in a dual power situation - a situation when more and more people in a community have adopted anarchist forms of organisation and are forming parallel institutional structures within the community they work and live in, than it is to occur as a result of as catastrophic event. The chaos, insecurity and death and destruction that occurs as a result of a catastrophic event or a prolonged war is more likely to lead to a situation where armed groups are able to impose their will on the people who are victims of these events than the people themselves seizing power and creating an egalitarian community where the people involved in a decision make that decision and use the common wealth to make their decisions a reality.
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Q. WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF AN ANARCHIST SOCIETY?
A. PARTICIPATION - �take part in�. The lifeblood of an anarchist community is the participation of its members in the day to day running of the communities they live and work in. Without their active participation in the structures and institutions that make up their society, power will rapidly pass into the hands of an elite. Active participation in the affairs of the community is dependent on the establishment of structures that encourage people to take part in the decision making processes within that community. Not every member needs to be involved in every decision, not every member needs to attend every meeting. Members can, if they choose, refuse to participate in any meeting. Technological innovations can be used to allow people to participate in important meetings without the need for them to personally attend those meetings.
What�s important is not the number of people who attend or participate in the decision making processes that are going on, but that they can participate in decisions that affect them if they want to. In the great majority of cases it�s likely only a minority will be actively participating in the process; the rest of the community may decide to put their faith in the people who do participate. In such circumstances, it�s important that those who put their faith in the more active sections of the community they live in, be able to quickly be reinvolved in the decision making process if they are not happy with the decision their community is taking. The structures that allow that participation to occur are an integral component of that community. They cannot be altered without a wide ranging consensus within that community. It�s highly unlikely that people would voluntary give away their right to participation in the decision making processes within their communities.
If the structures that allow participation cannot be altered without a wide ranging consensus, any minority decisions that are made that are not accepted by the community can be altered by the whole community at the next meeting. Eternal vigilance, active participation and the retention of structures that give the people affected by a decision the ability to participation in the decision making process, gives an anarchist community the flexibility to effectively tackle issues, problems at both the local and regional levels that other societies do not have.
Q. ANARCHIST CULTURE - FACT OR FICTION?
A. John Howard's most successful and enduring success during his Prime Ministership has been his ability to significantly change Australian culture. A change in laws means nothing, if you can't make the cultural changes to ensure that people accept those laws. The creation of an anarchist society and its continued survival revolves around the ability of that community to make significant cultural changes that reflect the principles that society is based on.
Anarchist culture is as legitimate and real as a capitalist or nationalist culture. It is dependent on people adopting non hierarchical forms of organisation as the norm, not the exception. It is dependent on people accepting their individual freedom and security, is interlinked with everybody else's ability to exercise the same rights. It is dependent on the idea that property is held in common by the community, not controlled by the State or private sector. Most importantly of all, an anarchist culture is dependent on people's active participation in the life of their community.
Culture is interlinked with the types of institutions that are created, people's interaction with each other and the common vision that is shared by the community. Capitalist culture is based on the idea of winners and losers, private solutions to social problems and the creation of institutions that encourage people to acquire and consume, irrespective of the human and social costs. Cultural changes are real, they set the pattern that determines how people think and behave in certain situations. They become such a constant feature of life, people are not aware of them, accepting that what they feel and experience is the only legitimate logical response to the situation they find themselves in.
Replacing one set of cultural principles with another is both simple and difficult. It is simple when institutions change to reflect the cultural changes that are happening in the community. It is difficult when the dominant institutions continue to reflect the ideas, ideology and personal opinions of those who exert authority in them. Cultural change is interlinked with institutional change; one can't happen without the other. Social revolution the goal of the anarchist movement - can be achieved if we strive to break down the power of the institutions that dominate us and replace them with new institutions that are non hierarchical, non centralised and democratic.
The development of an anarchist culture is dependent on the creation of new institutions; changing the names and faces of those who use the old institutions to implement their cultural agenda, reinforces the old cultural mores.
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