Introduction

What's New in the FAQ?

Version	Date	What's New
8.5	27-OCT-00	Anarchism and Marxism Slight revisions of each of the existing appendices to fix minor typing errors. Plus a reply to the recent British SWP article on "Marxism and Anarchism" in which we discuss the errors in the article and indicate that the disgraceful behaviour of the SWP in the recent "Battle of Prague" shows that the SWP are hypocrits as well as why such behaviour flows naturally from their authoritarian politics.
8.4	19-JUL-00	Section B.4.5 Expansion on why capitalism cannot "leave you alone". Includes information on self-management schemes and why they management stop them and what this implies for capitalism. Plus it discusses the ambiguity of the slogan "leave me alone" in a hierarchical society. Section J.5.12 Expansion on why capitalism selects against workers' self-management even though it is usually more productive and efficient than wage labour. The hierarchical nature of the company ensures that such experiments do not grow and expand. Section F.1 Slight expansion of "Are 'anarcho'-capitalists really anarchists?" Adds the point we make elsewhere that they cannot be considered as anarchists because capitalist property, like the state, is hierarchical. Anarchism and Marxism Two new additions to this appendix. The first one is on Marxists and Spanish Anarchism in which we discuss various claims made by Marxists (particularly Trotskyists) about the history and politics of the Spanish anarchist movement. The second is a reply to a Marxist diatribe against the various "direct action" and anti-globalisation events and organisations, particularly Reclaim the Streets in London. In addition, section 12 of the appendix on the pamphlet "Socialism from Below" has been expanded to include more details about anarchist involvement during the Russian Revolution and their links with the masses as well as details of the politics of Parisian workers of the 1860s.
8.3	13-APR-00	Section B.2 Expansion and revision on the section "Why are anarchists against the state?". Indicates that the state bureaucracy has its own interests and so the state is not only the tool of the economically dominant class. Also indicates the role of the state as protector of the system as a whole and how it does this. Section J.1 Revision of the section on "Are Anarchists involved in social struggles?". Section D.1 Section D.2 Section D.11 Slight expanision of each of these sections. Anarchism and Marxism Revision to fix various minor typos.
8.2	18-MAR-00	Anarchism and Marxism New appendix for replies to on-line anti-anarchist webpages and works. Currently contains an indepth reply to the SWP/ISO pamphlet "Socialism from Below." We expose their "The Myth of Anarchist Libertarianism" to be a mish-mash of lies, half-truths and nonsense and indicate why Marxism is not Socialism from Below and why anarchism is. Section C.1 Revision and expansion of our critique of marginalism and general equilibrium theory. Section J.2.10 Slight expansion on why the claim that anarchism is apolitical because it rejects electioneering is false. Section J.3.7 Slight expansion on Bakunin's ideas on the tactics of anarchist groups and why Marxist accounts of them are false. Section J.7.2 Slight change to the end of the section on Is social revolution possible? Stresses that people change themselves when they change the world and that libertarian characteristics are generated by struggle and so co-operative/libertarian tendencies are a product of struggle, not idealised notions with little basis in reality. Section E.7 Slight expansion on why Green Consumerism cannot stop ecological destruction. Expands on the use of PR firms, "greenwashing" and how apparently "green" firms may not be. Section F.1.3 Section F.2.2 Slight revision of these sections.
8.1	19-JAN-00	Section A.2.9 Expansion on the section on "What sort of society do anarchists want?" Clarifies the important difference between delegates and representatives. The former is the basis for eliminating government, the latter is a form of government. Section A.5 Slight expansion to introduction of this sub-section to hight that anarchists aim for a revolution from below and that our examples of Anarchy in Action are expressions of this. Section A.5.1 Expansion of the section on "The Paris Commune" to include more information on its anarchistic elements and to provide more anarchist analysis of it. Section A.5.2 Expansion of the section on the "Haymarket Martyrs" to include more of the history of the event, details of the "Chicago Idea" which inspired them as well as why anarchists still consider it important. Section J.5 Slight modification to "What alternative social organisations do anarchists create?" Appendix 1 Slight changes to the appendix on "Anarchism and 'Anarcho'-capitalism"
8.0	14-DEC-99	Section G Revision and expansion of section G which is on the Individualist Anarchists. In addition to new arguments in existing sections on why they were libertarian socialists and not fore-fathers of "anarcho"-capitalism, there are three new sub-sections: G.1.1 Why is the social context important in evaluating Individualist Anarchism? G.2.1 What about their support of the free market?; G.2.2 What about their support of "private property"?; Section C.2.6 Section C.2.7 Addition of a couple of Proudhon quotes on why interest is exploitative and unjustifiable. Section H -- Introduction New section. Introduction to the section on why Anarchists are opposed to Marxism and other forms of state socialism. Also refutes some of the silly anti-anarchist assertions by Marxists. Section J.7 New section on What do anarchists mean by social revolution?. Find out what anarchists mean when they talk about social revolution, what it would involve and why most anarchists think it is required (and also why some anarchists reject it).
7.8	11-NOV-99	Section A.1.4 Slight change to the section on Are anarchists socialists? Section A.1.5 Expansion of the section on Where does anarchism come from?. While still stressing that anarchism is a product of working class struggle against the modern state and capitalism (and for freedom and equality), it also notes that anarchistic tendencies have existed in society before anarchism existed as a specific political theory. Section A.2.7 Expansion to the section on Why do anarchists argue for self-liberation? in order to stress that it is the process of rebellion, of self-liberation, that holds the key to a free society. Section A.2.9 Addition of Kropotkin quote to the section on What sort of society do anarchists want? Section A.2.14 Revision to the section on Why is voluntarism not enough? to include a few quotes and to clarify a few things. Section A.2.19 Very slight addition to the section on What ethical views do anarchists hold? to include how inequality erodes ethical behaviour. Section B.7.1 Inclusion of more information on classes to the section on But do classes actually exist?. International comparisions show that the US has more poverty and the smallest middle class compared to social democratic states in Europe. Not surprisingly, as its more free market based. Section B.7.3 Slight expansion of the section on What do anarchists mean by "class consciousness"? Section C.2 Slight expansion of the section on Where do profits come from? Section D.10 Expansion of the section on How does capitalism affect technology?. In a hierarchical society, technology cannot be truly neutral -- as anarchists have been aware of since Proudhon -- and will be used to enchance the power and profit of the bosses. Section F.5 Expansion of the section on why privatising everything will not increase freedom. Discover why a right-libertarian society implies the end of freedom of travel and the end of other civil liberties such as freedom of speach. Section J.2 Expansion of the section on What is Direct Action?. Find out why anarchists support direct action, why we are against voting and what our alternative is to electioneering. An Anarchist FAQ Bibilography The bibliography for the books we reference in the FAQ has been considerably added to.
7.7	14-JUL-99	Section J.4 New section on What trends in society aid anarchist activity? This section includes discussion of the importance of social struggle and the myth that its counter-production. In addition, it discusses anarchist use of the Internet, popular discontent with the state and big business as well as economic crisis. Appendix - Anarchism and "anarcho"-capitalism Revision and expansion on our reply and critique to Bryan Caplan's "Anarchist Theory FAQ." Explains why "anarcho"-capitalism is not anarchist and not part of the anarchist tradition. An Anarchist FAQ Bibilography Incomplete bibliography for the books we reference in the FAQ. It will be added to as time permits. Section A.1.1 Slight revision to the section on What does "anarchy" mean? to stress that anarchy means far more than just "no government." Section A.3.1 Section A.3.2 Expansion to the discussion on the differences between social and individualist anarchists, as well as between different kinds of social anarchist. Section A.5.5 Expansion of the section on Anarchists in the Italian Factory Occupations. Includes more details of the Anarchist struggle against fascism and refutes claims that Italian Fascism was somehow related to anarcho-syndicalism. Section A.2.18 Expansion and revision of the infamous "propaganda by the deed" period of anarchist history. Section F.8 Slight changes to the section on the role of the state in creating capitalism in the first place. Section A Minor changes in section A. Section B Minor changes in section B.
7.6	23-APR-99	Section J.3 New section on What kinds of organisation do anarchists build?. This section discusses the different kinds of organisations anarchists create and what role they play in anarchist theory, as part of society and in the class struggle. Anarcho-syndicalism is also discussed, as is why many anarchists are not anarcho-syndicalists. Also covered is Bakunin's ideas on the role of revolutionary organisations. Appendix - The Symbols of Anarchy New appendix on the history of the common anarchist symbols: the black flag, the red-and-black flag and the circled-A
7.5	15-MAR-99	Section C.8 Expansion of section on the role of credit and state control of money in the business cycle. Discusses Monetarism and free banking and why they fail to stop the business cycle. Section C.11 Slight revision and expansion on the section which discusses why Chile shows that free-market capitalism does not benefit everyone and that it was no "economic miracle". Section A.2.2 Slight modification to the section on "Why do anarchists emphasise liberty?". Section A.2.5 Extension on "why anarchists are in favour of equality?" to clarify a few points. Section A.2.8 More arguments explaining why it is impossible to be an anarchist without opposing hierarchy, including the hierarchy associated with private property. Introduction Slight up-date of the introduction.
7.4	17/12/98	Section C.7 Expansion, revision and reorganisation of section on "What causes the capitalist business cycle?". Includes new facts and figures and expands on original arguments. Why boom and bust is inherent in capitalism and the role of class struggle, investment and the price mechanism in it. Section C.9 Expansion, revision and reorganisation of section on Would laissez-faire policies reduce unemployment, as "free market" capitalists claim?. Reorganisation includes new subsections on empirical evidence that suggests high wages are associated with low unemployment and why "flexible" labour markets do not seem to be the solution to unemployment. Section C.3 Revision on What determines the distribution between profits and wages within companies?, stressing the importance of organisation and collective struggle in increasing wages by increasing bargaining power and indicating that rising productivity can be associated with lower wages, in contradiction to the claims of capitalist economics.
7.3	08/12/98	Section A.3.3 Revision and expansion of "What types of Green anarchism are there?", indicating the links between ecological and anarchist thought, the different types of green anarchism there are and where they agree and disagree. Section A.3.4 Revision and expansion of "Is anarchism pacifistic?" in which we discuss why many anarchists are pacifists and why anarchism has close links with pacifist ideas. It also indicates why most anarchists are not pacifists. Section A.1.4 Revision of the section on "Are Anarchists Socialists? to clarify a couple of points and provide a few more quotes from Individualist anarchists. Section B.4.3 Revision of the section on "No one forces you to work for them" which indicates that this refrain of supporters of capitalism misses the point. Section G.6 Slight expansion on "What are the ideas of Max Stirner? in relation to his Union of Egoists and why it implies self-management, not hierarchy. Section C.5.1 Inclusion of a few quotes by Peter Kropotkin on how Big Business gets more profits. Big isn't beautiful, but it helps you make more profits!
7.2	22/05/98	Section C.1 Section C.2 Revision and expansion of the anarchist critique of capitalist economics and why exploitation (unpaid labour) is the root source of profits, interest and rent. Section C.10 Expansion of the section on why "free market" capitalism will not benefit all, especially the poor. Section C Introduction Section C.9 Slight changes to these two sub-sections of section C.
7.1	27/03/98	Section A.3.5 Revision and expansion of "What is Anarcha-Feminism?". Includes a few more quotes and a discussion on why anarchists and anarcha-feminism are critical of mainstream feminism. Section A.2.11 Expansion of the section explaining why most anarchists support direct democracy and consider it as the complement to free association and individual freedom. Section A.2.13 Slight expansion on the section explaining why anarchists reject "individualism" and "collectivism" as two sides of the same (capitalist) coin. Section A.1 Section A.2.2 Section A.2.12 Section A.5.2 Slight revisions to all the above sections. Section J.5 Slight revisions for grammar.
7.0	10/03/98	Section A.3.7 New sub-section on Are there religious anarchists?. Includes information on various forms of religious anarchism with particular reference to Tolstoy. Section A.3.8 New sub-section on What is "anarchism without adjectives"?. Gives the history of this form of anarchism, what it is and why it came about. Section A.4 Slight revision of this section on Who are the major anarchist thinkers to include information on religious anarchism. Section C.11 Slight arrangement of sections C.11 and C.12 on the "free market" capitalist experiment in Pinochet's Chile. C.12 is now included as a subsection of C.11. Section C.12 New section C.12 on Hong Kong and why it does not show the benefits of laissez-faire capitalism as is often claimed. Section F Extensive revision of section F on why "anarcho"-capitalism is not a form of anarchism. Expanded, revised and spell checked. Replies to the FAQ New appendix which will list webpages that reply to the FAQ. Currently it includes a reply to reply on section F.1 done by an "anarcho"-capitalist.
6.8	07/01/98	Section J.5 New sub-section on "What alternative social organisations do anarchists create?. Includes information about community organising, industrial unionism and networking, mutual/co-operative credit systems, producer co-operatives (and why capitalism is inefficient), libertarian education and schools, a discussion on Libertarian Municipalism and anarchist views on state and private welfare and self-managed alternatives to both. Essential reading if you are interested in anarchy in action Section A.1 Slightly revised sub-section on "What is Anarchism?". Section B.1.4 Slight revision on the section on racism, sexism and homophobia and why they exist to include a summary of a study into the effects of racism in the USA. The study indicates that racism makes all working people worse off, including the "white" workers who are often said to benefit from it.
6.7	18/12/97	Section G.6 Slight revision to the section on Max Stirner and his ideas. Sections J introduction, J.1, J.2 and J.6 Minor revision on these sections of J for spelling and grammar
6.6	15/12/97	Section B.7 Slight revision to include more details on the concentration of wealth within the ruling class. Sections C.4, C.5 and C.6 Major revision on the sections on Big Business and oligopoly. Why it develops, its impact on society and why and how it enriches the few at the expense of the many. Section D Revised, expanded and spell checked section D on How does capitalism and statism effect society. Even more arguments and facts against capitalism and statism.
6.5	28/10/97	Slight corrections to sections A, B and C
6.4	03/09/97	Section J.6 Anarchist ideas on and methods for bringing up children. Section B Revised, expanded and spell checked section B on Why do anarchists oppose the current system. Even more arguments and facts against capitalism and statism. Section C Introduction, C.2, C.6, C.7.2 and C.9 Slightly revised and expended sections on capitalist economics. Sections F and G have been moved to another geocities address for space reasons.
6.3	17/07/97	Section C Revised, expanded and spell checked section C on The Myths of Capitalist Economics. Even more quotes from your favourite anarchists and libertarians!. Even more arguments and facts against capitalism! Section E Revised and spell checked section e on What do anarchists think causes ecological problems?. Section G Renamed, improved, expanded, revised and spell checked section G on Is individualist anarchism capitalistic? - the short answer being "no"! Indicates how and why individualist anarchism was opposed to capitalism plus why social anarchists are critical of the theory.
6.2	23/05/97	Section J.1 Newly completed sub-section. Find out why social struggle is important to anarchists and how anarchists take part in it. For anarchists, social struggle is the key from getting from capitalism to anarchy. Section A Revised section A on What is Anarchism?. Improved and updated arguments and evidence, plus spell checked, and so on! Section J - introduction and J.2 Spell checked and slightly revised.
6.1	01/05/97	Section J.2 Newly completed sub-section. Find out all about direct action, why anarchists support it, why we reject electioneering as a means of change and why we do not vote. Minor update of section B.3 to include a couple of nice Proudhon quotes on how "property is despotism." Minor updates of sections C.2 and F.2.1 to make the quotes from Proudhon's What is Property consistent in terms of edition. All quotes now from B.R. Tucker's translation, Bellamy Library edition, London. Minor updates to sections I.3, I.3.1, I.3.4 , I.3.5, I.4.4 and I.4.13 in order to make the possible nature and workings of an anarchist "economy" clearer. Minor update to section I.8.7 on the Aragon rural collectives and how they were the product of the radicalisation of the population during the 1930s.
6.0	26/03/97	Section B.3.4 New sub-section. Analysis of the claims that private property, particularly in land, can be justified in terms of self-ownership. Also indicates the authoritarian nature of private property and the way Robert Nozick ignores the liberty of the dispossessed in his attempts to justify appropriation of land. If land ownership cannot be justified, then capitalism is based upon stolen goods. Section B.7.1 This section on classes is slightly expanded to give details of income mobility within capitalism. Argues that even high income mobility cannot justify a class system and presents evidence that income mobility is moderate at best. Section F.2.2 New sub-section. Short discussion on why we should reject the right-Libertarian "entitlement theory of justice." The means do not justify the ends, and if the ends involve authoritarian social relationships, inequalities in liberty, wealth and power, even "civilised" slavery, then the theory stinks. Appendix New appendix on Anarchism and "anarcho"-capitalism. As well as including the old section F.10, this appendix contains new work - a reply to the claim that the Individualist Anarchists were not part of the socialist movement, a discussion on What socialism actually stands for, analysis on whether Proudhon and Tucker were socialists or capitalists, a reply to claims that "anarcho"capitalism is a form of anarchism and a discussion on why anarchism cannot be defined using dictionaries.
5.1	10/03/97	Minor updates to sections C.11 and C.12 on the Chilean "economic miracle." Why did it require mass murder, dictatorship and state terror to create "free market" capitalism in Chile and what was its actual results?
5.0	28/02/97	Section D.5 A slight update expanding upon the anarchist analysis of imperialism and how it has developed over time. Section C.7 An updated analysis of the capitalist business cycle. Argues that the class struggle both outside and inside the workplace has an impact in creating the business cycle. Old version ignored social struggle outside the workplace and put too much emphasis on technological innovation by big business. This has been corrected. Sections C.8.1,C.8.2 and C.8.3 Anarchist analysis of the rise of social Keynesianism and its fall into a combination of free markets and Pentagon-style Keynesianism. Even reformed capitalist is not immune to the struggle for freedom against hierarchy and the objective limits of capitalism. Section F.1 Expanded arguments on why "anarcho"-capitalism is not anarchist. Contains an excellent quote by Noam Chomsky on what he considers would happen if it was tried in practice. Also contains the new sub-sections F.1.2 and F.1.3 on how libertarian right-libertarian theory is (not very!) and how most right-Libertarians reject the scientific method in favour of dogma, respectively. Section G.5 An updated analysis of the ideas of Individualist Anarchist Benjamin Tucker. More quotes from Tucker on the socialistic nature of his ideas and his support for labour struggle. Section I.7.4 Expanded analysis on why capitalism does not protect individuality and why competition puts out the flame of individuality and rebellion. Section J - Introduction Introduction to the section on "What do Anarchists do?". Gives a short overview of the anarchist approach to social struggles and why its so important for creating an anarchist future. Plus updated contents page - what to look forward to in the near future!
4.1	14/02/97	Minor updates to sections A.1.5, A.2.9, I.5.8 and I.6.1.
4.0	10/02/97	Introduction At long last an introduction to the FAQ and its history. Also names the guilty parties. What's New? This "What's New" page will be a welcome addition to regular visitors to the FAQ. Section F.2.1 Do Libertarian-capitalists support slavery? Yes is the answer and find out why this indicates that right-libertarians are not libertarians at all. Section F.9 Update with new evidence of the nature of Medieval Iceland and why it indicates that private property produces statism. More reasons why Medieval Iceland demonstrates how "anarcho-"capitalism will not work in practice.
3.3	06/02/97	Section F.6 New analysis on how the "anarcho"-capitalist system of private states will become a public state. Builds on and extends original argument.