93 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
93 lines
5.0 KiB
Plaintext
What is anarchism?
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Anarchism as a concept comes from the Greek words 'an arche' which mean
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without government or without rulers. Anarchism is an ideology which
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believes in the ability of members of a community to live in co-operation
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without hierarchical rule, voluntarily without the control of the
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machinery of bureaucracy.
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Anarchism does not mean disorder or chaos, even though the
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prevailing system has tried to label it as such. It means that people are
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making the rules and changing them when needed by themselves. We are
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talking about direct democracy, about being able to influence from the
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individual level to the upper levels of society.
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The prevailing system is based on the dominance of the state and on
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violence, educational discipline and surveillance. The purpose of the
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state is to protect the elite in power and their property.
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An independent state has never ment freedom for people. When the
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politicians talk about freedom, brotherhood or equality they are just
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trying to justify the prevailing inequality.
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The state is not an everlasting nor divine system. Its birth is
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closely related to the birth of capitalism. The state is anyhow seeing
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its own existence as a self-evident fact. That way it is trying to
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silence all the alternative ideas.
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Anarchism means the demolition of the prevailing, state centric
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system. The anarchist alternative means a humane and community centric
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way of life where the environment and people are what count - not only
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tools in the capitalist mass production and wage slavery system or a part
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of a humiliating machinery.
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We will not stand being treated as machines! We are trying to destroy
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the prevailing organisations, institutions and ways of thinking based on
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exploitation, oppression and subjection. These are sexism, racism and
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nationalism as well as wage labor and twisted parliamentarism as well as
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the education system and the church.
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What do you want from your life?
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The theory of anarchism is not able to say what the anarchist society in
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future will be like. Decisions made in advance tend to lead to a dead end
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where social openness and change are impossible. In such a case pluralism
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has already been suffocated and the first steps towards totalitarism has
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been taken.
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As anarchists we are not striving for a world where everything is
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set in front of us and is perfectly in harmony, we are striving for a
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meaningful life. What does meaningful life mean, then? At least it does
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not mean submission to the despotism of politicians, employers,
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capitalists or even one's spouse. A meaningful life is created by
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ourselves. It cannot be based on exploitation of human beings or nature.
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The decision making will be in your own hands. Delegates in
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different decision making bodies of society will still be necessary but
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the delegate selected by you and your community to represent you will not
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have any decision making power her/himself. You have already made your
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own decision, the delegate can only represent you and if he or she
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exceeds his or her powers by acting against your will or the will of the
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community, you/your community has any time the right to repel his power
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to represent you.
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The parliamentary 'democracy' is not working this way. Haven't we
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learned anything from the broken promises given by the professional
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politicians or the mistakes made by the delegates?
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People should organise freely according to the principles of direct
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democracy on every field of life: workplaces, schools, areas of
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residence, different organization etc.
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Finnish Anarchist Federation (SAL)
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The prevailing system with its mechanisms of domination enables the
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pauperization of many while few are getting richer and richer. It enables
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structural violence creating artificial conflicts as well between people
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as between people and nature.
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We don't want violence into our home town. Instead we want to live
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in a fair and lively town where equality and solidarity are not just
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words; in a society where the laws are not passed and the orders are not
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given arbitrately from above without any other possibility but to obey.
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Autonomy in matters that concern one's own life is the fundamental
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condition for meaningful life. That is the reason why we say NO to the
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prevailing system. SAL is a network of different groups of people but
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even though that we are working together with each other as a
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group/network that does not make any person less important. Actually it
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makes him/her stronger as an activist and - even more so - as an
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idividual.
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Anarchism is not a religion but as-fresh-as-possible and radical
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social theory combined with uncompromising direct action... It is a
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process of creating new and denying the hidebound prevalent.
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SAL was founded in 1987 to work for free and equal society. We fight
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against the state, capitalism, and other forms of oppression. We believe
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that direct action and organising according to the principles of direct
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democracy will lead us to an anarchist society. We are not trying to gain
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power, we are trying to destroy it!
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