This is the text of a small leaflet explaing to people in the cafe or at events, why we do the anarchist teapot.
"For a social system based on mutual aid and voluntary co-operation - against state control and all forms of government and economic repression. To establish a share in the general prosperity for all - the breaking down of racial, religious, national and sex barriers - to fight for the life of one Earth."
The Anarchist Teapot collective can be contacted c/o Box B, Public House Bookshop, 21 Little Preston Street, Brighton, East Sussex
"To be governed means that at every move, operation or transaction one is noted, registered, entered in a census, taxed, stamped, priced, assessed, patented, licensed, authorised, recommended, admonished, reformed... exploited, monopolised, extorted, pressured, mystified, robbed; all in the name of public utility and the general good."
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon.
Anarchy literally means a society without a state. It is the call for the dismantling of the state and capitalism. Its main principles can be summed up in the following: freedom, equality, autonomy and non-hierarchical self-organisation.
Anarchy thus stands for the abolition of authority/ government with the creation of leaderless, cooperative, decentralised forms of organisation from the bottom up to insure maximum participation. Anarchist ideas include the replacement of industrial capitalism and farming by a small scale approach to production based on self-identified needs, not profits, cooperation, not competition, without the need for bosses, directors or corporations. Labour should be minimised to a few hours every week and the exploitative system of wage slavery abolished.
On an individual level, anarchy promotes the belief in yourself, your own abilities and judgement, cos we don't need "big brother", and the realisation of individual and collective freedom from outer and inner restraints.
The system in which we live is based upon oppression with many different faces - oppression based on gender, race, sexuality, species, nationality etc. Oppression through class structures and the organisation of mostly dull uninspiring exploitative work. Oppression through manipulated monotonous daily lives split into work and pre-packaged leisure time (TV, "entertainment"). Oppression in the patriarchal nuclear family. Oppression of the Third World in which capitalism rages around destroying indigenous peoples and nature. Generally this system of society is fucking up our lives, all life and the planet.
Feeling all oppression is wrong, anarchists seek the solutions to this not in reforms, more regulations, state socialism or the like, but in rejecting the state system, finding all potential in struggling to overcome the alienation from your own desires and from each other and in the creation of a free society. Anarchists also (usually) believe in our individual and collective strength to actually do this without compromising our ideals.
"Yes, for too long have we sacrificed our pleasure for the sake of Production and Development. Those who have a vested interest in maintaining this arrangement appear to wield a great power over us, yet this is but cheap art. It is you and I who have maintained this arrangement mainly by performing our appointed tasks on a regular, daily basis. It is you and I who can do away with such arrangements."
"From which obscure mind did Anarchy spring? Has it ever been tried at all?" you may rightly ask. Actually, about 99% of human history was shaped by tribal society, small collectives peacefully roaming around eating berries and having a good time without any conception of needing states or government. Their lives were nothing like the constant struggle for survival against hostile nature and other tribes you might imagine. In fact some primitive anarchist cultures have flourished to modern times, but now are facing extinction at the hands of corporations and armies, and the destruction of their ways of life at the hands of aid workers forcing 'development' on them. Anarchist ideas reflect a basic human desire which can be found throughout history, from Taoism and the Enlightenment to the classic formulations of anarchism in the 19th century. Anarchist demands have shaped or influenced most revolutions, from the Peasants revolt in England in 1381 to the global uprisings in 1968. However, the wish of people to be genuinely free was always subverted by the forces of Control whether liberal, reformist, Marxist-Leninist or whatever. Just a few examples.. In the French Revolution of 1789, the anarchist enrages struggled from the beginning with authoritarians and centrists. They created a federalist direct democracy in Paris with the self-administrated districts until beheaded by the counter-revolution.
The Mexican Revolution at the turn of this century was the result of traditionally communally worked land around the villages being seized by large landowners under military dictatorship. With Emiliano Zapata as its most prominent figure a revolutionary indigenous peasants' army was formed under the rally "Land and Liberty!" reclaiming the land. Zapata was offered the presidency but declined, preferring to live and fight with his people.
In the Russian Revolution of 1917, there was hope in the often spontaneous formation of soviets (workers' councils), many of which practised direct democracy until the Bolsheviks installed their centralised state apparatus and crushed any free federation. In the Ukraine, an area of 400 sq. miles was held for over a year as an autonomous region based on communes without government. One of the last large uprisings against the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks was in 1921, when (really cool) Petrograd sailors and workers occupied the fortress of Kronstad. They were massacred by the Red Army after which Trotsky boasted, "At last the Soviet Government, with an iron broom, has rid Russia of anarchism."
In the German Revolution of 1918, anarchist ideas were put into practise too, various council republics were formed, declaring themselves free from government. Probably the largest modern european example of anarchy in action was the Spanish Revolution of 1936 (over which any anarchist will dribble). Working class resistance to a fascist coup led to a widescale social revolution with millions of people organising their communities and workplaces on anarchist principles (the slowly spreading influence of anarchist ideas during the previous decades having convinced people this was possible). This proved highly successful until the movement was crushed by both the fascist insurgents and the "democratic" government.
Anarchosyndicalism has been a movement of workers' self-organisation in federations, which has especially flourished in Latin American countries where there is little alternative for a labour movement other than revolutionary struggle. In the early 1900s, for example, anarcho-syndicalists in Argentina launched a series of spectacular strikes with the government declaring a state of emergency five times.
Anarchists became notorious in the 19th century for 'propaganda by the deed' - sabotage, bombings and assassinations of prominent political figures, for example the US President McKinley. Propaganda by the deed experienced a revival in the 1970s with a equally notorious urban guerrilla movement in Europe and the US (many groups of which were more marxist-orientated than anarchist). A strong pacifist anarchist movement has also always existed alongside this, from Tolstoy and christian utopian anarchists to parts of the peace movement of this century. On the question of violence, it's probably fair to say that most anarchists believe in the importance of self defence and militantly defending whatever autonomy we achieve, at least where it's tactically sensible. The idea and history of the insurrection, of pissed-off people reclaiming their power by showing their strength in attacks on symbols of the state and capitalism, is also quite inspiring to many anarchists.
So when states and governments all over the world are finally overthrown in the Great successful Revolution yet to come, people will be able to come together to create a new, free society based on anarchist principles, realising their desires. The rivers will run clear and forests will grow again without the capitalist threat. Grim and anonymous cities will become places we can actually live in. Tedious useless work would become redundant, and room made for play and productive activities we enjoy. Crime could be reduced drastically by a return to living in real communities where people look after each other.
But this is a silly utopia and anarchists are hopeless idealistic dreamers who must be totally miserable when actually confronted with reality. Ah but no. Anarchists certainly have a vision of what life could be like, and we try to live it here and now, in many different ways.
The organisation of this society is quite blatantly showing its flaws. Many people here are dissatisfied with the way things are run, from ecological destruction to the misery and monotony of daily life. Sitting in front of a telly in a run-down block of council flats without any inviting green spaces to sit down and maybe finally get to know your neighbour. Many will not embrace the lies anymore and also realise the futility of voting. But a general mood of cynicism, resignation and apathy has been created.
Anarchists want to get past this, encourage to speak of our dreams and desires and provide examples of what life could be. We put our revolutionary ideas into practise in everyday life.
Creating anarchy is helping your neighbours, stealing from your workplace, growing your own food, throwing a brick at a policeman, organising a stamp-collectors' club, baby-sitting for your friend, talking back, phoning in sick, not being what's expected of you. Anarchy is mutual aid, cooperation and not leaving your life to others to organise it.
We don't see the mythical Revolution as something that will just happen suddenly one great day after we've polished some ideology long enough. Revolution is a process of individuals and collectives gradually reclaiming what's been taken from us.
By the hundreds of thousands, peasants organised in the MST ('Movement of the landless') in Brazil are squatting land to live on and work. In the LA riots a few years ago, the poor revolted, looting and making their communities no-go areas for the police. In 1994, the Zapatistas liberated many villages in Chiapas, Mexico, and their struggle against free trade agreements which had disastrous effects on the large peasant population has become international with the Encuentros, gatherings of groups and individuals from all over the world fighting corporate powers.
But anarchy is about all the small scale resistance as well, about individuals refusing standards, ignoring authority and coming together to improve their lives. Everyday, we can experiment with and learn the ways of dealing with each other without leaders and hierarchical structures and with mutual respect, building the world we want now - in our relationships, our interactions and our resistance.
Different anarchists have different theories on this and that, based on their lived experience, placing emphasis on different issues. Of these, we'll only be mentioning the following, due to this being short and arbitrary.
- Reinventing Anarchy by Howard Ehrlich - Spectacular Times series of booklets from A Distribution, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London E1 - Demanding the Impossible by Peter Marshall (Fontana Press) - Anarchism and Environmental Survival by Graham Purchase (See Sharp Press) - The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem (Rebel Press) - Anarchy after Leftism and The Abolition of Work by Bob Black