Pseudo-Anarchists Making Dorks of Themselves

I am abashed by the imbecilic antics of soi-disant "anarchist" groups like the WOMBLES (White Overalls Movement Building Libertarian Effective Struggles) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOMBLES and the People’s Golfing Association - http://www.tao.ca/~wrench/dist/g8/pga.html. Not only will their presence at the G-8 summit conference not bring the meetings into disrepute, they will, by looking and acting even more stupid than do the leaders of the G-8, lend an air of dignity to the G-8. One must conclude that they are being paid well to do exactly that.

True anarchism is so very threatening to the established order that they infiltrated the anarchist movement and planted professional "dumb downers" to take the movement in directions it was never intended to go in by its intellectual "hyper-moral" founders. Having turned "anarchy" a fun day free for all, the establishment made it attractive to assorted and sundry dorks, who are now a sizable part of the movement. They are also the part of the movement that makes the most noise and attracts media attention, quite naturally.

Additionally, the term "Libertarian" has been arrogated and applied to as many movements and fringe groups at cross purposes as need be to create optimum confusion. (Much the same has been done with the term 'Conservative', but I digress.)

I feel compelled to speak up in the name of true anarchy to those intellectually and morally gifted enough to be able to understand our true purpose and spirit.

These, in contradistinction to the jerks in the White overalls and black face masks, were the true anarchists and leftist-Libertarians:

http://flag.blackened.net/liberty/libertarians.html

Their brilliant and incisive thought and sublime intentions are the heart and soul of true anarchy. They set the tone of the movement.

It behooves us to add Albert Einstein to the list of pro-Socialist thinkers. He too was one of us, as he amply demonstrated in this article, first published in May 1949: http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einst.htm.

The following excerpt, to my mind, represents the aim, spirit and method of authentic anarchism:

THE BENEFITS OF NON-CLASS STRUGGLE ANARCHISM TO THE MOVEMENT AS A WHOLE

Revolution is a process ever going. Like a river it flows; changing shape, altering its course, sometimes slowing down, sometimes becoming a rapid. At times we lose sight of it behind the dogma of some ideology or another. But it can never be stopped. Since the first slave said 'no', since the first people rose up against the tyrants, since the concept of Freedom was formed, the Revolution has always been there. As a comrade wrote to me, "Revolution is a process, not an historical event". The nature of the Revolution stems from the forces it encounters, the aspirations of those within it, and the strength of the reaction. If it can progress unrestrained, then it is likely to be peaceful. The ends will never justify the means, they are inextricably bound together and what better way is there of taking someone's freedom than by killing them. Violence is the basis upon which government stands, and as such it is the counter Revolution. From the writings of Kropotkin up to Colin Ward there have been attempts to hi-light points in existing society where the river may flow - worker co-ops, food co-ops, alternative welfare and education, and countless examples of how order is spontaneous, and springs up from the very act, and point of association itself: "What kept us together was our work, our mutual interdependencies in this work, our factual interests in one gigantic problem with its many specialist ramifications. I had not solicited co-workers. They had come of themselves. They remained, or they left when the work no longer held them. We had not formed a political group, or worked out a programme of action...Each one had made his contribution according to his interests in the work...There are, then objective biological work functions capable of regulating human co-operation. Exemplary work organises its forms of functioning organically and spontaneously, even though only gradually, gropingly and often making mistakes. In contra-distinction, the political organisations, with their 'campaigns' and 'platforms' proceed without any connection with the tasks and problems of daily life".

Like the fishermen in Brixham, or the miners in Durham or Brora, Scotland, workers co-operatives provide small, rare examples of how a task provides its own point of association, and provides the associates with a focus, that transcends any necessity for coercive pressure. In short, the act of society provides its own order internally, whereas all ' governments attempt to impose it externally, stifling and smothering the social instinct. These examples exist in modern society. They are not memories of an age before the nation-state, but are modern facts. Paul Goodman once described anarchism as both conservative and radical, for we must attempt to conserve those places where liberty may be developed in full, as well as create new ones. Gustav Landaur also wrote along the same lines "The state is not something which can be destroyed by a revolution, it is a condition of human behaviour; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently". Even, according to the film 'Michael Collins', the Irish Republican leader Eamon de Valera spoke along the same lines by claiming roughly that "We defeat the British Government by ignoring it".

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel