Simple English version of the Anarchist FAQ
The Simple English Anarchist FAQ, chapter A2.
Everyone is different, and everyone should have the freedom to grow as a person. But this can only happen with the help of other people. People help shape the society they live in, and in turn the society is shaped by what its people say and do.
So, it’s very important to build a society where people have as much freedom to grow as possible. Anarchists believe there are three parts to this:
Freedom is important because it allows people the space to grow. Nobody can grow as a person when someone else is restricting everything they do and say. The more freedom they have, the more they can grow. So people must build society by working as they want to, rather than working because they are forced to.
Fairness is important because you can’t have freedom without it. If some people have more things or money than others, they will have power over everyone with less. So everyone needs fair shares.
Co-operation is important because otherwise society falls apart. Everyone needs to look out for everyone else. That makes things better for everyone. So, by looking out for everyone else, you look out for yourself too.
These three ideas build up both society as a whole, and everyone in it. But they are not something that can be forced on people from the outside. Anarchists believe that society must organise itself, rather than being told how to organise by a god or government. In order for that to happen, these ideas must live in the minds of all people. Then people can organise themselves.
Anarchists believe that people can co-operate as equals, each with their own capabilities and talents. People who get forced to do things, and have decisions made for them, lose their dignity and their self-respect. But when people co-operate fairly, they all grow as individuals. They all help everyone else grow, too.
Of course, everyone can influence other people. It’s often a good idea to listen to advice. But however experienced, or skilful, or wise someone is, they still shouldn’t be able to force you to do things.
When people are free, they can make decisions for themselves about their own lives. The power to do this is part of being human. So, when your freedom is taken away from you, part of your humanity is stolen as well.
You need freedom to be the best person you can be, someone who can do things in a way that’s special to you. But you can only do this as part of a community. A free community produces free people. And in turn, the people help to build the community up.
Freedom is not something granted by laws and lawmakers. Freedom is a habit, which should be learned by everyone in the community. They will be sure to do their best to make sure nobody takes it away.
So anarchists oppose both the state and capitalist corporations. Instead, anarchists want a society where people and groups know how to govern themselves.
Yes. Humans can only live and grow if they co-operate. And you learn to co-operate through being organised.
Some kinds of organisation work by authority. The important people tell everyone else what to do. But this isn’t the only way people can organise. All over the world, and all through history, there have been societies based on co-operation instead of authority.
Besides, our society isn’t very well organised as it is. The people at the bottom suffer. Most people don’t get to choose what they do, and because of that, they hate the system.
Instead of that, anarchists want to spread the power around to everyone. If anyone is affected by a decision, they should have a say in making that decision. We call this self-management.
For complicated decisions, many people will want to have a say. At present, this is organised from the top downwards. The decision makers decide what questions to ask and which people should get a say. But an anarchist society is organised from the bottom upwards. When a group of ordinary people come to a decision, they can discuss it with other groups, and so on. This is called federalism.
No, because some things take away other people’s freedom.
For example, you are not free to kill other people. You are also not free to make other people into your slaves, because you would have taken their freedom away That’s why anarchists oppose governments and bosses.
Nobody can tell a free person what to do. In our society, where everyone gets told what to do, freedom means disobeying.
Being equal doesn’t mean being the same as everyone else. After all, every person is different, with their own talents and ideas, and their own needs. And that’s a very good thing.
And being equal doesn’t mean getting the same as everyone else– for example, living in the same kind of house, or wearing the same kind of clothes. After all, everyone needs different things.
For anarchists, being equal means that everyone has the same power. Nobody has more power than anyone else to force you to do things.
That doesn’t mean everyone has the same say about everything. If you’re ill, you need to talk to a doctor, not a committee. But nobody should be able to make your decisions for you.
If people are to be strong and happy, society needs to be strong as well. And a strong society can only exist if people co-operate. Co-operation is the link between people and society.
Sometimes people call co-operation solidarity, or mutual aid. People meet as equals to help one another, so everyone is satisfied. And if bad things were to happen to you, it’s as if those things were happening to everybody. So everyone will need to work together to make things better. Again, everyone is satisfied.
As long as we live in a hierarchical society, we will need co-operation in order to resist abuse from powerful people. So it brings us freedom as well as satisfaction.
Nobody else can give you freedom. If you want freedom, you must take it. Mostly, you free yourself as part of a group effort.
Why can nobody else take your freedom? When you have a government, bosses, or any other kinds of master, you learn how to obey them. You start learning this even as a child, at school. If you want to be free, you need to un-learn this. And nobody else can do that for you.
When you free yourself, it brings out your creativity and imagination. Because society is made from how individual people behave, freeing yourself will change society, and the world.
Sometimes people say that freedom will come in the future, after a revolution. But a revolution is a process, not an event.
How we act in the present changes the future. So, freedom begins here and now. You can make relationships and organisations as a free person, even within a society which is not free. We must keep on considering how we can do that every day. Building freedom is the only way to build a free society.
Anarchists call this work “social struggle”. It’s often working-class people who suffer most from bosses telling them what to do, so that’s often called “class struggle”. It often seems as though revolutions just happen. But behind them there are years of patient work, when people who care deeply about freedom have been organising and educating others.
A free society can’t exist unless people can free themselves from the state and capitalism. As part of that, people must free themselves from the attitude of serving them, and believing what they say: many anarchists call this freedom “class consciousness”. The only way to learn class consciousness, here and now, is to get involved in struggle against oppression.
No. Anarchists stand against coercive control. But all hierarchical relationships work through coercive control. In other words, the people at the bottom follow orders because of threats from the people at the top. Some of these threats may include injury or death. But they also include loss of pay, for example, or public shaming.
Slavery, capitalism, racism, and sexism are some examples of hierarchical relationships between people. Whenever we find hierarchy, we must overcome it. And this work never ends.
Some people say that hierarchical organisations are all right, as long as you have a choice about whether to be part of them. For example, you usually have a choice about whether to work for a particular company. But this is not really freedom: you don’t usually get the choice not to work for a hierarchical company at all.
Organisations don’t need to be hierarchical. Instead, they can be based on co-operation, where everyone has equal power.