All too often people reduce anarchism to an abstract ideal which is divorced from everyday struggle. They see anarchism in stark black and white terms: anarchism is good, authority is evil. The strategy of most anarchists is to convert people to this ideal or to recruit people to an anarchist identity or lifestyle which people have to conform to. This
semi-religious strategy appeals to a few people, which is undoubtedly valid and good for them, but the problem is that it simply does not appeal to most. Indeed, this strategy can at its worst lead to an elitism whereby those who don’t share this ideal or lifestyle are dismissed as “sell outs” or “bogans” or whatever.
Instead of the ideological approach outlined above, I think anarchism originates in the struggles of the oppressed. Ultimately the relevance of anti-state communism or anarchism is dependent upon the level of class struggle in society. Class struggle is part of our lives. Struggle against the imposition of capital and the commodity goes on everyday at work, at school, at home, at shopping centres, anywhere and everywhere. Sometimes this resistance is quiet, almost invisible; sometimes it is overt and explosive. Far from being passive, working class people revolt against work
everyday: we goof off at work, we go slow, we phone in sick, we steal on the job, and sometimes we go out on strike. Once these minor rebellions blossom into open revolt, anarchist communism -– a world without classes, money and the state -– will become possible and realisable. This struggle prefigures a joyous society in which life is not determined by the commodity and wage-work, but by the co-operative endeavour of fulfilling our own needs and desires.
Sure, the level of class struggle in Aotearoa is low
at the moment. But there is much potential for revolt. Many people in Aotearoa are really pissed off by having to work longer and faster for less pay. The imposition of the harsh neo-liberal regime by the boss class has revealed to many of us the ugly side of capitalism. Capitalists pocket soaring profits while the living standards of 80% of us are cut back. If this class anger is translated into overt resistance, anarchism will become more relevant.
-- Toby