intros

Some thoughts on anarchism and government

    "Anarchism is not a form of statism - it's not just another ideology through which some group or other "takes power". Anarchists don't want to impose their value system on anyone else.
     It's not terrorism. The agent of the government - the cop who wears a gun to scare you into obeying him - is the terrorist. Governments threaten to punish any man or woman who defies state power, and therefore the state really amounts to an institution of terror. Anarchism never relies on fear to accomplish anything because a person who is afraid is not free."
     Fred Woodworth

    "Anarchism is the belief that people can voluntarily cooperate to meet everyone's needs, without bosses or political authority, and without sacrificing individual liberties. It is the belief that people are able to work together in a peaceful and rational manner, as equals. Instead of a society of individuals competing against one another, some enjoying huge advantages, each looking after only his or her own interests, an anarchist community would be a cooperative effort. This mutual aid or team work does not require great altruism or self-sacrifice, but simply common decency and helpfulness.
     Just think how wasteful a competitive society is - a pool of unemployed people keeps wages low and working conditions poor, businesses fail, suppliers bid each others prices down, customers must wade through a confusing barrage of deceptive and exaggerated claims, equipment intended to make work more efficient results in higher unemployment instead of in higher living standards or a shorter work week. Huge amounts of resources are wasted in "bean counting", advertising, gimmickry and security. And what does this competition bring? Frustration, anger, despair, broken dreams, poverty, crime, degradation of the environment, and on an international scale, war. This competition also pits different "races", sexes and social classes against each other, locking humanity into a bitter struggle to maintain or resist domination.
     Anarchism is the absence of the power to dominate and control. Human beings, when accustomed to taking responsibility for their own behavior, can cooperate on a basis of mutual trust and free association. The market economy is based on wage slavery - the rich buy the working lives of the not-so-rich, and dominate and harass them under the threat of unemployment and poverty, creating a "totalitarian" work environment.
     The government in large part serves to maintain the class power of the rich, but it also has its own agenda - to expand its power over its subjects. All governments survive on extortion - called taxation - and force their decrees on us, commanding obedience under the threat of harsh punishment. The principle outrages of history - war and brutal tyranny - have been committed by governments, while almost every advancement of thought, almost every betterment of the human condition, has come about through voluntary cooperation or individual initiative. The greater the power of government, the less freedom we have to exercise our ability to think, act and cooperate. Creative, responsible human beings strain to improve their world, but concentrated wealth and power hinder their efforts."
     Ed Stamm
(but I lifted several phrases from a mini-pamphlet by Fred Woodworth)

The Ballad of Sacco and Vanzetti
words by Bartolomeo Vanzetti
(beautifully sung by Joan Baez)

Father, yes I am a prisoner.
Fear not to relate my crime.
The crime is loving the forsaken.
Only silence is shame.

And now I'll tell you what's against us,
an art that's lived for centuries.
Go through the world, and you will find
what's blackened out of history.

Against us is the law with its immensity,
its strength and power.
Against us is the law.
Police know how to make a man a guilty or an innocent.
Against us is the power of police.
The shameless lies that men have told
will evermore be paid in gold.
Against us is the power of the gold.
Against us is the racial hatred and the simple fact
that we're poor.

My father dear, I am a prisoner.
Don't be ashamed to tell my crime:
the crime of love and brotherhood,
and only silence is shame.

With me I have my love, my innocence, the workers and the poor.
For all of this I'm safe and strong and hope is mine.
Rebellion, revolutions don't need dollars, they need this instead: imagination, suffering, light and love and care for every human being - you never steal, you never kill, you are a part of hope and light.
The revolution goes from man to man, and heart to heart.

And I sense, when I look at the stars, that we are children of light. Death is small.

[Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were electrocuted in 1927 by the State of Massachusetts. They were exhonerated in 1977 by Governor Michael Dukakis, who later became the Democratic nominee for President in 1988.]