An Anarchist FAQ

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"An Anarchist FAQ" is an online FAQ written by an international work group of anarchists connected through the internet. It documents anarchist theory and ideas whilst presenting arguments in favor of anarchism. It also explores debates internal to the anarchist movement, and counters common arguments against anarchism. It has been in constant evolution since 1995. While it was started as a critique of anarcho-capitalism, by the time it was officially released it had become a general introduction to anarchism.

The FAQ is published under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (copyleft) and it is dedicated "to the millions of anarchists, living and dead, who tried and are trying to create a better world." It was officially released on July 19, 1996 "to celebrate the Spanish Revolution of 1936 and the heroism of the Spanish anarchist movement.".

1 Content
2 Criticisms
3 History
4 Contributors
5 Influence
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Content

The editors of the FAQ identify themselves as belonging to the social anarchist branch of anarchism (defined as anarchist-communism, anarcho-syndicalism, collectivist-anarchism and Proudhon's mutualism [1]), which to date has been the most widely represented aspect of anarchism worldwide. Despite this, the FAQ presents and describes most schools of anarchism, individualist anarchism, anarcha-feminism, and some lesser known theories like Platformism and anarcho-primitivism. It cites references from a variety of authors from all of these schools, and its bibliography contains over five hundred sources.

Given the wide range of anarchist ideas, the authors acknowledge that many anarchists will not agree with everything that the FAQ says. However, they express their belief that "most anarchists will agree with most of what we present and respect those parts with which they do disagree with as genuine expressions of anarchist ideas and ideals."

The FAQ also explains disputes within anarchist thought, such as where and why social anarchists and individualist anarchists disagree.[2] As social anarchists, the writers also explain their own views on individualist anarchism, arguing that it has contradictions and "many flaws". However, they acknowledge its importance within the anarchist movement.

The FAQ does not accept the theory of anarcho-capitalism as part of anarchism. The FAQ writers explain and criticise anarcho-capitalism in sections F and, to some extent, G of the FAQ. They claim that "outside the net they are irrelevant and on the net they are just annoying" and call the arguments of anarcho-capitalists "inane" [3]. Critique of Bryan Caplan's "Anarchism Theory FAQ" is also presented in the first appendix, along with arguments that Caplan's FAQ distorts anarchism's relationship with anarcho-capitalism.

[edit] Criticisms

Anarcho-capitalist David D. Friedman says that the FAQ misrepresents some of his positions on medieval Iceland (what was formally Section F9). He accuses the authors of "not car[ing] whether what they publish is true". [4] Those involved in the FAQ admit that mistakes were made, particularly in the initial version of this section produced in 1996, but note that all mistakes were subsequently fixed when they became aware of them. [5] They reject Friedman's claim that they are uninterested in the truth. [6]

[edit] History

The FAQ was started in 1995 when a group of anarchists got together in order to write an FAQ arguing against libertarian capitalist claims of being anarchists. Those who were involved in the project had spent many hours in on-line debate with libertarian capitalists concerning whether or not capitalism and anarchism are compatible. Eventually, a group of net-activists decided to produce a FAQ explaining their thoughts on why anarchism and capitalism are incompatible. However, it was eventually decided that an Anarchist FAQ which focused on anarchism itself would be a better idea than an anti-"anarcho"-capitalist one, and so the Anarchist FAQ was born.

The authors acknowledge that "it still bears some of the signs of its past-history. For example it gives the likes of Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and so on, far too much space outside of Section F - they really are not that important."

[edit] Contributors

The FAQ was written by many collaborators, but the main contributors are listed as: Iain McKay (main contributor and editor), Gary Elkin, Dave Neal and Ed Boraas, who refer to themselves as "The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective."

The FAQ thanks the following people for their contributions: Andrew Flood, Mike Ballard, Francois Coquet, Jamal Hannah, Mike Huben, Greg Alt, Chuck Munson, Pauline McCormack, Nestor McNab, "and our comrades on the anarchy, oneunion and organise! mailing lists."

[edit] Influence

The FAQ is linked to or mirrored on hundreds of websites. It has been included in every stable Debian release since 1999. [7] Despite the editors being social anarchists, it has been complimented by many sources, such as by individualist anarchist Kevin A. Carson, who calls the FAQ a "[m]onumental compendium on anarchist history, theory and practice". Some, such as Flint Jones, a member of NEFAC, think the FAQ is "the most comprehensive [anarchist] resource available" [8] The Workers Solidarity Movement, an Irish anarchist group, called it "the primary source of information about anarchism on the world wide web." (Workers Solidarity, no. 62) The FAQ has been studied by Joseph M. Reagle Jr. in his essay Why the Internet is Good - Community governance that works well "[as] an exemplar of the principles [of community governance]."

Various versions of the FAQ have been translated into 8 languages. The FAQ is scheduled to be published in the UK by AK Press in 2007. [9]

The FAQ has been cited in various published works, such as Viable Utopian Ideas: Shaping a Better World (ISBN 978-0-7656-1104-8) by Arthur B Shostak, and Utopia and Organization (ISBN 978-1-4051-0072-4) by Parker. It has been described as "very comprehensive", by Paul Graham and John Hoffman in their Introduction to Political Ideologies (Longman, 2006)