As anarchists, we stand against all domination, oppression, coercion and exploitation in society — of capitalists over workers, of states over people, of imperialists and colonisers over Indigenous sovereignty, of patriarchy over the gender marginalised, of humans over Nature. For us, all top down power is unjust and must be abolished and replaced with institutions of bottom up power through a social revolution led by organised masses of workers and exploited people internationally.
BOTTOM-UP POWER:
Anarchists accept that authority is a part of life, we just believe that if authority is necessary, it should work in the polar opposite way it works today. Meaning, it should be elected by those who fall under it, be recalled by those who are affected by its misuse, last only as long as it has utility to people who want it, and be rotated as much as it needs to be to prevent abuses of power.
COULD THE WORLD FUNCTION LIKE THIS?
We think a world that operates in this way is both desirable and possible — not least because Spanish Anarchists operated society without bosses or top down power structures after they overthrew Capitalism in 1936. Pockets of directly democratic societies have existed both historically and in the present that may not identify themselves as Anarchist, but practice the principles of self-governance and bottom-up power that Anarchists broadly advocate.
Bottom up power would begin with consent established through Natural Law and treaty agreements specific to the sovereign peoples of the land, that outline mutual obligations of relating harmoniously to land, community, and culture.
Balanced with treaty agreements, community members would collaborate to manifest their individual and shared destinies. Resources now held in common, not by developers and social parasites, community members could allocate resources where they’re needed, to shape the processes by which housing, food and leisure are developed and accessed.
Similarly, work would be coordinated by workers themselves not bosses seeking profit. Thus workers would produce goods and services that are expressly useful to communities they live and work in. Each person will contribute according to their ability, and take according to their needs. And in this way every person’s basic needs can be met. All work can be shared amongst all people, unnecessary work can be abolished and automation simply increases people’s free time, instead of plunging them into poverty.
WE REJECT STATISM:
As Anarchists, we reject statism as undemocratic and inherently top-down in nature. This means we reject the dogmatism and unscientific faith in state socialism, vanguards of the “class conscious”, and all self-appointed political elites that purport to be qualified to represent and rule over others while concealing their true class character. All who wield the state are no longer meaningfully working class, but administrators of the working class — another elite minority with separate interests to regular people.
This is the purview of Marxist-Leninism, Maoism, Trotskyism, and Stalinism. While Marxist class analysis is an important tool, we reject its use as rigid doctrine. Anarchists expand upon Marxist class analysis to apply not just to the Capitalist/Worker class dynamic, but all class dynamics, as they all inevitably involve opposing material interests. Even union bureaucrats that languish in high-salaried jobs paid for by workers membership dues — all classes must be abolished.
FEDERALISM IS THE KEY:
In place of a state, decisions could be made from the bottom up using Federalism — a mode of decision-making that allows autonomous groups of people, workplaces or whole communities to elect temporary delegates to represent their wishes at federated meetings involving delegates from other autonomous groups — All power resting with the constituent groups of a federation to construct, approve or reject proposals. Delegates would have no lasting power, and can be recalled or rotated at any point.
In this way, workplaces could federate into larger-scale industries in order to coordinate production for broad areas sustainably and collaboratively, utilise new technologies, and develop and test new work methods. Common agreements could be developed and held by multiple otherwise autonomous communities, with all power flowing from the bottom up. If centralisation was inevitable in some sector of society, then it could be created accountably from below.
Although getting back to a simpler time sounds compelling, we need a society technologically proficient enough that it can care for disabled people and people with complex needs.
Of all the proposals for how regular people could have agency over their own lives and be free from domination and oppression, this proposal is the most developed and tested in the real world.
