"post-leftism"

Brian O. Sheppard x349393 bsheppard at bari.iww.org
Wed Aug 14 18:05:06 PDT 2002


On Wed, 14 Aug 2002, Chuck0 wrote:
> Anarchists prefer to avoid *institutions* as much as possible, since an
> institution is, by definition, an organization interested in its own
> self-preservation.

Huh? Where on earth do you get your ideas?

Anarchists have created their own institutions for years now - more than a century, in fact. Collectively run presses, communes, and even directly democratic unions, and/or the social networks and scenes these groups communicate and interact through. Are these organizations interested in their "own self-preservation"? You bet they are.


> Anarchist argue for organizations and forms of relationship that are
> created by the people involved in them

Exactly. And that is in no way counterposed to the idea of creating institutions that have an interest in their own self-preservation.

When you say "anarchists argue for X" - as you often do on this list, unappointed ambassador for anarchism that you seem to be - you are misleading people. Maybe there are some bizarre kinds of anarchists arguing that "institutions should be avoided" where you are, but in areas of the world where there are forms of anarchism that trace back to those that did not have an anti-organizational bias, this would seem like nonsense. Some insitutions should be avoided, some worked with, some destroyed, etc.

Brian



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