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 History
2 Content
3 Influence and reception
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] History

The FAQ was started in 1995 when a group of anarchists got together in order to write an FAQ arguing against capitalist claims of being anarchists. Those who were involved in the project had spent many hours in on-line debate with self-described anarcho-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. While the FAQ was written by many collaborators, the main contributors are listed in the introduction as Iain McKay (primary contributor and editor), Gary Elkin, Dave Neal and Ed Boraas, who refer to themselves as "The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective."^[1] However, the editors eventually decided that an Anarchist FAQ which focused on anarchism itself would be a better idea than one solely devoted to refuting the notion of anarcho-capitalism, 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."^{[verification needed]}

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, Kevin Carson, Shawn Wilbur, "and our comrades on the anarchy, oneunion and organise! mailing lists."

As of December 2007, anarchist publisher AK Press is preparing a print edition of the FAQ, due for publication in 2008.^[2]

[edit] Content

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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, ^[3]. Despite this, the FAQ presents and describes other anarchist schools of thought such as individualist anarchism, anarcha-feminism, and some lesser known theories like platformism and anarcho-primitivism. It cites references from a variety of authors from 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.^[1] 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.^[4] As social anarchists, the writers also explain their own views on individualist anarchism, arguing that it has contradictions and "many flaws", and stating that it would lead to a "hierarchical and non-anarchist" society.^[5] However, they acknowledge its importance within the anarchist movement.

The FAQ does not accept 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 [anarcho-capitalists] are irrelevant and on the net they are just annoying" and call the arguments of anarcho-capitalists "inane'".^[1] A 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] Influence and reception

The FAQ has been complimented by many sources. Flint Jones, a member of NEFAC, hailed the FAQ as "the most comprehensive [anarchist] resource available"^[6] The Workers Solidarity Movement, an Irish anarchist group, called it "the primary source of information about anarchism on the world wide web".^[7] French anarchist Norman Baillargeon calls it a "monumental and essential FAQ dedicated to anarchism" ^[8] The FAQ has been cited by Harvard academic Joseph Reagle "[as] an exemplar of the principles [of community governance]."^[9]

In recent years the FAQ has been cited in various published works, such as Viable Utopian Ideas: Shaping a Better World (2003) by Arthur B Shostak,^[10] and Utopia and Organization (2002) by Michael Parker.^[11] It has been described as "very comprehensive", by Paul Graham and John Hoffman in their Introduction to Political Ideologies (2006).^[12] Various versions of the FAQ have been translated into 8 languages, and it has been included in every stable Debian release since 1999.^[13]

Anarcho-capitalist theorist David D. Friedman criticized the FAQ for misrepresenting some of his positions on anarchism in Medieval Iceland (in what was formally Section F9), accusing the authors of "not car[ing] whether what they publish is true".^[14] The FAQ contributors admitted that they made mistakes, particularly in the initial version of this section produced in 1996, but claim that all mistakes were subsequently fixed when they became aware of them.^[15] and reject Friedman's claim that they are uninterested in the truth.^[16]

Mutualist and individualist anarchist Kevin A. Carson, while calling the FAQ a "[m]onumental compendium on anarchist history, theory and practice", disagreed with the FAQ's analysis of anarcho-capitalism.^[17] He referred to the FAQ's treatment of anarcho-capitalism to be "probably the FAQ's weakest spot", continuing "[While] I consider anarcho-capitalism to be considerably diverged from classical individualist anarchism, [I] also reject any blanket assertion that they can't be 'real anarchists.'"^[18]