What is anarchism?

Anarchism as a concept comes from the Greek words 'an arche' which mean 
without government or without rulers. Anarchism is an ideology which 
believes in the ability of members of a community to live in co-operation 
without hierarchical rule, voluntarily without the control of the 
machinery of bureaucracy.
     Anarchism does not mean disorder or chaos, even though the 
prevailing system has tried to label it as such. It means that people are 
making the rules and changing them when needed by themselves. We are 
talking about direct democracy, about being able to influence from the 
individual level to the upper levels of society.
     The prevailing system is based on the dominance of the state and on 
violence, educational discipline and surveillance. The purpose of the 
state is to protect the elite in power and their property.
     An independent state has never ment freedom for people. When the 
politicians talk about freedom, brotherhood or equality they are just 
trying to justify the prevailing inequality.
     The state is not an everlasting nor divine system. Its birth is 
closely related to the birth of capitalism. The state is anyhow seeing 
its own existence as a self-evident fact. That way it is trying to 
silence all the alternative ideas.
     Anarchism means the demolition of the prevailing, state centric 
system. The anarchist alternative means a humane and community centric 
way of life where the environment and people are what count - not only 
tools in the capitalist mass production and wage slavery system or a part 
of a humiliating machinery.
    We will not stand being treated as machines! We are trying to destroy 
the prevailing organisations, institutions and ways of thinking based on 
exploitation, oppression and subjection. These are sexism, racism and 
nationalism as well as wage labor and twisted parliamentarism as well as 
the education system and the church.


What do you want from your life?

The theory of anarchism is not able to say what the anarchist society in 
future will be like. Decisions made in advance tend to lead to a dead end 
where social openness and change are impossible. In such a case pluralism 
has already been suffocated and the first steps towards totalitarism has 
been taken.
     As anarchists we are not striving for a world where everything is 
set in front of us and is perfectly in harmony, we are striving for a 
meaningful life. What does meaningful life mean, then? At least it does 
not mean submission to the despotism of politicians, employers, 
capitalists or even one's spouse. A meaningful life is created by 
ourselves. It cannot be based on exploitation of human beings or nature.
     The decision making will be in your own hands. Delegates in 
different decision making bodies of society will still be necessary but 
the delegate selected by you and your community to represent you will not 
have any decision making power her/himself. You have already made your 
own decision, the delegate can only represent you and if he or she 
exceeds his or her powers by acting against your will or the will of the 
community, you/your community has any time the right to repel his power 
to represent you. 
     The parliamentary 'democracy' is not working this way. Haven't we 
learned anything from the broken promises given by the professional 
politicians or the mistakes made by the delegates?
     People should organise freely according to the principles of direct 
democracy on every field of life: workplaces, schools, areas of 
residence, different organization etc.

Finnish Anarchist Federation (SAL)

     The prevailing system with its mechanisms of domination enables the 
pauperization of many while few are getting richer and richer. It enables 
structural violence creating artificial conflicts as well between people 
as between people and nature.
     We don't want violence into our home town. Instead we want to live 
in a fair and lively town where equality and solidarity are not just 
words; in a society where the laws are not passed and the orders are not 
given arbitrately from above without any other possibility but to obey.  
     Autonomy in matters that concern one's own life is the fundamental 
condition for meaningful life. That is the reason why we say NO to the 
prevailing system. SAL is a network of different groups of people but 
even though that we are working together with each other as a 
group/network that does not make any person less important. Actually it 
makes him/her stronger as an activist and - even more so - as an 
idividual. 
     Anarchism is not a religion but as-fresh-as-possible and radical 
social theory combined with uncompromising direct action... It is a 
process of creating new and denying the hidebound prevalent.   
     SAL was founded in 1987 to work for free and equal society. We fight 
against the state, capitalism, and other forms of oppression. We believe 
that direct action and organising according to the principles of direct 
democracy will lead us to an anarchist society. We are not trying to gain 
power, we are trying to destroy it!
     




