Anarchism is the word we use to express our passionate desire for a world on our own terms. Everyone from capitalists to communists uses the word “freedom” as some catch all term that their way of running the world can bring you. When we use it here, we don’t intend to use the same empty rhetoric. Democracy, Justice, Liberty, Freedom, Revolution— they’ve all been co-opted by everything from tyrannical governments to cell phone commercials, almost to the point they don’t mean anything anymore. We mean for a world without rulers, a world without borders, and a world where when freedom is spoken of it’s for all, not just those within a particular nation, class, race, gender, or religion. We want to break down such divisions altogether.

Anarchism describes both the type of society we envision as well as our process for creating it, based on mutual aid, voluntary association, autonomy, and cooperation. We didn’t come up with this word through testing it on focus groups, and it doesn’t concern us whether or not you use it, or any other label, for your own frustration and alienation from the status quo of voting for politicians, or your desires for something different. We don’t want to take power to then impose what we believe would be better rules and more just restrictions. We don’t want to run the world; we want everyone to run their own lives together. Whether as an anarchist, a Democrat or Republican, or anything else, what’s important isn’t what you call yourself, but how you resist oppression and create alternatives.

Direct Action is the term we use for the path out of the world we live in now into the ones we desire. In taking direct action, we bypass the established channels for political expression, and address problems and accomplish goals directly by undertaking them ourselves. For us, it’s not just about disagreeing with the stances of one or all of the candidates we’re offered—it’s about questioning whether any politician can represent us or create a world in which we can live freely. While some might be willing to bite their tongues for a more progressive Democrat or cross their fingers on a third party candidate, many of us have dreams that will never fit into ballot boxes…

Unlike presidential elections and the shelves of chain stores, where your consumer choices are neatly pre-selected and laid out for you by people you’ll never meet, amongst anarchists you’ll actually have to think for yourself. No one will ask you what your stances are on “the issues,” as defined and framed by the politicians and the experts. Instead, we want to know:

What are your desires?

What kind of world do you want to live in?

No one can sell you any fashionably packaged solutions to your alienation from the political system—least of all anarchists! Our goal isn’t to become candidates and convince you to vote for us or our positions— we want everyone to articulate their own visions, and to have the tools and the agency to enact those visions for themselves. We want to completely leave behind the world of partitioned “issues,” the consumerist illusion of choice, and the idea that anyone can represent us. In their place, we’re creating relationships of affinity with those around us who share common interests, similar alienation, and compatible visions of a way to live without ruling or being ruled.

Sure, there are glimpses into other worlds of possibility that inspire us…but ultimately, anyone who lays out a formula for The Revolution with a capital R plays the same game as the politicians who claim to offer us salvation through their expertly designed plans to manage our discontent. Anyway, the point isn’t to have it all figured out; the point is to act. Freedom is not a commodity, it’s a process; we become free by acting freely, and no one can do that for us.

When we step outside of the trap of voting in elections into the vast universe of possibility that exists through direct action, we hold the keys to all of the worlds we’ve only dreamed of, the worlds we never saw in the carefully worded questions of the pollsters or the polished rhetoric of the lesser of two evils. We have worlds to win beyond the electoral system, worlds that are beginning to unfold around you even now. Let’s reclaim our lives from the empty promises of the ballot boxes and start realizing our dreams, right here and right now.

From “False Hopes Versus Real Change”

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