Anarchism is? i'm not an expert... but

ahhh beers n blahblah - yeah i am an anarchist: i reject the institutions of authority... oh and yes i DO have a wedding ring. and so does my partner. sorry!

so, yeah. anyway, we had a meeting at Groovy Space with some extremely excellent fellow indymedia crew yesterday. a couple of "eastern-stater" indykids were in Perth over the weekend and so we caught up for a yabber and a beer on a beautiful warm perth day... cool people. RESPECTA!

we were talking about "smashing the state" etc, as ya do... sprouting the usual anarko slogans over a couple of beers. was a great yarn indeed. its really good to know we have some very articulate and passionate people in the wider indymedia network.

got me to thinking though: indymedia claims at times to be an anarchist network. although this is also disputed at the drop of a hat! but time and time again i read good peoples bastardisations on the subject of ANARCHISM. for example, we've been in discussion as to what to do, as a network, with a hostile Imc in the region. Some think we should ban them from the networks and take away their ".indymedia.org" URL, because pronciples of unity have been busted. others think there should be other forms of punishment...

but underlying this whole argument is the notion of AUTHORITY! perhaps its worth an explanation.

personally i do not support the kind of authority necessary to bash someone out of a group. yet i don't entirely know what to do about it...

however, as an anarchist, you have to ask yourself whether its a valid anarchistic thing to inflict rule over others, rather than offer Mutual Aid, or come to some consensus compromise. For me Indymedia is not about the "policing" of other IMCs. we have Principles of Unity and tons of Affinity, but we don't want to start exacting authority over each other. the debate has raged on a list for months...

So, What IS Authority? The power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine, or judge... something like that. and so Authority and Anarchism must be incongruous.

are anarchism and authority mutually exclusive concepts? isnt Anarchism at its very base about NO forms of AUTHORITY? noone should rule over me - or others. there has been some talk implying the Regional collectives should "disaffiliate" another IMC. its a difficult decision to make - to effectively BAN one group from the network. the site "seems" to be functioning. the Porn and Nazi spams are being hidden reasonably early, but theres certainly a lack of diversity amongst the few remaining members. *a bitter fight has ensued over the last year or so, involving former members of a local IMC. many have left and the current crew [accused of bullying] are struggling to maintain the integrity of the Open Publishing Newswire

but in terms of Anarchism i am pretty disillusioned as to some peoples distortion of the concept No Rulers, No Hierarchy etc... it just doesnt sit well with me. its a Bastard of an anarchism!

oh shit, i have to do stuff now, but i WILL add more to this draft tonight.

al_ [sunday arvo]

ps for a recent "post-anarko" perspective:
Towards an another anarchism from a Social Forum in 2003... worth a browse.