Edition: U.S. / Global

Anarchy Explained

Published: August 29, 2004

Chuck Munson, 39, an anarchist, runs infoshop.org, a Web-based clearinghouse for information on anarchism. A veteran protester, he took part in several recent antiwar rallies in Washington, where he lived until moving back to Kansas, his home state, earlier this year. A librarian by trade, he wants to open a radical-oriented bookstore in Kansas City, Mo. He arrived in New York on Friday to protest the Republican National Convention.

Q. Do anarchists differ from other radicals?

A. We are a lot different from other political entities in that we are a lot more anti-government, anti-state. We say that because we think people should have control of their lives at the individual and community level, a sort of radical participatory democracy.

Q. If there is no government or state, how would order be maintained?

A. That's a question anarchists get asked a lot. People think that you have to have a state to organize a life. But I have a lot of examples of what people do in cooperation everyday to organize their lives. There is a whole Alcoholics Anonymous movement around the country and the world. There are cooperative businesses. Most people are familiar with the natural-foods co-ops. They are not ideal because they have to function in a capitalist society.

Q. How would we get goods and services?

A. In an anarchist model, people would be working in a cooperative workplace, worker-owned. We would be producing things and people would do things voluntarily. We would exchange goods and services, but the focus would be on basic essentials, not on having 18 varieties of soap.

Q. Do you disavow violence?

A. I subscribe to a diversity of tactics, so I don't disavow violence. But I like to see nonviolence as much as possible. I think anarchists are all for a world that is a lot less violent than the current one.

But I see some political uses of violence, and I understand there are conditions and circumstances where people in the streets - activists - will use violence either proactively or most of the time in response to being attacked by the police.

Q. Why isn't anarchism more widespread?

A. I think what happened was in the early 20th century, anarchism was pretty popular and was competing with socialism and communism, and anarchists were not interested in taking over the state, so they kind of suffered from their attitude about the state.

So you had Communists taking over the Soviet Union and they would persecute the anarchists. In the United States there was a lot of hostility toward radicals and there were a lot of active efforts, an active campaign to suppress anarchists.

Q. How did anarchism evolve?

A. Certainly, the protest movements of the 1960's had some anarchist influence to them. In the 80's you had more people becoming active because of Reagan. People were talking about radical environmentalism more....The punk movement was pretty important. It has the philosophy of do it yourself, a very anarchist idea. There was a lot of anarchist ideas in punk.

Q. Are there a lot of anarchists in Kansas?

A. Anarchism has some potential in Kansas. Kansas has a long populism tradition, too. I think in '96, Perot actually won several counties in southern Kansas.

Q. How do you think the convention in New York will play out?

A. The antiwar and antiglobalization movements have been kind of down in the dumps since 9/11. There is a lot of hostility towards dissent. People feel the need to police themselves, police what they say. I think this will be a pick-me-up for activists.

Q. What do your friends and family say when you tell them you are an anarchist?

A. My friends understand my politics pretty well. I think my family understands it. They are mostly Republicans right now. They are active Republicans. They ask me why I didn't protest in Boston. Well, I didn't have the money to go to Boston. The anarchists organized demonstrations against the Democrats, too. We're being fair. But everybody wants to protest the Republicans. They are the party in power.

Q. How are you getting to New York?

A. I'm flying. American Airlines screwed up my flight to Orlando back in June so I got a travel voucher. That was the tipping point for me to go to New York. I was at a library convention in Orlando, and I was there for too many extra days.