(en) Britain, AFED Organise! #82 - Utopian? Guilty Your Honour

?A map of the world that does not include Utopia, is not even worth glancing at, for it 
leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing... Progress is the 
realisation of utopias.? - Oscar Wilde ---- Revolutionaries are often reproached for being 
utopian, of being dreamers. Yes, we are dreamers, because like children, we don?t like 
nightmares. Yes, we are utopian. This utopia is not a heavenly paradise come to Earth. 
Neither is it a return to a mythical Golden Age. This other ?place? is a symbolic 
territory, based on our revolutionary refusal to put up with a world founded on the 
violence of class and ethnic or sexual domination, of the exploitation of labour and the 
body, of alienation. This utopia is a reply to the crisis of humanist thought. It is the 
place thanks to which it will be possible to organise the resistance and Revolutionise the 
Revolution.

The Anarchist Communist World

Capitalist society, indeed, any society
which is not Anarchist Commu-
nist, fundamentally and negatively
influences the kind of people we are,
what we are capable of achieving,
and how we relate to each other. It
is not just the State and the bosses
who ruin our lives. We compete with
each other, exploit each other, abuse
each other and constrain each other
because Capitalist society persuades
us that we cannot escape ?the law of
the jungle?. In fact, this is a lie. There
are no ?laws? of human behaviour
except those which capitalist society
imposes on us. Humans have so far
created their social institutions and
ways of behaving according to the
interests of those in charge who fool
us into believing that war, poverty,
the nuclear family and religion are
?normal?. After the Revolution we
will find that social relations can be
re-defined in creative and liberating
ways. We will have a social revolu-
tion. By choosing this Revolution we
will have chosen to live in a way in
which we can all benefit greatly and
equally - that is, to live as unique and
equal individuals who collectively
comprise both an immediate and a
global community.

First Things First

Once Capitalism has been destroyed,
we can set about the exciting task
of fulfilling our individual potential
and shaping this new community.
Of course, in a world which has been
disrupted by the process of revolu-
tionary war, we first need to ensure
that we can feed and shelter every-
one. This need not be the onerous
task which counter-Revolutionaries
would have us believe. In the world
are more than enough buildings and
food to provide for everyone, enough
to survive a revolutionary war. What
matters, of course, is to distribute
these using the newly seized com-
munications such as radio stations,
roads and railways.

The global and local communities
can then decide what organisational
structures they wish to establish. It
is not useful to try to determine now
exactly what these will be because
this will be the task of society, not
the revolutionary organisation.
However, as Revolutionaries we
must argue for egalitarian structures
accountable and accessible to all. It
seems most likely that these struc-
tures will emerge from the workers
and community councils which the
working class created during the
Revolution. We also foresee that a
federal structure will emerge glob-
ally to co-ordinate such things as
the production and distribution of
resources, the making of decisions
which concern a number of commu-
nities etc. This is the organisational
basis for an Anarchist Communist
society. Collective decision making
leaves no room for governing au-
thorities, and voluntary co-operation
will mean that laws and policing can
be done away with. Under these new
structures, all forms of exchange and
money will be abolished and all land
and property will be taken into the
control of the community. Most of
it will be used collectively to pro-
vide for the needs of its members.
Some may be held by individuals for
their personal use - there will be a
distinction between ?private prop-
erty?, which exists only prior to the
Revolution, and the personal pos-
session and use of resources by the
individual for their personal fulfil-
ment - though not at the expense of
communal need. No community or
individual will be privileged over
another in terms of resources.

The New Economic Society

On this new organisational basis,
we will then re-build our com-
munities. Again, it is not for us to
determine now exactly what our
world will look like. However,
agriculture will of course play
a major part, as will necessary
industry, and both will be under-
taken by communities which will
be part of networks distributing
their produce. Where we live and
work will, however, be consider-
ably altered. There will be less
of a division between town and
country. Those living in isolated
places or in villages can now have
both a pleasant environment and
the resources to enjoy it. Some of us
will still desire to live in larger social
centres, but in the heart of towns
there will be no offices and shops but
perhaps communal meeting places,
open green spaces for leisure and
congregation, gardens and orchards,
or whatever we choose and need.
Likewise, our homes need not look
like the drab boxes we are forced
to live in now, but can be as excit-
ing as resources, not profit, allow.
Indeed, some of us will desire to
live in our own space for the privacy
which we have been deprived under
Capitalism, whilst others will relish
the chance to share their lives with
others and live communally. We
will also have more flexibility about
changing where we live, because the
question of whether we can ?afford?
it will not be relevant. Transport will
also be geared towards social need
for industry, agriculture and leisure,
and not the private ownership of
status vehicles as it is now, and we
will thus see a reduction in motor
vehicles and the social and ecologi-
cal problems they create. However,
the physical appearance of our world
will only be a symptom of other,
more fundamental changes in hu-
man relations. The way we spend our
lives in relation to each other is even
more significant.

The Revolution will fundamentally
transform the nature of work. We
will re-organise industry so that we
only produce what is socially-useful.
We will introduce the ecological
management of production and
consumption. The renewal of the
built environment will occur along-
side more efficient and sustainable
systems for generating distributing
and using energy. We do not propose
rigid solutions but we do say that the
technology for efficient and fair ways
of sharing energy already exist. Mas-
sive consumption by some groups
and energy poverty for millions will
cease. It is likely that renewable, low-
cost and sustainable methods such
as solar energy, photo-electric cells,
passive heating through modern
architectural methods, windpower,
biomass and combined heat and
power systems will become com-
monplace. But the burning of
fossil fuels may continue for a
while or where no alternatives
exist. All nuclear power pro-
grammes will be halted and pol-
luting industries will be progres-
sively abolished or minimised.
Most work under Capitalism is
mindless and pointless, unless
you are a boss. All activity after
the Revolution will take place
not for profit or the maintenance
of the status quo, as it does now,
but for the fulfilment of the
individual, although never to
the detriment of society. There
will be no place for useless
work such as the production of
consumer goods for profit, the
maintenance of social control,
because these ?normal? aspects
of society will be irrelevant after
the Revolution. Each person will
therefore have more time on their
hands, but this is fundamentally
different to ?unemployment? because
no one will be ?employed?. This is
because society is easily capable of
producing enough for its needs but
not its greed, the concept of having
to work for a wage - or else starve
and become homeless - will become
redundant. The nature of work will
in itself be more enjoyable, because,
unlike under Capitalism it will have a
point to it and because we will work
in ways which maximise fulfilment,
not profit. Less pleasant but none the
less necessary tasks will be shared
out entirely equally and the rest of
our time can be spent in enjoyable
and creative pursuits.

Of course, fields will have to be
ploughed, drains cleaned and domes-
tic work performed, but no one will
be ?a farm labourer?, a ?sewage worker?
or ?a housewife?, because these task
will be shared out equally and be
performed in collectively run farms,
workplaces, launderettes and cr?
ches etc., and occupy the minimum
of time for each person (unless they
like doing them!). In addition, these
tasks will no longer be performed
for a boss, a council bureaucracy
or a husband, because we will not
be answerable to any more power-
ful individual but to our anarchist
communist society, i.e. each other. It
is a fundamental belief of anarchist
communists that the working class
already have all the skills needed to
run society. Not everyone has all of
these, of course, and equality does
not mean that we all take it in turns
to perform heart surgery. Neither
will we all have the skills to nurse the
sick back to health. Thus, some spe-
cialisation will be necessary. What
will change, however, is that there
will not be more prestige or status
attached to one social function in
comparison to another.

The Free Individual in Voluntary Society

Specific examples of changed so-
cial relations will serve to show
what we mean by Social Revolu-
tion. We spell out exactly what we
mean because some previous and
contemporary ?revolutionary? or
?utopian? theories, even those with
a class analysis, envisage an ?ideal?
society which is still dependent on
the physical and sexual exploitation
of women, as though this is ?natural?
and as though women will ?naturally?
co-operate with it. Under Anarchist
Communism, women will not have
the maintenance of the home and
childrearing as their major social
function, because such tasks will be
the responsibility of the whole com-
munity. It may be that ?parents? in
some communities do rear their own
children within a family unit which
may live within a separate house to
others. Children will have a choice in
how they want to live as well. It may
be the case that children have no
more connection with their biologi-
cal parents that with anyone else and
that the entire community chooses
to live communally. There is no need
for it to be the ?norm? to live within
a family unit. Indeed, the choice of
whether to have children, how to
rear them, and how the individual
wishes to live once it begins to make
its own choices, will be a matter for
those concerned and not for social
controllers. Similarly, the nature
of sexual relationships, whether
heterosexual or homosexual, will
be determined equally by partners
and need only be as monogamous
or ?conventional? as the individual
wishes. Just as not everyone accepts
narrow-minded definitions of what
is sexually acceptable prior to the
Revolution, so we can be even more
liberated and respectful of each other
after the Revolution.

Likewise, all other forms of social
relation will change. Remove na-
tional boundaries, colonial politics,
the requirements of profit for cheap
labour in ?under-developed? coun-
tries and, more importantly, the State
lie that certain ?peoples? are by nature
inherently inferior to others, then
the significance of racial distinctions
will be re-defined. Our relation-
ships within our communities and
with other communities the world
over will be based on the sharing of
ideas and ?commodities? as needed
and desired, and will not constitute
either exploitation or charity. Racism
itself will be eradicated both through
the process by which the class unites
globally to free itself from Capital-
ism, and through deliberate efforts to
expose and undermine any remnants
of institutionalised or personal
bigotry which remains within our
class after the Revolution. Whilst
not denying the multifaceted origins
of human-kind, in the new society
concepts such as ?race? will not be as
relevant as those of ?regional culture?.
We of course reject the reactionary
regionalism supported by sections
of the New Right. Only the develop-
ment of regional culture that rejects
chauvinism and racism, and one that
exists within a libertarian federalist
framework that celebrates both inter-
nationalism and local diversity, can
be at all supported. When resources
have been more equally shared out
and the Earth?s ecology recovered
from Capitalism, the only relevant
differences between communities
the world over will be positive and
creatively chosen ones of cultural
diversity. At present it is leading
capitalists who are most easily able to
communicate across world-wide cul-
tural boundaries, but the world will
seem ?smaller? after the Revolution
and contact and exchange with com-
munities globally will be a common
feature of our lives.

Other currently unequal relation-
ships will change. No individual will
be considered less socially valuable
because of age, ability or health. The
identity of the aged, the very young,
the mentally and physically disa-
bled or the infirm will not be one of
?dependent? on society but of ?con-
tributor? to it. Although this ideal is a
common ?sentiment? in this capitalist
society, it can never be achieved until
economic relations are taken out
of social relations. Under Anarchist
Communism, ?contribution? and
?social value? will not be measured in
economic terms. As with other areas
of social relations we do not envisage
that, on ?day one? after Capitalism
has been over-thrown, we will all
be free of unfounded and reaction-
ary assumptions about each other.
What we see is that a conscious and
voluntary policy of re-education will
take place to undermine the com-
monplace ?truths? created by Capi-
talism (indeed, this work must, and
does, take place before the Revolu-
tion and forms an essential part of
revolutionary propaganda). Only by
consciously understanding and act-
ing on the arguments for Anarchist
Communism can the individual be
fulfilled, as well as free and equal,
within the new society - creating the
life which they wish for themselves
in relation to the equally important
needs of other people.
Of course, even under Anarchist
Communism, we cannot all live
harmoniously with each other all
the time. However, the vast major-
ity of ?crime? relates to material need
or greed, neither of which should
occur under Anarchist Communism.
For example, no money means that
there will be no need for burglary,
mugging, fraud or extortion. Drugs
will not be ?illegal? because there will
be no law, but a major change in the
extent to which we respect ourselves
and each other will necessarily mean
that anti-social drug use will be
virtually unknown. Other ?crime?,
involving the abuse or exploitation of
one human being by another, will be
minimised in a society which teaches
that we are all equal. Some such
anti-social behaviour may remain,
however. For example, some people
may still be psychologically unfitted
to behaving with respect and care
for others. How such people will be
restrained from anti-social behav-
iour must be a matter decided by the
community affected by them.

The transformation of social relations
between people - the Revolution -
must be accompanied by a change
in how humans relates to other life;
other animals, plants, and the ecosys-
tem. This is because all life is inter-
dependent e.g. plants produce the
air we breath and our food (directly
or via plant-eating animals) whilst
in turn, plants are nourished by our
excrement and dead bodies. All life
(excepting humans at present) exists
in a certain dynamic equilibrium
with other life, since plant and ani-
mal populations interact and adjust
to changes between themselves
and their environment in order to
maintain a stable, though changing,
system. Post-revolutionary society
will therefore need to establish a way
of life in a similar equilibrium with
the rest of nature, rather than the
present relationship of domination
and destruction which has resulted
from industrial capitalism and class
society. Practically, this would mean
an end to the industrial methods
of Agribusiness, such as large scale
monoculture (single crop growth)
with the accompanying poisoning
caused by chemical fertilisers and
pesticides, the abolition of factory
farming which is harmful to both ani-
mals and people (e.g. foot and mouth
disease, salmonella, B.S.E.), and the
cessation of industrial fishing which
is decimating fish populations and
harming the environment. In place
of such dangerous techniques there
will have to be a system of sustain-
able agriculture, smaller scale, largely
or wholly organic, with, for example,
crop rotation to restore and maintain
the soil. These changes would, for
practical reasons, stimulate a move to
a far less meat-dominated diet. The
global trend is currently in the op-
posite direction, as the ?under-devel-
oped world? seeks (with the help of
the advertising industry) to emulate
the diseased, fat and additive-sodden
West. Not only is this diet fundamen-
tally detrimental to human health,
it is unsustainable (and possibly un-
achievable) due to the vast amounts
of resources (energy, land etc.) that
are consumed by animals, as com-
pared to arable (plant) production
- larger areas of land are required to
grow plants which feed animals to
feed people. It seems obvious that
the vast majority of animal experi-
ments will end with the abolition of
the profit motive (e.g. those con-
nected with cosmetics, arms produc-
tion etc). A new ethics arising from
the future society?s desire to achieve
a sustainable relationship in and with
the rest of nature will also surely
lead to a desire to minimise/abolish
the exploitation of animals wher-
ever possible, and it will rest with
post-revolutionary society to decide
whether any animal experimentation
should be allowed to continue.

From Beyond Resistance: A Revolu-
tionary Manifesto for the Millenium
(see AF pamphlets on page 47 for
details).