The always insightful and wonderful Broadsnark has asked an important question:

So I guess what I’m wondering is:  Do you market anarchist types envision a world full of artisans trading labor with one another or actual employment relationships?  Do the majority of anarchists, who don’t subscribe to capitalist or market ideologies, envision a world based entirely on a gift economy?  (A New Yorker goes to Hong Kong and has immediate access to what she needs to meet her needs?)  Do you object to any sort of trading of labor for stuff?

My response:

Dear Mel,

This is a great question and a keen observation.  Why would an Anarchist, one who finds hierarchy undesirable, volunteer or consent to an Employee/Employer relationship, a hierarchy?   I would be suspicious of all contexts or circumstances that would bring such a relationship about; I smell authority and monopoly.

As a Wobbly I am committed to the eventual Direct Action dissolution of the wage-system and the promotion of Industrial Organized Labor into the mutually supportive industries of One Big Union, de-central and monumental.

As a market anarchist I foresee an economic landscape of communes, collectives, co-operatives, IWW closed-shops, Time Stores, Garage Networks, Self-employed micros, Family Mom & Pops, Gift Econs, Charity Non-Profits, Monastic Orders from Benedictines to Zen Buddhists, Strangers passing through towns nobly demanding to “earn their keep,” but let’s not forget Hermits, Homesteads and squatters.  Everything in between, all of the above to include the stuff not even thought of yet.  The “market” in market anarchy, for me, is a vocational, lifestyle, life-path bazaar; the more options the better I feel that authority is curbed and monopoly buried.  I see/want a world where people can browse, taste test, try on, kick the tires and hassle free return any life they fancy; or knuckle down on one thing and feel the novel sensation of fusion with or mastery of one skill or craft, pushing it into new boundaries, ripping it up and starting again whether it be post-punk music, cabinet making or Starcraft II.

The only thing I ask is that the anarcho-culture understands, recognizes and supports the institutions of “opt-out,” “push-back” and the “benign busybody.”  That the culture allows anyone to “opt-out” of anything whenever they don’t feel comfortable, or for any other reason really, without fear of reprisal.  That the culture accepts “pushing back” as a natural, acceptable and corrective reaction, if someone is feeling controlled, dominated or marginalized.  And that the cultural sees the pondering busybody who asks, “Is that really liberty?  Is that really Equality?  Is that really Solidarity?,” as benign and healthy for cultural anarcho-maintenance; meeting their questions with curiosity, reflection and concern for anarcho-sustainability.

I may be asking for too much from, but this is my commitment to you and everyone.  I will be open and scrupulous, if you let me be fussy and indecisive.

Anarchy: dumping the bosses off our backs and unleashing our inner weirdo since Diogenes’ Barrel.

Keep us Honest,

–James