The Anarchist Information Community
Free sharing of information across diverse populations is the most vital component of anarchist organization.
Anarchism is a misunderstood term, demonized into the abstract as a false synonym for chaos. Frequently applied as a pejorative against people who act violently in opposition to government forces, such use is misrepresentative of both the word and the function of anarchism as a philosophy.
While the philosophy is centered “on the belief that government is both harmful and unnecessary” (Dirlik et al., 2022), anarchism’s true focus is the nature and function of power structures (Read, 1994).
An innate core of altruism, known as mutual aid, forms a basis for all anarchist thinking and action. This principle assumes, in human beings, a natural ability to experience altruistic sympathy, and that any attempt to coerce individuals to behave in a structured way (especially through punitive reinforcement) subdues this natural tendency (Funk, 2017).
However, it was the famous British art theorist, Sir Herbert Read, who most effectively summed up anarchism as a functional political philosophy: “We who are anarchists seek to divide power, to decentralize government down to the localities in which it is exercised, so that every man has a…
