Justification for Factory Seizing and Theft
Anarchism is definitely not a theory that'd promote kleptocracy
nor a world of desperate theft. So why is it that so many anarchists
support workers' struggles to seize the means of production from
their employers/ managers?
It's often said that to be a revolutionary, you should emulate your
ideals on a personal basis. For instance, giving food to the homeless,
providing free aid to hurricane victims and squatting. These are all
positive emulations of an anarchist society, however anarchism is also
a theory that relies on mass dissent. Although anarchists don't believe
a stateless society will function if everyone is "seizing" each others'
possessions constantly without mutual consent, the reality is that we
still live in an unjust hierarchical society and a certain degree of
dissent is still required if revolutionaries ever plan on progressing
their ideas.
Unlike breaking corporate owned windows or torching them (which is often
displayed in the media as childish rebellion), workers seizing factories
or work places after they close down (due to economic hardships or occupational
outsourcing) is actually given a rather sympathetic feedback from the media.
Many people can relate to that feeling of losing their job and feeling desperate.
Who's going to hate a group of dedicated workers for wanting to keep their
jobs?
As far as emulation goes, accepting your unemployment would probably be
more contradicting to anarchist ideals than rising up and taking back your job.
In an anarchist society, there would be no lay-offs and everyone's labor
would be appreciated as a benefactor to an efficient society. If "stealing"
from a society which has already stolen land from previous cultures, ripped
off countless workers of their rights to attain their basic needs and imports
tons of slave-labor from foreign countries, goes against the principles of
anarchism... then it'd be plain to see that anarchism holds no real principles
at all.
