What is anarchism? Anarchism as a concept comes from the Greek words 'an arche' which mean without government or without rulers. Anarchism is an ideology which believes in the ability of members of a community to live in co-operation without hierarchical rule, voluntarily without the control of the machinery of bureaucracy. Anarchism does not mean disorder or chaos, even though the prevailing system has tried to label it as such. It means that people are making the rules and changing them when needed by themselves. We are talking about direct democracy, about being able to influence from the individual level to the upper levels of society. The prevailing system is based on the dominance of the state and on violence, educational discipline and surveillance. The purpose of the state is to protect the elite in power and their property. An independent state has never ment freedom for people. When the politicians talk about freedom, brotherhood or equality they are just trying to justify the prevailing inequality. The state is not an everlasting nor divine system. Its birth is closely related to the birth of capitalism. The state is anyhow seeing its own existence as a self-evident fact. That way it is trying to silence all the alternative ideas. Anarchism means the demolition of the prevailing, state centric system. The anarchist alternative means a humane and community centric way of life where the environment and people are what count - not only tools in the capitalist mass production and wage slavery system or a part of a humiliating machinery. We will not stand being treated as machines! We are trying to destroy the prevailing organisations, institutions and ways of thinking based on exploitation, oppression and subjection. These are sexism, racism and nationalism as well as wage labor and twisted parliamentarism as well as the education system and the church. What do you want from your life? The theory of anarchism is not able to say what the anarchist society in future will be like. Decisions made in advance tend to lead to a dead end where social openness and change are impossible. In such a case pluralism has already been suffocated and the first steps towards totalitarism has been taken. As anarchists we are not striving for a world where everything is set in front of us and is perfectly in harmony, we are striving for a meaningful life. What does meaningful life mean, then? At least it does not mean submission to the despotism of politicians, employers, capitalists or even one's spouse. A meaningful life is created by ourselves. It cannot be based on exploitation of human beings or nature. The decision making will be in your own hands. Delegates in different decision making bodies of society will still be necessary but the delegate selected by you and your community to represent you will not have any decision making power her/himself. You have already made your own decision, the delegate can only represent you and if he or she exceeds his or her powers by acting against your will or the will of the community, you/your community has any time the right to repel his power to represent you. The parliamentary 'democracy' is not working this way. Haven't we learned anything from the broken promises given by the professional politicians or the mistakes made by the delegates? People should organise freely according to the principles of direct democracy on every field of life: workplaces, schools, areas of residence, different organization etc. Finnish Anarchist Federation (SAL) The prevailing system with its mechanisms of domination enables the pauperization of many while few are getting richer and richer. It enables structural violence creating artificial conflicts as well between people as between people and nature. We don't want violence into our home town. Instead we want to live in a fair and lively town where equality and solidarity are not just words; in a society where the laws are not passed and the orders are not given arbitrately from above without any other possibility but to obey. Autonomy in matters that concern one's own life is the fundamental condition for meaningful life. That is the reason why we say NO to the prevailing system. SAL is a network of different groups of people but even though that we are working together with each other as a group/network that does not make any person less important. Actually it makes him/her stronger as an activist and - even more so - as an idividual. Anarchism is not a religion but as-fresh-as-possible and radical social theory combined with uncompromising direct action... It is a process of creating new and denying the hidebound prevalent. SAL was founded in 1987 to work for free and equal society. We fight against the state, capitalism, and other forms of oppression. We believe that direct action and organising according to the principles of direct democracy will lead us to an anarchist society. We are not trying to gain power, we are trying to destroy it!