Anarchy: How a group 'without adjectives' wants to change the world
Nineteenth-century thinker Benjamin Tucker once said “if the individual has a right to govern himself, all external government is tyranny.”
This quote is inspirational for Anarchists without Adjectives, a new registered student organization, said President Michelle Campbell. The Pierson graduate student formed the RSO this semester to raise awareness about anarchism, an ideology which regards government as harmful and unnecessary.
“It’s an educational group ... for education and discussion,” she said. “If someone wants to create a revolutionary group that wants to blow up the government, they need to go somewhere else.”
Group members are not required to be anarchists, only interested in free speech and open dialogue, Campbell said.
Roseville junior Shanique Broom attended Tuesday’s meeting to learn more about Anarchism, a topic she wasn’t familiar with. She said she appreciated the group’s open-minded philosophy.
“If everyone remembers when we leave the meeting ... it will make the world a better place,” she said.
Campbell is a humanist anarchist, an anarchist who wants to work for human rights and gender equality, she said. She likes anarchy’s ability to destroy systems of repression, which was one of the problems she had drafting the RSO’s constitution.
“My constitution originally got denied because my non-discrimination policy was too non-discriminatory,” Campbell said. “Really, this constitution is ... operational. It’s really hard to have an egalitarian RSO if you’re required to have a hierarchy.”
Plans and goals
The RSO plans to treat everyone equally, and their constitution acknowledges the positions are only created because they are required by Central Michigan University.
One goal of the group is to be involved in non-violent processes promoting anarchism, said Thomas Stewart, advisor for the group and assistant political science professor. The history of anarchism in the United States goes back to the very beginning of the country’s foundation, he said.
“The idea of being self-sovereign is definitely in the Declaration of Independence,” Stewart said. “The tenet that you’re born with inherent rights and no one can take them away unless you consent.”
Stewart’s PSC 371: American Radical Thought and PSC 426: Feminist Theory classes helped inspire Campbell to form the RSO.
She wrote an essay combining the two concepts and realized how little people know about anarchism.
“I came to be aware of the negativity and the people that were misinformed and completely uninformed about anarchism,” she said. “Once you get into it, it’s a valid ideology.”
There are two basic groups of Anarchists, Campbell said. The Anarchocapitalists would get rid of the government and let capitalism run free, but a more humanistic approach would focus on creating individual, self-sustaining communities.
The second approach is the one Campbell would take, summing up her thoughts in one question: “Would you give up Oreos if everyone in the world would have equal rights?”
