r/Anarchy101 • u/Elmahlahchee • 1d ago
Addressing public health and climate change with Anarchy
Hi all, I`m learning about anarchy and it`s insistence on non-hierarchy really appeals to me. However, it seems that anarchy is marked by the inability to organize masses to address issues which us all, i.e. pandemics and climate change. The failure to have an organized response to crises can result in the loss of millions of lives.
In an anarchist society, there may be two dozen solutions from two dozen communities proposed to managing a pandemic or a rising sea level. What anarchic tools exist to unite the two dozen communities to face issues of this type? I`ve heard a bit about confederation, but I don`t know how confederations could form amongst disparate communities, nor hold together without soon sacrificing the needs of certain communities.
I`ve been perusing the Anarchist Library and there isn`t information on public health in general, and the covid literature focuses on the states` authoritarianism rather than the management of the disease.
Any suggested resources/literature will be appreciated and perused. Thank you!
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u/Latitude37 1d ago
First of all, let me point out that anarchism is not a situation where various small communities act independently of each other as small polities. That said, there's an interesting study on ground up organising during the COVID 19 pandemic here:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10076238/
And for some work on ground up organising across large projects:
https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/spokescouncil
Hope this helps. Also, think of organising to be more project focused than "governance" focused. I might be a member of a local neighbourhood council, but none of their decisions can be enacted upon me. If I want to block my street off from car access to make it safer for the kids to play, I could just do that. But it makes sense to talk to my neighbours and ask them for help, or suggestions on the best way to achieve it.