Home Ownership

The anarchist movement doesn't have any strick "rules" about who can be part of it or not - it is just that in some cases, depending on what you do, people in the movement may or may not accept your behaviour as being appropriate - but this depends on the situation.

Many, probably most, anarchists do not like the idea of private property and would do away with it "after the revolution" - but we live in the here and now. And in terms of housing oneself, there are limited options for most people, ie renting from a landlord, renting from the state or municipality, squatting, owning (individually or collectively).

Squatting is quite an anarchistic way to find housing, only you need to have both a good activist infrastructure and a number of good local conditions to make this a feasible option. There are also many personal characteristics to take into consideration. So if you are not squatting, you have to choose which form of housing is available and most advantageous for you - and of course each form has their advantages and disadvantages. The great disadvantages of home owning for most are related to costs, having to take mortgages and be indebted to the bank and having to pay property taxes. That said, although most anarchists would criticize things like banks, they also use them due to lack of alternative financing and financial services solutions - and very, very few point fingers and accuse people for using banks. If they do, they are likely to be immature, dogmatic lifestyle anarchists who view anarchism as a series of personal lifestyle choices and acts of refusal.

Homeowning however might raise objections in the anarchist community, for example, if you were to become a landlord. A lot depends on the circumstances however. If you sublet your place for a few months while on vacation, I don't many people would consider you a landlord. If you rented a home while living elsewhere to supplement your income (for example you cannot make ends meet on your wages), some people might look down on it, but again, most people would see it as an understandable action. If however you got the idea that, for example, you don't want to work, but rather to rent property and live off that, many people would see this as an exploitative use of property since you are living off your property or capital and another persons' labour is supporting you.

It's really impossible to speak of the reactions of the anarchist movement as a uniform thing. Simply, there are different perspectives on things. A lot would depend on who you were dealing with but I doubt there would be many anarchists judgmental of your small property purpose. Of course there are exceptions - I know some crazies who kicked somebody out of their group because she ate fish, but we are talking about very young people with an immature and fundamentalist view that is luckily a small minority in the movement.

Speaking for myself, there are people whom I personally consider "bad anarchists" or some kinds of hypocrites in the movement - this includes somebody who had bug landlord ambitions and a couple of bosses who act like typical bosses on the one hand and pretend to care about workers' rights on the other. These people are still around though, which proves that not every cares about such matters.

Maybe somebody on this forum views it differently and will add a different perspective.

Anyway, welcome and good luck.