Politics as an alienated sphere of life

Politics is not merely a concept or a way of talking, but a sphere of life. Politics constitutes an activity and associated spaces for particular people, behavior, culture, and specialties. Whatever definition for politics we may construct (for example something like the things involving the governance of society or some other definition) it would not capture the actual functioning of the political world within today's society. We live in a society in which the social relationships that reproduce the state pervade all and not merely the walls of government institutions or the range of fire of the police and military.

Politics represents the artificial separation of aspects of social life from daily existence of the population; an alienated sphere. The consolidation of power represented by the state is a main factor in this, however as with everything else it's existence takes on a life of its own and non-state forces emerge with and coevole alongside their own alienated political activity. That separation creates its own world that produces bureaucracies, specialists, organizations, etc., but also cults, sects, idols, fanatics, and churches. By separating a portion of the organization of social life from our existence, it shapes our relationship to those aspects of our lives and gives entrance to varying responses to it religious, entrepeneurial, military, or otherwise.

Anarchism traditionally has had proponents that it should be an anti-political movement, positioned against that separation at least in word. Still, some anarchists have oriented towards political people, circles, institutions, and aimed towards waging struggle within the established or alternative political domains. Merely adopting the term does not determine whether one falls in the political sphere or not. It depends on the orientation and practices of the movement whether it reproduces or traverses alienated political separations.

It's significant that anarchosyndicalism, the strongest and most influential current in anarchism throughout its history, had as its tacit core an anti-political orientation. In fact other syndicalist formations shared that as well such as the well known hostility of the US IWW to political struggle. Writers of the Argentinian anarchist workers organization FORA frequently clarified that they are a union of workers for anarchism, not a union of anarchists for workers. That distinction has proved profound and not merely semantic. In opposition to political movements, these social movements seek to build movement for socialism within the situations arising out of daily life: both its strengths and struggles. The strength of syndicalism comes from this challenging power directly through the world we all inhabit, our daily social existence, and creating our power directly there in our streets, workplaces, and localities. This is reflected in the wealth of experiences building revolutionary culture through cultural and educational associations, unions, and womens groups.

Anarchism as a social movement necessitates a break from the political world. The first step comes from building anarchist practices that create forms of collective power and plant seeds of anti-systemic opposition that demonstrate our values and objectives. Mere semantics or demagoguery will not provide a silver bullet against the incidious social relationships of the State and Capitalism in our lives, but instead must be combatted through the construction of collective practices and ideas which manifest our trajectory and vision.