An Anarchist FAQ - History

History

The FAQ was started in 1995 when a group of anarchists got together in order to write an FAQ arguing against capitalist claims of being anarchists. Those who were involved in the project had spent many hours in on-line debate with self-described anarcho-capitalists concerning whether or not capitalism and anarchism are compatible. Eventually, a group of net-activists decided an FAQ explaining their thoughts on why anarchism and capitalism are incompatible. While the FAQ was written by many collaborators, the main contributors are listed in the introduction as Iain McKay (primary contributor and editor), Gary Elkin, Dave Neal and Ed Boraas, who refer to themselves as "The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective." However, the editors eventually decided that an Anarchist FAQ which focused on anarchism itself would be a better idea than one solely devoted to refuting the notion of anarcho-capitalism, and so the Anarchist FAQ was born. The authors acknowledge that "it still bears some of the signs of its past-history. For example it gives the likes of Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, and so on, far too much space outside of Section F - they really are not that important."

The FAQ thanks the following people for their contributions: Andrew Flood, Mike Ballard, Francois Coquet, Jamal Hannah, Mike Huben, Greg Alt, Chuck Munson, Pauline McCormack, Nestor McNab, Kevin Carson, Shawn Wilbur, "and our comrades on the anarchy, oneunion and organise! mailing lists." A 2003 Critical Studies in Media Communication study declared the FAQ the most prominent core anarchist website, finding that it received incoming links from 20% of the anarchist websites studied.