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Introduction

Autarchism means 'self-rule' and is the principle that it is good for people to have influence over their own lives, the way they spend their time and the way their immediate environment is structured.

Autarchists recognise the benefit and need for people to come together with others in order to collectively shape their lives together. Most human needs can only be satisfied in relationship with other people, and an organised group has greater power to defend its space than do isolated individuals.

However there are particular characteristics of human associations which make them good or bad for their individual members. For instance the size of the association is very important, also whether members share agreement as to how they should organise themselves, and whether they trust each other or not.

Also very important is how much time and energy a person devotes to the association.

In a modernist social system such as most Englanders are part of, peoples' time and energy is devoted to activities which are outside of their control. Many spend a good part of our time in paid work as servants of the government or a big corporation. They are unable to choose the best use of their time, nor the way their work lives are structured, nor can they control the use to which their labour is put. Outside work many people continue to come under the influence of centrally concentrated power - when they watch television, when they go to school, when they go to the supermarket or shopping centre or use the banking system.

Autarchists however are not happy with this arrangement and seek to personally withdraw their time and energy from the modernist system.

They seek to set up an alternative system made up of a network of autonomous groups of people, seeking self-reliance and achieving a degree of self-sufficiency.

Many people are attracted to Autarchism because they believe such a way of people organising themselves leads to a better quality of life. Others may be dismayed at the actions of the centralizing modernist power - in reducing quality of life, damaging the environment, oppressing freedom, or waging war - and do not wish to lend their support to it.

What does Autarchism mean in practice?

1. Developing and spreading support for the idea that people should not live lives being told what to do all the time by remote powers, but should organize themselves in human scale groups to do what it is they feel is good and right.

2. Withdrawing support in practical ways from the modernist system. For instance by reducing their hours in paid work for large organisations. Reducing their use of big banks. Reducing the time they spend watching television or reading mass-market newspapers. Reducing their purchase of goods from large commercial concerns. Reducing their use of state, or centrally-controlled private education, treatments or social services.

3. Setting up alternative ways of meeting human needs for food, shelter, social contact, education, challenge, security, barter, care etc. A start to this can be made by attracting other people who have similar concerns and live near to you into association with each other and then developing ideas as to how you could work together.