Hello Rockstars!
I wanted to start a brand new monthly series, and it’s something that is a little different, but still holds all the values of music. I wanted to highlight each month one local Las Vegas Non-Profit that I feel is thinking outside the box and doing truly amazing things. So, I decided I would like to start with the Non-Profit Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada. I think it’s amazing that they are dedicated to getting people to stand up for themselves, don’t be afraid to use your freedom of speech and also think outside the box.
In this article they talk about their beginnings, the amazing work they do with the local Vegas community, the misconceptions about anarchism, and what the future holds for their organization. Enjoy!
—-VMS 🙂
VMS: Tell me a brief history of what your movement stands for, since I know there are many misconceptions out there. What is the main idea of anarchism?
Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada:
Anarchism is a very misunderstood political ideology. It is often referred to as chaotic, violent, and infantile. In reality, anarchism seeks large social change that can ultimately eliminate violence in our society and empower every person. Anarchism, simply put, is the idea that hierarchies of power are bad and should be eliminated, replaced with horizontal social structures. Hierarchies of power meaning structures that monopolize decision-making authority into the top of the structure over others. This power is then enforced using violence, the threat of violence, or deception. Horizontal structures are the opposite, a power structure which spreads power out to the bottom, where regular everyday people have direct control over their society, and democratically decide how to manage it. Delegates and councils are made only to carry out the decisions and organization of the masses.
VMS: Tell me about the backstory of the Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada, and your mission statement.
Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada:
The Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada(AFSN) is very young, especially relative to other left wing groups. We formed from a small number of anarchists who were loosely connected in Las Vegas. We formed during the turbulent election of 2024, the failure of the left to offer real opposition to both the Democrats and Republicans, and the need to build popular power here in Las Vegas. This ultimately represents our mission, to empower the working class of Las Vegas, spread the ideas of anarchism, and create an organized platform for anarchist activists.
VMS: I love how active in the community you guys are, can you give a basic rundown of all the things you guys do.
Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada:
As we are young, there are only a handful of things that we have done, however, we feel that our work with current projects is important to developing the necessary experience to engage in larger plans for the future. One of our most successful programs was aiding in rebuilding the Food Not Bombs group in Las Vegas. A group which was already putting itself together, the AFSN cooperated with them to provide resources, promotion, and manpower to be able to feed around 70-80 of our homeless neighbors a week. Some of our first actions were tabling just to explain anarchism and popular power to folks who may have never heard of it. We are cooperating more and more with the left wing groups in Las Vegas to build defenses against the oncoming fascism of our current administration. Finally, we are planning to work within neighborhoods to build independent, mass, working class based associations that can help organize the working class directly for the purposes of mutual aid.
VMS: How would you explain to people who might not understand how anarchism would work in your day to day life.
Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada:
When we talk of grand social change or the “social revolution,” it can be difficult for people to understand exactly what we are talking about. While there are several theories and concepts of how we think it is best to organize this new society, the best way to conceptualize it is to imagine that all the things in your life you have no control over, your job, the roads, the law, would then be put under your, and more specifically, your community’s control. You would gather with your neighbors and coworkers and make the decisions on things that most closely affect you. Imagine all of our society’s wealth under common ownership. Your house, your clothes, and furniture would all be used by you and guaranteed to you in this society, all that would be asked is that you work to provide a little back into society. Anarchists’ focus of work is that we should work to meet the needs of society and not be forced to work to meet the needs of the rich. Traditionally, anarchists believed that if we worked for 4 hours a day, for 4 days a week, that would be enough to meet them.
VMS: What are the biggest goals you want to accomplish for this organization?
Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada:
Right now, our long term goals are the elimination of capitalism and the state and to replace it with horizontal, decentralized, associations of workers that would cooperate democratically to manage civil and economic society. The gradual transition to this society is what we call the “social revolution.” This is a transformation of all social relationships as opposed to a political revolution where the seats of power change while the structure remains the same.
This goal is one that we recognize that is very far away. Our short term goal is to begin the construction of basic working class associations that can eventually transform into those necessary for transferring power to the people. Our goal is to also make anarchism a mainstream political tendency. We understand that this is not going to happen with just words and ideology, but with definitive action. Historically, people attached their politics to institutions that provided them with material benefit, like unions, churches, or clubs. Many of those institutions have faded away or been com-modified. We understand that if we want to make anarchism a mainstream politics, then we must build strong organizations capable of providing people with material successes.
VMS: I do agree that there is so much exploitation of the working class with capitalism. Can you explain why it’s so important to bring back the power to the working class, and the repercussions of capitalism.
Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada:
Capitalism is an economic system where a small number of individuals can own a workplace and more importantly, the labor of the people at that workplace. This is an unequal relationship of power, or a hierarchy. Because of this imbalance of power, the owner takes the wealth that is produced by workers and keeps it for himself. That is why capitalism will always create wealth inequality and perpetuate an undemocratic society. Within our current political structure, we get to elect our own master once every 4 years, but for all other aspects of our lives, we have no control or power. Most of our lives are spent working and living in a society where we produce everything and own nothing. It is important to empower the working class for two reasons.
Firstly, with things like unions, collective bargaining, strikes, and direct action, the working class can win concessions within this system to materially benefit their lives. Higher wages, better hours, and increased safety all lead to workers having more free time and income to spend with their families, friends, community, hobbies, and organizing.
Secondly, by organizing workers to fight for themselves, we can train and prepare them to eventually take full democratic control over their workplace. We are inspired by the workers movement in 1936 Spain. There the anarchist unions had won powerful concessions for workers and trained/organized workers to eventually take power. Once a crisis had come, like the civil war, the workers were ready to seize their workplaces. They then began to reorganize society so that their labor went towards each other’s well being.
VMS: I know you guys say in your constitution that “We aim for a socialist society where our labor and economy are democratically self-managed by the workers themselves.” How do you explain socialism and the biggest misconceptions people might have about it?
Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada:
Socialism is the alternative to capitalism. Despite how scary of a word it is to Americans, it is a very simple concept. All it is, is an economy where the workers have democratic control over their workplaces. Anarchists understand that the only way to have true socialism is if workers have direct democratic control.
Capitalism gives power to a rich minority and so throughout society, they have reinforced the idea of their legitimacy. In culture, media, and institutions we are told that our only aspirations should be to work within the system and maybe one day achieve a better status within it. Many people buy into the lie that despite being the ones who do 99% of the work, the people would be unable to conduct the work without a master. We understand that people have the capacity and should have the ability to determine their own labor and to use that labor towards their own livelihoods.
Historically, many people associate socialism with the authoritarian states of the USSR, China, and North Korea. These states took control of the production and put it in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats not workers. They claimed that a democratic state would then mean a democratic economy, but ultimately, the balance of power was unequal and against the workers. This meant that the relationship of capitalism remained the same and so in these countries the livelihood of the workers remained the same. That is why we believe socialism must be decentralized and based in direct workers power.
VMS: Las Vegas is an interesting city since we are built on the exploitation of our workers, what is the goal for you guys to combat that.
Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada:
The economies of this entire globe are built on the exploitation of workers, what makes Las Vegas unique is that it has a highly centralized industry, traditionally, similar to how small towns would be completely dependent on one factory. Except, instead of a factory, it is all service based. Whether it is cooks, waiters, cleaners, dancers, retailers, almost all the work in Las Vegas is completely caught up in the casinos. This is representative of the entire country which in the last 40 years has switched from an industrial economy to a service economy. While many talk of bringing back factory jobs, that won’t happen any time soon due to a variety of factors. The reason why so many long for a return of factory jobs was because of all of the concessions won by unions with those jobs.
Factories made it easy to unionize and strike but the service industry today is more difficult to do that with. What we need across this country is a vitalization of unions within the service industry. Las Vegas can then provide us with a blueprint for the rest of the country. Already there are unions like the Culinary union which have done good work in representing these workers, but more is needed to be done. Retail workers and unions need to be organized so that workers can be trained to eventually take full control of their workplaces.
VMS: Is there anything specific you guys would like to talk about, or explain to people to get them to better understand the importance of your organization?
Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada:
One thing we want to emphasize is that we are not a political party or a vanguard. We do not aim to take power over workers. We don’t want to be commanders, instead what we want to do is cultivate the workers ability to organize themselves.
VMS: What does the future hold for the Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada?
Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada:
Within the next year, we want to continue to develop our own ideological and organizational structure. We want to have constructed at least two neighborhood associations and worked in at least one union. We would like to develop educational programs so that people interested in anarchism can learn more about them. We want to work more with other groups across Las Vegas in similar goals. To do this, we want to bring in more members who can help contribute and decide the actions of the group.
We also understand that this movement needs to be large scale. We believe that revolution will be difficult to build across the whole United States all at once. Instead, it is best to build the revolution on a regional scale first. We want to connect with other anarchists across the west coast and build a regional anarchist federation. This federation would be organized according to anarchist principles meaning that each locality would remain autonomous. This federation would be built so that we can take these strategies and tactics and coordinate them with activists on a large scale.
For more information about the Anarchist Front of Southern Nevada and see how you can get involved, please visit their site!
—–VMS