About Us

Arizona Teen Anarchists aims to organize a community of youth anarchists from all over the state of Arizona. In the age of the internet you'd think this was a completely trivial task, but it isn't. In order to create the network of young people envisioned for this project we need word of mouth. We need people making zines, sharing this website, putting up flyers.

Young people can make a difference, we can make a change. No matter how small our voices feel in isolation, together, we are strong. We can be strong. In an era of unrest, civil and political and economic and all those big fancy words, we must stand together and fight the systems that keep us oppressed.

Teenagers often feel powerless, because not only are we governed by law but we are governed by our parents. We are the legal property of these adults who haven't lived our experiences the way they think they have. The truth is, times have changed. The world of today isn't the world our parents lived in and that's, in some ways, a good thing. Ultimately, this makes it impossible to fully articulate our experiences to the generations above us, just as they find it hard to do the same. This does not make us powerless. It makes us powerful. We have voices that haven't been heard yet. We have ideas that haven't been thought yet. We have experiences that haven't been shared yet. That is powerful.

I'm not saying you have to hate your parents. Not even close. What I'm trying to say is, no one in this world has the right to take away your voice, not even your parents. We live in a world that is constantly reinforcing the oppressor/oppressed dichotomy as if it is a force of nature. It is not. You do not have to live like this, and you don't have to become the oppressor to escape being the oppressed. The solution is simple:

Abolish the system.

For many, the term "Anarchy" has a very specific and negative meaning. Disorder. Chaos. Violence.

But anarchism as an ideology is very different from what the mainstream would have you believe. Keep scrolling to learn more.

What Is Anarchism?

Just so we're on the same page, let's define a few key terms:

Hierarchy: A system or organization in which people or groups are ranked above one another in terms of status, power, or authority.

Mutual Aid: Cooperative assistance and support provided voluntarily by individuals or groups to meet collective needs without the involvement of centralized institutions or authorities.

Decentralization: The distribution of power, decision-making, or resources away from a central authority or government to local communities or individuals.

Stateless Society: A societal arrangement without a formal government or centralized authority, where social organization and decision-making are managed through voluntary associations and consensus.

The State: Any authority or government that wields power over people and enforces rules without their direct consent.

The Ruling Class: The group of individuals who hold ultimate control over the governed population. They include lawmakers, billionaires, and others with sufficient individual power to influence or shape The State to their advantage, often benefiting financially from its perpetuation.

“While the popular understanding of anarchism is of a violent, anti-State movement, anarchism is a much more subtle and nuanced tradition then a simple opposition to government power. Anarchists oppose the idea that power and domination are necessary for society, and instead advocate more co-operative, anti-hierarchical forms of social, political and economic organisation.”

― L. Susan Brown, 'Politics of Individualism'

This quote illustrates very well the stark contrast between how statists talk about anarchy, and how anarchists talk about anarchy. It's unsurprising, if you asked a non-vegan about veganism they would give a very different answer compared to a vegan. However, the most important takeaway from this quote is the idea of violence being inherent to anarchism.

Violence is, in many ways, entangled with anarchism. You do not have to be a personally violent person to be an anarchist, but violence is necessary to the movement on some level. A lot of people turn up their nose at that idea, but it's a lot more complicated than just "anarchists want an excuse to punch someone in the face".

Truth is, violence is only necessary to dismantle the state because violence is necessary to maintain the state in the first place.

Think about it this way: Why does the government still exist? No, seriously, why does it still exist? Why hasn't someone gone up and just... stopped it?

Well, uh, police is the simple answer. And how do those police keep you from doing things? Violence. Threats of violence. Threats of going to prison where there will be violence. The police are a tool of the state, funded, maintained, overseen by the state. The violence is sanctioned and approved by the state, as well as the prisons that perpetuate violent cycles. Violence is a necessary and unavoidable tool of the state, once you know where to look.

From the perspective of a statist society, violence is simply illegal force. Inside this framework, most actions that perpetuate the prevailing hierarchies are not considered violent, while a wide range of actions that threaten those in power qualify as violence. This explains why it isn't called violence when factories pump carcinogens into rivers or prisons incarcerate millions of people, while sabotaging a factory or resisting arrest are deemed violent. From this perspective, practically anything that endangers the ruling order is sure to be seen as violent.

If the real problem with violence is that it is destructive, then what about destructive acts that prevent greater destruction from taking place? Or, if the problem with violence is that it is not consensual, what about nonconsensual actions that prevent coercion from occurring? Defending oneself against tyrants necessarily means violating their wishes—we can't wait for the entire human race to reach consensus before we are entitled to act. Rather than letting the laws determine what forms of action are legitimate, we have to make these decisions for ourselves, using whatever power is at our disposal to maximize the freedom and wellbeing of all who share this world.

― CrimethInc., 'Frequently Asked Questions about Anarchism'