By Yanni Cotis and Jo Ellis
The letter "A" breaking out of the confines of a circle symbolises everything anarchism aims to achieve: rebellion, uprising against authority, a revolutionary change in society.
Both anarchists and socialists aim to overthrow capitalism, to create a society where oppression no longer exists. The debate between them is over how to get there.
The state
One the most heated debates is over the state. Anarchists believe that after the revolution the people should immediately "smash the state" because any form of government is oppressive.
Socialists argue that the state is a product of class divisions and exists to maintain the dominance of a particular class. A revolution will not abolish classes overnight and therefore a state is necessary to reorganise society in the interests of the majority.
After the revolution in Nicaragua, the Sandinistas needed to defend the new society against violent attack by armed thugs funded by the United States government. The Nicaraguan government, the liberation army, schools, hospitals, national transport and communication systems (some of the things which make up the state) were all necessary to defend the revolution from this attack.
But the state in a socialist society is fundamentally different from a state in a capitalist one. It is"oppressive" only in that it oppresses the rich minority by not allowing them to regain power and re-establish capitalism. When the wealth of society has been fully redistributed and classes no longer exist, the state will "wither away" because it will no longer be necessary.
The party
Anarchists have criticised the way socialists organise, claiming it to be authoritarian and imposed "from above". These criticisms result from a difference in an understanding of the role of the party.
Anarchists, like Bakunin, argued that a revolution is the result of a spontaneous uprising of the people in response to a crisis within capitalism.
Socialists know that revolutionaries face powerful adversaries. Workers have the power to change society, but they are often dominated by capitalist ideology. Prejudices like racism and sexism exist and prevent us from uniting against the system. Additionally the capitalist class are well armed and prepared to use violence to defeat the struggle for justice.
In the face of this Lenin stated that "the only weapon of the proletariat is organisation". A party unites the experiences of people in struggle, draws together the movements for change and unites the ideas and energy of all those opposed to the system.
Like the state, the revolutionary party will also "wither away" as classes cease to exist.
The strategy
Whilst advocating power to the masses, anarchists often prioritise individual forms of political action over mass action. Anarchist groups such as Angry People advocate tactics such as paint-bombing, scratching yuppie cars and sabotaging developments.
Small actions can be useful if they engage people in political struggle. They need to be seen, however, in a broad framework of organising a struggle that can involve large numbers of people.
Food Not Bombs, an organisation that provides free food to poor people, shows some of the limitations of anarchist strategy. Food Not Bombs asserts a counter-ideology to economic rationalism (and government spending on the military rather then welfare), but it acts more as a radical charity (by providing an alternative to state welfare and symbolically freeing the government from its obligation to feed people).
Some anarchists believe that the way individuals live can revolutionise society. They advocate changing the world by changing consumption habits.
But whilst not eating a cheeseburger might save your stomach lining, it won't save the Brazilian rainforest. To stop multinational corporations from destroying the earth, we must have control over production. This can be achieved only by masses of people taking on the power of the capitalists, not by individuals living "cleaner".
The debate between anarchism and socialism is an old one. In regard to the Russian Revolution, the Spanish Civil War and struggles today, revolutionaries continue to debate the way forward for liberation. For those serious about achieving liberation, anarchism does not give the answers.