One characteristic of the anarchist 'movement' in Australia is tendencies toward an individualist view of anarchism and individualist behaviour. This seems to take two main forms.
First is the view that "anarchy means doing whatever you like", or it means the individual liberty to be spontaneously self-expressive. This is running the risk of two things - being individually irresponsible (violating another's rights) and imagining that anarchy is what you make it. Anarchy entails equal rights and equal responsibilities and not the individual liberty to act arbitrarily. Anarchy is a form of social organization which implies that individuals govern themselves, that is, that they accept within themselves their personal and social rights and responsibilities. In this sense it does not mean total freedom, but an individual and collective awareness of what freedoms are possible. To take a belief in individual liberty to its logical conclusion is to say that everyone has the right to do as they wish. This is the justification right-wing libertarians (sometimes known as 'pan-anarchists') use for a laissez-faire economy and minimal government interference in people's lives. This is not anarchy as anarcho-syndicalists understand it. Anarchy is not what you or I individually make it, but what we collectively make it. Thus decisions are made through discussion, negotiation, and mutual agreement. This is not to say that anarchy is a set of rules nor is it to say that anarchy implies collective regimentation. It implies an awareness of self and others. An awareness of who makes the mess, and who does the cleaning up.
The second position seems to be from people who may have an understanding of anarchist history and theory - but are reluctant to work with others. This seems, in part, to come from a desire to keep their ideas 'pure' and 'unsullied'. Therefore a reluctance to work in groups in case this means the confrontations, and at times compromises, of group processes and practices challenging their positions, or putting their ideas or their bodies on the line. Because these people tend to work in only ones or twos, it limits the type of action they can take. For example, producing newspapers and journals. Behind this type of individualist anarchism are assumptions similar to the "doing what you want" individualists, that if enough people "change their heads" then society will change. These assumptions do not take into account the real interests that are threatened by anarchism or provide a mechanism by which these changes occur. That mechanism is struggle. People change through the struggle to change society.
Anarchism is a form of socialism that has the same roots in the early labour movement and utopian socialist thought as do state socialism and communism, trade unionism, social democracy, and revolutionary syndicalism. What has been important has been the similarities (class analysis and the struggle of working people) and the differences (power analysis and the rejection of the state). Anarchism is not a brand of individual belief or a mere set of ideas. It has been sustained and developed by the thinking and action (praxis) of groups and federations of anarchists.