Anarchism vs. Marxism?
Offline I recently read "Vision on Fire: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution" and Daniel Guerin's short book simply titled "Anarchism". These books have sparked a newfound personal interest in anarchism, but now I'm wondering what to read next. Years ago I picked up Max Stirner's "Ego and Its Own", but I remember being unimpressed and thought Stirner was somewhat naive and misanthropic. At that point, I basically dismissed anarchism and didn't think a great deal about it.
As a Marxist-Leninist, I am interested specifically in how anarchism could work in practice: for instance, how can a decentralized revolution prevent an organized, reactionary counter-revolution? I was also wondering what kind of contradictions would possibly arise if anarchists liberated an area, but remained surrounded by capitalist-controlled lands: wouldn't this make that liberated area a de facto state, even if the anarchists claimed otherwise? How would an anarchist foreign policy function in action? Was the Paris Commune an example of anarchism in action, or the first example of a "workers' state", as Marx argued?
I've read critiques of anarchism from Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, etc, but I would really like to hear from a firsthand anarchist perspective. I feel as though my goals are basically the same as those of Goldman, but I just don't see how to avoid a transition period between capitalism and a classless society. I also wonder if "the State" as the enemy is dealing in abstractions.
Again, I'm not being argumentative in any way...I am very interested in finding out more about anarchism and how it might look in practice. Thanks in advance for any comments!
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For Anarchism vs Marxism, An Anarchist FAQ has a section on that
... and of course the whole faq
I also enjoyed What Is Anarchism? by Alexander Berkman (Libcom.org has a copy of it online). It presents anarchism using plain speech (that is without a lot of big words). Not the most modern, but still good.
"What right have you to condemn a murderer if you assume him necessary to "God's plan"? What logic can command the return of stolen property, or the branding of a thief, if the Almighty decreed it?"
-- The Economic Tendency of Freethought
That site is good, but I can't stand reading long pages on my computer. I wish I could read all of that in book form.
I have the large anthology on anarchism by daniel guerin called no gods no masters, but I'll never make the time to read all of it. If you want to read a short book on anarchism, Noam Chomsky's is a pretty good one. I'm sure there is much better though.
"Every true faith is infallible -- It performs what the believing person hopes to find in it. But it does not offer the least support for the establishing of an objective truth. Here the ways of men divide. If you want to achieve peace of mind and happiness, have faith. If you want to be a disciple of truth, then search." - Nietzsche
Ditto. I'm not a big fan of reading online books or lengthy posts. I'll do it anyway, though...it'll give me something to do at work today besides actually working!
I'll try to pick up a copy of Chomsky's book on anarchism (I've seen it before, but ended up buying something else instead) and Berkman's book...he's the one that tried killing some steel industry boss, right? And was romantically involved with Goldman?
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!
An Anarchist FAQ is in the process of getting ready to be printed (several of the most recent changes to it deal with that).
Yes, it is long, After knowing about it and reading it for close to a year, I have read Section A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I, J, Appendix on anarcho-capitalism, and the appendix on symbols of anarchy.
In fact, the 11.1 version was available in PDF from, and it was somewhere between 2000 and 3000 pages long! And since then, the FAQ has grow even longer!
"What right have you to condemn a murderer if you assume him necessary to "God's plan"? What logic can command the return of stolen property, or the branding of a thief, if the Almighty decreed it?"
-- The Economic Tendency of Freethought
Wow, awesome then. I think that's one I would be interested in picking up then.
I just came across an excellent resource today: the Anarchy Archives.
http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/index.html
It has the collected works of Bakunin, Malatesta, Goldman, Proudhon, etc. I'm currently reading Bakunin's "Marxism, Freedom and the State." So far it's very interesting and I'm gaining a newfound respect for anarchist political thought.
Another great book, about livning in and fighting for anarchism and marxism, is George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia". Orwell travelled to Spain in the mid to late 30s to fight Franco in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Anarchists. He writes about his time their in this book.
Before I started running a bookstore, I thought Orwell only wrote 1984 and Animal Farm, but he wrote about a dozen non-fiction books as well, mostly about socialism in some way or another. Everyone I've read so far has been great, but "Homage to Catalonia" is amazing, I can't recommend it enough.
You mentioned the transition to an anarchist society...I really think the only plausible way is to do it slowly and globally. An anarchist (or marxist) country could not survive surrounded by capatilst ones...look what happened to the USSR in the early days of its revolution...attacked on all sides and the revolution was crushed before it could begin, leaving them in the hands of Dictatorship. So, the theory I like is to "Expand the floor of the cage" where you start by helping out the poor in the world, and this would have to be done by governments. You raise their standard of living and increase the public domain of things like health care and land. Once you lift people completely out of poverty, it will be possible to begin to dissassemble things like police forces and beuracracies. But for the near term? Demand more democracy, less militarism, more resources for the poor, less resources for the rich.
Right on kriz. I think that's exactly what Chomsky points out in his book on anarchism.
My history professor from last semester highly recommened that book by orwell to me. I think I'm going to read that now.
"Every true faith is infallible -- It performs what the believing person hopes to find in it. But it does not offer the least support for the establishing of an objective truth. Here the ways of men divide. If you want to achieve peace of mind and happiness, have faith. If you want to be a disciple of truth, then search." - Nietzsche
I actually just read "Homage to Catalonia" last month, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the Spanish Civil War. But I think it says more about anarchism vs. Stalinism than it does about anarchism vs. Marxism. The Stalinist position during the civil war was idiotic and allowed the Fascists to win the war. But the P.O.U.M., who Orwell joined upon entering Spain, was a Marxist militia opposed to the Stalinist "Party line." A collection of Trotsky's writings on the civil war was compiled under the title "The Spanish Revolution: 1936-1939" and it offers an excellent Marxist/anti-Stalinist perspective on the war.
One branch of market anarchism is Agorism. On the Agorist website there's a small ebook called "Agorist Class Theory (pdf)" that has a conveniently relevant section titled "Agorism Contra Marxism". In fact most of the book is just ripping Marx a new one.
I'd consider myself an agorist so most of the stuff about agorism you'll read applies to me.