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Recent articles by Wayne Price
Malatesta’s Revolutionary Anarchism in British Exile 0 comments An Anarchist View of Trotsky’s "Transitional Program" 2 comments The Joy of Alex Comfort 0 comments Recent Articles about International Anarchist movementAnarchists in Rojava: Revolution is a struggle in itself Oct 04 23 An Attempted Marxist-Anarchist Dialogue Oct 03 23 A Guide to Anarcho-Syndicalism and Libertarian Socialism Aug 03 23 The Two Main Trends in Anarchism
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Thursday June 25, 2009 20:16 by Wayne Price - Personal opinion drwdprice at aol dot com
Alternate Tendencies of Anarchism
There are two main trends in anarchism, which agree on antistatism and anticapitalism and opposition to all oppression, but disagree on revolution, democracy, prefigurative politics, and class struggle.It has been stated by various theorists that there are two main trends in modern anarchism. How they are conceptualized varies with the writer. I will state how I see the two broad tendencies in the anarchist movement, using the books Anarchy Alive! (Uri Gordon) and Black Flame (Micahel Schmidt & Lucien Van der Walt) to illustrate the two trends. I will describe them as differing on the issues of revolution or reformism, of democracy, of what “prefigurative politics” mean, and of attitudes toward the working class.[Italiano] [Türkçe]
The Two Main Trends in AnarchismAlternate Tendencies of Anarchismby Wayne PriceUri Gordon (2008). Anarchy Alive!
It has been stated by various theorists that there are two main trends in modern anarchism. How they are conceptualized varies with the writer. I will state how I see the two broad tendencies in the anarchist movement, using the above two books to illustrate the two trends (this is particularly not a review of Black Flame). I will describe them as differing on the issues of revolution or reformism, of democracy, of what “prefigurative politics” mean, and of attitudes toward the working class. |
HauptseiteSupport Sudanese anarchists in exile Joint Statement of European Anarchist Organizations International anarchist call for solidarity: Earthquake in Turkey, Syria and Kurdistan Elements of Anarchist Theory and Strategy 19 de Julio: Cuando el pueblo se levanta, escribe la historia International anarchist solidarity against Turkish state repression Declaración Anarquista Internacional por el Primero de Mayo, 2022 Le vieux monde opprime les femmes et les minorités de genre. Leur force le détruira ! Against Militarism and War: For self-organised struggle and social revolution Declaração anarquista internacional sobre a pandemia da Covid-19 Anarchist Theory and History in Global Perspective Capitalism, Anti-Capitalism and Popular Organisation [Booklet] Reflexiones sobre la situación de Afganistán South Africa: Historic rupture or warring brothers again? Death or Renewal: Is the Climate Crisis the Final Crisis? Gleichheit und Freiheit stehen nicht zur Debatte! Contre la guerre au Kurdistan irakien, contre la traîtrise du PDK Meurtre de Clément Méric : l’enjeu politique du procès en appel International | Anarchist movement | en Tue 19 Mar, 16:13 Solidarity with Alfredo Cospito From Rojava 23:06 Mon 27 Mar 19 comments Solidarity statement with the anarchist prisoner Alfredo Cospito International Anarchist Statement for the First of May, 2022 22:39 Tue 03 May 15 comments 1st of May, 1886! 136 years ago today, the American working class created a priceless experience for the upcoming struggles of the working classes of the whole world by saying “this fight is our last fight!”. It remains a victory till our time. The demand of “8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for whatever we want” to replace the 16 hours of work and the assaults of capitalism which targeted the lives of the working classes then in the 19th century turned into a general strike in America. General strike has been one of the most significant weapons of the anarchist action as an earning to the history of the class struggle. For anarchists, the struggle for 8 hours has never been seen as a simple request for reform. Anarchists fought to replace it with a social revolution, with the claim that “Regardless of our working time, whether it be 2 hours or 8 hours, it is slavery if we work for bosses”. [Castellano] 65 years of the FAU 17:43 Fri 29 Oct 0 comments We recognise the FAU's contributions to the libertarian movement and the sacrifice of comrades past and present. We send our congratulations on the 65th anniversary of the FAU. In solidarity with the struggle for freedom and socialism, the undersigned Anarchist-Communist groups of Oceania. Recent publications and new editions from Zabalaza Books 00:29 Sat 20 Jun 0 comments Over the past 18 months Zabalaza Books has published over two dozen new publications or new editions of previous publications, all of which can be read online or downloaded in PDF format from the Zabalaza Books website. Read the full list of titles and overviews of their contents, with links to the full texts, below. Launch statement of the Latin American Anarchist Coordination (CALA) 02:28 Tue 17 Dec 0 comments After a series of meetings and instances, anarchist political organizations in Latin America have decided to relaunch the Latin American Anarchist Coordination (CALA), within the framework of this complex political and social context that our continent is living through. We, anarchists and libertarian communists in the class struggle in capitalist Europe 05:38 Mon 11 Dec 1 comments The European organizations which are part of the Anarkismo network met on the 18th and 19th of November in Genoa. We discussed and exchanged, thought and reflected together, attempting as a network to plan a strategy for forward movement.
Delegations from Wales, France, Italy, Switzerland and Ireland - with a warm solidarity statement from our Catalan comrades of Embat - expressed the need to clarify and deepen our common work. Considerations of the Anarkismo network about the accusations against Michael Schmidt 19:31 Sat 30 Jan 23 comments The Anarkismo network has already published a statement that it would wait until all parts of the accusations by Reid Ross and Stephens were published, as well as the answers of M. Schmidt, before making any judgements on the case. Now that this has been forthcoming, as well as two more responses by Reid Ross, we are issuing a second statement to make public our intentions regarding the present situation. Statement For Rojava 16:44 Sun 30 Aug 0 comments This is a solidarity Statement For Rojava from an old group that is reviving itself somewhat: Neither East Nor West-NYC Anarkismo message of support to 1st Congress of Columna Libertaria Joaquín Penina 18:47 Wed 22 Apr 0 comments We are very pleased to be able to congratulate you on the realisation of your First Congress as a specific anarchist political organisation. In light of the disbanding of the Federación Anarco-Comunista Argentina we believe that this is a very important step both for our shared especifista tendency as well as for the development of anarchism in general, both in Argentina and the region. Anarchist Women: "Long Live Freedom, Long Live Anarchism!" 01:08 Thu 01 Jan 0 comments Anarchist Women attending to the Young Women Conference, in a small village Amara which is in Urfa (Kurdistan), made a speech on the resistance in Kobane, the effect of women on this resistance and women's freedom struggle. more >>Thoughts on Revolution Mar 22 11 comments In response to a paper by the anarchist Ron Tabor in which he re-thinks revolutionary politics. Bakunin, Malatesta and the Platform Debate Jun 01 15 comments The present text —the core of which was taken from the introduction that we wrote for the French edition of Social Anarchism and Organization, by the Anarchist Federation of Rio de Janeiro (FARJ)[1]— aims to discuss the question of the specific anarchist political organization, based on the contributions of Mikhail Bakunin, Errico Malatesta and the Organizational Platform for a General Union of Anarchists, written by militants organized around the magazine Dielo Trudá, among whom were Nestor Makhno and Piotr Archinov. We are going to take up the contributions of Bakunin and Malatesta to establish a dialogue between them and the Platform, trace the similarities and differences between the proposals of anarchists who advocate an organizational dualism and those of the Bolsheviks, and we will see the proximity of Malatesta with the Synthesis, as well as the historical impact of the Platform, which will make it possible to elucidate the positions that have been disseminated about this debate. Organizational Issues Within Anarchism May 03 5 comments The present text aims to discuss, from a theoretical-historical perspective, some organizational issues related to anarchism. It responds to the assertion, constantly repeated, that anarchist ideology or doctrine is essentially spontaneous and contrary to organization. Returning to the debate among anarchists about organization, this article maintains that there are three fundamental positions on the matter: those who are against organization and / or defend informal formations in small groups (anti-organizationism); supporters of organization only at the mass level (syndicalism and communitarianism), and those who point out the need for organization on two levels, the political-ideological and the mass (organizational dualism). This text delves into the positions of the third current, bringing theoretical elements from Mikhail Bakunin and then presenting a historical case in which the anarchists held, in theory and in practice, that position: the activity of the Federation of Anarchist Communists of Bulgaria (FAKB) between the twenties and forties of the twentieth century. [Português] [Castellano] Create a Strong People Apr 25 3 comments To begin the discussion on popular power it is important to return to the idea of a strategy of social transformation, since our political practice, as anarchists, is what could point toward this transformation. Anarchism, Power, Class and Social Change Feb 17 0 comments The theoretical elements and historical experiences discussed undergird the theses developed throughout this article. Anarchists have a conception of power and a general project around it that forms their conception of class, understood in relation to a certain type of power (domination), and constitutes the foundation of their notion of social change, which is characterized by: their belief in the capacity for action of the subjects that are part of the distinct oppressed classes, their implication in the transformation of that capacity into social force, their commitment to permanent growth of this force, and their defense of a revolutionary process that allows for overcoming enemy forces and replacing the power of domination over society by a self-managing power. more >>International Anarchist Statement for the First of May, 2022 May 03 15 comments 1st of May, 1886! 136 years ago today, the American working class created a priceless experience for the upcoming struggles of the working classes of the whole world by saying “this fight is our last fight!”. It remains a victory till our time. The demand of “8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for whatever we want” to replace the 16 hours of work and the assaults of capitalism which targeted the lives of the working classes then in the 19th century turned into a general strike in America. General strike has been one of the most significant weapons of the anarchist action as an earning to the history of the class struggle. For anarchists, the struggle for 8 hours has never been seen as a simple request for reform. Anarchists fought to replace it with a social revolution, with the claim that “Regardless of our working time, whether it be 2 hours or 8 hours, it is slavery if we work for bosses”. [Castellano] 65 years of the FAU Oct 29 0 comments We recognise the FAU's contributions to the libertarian movement and the sacrifice of comrades past and present. We send our congratulations on the 65th anniversary of the FAU. In solidarity with the struggle for freedom and socialism, the undersigned Anarchist-Communist groups of Oceania. Recent publications and new editions from Zabalaza Books Jun 20 0 comments Over the past 18 months Zabalaza Books has published over two dozen new publications or new editions of previous publications, all of which can be read online or downloaded in PDF format from the Zabalaza Books website. Read the full list of titles and overviews of their contents, with links to the full texts, below. Launch statement of the Latin American Anarchist Coordination (CALA) Dec 17 CALA 0 comments After a series of meetings and instances, anarchist political organizations in Latin America have decided to relaunch the Latin American Anarchist Coordination (CALA), within the framework of this complex political and social context that our continent is living through. We, anarchists and libertarian communists in the class struggle in capitalist Europe Dec 11 AL/FdCA-AL-CGA-LSF-OSL-WSM 1 comments The European organizations which are part of the Anarkismo network met on the 18th and 19th of November in Genoa. We discussed and exchanged, thought and reflected together, attempting as a network to plan a strategy for forward movement.
Delegations from Wales, France, Italy, Switzerland and Ireland - with a warm solidarity statement from our Catalan comrades of Embat - expressed the need to clarify and deepen our common work. |
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Spring zu Komment: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1I have also been reading a lot of Proudhon lately (although not as much Anarcho undoubtably has) and was going to make much of the same argument that he has (although not as eloquently).
While I find truth in this: "few of the New School’s ideas are all that new", I can't seem to find the truth in the following: "Since Proudhon was neither for class struggle, nor revolution, nor communism,..." Maybe we're reading different works by Proudhon, but his "Peoples' Election Manifesto" published in excerpt form in "No Gods, No Masters", illustrates quite the opposite, wherein he lays out not only the problem with current capitalist economics, that being the separation of labor and capital, but also the solution, which unless I'm misunderstanding, describes the basic tenets of democratic socialism with class struggle held at the crux of his argument.
With that said, I do completely agree with this: "...but is it useful to argue about whether or not they are really “anarchists?” That does make us look like sectarians and dogmatists. We should argue about the content of their beliefs (that they are mistaken in their politics) rather than their label."
Besides that minor quibble, I think this was a great article and that the premise is very true. In my limited experience, it seems that a lot of the young anarchists are more of the "reformist" type than the "revolutionary" and I find this to be quite unfortunate.
‘As for the concept which equates shitting on the floor with true anarchism, I will let that one go.’
Well it was in fact Stirner who throw that gauntlet down against Marx on that, with his more sensational, at the time, copulating with your sister kind of thing.
A Turkish translation of this article has now been published:
This essay was copied onto Anarchist News, which appears to attract primitivists and anti-civilizationists and "post-leftists/insurrectionists," as one poster writes. Comments may be read at:
http://www.anarchistnews.org/?q=node/8087
Here are my responses to their comments (I am not a member of their list):
An anonymous poster writes, "The two main trends are anarcho-primitivists and pseudo-anarchists, whom I've dubbed "anarcho-domesticates." The latter is a form of minarchism.... these pseudo-anarchists are hypocrites..... As soon as you force your children to stop defecating on the floor, the domestication process has begun and you've become an authoritarian ruler."
It is nice that this anonymous poster agrees with me that those who regard themselves as anarchists can be roughly divided into two broad trends (with conflicts within each trend and overlapping between them). It is not so nice that he or she insists not only on his or her correct view, but that other anarchists are not really anarchists at all. Apparently, Bakunin and Kropotkin, the anarcho-syndicalists and the anarcho-communists, were all pseudo-anarchists, really minimalists, domesticates, and hypocrites, and so are those of us who continue their trend today. Since primitivism (and anti-civilizationism) is historically recent, there really was not any anarchism until about a generation ago (when some Marxists like Zerzan invented primitivism). As for the concept which equates shitting on the floor with true anarchism, I will let that one go.
But I love it when someone writes, "i dont even understand why people still pay attention to wayne price. he seldom says anything worth hearing." And someone else writes that it was "a boring article." Yet these two obviously have just read my essay and comments and are making their own comments! They are entitled to their opinions, but this is a strange thing to do with a boring essay by an irrelevant writer.
"For example, is it somehow okay for Proudhon to have anti-Semitic ideas or to want to be the dictator of his proposed mutualist bank...if he only said so in his private notebooks?"
Given that his anti-Semitic rants played no part in his political ideas and political programme, they are as important as Marx's various bigotries. It does not make them right, but to base a critique of a thinker on them (whether Proudhon or Marx) would be silly.
As for the "dictator" charge, have you read the rules for the mutual bank? It is very clearly democratic, with general assemblies, elections and so forth. Are Proudhon's comments in his notebooks more important? i doubt it....
"Because he said good things, should we ignore his extreme mysogyny, his support for the South in the US Civil War, or his opposition to unions and strikes?"
Er, no. But it is a far cry from disagreeing with him, pointing out his contradictions and when he was wrong, with dismissing his whole body of work (as, say, Draper did)...
"Was it okay for him to denounce democracy if the people voted for Napoleon III and did the Bonapartist coup somehow justify his "urg[ing] Napoleon III to reform society,"in Anarcho's words???"
So what should Proudhon have done? Support democracy and consider Napoleon III as the legitimate ruler of France? After all, the People did democratically vote for him. And because the People did support and vote for a dictator, Proudhon became disillusioned and penned some words which, if taken out of context, makes him sound un-libertarian.
As for Bonapartist coup, that was ratified by two elections (in 1851 and 1852). Now, should Proudhon have written wonderful words praising the masses and praising democracy in such circumstances? Given that you do not wish to "justify" Proudhon's attempt to make the best of a bad situation and appeal to Napolean to use his popular mandate for reform, I can only assume that you do not think he should have...
Seems that Proudhon is in a no win situation. Express disgust at the stupidity of those who democratically voted for a despot, and he is anti-democratic; accept (but do not support) the situation that the dictator has a democratic mandate and urge him to pursue reform, and he is also anti-democratic!
So, what is it to be? We have a situation where the vast majority voted for a despot. Apparently to oppose that vote and have a rant against those who voted makes you undemocratic. Does that mean the "democratic" thing would be to accept the majority decision and so the Bonapartist regime?
"No. While anarchism is predominantly libertarian-democratic, there is also an authoritarian, elitist, and undemocratic trend within anarchism, going way back, and we will not be able to root it out if we do not confront it fully."
And, as I've said, I've read A LOT of Proudhon recently and his arguments are for a decentralised, self-managed society. Apparently, a few comments, re-printed without any context, from his private notebooks outweight hundreds of pages of pubished material...
And I'm all for confronting the non-libertarian aspects of libertarian thinkers (such as Proudhon's sexism). Just as I'm all for confronting fetishing democracy -- so, just to check, if the majority vote for a despot (as in 1851 and 1852) does that mean that the democratic thing to do is to accept the will of the people?
Or can the majority be wrong? Spectularly wrong? And if so, can we suggest that the People were fools for voting as they did? Or would that be elitist? And what would the anti-elitist thing to do be?
I agree with Anarcho that it seems rather peculiar to deny that Proudhon was an anarchist. But historically, Black Flame is right that the anarchist movement, as a movement, began with Bakunin. The followers of Proudhon had called themselves mutualists and mostly did not support the Bakunist anarchists. Bakunin may be said to have been influenced by Proudhon, to have learned from him, and then to have gone beyond him (the same might be said about Proudhon's influence on Marx, in different ways).
As to politics: when I was a Marxist, my friends and I would read Marx (and Lenin and Trotsky) and always give them "the benefit of the doubt." If they said or did something which could be interpreted in an authoritarian way, but which might also be interpreted in a more-or-less libertarian-democratic way, we would chose the libertarian-democratic interpretation. Part of becoming an anarchist, for me anyway, was no longer giving Marx et al. "the benefit of the doubt." But I have rejected that method altogether, not just for Marxists. I also do not give Proudhon or Bakunin or the FAI the "benefit of the doubt," which seems to be the method being used for Proudhon by Anarcho.
For example, is it somehow okay for Proudhon to have anti-Semitic ideas or to want to be the dictator of his proposed mutualist bank...if he only said so in his private notebooks? Because he said good things, should we ignore his extreme mysogyny, his support for the South in the US Civil War, or his opposition to unions and strikes? Was it okay for him to denounce democracy if the people voted for Napoleon III and did the Bonapartist coup somehow justify his "urg[ing] Napoleon III to reform society,"in Anarcho's words???
No. While anarchism is predominantly libertarian-democratic, there is also an authoritarian, elitist, and undemocratic trend within anarchism, going way back, and we will not be able to root it out if we do not confront it fully.
"This is consistent with the worst, most undemocratic aspects of Proudhons’s and Bakunin’s thought, which most of anarchism had long abandoned."
As I've been reading A LOT of Proudhon recently, I have to say that the notion of "undemocratic aspects" of his thought is exaggerated. Which, of course, is unsurprising as this flows from Hal Draper and his diatribe against anarchism from the 1966s.
What Draper fails to mention is that many of Proudhon's comments he quotes are from his private notebooks and unpublished in his lifetime. Equally, he fails to mention that the "undemocratic" comments against "The People" were the product of said people democratically confirming the coup of Napoleon III and failing to act to resist the coup in the first place...
is it "undemocratic" to rant about the people being idiots when they democratically vote for dictatorship? Is the democratic thing to do accept the will of the people in this case?
Oh, but when Proudhon did that, accepted (not supporting!) the fait accompli of the coup and lack of resistance, made the worse of a bad situation and urged Napoleon III to reform society, Draper denounced him as supporting dictatorship! Obviously, he could not win...
As for Bakunin, most of his "undemocratic" aspects pre-date his anarchism, with his much misunderstood notion of "invisible dictatorship" being in his anarchist period. And talking of which, "natural influence" would be a much better term, and Bakunin used it as well to describe what he meant --see this review and follow the links:
http://anarchism.pageabode.com/anarcho/review-basic-bakunin
I'm not suggesting that either Bakunin or Proudhon were perfect, far from it, but the notion that they were "undemocratic" is just not correct. -- it is selective in the extreme, as I'm sure Wayne would agree.
I just wondered what he considered as being the worse "undemocratic" aspects of the two? Are they related to the issues of secret societies and rants in personal notebooks?
I too think that Black Flame is a very good, even excellent, book, despite some minor disagreements. My essay was meant to agree with its authors in identifying with the "broad anarchist tradition" and opposing the reformist, non-working class, trend. Perhaps my agreement would be even clearer if, instead of referring to "the two trends in the anarchist movement," I had written of "the two trends among those who call themselves anarchists." But the idea is the same.
I blogged on this recently:
http://anarchism.pageabode.com/anarcho/black-flame
My major objection was the excluding of Proudhon from anarchism...
after all, except for the federalism, the communes, the workers self-management,
the decentralisation, the critique of property, the critique of the state, the analysis
of exploitation as being rooted in production, what has Proudhon ever done for
us?
What about the name anarchist?
Oh...
(yes, watching too much Monty Python as can be seen from the blog post)
Still, Black Flame is a very good book -- bar a couple of flaws. I would recommend
it!
There is a discussion of this article on the Anarchist Black Cat forums at the following link: