Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2003 15:55:00 +0000 From: Iain McKay <iain.mckay-AT-zetnet.co.uk> Subject: letter to Anarchy And now for something completely different... I'm sending this letter to Anarchy Magazine, in reply to their last issue. I felt that it was an extremely petty issue and, to be honest, a waste of space in parts. Some of the issues it raised were important, but the feel of it just came across as counter-productive. As it is, I don't want to get into a big debate but I felt that I should correct some of the errors. I think that a constructive debate is essential, but the last issue of Anarchy simply failed to rise to the occassion. I should note that I wrote this before the war started, but I guessed people would want a break from war talk. Iain ------------------------------------------------------- Dear Anarchy I was deeply disappointed by the last issue of Anarchy. The reason is simple. While denouncing what it considers the "repeated pronouncements of contempt for many (often even most) anarchists" and those who present "no hint . . . that the people denounced might have genuinely radical and intelligent reasons for thinking and acting as they do," we were subjected to exactly this as regards "Platformism." In the various articles bashing the Platform, at no time was there any attempt to explain why some anarchists have felt an affinity to that document and the tradition is created (and, yes, it does have a tradition and influence even if some contributors to Anarchy may want to deny it). This seems strange, considering the claim that Anarchy thinks other anarchists should be doing that. What are we to conclude from this? That "workerist, organisationalist" anarchists have to apply one set of standards while the contributors of Anarchy another? I get that impression. Even the review of NorthEastern Anarchist magazine failed to meet the exacting standards Anarchy set for others. I re-read both Aileen O'Carroll's article on the Russian Revolution and Brian Sheppard's one on the labour movement and I have to say that Anarchy's "review" of both was simply a distortion of what they argued. I am not going to reply to every point raised in the numerous articles produced. That would be impossible. Likewise, as I am not a Platformist I will not defend it. I will say this, Malatesta's critique of the Platform was substantially correct and, moreover, exactly the kind of critique Anarchy promised but failed to deliver. Malatesta understood the motivations of the original Platformists and had a dialogue with Makhno without questioning his anarchism. Unlike Anarchy's contributors, he did not slander Makhno as being a crypto-Leninist but rather an anarchist whose position should be constructively discussed. But, then again, Malatesta was an "organisationalist" anarchist (maybe even a "workerist" one as well) and so, presumably, "one step" from Platformism and so two steps from Leninism. I will, however, make a few comments. Firstly, I need correct one of Bob Black's inaccuracies. He states that the WSM "without so indicating, omits several interesting passages from the Platform." Presumably this is part of some plan to hide the Leninist aims of that document and so, presumably, the WSM itself. Sadly for Black, his comments are simply not true. These "interesting passages" are not, in fact, from the Platform. They are from a later document (which is reprinted as "document no. 3" in Skirda's Facing the Enemy). Skirda's translation of one passage simply states that "decisions, though, will have to be binding upon all who vote for and endorse them." No mention of "sanctions." Ignoring the question of which translation is correct, is Black suggesting that abiding by collective decisions you took part in making equates to "the state"? If so, then any organisation becomes "the state" and so anarchy becomes an impossible dream. If not, then surely abiding, in general, by group decisions you help make is an example of the "responsible individualism" he contrasts to the Platform? Secondly, I find it ironic that while Black accuses the Platform of Leninism, his critique of it rests, in part, on the basic idea of Leninism, namely the false notion that working class people cannot develop socialist ideas by their own effort. He is at pains to mock the Platform for arguing that anarchism was born in the class struggle. "This is of course untrue," he asserts. It appears to be a case of "class political consciousness can be brought to the workers only from without, that is, only outside of the economic struggle, outside the sphere of relations between workers and employers"? Black again? No, Lenin (from What is to be Done?). Or, in other words, "socialism and the class struggle arise side by side and not one out of the other" (to quote, as Lenin did, Social Democratic leader Karl Kautsky). It seems strange that Black seemingly subscribes to Lenin's maxim that "there can be no talk of an independent ideology being developed by the masses of the workers in the process of their movement." Where does that leave working class spontaneity and autonomy? Lenin was clear, "there is a lot of talk about spontaneity, but the spontaneous development of the labour movement leads to its becoming subordinated to bourgeois ideology." Which, from his perspective, makes perfect sense. But where does it leave Black? Not only can Black's argument be faulted logically, it can be faulted factually. Echoing Lenin and Kautsky, Black argues that anarchism comes from Proudhon. Yet was Proudhon somehow separate from the experiences of the class he was part of? He was not, of course. Proudhon got many of his ideas (and the term Mutualism itself) from the artisans in Lyon who had developed their ideas independently of bourgeois intellectuals and had practised class struggle for some time (rising the black flag in insurrection in the 1830s). In 1848, Proudhon stressed that his ideas were not abstract concepts divorced from working class life. As he put it, "the proof" of his mutualist ideas lay in the "current practice, revolutionary practice" of "those labour associations . . . which have spontaneously . . . been formed in Paris and Lyon." But, then again, the likes of Proudhon, according to Lenin, contribute to socialist ideas "not as workers, but as socialist theoreticians." Black seems to share that perspective. Similarly, Bakunin's anarchism seems, for Black, to have popped into his head from some unspecified place. However, the facts are that the ideas championed by Bakunin had been developed independently within the First International by workers before he joined. This, in part, explains his success in the International. He was a focus for ideas that had already been developed by workers as part of their struggles and experiences, ideas he of course add to and deepen. Bakunin contributed to anarchism, but working class people and their ideas contributed to the development of his ideas. Then there is Kropotkin. While Black uses him to discredit the Platform on this issue, the fact is that Kropotkin expressed the same ideas as that document. In "Modern Science and Anarchism", for example, he notes that "Anarchism originated among the people" and, indeed, that it "originated in everyday struggles." In his "Great French Revolution" he argues that "the principles of anarchism . . . already dated from 1789, and that they had their origin, not in theoretical speculations, but in the deeds of the Great French Revolution." The Platform, clearly, follows Kropotkin in this. Personally, I'll side with Kropotkin (and the Platform) against Black (and Lenin) on this issue. All this is not surprising, given a basic knowledge of anarchist theory and history. What is surprising is that someone like Black should make such an argument. I expected better from him, but I'm unfortunately getting used to being disappointed by his (often sloppy) assertions against "workerist" and "organisationalist" anarchists. Thirdly, I have to question why Black feels the necessity of mentioning Makhno's drinking in his account of the Platform. Given that Makhno had seen non-stop combat for four years, I'm not surprised that he turned to drink to dull the pain (both mental and physical). And, incidentally, why mention Arshinov's return to Russia when discussing the Platform? I suppose it is to suggest that Platformists were (and are) just hidden Leninists. But, then, how can be explain the fact that Makhno and Mett remained anarchists to the end? Mentioning Arshinov's return seems as petty as mentioning Makhno's drinking. Equally, to compare the Platform's arguments for a revolutionary army with "the counter-revolutionary People's Army" in Spain is incredible. Looking at its suggestions on this matter surely shows that the CNT's "revolutionary militias" were a close approximation to what was desired. Given the similarities between the CNT militias and the Makhnovist movement, I am surprised that anyone could claim otherwise. Fourthly, the whole "dual power" article seems flawed. After all, Lenin and Trotsky were simply describing situations that arose in the process of class struggle. As such, it is not about "how to create a set of institutions that can pull the allegiance of the governed away from the existing state" (as Lawrence Jarach states) but rather institutions which the governed create themselves to counter the power of the existing state. That the Bolsheviks used the soviets to seize power should not blind us to their origins and initial function as a strike committee created in 1905 to co-ordinate struggle against the Tsarist state. Significantly, anarchist support for the soviets as both a means of fighting the state/capital and as the framework of a socialist society predates Bolshevik lip-service to this idea by twelve years (and can be traced back to Bakunin, even Proudhon). As such, the idea of "anarchist dual power" (if you want to use that term) simply means the idea that the embryo of the new world must be created while fighting the current one. Rather than signify a desire for "loyalty" to "a state-in- formation" it means encouraging organs of self-management by which the oppressed exercise their autonomy and restrict the power of boss and government until such time as they can abolish both. Kropotkin expressed this idea as follows in 1909: "To make a revolution it is not . . . enough that there should be . . . [popular] risings . . . It is necessary that after the risings there should be something new in the institutions [that make up society], which would permit new forms of life to be elaborated and established." That the Bolsheviks used such organs to take power does not mean we should eschew support for them. Quite the reverse, as such bodies are the only means by which working class people can manage their own affairs directly. The task of anarchists is, in part, to stop vanguards turning these bodies into hierarchical institutions, into the structures of a new state. So the idea of building "societies of resistance" within capitalism is an old one within anarchism, one which predates the birth of Lenin and Trotsky (never mind their descriptive expression "dual power"). Fifthly, it seems to me that the only people who take the Platform as a bible are the anti-Platformists. All the Platformists I have met argue that they see the Platform as a flawed guide, not a blueprint. No "Platformist" I know subscribes to the organisational schema outlined in it. The principles of federalism, tactical and theoretical unity, and so on are generally supported, of course, but the system of secretariats is not applied. Even "tactical and theoretical unity" is generally used to signify co- operation and sticking by collective decisions once they have been made. As such, to attack the Platform without considering how it is applied seems a pointless task. It smacks more of an ideological approach than a theoretical one. Perhaps, as argued in reply to a letter, it would make more sense for the Platformists to call themselves neo- Platformists to avoid confusion on this matter but, then again, perhaps the "post-left" anarchists could take this as read and move onto concrete critiques of current Platformist ideas and practice? Finally, on a totally different subject, I would like to make a few comments on (I)An-ok Ta Chai's letter calling for unity between anarchists and "right anarchists." As there is no such thing as "right anarchists" it would be impossible to work with them. By "right anarchists" I assume it is meant right-wing libertarian capitalists who falsely call themselves anarchists. Given that these people are in favour of private police, property (and so theft), obedience (to private power by wage slaves), private rulers and have blind faith in both private property and the capitalist market, it seems that they and anarchists do not, in fact, share much in common in terms of what we are against. In terms of what we are for, they are against free association, free speech, autonomy, and independent thought if the property owner so decrees. They may be against state power, but they are in total favour of private power and the means of defending it (e.g. by means of private police). I think its obvious that little in common and we should resist their attempts to appropriate the anarchist name for their authoritarian ideology. Ultimately, I feel that the whole "post-left" argument is flawed simply because anarchism already rejects everything which is labelled "leftist" by Anarchy contributors. It seems to me a case of semantics, over which much pointless arguing past each other will result. I also find it strange to see anarchists influenced by Platformism arguing for diversity of tactics and organisation while "post-left" anarchists denounce all those who organise and act in non- approved ways as "workerists," "organisationalists" and "leftists." But in these times I've come to expect such strangeness. Hopefully comrades in North America will realise that the mistakes made by a real revolutionary movement will always be more important than a thousand articles. After all, only practice will see who is right. Sadly Anarchy's contributors singularly failed to appreciate that many anarchists are influenced by the Platform precisely because of their negative experiences of current forms of anarchist organising and activity. If some anarchists are organising into a specific organisation (and I think it is good that they are) then, surely, this is due the failure of the "anti-organisationalism" which seems to dominate North American anarchism. I hope that anarchists everywhere will avoid the problems of both "anti-organisationalism" and Platformism and embrace a truly anarchist approach to organising together to spread our ideas within the struggle against hierarchy in order to turn it into a struggle for freedom. Reading Malatesta's critique of the Platform would be a good first step. Yours in solidarity Iain
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