Do Anarchists Ignore Political Struggle? | Anarchism 101

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Sources:
Marx and Engels, Marx and Engels Collected Works Volume 43 (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1988), 490-1
Marx and Engels, Marx and Engels Collected Works Volume 44 (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1989), 331.
Bakunin, Selected Texts 1868-1875 (Anarres Editions, 2016), 22, 52-3, 225, 226, 238-9.
Bakunin, The Political Philosophy of Bakunin: Scientific Anarchism (The Free Press of Glencoe, 1964), 313.
Berthier, Social Democracy and Anarchism in the International Workers' Association 1864-1877 (Anarres Editions, 2012), 59.
Malatesta, A Long and Patient Work: The Anarchist Socialism of L'Agitazione 1897-1898 (AK Press, 2016), 20-1.
Malatesta, Life and Ideas: The Anarchist Writings of Errico Malatesta (PM Press, 2015), 183-4.
Kropotkin, Direct Struggle Against Capital: A Peter Kropotkin Anthology (AK Press, 2014), 535, 184.
Kropotkin, Modern Science and Anarchy (AK Press, 2018), 164.
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2 авг 2024

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Комментарии : 57

@anarchozoe 5 лет назад

If you liked this video and want to hear more bits of my PhD watch Anarchism 101: What is a Social Revolution? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xJwQaXKUCuQ.html Anarchism 101: Evolution vs Revolution ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cHnAMrBjIco.html

@zeroclout6306 5 лет назад

You're producing the most hard hitting historical work on what anarchism is that I've ever seen and tbh it's an under appreciated contribution to the world of anarchism. You're the first place I send any new serious anarchist with questions about the history of the movement. Thank you for all the work comrade.

@anarchozoe 5 лет назад

Thanks for your nice words.

@zeroclout6306 5 лет назад

I should add hard hitting and *succinct.

@abbanjo13 5 лет назад

I wonder if Marx and Bakunin had been a bit more generous in their readings of each other's ideas, would the classic divisions between Marxism and Anarchism even exist?

@anarchozoe 5 лет назад

I have often fantasized about this.

@nickd5854 2 года назад

i'm a marxist leninist myself and i really don't get all the infighting. we are on the same side

@abbanjo13 2 года назад

@@nickd5854 well I think between leninism and anarchism there are some clear disagreements. Leninism is a specific reading of Marx and there are some aspects that anarchists fundementally disagree with. This is aside from the history of leninist and stalinist repression if anarchist and anarchist adjacent worker's movements. Since watching this video I've read a bit of Guerin and I think he's right in understanding the ambivalence in Marx on the question of the state as the prerequisite for Lenin to reinterpret it in a kind of jacobin way. So yeah I don't think leninism will ever be a mass movement again, because it emerged out of a very specific context, and I don't think it will ever bridge the divide between it and anarchism. That said I think some movements like what we see in Rojava, Brazil and Chiapas blend anarchist, marxist and leninist practice in interesting and new ways while creating new low theory.

@knowledgeanddefense1054 5 месяцев назад

@@abbanjo13 Anarchism and marxism sure, but where are you seeing leninism in those projects? At most they started out leninist and then were like "screw all that crap"

@SomeRandomG33k 5 лет назад

Finding all of those hard to find obscure sources and text of Anarchism thought and compiling thoughts in such a way is invaluable work. Thank you for making this video and for your work.

@Nirmav_Nirmav 5 лет назад

Thank you, this video is really useful for me to show people how anarchism is not as directionless as some authoritarian socialists would make it seem.

@dmunoz9132 5 лет назад

I just bought a shitload of books so I can make my own anarchist youtube channel (not using this account). You inspired me to do it.

@thevoiceofthelost 5 лет назад

We could always use more of those, comrade!

@hassankhan-jg1dx 4 года назад

What channel is it?

@standowner6979 Год назад

Could you give us the name of the channel? I, at least, am very interested.

@enfercesttout 5 лет назад

I am with Kropotkin in this one.

@anarchozoe 5 лет назад

Me too

@tigerstyle4505 5 лет назад

This is a misconception I hear all the time, especially from leftists. Then I have to go through the process of sending links to anarchist essays advocating voting and too many quotes on other forms of political struggle advocated by anarchists to list. They act like we ignore the problem or immediate suffering that may be eased via policy. Gets mad old.

@iamnohere Год назад

_Spread the bread, comrade!_

@nakhashvt 5 лет назад

Great video 🖤❤️

@MutualAidWorks 5 лет назад

Another great video, thankyou.

@ecc9827 5 лет назад

You consistently put out well read, well researched, and insightful videos (as opposed to my un-theory’d ass). I always look forward to your uploads, and always hold you as an example of an anarchist who has read a lot of shit and maintains their anarchism (contrary to ML propaganda).

@crisoliveira2644 5 лет назад

Bakunin would have helped a tad more if he didn't use contradictory language in some points. In FSA, he stated that only through socialism it was possible for "good politics" to be done. Was it possible that he believed that "the end of politics" meant it not literally disappearing, but it becoming so intertwined with the daily lives of every member of the communities, that it would make no sense to talk about politics as something distinct from everything else? PS: Please, open subtitles to community contribution so I can translate your video to Brazilian Portuguese, please.

@standowner6979 Год назад

Concordo

@lbzera 5 лет назад

Great video! I will definetely take a look at anarchists', especially Bakunin's, reflections on political struggle. As someone who, like you, is a left-wing academic, but a marxist one, I'd like to say that, if it is true that Marx and Engels misrepresented Bakunin's political views, the opposite is also true. My research is on the marxian category of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and I am studying Bakunin's critique of Marx's views on the state, especially on his 'Statism and anarchy'. Bakunin's commentaries on Marx are just as problematic as Marx's commentaries on him mentioned by you in your video.

@anarchozoe 5 лет назад

I agree that Bakunin misrepresents Marx. Been wanting to make a video about this for a while. Bakunin was convinced that Marx's views on strategy remained those in the communist manifesto. He disregarded Marx's writings on the paris commune because he thought Marx was just pretending that he liked the commune because it was popular.

@lbzera 5 лет назад

@@anarchozoe Yes. Also, from what I've understood, Bakunin thought the strategies from the manifesto meant that Marx saw the state as the finality of the revolution, which even then was not the case. Because of this, he says that Marx' ideas are the same as Ferdinand Lassale's, who really was a statist. Bakunin uses as evidence the alliance between marxists and lassallians in Germany. This is the very reason Marx writes his 'Critique of the gotha program', in which he tackles the lassallian influence on the german social democratic party, and intends to show his distance from lassallian socialism.

@anarchozoe 5 лет назад

Agreed on Bakunin wrongly conflating Marx with Lassale. Bakunin was aware that Marx's state was meant to be a transitionary institution. In statism and anarchy he writes that although state socialists claim that “this state yoke, this dictatorship, is a necessary transitional device for achieving the total liberation of the people; anarchy, or freedom, is the goal, and the state, or directorship the means”, they ignore that “no dictatorship can have any other objective than to perpetuate itself, and that it can engender and nurture only slavery in the people who endure it.” (p179)

@lbzera 5 лет назад

@@anarchozoe There is a response from Marx to this in a text called 'Marginal notes on Bakunin's Statism and anarchy', which Marx, however, did not publish, and which was only published after his death. However, we'd be no longer talking about the misrepresentations of both thinkers, but about what they actually stood for, as it would be a debate about their views on the relations between economy and politics

@bigmistqke 4 года назад

The state as an intermediary towards anarchy sounds like such a weird contraption to me. I really don't understand the logic in that.

@matheuscruz2395 5 лет назад

i hope the day your videos are gonna be subtitled. i can read english well and write it decently, but unfortunately my listings skills are quite shitty

@anarchozoe 5 лет назад

This is why I usually publish my video scripts on my blog but with stuff from PhD I can't do this.

@toastybowl 5 лет назад

This is really great content. It would help me out if you could put quotes and citations on screen or put some kind of title cards or illustrations to logically separate what's going on here, as well as up the "radio voice". It can be tough to consume this with any amount of divided attention or jump back to particular sections. But, I understand that takes a lot more time in editing.

@attentatdefecitdisorder4348 5 лет назад

Excellent.

@tanok111 5 лет назад

Neat

@lightningfirst689 Год назад

Not having watched the video yet, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say the answer is no, they don't.

@isakimani 5 лет назад

It would be really interesting to see you discuss this stuff with a Marxist. Do you think you or anyone you know could make this happen? Have you come in contact with anyone who is willing to debate you on these issues? Your videos are great, of course, but I think that discussing these things publicly would be good. Both to clear up misunderstandings between statists and anarchists and to promote unity despite our differences.

@anarchozoe 5 лет назад

I'm going on revolutionary left radio soon to have a friendly discussion about anarchism revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/

@voltairinekropotkin5581 5 лет назад

Roy Samuel Reid What "unity"? Anarchists and statists have absolutely nothing to unite over. Any more than capitalists and anti-capitalists. The very idea is laughable.

@lightarmanov6266 5 лет назад

Damn your doing a PhD, will I be able to read it when it is done? Ie will it be published?

@anarchozoe 5 лет назад

It will be published as a book. Gonna have to wait a year or two for that.

@banessuperbrutalmetalfunti2561 5 лет назад

Will it be available in print or digital only? I understand if it's too early to be asking, but ya know.

@standowner6979 Год назад

@@anarchozoe have you published it yet?

@helloInternets 5 лет назад

Yeet.

@guyoflife 4 года назад

Algorithm.

@alexisgoetcherian867 3 года назад

I see your point, but my understanding of Marx and later Lenin is that they participate in electoral bougie politics under the banner of a communist party to spread their message through that avenue as well as others, as I don't think any Marxist or Communist at the time anyway ever advocated for purely fighting within the current system of power. Once they would be elected into office they would most effectively manage to show how attempts at reforming the system are futile and in that prove the necessity of a revolution. Now I'm not saying I agree with this thinking, but the thought never was to stay on electoralism, neither to even just do that. The struggle Marx lays out not only advocates for such actions, but for trade union movements to simultaneously fight alongside this political struggle inside established institutions. You could effectively argue against this approach of course, I just feel like you are not giving the Marxist approach enough credit, as I believe then as now many working class people do believe in electoralism and the current political system to be able to take care of them. As misguided as that thought might be, I do believe that many if not most working class people still believe this and by just talking about how such politics don't work, what better way to disprove the myth of capitalist elections than to get elected through a party made up by the working people to then see first hand how they get blocked every step of the way. I'm afraid I am a bit too lazy to find the sources, but comrade Hakim made a video responding to Vaush where he mentions these texts. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NX9_kXYMSck.html

@johnmccrae2932 3 года назад

I think the anarchist idea is that, as trade unionism builds class consciousness in the workers, the less radical wings of them will start voting for social democratic parties, but will soon see the futility of this and join the more radical ones (so quite similar to Lenin). The only difference is that they realise that they only have so much time and energy to spend, so choose not to waste it on engaging with electoralism, thinking that the process as mentioned above would happen without a need for interference if they were successful in building up strong unions and dual power. Many early anarchist groups (including what later became known as the Jura Federation) tried to achieve their ends through campaigning for workers' parties, but eventually found focusing all of their efforts on direct action to be more effective (around the time they met with Bakunin, who had come to this conclusion independently).

@alexisgoetcherian867 3 года назад

@@johnmccrae2932 Yeah I see that, but I think I do disagree somewhat with that approach. My main issue with this is that social democratic parties inherently believe that they can change the system from the inside. By having people follow them they run the danger of believing in their wrong ideas of changing the system from the inside. I don't think I see the fact that engaging in electoralism is necessarily a waste of energy (although I suppose this does depend from case to case). I believe it isn't a waste of energy because a communist party engaging in electoralism also has the potential of appealing to broader audiences and spreading revolutionary ideas through an additional avenue. Even if there is no chance of winning, standing a party run by workers and unions that is democratically controlled might very well be another way of creating class consciousness. But please tell me if you disagree and how.

@johnmccrae2932 3 года назад

@@alexisgoetcherian867 I completely agree about socdems. I think their only real use is the fact that, if they were to get elected, their incompetence would quickly show those who voted for them that unilateral change is necessary. However, I think that communist parties/anarchist federations would be spending their time more wisely by working to build dual power and organise civil disobedience rather than by campaigning in an election themselves. Governmental officials have come to represent nothing but betrayal in the eyes of most working people, and by providing them solutions outside of that framework, making progress will be significantly easier. Again, it's less about electoralism being completely futile and more about there only being so much time in which any one person can protest, and that direct action is probably the superior way of spending it. That's just my opinion though. What do you think?

@johnmccrae2932 3 года назад

@@alexisgoetcherian867 To be clear though, I absolutely see your point. I think Marxists and anarchists have much more in common than not, and having these conversations is key to helping us find the kind of compromise which will best help the cause of human emancipation.

@alexisgoetcherian867 3 года назад

@@johnmccrae2932 Yeah I see what you mean but I think that we just have a disagreement in the usefulness of campaigning in the electoral system I think. My issue mainly being that I think that a lot of working class people are sadly still disillusioned by the electoral system and therefore having a communist party/ anarchist federation stand candidates and release a program would be more helpful than creating disobedience as I also think that as unfortunate as it might be a lot of acts of disobedience or direct actions will be twisted and used against the people behind them. For example look at the Black Panthers who I think without a doubt did great work on the ground feeding people and creating community defence forces but in the eyes of the mostly white public who had really no clue how the life of a black person was like back then and why these radical actions where necessary would have probably just given up on that movement then and there. Mind you I am talking about a liberal working class person of course but non the less I believe that these people are somewhat necessary to convince and I believe that the approach of standing candidates and having a party engaging in electoralism could help with this situation somewhat. But quite honestly I do believe that in many cases energy is better spent doing direct actions, as in my example I think the black panthers would have been making a terrible mistake to first concentrate on electoralism and then direct action. But I do believe that for parties and organisations that can support both avenues of struggle should pursue both of them.