Writer: Anarcho

Articles by anarcho

The Spanish Revolution: Anarchy in Action

Post author By Anarcho
Post date April 10, 2020

This is a write-up of a talk I gave in Nottingham in March 2019. It is an introduction to the 1936 Spanish Revolution as well as a general introduction to the anarchist theory which inspired it. After all, you cannot see how 1936 was anarchy in action if you do not know what anarchy is. The meeting was advertised as following:

“Iain McKay takes us back to Spain in the 1930s where anarchists occupied the factories and the land, to make a revolution at the same time as fighting Franco’s fascists. And within that revolution, the women of Mujeres Libres fought also for the liberation of women.”

This is what I would like to have said, rather than what was actually said at the meeting. Hopefully the difference is not too great. It is based on section I.8 of An Anarchist FAQ.

Uncategorized

Introduction to “Direct Struggle Against Capital”

Post author By Anarcho
Post date March 25, 2020

This is the introduction to Direct Struggle Against Capital: A Peter Kropotkin Anthology (AK Press, 2014). It is a comprehensive selection of texts, many of which are translated or reprinted for the first time. As the introduction shows, Kropotkin was not some kind of anarcho-Santa but rather a revolutionary anarchist with a clear idea of what was wrong with society, how to change it and what a better world should be like. The book is still available, so please consider buying it for AK Press.

Uncategorized

The Trotskyist School of Falsification

Post author By Anarcho
Post date January 27, 2020

Most anarchists come across Victor Serge (1889-1947) at some stage, the elitist-individualist anarchist turned elitist-Bolshevik whom Leninists to this day like to invoke as “the best of the anarchists” to get libertarians to join their party (“Victor Serge: The Worst of the Anarchists,” ASR no. 61). This work by him and Natalia Sedova Trotsky, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2016), is a biography of Leon Trotsky and is of note as a good example of what could be termed The Trotskyist School of Falsification, to invoke the title of Trotsky’s 1937 work The Stalin School of Falsification. (171)

Uncategorized

Anarchism, Marxism and the lessons of the Commune

Post author By Anarcho
Post date December 15, 2019

A discussion of the Paris Commune and its legacy from an anarchist perspective, indicating how it influenced both Anarchism and Marxism. It shows that anarchism alone has learnt its lessons and that Marxism, particularly in its Leninist form, paid lip-service to it while ignoring both its actual politics and its lessons.

Uncategorized

On Anarchist Organisation

Post author By Anarcho
Post date November 16, 2019

A discussion of anarchist views on organisation, placing it within the historical context of liberalism, democracy and the labour movement. It shows that anarchists have had a firm notion of what a good organisation should be, one in which all members participate as equals rather than in a hierarchy of masters and slaves.

Uncategorized

Review: Whither Anarchism? by Kristian Williams

Post author By Anarcho
Post date November 16, 2019

In 1998 Murray Bookchin wrote a response to the critics of his Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm entitled Wither Anarchism?. Twenty years later appears a pamphlet bearing the same name and in a way covering the same issue – the state of the movement. Only the most blinkered anarchist would disagree that this is a valid question – and one we need to address even if the rest of the revolutionary left is hardly much better and without the benefit of having a viable theory.

Uncategorized

Precursors of Syndicalism IV

Post author By Anarcho
Post date October 19, 2019

In previous instalments of this series, we have discussed syndicalist ideas in the First International (Precursors of Syndicalism I), before turning to International Working People’s Association (Precursors of Syndicalism II) and communist-anarchism (Precursors of Syndicalism III). Here, we highlight anarchist-communist criticisms of revolutionary syndicalism.

Uncategorized

Precursors of Syndicalism III

Post author By Anarcho
Post date July 11, 2019

After discussing the rise of syndicalist ideas in the First International (Precursors of Syndicalism I) and then in the Chicago-based International Working People’s Association (Precursors of Syndicalism II), we now turn to debates within the European anarchist movement before the rise of revolutionary syndicalism in France. In other words, communist-anarchism in the form of its most famous thinker, Peter Kropotkin. To do so shows that the standard narrative on anarchism and syndicalism is wrong.

Uncategorized

Review: Anarchist Perspectives in Peace and War, 1900-1918

Post author By Anarcho
Post date July 11, 2019

This is the first of a series of four books which aims to outline the range and nature of libertarian organisations and views in the twentieth century. Here the author, A W Zurbrugg, discusses anarchist and syndicalist perspectives on war before and during the First World War and must be congratulated in the breath of material summarised. It is a useful reminder that libertarians were at the centre of the labour movement in much of Europe (Britain and Germany being notable exceptions) and in Latin America at this time, addressing issues with an awareness that they could actually impact on events.

Uncategorized

Anarchism, Syndicalism and Workers Councils

Post author By Anarcho
Post date June 13, 2019

This is a write-up of a talk I gave in Edinburgh in April 2019 on anarchist ideas on social change and organisation. I have used the slides I created for the talk as the basis of this write-up, although as usual I am sure this is not the same as what was said on the night but close enough. Hopefully this talk gives a useful summary of anarchist ideas on organisation and their development from the birth of anarchism to around 1920.