Re: AUT: Anarchism & Conflicts

[guy debord <commie00@xxxxxxxxx>]

> The major debates in the anarchist movement have
> been, at least in the US,
> about Organization. Some anarchists would like to
> have anarchists belong
> to formal organizations with paid membership and a
> statement of
> principles. Others (seems like most) feel that it's
> best that we stick to
> small, informal groups and keep it at that.

i would actually say the opposite is true. that the
"organizationalists" (folks who, at least feel there
is some validity in some tight organization, most of
whom are not dogmatic about it) are in the majority,
but that the "anti-organizationalists" (who are, in
most cases, in spite of their own pronouncements, very
dogmatic) are more vocal. i think this stems from many
people not having the time for what is essentially an
inane arguement. and it also seems to stem from (what
seems to me to be) the majority of anarchists feeling
like both dogmatic organizationalists and dogmatic
anti-organizationalists are full of shite, and that
qualitiative change will require willed-organized,
spontaneously-organized, and individual acts of
revolt.

> There is now a lot of attacks, however, from the
> "lifestylist" branch of
> anarchism, perticularly Anarchy magazine, on
> "workerist" anarchists.  I
> think this is mostly anger over a book that Murray
> Bookchin wrote called
> "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An
> Unbridgeable Chasm"... the
> shrill denounciations are going so far as to attack
> anarcho-syndicalism,
> Noam Chomsky, and anything associated with the
> traditional anarchist
> position.  I dont know if this "post leftist"
> anarchy will catch on or if
> it will simply alienate Anarchy magazine from most
> anarchists, who dislike
> infighting.

this is a strange paragraph for me because i'm a
"class struggle anarchist" who is very influenced by
autonomist marxism, and i have a lot of sympathy for
what is being called here the "lifestyle
anarchists"... the problem being: i don't know any
"lifestyle anarchists". even anarchy magazine calls
for social revolution, fighting the capitalist system,
etc. and so even by that idiot bookchin's definition
they are "social anarchists" in all areas but one:
they are dogmatic anti-organizationalists. so what.

> There are other debates too.. anarcho-syndicalism
> vs. anarcho-communism,
> and the debate around the anarchist "Platform", but
> these are mostly
> acedemic.

hardly. the disagreement is very grounded in concrete
problems. as someone who falls on the anarchist
communist side of this debate: i am against unions
(and syndicalism) because they exist to aclimate us
into the capitalist system, etc. this is the nature of
what a union is in this society (if it is going to be
effective as a union), whether or not it's "directly
controlled by the rank-and-file".

aside from this: all unions are potentially
bureaucratic, if they are not already. look at the cnt
in 1936: not long after the revolution started they
were as bureaucratic as any union, if not worse. and
the fact that when the cnt "leadership" told the
workers to put down their gun in may 37, and that the
workers (confused and angry) did, does not bode well
for advocates of syndicalism.

i think what is often called the "councilist" or
"autonomist" approach is a lot more practical and
useful in these matters.

> In Europe, the anarcho-syndicalist movement has
> split several times over
> the issue of collaboration with the government in a
> limited way.
> It is a very difficult issue to resolve because on
> one hand, we could have
> a larger movement if we collaborated with the
> government a little and
> became more "mainstream"... but on the other hand,
> if we stuck strongl;y
> and rigidly to our principles, we could live outside
> contradiction, yet
> has a small and innefectual movement.

this is one of the basic problems with syndicalism.
part of the reason i reject it. and a larger movement
could exist without a union structure. look at
libertarian groups (anarchists, autonomists, etc.) in
other areas which are bigger (in some cases *a lot*
bigger) than the syndicalist groups in those same
areas. a movement does not have to be counted by union
membership cards.

guy
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