Re: AUT: (en) A call for anarchists and other left libertarianssupporting "unity" with Leninists/Trotskists

["tony taylor" <tmtaylor@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

To be even 'somewhat sectarian' is a dangerous road for the libertarian ! My
own political history is strewn with  errors and mistakes. From the early
70's through to the mid-80's I saw myself as a Trotskyist struggling against
the obscenity of Stalinism. I came across Situationism and 'Socialisme ou
Barbarie', was deeply impressed, but wasn't confident enough to escape from
the security blanket offered by Lenin and Trotsky, but I never stopped
thinking completely. I never became the absurd  generalisation proposed by
Ilam and Harald, the absolute living counter-revolutionary!

Together with a small group of comrades , brought closer by our experience
in the British Miners Strike 84/85 and our contradictory waged labour
(workers with young people employed by the capitalist State)., I've tried to
make better sense of the world and to be a revolutionary - despite the yoke
of my Leninist past. By way of the Italian, Dutch and German Communist Left,
of Voline, of Cornelius Castioradis, of Harry Cleaver, of many a chat  and
activity with anarchists and  leftists of many hues I think I'm an ageing
revolutionary heretic of some integrity.

I've no doubt that the Marxist-Leninist tradition has been an obstacle to
the self-emancipation of the working class. This does not mean that those of
us , who signed up to its dogma, are irretrievably doomed to be
counter-revolutionary scum. To argue thus is bourgeois psychological crap of
the first order. A major principle of libertarianism communism must be that
folk can reflect, be self-critical.......that they are not the prisoners of
their past: that people can change.

 In Struggle

Tony Taylor


"...the earth was not made purposely for you to be lords of it and we to be
your slaves, servants and beggars; but it was to be a common livelihood to
all, without respect of persons." (Gerrard Winstanley, Wigan, 1649)
----- Original Message -----
From: Harald Beyer-Arnesen <haraldba@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <aut-op-sy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2000 9:51 PM
Subject: Re: AUT: (en) A call for anarchists and other left
libertarianssupporting "unity" with Leninists/Trotskists


>Allow me to be somewhat "sectarian" and lend support
>to Ilan's point of view.
>
>When you defend large-scale butchering of workers and
>peasants, saying it was "historically necessary," or
>that those slaughtered were "objectively counter-
>revolutionaries," then it's not just a question of old
>history, even if that is the reference, but of a
>present state of mind, and objectively a living counter-
>revolutionary ideology.
>
>Harald
>
>
>  in solidarity,
>  Harald Beyer-Arnesen
>  haraldba@xxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
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