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Title: Anarchy Against Unity
Author: Isa Marjan
Date: March 2020
Language: en
Topics: anti-fascism, fascism, leftism, post-left, the left
Source: Retrieved from  *Lewaniaan I*, pg. 44-48. lewaniaan.com

Isa Marjan

Anarchy Against Unity

1. The left-wing of ideology obfuscates as much as its right-wing

counterpart.[1]

The left operates according to a calcified logic that veils the nature

of the social order around us. Regarding anti-fascism, this confusion

manifests within the context of a false dichotomy imagined between

fascism and democracy. The master plan is that anti-fascism must

function immediately as a means of restoring capitalism to its more

“human” state, demonstrable trajectories of fascism as an outgrowth of

liberalism be damned. Other instances of muddled theory include

reductive frameworks that posit class as the sole site of struggle, the

obsession with consciousness raising, and an unyielding faith in the

democratic principle.

2a. Leftist mystification is reflected concretely in its organizational

efforts.

In the real world, leftist organizations approach anti-fascism through

certain avenues. The theoretical defense of democracy for instance means

many leftists stand readily available to fight alongside the bourgeois

state. The poverty of the struggle when conceived in such ways has been

noted by those on the margins of both anarchist and Marxist groupings.

Such figures rightly saw this anti-fascism as simply being the politics

of the Popular Front, and all the failures associated with it: class

collaboration, betrayal, and defeat (often in this order).

At the same time, the emphasis on consciousness has leftists squander

valuable time, energies, and material resources attempting to convert

reactionaries to their “side.” Never is it asked if those from the

far-right have anything to offer in the first place, as converted

leftists or otherwise.

More generally, the naked opportunism of viewing struggles against

fascism as part of a battle for followers is worth considering as well.

Taken to its logical conclusions, one finds a practice that is as

amusing as it is repulsive. Next to anarchist efforts to arm Black

individuals against racist militias in the disaster zone of post-Katrina

Louisiana, members of the now-defunct International Socialist

Organization attempted to sell their newspapers. The anarchists forced

them to leave at gunpoint.

2b. Perhaps more crucially, sections of the left uphold a politics that

is functionally indistinguishable from fascism itself.

If fascism is understood as a specific historical phase of capitalist

development, then nothing, excluding a handful of European societies

during the early to mid-twentieth century, can be classified as such. If

fascism is, however, conceptualized as a broader category of setups

where a modern capitalist state attempts to establish control over a

disintegrating order, in the process creating a highly regimented

society, fostering a militant nationalism and cult of personality,

eliminating segments of the population, and destroying space for even a

farcical opposition, then certainly many leftist programs were fascist.

Any differences would have seemed largely academic to the millions of

proletarians worked to death, minorities dispossessed and subjected to

genocide, or queers brutalized in the gulags.

3. Appeals to expedience are discredited by the near-zero influence the

left wields as a political force.

Many who would like to disregard the divisions outlined above hold there

to be an urgent need for leftist contributions in the fight against

fascism. Such an appeal to realism ignores the very real fact that

politically and in terms of combat capabilities, the left forms an

utterly insignificant configuration today. Though scattered groups of

Marxist-Leninists, Trotskyists, and anarcho-syndicalists in the milieu

feature prominently in “radical spaces” and the academy, it remains that

in terms of boots on the ground, they are at best useless and at worst a

hindrance due to their active alienation of everyone who is not already

a committed believer.

Distant are the days when the unions and communist parties were at the

very least a disruptive force to be dealt with, mobilizing millions of

working class within their social terrain. Left unity is therefore less

an expression of pragmatism than it is an idealist effort at

resurrecting long-dead beasts.

4. An alliance with the entirety of the left opens a Pandora's box of

collaboration.

Given leftist theoretical shortcomings, record of repression, and

impotence as a force on the streets, it is always worth asking advocates

of left unity, “Where are these lines drawn?” Would it also be useful to

work with White nationalists against globalization, right-libertarians

against certain functions of the state, or Salafi-Jihadis against

Western policy in the Middle-East?

As offensive as the above suggestions may seem, such esoteric games make

perfect sense within the logic of dominant anti-fascist discourse.

Beyond the endless hair-splitting at conferences, beyond the posturing

at demonstrations, beyond platitudes one may hear in a more polite

reading group, it remains that leftist opposition to fascism is as

superficial as the above groups' positions—and all would like to see

anarchists done away with the moment these very specific battles are

won.

5. Programs based on unity can only exist alongside an utter lack of

anarchist imagination.

Focusing primarily on fascism as the enemy to be defeated at all costs

forms part of a maddeningly narrow worldview. Instead of analyzing the

struggle against fascism as only one step along the way to the world one

wishes to inhabit, many on the left consider fascism and anti-fascist

efforts to be the principal contradiction today.

The divide between these orientations cannot be overstated. Whereas the

former position approaches the social relations of capital and the state

(both in their fascist and democratic forms) as obstacles that must be

removed in the process of creating anarchy, the latter presents

grappling with these systems as the social struggle in its totality.

There exists no observable desire for a freer existence beyond the

experience of a miserable struggle. It is not difficult to see how such

a perspective can leave one open to allying with those diametrically

opposed to one's beliefs.

[1] In the years following actions carried out by North American

anti-fascists from 2015-2017, many of us involved with such work felt

the need to critically reflect upon our experiences and ponder new ways

forward. This required relating our work to previous struggles as well

as aiming to destroy our role as anti-fascist militants, thereby

discovering new ways of conceptualizing attack. This short piece was

written in that context, penned originally in the summer of 2019 after

discussions I had with like-minded individuals, before being

significantly revised and reproduced in the first issue of Lewaniaan.

Any comments, questions, or critique may be sent to

lewaniaan@protonmail.com