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Title: Leninism and Anarchism Author: James Hutchings Language: en Topics: Australia, EZLN, Leninism, marxism, Trotskyism, vanguard Source: Retrieved on January 1, 2005 from http://www.cat.org.au Notes: This article has some specifically Australian references. Also, people might take issue with my description of the Zapatsitas as anarchist-inspired.
There are two kinds of revolutionary socialism: Leninism or Trotskyism,
and anarchism. Leninists believe in forming a “vanguard party”, of the
most “advanced” sections of the people. The idea is that the vanguard
will lead the workers to revolution, and take power in their name,
setting up a “workers’ State”, which will “wither away” over time. But
anarchists say that no one should take power. Any workers’ State would
turn into another tyranny, as in Russia. Instead, we should abolish
inequality directly. Anarchists are against any inequality in
revolutionary groups — no Branch Committees, National Secretaries etc.
Everyone should have an equal say in the group. Anarchists see
revolution as being led not by a vanguard party but by the workers
themselves. An anarchist’s job is encouraging and helping to defend a
revolution — not running it. Some examples of anarchist-oriented groups
are: the I.W.W. (a revolutionary union), the CNT in the Spanish
Revolution (still a major union bloc in Spain), and the Situationists,
influential in the May ’68 uprising in Paris. Today, the Mexican
Zapatistas are the best-known anarchist-inspired group. The most common
arguments against anarchism are as follows.
Anarchists are Racist, Sexist etc: Leninists usually “prove” this by
finding a quote from Bakunin or Kropotkin (major anarchist writers).
Neither Bakunin nor Kropotkin were anarchists all their life. Bakunin
started out as a Slavic nationalist. So, there are heaps of quotes which
“prove” that anarchists are nationalists. Also, anarchists aren’t
“Bakuninists” or “Kropotkinists”. Anarchist ideas come from all sorts of
people (including Marx). Anarchists don’t say Bakunin or Kropotkin had
it all right: we agree with them on some things and not on others.
People should work out their own ideas, not follow anyone — Bakunin,
Marx or Trotsky.
Anarchists Ignore the Differences Between Trotsky and Stalin: In 1921,
the workers of Kronstadt rose up against the Bolsheviks, demanding an
end to the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks, freedom of speech for all
revolutionary socialists, and so on. They voted to share their rations
equally (the Bolsheviks had a system of different grades of ration).
Trotsky ordered the Red Army to “shoot them down like partridges”. The
Red Army went into battle with guns at their back, for fear that they
would change sides. Trotsky and Lenin said the uprising was a Tsarist
plot! Trotsky also believed that the government should conscript people
to work gangs — in “Terrorism and Communism”, he wrote that compulsory
labour was “quite unquestionable”. He also believed in revolutionary
groups based on “the leadership’s organised distrust of the members,
manifesting itself in vigilant control, from above, of the party”
(quoted in Deutscher’s “The Prophet Armed”).
What’s a revolution meant to do — free workers, or shoot them for going
against a dictatorship?
Anarchism is Utopian, Leninism is Scientific: This is a quote from
Bakunin, made in the 1870s — “But, the Marxists say, this minority [the
government of the “workers’ State”] will consist of workers. Yes indeed,
but of ex-workers who...cease to be workers. And from the heights of the
State they begin to look down upon the whole common world of the
workers. From that time on they represent not the people but themselves”
(from “Statism and Anarchy”).
Isn’t that what happened? It’s utopian to expect a few people to have so
much power and not end up with a tyranny.
Anarchism is “Petty Bourgeois”: Were the I.W.W “petty bourgeois”? What
about the Spanish Revolution? It’s not bourgeois to want freedom,
despite Lenin’s claim that “freedom is a bourgeois prejudice”.
Anarchism is Disorganised: Recently, we brought out the anarchist and
ex-Black Panther Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin on a speaking tour. We held all
the talks scheduled, plus some extra ones, even though the government
arrested, bashed, and tried to deport him. We wouldn’t have been able to
do that if we were disorganised. Actually, anarchist groups can be more
organised. You don’t get the same kind of power struggles, splits and
expulsions that characterise Leninist groups. None of us are any
cleverer than any of you. We don’t need a Branch Committee to organise —
neither do you.
What about you? Do you think that freedom is bourgeois? Do you think
that Bakunin’s prediction came true? Do you find that everyone has an
equal say in your group, or are there leaders and followers? Is your
group open and democratic, or do they kick anyone out who questions the
party line? And who sets the party line anyway? If we can organise
without a National Committee, why can’t you? It doesn’t matter what you
call yourself — anarchist, socialist, communist or whatever. What
matters is the ideas, not the labels. If you agree with what I’ve said,
or some of it — are you on the right side?