Thursday, October 09, 2008

A Marxist Critique of Anarchism

Two days ago in an irrelevant debate, John McCain made use a vaguely amusing simile:

"Nailing down Senator Obama's tax proposal is like nailing Jello to the wall" .

Much the same could be said of anarchism. Not the anarchy of the market system, supported by Obama & McCain Inc. (and, it has to be said, the vast majority of workers throughout the world), rather anarchy "as a general term for a group of diverse and often contradictory ideologies. All strands of anarchist thought, however, tend to see the source of human oppression and exploitation in external authority in general and the state in particular. Socialists, on the other hand, see oppression and exploitation in the social relationships of capitalism (which includes the state). There is a superficial resemblance between anarcho-communists and socialists – but it is superficial. All anarchists agree that the working class cannot (or should not) organise consciously and politically to capture state power, preferring instead either insurrection or ignoring the state.". (An A-Z Of Socialism) Much more could be said about this topic. Indeed, why not take a seat and listen to this.

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