Actually to be more accurate the thinking space opened up by the SWP implosion is going towards ‘Soviets without Bolshevik parties’ not soviets without Bolsheviks.People are no longer seeking ‘unity’ on the basis of all the trot groups coming together but on the basis of all those in the Outside Left comig together without the parties. In my opinion anarchists need to get involved with the Outside Left debate right away on a fraternal basis – time for all you cynics already sneering the same old stuff to give it a go – I can’t recall such an opprtunity before. There’s a good post from Mark perrymsan on the socialist unity site called ‘I’ll cry if I want to’ well worth a look:
‘In an earlier post, Crawling From The Wreckage, I suggested that in the process of mapping out a space for the Outside Left it is vital to find the means to have an honest and open account of the journey which has take so many of us outside the organised Left, or the experiences which explained why we never attracted to being a part a closed membership organisation to define our politics at all’
Comrade anarchists – we have nothing to lose but our purity. Give it a go. Or…..more of the same old?
“the same old stuff” means the same pattern keeps repeating itself.
It’s always been tempting for Anarchists to agree to work with Left Wingers in order to defeat a common enemy. Things seem sensible at first but as soon as a single victory is achieved, calls for further action from Anarchists, get reframed as “oppositional”. Before you know it, the Left are setting up committees, correct forms of analysis, exclusions. and party politics.
All the way from Kropotkin’s funeral (hundreds of Anarchists were released from prison to attend) to Castro’s incarceration of Anarchists the “same old stuff” keeps on repeating itself. We don’t need to hang onto the coat tails of a Left Wing desperate to find a voice.
Most anarchists I know are fairly happy to ‘give it a go’ with any willing partner..
In my (limited) experience it’s not really about sectarian resistance. Most of us work with everybody, from people in the workplace to quakers, peace activists, trots and ex trots, Jesuits and junkies.
The problems usually begin when ‘left’ groups try to set up and dominate steering groups, attempt to push things in the direction of the Labour party, and waste time pushing for TUC resolutions, lobbying MPs, etc.
We need to honest debate about the role of the ‘organised left’ in domesticating dissent and ensuring resistance is shoved into harmless, respectable channels.
I call myself an anarchist or probably better, a libertarian socialist, but I don’t think I’ve ever read any Kropotkin, and you know what. Who cares? My politics isn’t about I’m better at my corner so fuck everyone else, it’s about making life better for my class, whether by creatin an anarchist utopia (not gonna happen) or fighting for better welfare, working conditions, less unfairness in society and more freedoms. If we try and fail then what have we lost? I’m sick of left politics that obsessed with dead Russians and I’m fucking political! Think how dreary, boring and off putting that shit is to your average working class lad or lass. No wonder in some areas the BNP and fucking UKIP are taking working class votes, who wants to vote Labour and the rest of us just look like middle class intellectuals who don’t know fuck all of real life. It’s time we threw our all in with a wide arching populist left group. Who cares if its not Bakuninist enough or whatever, a long as its doing better for our class than what were doing at the moment. I.e. fuck all.
Well said N A.
SWPers looking for an alternative, without the usual bureaucratic baggage; it sounds too good to be true! So, yes, an opportunity not to be missed and a chance to build some links and maybe even win some victories.
BUT anarchist should go into it with their eyes wide open. Before putting any rose-tinted optimism glasses on, think carefully about what basic characteristics an organisation would have to have to be worth putting energy into – and then argue for those principles. Won’t be easy working with folks used to an entirely different organising model and culture.
Any organisation, or form of organisation, is only a tool towards radical social change. So even as we get involved in building the latest “left unity” group we shouldn’t get too attached to it. At every stage we should be asking ourselves: is this still worth putting energy into, or could we acheive more elsewhere?
There will be folks who want to put energy into this project, and others that don’t. Which is perfect, because we need both. Putting all the eggs in one basket is a recipe for disaster. We need many baskets.
What we don’t need is calling each other names; it isn’t only purism that makes anarchists avoid working with Trots and institutional leftists – it’s sometimes a result of previous bitter experiences!
Which isn’t to say that this project isn’t different – maybe it is – but only to say that those who are more cynical deserve a bit more respect and not just to be dismissed as purists.