Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism (Counter-Power vol 1)

409 Pages·2009·4.84 MB·English

by  Lucien van der Walt

Black Flame

Black Flame
The Revolutionary
Class Politics of
Anarchism and
Syndicalism
Lucien van der Walt
and
Michael Schmidt
Counterpower Volume 1
Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism
by Lucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt
ISBN 978 1 904859 16 1
Library of Congress Number: 2006933558
©2009 Lucien van der Walt and Michael Schmidt
This edition ©2009 AK Press
Cover Design: Vincent Chung
Layout: JR
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The production of this book was made possible in part by a generous donation from the
Anarchist Archives Project.
Printed in Canada on 100% recycled, acid-free paper by union labor.
Don t let anyone tell us that we—but a small band—are
too weak to attain unto the magnificent end at which we aim.
Count and see how many there are who suffer this injustice.
We peasants who work for others, and who mumble the
straw while our master eats the wheat, we by ourselves are
millions.
We workers who weave silks and velvet in order that we
may be clothed in rags, we, too, are a great multitude; and
when the clang of the factories permits us a moments re­
pose, we overflow the streets and squares like the sea in a
spring tide.
We soldiers who are driven along to the word of com­
mand, or by blows, we who receive the bullets for which our
officers get crosses and pensions, we, too, poor fools who have
hitherto known no better than to shoot our brothers, why we
have only to make a right about face towards these plumed
and decorated personages who are so good as to command
us, to see a ghastly pallor overspread their faces.
Aye, all of us together, we who suffer and are insulted
daily, we are a multitude whom no one can number, we are
the ocean that can embrace and swallow up all else. When
we have but the will to do it, that very moment will justice
be done: that very instant the tyrants of the earth shall bite
the dust.
Pyotr Kropotkin, aAn Appeal to the Young," 1880

Contents
Preface, by Stuart Christie 1
Acknowledgments 3
Chapter 1 Introduction 5
Our Project 8
Beyond Capitalism: History, Neoliberalism, and Globalisation 9
Rethinking the Broad Anarchist Tradition 14
Social Base and Global Reach 15
What Is the Broad Anarchist Tradition? 19
Insurrectionist Anarchism, Mass Anarchism, and Syndicalism 20
Organisational Dualism 22
War, Gender Issues, and Anti-Imperialism 23
Anarchism and Marxism 24
Before We Start 26
Part 1 Theory and Analysis
Chapter 2 Socialism from Below: Defining
Anarchism 33
The Meaning of Anarchism: Debating the Literature 34
The Need for a New Approach 41
Starting Again: Socialism, Bakunin, and the First International 44
Against Hierarchy 47
Against Capitalism and Landlordism 48
Against the State 52
The Rejection of State Socialism 54
Elements of the Social Revolution 56
The Popular Classes 56
Internationalism, Social Equality, and Anti-imperialism 60
Counterpower and Counterculture 65
For a New World 67
Crime and Social Order 69
Anarchism Redefined: Socialism, Class, and Democracy 71
In Conclusion: The Modernity of Anarchism 72
Chapter 3 Proudhon, Marx, and Anarchist Social
Analysis 83
Cooperatives, Proudhon, and Peaceful Change 83
A Critical Appropriation of Marxist Economics 85
Marxist Economics and Anarchist Communism 87
History, Progress, and the State 92
The Vanguard and the State 98
State Capitalism and Libertarian Socialism 100
Economic Determinism and the Broad Anarchist Tradition 105
The Anarchist Understanding of Class 108
In Conclusion: Toward an Anarchist Social Analysis 113
Part 2 Strategy and Tactics
Chapter 4 Roads to Revolution: Mass Anarchism versus
Insurrectionist Anarchism 123
Anarchist Communism versus Anarcho-syndicalism? 124
The Insurrectionist Tradition 128
Mass Anarchism, Possibilism, and Syndicalism 133
Syndicalism: Prefiguring the Future in the Present 133
Against Economism: Direct Action versus "Political Action' 138
Anarcho-syndicalism, Revolutionary Syndicalism, and
De Leonism 142
In Conclusion: Building Tomorrow Today 143
Chapter 5 Anarchism, Syndicalism, the IWW, and
Labour 149
Bakunin, Sorel, and the Origins of Syndicalism 149
The First International and the First Syndicalists 153
The First Wave: Syndicalism before the French CGT 155
The IWW and Syndicalism 159
De Leon and Connolly 160
The "Glorious Period" of the mid-1890s to mid-1920s 164
In Conclusion: Syndicalism and the Broad Anarchist Tradition 170
Chapter 6 Ideas, Structure, and Armed Action: Unions,
Politics, and the Revolution 181
Union Activism, Anarchist Ideology, and Union Bureaucracy 181
Mass Anarchism, Radical Counterculture, and Syndicalism 183
Anarchist Schools and Syndicalist Education 186
Democracy and Direct Action 187
An Iron Law of Oligarchy? 188
Alliances and the Struggle outside the Workplace 190
Defending the Revolution 193
The Question of Power and the Spanish Revolution 198
In Conclusion: Anarchism, Syndicalism, and Counterpower 202
Chapter 7 Dual Unionism, Reforms, and Other Tactical
Debates 211
The Antimilitarist Tradition and Popular Revolt 211
Reforms, Laws, and Compromises 218
Boring from Within and Dual Unionism 224
Tactics in Context and Organisational Dualism 228
Syndicalism and Rank-and-file Movements 231
In Conclusion: Reform and Revolution 233
Chapter 8 Militant Minority: The Question of Anarchist
Political Organisation 239
Insurrectionist Anarchists, Antiorganisationalism, and Stirner's
Ghost 240
Syndicalism and Anarchism without Adjectives 242
Bakuninism, the Organisation of Tendency, and the "Platform" 247
From Bakunin to the "Platform" 253
Rethinking the "Platform" Debate 256
Other Responses to the "Platform" 257
In Conclusion: Militant Minority and Mass Movement 263