Rethinking Anarchy: Direct Action, Autonomy, Self-Management - Softcover

Taibo, Carlos

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1849353328 ISBN 13: 9781849353328

Publisher: AK Press, 2018

Synopsis

The first book by well-known Spanish social theorist Carlos Taibo translated into English, Rethinking Anarchy is both an introduction to and in-depth interrogation of anarchism as political philosophy and political strategy. Taibo introduces the basic tenets of anarchism at the same time that he engages the debates around each, producing a book that will appeal to both beginners and readers with extensive knowledge of this insurgent political movement. Questioning “classical” anarchist thought, while refusing to reject any of it outright, Rethinking Anarchy offers a fresh and radical perspective, steeped in tradition but addressing contemporary needs.

Covering topics as varied as the nature of the State, the shortcomings of representative democracy, and how anarchism relates to feminism, environmentalism, and antimilitarism, this edition includes an epilogue that looks at the failure of recent electoral “victories” in Europe to guarantee any real form of social change.

About this title

About the Author

Automomies is an anarchist collective whose aim is to explore, imagine and thereby contribute to the creation of relations that deepen our freedom and equality. Members are based in Lisbon, Vancouver and Toronto and some were previously involved with the Anarchist Communist Federation that published the North American Anarchist and Strike!

Carlos Taibo is Professor of Political Science and Administration at the Autonomous University of Madrid. He is the author of over 30 books, in Spanish, including On Spanish Nationalism (2014), Take Power or Build Society from Below? (2015), and Collapse: Terminal Capitalism, Ecosocial Transition, Ecofascism (2016).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

We are witnessing a remarkable renewal of libertarian ideas and practices. The corresponding movements, which have often been taken for dead, demonstrate a surprising capacity of survival that is doubtless based on an inevitable fact: we are before a current of thought and action whose continuous presence can be ascertained since time immemorial. The interest in anarchism is ever greater at a moment when the word crisis resounds everywhere, accompanied by a growing awareness regarding the terminal corrosion of capitalism and the general collapse that may come with it. And it is becoming increasingly obvious that the discourse of capital—there is no alternative other than our own, they tell us—is crumbling. 

The perception of what constitutes anarchism’s virtues and flaws has been changing continuously, often notably, over the course of time, in particular over the last quarter century with the collapse of social democracy and Leninism. Many appear to have been mistaken, especially those who saw in anarchism a project completely incapable of addressing the problems of complex societies. The arguments today appear farcical; arguments that continue to be repeated, which suggest that anarchism is a worldview of the past, only imaginable—whatever these terms may mean—in the minds of simple people who inhabit backward countries. Anarchism does indeed imply the aim of restoring many of the characteristic elements of particular communities of the past, but it also involves an effort of complex understanding of the miseries of the present, venturing in favor of self-management, decommodification, and an awareness of boundaries.

None of the above should be taken to mean that libertarian thought offers answers to all our concerns. We are obliged to rethink, or to qualify, many of the concepts that we have inherited from the classics of the nineteenth century. We urgently need to adapt the anarchist thought to new realities, even more so when the problems it acknowledged a century or a century and a half ago—authoritarianism, oppression, exploitation—have in no way abated. In a sense, we find ourselves before two interrelated paradoxes. The first one reminds us that, while anarchism encounters unquestionably serious difficulties in positioning itself within the societies in which unfortunately it has been our lot to live, there seems to be a growing necessity to confront the calamities of these very same societies. The second one underscores the evident weakness of those organizations that claim an anarchist identity, in contrast to a remarkable and more general influence of the libertarian project.

It is also important to recognize the mutual invigoration that libertarian thought and movements of greater or less affinity have experienced. There we can find the examples of pacifism and antimilitarism, of movements dedicated to contesting imperialism and racism, of those engaged in the struggle against all forms of ethnocentrism, of networks dedicated to bringing an end to the exploitation and marginalization experienced by women, of organizations that defend animal rights, of vegetarianism and veganism, of those who have built counterculture, situationism, and Zapatismo, of those who have decided to confront capitalist globalization, or of those who have given priority to ecological concerns and, hence, the discussion around environmental and resource limits of the planet. Movements that have been nurtured by libertarian thought—their current state would be difficult to explain without this ascendant—and that, by contrast, have updated its perceptions, always from the boundaries of anti-capitalism, anti-statism, and anti-authoritarianism.

Many of the criticisms levelled against libertarian thought do not refer to the general meaning of the project it defends, but rather, and more precisely, to its viability. Quite frequently, a special focus is placed on its presumably utopian nature, far removed from the real possibilities that—or so we are told—human societies offer. The first response to this argument takes the form of a frank advocacy of utopia. This—say the libertarians—does not have a negative character, as Marx and Engels attributed in fact to the utopian socialists. Delving deeper, Peter Marshall states sensibly that anarchism is utopian in that it permanently imagines a world that may be, but it is at the same time very realistic to the extent that its foundations rest upon deeply rooted traditions of mutual aid. Anarchists are, in addition, very realistic, both in regard to the assessment of the existing order as well as to the proposal of the unavoidable need for a new one, for which they have outlined thorough programs based on a combination of collective action and respect for personal autonomy. As a result, they seem to deliver suggestive responses to the problems of the society of our time; responses, however, that do not come coupled with presumably realistic worldviews. If libertarian thought displays, on the one hand, an unparalleled pessimism in regard to power, it also manifests, on the other, a notable optimism concerning the possibility of reestablishing human relations marked by codes of equality and solidarity.

The libertarian world should hold on to the steadfast aim of rejecting calls for purity and self-centered group realities in favor of working with common people. It would be problematic if the discourse of contemporary anarchism were reduced to that of a closed identitarian group. Rather, it should always open itself onto popular struggles, immersed in the great flows of contestation and emancipation, in a free dialogue with other currents.

What would we gain, however, if we renounced the attempt to put anarchist ideas into practice, especially when there are ever more people who do not perceive in them—bearing in mind the consequent fear this provokes in those who govern us—a distant and incomprehensible endeavor? And does anyone seriously believe, in short, that anarchism, with its conception of the relation between means and ends, is any more utopian than social democracy or Leninism? 

There are enough reasons to conclude that the libertarian project has more weight and meaning today than ever before. In the eyes of more and more people, it seems clear that we should contest all powers, especially those enforced by the state and capitalism. We should do this, however, from the perspective of leaderless organizations where self-management and direct action are given priority, while simultaneously ascribing equal importance to the rights of women, of future generations, and of the afflicted inhabitants of the countries of the Global South. To the logic of private profit and accumulation, we should oppose the logic of solidarity, mutual aid, and self-contention, in a scenario marked by a double consciousness: that we are not without our limitations and that we are part of the very system we want to bring down.

Edition details

• Publisher: AK Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1849353328
• ISBN 13: 9781849353328
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 160