Anarchism/Critiques

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Against Anarchism
Fraser, Nancy
Article
2013
A critical theory of the public sphere should incorporate neo-anarchism’s best insights, while rejecting wholesale anarchism. Neo-anarchism fails to sustain the tension between fact and norm required ...
Anarchism in the Rear-view Mirror
Liam; Maximilian
Article
2014
This is not an attack on the militancy of our libertarian comrades. This text is an attempt to clarify our practices to avoid repeating the historical mistakes of the labor movement, addresses the com...
Anarchism vs. Marxism: A few notes on an old theme
Diemer, Ulli
Article
1978
Anarchist critiques of Marxism typically reveal a lack of knowledge of what Karl Marx actually wrote, resulting in sterile denunciations of a straw-man opponent.
The "Anarcho-Liberal"
Sunkara, Bhasker
Article
2011
The diversity of the global justice movement is undeniable, but to the extent its prominent intellectual voices represented broader trends, we can see the crystallization of a new type of radical that...
Bakunin vs. Marx
Diemer, Ulli
Article
1978
The anarchist-Marxist split started with Bakunin, who systematically misrepresented Marx's positions.
The Bakuninists at Work: An account of the Spanish revolt in the summer of 1873
Engels, Friedrich
Article
1873
This series of articles was written in the wake of the events in Spain during the summer of 1873, which were the culmination of the Spanish bourgeois revolution of 1868-74. Engels focused his attentio...
Black Bloc: Connexipedia Article
Article
People who engage in protests wearing black clothing and masks and engaging in property damage. The tactic was developed in the 1980s by anti-nuclear activist autonomists, and was subsequently adopted...
Conspectus of Bakunin's Statism and Anarchy
Marx, Karl
Article
1874
Marx's notes on Bakunin's recent book Statism and Anarchy.
Contemporary anarchism
Kerl, Eric
Article
2010
Contemporary anarchism has some important differences, but also a great deal of continuity, with historical anarchism. Where it focuses on building an alternative in the “interstices” of capitalism, i...
A Critique of Anarchism
Article
Like liberalism, of which it is merely a stronger version, anarchism in reality can only serve as a cloak behind which real goals and real desires can be hidden. Thus when a movement is unsure of itse...
Critique of Syndicalist Methods: Trade-Unionism to Anarcho-Syndicalism
Bonanno, Alfredo M.
Article
1975
Bonanno's 1975 meditation on the means to be used in pursuit of the anarchist project. Emphasizes the utility of unions in propagating capitalist control of industry and agriculture.
Debating how to change the world
Kerl, Eric
Article
2009
A review of Wobblies and Zapatistas, by Staughton Lynd and Andrej Grubacic.
Fictitious Splits in the International
Marx, Karl; Engels, Friedrich
Article
1872
The Fire This Time: Burning Bridges
D'Arcy, Steve; Canyon, Syrah
Article
2010
Some activists hold back from condemning tactics that are politically stupid and destructive, like the recent Ottawa arson attack by an anarchist group, because of a commitment to the doctrine of a 'd...
The Historical Failure of Anarchism
Day, Chris
Article
1996
Day examines anarchism's failure to genuinely critique itself, understand history or theory, and grasp the conditions in the world today. "Anti-capitalism doesn't do the victims of capitalism any good...
In Defense of Leninism: Anarchist Organization and Vanguardism
Article
2007
The question of what, if any, type of revolutionary organization is necessary has always been a thorny one for anarchists.
Jeremy Brecher responds
Brecher, Jeremy
Article
1973
Jeremy Brecher responds to Murray Bookchin's critical response of Brecher's review of Bookchin's book.
Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution: Volume I: State and Bureaucracy
Draper, Hal
Book
1977
A wide-ranging and thorough exposition of Marx's views on democracy.
Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution: Volume IV: Critique of Other Socialisms
Draper, Hal
Book
1990
Much of Karl Marx's most important work came out of his critique of other thinkers, including many socialists who differed significantly in their conceptions of socialism. Draper looks at these critiq...
Listen Anarchist!
Bufe, Chaz
Article
1988
Bufe criticizes many of the failings of the anarchist movement in North America, in theory and in practice.
Marx, Bakunin, and the question of authoritarianism
Adam, David
Article
2010
Marx characterized the International as "a bond of union rather than a controlling force" and considered it "the business of the International Working Men's Association to combine and generalize the s...
Marx versus Bakunin
Woods, Alan
Article
2010
Marxism vs. Anarchism Part 5: From 1848 to the Bolshevik Revolution
Seymour, Joseph
Article
1996
Seymour analyzes the syndicalist movements - which emphasized that the main obstacle to social revolution lay in the organizational weakness of the anarchist movement and the disorganization of the wo...
Marxism vs. Anarchism Part 6: 1914-1918: Imperialist War and the Realignment of the Left
Seymour, Joseph
Article
1996
The conclusion to a six part series, this article deals with how the formation of the Communist International, under the profound impact of the Russian Bolshevik Revolution, culminated the realignment...
The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions
Luxemburg, Rosa
Book
1906
Luxemburg writes that "the mass strike in Russia [in 1905] has been realised not as means of evading the political struggle of the working-class, and especially of parliamentarism, not as a means of j...
Michael Bakunin: Roots of Apocalypse
Mendel, Arthur P.
Book
1981
A Movement Without Demands?
Deseriis, Marco; Dean, Jodi
Article
2012
We claim that far from being a strength, the lack of demands reflects the weak ideological core of the movement. We also claim that demands should not be approached tactically but strategically, that ...
No Cheers For Anarchism
Berman, Sheri
Article
2015
A successful movement requires compromise, organization, and yes, even leadership, to actually get things done, none of which appeal to anarchists.
Our Generation: Volume 10 Number 1
Serial Publication (Periodical)
1974
Our Generation: Volume 11 Number 4
Serial Publication (Periodical)
Our Generation: Volume 12 Number 2
Serial Publication (Periodical)
Our Generation: Volume 17 Number 1
Roussopoulos, Dimitrios
Serial Publication (Periodical)
1985
Our Generation: Volume 18 Number 1
Roussopoulos, Dimitrios
Serial Publication (Periodical)
1986
Our Generation: Volume 18 Number 2
Roussopoulos, Dimitrios
Serial Publication (Periodical)
1987
Our Generation: Volume 22 Nomber 1 & 2
Roussopoulos, Dimitrios
Serial Publication (Periodical)
1991
The Political Is Political: In Conversation With Yasmin Nair
Warren, Rosie; Nair. Yasmin
Article
2016
An activist and writer based in Chicago, Nair is one of the founders of Against Equality, a group that was born in 2009, initially as an online archive of pieces that were critical of the gay-marriage...
The Politics of Impatience: An open letter from anarchists to the anarchist movement
Article
2010
Militancy and dramatic tactics require trust, and trust is built by humbly listening to people who have their own ideas and plans for their liberation. It is now more than ever, exactly because of the...
A post-affluence critique
Brecher, Jermey
Article
1973
Post-Scarcity Anarchism by Murray Bookchin (Ramparts Press, 1971) reviewed by Jeremy Brecher Root & Branch No. 4 (1973), pp. 7-22.
The problem of autonomism
Article
2011
Direct action is crucial to win – but it needs to be orientated to building a mass movement, through strikes, civil disobedience and occupation.
Red Menace #3: Volume 2, Number 2 - Spring 1978
Serial Publication (Periodical)
1978
A Libertarian Socialist Newsletter
Red Menace #4: Volume 3, Number 1 - Winter 1979
Serial Publication (Periodical)
1979
A Libertarian Socialist Newsletter
Review: International Socialist Review on "Contemporary Anarchism"
Wetzel, Tom
Article
The word "anarchism" is a rather vague word that covers such a wide variety of political views and approaches it is often hard to see how they have anything in common. This means it is also probably n...
Root & Branch: A Libertarian Socialist Journal, #4
Serial Publication (Periodical)
1973
The Rosa Luxemburg Reader
Luxemburg, Rosa. [Anderson, Kevin; Hudis, Peter (eds.)]
Book
2004
A definitive one-volume collection of Luxemburg's writings.
Slippery Slopes (the Anarchists in Spain)
Azaretto, Manuel
Book
1939
Written in 1939 by a member of FORU (Regional Workers Federation of Uruguay), this book — a scathing indictment of the leaders of the Spanish CNT and FAI for their “betrayal” of anarchist principles —...
Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism an Unbridgeable Chasm
Bookchin, Murray
Article
1995
For some two centuries, anarchism -- a very ecumenical body of anti-authoritarian ideas -- developed in the tension between two basically contradictory tendencies: a personalistic commitment to indivi...
Socialism and Anarchism
Morris, William
Article
1889
Morris repudiates the anarchist view that freedom from authority means the individual doing what he pleases under all circumstances. This, he says is "an absolute negation of society".
The Spanish Revolution, Past and Future: Grandeur and Poverty of Anarchism: How the Working Class Takes Over (or Doesn't), Then and Now
Goldner, Loren
Article
2013
Looking at the Spanish Revolution, arguably the richest and deepest social revolution of the twentieth century.
The Two Main Trends in Anarchism: Alternate Tendencies of Anarchism
Price, Wayne
Article
2009
The broad anarchist tradition of class struggle anarchism overlaps with libertarian interpretations of Marx.
Why Marxists Oppose Individual Terrorism
Trotksy, Leon
Article
1911
A strike, even of modest size, has social consequences: strengthening of the workers’ self-confidence, growth of the trade union, and not infrequently even an improvement in productive technology. The...

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