Sectarianism
Wotcher comrades.
I read anarchists. I also read the Marxism community.
The anarchists community is infested by a bunch of "anarcho capitalists".
My anarchist readers know that this mob are little better than fascists (see my: http://www.livejournal.com/community/anarchists/587951.html?thread=4265391#t4265391 and also http://www.livejournal.com/community/anarchists/587951.html?thread=4266927#t4266927 )
However, Marxism isn't much better. Marxism is infested by sectarian Stalinists.
Sectarianism is the irrational dismissal of other political currents, just because they have different names or labels to you. Sectarianism is a big problem.
If you're an anarchist, you're probably mostly aware of Marxists through the US ISO (or any other UK-SWP type party). The US ISO are unorthodox Trotskyists. They very avidly support workers control, and have varying (mixed and uneven, heh*) views on the party. If you're an anarchist you probably have difficulty working with US ISO types. But have you ever compared them to Stalinist style parties?
If you don't work with people you don't absolutely agree with, why are you organised at all? We have to work with people when we share a common goal or way of working. We work with Trots and Leninists in our unions: because we share the ideal of worker controlled society. We march in protests with Stalinists, Liberals and even weird Nationalists because when it comes to Peace and stopping the US war machine, we are all in agreement.
Stalinists, on the other hand, are a weird mob**. They aren't all bad. Remember: Imre Nagy was a Stalinist. Miklos Gimes was a Stalinist.*** EP Thompson was a member of a Stalinist Party. Bloody hell: Eric Hobsbawm was a Stalinist all his life, but his /Bandits!/ and also /Primitive Rebels/ rock.
But on the whole Stalinists tend to have a very, nasty, inner party life. If you think the US ISO is an internally authoritarian structure... Anyway. I'll put it down here: I'm willing to work along side Stalinists on certain projects. I'm willing to engage them in argument.
But I'm not willing to sit around being lambasted by Sectarian Stalinists, Trotskyists or Anarchists. But the absolute vacuity of Stalinist ideology makes it intolerably more boring than most.
===
* "Mixed and uneven consciousness" is an old description of Trotsky of the working class, and why not all of them join revolutionary parties.
** This is a mixed and uneven complement in Australian English.
*** Two Marxist heros of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. They died fighting for workers control. They were executed by Soviet Stalinists. Imre had even been an operative of the NKVD.
I read anarchists. I also read the Marxism community.
The anarchists community is infested by a bunch of "anarcho capitalists".
My anarchist readers know that this mob are little better than fascists (see my: http://www.livejournal.com/community/anarchists/587951.html?thread=4265391#t4265391 and also http://www.livejournal.com/community/anarchists/587951.html?thread=4266927#t4266927 )
However, Marxism isn't much better. Marxism is infested by sectarian Stalinists.
Sectarianism is the irrational dismissal of other political currents, just because they have different names or labels to you. Sectarianism is a big problem.
If you're an anarchist, you're probably mostly aware of Marxists through the US ISO (or any other UK-SWP type party). The US ISO are unorthodox Trotskyists. They very avidly support workers control, and have varying (mixed and uneven, heh*) views on the party. If you're an anarchist you probably have difficulty working with US ISO types. But have you ever compared them to Stalinist style parties?
If you don't work with people you don't absolutely agree with, why are you organised at all? We have to work with people when we share a common goal or way of working. We work with Trots and Leninists in our unions: because we share the ideal of worker controlled society. We march in protests with Stalinists, Liberals and even weird Nationalists because when it comes to Peace and stopping the US war machine, we are all in agreement.
Stalinists, on the other hand, are a weird mob**. They aren't all bad. Remember: Imre Nagy was a Stalinist. Miklos Gimes was a Stalinist.*** EP Thompson was a member of a Stalinist Party. Bloody hell: Eric Hobsbawm was a Stalinist all his life, but his /Bandits!/ and also /Primitive Rebels/ rock.
But on the whole Stalinists tend to have a very, nasty, inner party life. If you think the US ISO is an internally authoritarian structure... Anyway. I'll put it down here: I'm willing to work along side Stalinists on certain projects. I'm willing to engage them in argument.
But I'm not willing to sit around being lambasted by Sectarian Stalinists, Trotskyists or Anarchists. But the absolute vacuity of Stalinist ideology makes it intolerably more boring than most.
===
* "Mixed and uneven consciousness" is an old description of Trotsky of the working class, and why not all of them join revolutionary parties.
** This is a mixed and uneven complement in Australian English.
*** Two Marxist heros of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. They died fighting for workers control. They were executed by Soviet Stalinists. Imre had even been an operative of the NKVD.