Anarchism, Marxism and Renewing Socialism from Below

by Todd Gordon and Jerome Klassen


Over the last few years there has been an increase in the influence of anarchism on the left. Anarchism is attractive for a new layer of radicalising activists, especially those working within the global justice movement. Many young activists are attracted to the anti-authoritarian and grassroots inspirations they identify with anarchist theory and practice. Many of these activists have, in turn, injected these same inspirations back into their movement work.

The growth of contemporary anarchism is related to the growing anti-capitalist sentiment amongst activists and their commitment to using more effective means of struggle. For example, a growing layer of global justice activists no longer identifies the enemy simply as "globalization" or "corporate power” but as “capitalism.” At the same time, many of these activists have started to rely less on symbolic forms of protest and to engage instead in forms of struggle that build people’s capacities to challenge systemic forms of domination.

It is in this context that anarchism has re-emerged. But like any progressive movement that seeks to grow and draw more people into its fold, anarchism needs to be engaged constantly in a process of critical self-examination and dialogue. Indeed, the same must be said for the whole of the revolutionary anti-capitalist left. The New Socialist Group, for example, aims to be part of such a process of critical self-examination. It is only out of such a process that a dynamic revolutionary politics - for us, a politics of “socialism from below” - can be renewed. We think a renewed socialism from below needs to be informed by the best of Marxism and anarchism.

The Past and the Present

The history of the relationship between anarchism and Marxism has been marked by a great deal of hostility. While there is a history of differences between Marxism and anarchism that should not be obscured, their current relationship must be shaped by the demands of the present political period. Allowing debates over past revolutions to consume present discussions does little to advance the revolutionary anti-capitalist movement.

Instead, anti-capitalists need to think collectively and critically about the renewal of a revolutionary project. Despite the emergence of an anti-capitalist sentiment in recent years, revolutionary anti-capitalists remain a small, though committed, minority on the left in most of the so-called "advanced" capitalist countries, with scattered support on some university campuses and almost none in workplaces and unions. It is with this in mind that dialogue must be pursued, and the possibility of common activity considered.

First, we will sketch out a theoretical framework for building an anarchist-Marxist common front. We have two guiding assumptions: first, that the task for anti-capitalists is to build an organised and programmatically coherent social opposition to capital and to the state; and second, that neither the Marxist tradition nor the anarchist tradition has, to date, developed a complete theory of socialist revolution. Because a future revolution will not occur in the same way as, for example, the Russian Revolution (1917) or the Spanish Revolution (1936), it is our task to advance the struggle by creating a revolutionary theory, not based on historical scenarios, but on present political situations.

Despite our urge to move forward, however, we believe that both the anarchist tradition and the Marxist tradition contain important insights that must be appropriated if we wish to build a larger and more effective anti-capitalist movement. In fact, we contend that the development of a larger anti-capitalist movement critically depends on a synthesis of “red” and “black” theory and practice. This synthesis could emerge by combining some of the key insights developed by both the Marxist and the anarchist traditions.

Learning from Marxism...

A great strength of the Marxist tradition has been its systematic critique of capitalism. For Marxists, capitalism is not simply about “the right to private property” or about “the rule of corporations.” While these phenomena exist under capitalism, they must not be seen as root causes of the system. As Marx revealed, capitalism is based upon a fundamental social relation between workers, who are obliged to sell their labour power as a commodity on the market, and capitalists, who own and control the means of production and who therefore employ wage- labour. For Marx, it is this social relation, a relation through which capital exploits workers to make a profit, which is central to capitalism.

Clearly, the way in which we understand capitalism has political consequences. For example, if we theorise capitalism as the “right to private property” or “the rule of corporations,” we could then theorise anti-capitalism as being “anti-property” or “anti- corporate.” This kind of analysis and practice ignores the exploitative social relations between workers and capitalists that lie at the heart of capitalism. It therefore ignores the political need to organise the working class to challenge capitalism. An anti-capitalist activism informed by Marxism, then, recognises the domination of labour by capital as the basis for capitalist exploitation and strives to organise the working class to overthrow the system.

A third insight of the Marxist left is the idea that radical activists need to form their own political organisations. Marxists have shown that anti-capitalists need their own organisations to develop revolutionary theory, to develop strategies for their interventions in the daily class struggle, and to expose broader layers of the working class to radical ideas. Political organising has also helped to establish long-term alliances amongst various working-class and social justice organisations and thus to activate and consolidate the critical mass required to launch more sustained campaigns against capital and the state. Establishing political organisations can also improve accountability and democratic decision-making amongst activists. If these values and results are deemed important, then the new anti-capitalist left should start working towards developing more long-term and democratic organisations.

These three ideas – the critique of capitalism, the need for workers’ revolution, and the need for radicals to organise themselves into political structures – represent three insights that Marxism can offer to the anti-capitalist movement.

... and from Anarchism

Consider, now, three important insights developed in the anarchist tradition. First, anarchists have correctly insisted that socialists must be against the state. They have correctly argued that the hierarchically structured capitalist state cannot be used as an instrument to liberate the working class from its oppression and that as an alternative to participating in states and governments activists need to build radical mass movements and structures of direct democracy from below. It is the construction of these movements and alternative institutions (e.g., workers’ councils, independent media) that provides the basis for revolutionary socialist change.

A second anarchist insight that needs highlighting is a dedication to direct action politics. Instead of pleading with the state, employers, and other representatives of the ruling class, anarchists are known for taking direct action to win their short-term objectives. However, as anarchists have demonstrated, direct action can win not only short-term goals but, when organised with a view to building mass movements, it can also help to strengthen the capacities and powers of the oppressed that will be needed to establish a democratic and self-regulating society in the future. Direct action thus becomes the method for activism because it builds the political consciousness and social capacities required for creating a self-managing society.

This commitment to direct action is connected to the larger anarchist sensitivity towards the concrete processes of struggle. According to Barbara Epstein, anarchism “has brought [to movements] an insistence on equality and democracy, a resistance to compromise of principle for the sake of political expediency. Anarchism has been associated with efforts to put the values of the movement into practice and to create communities governed by these values. Anarchism has also been associated with political theatre and art, with creativity as an element of political practice. It has insisted that radical politics not be dreary.” By valuing diversity and insisting on egalitarian methods of organising, anarchism has also become a pole of attraction for many feminists and anti-racists.

These three insights – the critique of the state, the commitment to direct-action politics, and the sensitivity to the concrete processes of activism – represent three insights that anarchism can offer the budding anti-capitalist movement. It is the authors’ belief that the future of anti- capitalist activism depends on uniting in practice both the Marxist and anarchist insights mentioned above.

Revolutionary Socialism Today

This practice must begin with an honest assessment of the state of revolutionary politics. Currently, the revolutionary anti-capitalist perspective is still very much in the minority within the movement. Injecting an anti-capitalist politics into our movements must thus become a more consistent part of our work. We need to be the "loyal" but radical left wing of the movement, consistently challenging ideas that global capitalism can be reformed or that mass direct action isn't a "legitimate" form of protest.

To do all of these things effectively is very difficult. Anarchists and Marxists should therefore consider engaging in joint work. An anti-capitalist common front could involve such things as developing collective strategies for intervening in the movement and holding joint public forums for spreading our ideas. We may also want to share space in our publications for constructive dialogue. Such collective work, aimed at rebuilding a revolutionary anti-capitalist consciousness amongst activists today, could help to renew the revolutionary anti-capitalist theoretical tradition and thus lead to a more serious and constructive engagement between Marxist and anarchist ideas.

The march organised by CLAC (Convergence of Anti-Capitalist Struggles) against the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City last April, which included both anarchists and Marxists, is one example of revolutionaries from different traditions collectively promoting anti- capitalism. The Ontario Common Front and the emerging movement against racism and war are other places where anti-capitalists from different traditions are active. But, as radicals in these coalitions we need to do more than simply be active next to one another. We need to begin considering ways to collectively build a broad movement that can challenge reformist analyses, inspire militant mass action, and expose new layers of people to anti-capitalist ideas.

The suggestions offered here should be seen as possible first steps to rebuilding revolutionary socialist politics. If we're to avoid the pitfalls of the past, we must be patient and treat the renewal of a revolutionary project as a process, and not as something that will take place overnight. Hopefully, our shared commitment to the radical transformation of capitalism can help to break down the walls currently dividing the various socialist traditions so that we can struggle to ensure that another world is not only possible, but guaranteed.

Todd Gordon and Jerome Klassen are members of the New Socialist Group.