libertarian communism

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Libertarian communism, capitalism and direct action - an introduction

The conference was held in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Dimitrov on December 8 - 14, 1992. It was the first such conference to be held on Russian soil since the Revolution in 1917.

Taken from a collection of Aldred's pamphlets Studies in Communism,(1940). Originally published in Pamphlets for the Proletarian, No. 11, (1911). Second edition published in The Spur series,No. 4,(1919).

Guy Aldred was an Anarchist-Communist, based for most of his life in Glasgow and active for many years as a pamphleteer and public speaker.

This perspective is the essence of what separates us from both the left and the right. We cannot allow its fundamental importance to be obscured, or ourselves to be mistaken for either the right or the left. We cannot allow any Leninist organization to get away with claiming that it is only 'a little bit pregnant' with state capitalism.

INTRODUCTION

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It’s crucial to understand why Russia was capitalist in 1980, or 1930, or 1920, if we wish to understand what capitalism really is, and what can and must be revolutionized in Russia as well as in Britain in the XXIst century.

"In vain you tell me that Artificial Government is good, but that I fall out only with its abuse. The thing - the thing itself is the abuse !" - Burke

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

A contribution to the politics of the future...

The basic perspectives of
The Poor, the Bad and the Angry

The world we must leave...

This simple introduction to syndicalism, workers control and libertarian communism originally appeared as a series of articles in War Commentary for Anarchism in 1943.

Contents
1. Not Centralism - But Federalism
2. Economic Federalism
3. Abolition Of The Wages System
4. The End Of The Money Trick
5. To Each According To His[/Her] Needs
6. Workers' Control of Distribution

Anarchist communism is a form of anarchism that advocates the abolition of the State and capitalism in favour of a horizontal network of voluntary associations through which everyone will be free to satisfy his or her needs.

What is capitalism?

Situationist ideas came from the European organisation the Situationist International, formed in 1957. While it lasted only 15 years, its ideas were deeply influential, and have been a part of Western society - and radical movements - ever since.

Council communism was a radical left movement originating in Germany and the Netherlands in the 1920s. Today it continues as an important theoretical current within libertarian communism.

Platformism is a current within libertarian communism putting forward specific suggestions on the nature which anarchist organsation should take.

Drawing on a range of anti-capitalist ideas as well as a heaping plate of personal experience, it is part analysis and part call-to-arms.

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ABOLISH RESTAURANTS

Though the POUM were socialists, he wrote "as far as my purely personal preferences went I would have liked to join the Anarchists."

His vivid descriptions of classless anarchist Barcelona following the revolution and terrorised Stalinist Barcelona after the counter-revolution are a timeless reminder that a 'revolutionary state' is a contradiction in terms.

WCPW comic in PDF Format (11Mb)

WORK . COMMUNITY . POLITICS . WAR

Toni Negri's work is enormously attractive, not only for its own merits, but because it responds to a desperate need. We are all looking for a way forward. The old state-centred model of revolution has failed catastrophically, reformism becomes more and more corrupt and barren, yet revolutionary change is more urgent than ever.

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1. The starting point is negativity.

We start from the scream, not from the word. Faced with the mutilation of human lives by capitalism, a scream of sadness, a scream of horror, a scream of anger, a scream of refusal: NO.

Revolutionary History, Vol. 5, No. 2 Spring 1994

We have omitted the footnotes from this text as they are mainly short biographies of people in the text. This interview first appeared in Solidarity Vol. 6 no.2 when Reichanbach was a militant in the anti-parliamentary Left in Germany. He was interviewed by Rudi Dutschke (RH)

The German Workers' Councils

September 11 did not change the world and marked no change in era. It becomes more and more obvious that it was crystallization point and catalyst for developments which had started long before.