Other Press
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international / the left Friday October 21, 2005 22:46 byPaul Bowman
This article opens by looking at how the meaning of communism as opposed to socialism evolved in the late nineteenth century and closes with a look at how this applies to the free software movement today. It was written for Red and Black Revolution - the magazine of the Workers Solidarity Movement.
Its not that important to get hung up on the name communism, for many people the concise definition of communism being something to do with Marx and the USSR is the one they know. For us the name of the post-capitalist society we aim to help construct is a detail, what matters is the content of the ideas. What is original in Marx's "Capital" is not the theory of exploitation and surplus value which he inherits from Thompson, but the role of class struggle in limiting the working day and shaping the introduction of productivity-enhancing technology as a response to working class resistance to exploitation. This focus on the historical and contestational dynamics of the process is what gives Marx's work continuing relevance to theorists today, yet it is accompanied by a lack of attention to specifics of the goal of a post-capitalist society. Despite his many contributions, Marx's work on its own represents a backwards step in comparison to Thompson's work when it comes to investigating the social relations of a post-capitalist society.
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 5 comments (last - friday may 26, 2006 06:27)
international / the left Tuesday August 16, 2005 18:26 byAnarcho
A lengthy review of the excellent new collection of British libertarian socialist Maurice Brinton's work which has been published by AK Press. Brinton was "the most prolific contributor to the British Solidarity Group (1961-1992), he sought to inspire a mass movement based on libertarian socialist politics... Included here are Brinton's finest essays, pamphlets, eye-witness reportage and his most influential works-Irrational in Politics and Bolsheviks and Workers' Control."
Brinton's perspectives on anarchism were too shaded by his Leninist background and the state of the UK anarchist movement in the 1960s and 70s. While he is right to bemoan the anti-organisational and anti-theoretical tendencies of Russian anarchism he does get basic things wrong. Brinton's dismissal of Kropotkin is based on Avrich's summary of his ideas rather than a reading of the source material. Ultimately, these are minor issues. The core ideas of Brinton in terms of the importance of self-management, the need for revolutionary theory and practice to take into account all aspects of hierarchical society, his consistency and logic, remain as relevant today as when they were written. Anarchists have a lot to gain from reading this collection.
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2 comments (last - thursday september 01, 2005 00:42)
north america / mexico / the left Tuesday March 29, 2005 23:04 byAndrew
The importance of their rebellion is not in the brief military struggle that took place 11 years ago but in the society they have built in the years since. Although the Zapatistas are not anarchists the way they wish to organise society and the way they organise themselves shares many features with anarchism.
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1 comment (last - friday april 08, 2005 23:00)
international / the left Saturday March 19, 2005 22:55 byJames O'Brien
A communist society would be where the
production and, importantly, the consumption of goods would be held
in 'common': from each according to ability, to each according to
need.
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5 comments (last - monday may 02, 2005 05:09)
brazil/guyana/suriname/fguiana / the left Friday March 04, 2005 22:37 byFederacao Anarquista Gaucha
We politically-organized anarchists believe that the World Social Forum does not constitute an opposition space to the capitalist system. It is for this reason that we propose through the "Jornadas Anarquistas" the construction of an alternative that can provide us with the tools we need for the development of a struggle that can truly be an antagonist in the society in which we live
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