libcom vs. parecon
Fascinating debate between libertarian communists and participatory economics advocates on the libcom.org site. The most significant difference seems to be on the one side (parecon) tying remuneration to effort, and on the other “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” (libcom). Worth reading in its entirety.
Chomsky on anarchism
ZNet has reproduced an article by Chomsky on anarchism. Interesting.
Those pesky protesterrorists
Anti-terrorism laws are again being used to suppress dissent. From a Guardian report on G20 protesters:
Five other activists affiliated to the group Climate Camp said they were stopped and searched under anti-terrorism legislation at a cafe around the corner from the squat.
“A lot of police came in and very forcefully told use they were stopping [...]
Anarcho-syndicalism
According to Anarchopedia, anarcho-syndicalism is ‘the anarchist wing of the trade union movement’. A explaination of the term from Anarcho-Syndicalism 101:
“Sindicalismo” in Spanish, for example, simply means “Unionism”; the addition of the “Anarco” prefix denotes the libertarian branch of the union movement, or that which aims not only at day-to-day improvements in working conditions under [...]
Types of anarchism
The areas I am interested in are on the left and centre - anarchism as it relates to socialism and communism, and its mainstream, if there is such a thing. ‘Anarcho’-capitalism is of no interest to me.
I do wonder whether Wikipedia (or its English version, at any rate) has a bias towards highlighting the existence [...]
Bakunin on freedom
Reading some excerpts from Bakunin’s ‘Revolutionary Catechism’ (Dolgoff 1971:76) one in particular stood out:
It is not true that freedom of one man is limited by that of other men. Man is really free to the extent that his freedom, fully acknowledged and mirrored by the free consent of his fellowmen, finds confirmation and expansion in [...]
Who would run the NHS?
A little coda to my previous post. A commenter on the article I mentioned linked to an article on libcom.org that analyses the NHS from a libertarian communist perspective. Ultimately, it suggests that NHS should exist ‘as a publicly-owned service, run directly by its workers and patients [...] as part [...]
Four questions
I read Stephen Moss’s article about the G20 protest last Saturday. It was a diverse crowd, apparently, including the unions, Christian Aid, greens and anarchists. He asked a couple of throwaway questions that, while not particularly penetrating in themselves, did get me thinking about paths to critical inquiry on the subject of anarchism. In particular [...]
The little I know, or think I know, already
I am almost entirely ignorant about anarchism. This post is an attempt to describe that “already” before I start. It’s also possible that everything I think I know is wrong. So, here are the few scraps of information already in my possession:
Anarchy means no rulers.
I am going here from a guess at its etymology: an- [...]
My search
This is intended to be a blog about anarchism, and my attempts to learn about it and to understand it. A bit like Sophie’s World, perhaps, except that I am both narrator and protagonist, and as such, my ignorance is not a literary device — it’s genuine ignorance. I know next to nothing about the [...]