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"Anarchism... despises the collectivity... By dismissing the importance of the collective nature of change anarchism, of necessity, downplays the centrality of the working class... For... anarchists, revolutions were not about... collective struggle" (Stack)
"Organise ever more strongly the practical militant solidarity of the workers of all trades in all countries... you will constitute an immense irresistible force when organised and united in the universal collectivity." (Bakunin)
"To be able to make the revolution, the mass of workers will have to organise themselves. Resistance and the strike are excellent means of organisation for doing this... It is a question of organising societies of resistance for all trades in each town... of giving more solidarity to the workers' organisations... of federating them." (Kropotkin)
"the idea that dominates anarchist thought, namely that the state is the main enemy, rather than identifying the state as one aspect of a class society that has to be destroyed." (Stack)
"The Anarchists consider the wage system and capitalist production altogether as an obstacle to progress... while combatting the present monopolisation of land, and capitalism altogether, the Anarchists combat with the same energy the State."(Kropotkin)
"I think that equality must be established... by... the collective ownership of producers' associations, freely organised and federated into communes... [and] by the development and organisation... of the social power of the working masses... The future social organisation must be made solely from the bottom upwards, by the free association or federation of workers, firstly in their unions, then in the communes, regions, nations and finally in a great federation, international and universal." (Bakunin)
"State is there to protect exploitation, speculation and private property; it is itself the by-product of the rapine of the people. The proletariat must rely on his own hands; he can expect nothing of the State. It is nothing more than an organisation devised to hinder emancipation at all costs." (Kropotkin)
"For Bakunin . . . skilled artisans and organised factory workers, far from being the source of the destruction of capitalism, were 'tainted by pretensions and aspirations' . . . the 'uncivilised, disinherited, illiterate', as he put it, would be his agents for change." (Stack)
"Organise the city proletariat . . . unite it into one preparatory organisation together with the peasantry . . . Only a wide-sweeping revolution embracing both the city workers and peasants would be sufficiently strong to overthrow . . . the State, backed as it is by all the resources of the possessing classes." (Bakunin)
"Kropotkin, far from seeing class conflict as the dynamic for social change... saw co-operation being at the root of the social process... It follows that if class conflict is not the motor of change, the working class is not the agent and collective struggle not the means." (Stack)
"Anarchists... have endeavoured to promote their ideas directly amongst the labour organisations and to induce those unions to a direct struggle against capital, without placing their faith in parliamentary legislation." (Kropotkin)
"The union is absolutely necessary. It is the only form of workers' grouping which permits the direct struggle to be maintained against capital without falling into parliamentarism." (Kropotkin)
"The huge advantage [anarcho-syndicalists] had over other anarchists was their understanding of the power of the working class, the centrality of the point of production (the workplace) and the need for collective action." (Stack)
"To become strong you must unite... nothing less is needed than the union of all local and national workers' associations into a worldwide association... It means workers' solidarity in their struggle against the bosses. It means trades-unions, organisation." (Bakunin)
"Anarchists have always advised taking an active part in those workers' organisations which carry on the direct struggle of Labour against Capital and its protector - the State." (Kropotkin)
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The State or Revolution
An anarchist answer to Lenin, written for Marxism 2003
The SWP versus Anarchism
Here are a few quotes from Pat Stack's Socialist Review
article "Anarchy in the UK?" which formed the basis of his
talk at Marxism 2001. Ask yourself why the SWP leadership
systematically lies about anarchism.
Lenin, History's "Hidden Democrat,"
speaks!
Stright form the horses mouth
Anarcho-Quiz on the SWP
Test your knowledge
What is Anarchism?
There is an alternative to Leninism's state capitalism and party
power. It is called anarchism, a socialism which places freedom and
working class management of society at the core of its vision of
struggle, revolution and socialism.
Another world is possible?
Under capitalism, 8 people make life and death decisions for
millions. Under Bolshevism, 19 people made them