I honestly don't love the "anarchists are baby MLs" thing. It strikes me a condescending.
yeah that could be true. I wouldn't know, as like a true lib, I've read none of the books in the meme. What would you recommend reading first?
edit: Obligatory :lenin-shining: :unity: :kropotkin-shining:
I agree with Conquest of Bread as an on-ramp (although I think Anarchy Works is better written and The Coming Insurrection advocates a more complete politics). My issue with this is that it implies the next place to go is necessarily Lenin. Sure, read Lenin, but there is some deep and thorough theory that cautions against that kind state building project and I think every should engage with it.
In the anarchist direction, the Situationists including The Revolution of Everyday Life is great. In the feminist / race theory direction, the Incite! Anthology and the abolitionist cannon are good places to look. I'm gonna start looking into indigenous politics, too, since a lot of that is both anti state and anti-colonial, which is I think something folks need to start bringing into the discourse.
What I'm saying is that engaging with the state very critically is a sign of theoretical maturity, especially if you're a Leninist.
Saving this! Thanks for the reply
:sankara-salute:
What I’m saying is that engaging with the state very critically is a sign of theoretical maturity, especially if you’re a Leninist.
Very true indeed
happened to one of my best friends
still one of my best friends, just to clarify
I've had comrades who were former MLs who left their party and joined anarchists' groups too. It 100% cuts both ways. I'm not firmly pro or anti-state, but I am firmly a police/prison/compulsory schooling abolitionist, so I tend to organize with anarchists and feminists rather than Leninists.
It's all about what groups work best in your area. In the end, especially groups in the imperial core, we're all gonna end up in the same places. The important thing is to not claw each other's eyes out when that happens. None of these parties or groups are representative of the masses yet. It's important to be willing to go with the flow and allow the mass sentiment to shape your revolutionary methods. Especially now when labor is so disorganized and apathetic.
Lenin works well when you already have organized labor and even better when half the military is just ready to defect to fight alongside you. Anarchism seems to get better results under complete capitalist encirclement though. Probably because it's something most people can look at for 5 minutes and be like "yo, I totally get that" without having to understand the power dynamics of the bourgeoisie and shit (not that Anarchism is antithetical to that, just that it's a lot more intuitive from early on because of the whole non-hierarchical thing).
