Anarkismo (en)

The development of modern society and what has happened to the working-class movement over the last 100 years (and in particular since 1917) have compelled us to make a radical revision of the ideas on which that movement has been based.
Forty years have elapsed since the proletarian revolution seized power in Russia. From that revolution it is not socialism that ultimately emerged but a new and monstrous form of exploiting society and totalitarian oppression that differed from the worst forms of capitalism only in that the bureaucracy replaced the private owners of capital and “the plan” took the place of the “free market.” Ten years ago, only a few people like us defended these ideas. Since then, the Hungarian workers have brought them to the world’s attention.
Among the raw materials for such a revision are the vast experience of the Russian Revolution and of its degeneration, the Hungarian workers’ councils, their actions, and their program. But these are far from being the only elements useful for making such a revision. A look at modern capitalism and at the type of conflict it breeds shows that throughout the world working people are faced with the same fundamental problems, often posed in surprisingly similar terms. These problems call everywhere for the same response. This answer is socialism, a social system that is the very opposite of the bureaucratic capitalism now installed in Russia, China, and elsewhere.
The experience of bureaucratic capitalism allows us clearly to perceive what socialism is not and cannot be. A close look both at past proletarian uprisings and at the everyday life and struggles of the proletariat enables us to say what socialism could and should be. Basing ourselves on a century of experience we can and must now define the positive content of socialism in a much fuller and more accurate way than was possible for previous revolutionaries. In today’s vast ideological morass, people who call themselves socialists may be heard to say that they “are no longer quite sure what the word means.” We hope to show that the very opposite is the case. Today, for the first time, one can begin to spell out in concrete and specific terms what socialism really could be like.

Cornelius Castoriadis, aka Paul Cardan, was the most prominent member of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group in France in the late 1940s-1960s, which advocated workers’ self-management in workplaces and society as opposed to capitalism in its private and state-run forms. Here we present Maurice Brinton’s translation of Castoriadis’ classic On the content of socialism. The work is subtitled ‘From the Critique of Bureaucracy to the Idea of the Proletariat’s Autonomy’

An interview for theRealnews about Cyprus crisis with proffesor of economics in University of London

I SALUTE THE FREEDOM NEWROZ OF THE OPPRESSED

These people are taking to the streets to make themselves heard, to let those who pull the strings of this society know that we are alive, that our rights as workers and students will not be passed over. [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/25173]

As the third Intifada character is less dramatic than the previous two. At least at the first years, politicians and media commentators hesitating to declare it as such. After more lot of pondering on the subjects in the Israeli media, we heard this evening a new tag: "the signs of Intifada are already here". The escalation of the suppression of the Israeli state forces in the occupied west bank and their backing of settler colonialist terror activities last months, was not clear if it is only pre election thing or is intended to convert the unarmed third Intifada into an armed one. The unarmed Intifada expand gradually with the solidarity with the hunger striking prisoners at its focus. To the older locations of Beit Ummar, Bil'in, Ma'asarah, Nabi Saleh, Ni'ilin, Qadum, Sheikh Jarah, and South of Hebron Hills, and south-west joined last weeks Jayyus and Jaffa. [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/25175]

Regarding the election of Bergoglio as the new pope, Luis D'Elía said: "Francis I is for Latin America what John Paul II was for the Soviet Union. The new aim of the empire to destroy South American unity".
Without actually embracing this point of view, this comparison manages to capture an essential element: cracks are becoming apparent in the former bastion of Catholicism. With the advance of the evangelical churches, Latin American Catholicism has lost the monopoly on religion. [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/25135]

This Saturday morning Cypriot people woke up to the news that they were about to be robbed. In a pre-planned ambush scheduled to coincide with a local bank holiday weekend, Eurozone apparatchiks threatened to bankrupt the Cypriot banking system by immediate withdrawal of the ECB liquidity support. [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/25164]

The Value of Radical Theory: An Anarchist Introduction to Marx's Critique of Political Economy
Annnouncemt of a new book by Wayne Price which is an introduction for anarchists and other libertarian socialists to Karl Marx's crtique of political economy. In what ways can Marx's economic critique be of assistance to anarchists? What are anarchists' critique of Marx's economic theories, goals, and method?

This is a piece we’re sharing originally posted to Machete 408 by Adam Weaver. It is a review/summation piece is being released in conjunction with a forthcoming piece by Scott Nappolas which presents an extensive discussion of Lenin’s concept of democratic centralism.

The terrain is changing beneath our feet. Since the collapse of the majority of the “official communist” regimes, the world has witnessed both events and ideas that have undermined the former dominant thinking within the left. The Zapatistas, Argentina in 2001, South Korean workers movements, Oaxaca in 2006, the struggles around anti-globalization, and Greece’s series of insurrectionary moments have increasingly presented challenges to traditional left answers to movements and organization. In previous eras Marxist-Leninism was the nexus which all currents by default had to respond to either in agreement or critique. Today, increasingly anarchist practices and theory have come to play this role.

As a member of an anarchist political organization, a friend once told me I in fact was practicing democratic centralism. This was perplexing, because the group had no resembling structures, practices, or the associated behaviors of democratic centralism. However, I was told that since we debated, came to common decisions, and acted on that collective democracy, we were in fact democratic centralist. This kind of productive confusion led to questions about the concept, and why the target of democratic centralism has shifted. This move, the shifting conceptual territory of core concepts of a certain orthodoxy, comes up repeatedly not only with democratic centralism, but also surrounding ideas like crisis, dialectics, the State, and class. The resulting cognitive dissonance caused me to investigate attempts at reinvigorating the concept of democratic centralism (democratic centralist revisionism), and understand truly what it is, where it came from, and how it has been practiced.

The 5th Congress of the Coordination des Groupes Anarchistes was held from 1-3 November 2012 in Toulouges (Languedoc-Roussillon region), with the aim of enabling our organization to continue its deliberations and refine its proposals at a time when we must face social situations of blatant injustice, and participate in - or even come forward with - strategies for struggle against the arrogance of the bankers, bosses and rulers. [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/25100]

"I just want to help children,” a voice called out in English from a clothing store in Thamel, a tourist area of Kathmandu, Nepal's capital city. I saw a young white woman walking out of the store, and my curiosity got the better of me. “You want to help children?” I called out. It was a dark, cold January evening and the narrow streets were lit largely from stores which had no front walls and the signs that hung over them. The woman stopped and turned around.

The following review was basically written in early 2010, just after the appearance of Black Flame. I held back from publication while awaiting volume 2, which has yet to appear. Time passing, I decided to go ahead and put it out there. – MM.
The following is a comradely criticism of a quite good book from a Marxist who generally identifies as a “libertarian communist.”

This week the joint struggle was intensify with the protesting of the Death of Mohammad Asfour who died after being shot before 2 weeks in the head By Israeli Troops during Clashes supporting Palestinian prisoners. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.51243908880291...36986 As the struggle expand the invitation for Israeli and international activists to join additional actions surpass the numbers available. Though the media was flooded by the Oscar candidacy of 5 broken cameras about the joint struggle against the separation fence in Bil'in, still no flood of new activist happened. In Jaffa (Tel Aviv) the daily joint vigil at the clock tower in solidarity with the hunger strikers persist. [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/25131]

The Miami Autonomy & Solidarity statement for International Women's Day 2013

On this International Women’s Day, we stand in solidarity as, and with, the gender oppressed and the many global struggles that centrally challenge the various forms of patriarchy in our lives as part of a broad movement against capitalism, the state and all forms of oppression!

WSA statement saluting women around the globe
We strive for a society in which one person or group of people do not dominate or exploit another. In such a society there would be no basis for sexual oppression, domination, or class exploitation. We must work to replace the institutions of power, the nation-state, and capitalism with a worldwide system of grassroots empowerment and self-management of all facets of social and economic life.

On May 30, 2014 we will be celebrating 200 years of Mikhail Bakunin (1814 – 1876), a famous activist of the Russian and international revolutionary movement, a social thinker and one of the founders of the international anarchist movement. [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/25070] [http://www.anarkismo.net/article/25071]

Ahead of the March 5 court appearance by anarchist Alexei Polikhovich, a joint meeting of the Central Councils of the Navy Social Movements and Unions have issued a call for his release. Polikhovich, 22, who is a retired Northern Fleet conscript sailor, was detained in July 2012 on suspicion of participation in the May 6, 2012, clashes with police during a rally in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square. According to his supporters, Polikhovich dragged to safety one of his fellow protesters who was being beaten by several police officers, whom he pushed off. He is being held in Butyrka pre-trial detention centre.