Why Anti-Capitalism?
By Joaquin Cienfuefos
(An Excerpt from Anarcho-Communism: A Revoluionary Position For Theory and
Practice in the Imperialist U.S.)
Building Anti-Capitalist Organization and an Anti-Capitalist Front
As we build a movement for radical change the question is always posed, what
should be the "dividing line" or what should people unite under. Generally the
idea for mass organizations or organizations as a whole is to have the largest
numbers out there in a rally or protest. The argument is made that in order to
build the Anti-War Movement or the Anti-Globalization movement we can't and we
shouldn't call out Capitalism as the root cause or we shouldn't be upfront
about the economic infrastructure of power. The idea is put foward that we
should be first anti-war or anti-corporate and then anti-capitalist, meaning
first win people to resistance of what the ruling class is carying out, and
then take on the power structure which carries out the injustices in the first
place.
I want to put these questions out there not to be sectarian, but to increase
unity on a correct basis in building a revolutionary movement, which is much
needed today. We need a broad, diverse revolutionary movement made up of
autonomous organizations and cohesive networks to not only challenge the power
structure but to once and for all get rid of it and reallign society from below.
This point brings to mind the Old Left of the 1920's to the 50's, and what
Staughton Lynd wrote about in Prospects for the New Left. In this writing
Staughton Lynd talks of the 60's generation and how there was break with the
Old Left type politics in particular the old left Communist Party, and some of
their labor unions. He makes a good point that we should draw from some of the
good aspects of the old left, to build something new, in terms of the New Left
of the 60's generation. Some of these new ideas included the rejection of
dogma, the celebration of action, the struggle against centralization and union
bureaucracy, the vision of a movement as a band of comrades acting out the
future as if it were already here (which is in many ways what anarchists talk
about) . The principal criticism of the old left was the whole idea of the
popular front, "the assumption was that enemy was fascism rather than
capitalism, hence that the so-called liberal wing of the ruling class might be
an ally." This period was during World War II, where basically the Old Left
CP sold out, and called for the support of the troops and the war against
fascism, and ended up supporting the U.S and their imperialist interests.
"[The Communists] declared that Communists would defend their country in time
of war, that Communism would come to the United States by parliamentary means,
and so on."
I would agree with Lynds approach, I don't think it is linear, nothing is.
There is a multi-dimensional aspect to everything. There was a lot to learn
from the old left, and there is even much more to learn from the new left (also
from past struggles around the world and people), but nothing is static either.
We need a whole new approach, and a revolutionary left. We need to synthesize
the experiences but be critical of the mistakes, in order to advance in our
goals of a new egalitarian society. The 60's generation challenged the order
in society, and the groups that developed from that era are inspirational, but
things must be taken even further.
Struggles have to be linked to the root cause of the problems facing humanity
and the planet, which is the economic, political and social system of
Capitalism-Imperialism. Capitalism should be the dividing line in which people
unite, debate, and fight under.
There wouldn't be war if it wasn't for the capitalist system, in its
imperialist stage, where it seeks to accumulate empire and power, through its
millitary. Capitalism seeks to expand its markets by globalization, where it
dominates entire "third-world" countries, exploits people more brutally, and
destroys the enviroment while doing it. This is the honest truth. Fascism is
a system where Capitalist openly rule under different social relations but
similar mode of production and imperialist methodology. They should all be
challenged. It should be a popular front against capitalism, imperialism, and
fascism.
It seems that the organizations that now exist, the anti-war coalitions and so
on, want to have large numbers in their demonstrations which isn't bad in it of
itself. There is a need for numbers, in order for change we need millions of
people to become politically conscius one way or the other. However, history
shows, that people step foward in different times, and then take steps back,
history itself is never linear. The number of people in the streets depends on
whats going on in the world, and what the power is doing, the more overtly
imperialist they are, the more people resist, that is a fundamental truth. The
task of organizations are to expose the power structure mainly, and to create a
consciousness in people to be able to act out in the interests of humanity.
There is a difference in understanding and consciousness, therefore our role as
revolutionaries is not to impose our own particular vision but to develop one
collectively with others. Our role is to develop and
educate other rebels through building a revolutionary movement that is
determined, that will inspire and influence people to take direct action and to
be guided by theory. Ultimately, we have to be organized in terms of how we
want the future world to be organized, and everything we do even the simplest
act, has to prepare us for the future.
There have been and are many people and groups who resist capitalism now is the
time to unite. There are people in the U.S. and around the world who are
challenging imperialism in many ways now is the time to network. We have to
seek to raise the debate amongst ourselves, and link up but at the same time
keep the autonomy which makes the groups involved unique.
I see pictures of how the Industrial Workers of the World had Mass Assembly
meetings and thousands of workers participated in the decision making process
through vote by hand, this is direct democracy, where debate and participation
are part of daily life (this can be discussed later, but just to give a glimpse
of how we can organize ourselves). As an Anarcho-Communist, but especially
as an Anarchist, I think that we should organize in a decentralized way,
meaning that there is no small group of people who make the decisions and the
rest of us do the ground work for them. The New Left, and mass movements that
developed from the time, follow the same model of organization, which in the
final analysis is hierarchical (I won't get into the problems of centralism,
they will also be discussed later). In our organization today, we have to
train ourselves to be self-sufficient, to be self-manageable, and to develop
our forms of organizing to be as inclusive as possible while not
losing our sense of autonomy and defense from the state.
This Anti-Capitalist Front should be diverse where different struggles, and
theoretical positions can enter debate. National liberation struggles will
definately be an important aspect of the front, because they are always the
first to challenge the power structure in any part of the world. I think even
pacifists can enter the front, because I know a lot of them are anti-system,
and its an individual process for everybody. We'll influence each other, and
debate over the means and the strategy. In terms of today, in particular in
imperialist U.S., we are not yet in a military stage, meaning we are not yet
there to getting rid of the system. This does not mean we should be in the
political defensive, we should be calling out the system, and in our practice
preparing and fighting for better ground politically and tactically against the
right wing. This brings to mind George Jackson of the Black Panther Party, he
said that to simply engage in military activity without a political
component it would lead to being isolated and smashed. This happens to much
in the left today, where we isolate ourselves, a lot of us anarchists do it.
This makes it easier for the state to come down on us and attack us. We're so
small in numbers that we have to seek to link up with each other on the correct
basis.
The Black Panthers develop an approach of "survival pending revolution" meaning
they would be self sufficient and serve the people while they awaited for
revolution. George Jackson saw that in these programs they should combine the
military aspect, in defensive way, where they would defend the programs when it
came under attack by the police. While this is true and it speaks to reality,
you can't have complete autonomy under capitalism, because if whatever you
build becomes a threat to the status quo, the state will seek to destroy
whatever you create. I don't think we should just patiently wait for
revolution though. I think the actions we take today have to prepare and lead
up to the end of capitalism. This is why we need a revolutionary movement, all
struggles have to be linked up to the economic infrastructure. Its a process
of theory-practice-theory, where we develop our strategy, our methods, and our
approach. Our organization cannot wither away when individuals are
attacked or when the state attacks the nucleus because there wouldn't be one.
This type of organization is necessary and possible. All the groups and
individuals involved would have a say so in the decisions and planning that is
done.
Respect goes out to the old left, the new left, and the rebels and
revolutionaries of the past, but we need a higher synthesis and we need
something revolutionary, in the interest of humanity and to finally end the
rotten system of capitalism.
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