This is the published version of a reply to an article by Marxist Ralph Darlington in Anarchist Studies (vol. 17, no. 2). Darlington’s original article appeared in Volume 17, Number 1 of Anarchist Studies and discusses the anarchist origins of syndicalism and refutes attempts to include Marxism as one of its influences. It discusses Bakunin’s syndicalist ideas and shows how Marx and Engels explicitly rejected them. Ralph Darlington declined to reply
(more…)Category: Marxism
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Review: Left Americana: The Radical Heart of US History
A review of a a collection of articles by a Trotskyist academic. Its author seeks to rewrite history by proclaiming the Haymarket Martyrs Marxists and getting basic facts about Marxism wrong. It appeared in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review No. 88 (Winter 2024)
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The Trotskyist School of Falsification
A review of Victor Serge’s biography of Trotsky showing its limitations and revisionism. It shows that Serge’s account, like Trotskyist accounts in general, is at odds with what actually happened in Russia and presents an at times wishful thinking account of Trotsky’s actual ideas and activities. It appeared in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review No. 79 (Spring 2020)
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Review: Anarchists Never Surrender by Victor Serge
A review of a collection of new translations by Victor Serge (1890-1947) which cover his individualist-anarchist and Bolshevik periods. It shows why Serge is not someone radicals today should seek to imitate, as his libertarian-Marxist period was too little, too late. It appeared in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review No. 74 (Summer 2018)
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Victor Serge: The Worst of the Anarchists
A review of various books by or about Victor Serge, the individualist-anarchist who turned Bolshevik. It discusses how he turned from an elitist individualist to an elitist Leninist and why his Memoirs, while an interesting book, is unreliable when it comes to his actual views between 1919 and 1929. While routinely presented by Leninists as amongst the “best of the Anarchists” (and so should be followed into Bolshevism), in reality he was amongst the worst. It was originally written for Anarchist Studies Vol. 22 No. 2 (Autumn 2014) and this, full, version appeared in Anarcho-Syndicalist Review No. 61 (Winter 2014)
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