Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism

by Van Der Walt, Lucien

• ISBN13: 9781904859161
• ISBN10: 190485916X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-01
• Publisher: Consortium Book Sales & Dist

Summary

Black Flame is the first of two volumes that reexamine anarchism's democratic class politics, its vision of a decentralized planned economy, and its impact on popular struggles in five continents over the last 150 years. From the nineteenth century to today's anticapitalist movements, it traces anarchism's lineage and contemporary relevance. It outlines anarchism's insights into questions of race, gender, class, and imperialism, significantly reframing the work of previous historians on the subject, and critiquing Marxist approaches to those same questions. Lucien van der Walt teaches at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Michael Schmidt is a Johannesburg-based senior investigative journalist.

Author Biography

Michael Schmidt is a Johannesburg-based investigative journalist and journalism trainer with twenty years' experience in the field as a writer and columnist for South Africa's leading newspapers. Lucien van der Walt is based at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where he teachers in development, economic sociology and labour studies.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 1
Acknowledgments	p. 3
Introduction	p. 5
Our Project	p. 8
Beyond Capitalism: History, Neoliberalism, and Globalisation	p. 9
Rethinking the Broad Anarchist Tradition	p. 14
Social Base and Global Reach	p. 15
What Is the Broad Anarchist Tradition?	p. 19
Insurrectionist Anarchism, Mass Anarchism, and Syndicalism	p. 20
Organisational Dualism	p. 22
War, Gender Issues, and Anti-Imperialism	p. 23
Anarchism and Marxism	p. 24
Before We Start	p. 26
Theory and Analysis
Socialism from Below: Defining Anarchism	p. 33
The Meaning of Anarchism: Debating the Literature	p. 34
The Need for a New Approach	p. 41
Starting Again: Socialism, Bakunin, and the First International	p. 44
Against Hierarchy	p. 47
Against Capitalism and Landlordism	p. 48
Against the State	p. 52
The Rejection of State Socialism	p. 54
Elements of the Social Revolution	p. 56
The Popular Classes	p. 56
Internationalism, Social Equality, and Anti-imperialism	p. 60
Counterpower and Counterculture	p. 65
For a New World	p. 67
Crime and Social Order	p. 69
Anarchism Redefined: Socialism, Class, and Democracy	p. 71
In Conclusion: The Modernity of Anarchism	p. 72
Proudhon, Marx, and Anarchist Social Analysis	p. 83
Cooperatives, Proudhon, and Peaceful Change	p. 83
A Critical Appropriation of Marxist Economics	p. 85
Marxist Economics and Anarchist Communism	p. 87
History, Progress, and the State	p. 92
The Vanguard and the State	p. 98
State Capitalism and Libertarian Socialism	p. 100
Economic Determinism and the Broad Anarchist Tradition	p. 105
The Anarchist Understanding of Class	p. 108
In Conclusion: Toward an Anarchist Social Analysis	p. 113
Strategy and Tactics
Roads to Revolution: Mass Anarchism versus Insurrectionist Anarchism	p. 123
Anarchist Communism versus Anarcho-syndicalism?	p. 124
The Insurrectionist Tradition	p. 128
Mass Anarchism, Possibilism, and Syndicalism	p. 133
Syndicalism: Prefiguring the Future in the Present	p. 133
Against Economism: Direct Action versus "Political Action"	p. 138
Anarcho-syndicalism, Revolutionary Syndicalism, and De Leonism	p. 142
In Conclusion: Building Tomorrow Today	p. 143
Anarchism, Syndicalism, the IWW, and Labour	p. 149
Bakunin, Sorel, and the Origins of Syndicalism	p. 149
The First International and the First Syndicalists	p. 153
The First Wave: Syndicalism before the French CGT	p. 155
The IWW and Syndicalism	p. 159
De Leon and Connolly	p. 160
The "Glorious Period" of the mid-1890s to mid-1920s	p. 164
In Conclusion: Syndicalism and the Broad Anarchist Tradition	p. 170
Ideas, Structure, and Armed Action: Unions, Politics, and the Revolution	p. 181
Union Activism, Anarchist Ideology, and Union Bureaucracy	p. 181
Mass Anarchism, Radical Counterculture, and Syndicalism	p. 183
Anarchist Schools and Syndicalist Education	p. 186
Democracy and Direct Action	p. 187
An Iron Law of Oligarchy?	p. 188
Alliances and the Struggle outside the Workplace	p. 190
Defending the Revolution	p. 193
The Question of Power and the Spanish Revolution	p. 198
In Conclusion: Anarchism, Syndicalism, and Counterpower	p. 202
Dual Unionism, Reforms, and Other Tactical Debates	p. 211
The Antimilitarist Tradition and Popular Revolt	p. 211
Reforms, Laws, and Compromises	p. 218
Boring from Within and Dual Unionism	p. 224
Tactics in Context and Organisational Dualism	p. 228
Syndicalism and Rank-and-file Movements	p. 231
In Conclusion: Reform and Revolution	p. 233
Militant Minority: The Question of Anarchist Political Organisation	p. 239
Insurrectionists Anarchists, Antiorganisationalism, and Stirner's Ghost	p. 240
Syndicalism and Anarchism without Adjectives	p. 242
Bakuninism, the Organisation of Tendency, and the "Platform"	p. 247
From Bakunin to the "Platform"	p. 253
Rethinking the "Platform" Debate	p. 256
Other Responses to the "Platform"	p. 257
In Conclusion: Militant Minority and Mass Movement	p. 263
Social Themes
The Class Character and Popular Impact of the Broad Anarchist Tradition	p. 271
The Case against "Spanish Exceptionalism"	p. 273
Broader Impacts and Infusions	p. 275
The Class Character of the Broad Anarchist Tradition	p. 279
The Broad Anarchist Tradition in the Countryside	p. 282
Behind the Rise of Peasant Anarchism	p. 283
In Conclusion: Labour Movements and Peasant Revolts	p. 290
Anarchist Internationalism and Race, Imperialism, and Gender	p. 297
Anarchist Class Politics and Race	p. 300
An International and Internationalist Movement	p. 305
Imperialism and National Liberation	p. 309
Anarchists and Syndicalists in Anti-imperialist Struggles	p. 314
Anarchism, Syndicalism, and Women's Emancipation	p. 321
Women, Class, and Counterculture	p. 323
Anarchist and Syndicalist Women's Activism	p. 328
In Conclusion: Class Politics and Human Emancipation	p. 334
Conclusion to Volume 1 and Prologue to Volume 2	p. 347
Bibliography	p. 349
Index	p. 377
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