Notes on internationalist anarchism in the UK (part 2): From the 1950s to today
Submitted by Devrim on June 7, 2011 - 12:59
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The discussion that follows was prompted by the article: Notes on internationalist anarchism in the UK (part 2): From the 1950s to today. The discussion was initiated by Devrim.
Below is the discussion so far. Feel free to add your own comments!
On the anarchism article
Two things came to me upon reading this article. The first is that it barely mentions DAM/SolFed, which as well as being an important anarchist organisation in its own right is the UK section of the IWA. This is a serious omission.
The second is given that "the relationship between the ICC and the anarchist/libertarian milieu in Britain has been particularly difficult" how do you propose to get anarchists to read it.
I think admitting that we made a mistake in our charecterisation of the anarchist movement is an important step, but we also have to communicate it to them.
Devrim
Solfed
The historical background to Solfed is examined in the first part of the article, although there is a lot more to be said. I agree that we need to communicate this change of position to the anarchists. I think it would be good to propose this for the libcom library, for example, or to start a thread on libcom linking to the article, but as you know merely posting articles or making links has caused a lot of problems in the recent period, so we need to think about the best way to get to the actual discussion and avoid all the associated difficulties.
Anarchism
I agree with Devrim that maybe the article could be a point longer and address the ICC's the AF and SolFed in particular. Since it is part of the reason for the change in position was due to ICCers enagaging with members of those two groups on libcom.org over the years.
Generally, I thought the article was good in that I found out stuff I did not know previously: re the stuff on CWF. Although Memoth did tell me about the anarchist who knew Engels last time we met in Manchester.
Finally, while I share the communist critique of anarcho-leftism. I think the comments about the WSM maybe less then an accurate description of their current position.