In "On Anarchism and Black Revolution" Peter James Hudson examines the historical roots of critiques of anarchism and its relationship to Black liberation movements.
Johnnie Lewis writes:
“I believe on reading Leon Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution, one finds that during the actual revolution and the civil war and imperialist invasion afterwards, anarchists were incorporated by the thousands into the new Communist Party and into the government, including the Red Army, as were ‘left’ Social Revolutionaries, another strand of anarchism.”
Robert Blandford writes:
“The article, in my mind, engenders the question, how do we establish conditions to abolish the nation-state short of dictatorship of the working class? Many of the positive characteristics and forms of struggle that need to be developed or nurtured ,according to Lorenzo Ervin’s thought, are in fact already situated in Marxist theory and practice. I see nothing new in communes (Black or multi-national), direct democracy, autonomous community councils, all of which, including more, that have already been articulated within the Marxist-Leninist conceptual framework. Moreover, Ervin’s resistance to the nation-state is justified when he discusses it as the center around which liberation struggles were satellites or proxies, but which does not give the full picture of the problem of unity and support against international imperialism. Admittedly, bureaucratic insurgency even within the socialist state was and is a problem, but that does not rule out the necessity of practical work in the fight for socialism and communism. It is facile to cherry pick among ideology and espouse a new direction for the Black liberation struggle that has not been hammered out on the anvils of experience and context, but the best features of anarchy thrive, and are nestled within the Black revolutionary perspective, which adheres to Marx’s analysis of capitalism and anti-capitalist struggle.”
The struggle to develop ideological clarity means the struggle to find a correct ideology. The history of successful movements holds the key to differentiating between correct and incorrect ideologies.
Jahan Choudhry is Comments Editor for Black Agenda Report. He is an organizer with the Saturday Free School based in Philadelphia, PA.
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Orion Meadows is a non-violence trainer with Institute for Nonviolence Chicago.
Michael Li is Senior Counsel in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
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