Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM
the anarchist experience in the Spanish revolution, to realize how important
his essay "Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship" was in 1969. To be sure, there
was Vernon Richard's excellent Lessons of the Spanish Revolution, but <strong>Chomsky</strong>
went further. He clinically dissected Gabriel Jackson's The Spanish RepubLic
and the Civil War:1931-1939 and linked it to the liberal ideology prevalent in
America in the 1960s, an ideology that reflects "an antagonism to mass movements
and to social change that escapes the control of privileged elites," which
in Jackson's work reveals itself through a regular use of negative language to
describe the actions of the anarchists. <strong>Chomsky</strong>, using a rich array ofhisrorical
texts, brought his points to a wide audience and influenced a new generation
of researchers and militants, inspiring them to probe deeper and further. In his
portrayal of Jackson's work as representing contemporary American liberal
thinking on Vietnam, <strong>Chomsky</strong> impressively linked past and present, making
a shrewd and disturbing commem on liberalism in general. In the words of
Peter Werbe: "As <strong>Chomsky</strong> amply and admirably demons nates, when the
major issues of an era are settled in blood, liberalism's pretense to humane ends
or means crumbles under the demands of an implacable state."
So here are some key components of <strong>Chomsky</strong>'s anarchism: an awareness
of anarchist history and how it still retains a freshness and urgency in the light
of today's challenges; a broad and generous definition of anarchism that links
left and council communists in its critique of capitalism and sees them as natural
allies; the central importance of class in any critique of capitalism and in
creating anarchy; and a belief in people's innate goodness, which is reflected in
actions and structures that contribute to what Rocker, in Anarcho-Syndicalism,
calls "a definite trend in (he historic development of mankind, which ... strives
for the free, unhindered unfolding of all the individual and social forces in
life." All of this is allied to a flexible methodology through which to accomplish
this unfolding, a willingness to change tactics, to consider a variety of
strategies, and a reluctance to speak with too much certainty or rigidness.
<strong>Chomsky</strong> expresses these ideas in clear and straightforward language, arguing
strongly against the mystifying nature of much inrellecrual writing and the
feelings of powerlessness caused by unnecessarily complex and elliptical language.
There are some questions that we can still raise. One has the sense that
<strong>Chomsky</strong>'s ideas about class could be a little tighter. Yes, class is manifestly an
economic state. It is, however, also a cultural state. To be working class is not
just to be part of an hierarchy: it is to be part of an experience, something that
is lived. Just what that experience is and how it is realized may well have implications
for the anarchism that <strong>Chomsky</strong> champions. Of course, all writing is a
form of shorthand, bur one would very much like to see him discuss this richer
and more complex picture of class at greater length. Secondly, and perhaps
more controversially (to anarchists at least), is <strong>Chomsky</strong>'s claim that the state
can be used to move towards a more equitable anarchical society. He sees the
libertarian movement as sometimes "pursuing doctrine in a rigid fashion with-
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