Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM
Well, I don't think we can really say, because the terms of political discourse
aren't well defined. Capitalism. trade. the state, pick any one ... they are pretty
loose terms. Which is okay, bur it doesn't make sense to try to define these
terms carefully when YOli don't have an explanatory theory to embed them in.
Bur the fact is we can't really answer the question, anarchism covers toO many
things, libertarian socialism covers too many things. Bur I sympathize with
what he's trying to do. I think it's the right thing. If you look carefully they are
really close, there are similarities and relationships. The more anti-statist, antivanguardist
left elements of the socialist movement, Marxist movement in
fact-folks like Anton Pannekoek and others-there are close similarities
between them and some of the wings of the anarchist movement, like the anarcho-syndicalists.
It's pretty hard to make much of a distinction between, say,
Pannekoek's workers' councils and anarcho-syndicalist conceptions of how to
organize society. There are some differences, but they are the kind of differences
that ought to exist when people are working together in comradely relationships.
So, yes, that's a sensible blend in my view. The much sharper distinction
is betv"een all these movements and the various forms of totalitarianism
like Bolshevism, corporate capitalism and so on. There you have a real
break. Totalitarian structures on the one hand and free societies on the other.
In fact, 1 think there are significant similarities between libertarian socialism
and anarchism, this blend, and even very mainstream thinkers like John
Dewey-there are striking similarities.
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I know he was quite influenced by Stelton and the Modern School and he
took a lot of those ideas and thought about them ...
His basic view was that unless we eliminate what he called political and
industrial feudalism and turn it into industrial democracy-which means pretty
much workers' control-then the whole formal democratic system doesn't
really mean very much. And he comes straight out of mainstream American
histories. He's as American as apple pie.
A couple of quick things. J know from reading you that you are very much
impressed by Pannekoek, and Corter, the left communist strand. I take it
you don't see a danger of things like workers' councils or the work of
Pannekoek or Gorter leading into another form of totalitarianism. Do you
think that breaks from that ...
No, I think there is plenty of danger, but there is also danger that participatory
economics could lead to totalitarianism. Every one of us have been in
movement meetings, we all know the dynamics. No matter what you are working
on, purring up a traffic light on the corner or organizing resistance against
the Vietnam war, or whatever it may be ... there is a meeting of people and we
differ in our levels of tolerance for boring activities. Some people just drop off