Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library
Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library
Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library
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INTRODUCTION<br />
B<br />
working together in comradely relati<strong>on</strong>ships." Equally important is <str<strong>on</strong>g>Chomsky</str<strong>on</strong>g>'s<br />
percepri<strong>on</strong> of class as the central tenet of anarchism. It's a theme he will keep<br />
returning to and a theme that is out of synch with both Woodcock and some<br />
elements of c<strong>on</strong>temporary anarchism. For <str<strong>on</strong>g>Chomsky</str<strong>on</strong>g>, it is quite straightforward:<br />
within modern capitalism we see matters of class arising all the time. To<br />
deny or minimize them is n<strong>on</strong>sensical. Such a positi<strong>on</strong> can lead him to harsh<br />
criticisms of anarchists like Srirner, primitivists, and all those who cannot see<br />
the importance of solidarity and community in a class-based way.<br />
Woodcock and <str<strong>on</strong>g>Chomsky</str<strong>on</strong>g> are nO( roo fa r apart however <strong>on</strong> the central q uesri<strong>on</strong><br />
oEhow an anarchy can be brought about. Both seem to shy away from the<br />
idea of a single revoluti<strong>on</strong>ary moment that will ovenhrow capitalism. Rather,<br />
they imagine it could well be a l<strong>on</strong>g, drawn-out process. It's an idea shared by<br />
other anarchists such as Colin Ward who, in his Anarchy in Acti<strong>on</strong> (I 973),<br />
argues that:<br />
an anarchist society, a society that organizes itself without<br />
authority, is always in existence ... buried under the weight of the<br />
state and its bureaucracy, capitalism and its waste, privilege, religious<br />
differences, nati<strong>on</strong>alism and its suicidal loyalries, religious<br />
differences and their superstitious separatism.<br />
h is an idea that has always had res<strong>on</strong>ance with some anarchists-Rocker is a<br />
notable example-and perhaps allows us to understand some of <str<strong>on</strong>g>Chomsky</str<strong>on</strong>g>'s<br />
ideas more clearly. Surely, like Ward, he sees a fundamental human decency in<br />
people. A decency that has somehow survived, and will c<strong>on</strong>tinue to survive, all<br />
the weap<strong>on</strong>s that capitalism can throw at it. From this decency comes ways of<br />
being that can operate within capitalism and point the way to a future of anarchy.<br />
Hence, <str<strong>on</strong>g>Chomsky</str<strong>on</strong>g> can argue that progressive taxati<strong>on</strong> and Social Security<br />
are created by attitudes which, if pushed a little more, would be anarchist. It's<br />
a little bit reminiscent of Kropotkin arguing that lifeboatmen were an example<br />
of anarchist communism in acti<strong>on</strong>, or the syndicalist idea the certain kinds of<br />
uni<strong>on</strong>s could become the source of a new society-the new in the shell of the<br />
old. Such an attitude certainly answers the problem of how we create anarchy<br />
in our day-to-day lives. It also explains the myriad of examples <str<strong>on</strong>g>Chomsky</str<strong>on</strong>g> gives<br />
of how to move towards anarchy, many of which implicitly suggest the richness<br />
of character and ability to provide mutual aid prevalent in many people.<br />
A cynical reader may well want ro ask how l<strong>on</strong>g <strong>on</strong>e must wait for the state to<br />
be eroded by these examples of anarchy in acti<strong>on</strong>, or might point our the suppleness<br />
and malleability of capitalism in incorporating many of these ideas as<br />
its own. But, as Woodcock argues of anarchists: "h is to liberating the great<br />
network of human co-operati<strong>on</strong> that even now spreads through all the levels<br />
of our lives than to creating or even imagining brave new worlds that they have<br />
bent their efforts."<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>Chomsky</str<strong>on</strong>g>'s anarchism has always been grounded in history. It might be<br />
hard for liS now, in an era where there are numerous sympathetic accounts of