Post-left anarchy. Recent trend in anarchist thought that promotes a critique of the relationship of anarchism with traditional leftism.
Summary
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- 1 Origins
- 1 Theory and critique of the organization
- 2 The rejection of morality
- 3 Refusal of work
- 2 Relationship with other tendencies within anarchism
- 3 Leaders
- 4 Sources
origins
Post-leftists argue that the left, even the revolutionary left, is anachronistic and incapable of creating change. Post-left anarchy offers criticism of the strategies and tactics it considers outdated radicals: the demonstration, the class struggle, focus on tradition, and the inability to escape the confines of history. Influenced by the work of Max Stirner and the Marxist Situationist International, post-left anarchy is marked by a focus on social insurrection and the rejection of left-wing social organization.
Theory and critique of the organization
Jason McQuinn describes the left-wing organizing trend with an explicit division between leaders and led, along with impositions on disciplinary rank and file members with protection against the leaders from liability to whom they are being led. For him there are 4 results of this type of structure:
- Specialization and professionalism.
To counteract these tendencies, post-left anarchy defends individual and group autonomy with free initiative, free association, the refusal of political authority, and therefore of small, simple, informal, transparent and temporary organization ideology. , and decentralized, direct federal organization with decision-making and respect for minorities.
The rejection of morality
The moral is also a goal of the post-left anarchy just as it was in Stirner and in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche . For McQuinn moral “is a value system in materialized abstract values that are taken out of context, set in stone, and turned into unquestionable beliefs to be applied regardless of a real person’s wishes, thoughts or goals, and regardless of the situation in which he or she finds it.
Refusal of work
Labor issues, the division of labor, and the refusal to work have been a major theme in post-left anarchy. Bob Black in The Abolition of Labor calls for the abolition of the society based on the producer and the consumer, where, Black argues, all life is dedicated to the production and consumption of raw materials. Attacking Marxist state socialism as well as market capitalism, Negro argues that the only way for human beings to be free is to regain their working and employment time, rather than turning necessary subsistence tasks into free play done voluntarily. .
Relationship with other tendencies within anarchism
Post-left anarchism has been critical of the more classical schools of anarchism such as Platformformism and Anarcho-Syndicalism . The most important criticisms that participate are those of everyday life and spectacle, of ideology and morals, of industrial technology, of work and of civilization.