Today's Topics:
1. Czech, afed: Climate issue of newspaper Bottom! [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. alas barricadas: Spaine, [Burgos] Success of the strike in
#Telepizza (ca, it, pt) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Czech, afed: - Visit to Rojava: Report from a travel lecture
around Kurdistan [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Greece, APO calls at tomorrow's strike rallies in Athens,
Thessaloniki and Patras [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. Russia, avtonom: Anarchists support Moscow EcoProtest
[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. ait russia: The global strike for climate? (ca) [machine
translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
7. anarkismo.net: Paul Goodman's Anarchism Has Meaning Today by
Wayne Price (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
The Anarchist Federation prepared the 10th issue of its street newspaper on the occasion
of climate strikes. Download, read. ---- After a few years, we revived our street
newspaper Bottom . The tenth issue is devoted to global climate change and the response of
the capitalist system. Although environmental protection and social ecology have always
been one of our core activities and topics, we have investigated so far with theoretical
articles on "climate". The following texts are an introduction to the discussion that we
intend to further develop. It seeks to unmask the roots of the crisis and touch on the
inoperable solutions offered by the system. ---- The article "Systemic causes of the
ecological crisis" should not leave anyone in doubt and shed light on the basis of our
approach. The text "Global climate change from an anarchist perspective" analyzes the
problem to the core. "Green capitalism" is then a story of how a goat became a gardener.
We simply have three concepts that are driving the planet into perdition. A rogue
neoliberal pseudo-solution tailored to the greatest polluters, rich people and
corporations whose main task is to maintain the privilege of devastating the environment.
The best known form is probably trading in emission allowances. Furthermore, a repressive
stew, welded for households and ordinary people, intended to blame the destroyed Earth on
each of us. That's the soup that doesn't taste Yellow Vests. Eventually there are deniers,
rising from the junkyard of history in the colors of the illiberal conservative right,
going religion against the facts. The most painful form of this concept is the escalation
of the problem, for example by supporting fossil business or burning forests.
In addition to these excesses, there is likely to be a combination of free-market and
repressive measures. The free market traditionally focused on large companies and the
repressive on households. The cost of any crisis, whether financial, refugee or climate,
caused by those above is traditionally charged to those below. The aim, therefore, is to
unmask false solutions, prevent the introduction of repressive measures, and extend
bottom-up resistance to the global ecocide. Let it burn as fast as the Amazon!
Editorial team AF
(4 pages A3, voluntary price)
Download PDF here .
https://www.afed.cz/casopisy/zdola/zdola2019-10.pdf
https://www.afed.cz/text/7036/vyslo-klimaticke-cislo-novin-zdola
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Message: 2
The follow-up has been massive and three out of five stores have lowered the gate, without
a single worker inside during the afternoon and with a store manager at night. ---- This
strike is only a first step, we will continue fighting and organizing with the Telepizza
workers of all the cities until we can end the exploitation to which the employers submit
. - CGT ---- The strike called by CGT in Telepizza Burgos concludes being a success. The
follow-up has been massive and three out of five stores have lowered the gate, without a
single worker inside during the afternoon and with a store manager at night. The orders
have been paralyzed and in most stores absolutely no one has entered all day.
Thanks to worker solidarity we have managed to picket in all stores.
The manifestation of the afternoon has also been a success, gathering around a hundred
people in solidarity.
This strike is only a first step, we will continue fighting and organizing with the
Telepizza workers of all the cities until we can end the exploitation to which the
employers submit.
In spite of the CCOO's dodging, sending a statement full of lies hours before the strike
and its dissemination of hoaxes throughout the week, despite the lies of the company, we
have managed to mobilize most of the workforce.
This strike would have been impossible without the solidarity of the entire working class
of Burgos, which has shown that it can organize and fight to defend the most precarious
workers. Solidarity that we want to thank from the union section of Telepizza Burgos.
The struggle will continue and extend to all cities and all precarious jobs.
Let the exploders tremble, the workers are organized andwe are not going to bow their
heads again .
Long live the struggle of the working class!
We workers will meet again in assembly this Monday, from there we will decide the next steps.
http://alasbarricadas.org/noticias/node/42191
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Message: 3
On Thursday, September 19, I went to Prague to deal with a few activist matters and have a
beer with my friend. We had that in the Zizkov Area 39, where we soon learned that a
nearby lecture on Rojava was held in the nearby Salé infoshop that evening. Nice surprise.
Less sweet, but rather fun, the surprise was that when we arrived there, we learned that
due to the unexpected event, Salé is not currently ready for this purpose, so we have
moved back to the "Thirty-nine". There was a theatrical performance on the first floor,
but the ground floor was free, the number of participants (about 20 of us) corresponded to
the capacity, so it was enough to roll up the screen, start the projector and start.
Two young university students took the floor to tell what and who they were and what
adventures they had encountered on their journey through Kurdistan. They began in the
Turkish part, which they described as a profoundly profound, full of armored cars, police
controls and reluctance of otherwise nice locals to talk to strangers about politics. They
illustrated how the regime crammed Turkish flags and portraits of dictator Erdogan
everywhere, as well as reluctant to destroy historical and residential buildings.
They then moved to the Iraqi part of Kurdistan, where they noted the visible social
inequalities, conservative and capitalist forms of society. Until the last minute, they
did not believe that they would be able to get to Rojava (Syrian part of Kurdistan) and
talked about the perceptions of obtaining permission on the Iraqi side.
In Rojava, they interviewed international volunteers involved in various civilian
projects, such as Make Rojava Green Again. In the photos they documented that the local
economy is mainly based on agriculture and oil extraction. They also visited the city of
Kobanî, which is known for its liberation by Kurdish militias from the Islamic State (IS).
Although about 90% of the buildings have been destroyed, there is a lively renovation and
new construction, and now there are twice as many people as before the IS attack. They
talked to local people - a car mechanic, a plumber, a shoemaker, a professor ... And it
was obvious that the conflict left many psychic scars on people.
Then, in their lecture, both travelers focused on the Rojava social transformation, which
aims to establish a stateless system where the emphasis is on equality and social
ownership of the means of production. They tried to describe the organization of local
communities, where the vast majority of problems are solved. The social structure is
conceived from the bottom up. They acknowledged that many times practice limped beyond
theory, but there was a positive approach. They got acquainted with several cooperative
projects, as well as with representatives of the private sector (but these are small
entrepreneurs and traders, as there is no large industry in Rojava). They did not conceal
the fact that in some respects they had taken more questions out of their way than they
had come. They were aware, however, that nothing could be done with the magic of a magic
wand to perfection in a short while.
As was customary, the end was in the audience. So there were questions about the
relationship between the private and cooperative sectors of the economy, the details of
how municipalities worked, how to deal with criminal offenses, how the health service
worked, or how they returned. Both promised to plan to report on their experience in both
spoken and written terms in the future.
https://www.afed.cz/text/7035/navsteva-rojavy
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Message: 4
AGAINST GOVERNMENT AND CAPITAL BARBARACY ... LET THE FIRE OF SOCIAL-CLASS WAR ---- The
neo-liberal New Democracy government that emerged after the July elections, pressing on
the path already taken by SYRIZA's political administration, continues to deepen the
conditions of exploitation and oppression in even more expansive sections of the
population in full harmony. targets of the ruling class, the local and international elite
and supranational mechanisms. ---- The propaganda of capitalist development and
profitability can mean nothing more today than the intensification of exploitation,
repression, social and class exclusion, the depreciation of labor, the cultivation of
social cannibalism and the plundering of nature. The new "development" bill that is being
passed in the coming days comes as a "roller coaster" on the already burdensome reality of
the working galleon, to bring about wage reductions, further intervention and stranglehold
control of the operation and collective processes of the unions, further striking the
right to strike, creating special economic zones where all the necessary facilities are
provided in the capital for unleashing workers.
At the same time, the state launches a widespread repressive operation against the
anarchist movement and socio-class resistances, solidarity structures and spaces of
struggle to subvert those pieces that are practically disputing its barbarism and passing
on its message of subjugation. the rest. From the earliest days of this political
management, immigrants and refugees, anarchists, militants and workers have been targeted.
They are the main goals of repression as disabling them will help in the smooth
implementation of the state's anti-social plans. The overwhelming attack is complemented
by a set of anti-labor bills and offensive policies. In all this,
In the face of the onslaught of the bankrupt world of state and capitalism that imposes
poverty, destitution, individualization and fake separation between people in our class,
we choose to fight from the bottom all together, locals, immigrants, students, workers,
students . The only real prospect of living with dignity is the organized social and class
counterattack of the oppressed and exploited to overthrow the world of power, through
collective struggles, with the compass of building a society of equality, solidarity and
freedom. workers of the base to claim that we belong, away from the trade union elites who
have a complementary role in employment.
BASIC ORGANIZATION - SOCIAL AND CLASSICAL IMPLICATION
ON SOCIAL REVOLUTION, ANARITY AND FREEDOM COMMUNISM
TERMINAL CONCENTRATIONS ON TUESDAY 24 SEPTEMBER
ATHENS: CAST 11.00 (APO Athens Local Coordination)
THESSALONIKI: KAMARA 10.30 (Thessaloniki Regional Coordination of APO)
PATRAS: ANNEX 10.00 (Anarchist group "mischievous horse" / AP member)
Anarchist Political Organization - Federation of Collections
apo.squathost.com | anpolorg@gmail.com
http://apo.squathost.com
------------------------------
Message: 5
On September 21, environmental initiative groups in Moscow and the Moscow Region opened
the All-Russian EcoProtest Day - a series of actions that took place over the weekend in
many cities of Russia. Moscow anarchists supported environmental activists by attending a
rally with black and green anarcho-ecological flags. The banner "Saving nature -
self-government in society", the posters "Forests are more important than profit",
"Development under the control of residents", etc. were meant to say that the source of
modern environmental problems is an unfair social system in which all important decisions
are made by a small handful of officials and oligarchs in the interests of their own
profits. There was also a poster against the persecution of eco-activists.
The participants in the Black-and-Green bloc were especially pleased with the presence of
the former political prisoner in the Moscow case, Vlad Barabanov, whose release they
demanded for shares for Freedom and Direct Democracy!
The text of the leaflet distributed by the participants of the Black and Green Block
Activists and activists!
You all know that in today's Russia, decisions on the exploitation of natural territories
are made not by local residents, but by the authorities and owners of large businesses.
Formally, the right to a favorable environment is recorded in the constitution, but those
in power are in no hurry to fulfill it. When making decisions, they are primarily guided
by the opportunity to make a profit, and residents have to defend environmental interests
in a struggle in which someone loses freedom and even life.
In order for the control over the adoption of important decisions to begin to pass into
the hands of interested residents, it is necessary to create
and develop territorial self-government, including:
participation of self-organized grassroots initiatives
participation of experts independent of power and capitalists
popular vote
And this should not be the current "public hearing", the decisions of which (already not
binding on it) continually strive to falsify the current government. Such hearings lack
the adoption of the practice of environmental movements, the invitations of independent
experts and activists willing to offer alternatives to the barbaric use of irreplaceable
natural resources.
And as long as control over production is carried out by large business, it is necessary
to require him to reduce the environmental impact of chemical emissions, the use of
non-degradable and non-recyclable materials and stop treating animals as a resource. And
since workers at enterprises, unlike their owners, are guided not by the ability to
quickly earn profits, but by the interests of ordinary consumers, it is also necessary to
strive to transfer enterprises to the control of people working for them. History knows
many examples of successful activities of both territorial and industrial self-government.
If you want to learn more about them and about the ideas of building a society consisting
of self-governing collectives - go to our anarchist resource avtonom.org
News , Sob. box , Agitation
Alternatives to the system , Event Reports , Protests , Ecology
Russia , Moscow
https://avtonom.org/news/anarhisty-podderzhali-moskovskiy-ekoprotest
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Message: 6
Climate change is no longer a warning, but a harsh reality. For decades, the environmental
movement has been alarmed by the tragic consequences that are inevitable if the global
warming to which we expose the planet does not stop. Our common home breaks down and cuts
like a pie for the good it can produce. Obviously, the current responsible for the
exponential deterioration we are undergoing is predatory capitalism, called neoliberal,
globalized, market economy, or any other definition that they want to introduce into
fashion to make it more acceptable. ---- When the production system is based on maximizing
profits in the shortest possible time and regardless of the consequences, not only the
rights of the working class are ignored, but also the environmental problems that change
all ecosystems, contribute to the migration outcome, poison the soil, seas and drinking
water, among other environmental disasters.
Speaking with such criticism of capitalism, which today is picked up by those who, after
the fall of the wall of their authoritarian "communist" model, would like to recover a
little, we must also recall the fault of those who, speaking out for what they call the
interest of the state, while defending their economic system, committed no less
environmental crimes. Among them are the drying up of the Aral Sea, the accident at the
Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the fact that Czechoslovakia was the most polluted country
in Europe during the Cold War, or the stupid stubbornness of Maoist China aimed at
destroying sparrows to increase grain production. Mao Zedong argued that "man must defeat
nature," and his stubbornness led to an environmental imbalance that cost the starvation
to more than 30 million of his humble followers. Yes,
It is painful to think that this social model, which some are still striving for, is
presented as an alternative to the ecological disasters of capitalism, because as soon as
control over production eludes the hands of those who exercise it, that is, ourselves who
are interested in maintaining the ecological balance , it tends to destroy the
environment. An example is our communal forest. In some of them, there have been no fires
for decades, as the locals themselves manage the forest environment through which they
live. This model reminds us of other Amazonian communities that are now expelled after
burning the jungle to produce soybeans to feed the rich world and livestock.
Thus, speaking of respect for the environment, we should not fall into the dichotomy we
are presented with between capitalism or statist "communism." Both of them put their
economic interests above environmental conservation. Only by advancing self-management,
far from commercialism, can we respect the environment and weave the fabric of a
socio-ecological model.
Currently, the subordination of those who control us to the power of the economy leads to
the publication of laws conducive to polluting forms of production. Of the environmental
problems arising from this, it is undoubtedly the most acute, due to the effects we have
already experienced, that is climate change. Among the most notorious effects is a rise in
temperature caused by the accumulation of polluting gases. Gradually, we see how heat
waves become more asphyxiating, how glaciers melt, how sea levels rise to such an extent
that one has to consider the possibility of cities moving inside countries, how numerous
species irrevocably disappear, how extreme weather events are getting stiffer, or how
productivity is decreasing, with all caused by these terrible consequences.
For capitalism, everything is acceptable in its pursuit of immediate profit, and for this
they seek to turn life on the planet and common interests into real, plastic or virtual
money flowing into a tax haven. Money that benefits only a few. This is his guide to
action: to accumulate wealth by creating a society based on making us, those who transform
and produce products, believe that our goal is the image they sell to us: the image of
consumerism. Nothing makes the working class degrade so much, nothing degrades it so much
as a competitive, non-solidary and irrational society. In this social model of
consumption, among other pleasant sensations, you cannot be happy, if you don't have your
own vehicle or if you cannot boast of a transcontinental and highly polluting vacation on
social networks. It is aimed at subsidizing polluting cars, and when this has contributed
to increasing the problem of air pollution, they resort to the threat of sanctions if
people do not buy another car that runs on a different type of energy. After all, this is
something else, a journey in a private car and away from workplaces. Is there anything
less environmentally friendly? travel in a private car and away from workplaces. Is there
anything less environmentally friendly? travel in a private car and away from workplaces.
Is there anything less environmentally friendly?
They want us to stare at a teenage girl on TV, demanding more government summits, and
demobilizing our forces! But enough symbolic "strikes" and silent rallies, sounding like a
requiem for a planet being destroyed! Even if the class consciousness is lost, the
struggle is stopped, and the general need is turned into an instant day of games, let's at
least not distort the revolutionary meaning of what a strike is. Our presence at the
demonstration, separate from traditional accomplices and carried out as part of the
libertarian bloc, meets the need to declare that respect for the planet is incompatible
with capitalist consumerism and statist "communism".
Let's fight for a socio-environmental model based on self-government.
CNT-AIT of Catalonia
September 2019
http://elmilicianocnt-aitchiclana.blogspot.com/2019/09/cnt-catalunya-ait-huelga-mundial-por-el.html
https://aitrus.info/node/5326
------------------------------
Message: 7
The Radical Decentralist Politics of Paul Goodman ---- The most well-known anarchist of
the "sixties," Paul Goodman explored vitally important aspects of theory and practice:
decentralism, community, liberatory technology, and utopian thinking. ---- There is a 2011
documentary (directed by Jonathan Lee) titled, "Paul Goodman Changed My Life." This was
true for me and many others in the "sixties." Paul Goodman (1911-1972) was the most
well-known anarchist of the period (much better known at the time than was Murray
Bookchin). He was widely influential in the student and anti-war movements. His books were
extensively read. After his death, George Woodcock, the historian of anarchism, called him
possibly "the only truly seminal libertarian thinker in our generation." (quoted by editor
in Goodman 2010; 13)
From my current perspective of revolutionary anarchism, I have come to see limitations
and flaws in his views. But there remains a great deal of value in his work, for today's
anarchists and other radicals. He is not so well known now, but it is, I believe, well
worth reviewing some of his key ideas.
There is no overall system of "Goodmanism" (unlike Bookchin's efforts to create a total
worldview). But central to Goodman's thinking was what he called "the anarchist
principle." This was a belief grounded in historical evidence but also in humanistic
faith. He thought that people, working in a face-to-face community, could solve problems
with which they were directly in touch. They performed better without threats, coercion,
external bosses, extrinsic rewards, top-down direction, and pre-set agendas. "A
man[note]is dependent on his mother Earth. We are forever dependent in the universe, but
not on princes." (Goodman 1962a; 16)
"Anarchism is grounded in a rather definite proposition: that valuable behavior occurs
only by the free and direct response of individuals or voluntary groups to the conditions
presented by the historical environment....Anarchists want to increase intrinsic
functioning and diminish extrinsic power." (2011; 29)
Goodman defined centralization and decentralization as not just being big or being small,
but as types of social organization. "In a centralized enterprise, the function to be
performed is the goal of the organization rather than of persons....The persons are
personnel. Authority is top-down. Information is gathered from below in the field and is
processed to be usable by those above; decisions are made in headquarters and... are
transmitted downward by chain of command....The system was devised to discipline armies,
to keep records, collect taxes, and perform bureaucratic functions and for certain types
of mass production. It has now become pervasive.
"The principle of decentralism is that people are engaged in a function and the
organization is how they cooperate. Authority is delegated away from the top as much as
possible and there are many accommodating centers of policy-making decision. Information
is conveyed and discussed in face-to-face contacts. Each person...works at it in his own
way according to his capacities. Groups arrange their own schedules. Historically, this
system of voluntary association has yielded most of the values of civilization...." (1965;
3-4)
He rejected the common argument that people had to be impossibly good for anarchism to
work. On the contrary, he writes, anarchists believe that power corrupts, therefore no one
is good enough to have power over other people. That is why we need decentralization,
pluralism, participatory democracy, and checks-and-balances. "The moral question is not
whether men are ‘good enough' for a type of social organization, but whether the type of
organization is useful to develop the potentialities of intelligence, grace, and freedom
in men." (1965; 19) (Note that he used "men" generally to mean people-or perhaps just men.)
For Goodman, freedom did not mean simply being left alone by the state (freedom-from), but
the opportunity of individuals and groups to initiate, to make society, to be autonomous
citizens (freedom-to). "Civil liberty must mean the opportunity to initiate a policy,
enterprise, or an idea....It cannot mean merely freedom from restraint....Such liberty
will not be preserved, except in form." (1962a; 48) He ends Communitas with "the
remarkable and thought-provoking sentence of Michelet, ‘Initiation, education, and
government-these are three synonymous words.' " (Goodman & Goodman 1990; 224)
Overall, he argued, "We are in a period of excessive centralization....In many functions
this style is economically inefficient , technologically unnecessary, and humanly
damaging. Therefore we might adopt a political maxim: to decentralize where, how, and how
much[as]is expedient. But where, how, and how much are empirical questions. They require
research and experimentation." (1965; 27)
Using his definition of "decentralism" to mean a form of radically-democratic, voluntary,
and federalist self-organization (and denying that this means "anarchy" in the sense of
chaos), Goodman writes, "...Most anarchists, like the anarcho-syndicalists or the
community-anarchists, have not been ‘anarchists' either, but decentralists." (1965; 6) Yet
he continued to describe himself as an anarchist.
Goodman's Anarchism, Its Roots and Consequences
Goodman was of course strongly influenced by the classical anarchists. His book Communitas
(1960), co-written with his brother Percival, is, in many ways, an updating of Peter
Kropotkin's Fields, Factories, and Workshops (Kropotkin 1985). He was much influenced by
the bioregionalist Lewis Mumford and by decentralists such as Ralph Borsodi. Thomas
Jefferson's radically democratic vision (at least for white people) was important to
Goodman. "Jefferson championed decentralization, for people can reasonably decide only
what they know about intimately...transforming the town meeting into an experimental,
self-improving unit....Any basic function could be the principle for the small political
unity....Applied to industry, the unit is the soviet." (1962a; 69)
Goodman was greatly influenced by John Dewey, the great liberal, progressive educator, and
advocate of decentralized community and industrial democracy. Goodman applied Dewey's
philosophy of pragmatism to various fields.
He was also inspired by Karl Marx. "I found, again and again, that the conclusions I
slowly and imperfectly arrived at were already fully and demonstrably...expressed by Karl
Marx. So I too was a Marxist! I decided with pleasure....But as regards political action,
on the other hand, I did not see...that the slogans of the Marxians, nor even of Marx,
lead toward fraternal socialism[the absence of state or other coercive power], rather they
lead away from it. Bakunin was better. Kropotkin I agree with." (1962; 34) On the relation
between anarchism and Marxism, I am essentially in agreement with Goodman. (I also agree
with his philosophical grounding in Dewey's pragmatism.)
Such a perspective led him to condemn much of the industrial capitalist society. His most
well-known book, Growing Up Absurd (1962b), had a main message: that "youth problems"
(delinquency, alienation, etc.) were not due to the youth but to the society they are
growing into. Young people needed a worthwhile world in which they could explore their
potential abilities and find their way into work and activities which were useful and
creatively productive. Similarly, his voluminous writings on education (from elementary
ages to graduate school) did not focus on improving the schools. Instead he advocating
making society itself educative, in all its activities and occupations, so that young
people could grow into being self-developing, society-making, subjects.
I am not going to discuss his political activities, which were mainly in the antiwar
movement "Any acts for peace...are in fact proposing a radical relaxing of centralized
sovereignty and power as a way of organizing society. But this is anarchism." (1962c) For
awhile he was in danger of being arrested for supporting draft refusers during the
U.S.-Vietnam war.
He was bisexual but did not participate in any LGBT movement. His main contribution here
was being a prominent writer who lived openly as an Gay person (for which he got fired
from various teaching jobs).
He wrote little about the African-American liberation struggle (the major issue of the
time, besides the war). He did point out that "most of[the]progress toward civil rights so
far has come from local action....The Negro organizations themselves have been decentrally
coordinated." (1965; 13) (I am not covering his fiction writing, his poetry, or his
psychological works-he was a co-founder of the psychotherapeutic school of Gestalt
Therapy.) As he summarized, "The hope in face-to-face community...is still the only truth
I know." (1962a; ix)
A Libertarian Approach to Technology
Of all the topics Goodman discussed, the one which most affected me was his view of
technology. One of the main arguments against anarchism was, and still is, that modern
technology requires centralization, massive industries, stratification, and a strong
state. This is the dominant view of liberalism and most varieties of Marxism. This is even
though Marxism says that capitalists do not organize industry to be most efficient in
making useful products, but organize it in the best way to produce surplus value
(profits)-not the same thing at all. And that modern capitalists have recently reorganized
industry into smaller factories and workplaces, in order to better control the workers.
Goodman demonstrated (to my satisfaction anyway) that industry could be reorganized to be
consistent with a decentralized, communal, society-democratically self-managed-while still
maintaining a comfortable level of living with plenty of free time. This required "a
selective attitude toward the technology....Nor is it the case, if we have regard to the
whole output of social labor, that modern technical efficiency requires, or is indeed
compatible with, the huge present concentrations of machinery beyond the understanding and
control of small groups of workers." (1962a; 35-36)
"For the first time in history we have...a surplus technology, a technology of free
choice, that allows for the most widely various community-arrangements and ways of
life....We could centralize or decentralize, concentrate population or scatter it.....If
we want to combine town and country values in an agroindustrial way of life, we can do
that. In large areas of our operation, we could go back to old-fashioned domestic industry
with perhaps even a gain in efficiency, for small power is everywhere available, small
machines are cheap and ingenuous, and there are easy means to collect machined parts and
centrally assemble them." (Goodman & Goodman 1990; 11-13)
"I do not believe that an advanced technology necessarily involves... concentrated
management, bureaucracy[and]alienation of labor....Quite the contrary,, these are by and
large inefficient, unexperimental, uncritical, and discouraging to invention." (1962a;
109) Self-determined workers and engaged citizens should decide, "'This should be
automated, this should be made in small plants, this by domestic power tools, this by
hand, and this isn't worth the trouble to make at all.' " (1965; 38-39)
Communitas was originally written in 1947. This was before the modern ecology movement
demonstrated the terrible "side effects" of centralized industrialization as organized by
capitalism. It was before E. F. Schumacher's "small-is-beautiful" movement which showed
the possibilities of what has been called "alternate," "appropriate," or "liberatory"
technology. It was before the Internet created the possibility of widespread
coordination-from-below of units of small scale production.
In this area, Goodman's work has been continued by the anarchist Kevin Carson (2010;
2016). He has updated Goodman's analysis of the possibilities of a decentralized
technology, based on the latest developments.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Probably the worst flaw in Goodman's social criticism was his attitude toward women. This
was often patronizing and condescending. In his Growing Up Absurd (1962b), he explained
that the "problems of youth" he was discussing referred to the problems of boys and young
men. Women, he claimed, already had meaningful and creative work in being wives and
mothers. No doubt taking care of children and maintaining a home can be important and
meaningful work-for women or men. It is mistaken, however, to see this work as completely
fulfilling for a lifetime-and to be blind to the oppression of women. Of course most men
were blind in this regard, especially before the "second wave" of feminism. However,
Goodman was acquainted with the most advanced radical thought of his time and chose to not
know better.
Goodman was not a standard liberal or state socialist, but he was a gradualist, pacifist,
and reformist all the same. Except for occasional rhetorical flourishes, he did not
advocate revolution. In his earliest writings he presented his program as implicitly
revolutionary only in aim. Under conditions of prosperity, he argued, "We may...act in a
more piecemeal, educational, and thoroughgoing way....Our attack on the industrial system
can be many sided and often indirect, to make it crash of its own weight rather than by
frontal attack." (1962; 35)
Over decades he became less radical, partly due to his alienation from the radicalizing
youth (for good and bad reasons). He told his brother he did not want to update Communitas
because "he no longer believed in schemes for improving the human condition." (Goodman &
Goodman 1990; 225) Really speaking for himself, he wrote, "I don't think that there's any
anarchist thought at present which is interested in a total revolution of society."
(1962c) Instead, he preferred "conservative solutions...that diminish tensions by changing
2 percent of this and 4 percent of that." (2011; 100) He made proposals for subsidizing
small farmers, for encouraging local television, for expanding workers' rights in
industry, to ban cars from Manhattan, to set up local children's classes without schools,
and so on.
Instead of the classical anarchist program of libertarian socialism (or communism),
Goodman came to advocate a "mixed system" (1965). By this he meant a combination of
consumer and producer cooperatives,, small businesses, NGOs, state enterprises, and
capitalist corporations. This implied the continuation of a capitalist market and state.
This reformism (by which I do not mean support for reforms but a belief that reforms are
enough) was consistent with his life-long radical pacifism. Goodman had often been
insightful when opposing imperialist wars or nuclear armament. But his pacifism led to
opposition to revolution and wars of national liberation.
His gradualism and pacifism led to an estrangement from the radicalizing generation. At
first he was influential due to his well-put opposition to the multiple evils of our
society. But left students and youth were, unfortunately, influenced by the examples of
Mao's China, Ho's Vietnam, and Castro's Cuba-that is, by Stalinist/state-capitalist
regimes which appeared to be fighting U.S. imperialism. Goodman was completely correct in
rejecting the authoritarianism of the developing new left. Yet he was wrong in opposing
revolution-considering how total was the crisis and how unyielding the capitalist class
remains in holding on to their wealth and power. His gradualism, reformism, and pacifism
turned off the tens of thousands of young activists who were moving toward revolutionary
politics. Since he was the most well-known anarchist at the time, this made it harder for
anarchists to oppose the influence of Stalinism (including orthodox Trotskyism).
Part of the problem was that Goodman's politics solidified in the period of the capitalist
boom after World War II. Like most others, he expected the underlying prosperity and
stability to last indefinitely. He did not expect the return of the crisis-laden economic
and social-political conditions of the pre-war period. His brother, Perceival, later
recognized at least the ecological aspects of their misunderstanding. "About a
half-century later[after Communitas], what had seemed an everbriming cornucopia threatens
to run dry. Limits, not free choice, scarcity, not surplus, are now the facts that will
condition our future." (Goodman & Goodman 1990; 226) This implies the need for a
revolutionary, rather than reformist, anarchism.
Utopian Thinking
Goodman raised a method which he called "utopian thinking." This meant to look at social
problems in their objective contexts, and to propose direct solutions which were
technically practical-ignoring the obstacles of conventional politicians and conformist
public opinion. Hopefully, this could pressure the authorities (if this was at all
possible) and educate the people. It was to be "direct: to start with things that need
doing and to find available skill and labor willing to do them." (1965; 143) That might be
part of a piecemeal, reformist, approach. But this method is also consistent with what has
been called "non-reformist reforms" or "transitional demands" (such as solving
unemployment and poverty by dividing all the work which needs to be done by all the
available workers, and similarly dividing the wealth available for pay-the "sliding scale
of wages and hours"-which is actually the principle of a socialist society). This approach
could be part of a revolutionary program for the working class and all oppressed people.
Is a humanistic, radically-democratic, and libertarian-socialist revolution possible, in
time to avert catastrophe? I don't know. However, referencing de Tocquevile on the French
Revolution, Paul Goodman wrote at one point, "It will be said that there is no time.Yes,
probably. But let me cite a remark of Tocqueville. In his last work, L'Ancien Regime, he
notes ‘with terror,' as he says, how throughout the eighteenth century writer after writer
and expert after expert pointed out that this and that detail of the Old Regime was
unviable and could not possibly survive; added up, they proved that the entire Old Regime
was doomed and must soon expire; and yet there was not a single[person]who foretold that
there would be a mighty revolution." (2010; 122)
References
.Carson, Kevin A. (2010). The Home-brew Industrial Revolution; A Low-Overhead Manifesto.
BookSurge.
Carson, Kevin A. (2016). "Agency and Other Anarchist Themes in Paul Goodman's Work."
Center for a Stateless Society Study No. 22 (Spring-Summer 2016)
Goodman, Paul (1962a). Drawing the Line; A Pamphlet. NY: Random House.
Goodman, Paul (1962b). Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society. NY:
Vintage Books/Random House.
Goodman, Paul (1962c). The Society I Live in is Mine. NY: Horizon Press.
Goodman, Paul (1965). People or Personnel; Decentralizing and the Mixed System. NY: Random
House.
Goodman, Paul (2010) (Taylor Stoehr ed.). Drawing the Line Once Again: Paul Goodman's
Anarchist Writings. Oakland CA: PM Press.
Goodman, Paul (2011) (Taylor Stoehr ed.). The Paul Goodman Reader. Oakland CA: PM Press.
Goodman, Paul, & Goodman, Perceival (1990). Communitas: Ways of Livelihood and Ways of
Life. NY: Columbia University Press/Morningside.
Kropotkin, Peter (1985) (Colin Ward ed.). Fields, Factories, and Workshops Tomorrow.
London: Freedom Press.
*written for Anarcho-Syndicalist Review
https://www.anarkismo.net/article/31563
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