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Berkman, Alexander “What is Anarchism?” AK Press,
Edinburgh, Scotland and Oakland, CA. 2003. Pbk, xxiii, 236pp. ISBN
9-781902-593708 £10.00 / $13.95
I expect many readers will already have (or read) at least part of this book, as parts of it have previously been issued by Dover, Freedom Press and Phoenix Press, amongst others, in various editions over the years, since its first publication in 1927. This version is a republication of the 1937 edition originally entitled “What is Communist Anarchism?” complete with the introduction by Emma Goldman together with a new intro by Barry Pateman.
Alexander Berkman is one of anarchism’s better known
“heroes”, having attempted the assassination of a murderous US capitalist,
done time for anti-war activities in the USA, then been deported to Russia in
time to document the destruction of the revolution by the Bolsheviks and then
live out his remaining years as an exile before finally committing suicide in
1936 rather than become a burden on his colleagues due to his failing health. Oh
and he was Emma Goldman’s partner for a while too and helped on Mother Earth
and then issued his own paper The Blast! Berkman was a totally committed
anarchist all his adult life and this book can be seen as a summation of his
ideas of what anarchism (and more particularly communist anarchism – he
dismisses other variants such as collectivism and individualism as unworkable)
was all about; the critique of the state, capitalism and organised religion; and
what an anarchist revolution meant and how an anarchist society could work.
I doubt if anyone would claim Berkman as an “original thinker” on the subject. He was, rather, representing the mainstream of anarchist communism as it then was. He had experience of “propaganda by deed” and “revolution by dictatorship” and he was firmly opposed to both in any shape or form. His critique of the state and capital are fairly basic – but then this book was intended for the ordinary workingman (and such sexist language has been retained throughout although it is clear that Berkman obviously intended the term to refer to all workers, male and female) rather than an intellectual audience and the text is written in the form of a discussion with an interested outsider.
It is to be expected that the language and historical
examples that Berkman uses now look pretty dated. The ideas in many respects, of
course, remain valid, but the book no longer functions as it was originally
intended. It is a classic text and one that hopefully will serve more as an
inspiration for a similar text for the 21st Century. Where Berkman
scores heavily, for me, is in his description in the later chapters on the
Russian Revolution and how it was defeated by the political party that claimed
to embody it, the Bolsheviks. His first-hand experience and bitterness shows all
too clearly that the Bolshevik road is the road to disaster for any social
revolution.
As he clearly states on page 185:
“If your object is to secure liberty, you must first
learn to do without authority and compulsion. If you intend to live in peace and
harmony with your fellow men, you and they should cultivate brotherhood and
respect for each other. If you want to work together with them for your mutual
benefit, you must practice co-operation. The social revolution means much more
than the reorganisation of conditions only; it means the establishment of new
human values and social relationships, a changed attitude of man to man, as of
one free and independent to his equal; it means a different spirit in individual
and collective life, and that spirit cannot be born overnight. It is a spirit to
be cultivated, to be nurtured and reared, as the most delicate flower of a new
and beautiful existence.”
In short, the means will determine the ends and if one
wants a society based and equality, mutual aid and liberty, one has to start
practicing it before the revolution actually happens, during the revolution and
after. It will not happen all by itself, it has to be done by the people
concerned.
As for the actuality of a social revolution, Berkman
didn’t claim to be clairvoyant, but drew some fairly common sense conclusions
from the Russian experience and from the logic of the situation. Quite simply,
any successful revolution will need to keep people fed, clothed, sheltered and
engaged in essential productive work from the start. It will need to be
organised from the base on a federal basis, with the emphasis on as much
self-sufficiency as possible, especially if the revolution takes place in a
restricted geographical area.
Whilst one has to agree with this, one does now wonder just
how practicable this would turn out to be. With the internationalisation of
production (and services) with the corresponding destruction and/ or removal of
previously existing productive capacity, not to mention the uneven and unequal
distribution of natural resources, one wonders just how far a country such as
Britain could be self-sufficient in the event of a revolution. Whilst it is true
that a certain amount of productive capacity could be reassigned to essentials,
so much of the raw materials and food supplies, not to mention energy resources,
are imported, a revolution would be hard pressed to meet the basic needs of
people here without rapidly arranging some forms of overseas trade or barter.
(And what exactly would be able to export?)
However, that wasn’t the situation when Berkman was
writing this book, primarily for an (Anglo-Saxon) American audience and one
can’t really fault the book for that. It does however mean that present day
readers may find his faith in the “toiling masses” ability to overcome all
such problems somewhat difficult to believe.
That said this is definitely one book that deserves the
title of “classic”, and one that hopefully will inspire a new generation of
activists to write their own updated version. As for this text, the lay-out and
printing are excellent, with only a couple of typos (doubtless left in for
people with nothing to do but pick nits) with one glaring error in Barry
Pateman’s introduction where, on page viii, he states that Alexander Berkman
“died on 28 June 1926, three weeks before the Spanish revolution broke out”.
How that howler got through I don’t know!
So, even if you’ve got a previous edition of
Berkman’s book do yourself a favour and get a copy of this and give it
another read and then start thinking about how you’d go about writing a better
and more up-to-date version.
Recommended (with a caveat that the language is dated).
7/10
Richard Alexander