Left communist views on...

[Lanky Wanker]

I just googled 'left communism' and clicked on the Wikipedia link:


Left Communists see themselves to the left of Leninists (whom they tend to see as 'left of capital', not socialists), anarchist communists (some of whom they consider internationalist socialists) as well as some other revolutionary socialist tendencies (for example De Leonists, who they tend to see as being internationalist socialists only in limited instances).

Am I missing something here? What else would anarcho-communists be? Nationalists? :confused:

EDIT: I just realised I read that completely wrong... oops. I thought it was saying that in the sense of internationalism being a bad thing.

[Leo]

There are alleged anarcho-communists who support various national liberation movements and are overall little more than Trotskyists who disagree about Kronstadt.

[Lanky Wanker]

There are alleged anarcho-communists who support various national liberation movements and are overall little more than Trotskyists who disagree about Kronstadt.

I misread what I quoted, but this still answers my second question. I remember reading in the Conquest of Bread that trade with capitalist countries would be minimised during an anarchist revolution, so is this also something to do with these supposed left communist views on anarcho-communism?

[Tim Cornelis]

There are alleged anarcho-communists who support various national liberation movements and are overall little more than Trotskyists who disagree about Kronstadt.

Trotskyism is a Leninist theory that believes in the conscription and military organisation of labour, as well as a dictatorship of the proletariat, a centralised workers' state guided by a vanguard party. All of this is rejected by anarcho-communists. Every anarchist rejects the basic tenets of Trotskyism.

The number of contemporary anarchists that purely support national liberation can be counted on one hand, I'm sure, and won't be much smaller or larger than the number of left communists who support it.

The only anarchist who was an avowed and pure supporter of national liberation, to my knowledge, was Gerdzhikov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihail_Gerdzhikov).

[Thirsty Crow]

Trotskyism is a Leninist theory that believes in the conscription and military organisation of labour, as well as a dictatorship of the proletariat, a centralised workers' state guided by a vanguard party. All of this is rejected by anarcho-communists. Every anarchist rejects the basic tenets of Trotskyism.

Not to act as a defender of Trots, but can you provide evidence that Trotskyist organizations advocate the militarization of labour (as opposed to Trotsky's own ideas during the aftermath of the civil war)? Because, frankly, this sounds ridiculous (guilt by association, in essence).


I remember reading in the Conquest of Bread that trade with capitalist countries would be minimised during an anarchist revolution, so is this also something to do with these supposed left communist views on anarcho-communism?
I'm not really sure this has anything to do with left communists' assessment of anarcho-communism.
On the other hand, I do think there is the issue of federalism which is considered by left communists as, at best, a huge organizational problem, and as remnant of bourgeois influence at worst.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Trotskyism is a Leninist theory that believes in the conscription and military organisation of labour, as well as a dictatorship of the proletariat, a centralised workers' state guided by a vanguard party. All of this is rejected by anarcho-communists. Every anarchist rejects the basic tenets of Trotskyism.
I think you may have Trotsky and Trotskyism confused in some places here.

The main features of Trotskyism are Proletarian Internationalism/Permanent Revolution, organization of a revolutionary vanguard in the struggle for revolution, self-emancipation of the working class and proletarian democracy, opposition to Stalinism (Socialism in one country) and reformist democratic-socialism.

Military organization of Labor was a measure Trotsky supported in a specific context of at that time, it wasn't a principle and almost all Trotskyists today reject this or think he was wrong.

[Os Cangaceiros]

The number of contemporary anarchists that purely support national liberation can be counted on one hand, I'm sure, and won't be much smaller or larger than the number of left communists who support it.

The only anarchist who was an avowed and pure supporter of national liberation, to my knowledge, was Gerdzhikov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihail_Gerdzhikov).

There are a certain amount of anarchists who take less of a hardline on the topic of nat-lib than some others, though. There's definitely a continuum on that issue, in terms of anarchist opinion. Most anarchists historically and in the present day p. much reject national liberation struggles off-hand, but there are some who take a bit of a different view...today those people are probably best represented by Wayne Price and the authors of the book "Black Flame".

[Paulappaul]

What else would anarcho-communists be? Nationalists?

Internationalism for Left Communists presupposes a rejection of both National Liberation and the side picking during World War 2. Some Anarcho Communists, including Kropotkin, supported the Allies in the War and supported National Liberation.

[Blake's Baby]

Kropotkin supported France in WWI, arguing that 'revolutionary' France needed to be defended against 'Prussian militarism'. He died in 1921. Left Comms regard WWII as being the decider for the majority of the Trotskyists, and the Anarchists who supported anti-Fascism.