Getting Free

[YSR]

Has anyone else read this book? I just chomped through it yesterday and found it a very powerful and innovative vision of an anarchist society that we should be pushing for. Specifically, the connection between anarcho-syndicalist, anarcho-communist, and feminist elements.

I have my problems with the paper, but I'd like to hear others responses to it as well.

Oh, here is a copy of it online. (http://jamesherod.info/?sec=book&id=7&PHPSESSID=7159f2077bf3d7fb459e43f2a499b638)

[Black Cross]

Haha, I guess you're the only one who's read it. It seems interesting; I'll pick it up next time I get a chance. Thanks for the recommendation comrade.

[VukBZ2005]

To start off, I believe that "Getting Free" is a must read. It helps to clarify the concepts that lie behind the idea that everyone must control the means of production and must have direct control over the social, cultural and political aspects of their lives, not just the economical aspects of their lives.

The only real problem that I have with "Getting Free" is that the time-rate for the rational creation of a situation that would ultimately produce a real Communist revolution and a real Communist society is dramatically slow. I would prefer that it is not slow and not fast, but it moves at a speed that is as consistent as it can possibly be.

[YSR]

I agree with you about the slowness of the revolutionary movement that Herod proposes. But it seems to me that this is because he doesn't hold much for spontaneous demonstrations like the Oaxaca commune of last year. His model is rooted more in an organizational approach of counter-power, a theory which seems to resonate in a lot of contemporary red anarchist theorists.

My biggest problem with the book is that Herod gives very poor instructions on how to exactly achieve what he talks about. It's sort of a "go out and start an assembly" but he never illustrates how that will lead to the more explicitly revolutionary steps he outlines.

Then again, one person can't provide all the plans. This work is one of strategic theory, rather than strategy.