community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
Anarchy and Leftists
by Gen. Confusion
Friday, Nov. 21, 2003 at 9:42 AM
for Pittsburgh Indymedia
hey I got a Q... how is it that anarchists, blac bloc, etc.., which I thought espoused a far far RIGHT philosophy, are allied with so many leftists?
I'm not trying to be flip or sarcastic... I really want to know.... am I wrong in my assumption about where anarchism stands on the political spectrum?
hmmmm...
by RES1
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003 at 5:33 AM
Ive always considered anarchy as the extreme left.
hmmmm...
by RES1
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003 at 5:34 AM
Ive always considered anarchy as the extreme left.
of course they're Leftists
by Irving
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003 at 7:55 AM
Even the Klan can't be considered extreme right wing anymore, considering all the Leftists Palinazis who want Jews dead, of Greenpeace who wants blacks to starve and die because GM grain might be tainted, etc.....
What is Right? What is Left?
by stephen donahue
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003 at 8:44 AM
sdonahue412@hotmail.com
Leadership in authoritarian left movements and/or political parties have often attacked Anarchists for being right wing, even fascist. The Communist Party leadership used to do this and i would imagine that Troskyist and other Marxists might still do likewise. This of course is not the case. This was simply the pretext used by authoritarian leftists to repress anarchists.
The terms Left and Right are not helpful. Was Lenin, Stalin and their ilk leftists? Once leftists take power they tend to become rightists. Funny how that works.
Maybe it is time to drop these terms, "left" and "right." For me "authoritarin" and "anti-authoritarian" might be more useful. Maybe "anti-social" and "social." After all Thatcher did say, "There is no society." She and her crowd would represent then the "anti-social" current. Also represented in this anti-social current would be the neo-cons such as G. Bush. and those who don't recognize a society but only a nation, national interest and police and the military to enforce these.
Anarchists and others who work for a world where there are societies that can function free from the constraints of markets and laws represent the "social" current. So, could we say that anarchists are not "left" or "right" but social? They would fit into a group of those who believe that people have what it takes to live together in peace, taking care of each other without somebody saying that they have to do it or saying that they are not allowed to do it, what ever the case might be.
Just a thought.
But no, in the traditional use of the term "right wing" anarchists are certainly not that.
the Right is Right
by Stephen Dontyahno
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003 at 9:03 AM
and the left is worng. Again. As usual.
which Marxist paints anarchists as rightists?
by Saleh
Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003 at 1:45 PM
salehw@yahoo.com
actually the marxists-leninists usually say the anarchists are ultra-leftists, not rightists (e.g. Lenin's 'ultra-leftism: an infantile disorder' is partly about left-wing communists in Germany who were in favor of anarchism). Left and right are important terms because people are being attacked as a class in a system where some compete with each other for profits from private property they own, the attacks are right-wing and the construction of a world favoring the working class is left-wing. The people who think anarchists are rightists are probably thinking of Libertarian Party types. I have no idea how anyone would see black bloc as right-wing unless they're not thinking of politics at all.
shut up
by shut up
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003 at 8:18 AM
shut up
asd
by iowje;.
Monday, Nov. 24, 2003 at 8:35 PM
many anarchists consider themselves leftists. but to the extreme end of it. some anarchist consider themselves as part of the "post-left", which tries to strike it out on its own outside of the political spectrum. this make sense to me, especially since the whole left-right political spectrum arose from the seating of the PARLEMENT from the french revolution. and parliements are a contrary to the principals of anarchism.
isnt it strange how folks ususally think of it backwards, as "right-left"? i think it may have something to do with our high school teachers writing the political spectrum on the black board. but maybe its something else.
ok then
by Gen. Confusion
Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003 at 5:51 AM
Good comments everyone. Thank you very much for the help..
![[masthead]](/images/masthead_140.png)