I read Joe Wills letter in reply to Richard Griffin with interest. Wills dismisses Richard's comments on liberal electoral democracy as a "nihilist world outlook" that suggests "the working class have not improved their lives one iota since the dark days of feudalism." I was under the impression that working class direct action had improved our lives, not paternalistic actions by liberal parliaments. Obviously I was wrong to think that reforms were a product of working class self-activity (and the fear it provoked in ruling circles). Thanks for clarifying that -- I now know where the real power to change society lies.
Looking at "democratic centralism" Wills argues that "if there is one thing revolutionaries learnt in the 20th century it is this: decentralisation or survival." Strange. That century suggests the opposite: centralisation leads to minority rule, not socialism. Wills claims that "democratic centralism" is "not necessarily in conflict" with popular democracy yet his own example (the Russian Revolution) shows this is false. He states that the Bolshevik slogan was "All power to the soviets." Indeed, it was a slogan -- and nothing more. Lenin in 1917 made it clear that the Bolsheviks aimed for party power, not soviet power. And that is what we got. Wills claims that what "disrupted" the power of local soviets was "the civil war conditions created by the white terror of the internal and external armies of counterrevolution." Sadly, this often repeated claim is false. The Bolsheviks had been disbanding soviets elected with non-Bolshevik majorities from the spring of 1918, i.e. before the civil war started (see Samuel Farber's Before Stalinism). Faced with the choice of soviet power or party power, the Bolsheviks picked the latter. Unsurprisingly, given Lenin's politics.
Wills argues that "if there had been no central authority, the revolution would have been instantly strangled." Yet this "central authority" strangled the revolution. It had started to do this before the start of the civil war with attacks on soviet democracy, workers' control and opposition groups. Anarchists are not surprised by this, of course, as the state is designed for minority rule.
Then there is the stark contradiction in Wills argument. According to Lenin revolution inevitably involves civil war. Now, if civil war makes soviet democracy impossible then Leninists should come clean and rip-up Lenin's "State and Revolution" (as Lenin did once in power). You cannot have it both ways.
Anarchists argue that centralism kills popular democracy. This is because it centralises power into the hands of a few leaders (not so much "all power to the soviets" as "all power to the central committee"). Instead we argue for bottom-up federalism based on mandated and recallable delegates to co-ordinate decision making and the defence of the revolution. Wills makes no mention of this fact, instead implying that anarchists reject co-ordination by quoting Engels on the Spanish uprising of 1872-3. But this seems ironic, as he uses an example of lack of federation to refute federalism. He generalises by pointing to Argentina today where factory occupations are being defeated one by one by the police. What a surprise. That is why anarchists have been stressing, from the start, that the factories must federate together (see "From Riot to Revolution", Black Flag no. 221).
Wills argues that "the only guarantee of defence against counterrevolution is the centralised dictatorship of the proletariat." This is false. Firstly, as noted, this system in Russia destroyed the revolution before the civil war started. The Bolshevik leadership held power, not the proletariat -- as Bakunin predicted it was the dictatorship over the proletariat. Secondly, the example of the Makhnovists in the Russian Civil War shows that it is possible to defend a revolution without centralised power in the hands of a few leaders. Operating in as bad conditions as the Bolsheviks, the Makhnovists called soviet congresses, protected soviet, workplace and military democracy as well as freedom of speech and association. Unsurprisingly, the Bolsheviks slandered and betrayed them (slanders Leninists today repeat parrot-like, incidentally).
Wills states that "'pure communist' alternatives" are "ahistorical." Not true. They are rooted in a clear understanding of the events of the Russian Revolution (and better rooted in historical fact than the Leninist accounts). He asserts that we anarchists "seem to provide no viable alternative except to slam every organised attempt by revolutionaries to defend their revolution." The facts are different. From Bakunin onwards anarchists have argued that a revolution required a federation of workers councils to succeed and that this would organise the defence of the revolution by means of a workers militia. Exactly the approach of the Makhnovists in the Ukraine and the anarchists in Aragon during the Spanish revolution.
Now, perhaps Wills will explain why such a system cannot work. Is he arguing that working class people are incapable of self-organisation? That power needs to be centralised into the hands of a few leaders simply because the masses cannot govern themselves? If so, then let him say so clearly. If he claims that the masses govern themselves when they elect leaders to govern on their behalf, then he is playing with words. As the Russian Revolution shows, a "revolutionary" government centralises power into a few hands and definitely does not empower the many. Such a situation can only spell the death of a social revolution, which requires the active participation of all if it is to succeed. It also exposes the central fallacy of Leninism: claiming to desire a society based on mass participation it favours a form of organisation - centralism - that precludes it.
It is no coincidence that the ruling class prefers centralism. It empowers the few, not the many. Bolshevism shows that applying this system in the name of socialism does not work. We need to organise in new ways to build a new world.
For more information about the points raised, visit www.anarchistfaq.org
yours sincerely
Iain McKay