Joe Wills says I let "the cat out of the bag when he talks of how the Makhnovists "liberated" the towns." This is because he "thought anarchists believed liberation was achieved by the workers themselves and not by bands of self-proclaimed revolutionaries." Incredible! Does he not believe in solidarity between peasants and workers? Does he think that the Makhnovists should have left the workers of the cities to the Whites? Or weaken the struggle against counter-revolution by ignoring its occupation of the cities?
Even more incredibly, he argues that I accept "that Makhno used dictatorial tactics during the civil war and [do] not contest the fact that the 'Regional Congress of Peasants, Workers and Insurgents' was undermined and belittled." He says this is in "contradiction" to the Makhnovists encouraging soviet democracy and freedom of speech. However, he fails to note that I said that in the heat of battle, grassroots democracy was sometimes ignored. The point is not whether violations of principal occur, it is whether such violations are occasional or whether they are built into the new system. He argues that this "a mirror argument" of what I criticise Marxists for, "namely relying on the paternalistic and benevolent attitudes of one's leaders rather than the inherent and spontaneous revolutionary nature of the working masses." This is, of course, a total distortion of my argument and the facts.
He claims that I simply repeat what he "argued in the first place and the point McKay has been rebutting in all his responses." What nonsense. The Makhnovists occasionally violated libertarian principles while, in the main, implementing and encouraging them. The Bolsheviks violated them from the start, moreover raising party dictatorship to a key ideological position. The Makhnovists called soviet congresses, the Bolsheviks disbanded them. The former encouraged free speech and organisation, the latter crushed both. But, apparently, both are the same because Makhno made a few arbitrary decisions! Incredible.
Wills argues that "the politics of Marxism are no more to blame for Bolshevik Jacobinism than the politics of Bakuninism are for the bureaucratic degeneration of the Makhnovshchina." Bakuninism? Anarchism is not "Bakuninism." As for "bureaucratic degeneration," well, clearly Wills knows little about the Makhnovist movement. Nor logic, if he equates party dictatorship, one-man management and the repression of working class protest with a few arbitrary decisions by Makhno (which, incidentally, the Regional Congresses held the army accountable for).
He tries to answer this issue by arguing that the Bolsheviks "led a popular insurgency against the state after building up huge support in the local soviets." Yet he fails to note that by the spring of 1918, they had lost "the support of the majority of the organised working class" across Russia. In response to this, they gerrymandered soviets and disbanded, by force, any which were elected with non-Bolshevik majorities. This was before the start of "the appalling conditions of 'civil war,'" which therefore cannot be blamed for it. The working class protested this usurpation of power. Mass strikes waves took place throughout the civil war. The Bolshevik response was simple: state repression (including shooting strikers, arresting "ringleaders," lockouts and martial law).
Nor did the Bolsheviks change from a "libertarian profile" to "rigid authoritarianism." Lenin's stated aim was party power. This was achieved. To maintain their authority, the Bolsheviks had to use authoritarian methods. They may have talked about (some) libertarian ideas before taking power, but, as Marx said, we must judge people by what they do, not what they say. Moreover, is Wills implying that Bolshevik ideology played no role in the decisions made? That seems unlikely, particularly seeing that leading Bolsheviks justified their policies in ideological terms. Or that the (statist) institutional framework the Bolsheviks operated in also had no effect on the evolution of their practice and ideology?
Wills blames Bolshevik authoritarianism on "the failure of social revolution in Europe," yet the Bolsheviks were disbanding soviets and imposing one-man management long before this happened. He absolves the Bolshevik leadership for responsibility for its own actions by stating "the real cause" was "the failures and betrayals of the workers' movement in Europe and elsewhere." If all else fails, blame the workers, eh?
Wills says my comments on workers' councils does "not differ from Marxism or early Bolshevism" and seem "rather to be the beginning of a break with anti-statism." Funnily enough, I was paraphrasing comments Bakunin made before the Paris Commune applied the idea of imperative mandates. (which Marx praised). So my comments signify consistent anti-statism, not a "break" from it. As for "early Bolshevism," surely Wills knows that the Bolsheviks initially opposed the soviets in 1905 (the logic of that opposition was distinctly anti-democratic, although it helps explain what happened in 1918!)? And that the anarchists not only supported the soviets, but saw them as the framework of the free society (unlike the Bolsheviks)? Unsurprisingly, given Bakunin's ideas. Which means that when they talk of workers' councils, Leninists are only repeating Bakunin -- the difference being, as the Makhnovists and the Bolsheviks show, anarchists mean it!
Finally, Wills says that popular self-management "is not a consistent argument against the state or authority," so showing his ignorance of anarchism. He suggests that this "seems to imply the break-up of the national state into lots of smaller, autonomous states." He obviously cannot tell the difference between libertarian organisation (power to the base and decision making from the bottom-up) and the state (centralised power in a few hands and top-down decision making). Which helps explain why the Bolshevik revolution was such a failure. The confusion of working class power with party power is one of the root problems with Bolshevism. Let's learn from history, not repeat it.
yours,
Iain McKay