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Edition: |
pb |
| ISBN: |
9780979426407 |
| Publisher: |
Lucy Parsons Center |
| Release Date: |
2007-06-18 |
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ITEM OVERVIEW
"Getting Free is a study of anarchist revolutionary strategy. Since it is obvious that we cannot discuss strategy without first deciding what it is that we are trying to achieve, I begin (after a short critique of capitalism) with a two-page sketch of the basic structure of an anarchist society (a free society, one based on direct democracy). It's beautifully simple and elegant, in my humble opinion. Next I consider obstacles to be overcome, and then review strategies that have failed so far. Then I map out an anarchist revolutionary strategy, first abstractly and then in concrete detail. Finally, I discuss some of the issues in more detail and bounce the whole thing off relevant literature. I try to completely reconceptualize the fight against capitalists by shifting the focus away from seizing the state or the means of production to seizing decision making.
The main purpose of this book is to try to persuade revolutionaries to shift the sites of the anticapitalist struggle and to select new battlefields. I identify three strategic sites for fighting -- neighborhoods, workplaces, and households -- that I believe will not only enable us to defeat capitalists but also to build a new society in the process. The advantage of this shift is that if offers an offensive strategy, not merely a defensive one. That is, it is not merely about resisting what they are doing to us, but rather about defending what we are doing to them through our new social creations. It means that we would begin to take the initiative to build the life we want, and then fight to defend this life from attacks by the ruling class.
In listing all the strategies that have failed, I merely mean to argue that these forms of resistance, although they have accomplished a lot, haven't gotten us very far toward our ultimate goal of destroying capitalism. Some of them -- like the leninist vanguard party, social democracy, dropping out, and guerrilla warfare -- should be abandoned completely. The others should be subordinated to the main task of building free associations in neighborhoods, workplaces, and households. Strategies like strikes, civil disobedience, or insurrections are not wrong in themselves, but they are not enough, and by themselves cannot defeat capitalists. To win we must add another whole dimension."
James Herod joined the struggle against capitalists, politicians,
and priests (or, to use the abstractions, capital, state, and god)
during the social upheavals of 1968 and has remained in it ever since.
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;)
