>On Wed, 24 Jun 1998, Louis Proyect wrote:
>
>>
>> I still have no idea what a libertarian communist is. I know what
>> libertarianism is, it's the sort of thing that the Cato Institute promotes.
>> And then, as far as communism is concerned, that's what Che Guevara stood
>> for. And Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg. I never heard people like that describe
>> themselves as libertarians. Is this some new trend that I have to keep up
>> with? Come on, Rakesh, why don't you clue us in.
It is just an historical accident that the twin goals of solidarity and freedom were ever separated and counterposed. The revolutionary movements of the nineteenth century were movements for freedom through collectivism. The critique of liberal freedoms in the Communist Manifesto is not a rejection of freedom, but a rejection of the narrow form of market freedom - in fact the whole point of Marx's critique was that real freedom came through social revolution. It was only because the socialist movement was re-directed towards state-oriented socialism that the critique of market freedom was narrowed down into the apparatchik's innate distrust of independent initiative. Marx does make a case for 'authoritarianism' in the prosecution of the struggle against the capitalist class, because revolution is an authoritarian business. However, that authoritarian element only justifies itself on the grounds that it is the precondition for a greater freedom.
A libertarian communist is someone who has nothing to lose but her chains. -- Jim heartfield