libertarianism & left/right

[Gordon Fitch]

Tahir:
> >I think that left/right convergence around libertarianism is inevitable. I 
> posted
> >something on this a week or two ago in relation to "individualist anarchism" 
> and
> >I have raised dangers relating to the term "libertarianism" on other lists 
> too.
> >The fact is that if your point of departure is anti-statism, and not class, 
> capital,
> >history, etc., you are going to find yourself at some stage or another in 
> strange
> >company. This is one of the reasons why I am not an anarchist myself, 
> although
> >I have strong sympathies for communist anarchism. I personally have known 
> many
> >people whose notion of anti-statism (and even "anti-capitalism") draws from 
> both
> >the right and left notions, people whose idea of liberation involves 
> withdrawing
> >into the countryside armed with crossbows or AK47s or whatever and forming 
> communities
> >of like-minded people, "away from all the crap of society", hunting and 
> growing
> >vegetables, etc. There is nothing left or right about this, it is simply an 
> appealing
> >fantasy !
> >that many people have and some will act on it. 

Dddddd0814 at aol.com:
> Tahir, this is a good point. The point is that, given the global dominance of 
> the capitalist economic system, there is no "third way" out of all of this. 
> We can either be with the capitalists or against them. Any "third way"-- from 
> fascism on one extreme, all the way to individualist anarchism on the other-- 
> will simply lead back to support of the class in power. This has been bourne 
> out time and time again throughout history.

It seems to me that what history bears out is that most of
the parties who defined themselves very specifically against
capitalism, the Communist Parties of the Soviet Union and
China (among others), _became_ capitalists, precisely through
support of the class in power -- the supposed revolutionaries,
who, having State power and thus a class position to defend
and maintain, found they had a lot in common with their 
supposed capitalist opponents.