> Here <http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=02/02/23/4431947>
> all organizations and institutions with elected representatives are
> marked as "authoritarian." Anything less than "direct democracy," which
> may mean consensus, is "authoritarian." There is no shortage of
> anarchists or sympathizers who say that only consensus is truly
> democratic, while all else is authoritarian.
>
> When dealing with these ideological contortion acts, like those of the
> RCP and Living Marxism in the Nick Cohen piece fwd'd yesterday, Slavoj
> Zizek has a bit of advice:
You are confusing how decisions are made (process) with the hierarchy that the Left favors (structure). There is some connection between the two, but when anarchists use the word "authoritarian" to describe left or right groups and tendencies, they are usually referring to their hierarchy. The IST (ISO and SWP) and the Greens are authoritarian because they have hierarchical organizations and favor centralized parties as the locus for political activity.
<< Chuck0 >>
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"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is still trying to form committees."
-- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)