war and the state (was milton, etc.)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>At 2:40 PM -0500 8/24/02, Joe R. Golowka wrote:
>>It seems that Nestor Makhno was opposed to neither hierarchical 
>>authority nor a monopoly of legitimate use of violence:
>>
>>*****   From inhabitants of Elizavetgrad and neighboring villages, 
>>as well as from some partisans from Grogoriev's units, I learned 
>>that every time he had occupied the town Jews had been massacred. 
>>In his presence and on his orders, his partisans had murdered 
>>nearly two thousand Jews, including the flower of the Jewish youth: 
>>many members of the anarchist, Bolshevik and socialist youth 
>>organizations. Some of these had even been taken from prison for 
>>slaughter.
><snip>
>><http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/makhno/sp001781/chap6.html>   *****
>
>I don't see anything in here indicating that Makhno intended to 
>establish an organisation with a monopoly on the legitimate use of 
>violence (a state) or to institutionalize domination.

A revolutionary armed force, be it led by Makhno or Trotsky or 
whoever, is an organization with a hierarchical chain of command 
("All such Jewish insurgent toilers were under my command for a long 
period, not for days or months, but rather for entire years," 
<http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/makhno/sp001781/chap6.html>) 
that seeks to monopolize the legitimate use of violence: killing 
enemies; and enforcing discipline within ("Every attempted pogrom or 
looting from our side was nipped in the bud. All found guilty of such 
acts were invariably shot out of hand for their misdeeds," 
<http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/makhno/sp001781/chap6.html>).

At 2:40 PM -0500 8/24/02, Joe R. Golowka wrote:
>Anarchists have a clear definition and analysis of authority & 
>hierarchy; there are numerous books, articles, etc. you can read 
>about it.

If acting as a prosecutor, judge, and executioner rolled into one -- 
as Makhno stresses he did, in his effort to clear the name of his 
movement of charges of anti-Semitism by showing how he disciplined 
miscreants amongst his peasant followers -- isn't an authoritarian 
act, I don't know what is.
-- 
Yoshie

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