Slogans

Chris Doss chrisd at russiajournal.com
Wed Jan 30 07:38:02 PST 2002


There actually is a small but noticeable anarchist movement in contemporary Russia. I've read their magazines (one had an amusing article on neoliberalism and the wage system, the punchline being: "So, end the end, we see that it in Hayek's view it really true is that Arbeit macht frei!"). I get the feeling that they come mainly from the middle classe and the intelligentsia; the working class is much more likely to be Stalinist, assuming they have a political vision that's more developed than vahue resentment and dissatisfaction.

Che Guevara is also experience a boom of popularity on the pop-culture level. He's on T-shirts all over the place.

I spent a few days once in a log cabin with the guy who was head of the Party of Anarchists in the Perestroika era and played a not unimportant role in economic policy in that period. They used to go assemble on Red Square when Gorbachev was speaking and heckle him: "Too slow! Too slow!", something he regrets doing now but says "It seemed like a good idea at the time. It would have been much better to support Gorbachev, who is a man who makes very slow and little steps."

Chris Doss The Russia Journal ---------------------------

In the U.S., anarchism comes out of a very different historical and cultural context from what it did in Russia. And a lot of today's anarchists are anarchists because they find the secrecy and discipline of a Leninist party to contradict everything the revolution they'd like to make should stand for. I'm not an anarchist, but I sure understand why so many radicals today, especially younger ones, find it appealing.

Doug



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list