On Apr 25, 2009, at 5:23 PM, Marv Gandall wrote:
>> So maybe this has something to do with taking power, rather than
>> their
>> innate "jerkiness"?
> ===============================
> Taking power, moreover, in extreme conditions of civil war and foreign
> intervention. There is nothing particularly unique about the measures
> adopted by the new Soviet republic to distinguish it from other
> revolutionary states which inevitably became locked in desperate
> struggles for survival.
Yes. That's part of what I meant by "taking power," though I should have said that. Every six or twelve months, I ask an anarchist purist how he or she (and almost all of them are he's, aren't they?) how they would deal with counterrevolutionary violence, which usually observes no niceties. E.g., how would they run Cuba (does an anarchist "run" anything? well, leave that aside) in the face of the implacable hostility of the United States? I've never gotten anything resembling an answer.
Doug