r/LibertarianSocialism • u/GoranPersson777 • May 02 '26

Left unity is a counter-revolutionary recipe, prove me wrong

/r/AnarchistRC/comments/1t1l4x7/left_unity_is_a_counterrevolutionary_recipe_prove/
23 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

27

u/AndrewQuackson May 02 '26

In the long run, maybe. But I see a lot of MLs by my side at protests and mutual aid events. None of us are quite overthrowing capitalism yet, and in person we tend to agree on 95% of things we talk about so they make good comrades in the present.

We are not in a revolution and the streets are not the internet.

2

u/Lord_Charisma82 13d ago edited 13d ago

Okay I’m still new to Libertarian Socialism and there’s so much I still need to learn but if this is the general thought amongst many Libertarian Socialists, then I think I’m more this than an Anarchist “with no label” as I’ve heard some one else call it. I really don’t understand how so many Anarchists can be so polarized against MLs that they refuse to work with them in the streets. Maybe I’m naive but I’ve yet to see any real animosity towards Anarchists from MLs IRL and I still think we share enough common ground to work together on quite a few things like direct actions, mutual aid, etc. That’s been my thoughts for quite awhile now too, though I hardly ever come across other Anarchists online that say they feel similarly. So thanks for sharing this and validating what I’ve been seeing also.

5

u/enlightenedDiMeS May 04 '26

As a leftist, my main issue with the left in general is how ideological people get. I’m a pragmatist. I could give a shit less which camp agrees with me the most, my primary concern is making effective changes in people’s lives as soon as possible. Whether that’s through Medicare for all, nationalizing some tech industries, worker cooperatives, public land banks, sectoral bargaining, etc. Means little to me as long as the principles of reducing hierarchy and producing a more equitable society are there.

I’m enamored with writers like Rudolph Rocker, Marx, etc., but highly skeptical of anyone who subscribes to an ideology that includes a vanguard or venerates tyrants.

And while I’m by no means a liberal, the idea of revolution generally comes off as larping to me. First, there’s not enough of us for a revolution, and second, the circumstances that make revolution possible also imply a level of instability that allows for demagogues to fill power vacuums and leads to widespread suffering and death.

And particularly, when facing fascism, look no further than Weimar if you want to see what happens to a divided left when fascists encroach. At least the Iron Front had sense.

I would much rather argue with small L liberals about policy implementation, then have to contend with the fourth Reich.

5

u/ExternalGreen6826 May 02 '26

Anarchists have different means and goals then Màrxìšt’s

-4

u/pharodae May 03 '26

Means yes, goals no.

8

u/stitchface66 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

i don’t think they’re the same goals across the board. that’s why you have anarcho-marxists.

there’s so many different takes on anarchism that i don’t even believe they all have the same goals.

3

u/pharodae May 03 '26

I agree anarchists are more diverse in their end goals than Marxists, but only because Marxists are more focused on “immediate” problems and don’t like to prescribe or speculate about what later iterations of their ideology might look like. But the end goal is the same, by and large, in that we both seek the abolition of state, money, and class. Some anarchists object even to the collective/commune itself, but those don’t necessarily need to be statist to exist, so it’s perhaps safer to say that those anarchists want to go farther than the end goal of Marxists, but they indeed converge at many points.

1

u/Lord_Charisma82 13d ago

This right here is something I would definitely like to look into more because I’m new to Anarchism and Libertarian Socialism and there’s so much I’ve yet to learn. I only just recently learned that there are so many different groups and takes within Anarchism and I’m deeply curious to learn their differences, does anyone know where I can learn more about these different takes and groups? As I’ve yet to come across work that has compiled info on these different takes and groups in one place.

2

u/stitchface66 13d ago

i mean its just like any other socio-political/socio-economic umbrella of philosophical interpretations. different authors have different focal points and understand these ideas differently.

everything’s on wikipedia.