Archived discussion of the editorial for issue #63

Makhno

Unfortunately, the "moment of extreme tension" to which Aragorn refers in this essay need not come at some hypothetical time in the future; it can occur right now, when anarchists of different tendencies and interests try to collaborate on a common project - as I found out to my cost when I helped to organize the upcoming anarchist theory conference in Chicago (April 27-29).

The differences among anarchists are real and substantial, affecting the choices they make in their daily lives and their relationships with each other, not just their long-term strategic or theoretical goals. We can and do carry out successful joint ventures of various kinds, but "anarchy without adjectives or a road map" is a meaningless buzz phrase. Let's collaborate when we can, and fight amongst each other when we must. The best that we can realistically hope for is to create more space for comradely exchange of ideas and mutually respectful critique

aragorn

I think my point is more structural. I am not racing to work with (or even befriend) anarchists whose politics I find uninteresting. I am also not racing to insult them (shielded as critique).

The truth is that for all our differences I continue to believe that I'd rather be neighbors with a set of disagreeable anarchists than most anyone else. I find most of the places where I disagree with anarchists to be quaint. Doesn't make me want to work with them on principle but also means that my project (and the project of anarchists w/o adjectives or roadmaps) lay somewhere else.

I believe that we frame ourselves by who we fight. I'm not interested in anarchists continuing to accept the tight frame that criticizing other anarchists results in. Doesn't mean I will not do it. Doesn't mean I don't agree with much of the criticism that has come before me. It means that I believe we can do more.

I just (at the NYC @ bookfair) sat on a panel with a platformist and a workerist. I have virtually nothing in common with them politically except for a word that begins with a and two shared enemies. I also walked away from the discussion with them as friends. I did not squabble with them as the entertainment for a group of post-left do-nothings, I didn't sign on to their boring program of social change, and I didn't try to convince anybody of anything they were never going to be convinced of.

I don't disagree with you at all about -real- differences. I just happen to be of the mind that these differences aren't as important as I may have believed in the past. Differences aren't barriers. Nor are they always all that interesting.