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Anarchism and the Marxist Critique of Capitalism Wayne Price, The Value of Radical Theory: An Anarchist Introduction to Marx's Critique of Political Economy Oakland, CA: AK Press 2013; 200pp; ISBN 978-1939202017 Sasha Li I ley, Capitalism and its Discontents Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2011; 320pp; ISBN 978-1604863345
Long ago Peter Kropotkin emphasized that anarchism, or rather, social anar- chism (anarchist communism) - or what Malatesta and Landauer described as anarchism without adjectives - had a dual heritage, combining radical liberalism, with its emphasis on the freedom of the individual, as a fundamental premise, and socialism, with its emphasis on equality, social solidarity and voluntary co-operation. Kropotkin therefore, like Murray Bookchin in a later generation, was highly critical of both Marxist socialism, which lacked a libertarian perspec- tive, and what Bookchin later described as lifestyle anarchism, which tended to repudiate socialism, the economy of the commons, and class struggle politics. Life-style anarchism, of course, embraces a variety of individualistic tendencies - Stirnerite egoism, Nietzschean aestheticism, mystical anarchism and right-wing libertarianism.
According to Kropotkin both Marxism and individualist (lifestyle) anar- chism were one-sided, or rather lop-sided tendencies. Those who advocate some kind of rapprochement between lifestyle and social anarchism, therefore, misunderstand the nature of social anarchism (or libertarian socialism) - for a libertarian perspective is intrinsic to Kropotkin's conception of social anarchism. They thus also misinterpret or simply ignore Bookchin's critique of lifestyle (indi- vidualist) anarchism.
Unfortunately, given his harsh polemics, Bookchin - like those academics who set up a radical (and false) dichotomy between anarchism and anarchy - tended to muddy the conceptual waters!
Words belong to the commons - language has not yet been completely priva- tised! They can therefore take on a variety of different meanings. As 'anarchism' in the United States had come to signify lifestyle anarchism, primitivism and the libertarian advocacy of free-market capitalism, Bookchin in his last years, in exas- peration, ceased to describe himself as an 'anarchist'. But of course, he remained a libertarian socialist, that is, a social anarchist.
Although both Kropotkin and Bookchin (along with most social anarchists) were highly critical of Marxist politics, given its emphasis on the vanguard party and state power, they were not anti-Marx. They recognised the salience of Marx's materialist philosophy (a form...