the anti-politics of autonomy nottingham paper -- garland

8/11/2019 The Anti-Politics of Autonomy Nottingham Paper -- Garland

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The (Anti-) Politics of Autonomy: Between Marxism and Anarchism

Christian Garland

Abstract

Marx famously said that the emancipation of the proletariat must be the work of the

proletariat itself; almost ever since, there has been a persistent current of Marxism -

that has, in common with anarchism and in antagonism toward its own dominant

orthodox tradition, stressed the need for autonomy.

This emphasis on 'autonomy' can be seen two fold: both in terms of the action

of the exploited and oppressed themselves as an anti-political, self-valorising

agency for achieving revolutionary social change, and as prefiguring new non-

hierarchical social relations beyond the world of the present This paper will aim to

critically examine the concept of 'autonomy', specifically the similarities between

unorthodox Marxisms and anarchism, rather than the all-too-fre!uently emphasised

differencesThe "reek origin of the word, comes of course, from #auto$ %self& and #nomos$

%law&, meaning self-determination, and it is this original meaning that we can see in

the context of the theories of anarchism and certain forms of Marxism, namely that

any social subect must create and define the terms of its own collective existence

The "reek origins of the word #anarchy$ or #anarchia$ %#without ruler$& bare striking

similarity to the notion of an autonomous political practise which resists hierarchical

forms, and seeks to become a #self-creating$ agency both acting and existing #for

itself$ whilst seeking to push beyond the present form of society in subverting and

undermining it (n the course of the paper, we will seek to identify some substantive

claims of critical and libertarian currents of Marxism as they exist in relation to some

of those made by anarchism, and the overlap that these two traditions share

A Theory of autonomy!

Marxism - at least in its unorthodox forms has in common with class-struggle

anarchism, a self-defining emphasis on the need for anti-hierarchical and anti-state

practice, and the need for #autonomy. This emphasis on 'autonomy' can be seen two

fold: both in terms of the action of the exploited and oppressed themselves as an anti-

political, self-valorising agency for achieving revolutionary social change,

and as prefiguring new non-hierarchical social relations beyond the world of thepresent.

brief survey of the currents loosely and very broadly grouped under the tag

!autonomist brings together an array of seemingly disparate lines of thought, whose

lin"s could be seen as somewhat tenuous. There is also the fre#uent ob$ection from

purists in either Marxist or narchist camps that they remain utterly separate and

irreconcilable philosophies whatever apparent surface similarities they seem to share.

%ithout a long digression into Marxs own consistency in his belief in the autonomy

of the revolutionary social sub$ect, we find in his famous #uote on the &aris

ommune that (the wor"ing class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state

machinery, and wield it for its own purposes)*no less than his admiration for the

*Marx, +. **/ hapter 0 The Third )ddress: The *aris +ommunein The +ivil ar in ranceonlineversion http:11www.marxists.org1archive1marx1wor"s1**1civil-war-france1ch20.htm

*
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1871/civil-war-france/ch05.htmhttp://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1871/civil-war-france/ch05.htm


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insurrections far-reaching measures ta"en under extreme duress, the recognition that

the state does not hold any neutrality in the field of class struggle. This #uote ta"en

from The +ivil ar in rance, in which he also spea"s of the ommune as carrying

out the (destruction of state power), gives a suitably antagonistic, anti-politicalturn

for any attempt to define a theory of Marxist autonomy, and one completely at odds

with the orthodoxies of Marxist-3eninism.4ollowing Marx, we find in 5osa 3uxemburgs belief in revolutionary

spontaneity and mass action, a powerful counterforce to the 3eninist obsession with a

disciplined, hierarchically organised party following the di"ats of a central committee.

3uxemburgs belief that the proletariat remains (capable of self-direction in political

activity)6anticipates later !autonomist Marxism and class struggle anarchism

remar"ably well, as do other 3eft ommunists such as nton &anne"oe", 7tto 5hule,

and +arl +orsch. 8ndeed, as 7tto 5hule argued the notion of apolitical partysee"ing

to institutesocial revolution, either by sei9ing power or via electoral mandate is

nonsense we might add however, one that nearly ninety years later, still lingers

amongst many who consider themselves revolutionaries. This is not to argue against

any form of organisation, or oppose efforts at collective social transformation with anideological mode of identity-thin"ing that endlessly repeats the same single concept

but it remains important to explain the significance of !anti-political practice from the

standpoint of a theory of !autonomy. 8n contrast to the 7rthodox Marxist tradition,

autonomist Marxism, i.e. non-3eninist Marxism, and revolutionary anarchism, i.e.

class struggle anarchism demand at all times, as ;en$amin 4ran"s2?1#uestions-rsd1ch2*.htm


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fre#uently demands, a shared contempt between class struggle anarchism and

autonomous Marxism for !wor"ing within a system they see" openly to destroy.

An anti-"olitical "ractice

definition of !autonomy, that is !self-government or !self-determinationremains a defining element of both autonomist Marxism, and class struggle

anarchism. ;y this, we mean the !autonomy of the social sub$ect or the capacity of

this same sub$ect for self-determination and self-governance, together with the

recognition that such a practice is a goal of both communism and the inveterate

antagonism to hierarchical power and the state shared by autonomist and anarchist

thought. gainst the popularly accepted notion of a state of such political !anarchy

being a chaotic and brutish =obbesian struggle of each-against-all, anarchism

proposes the capacity for cooperative and rational organic social harmony, the result

and goal of autonomy, self-determination and self-government. This form of society

can be seen in the efforts to create new forms of living and ways of acting in the

present that aim to open up alternative non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarianpathways. 8ndeed the libertarian emphasis on autonomous practice as a mode of

being, can be seen as a further development of Marxs observation that communism is

not merely a !programme waiting to be put into practice, but is present as a tension

andforceforever threatening capital with its own historical becoming. utonomous

practice see"s its own self-creating criteria to further accelerate such a becoming

which would signal the disintegration and supersession of capitalist social relations.

%e can list below some examples of such a practice:

- utonomous practice strives for the encouragement of egalitarian and anti-

hierarchical organisation, and methods that are careful to avoid reproducing

the hierarchy and ine#uality of instrumental political practice and which aim

to at all times challenge their emergence. Cespite what 3enin may have

believed, freedom is not and never has been a bourgeois or middle class virtue,

but is the defining and enabling means and end of an authentic revolutionary

practice.

- Bxamples of such autonomous practice include efforts to immediately

communi9e resources and subvert and destroy the laws of value, price, profit D

in effect the mar"et itself. The *>2s self-reduction campaign in 8taly is the

most obvious example of this in which besides mass squatting and

wide-scale rent strikes as a solution to housing need,thousands refused to pay full price or indeed anything at all,for essential services such as electricity, gas, water, andtransport. A no less important example, particularly in a UKcontext, would bethe *>>->2 mass non-payment campaign whichdefeated the &oll Tax.

;oth these particular examples, 8talian self-reduction and the anti-&oll Tax movement

are useful in defining !autonomy: we can see in such autonomous action the

revolutionary social sub$ect, the proletariat acting as a class for itself, by refusing and

see"ing to surpass the category of proletarian altogether. 8t is also possible to see in

such actions, the essential need and desire for freedom and social e#uality explicitly


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demanded by the refusal of conditions of exploitation, and hierarchy imposed by

capital and the state.

EEE

nti-3eninist Marxism and class struggle anarchism share the same determination tobring an end to exploitation and oppression in every form, and the same commitment

to preventing their reappearance. There is a distinction to be made here between the

re$ection of political power as such and the forceful !anti-power which resists and

opposes it autonomous Marxism and revolutionary anarchism do not see" to assume

state power but nor do they see" to !tolerate it. Fust as Ma"hnos army fought a civil

war against the %hite rmy, the G"rainian bourgeoisie and landowning class,

&etliurist nationalists, and the ;olshevi"s whilst endeavouring to create free

communism, they also realised that this was not possible while the multiple fronts of

reaction retained any influence or power. @uch a recognition that autonomous action

for self-emancipation by the exploited and oppressed themselves cannot succeed

while the state exists, nor can any process of communi9ation occur without thesubversion and supersession of capitalist social relations in all their manifest forms:

wage labour, money, value, etc. 8ndeed this remains a "ey ingredient of the

revolutionary substance of Marxism and anarchism. 8n the words of Hilles Cauve:

(The proletariat is not the wor"ing class, rather the class of the criti#ue of

wor". 8t is the ever-present destruction of the old world, but onlypotentially; it

becomes real only in a moment of social tension and upheaval, when it is

compelled by capital to be the agent of communism. 8t only becomes the

subversion of established society when it unifies itself, and organi9es itself,

not in order to ma"e itself the dominant class, li"e the bourgeoisie in its time,

but in order to destroy the society of classes at that point there is only one

social agent: man"ind.)?

utonomy then, as a theory can be seen to embody the practice of new non-

hierarchical, non-exploitative social relations in which human beings capacity for

freedom and cooperation is recognised and encouraged, instead of frustrated and

bloc"ed by other more powerful interests in an unending competition for material, and

indeed psychological and emotional survival: the war of each-against-all that is late

capitalism. The theory of autonomy, which is a "ey component of the Marxist and

anarchist traditions we have identified in this paper, recognises men and women as

ends in themselves, and not as instrumental, functional meansto an end imposed anddemanded by forces external and alien to their own needs and interests. This theory

re$ects and see"s to combat such an ob$ectification of the human sub$ect both for the

end of an alternative, #ualitatively superior form of society, and the revolutionary

process of achieving it. s such, autonomous action see"s to challenge and subvert

existing oppressive social relations of exploitation and hierarchy whilst setting itself

the tas" of not reproducing these same social relations including the complete

re$ection of the 3eninist notion of the proletariat and other oppressed groups as being

incapable of recognising their own interests or ta"ing offensive action to advance

them.

?

Cauve, C. *>>/ +apitalism and +ommunismsection H*roletariat and 0evolution in The 4clipseand 0e-4mergence of the +ommunist Movement3ondon: ntagonism/ online versionhttp:11www.geocities.com1antagonism*1ecapcom6.htmlIH

?
http://www.geocities.com/antagonism1/ecapcom2.html#Ghttp://www.geocities.com/antagonism1/ecapcom2.html#G


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8t has been argued in the course of this paper, that the !anti-politics of

autonomy remain of "ey significance for both autonomous Marxism and class

struggle anarchism. The exact forms this autonomy may ta"e are necessarily not fixed

by either tradition what remains an insuperable imperative however, is the same

belief in the necessity for !autonomy, both in terms of the view they ta"e of human

sub$ectivity and agency, the sort of society they envision, and as the guiding principlefor any anti-political revolutionary practice.

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