Anarchist Book Launch 19/11
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https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/anarchist-communism-launch-of-two-landmark-books-tickets-458200960407
A Defence of Anarchist Communism by Brian Morris
The Idea: Anarchist Communism, Past, Present and Future by Nick Heath
Both authors will present for questions and answers.
Date and time
Saturday, November 19, 2022,
2:00 PM – 5:00 PMLocation
May Day Rooms
88 Fleet Street
London EC4Y 1DH“FWIW the SPGB get a mention in the Morris book. But only to say that they are ‘statist’”
Is this the same Brian Morris who has been a guest speaker at SPGB meetings and even attended its Summer School?
As a Bakuninist anarchist he presumably has a problem with the SPGB’s position of “gaining control of the state machine”.On Libcom it is mentioned that in Heath’s Ireland’s Workers Solidarity Movement isn’t discussed at all so we shouldn’t feel too affronted
The Heath book is a history of anarchism, so why would you need to mention the SPGB? The WSM is briefly mentioned in the book BTW. It’s just hard to find where since the book is let down by there being no index (or proper references). The Nick Heath book is worth looking at, in fact it’s right up there with the best on the topic. The Morris one is not bad, but it’s just a large pamphlet really.
DJP,
it mentions the SLP, so we could have made the same paragraph. It also finds space for ‘anarchists’ who go into Government, so for an overview of the idea of groups advocating a stateless classless society, I think we’d warrant a paragraph (especially as I know he knows who we are and what we stand for).
Not sure which part of the book you’re talking about, you could be right, but seems a bit of a vain criticism to me. I don’t think the SPGB is particularly relevant to the development of anarchism in Britain, or elsewhere. The SLP was mentioned in relation to Syndicalism and Guy Aldred, no?
Hopefully, though both books will get a review in the Socialist Standard.
We might not have a very great influence but anything that brings more readers to those two books helps the Thin Red Line, IMHO.
DJP,
yes, that whole section on the milieu in Britain in the turn of 20th century: given that elsewhere it covers ‘anarchists’ who end up taking seats in Government, our contribution to the idea of a stateless classless society probably shouldn’t be overlooked (purely for the sake of anarchist anti-ballot box fetishism, especially as Guy Aldred is acknowledged to have advocated the Sinn Fein approach which is hardly a million miles from us). Whilst we certainly do not call ourselves anarchists (rightly so, because of their general hostility to democracy) I think we have contributed to the conversations around specifically anarchist communism just as much as William Morris.
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