BOOK REVIEWS
The East End Years: A Stepney Childhood. Fermin Rocker. Freedom Press. £7.95 192 pages
RUDOLF ROCKER WAS one of the foremost anarchists of the early Twentieth Century. His work amongst East London Jewish workers in his capacity as editor of the Yiddish language radical periodical ARBETER FRAINT (Workers' Friend) has become almost legendary, whilst his international reputation as a propagandist was, at the time, probably second to none. Unfortunately, little of what he wrote has been translated into English, the only exceptions to this being the magisterial Nationalism and Culture and his seminal and widely read Anarcho-Syndicalism. London Years, a drastically abridged and, in Rocker's eyes, badly translated edition of his own several thousand page autobiography is unfortunately no longer available. Bearing this in mind, Freedom Press's recent publication of the East End Years is all the more welcome. An autobiographical account of life in the Rocker household by Rocker's son, Fermin, the book opens with the author's first memories of life in Stepney at the turn of the century, and ends with his eventual reunification with his father after years of imprisonment for anti-war agitation.
Family Life
The book itself is written in a clear, simple and attractive way, and is illustrated throughout with a series of Fermin's own line drawings. Other than the closeness of the Rocker family, several themes quickly emerge, the most obvious of which being the strength of the predominantly Jewish radical community at that time, and the importance that they in turn placed upon respect for culture and the development of strong international links. The sheer passion and intensity with which activists conducted their day-to-day business also shines through, the anarchist message having an optimism and vibrancy which has since been partially lost. Similarly, although Fermin paints a warts and all picture of the Anarchist movement and is in fact quite open about sectarian divisions, unity against the common enemy seems to have been the consensus with well developed support networks for those falling on hard times being the norm rather than the exception.
What makes Fermin's account unusually readable however, is his ability to place both politics and the life of his family within the context of East End society at that time, a context which, in turn, gives the narrative much more body and depth than is typically seen in political writings. We learn as much, for example, about colourful local characters on the streets and about Fermin's friends in the tenements as we do about Anarchist ideology, so much so that when the "outside" world enters in to beat strikers and imprison activists, its' cold, profit-driven brutality is felt all the more.
Towards the end of his life, Rudolf Rocker was to lose much of his earlier militancy, his support for the Allied cause in World War II, and his grudging acceptance of the "need" for social democratic and reformist organisations in the absence of more revolutionary currents being particularly indicative of this. Nonetheless, Rocker has no doubt earned his place in the Anarchist hall of fame, and Fermin's heartfelt account serves as a fitting testimony to that part of his life anarchists would wish to remember him by. A readable and moving account, it can't be beaten.
No Gods, No Masters. Edited by Daniel Guerin. AK Press Vol. 1 £11.95 294 pages; Vol. 2 £11.95 276 pages.
THE LATE DANIEL Guerin, librarian communist veteran active in several French organisations, intellectual and gay activist, put this anthology of writings together in French in 1965. A revised edition appeared in 1980, of which this is an English translation. We should be grateful for this collection which assembles many important texts, some familiar to British Anarchists, some, and very important ones at that, never before translated into English.
And yet...and yet, the collection assembled by Guerin points to a certain amount of confusion in his own thought. It is rather surprising to find the beginning sections of Volume 1 devoted to the grandfather of individualism, Max Stirner. Guerin regularly affirmed the class nature of anarchism. At this point in time when the book was assembled, Guerin was under the influence of the oppositional Marxism that had influenced his early life and which he never entirely shook off and the anarchism of synthesis (which attempted to reconcile individualism, anarchosyndicalism and anarchist communism in the same organisation) that he had come across when he joined the Federation Anarchiste in the 60s. In his foreword to the last book he wrote A La Recherche d'un communisme libertaire he acknowledged his mistake and noted having distanced himself from classical anarchism. Some class struggle anarchists still persist with the idea of a common heritage encompassing both Stirner, Emile Armand, Zo D'Axa alongside Bakunin, Kropotkin, Makhno and Durruti.
But the individualist current entered into the anarchist movement at a time of defeat and weakness, and was indeed a sign of that defeat and weakness. Ever since, throughout the world, it has continued to weaken anarchism, sabotaging organisation, serious agitation amongst the mass of the people, clear analyses and development of anarchist programmes. For a self -avowed libertarian communist and devotee of class struggle anarchism to have started off such an important collection is a sign of chronic confusion!
Proudhon
The same with the next section on the French activist and thinker Proudhon. For too long Proudhon has been seen as the real founder of the anarchist movement. It is true that he used the expression anarchist on a number of occasions. But he is equally one of the pioneers of socialism in general. Marx owes a lot to him, even though the German philosopher was to turn on him as time went by. Proudhon has many reactionary ideas, including praising the patriarchal family and a strong contempt for women. Many anarchists were to be deeply embarrassed by these ideas- for example Elisee Reclus. Proudhon believed in a peaceful evolution to a society of mutualism, which retained many of the characteristics of the market under capitalism. In no way was he a collectivist or communist. Whist he developed ideas around federalism, which did have an influence on the anarchist movement, his ideas on abstention from elections, which also profoundly influenced the anarchist movement, were contradictory and far from being a constant (Proudhon did use the electoralist tactics on some occasions)
It would have been far better if Guerin had started off with the foundation of international anarchism within the growth of the international workers movement (the First International) and then made some references to Proudhon, to whom far too much of Volume 1 is devoted.
These failings are in part made up by the inclusion of texts by Bakunin, Cesar de Paepe, Schwitzguebel and Guillaume and finally Kropotkin in Volume 1. In particular, the previously untranslated texts of De Paepe, Schwitzguebel and Guillaume are very interesting and are correctly grouped under the title Direct Action and Libertarian Construction. Guillaume's essay on Ideas on Social Organisation is indeed an anarchist programme, clearly revolutionary in its outlook. Indeed Guillaume is seen to be clearly breaking with his much admired friend Bakunin on the subject of anarchist collectivism and developing towards an anarchist communist position. This means that instead of work being the criterion of distribution, it would be need, From each according to his ability, to each according to his need. The idea of the federation of communes as the basis of the new society comes to the fore, although Guillaume is ambivalent about who will "own" the workplaces, those who work in them or the whole of society.
And Finally...
In Volume 2 we have a far better selection, from the great activist Malatesta, to various texts on anarchosyndicalism and the experiences of the Russian and Spanish Revolution. It is unfortunate that Guerin's past confuses his analyses. Guerin had a long association with the group around Marceau Pivert, organised in the left of the SFIO (forerunner of the French Socialist Party) A bit like the British Independent Labour Party, this group had a particular, and sometimes critical , relationship with the Trotskyists. So Guerin talks about the "respect due to the memory of a great revolutionary such as Leon Trotsky" while in the same breath talking about the repression and slaughter he unleashed against the Makhnovists and anarchists in the Ukraine. Trotsky and Lenin get off a bit too lightly, in my opinion, for their involvement in the crushing of the Kronstadt uprising. Also notable by their absence are any writings by the Platformist tendency of revolutionary anarchism or any mention of the Friends of Durutti, the important anarchist current which emerged during the Spanish revolution. No mention of the Platformists is particularly odd as Guerin was more than familiar with their contribution to French anarchist communist thought.
Also, some sloppy proof-reading is apparent throughout the two volumes, something noticeable with other AK publications. (Unlike with Organise!, of course...- proof-reader) Nevertheless, an important and interesting work that, in general, enriches the body of anarchist writings available in English.