Chicago, February 27, 1934
Dear Carl: Your letter of February 13 was quite a surprise and illuminating, to learn that you had arrived at the same conclusions that I had some years ago: that is, that Anarchism has not produced any organized ability in the present generation, only a few little loose, struggling groups, scattered over this vast country, that come together in “conferences” occasionally, talk to each other, then go home. Then we never hear from them again until another conference is held.
Do you call this a movement? You speak of “the movement” in your letter. Where is it? You say, “I just feel disgusted.” I have been for a long time.
Anarchists are good at showing the shortcomings of others’ organizations. But what have they done in the last fifty years, you say. Nothing to build up a movement; they are mere pipe-dreamers dreaming.
Consequently, Anarchism doesn’t appeal to the public. This busy, practical world cares nothing for fine-spun theories—they want facts, and too, they want a few examples shown.
They talk about cooperation. You state that you have been trying to get the four little excuses for papers to cooperate to get out one worthwhile publication, but you can’t succeed. . . .
Anarchism is a dead issue in American life today. Radicalism has been blotted off the map of Europe. The Vienna horror-slaughter is too shocking to realize. The worker is a mere appendage to the capitalist factory. Machinery has eliminated him. Robert Burns said: “O God, that men should be so cheap, and bread should be so dear!”
Radicalism is at a low ebb today. We are living in strange times! Despotism is on horseback, riding at high speed. The worker is helpless; he has no voice in his mode or method of life—he just floats along on the tides of ill times.
I went to work for the International Labor Defense (ILD) because I wanted to do a little something to help defend the victims of capitalism who got into trouble, and not always be talking, talking, talking. When the little work that is now being doled out [is finally doled out], what then?
As ever, fraternally, yours
Lucy E. Parsons
It’s wild how Lucy Parsons wrote that almost a hundred years ago, yet so much of it still hits hard today.
We’ve got all this tech, Lemmy, Mastodon, Signal, Discord, whatevs, and it’s easier than ever to connect, organize, and spread ideas.
But somehow we’re still scattered, still stuck in loops of talking about change instead of making it happen.
It’s very frustrating to realize how little progress we’ve made in actually building something unified and lasting. The platforms have changed, but the isolation, burnout, and fragmentation she described are still with us.
Yeah, time is like that. It’s easy to forget that we collectively blundered into this trap more than a hundred ago.
The Vienna horror-slaughter referred to is this one I guess.
Thanks for sharing! Though, given today’s world and seeing the state of movements that want to change the present state of things (communism, anarchism), I would argue it’s even worse now.
According to this letter, 100 years ago there was theory but no practice - people would sit in their little book clubs and theorize, dreaming about a possible world and all that jazz. Now, if you look at your average anarchist (and communist but to a much lesser extent), there’s neither theory nor practice. Very often, it’s treated as an identity, a mere individualistic lifestyle choice or just a mere aesthetic (I hate solarpunk for this especially) rather than an actual coherent movement that aims to change society.
Without theory, you don’t know who the true enemies are, it’s a recipe for falling into traps and ideology laid by our current system and its narratives (like electorialism) and just in general results in blind, frustrated action that is more than likely to be counterproductive due to police crackdowns. Without practice, the movement places its faith onto future generations to try the plan in the real world, and put themselves at a severe risk of fizzling out. Without both, the movement is a farce.
Very often, it’s treated as an identity, a mere individualistic lifestyle choice or just a mere aesthetic (I hate solarpunk for this especially) rather than an actual coherent movement that aims to change society.
Soooo much this. I thought the Lemmy solarpunk instance (slrpnk) would be different, but the admin there banned me from the entire instance. Out of nowhere, they said they were also deleting my socialist/anarachist communities.
All my posts were upvoted, so I asked why The admin replied, “Sorry, but we have to because you’re Universal Monk. You’re reputation is too controversial.”
Apparently being a vocal socialist/anarchist who didn’t vote for capitalist candidates like Harris or Trump was too controversial for a solarpunk instance. LMAO.
