This article on anarchist thought comes from this link.
V.
All these features are to be found in the present Soviet system.
It is unpardonable naivete, or still more unpardonable hypocrisy, to pretend—as the Bolshevik apologists do—that the compulsory labor service in Russia is “the self-organization of the masses for purposes of production.”
Strange to say, I have met seemingly intelligent persons who claim that by such methods the Bolsheviki “are building Communism.”
Apparently they believe that building consists in ruthless destruction, physically and morally, of the best values of mankind.
There are others who pretend to think that the road to freedom and cooperation leads through labor slavery and intellectual suppression.
According to them, to instill the poison of hatred and envy, of universal espionage and terror, is the best preparation for manhood and the fraternal spirit of Communism.
I do not think so.
I think that there is nothing more pernicious than to degrade a human being into a cog of a soulless machine, turn him into a serf, into a spy or the victim of a spy.
There is nothing more corrupting than slavery and despotism.
There is a psychology of political absolutism and dictatorship, common to all forms: the means and methods used to achieve a certain end in the course of time themselves become the end.
The ideal of Communism, of Socialism, has long ago ceased to inspire the Bolshevik leaders as a class.
Power and the strengthening of power has become their sole object.
But abject subjection, exploitation and degradation are developing a new psychology in the great mass of the people also.
The young generation in Russia is the product of Bolshevik principles and methods.
It is the result of sixteen years of official opinions, the only opinions permitted in the land. Having grown up under the deadly monopoly of ideas and values, the youth in the U.S.S.R. knows hardly anything about Russia itself.
Much less does it know of the world outside.
It consists of blind fanatics, narrow and intolerant, it lacks all ethical perception, it is devoid of the sense of justice and fairness.
To this element is added a class of climbers and careerists, of self-seekers reared on the Bolshevik dogma: “The end justifies the means.”
Yet it were wrong to deny the exceptions in the ranks of Russia's youth.
There are a goodly number who are deeply sincere, heroic, idealistic.
They see and feel the force of the loudly professed party ideals.
They realize the betrayal of the masses.
They suffer deeply under the cynicism and callousness towards every human emotion.
The presence of komsomolszi in the Soviet political prisons, concentration camps and exile, and the escapes under most harrowing difficulties prove that the young generation does not consist entirely of cringing adherents.
No, not all of Russia's youth has been turned into puppets, obsessed bigots, or worshipers at Stalin's shrine and Lenin's tomb.
Already the dictatorship has become an absolute necessity for the continuation of the regime.
For where there are classes and social inequality, there the state must resort to force and suppression.
The ruthlessness of such a situation is always in proportion to the bitterness and resentment imbuing the masses.
That is why there is more governmental terrorism in Soviet Russia than anywhere else in the civilized world today, for Stalin has to conquer and enthralled a stubborn peasantry of a hundred millions.
It is popular hatred of the regime which explains the stupendous industrial sabotage in Russia, the disorganization of the transport after sixteen years of virtual military management; the terrific famine in the South and Southeast, notwithstanding favorable natural conditions and in spite of the severest measures to compel the peasants to sow and reap, in spite even of wholesale extermination and of the deportation of more than a million peasants to forced labor camps.
Bolshevik dictatorship is an absolutism which must constantly be made more relentless in order to survive, calling for the complete suppression of independent opinion and criticism within the party, within even its highest and most exclusive circles.
It is a significant feature of this situation that official Bolshevism and its paid and unpaid agents are constantly assuring the world that “all is well in Soviet Russia and getting better.”
It is of the same quality as Hitler's constant emphasis of how greatly he loves peace while he is feverishly increasing his military strength.
Far from getting better the dictatorship is daily growing more relentless.
The latest decree against so-called counter-revolutionists, or traitors to the Soviet State, should convince even some of the most ardent apologists of the wonders performed in Russia.
The decree adds strength to the already existing laws against everyone who cannot or will not reverence the infallibility of the holy trinity, Marx, Lenin and Stalin.
And it is more drastic and cruel in its effect upon everyone deemed a culprit.
To be sure, hostages are nothing new in the U.S.S.R.
They were already part of the terror when I came to Russia.
Peter Kropotkin and Vera Figner had protested in vain against this black spot on the escutcheon of the Russian Revolution.
Now, after seventeen years of Bolshevik rule, a new decree was thought necessary.
It not only revives the taking of hostages; it even aims at cruel punishment for every adult member of the real or imaginary offender's family.
The new decree defines treason to the state as:
“any acts committed by citizens of the U.S.S.R. detrimental to the military forces of the U.S.S.R., its independence or the inviolability of its territory, such as espionage, betrayal of military or state secrets, going over to the side of the enemy, fleeing to a foreign country or flight [this time the word used means airplane flight] to a foreign country.”
Traitors have, of course, always been shot.
What makes the new decree more terrifying is the remorseless punishment it demands for everyone living with or supporting the hapless victim, whether he knows of the crime or not.
He may be imprisoned, or exiled, or even shot.
He may lose his civil rights, and he may forfeit everything he owns.
In other words, the new decree sets a premium on informers who, to save their own skins, will ingratiate themselves with the G.P.U., will readily turn over the unfortunate kin of the offenders to the Soviet henchmen.
This new decree must forever put to rest any remaining doubts as to the existence of true Communism in Russia.
It departs from even the pretense of internationalism and proletarian class interest.
The old tune is now changed to a pean song of the Fatherland, with the ever servile Soviet press loudest in the chorus:
“Defense of the Fatherland is the supreme law of life, and he who raises his hand against the Fatherland, who betrays it, must be destroyed.”
Soviet Russia, it must now be obvious, is an absolute despotism politically and the crassest form of state capitalism economically.
This series of posts will insure that these anarchists' works live on in living memory.
If only a few.
Don't lose hope now, dear reader.
We've made it this far.
At some point the ride gets easier.
Rule by force has had it's day.
When everybody sees the iron fist in the velvet glove we win.
We just have to survive its death throes.
There is a reason these facts are not in the modern curriculums.
Setting rewards to burn only burns the author portion of the payout.
The crowd isn't silenced.
Please cheer loudly, if that is your thing.
su mirada es fuerte asi es un buen lider con su pensamiento grande y fuerte
Indeed, they resort to force for the contunation of any brutal regime.
Was Goldman one of the Spartacists?
I will guess no.
She was still in 'murica at that time, but I bet she knew them.
I'm pretty sure Kropotkin was still in paris at that time.
todo debemos ser socialista y destruir el imperio hay que quemar el dolar no usar mas dolor y apoya el socialismo limpio y puro
Un libro.
Mas aqui.