- Re: Kropotkin gave his full support to World War I. Many of his comrades were jailed for anti-militarism
Posted by Ian M
on November 18, 2020, 10:15 am, in reply to "Re: Kropotkin gave his full support to World War I. Many of his comrades were jailed for anti-militarism"
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Thanks Der, didn't know that about him, interesting reading about it on wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifesto_of_the_Sixteen Do you buy the argument that he was infected with anti-German sentiment, and that also explains his lauding of the French Revolution as 'a kind of adoptive patriotism' (Woodcock)? Disappointing in any case... I bet he would've been excoriated on TLN! John said: 'If the anarchist 'tradition' teaches one anything, it is the flawed nature of individual human beings. And, thus, their unfitness to rule. Which is why no individual should be accorded a divine-like status or excoriated and scapegoated when they fail to live up to expectations.' - I agree, and Kropotkin's stance above seems to be in line with that sentiment of limiting the power & responsibility of the individual in favour of organising en masse. Anarchists like Goldman and Malatesta at least seem to have expressed their disagreement more out of sadness than righteous anger: 'It is very painful for me to oppose an old and beloved friend like Kropotkin, who has done so much for the cause of anarchism. But for the very reason that Kropotkin is so much esteemed and loved by us all, it is necessary to make known that we do not follow him in his utterances on the war.' (Malatesta) 'We determined to repudiate Peter [Kropotkin]'s stand, & fortunately we were not alone in this. Many others felt as we did, distressing as it was to turn against the man who had so long been our inspiration. [...] To be sure, we were but a handful in comparison with the war-drunk millions, but we succeeded in circulating throughout the world the manifesto issued by our International Bureau, & we increased our energies at home to expose the true nature of militarism.' (Goldman - via wiki above) Otherwise I've enjoyed his writing, though he has too much faith in industrial production for my liking. The stuff about decentralising and reviving artisan economies was good but he seems to think it's possible to have heavy industries like ship-building, railways & iron foundries without this inevitably feeding into globalised imperialism or pitiless worker exploitation, like people could just choose to do things differently through force of will. Not convinced... cheers, I |