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+2 votes
by (320 points)
Hmm… what do you mean by "autonomous marxism"? Is that like libertarian marxism? Or are you making a reference to the mish mash, made up historical milieu of "autonomism" that references everything from miscellaneous anarchists to the far left groupuscules in Italy thirty or forty years ago, and even various squatter militants?

It would be better if you hashed this out. "Autonomous marxist" doesn't have any weight or measure to it. It helps to have some understanding of what the ultraleft is in this situation.
Maybe a text of interest i would reference would be "Autonomist Marxism" by Nick Dyer-Witherford. Though i do not call myself a marxist or communist, it has a lot of interesting points. Some which have been made by some anarchists.

I do also agree with madlib that there are some distinctions, but i have had some conversations where the idea of Autonomia/Autonomen are distinctly different than anarchists or anarchism.
"Government is nothing but a tool for class oppression.... " "...the workers should take over the government/collectivize all property and operate it in a socialist manner" -karl marx... how does that lead to "freedom" exactly?

1 Answer

+4 votes
Philosophically, they remain Marxists while we are not. This is a larger obstacle for some than for others, but it remains an issue because of what texts and commentators Marxists are supposed to be familiar with. Anarchists on the other hand, tend to disagree with each other about what anarchist texts, writers, commentators, and projects we like and identify with.

Analytically, Marxists still assume that the working class (despite many being currently organized in unions, which the Marxists know to be non- or counter-revolutionary) is the revolutionary subject, while many anarchists have their doubts. It's not that anarchists ignore or dismiss class struggle, but we have a tendency not to put too much faith into workers as workers.

Tactically, we all promote an anti-hierarchical form of organization, without a cadre-type division between the smart folks and those who take orders from them. This makes them easy to get along with when not comparing analyses.

Autonomous Marxists tend to be highly literate, very critical, and can (at times) be condescending toward those who do not share their critical analyses. Which doesn't make them too different from some anarchists after all...
by (570 points)
Oh, I forgot to mention that Marxists tend to drink more heavily than anarchists.
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