Black Revolutionary

The aim of Black Flame is to examine the ideas and history of a once neglected anarchist movement. The principal ambitions of the authors are threefold: to establish the parameters of this movement, to traces its global history and to demonstrate its continuing power as a counter to neo-liberal globalization. This first volume provides the theoretical framework for the analysis and examines the history of the movement from the latter part of the nineteenth century to the start of World War II. The second volume promises to pick up the story of the movement’s international development from the 1940s and show its continued relevance to modern political struggles. The relationship between anarchism and syndicalism is the book’s central focus and the first part of this volume is devoted to showing the necessity of this relationship. For Schmidt and Van der Walt syndicalism – or class struggle anarchism – is not merely one possible form of anarchism, it is its only coherent expression (p. 19). Fully aware of the contentiousness of this claim, the authors support it carefully: their argument is extremely well structured, based on an impressive knowledge of anarchist thought and a mastery of the available historical sources. They anticipate objections to their thesis and meet these forcefully. For example, Malatesta is not recruited to their cause before his debate with Pierre Monatte in 1907 is scrutinized. Similarly, in seeking to downplay the differences between anarchist communism and anarcho-syndicalism, the authors acknowledge Kropotkin’s tendency to differentiate the two and his keenness to enrich the former with an ancient pre-history. Distinguishing between principles, strategies, and tactics, the authors are able to explain the complex internal politics of the movement and make sense of the confusing grounds of syndicalist disagreements. Their account is rich in detail. At times, the short sketches of key activists and thinkers interrupts the flow of the analysis, but these introductions to lesser or unknown anarchists give the text real depth. More importantly, their interest in world movements – from Argentina to modern-day Zimbabwe – enables them to challenge the claims that the Spanish experience was an exceptional success in a history of anarchist failure and that anarchism effectively died in 1939 with Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War. Of course, none of this argumentation lessens the contentiousness of the claim that the broad anarchist tradition extends to figures who considered themselves Marxists – Bill Haywood for example – whilst excluding established notables – Godwin, Stirner, and Tolstoy – as well as a host of other self-identifying anarchists, including Proudhon. The politics of the book reflects a desire to divorce anarchism from free-market libertarianism. Insofar as this leads the authors to challenge the legalistic approach adopted by the littleread Paul Eltzbacher, their case is unimpeachable. Nevertheless their rejection of the claim that anti-statism is a sufficient condition for anarchism is a narrow starting point which leaves open the possibility of acknowledging its necessity and of defining anti-statism in different ways – precisely the move they make in presenting their critique of Marxism. At the risk that some readers might confuse Rothbard with Rocker, the authors construct what appears to be a very exclusive ‘‘broad’’ tradition. Their endorsement of Bookchin’s critique of lifestyle anarchism and the replication of his individualist/ collectivist and egoist/solidarist binaries heightens the sense that they are also throwing down a gauntlet to syndicalism’s critics, not merely driving a wedge between socialist Book Reviews 329