I'm going to talk a bit about the theoretical presuppositions of anarchosyndicalism, and I'm going to make some comparisons with Marxism since both political perspectives claim to base themselves on the class struggle.

Actually they aren't exactly comparable because Marxism purports to be a complete worldview whereas I would argue that anarchosyndicalism is best understood as merely a revolutionary strategy, or strategic orientation.

The basic idea of anarchosyndicalism is that by developing mass organizations that are self-managed by their participants, particularly organizations rooted in the struggle at the point of production, the working class develops the self-activity, self-confidence, unity, and self-organization that would enable it to emancipate itself from subjugation to an exploiting class. The self-management of the movement itself foreshadows and prefigures self-management of production by the workforce, which is the movement's revolutionary aim. I think that is sort of a nutshell summary of anarcho-syndicalism.

1. Minimal Materialism
There is one commonality between Marxism and anarchosyndicalism that I want to take a look at. This is what I call "minimal materialism".

"Minimal materialism" is the idea that class structure, based on power relations between groups of people in social production, is the most fundamental or basic structuring in society. The class structure is the basic structure of control over social production, the basic economic structure, according to minimal materialism. This structure is supposed to be the background against which everything else about society is to be explained or understood.

Two arguments for it being fundamental:

i. Production is necessary to human life.

But this argument doesn't work. There other other things that are equally essential to human life -- for example, sexual reproduction and consumption.

ii. People spend a huge amount of their waking time at work, and their prospects in life are very much dependent on their relationship to social production.

I think this is a better argument.

excerpt from a conversation between Ion and Daedalus @ the O.F.S. Free Wall

"But I'll be back 'cause this is home."
"This is home."
"I drank the fuckin' water, man."

Baird: U.S. needs more time in Iraq, The Olympian
Biodiesel plant stirs hopes in Grays Harbor, Seattle Times

Check them out here!

Updated the Olyblogger scatter plot (scroll down).

Someone on another thread characterized this blog as "extreme left." I can see why some would think so, especially considering how the noise machine has effectivley redefined the political middle in this country. This chart is a beautiful example of just how skewed perceptions have become. Estimates of the Political Compass scores for all of the 2008 presidential candidates are ploted.

I see the extreme right. Where is the extreme left? What's your score?

Oh, and I don't want to talk about Gandhi!

Okay, here's what some of us look like on the political compass scatter plot:

I am so angry at the FCC (DOLTS!)... here is the basis for my angst (may not be a permalink, so here is the title to search for should this not work:

Firm Seeks FCC Review of Free Internet-Service Plan by Corey Boles (8/16/2007)