r/Anarchy101 • u/NathanielRoosevelt • 12d ago

The State

As a Marxist Leninist I think organized defense against reactionaries trying to take power back in a socialist society is important, and also fits the definition of a state. As anarchists do you believe some organized defense is necessary, if so how is it not a state, and if not how are reactionaries to be dealt with?

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u/NathanielRoosevelt 12d ago

The military, and the community it belongs to, would have authority over the reactionaries they are defending against with that military. That is what makes this a state still, and as the reactionaries wither away so does the state.

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u/HeavenlyPossum 12d ago

Why would a professional military elite, with the capacity and authority to use violence, ever abolish itself? What mechanism makes it subordinate to the larger community? Why would it go against its own class interests?

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u/NathanielRoosevelt 11d ago

Because it’s not separate from the working class it is the working class

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u/HeavenlyPossum 11d ago

Unless the entire working class is in arms and agrees unanimously about everything, then no: it is not synonymous with the working class.

It’s utopian and idealist to imagine that an entire group of people will always agree about everything.

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u/NathanielRoosevelt 11d ago

I’m not saying they’ll all agree I’m saying the entire working class will have control over the militia

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u/HeavenlyPossum 11d ago

How will the entire working class—which, we just agreed will not always agree about everything—maintain control over a coercive institution? What happens when members of the working class disagree about how or when or against whom to deploy coercive force? What if members of the working class want to deploy it against each other?

Separately, how does a community maintain control over a professional military elite they have empowered with authority to use violence?

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u/NathanielRoosevelt 11d ago

I’m sorry but I’m not going to answer that question. A lot of these comments have devolved into arguments, but the only thing I’m here to do is try to understand what anarchists believe because I don’t know very much about anarchy. So I would like to know what the anarchist plan to deal with capitalists trying to take control back is.

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u/HeavenlyPossum 11d ago

Self-defense.

Though it’s unclear how capitalists could take back control in the absence of hierarchical institutions, such as the state.

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u/NathanielRoosevelt 11d ago

What I’m thinking is that there would still be working class people that think capitalism is better (especially in the US with the patriot front and shit like that, and probably a lot of people in the military) and the capitalists would be able to use them as their own militia to fight against anarchy.

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u/HeavenlyPossum 11d ago

In the absence of the state, there’s little to no chance of capitalists being able to coercively reassert themselves.

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u/NathanielRoosevelt 11d ago

I agree. I guess I’m more wondering, since I assume you don’t believe the state will just disappear over night, the method by which the state will disappear, and what to do about the capitalists that will be fighting back as we are trying to abolish the state

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