On the Historical Revisionism of Anarchists and Leninists

One of the greatest crimes of capitalism, and indeed any system of exploitation, is the absolute domination of history it maintains. But what happens with those in opposition to that very system are guilty of the same sin? It is no more justifiable! Know truth and truth shall set ye free!

So let's shed some light on historical revisionism. In the years 1918 through 1921, industrial parts of Italy underwent the Biennio Rosso, in which the possibility for a social revolution was very real. Among the top signs was a powerful factory occupation movement. Let's see how our alleged comrades of today discuss this period.

First, the anarchists of the site libcom.org (Liberal Communists or something) have a page dedicated to the Biennio Rosso. This page is wonderful in that it unabashedly wallows in the kind of factionalism we seek to promote. How does it do this? By completely omitting the large role played by the non-anarchist Marxists in the struggles. Whenever an action or thought can be attributed to anarchists, they endlessly mention the word. Whenever one should be attributed to non-anarchist Marxists, they simply drop ideological adjectives and act as if the workers acted completely without political philosophy. And there are some other glaring omissions too. The writer mentions how European working class movements became larger and more militant after World War I, but no where is mentioned the role that the new existence of the Soviet Union played in inspiring them, and whatever you think of the Soviet Union, on that note there is no debate. And after going out of their way not to put non-anarchist Marxists in a positive light, they then attack Italian Marxists and socialists at the end. It is really a delightful read, though just a simple example of how we Leftists consider each other greater enemies than the capitalist class. Why are we angry with the article? We'll get to that.

Now rightists and bourgeois historians like to blame this period for the next period, the Biennio Negri, when the fascists took power, but that's like blaming a man who talked back to verbal police harassment for the beating that then takes place. A person or a people have a right to resist, and the repression that occurs later is not to be blamed on them.

Similarly to LibCom, the english-language wikipedia, though extremely brief, paints the picture as anarchist. But move to the Italian wikipedia, and the article is devoid of any reference to anarchists, placing the significance on the inspiration of the Russian Revolutions, and the Italian (non-anarchist) Marxist movements, never once mentioning anarchism.

And while some (non-anarchist) Marixist accounts have simply given their anti-authoritarian would-be comrades their due, fortunately many others continue the line of the Italian wikipedia and the converse of the anarchist version. It's as if a fuller picture requires reading both, skipping past the anarchist attacks on the Leninists. But all of this revisionism is greatly in the interest of the factionalism, comrades.

Of course, both accounts are quite false. The truth goes something more like this:

Biennio Rosso

Back in 1915, Segretario Generale-Capo (a cousin twice-removed of our own venerable GSC) joined the anti-imperialist defeatists at the Zimmerwald Conference, specifically calling for the reclamation of the forces of production while the national militaries were away.

Generale-Capo then sent his small circle of comrades into the factories and warehouses of Torino, where they quietly agitated until they began defenestrating bosses from windows in 1918. Of course, thanks to the Mediterranean Free Trade Agreement, jobs were quickly depleting from northern Italy to Albania, and while shifting the blame from a racist attack on Albanians to one against the boss class, Generale-Capo launched a factory occupation movement like the world had never seen.

All was preceding gloriously, when anarchist ultra-leftists who desired to 'abolish work' began throwing fist fights with the Faccionalisti workers, and PSI bureaucrats called for everyone to 'Stop the Violence,' 'Save the Children,' and 'Keep Hope Alive.'

Both those with infantile and elderly disorders were, in actuality, agents of Mussolini which led eventually to his March on Rome. While Generale-Capo languished in a Neopolitano prison, his movement split between Trotsky and Stalin. And, well, that's really what happened.