I agree that the state isn’t the perfect solution, I’m not some dogmatic statist and who knows - maybe dutch leftcom councillism can work really well.
Historical examples of communist revolutions who wielded the state were awful, I agree. However, using USSR in particular as anti-“withering away of the state” argument just shows a lack of understanding of the concept and history.
The state isn’t some metaphysical evil that’s the “big bad”, no - it’s the oppressive class relations, and the state is merely an instrument to enforce such class relations. For the state to start withering away, one needs to do away with classes entirely, which means building up or repurposing productive forces for socialist mode of production, suppressing counter-revolutions (like in Russian Civil War) to keep the bourgeoisie away from returning to power, etc.
USSR had a peasant and industrial underdevelopment problem, where after the revolution there was no way to quickly “build up” these forces without taking multiple decades to a decent enough state where everyone’s needs could be met via a planned economic model, which is a major task of a centralized state. Without this task being completed, capitalist commodity production model persists and state cannot wither away.
But of course, all I have is a wall of materialist analysis and not some moralistic anarchist slogans. I do like Anarchists don’t get me wrong, but I wish there was more materialism incorporated into your analyses, like actual material reasons for why the state should be immediately abolished and actual alternatives to seizing control and making sure revolution succeeds over moralization and pointless prose.
I agree that the state isn’t the perfect solution, I’m not some dogmatic statist and who knows - maybe dutch leftcom councillism can work really well.
Historical examples of communist revolutions who wielded the state were awful, I agree. However, using USSR in particular as anti-“withering away of the state” argument just shows a lack of understanding of the concept and history.
The state isn’t some metaphysical evil that’s the “big bad”, no - it’s the oppressive class relations, and the state is merely an instrument to enforce such class relations. For the state to start withering away, one needs to do away with classes entirely, which means building up or repurposing productive forces for socialist mode of production, suppressing counter-revolutions (like in Russian Civil War) to keep the bourgeoisie away from returning to power, etc.
USSR had a peasant and industrial underdevelopment problem, where after the revolution there was no way to quickly “build up” these forces without taking multiple decades to a decent enough state where everyone’s needs could be met via a planned economic model, which is a major task of a centralized state. Without this task being completed, capitalist commodity production model persists and state cannot wither away.
But of course, all I have is a wall of materialist analysis and not some moralistic anarchist slogans. I do like Anarchists don’t get me wrong, but I wish there was more materialism incorporated into your analyses, like actual material reasons for why the state should be immediately abolished and actual alternatives to seizing control and making sure revolution succeeds over moralization and pointless prose.