Marxist
Senior Member
We are better off because the method of distribution would be different, production would be based on what is needed for humanity, not bases on profit, the working people would be able to work together and get compensated for what their labor is actually worth, the life expectancy would certainly be better, as would the standard of living for all people, the concept of purchasing power wouldn't really have meaning, nor would class mobility... No, they had a large army... But fell due to being overwhelmed, there you go, thank what you want, we obviously have different opinions, and I respect the dialogue we've had, and apologize if I threw out insults, this forum does things to people... But none the less, it seems this will be a never ending exchange.It is a compelling argument. They were short lived due to violence against them, and the reading I've given you recently literally addresses almost everything you've been asking me about. They were better for the working people, and remember, this was In the early 1900s. Why not?They should be emulated due to the inherit flaws of capitalism and the destruction it brings, the fact that capitalists focus on short term profit, the contradictions, the systemic poverty... And workers need to own production, but that's my opinion. The living conditions were certainly good, the only ones saying bad things were the Bolsheviks.. MakhnovistsYes I have, you just didn't want to look deeper into it, but none the less, I'll help you out.
The Free Territory (Ukrainian: Вільна територія vilna terytoriya; Russian: свободная территория svobodnaya territoriya) or Makhnovia (МахновщинаMakhnovshchyna) was an attempt to form a stateless anarchist[1] society during the Ukrainian Revolution. It existed from 1918 to 1921, during which time "free soviets" and libertarian communes[2] operated under the protection of Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army. The population of the area was around seven million.[3]
The territory was occupied by WhiteRussian forces under Anton Denikin and a temporary government of Southern Russiaformed, but, by 1920, Denikin's forces had been driven out of the area by the Red Army in cooperation with Makhno's forces, whose units were conducting guerrilla warfare behind Denikin's lines.
As the Free Territory was organized along anarchist lines, references to "control" and "government" are highly contentious. For example, the Makhnovists, often cited as a form of government (with Nestor Makhno being their leader), played a purely military role, with Makhno himself being little more than a military strategist and advisor.[4]
7 million people... With constant attacks against them, think about that.
Keep in mind I also follow anarchist syndicalism to help achieve anarchist communism.
Anarcho-syndicalism (also referred to as revolutionary syndicalism[1]) is a theory of anarchism which views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and, with that control, influence broader society. Syndicalists consider their economic theories a strategy for facilitating worker self-activity and as an alternative co-operative economic system with democratic values and production centered on meeting human needs.
From November 1918 to June 1919, the Makhnovists established an anarchist society run by peasants and workers in Ukraine. The territory under their control stretched approximately between Berdyansk, Donetsk, Alexandrovsk (later known as Zaporizhia), and Yekaterinoslav, (Sicheslav, later Dnipropetrovsk). According to Makhno, "The agricultural majority of these villages was composed of peasants, one would understand at the same time both peasants and workers. They were founded first of all on equality and solidarity of its members. Everyone, men and women, worked together with a perfect conscience that they should work on fields or that they should be used in housework... The work program was established in meetings in which everyone participated. Then they knew exactly what they had to do". (Makhno, Russian Revolution in Ukraine, 1936).
According to the leaders of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine (RIAU), society was reorganized according to anarchist values, which lead Makhnovists to formalize the policy of free communities as the highest form of social justice. Education followed the principles of Francesc Ferrer, and the economy was based on free exchange between rural and urban communities, from crops and cattle to manufactured products, according to the theories of Peter Kropotkin.
The Makhnovists said they supported "free worker-peasant soviets"[6] and opposed the central government. Makhno called the Bolsheviks dictators and opposed the "Cheka [secret police]... and similar compulsory authoritative and disciplinary institutions". He called for "[f]reedom of speech, press, assembly, unions and the like".[6] The Makhniovists called various congresses of soviets, in which all political parties and groups - including Bolsheviks - were permitted to participate, to the extent that members of these parties were elected delegates from worker, peasant or militia councils. By contrast, the Bolshevik territory, after June 1918, no non-Bolsheviks were permitted to participate in any national soviets and most local ones,[7] the decisions of which were also all subject to Bolshevik party tutelage and veto.
A declaration stated that Makhnovist revolutionaries were forbidden to participate in the Cheka, and all party-run militias and party police forces (including Cheka-like secret police organizations) were to be outlawed in Makhnovist territory.[8][9] Historian Heather-Noël Schwartz comments that "Makhno would not countenance organizations that sought to impose political authority, and he accordingly dissolved the Bolshevik revolutionary committees".[10][11] The Bolsheviks, however, accused him of having two secret police forces operating under him.[12]
The Bolsheviks began their formal efforts to disempower Makhno on 4 June 1919 with Trotsky's Order No. 1824, which forbade electing a congress and attempted to discredit Makhno by stating: "The Makhno brigade has constantly retreated before the White Guards, owing to the incapacity, criminal tendencies, and the treachery of its leaders."[5]
Makhnovists The Russian Revolution
Lots more..
I do want to look deeper into it which is why I have been requesting data from you. I saw the wiki pages you don't need to copy and paste them, they don't provide data on the conditions of the society. Once again I ask you why you feel like these examples are successes that should be emulated (specifically) and why they should convince someone like me that anarcho-communism is the way to go.
I can't find any documented starvation or problems that were major, and I'm trying to.
The problem here is that isn't a very compelling argument in favor of the societies that you are trumpeting. Especially since they were so very short lived. You haven't demonstrated that these societies were in any way better than what say we have in the US or western Europe. Why on earth would I want to transition into such a society?
How are you defining "better for the working people"? What data are you basing that claim on? life expectancy? standard of living? Purchasing power? class mobility? Service provision and availability? Economic output and productivity? Security and stability? I haven't seen anything along any of those lines except a note that their stability and security mechanisms failed to allow the survival of the community. I haven't seen any argument from you that they were better off outside a general statement that they were "free from capitalism". That doesn't tell me anything useful.