Sobre el Anarquismo: Chomsky on Anarchism now available in Spanish
By AK Press | August 21, 2009
The man, the legend, and one of AK’s most popular books, is now available in Spanish!
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“El legado de las ideas anarquistas, y aun más, de las inspiradoras luchas de los pueblos que han buscado liberarse de la opresión y la dominación, debe ser atesorado y preservado, no como una forma de congelar el pensamiento y las ideas en otro molde más, sino como base para la comprensión de la realidad social y del trabajo que se compromete a cambiarlo. No hay razón para suponer que la historia ha llegado a un final, que las actuales estructuras de autoridad y dominación están esculpidas en piedra. Otro error tremendo sería subestimar el poder de las fuerzas sociales que pelearán para mantener su poder y privilegio.”— Noam Chomsky
Todos conocemos eso a lo que Chomsky se opone. Su mordaz análisis de todo lo que está mal en nuestra sociedad alcanza a un público cada vez más amplio. Sus brillantes críticas del capitalismo, el imperialismo, la represión nacional y la propaganda gubernamental – entre otras cosas –, se han convertido en pequeñas industrias editoriales por sí mismas. Pero, en este torrente de publicación y re-publicación, se dice muy poco acerca de lo que Chomsky propone, su propia perspectiva política, su visión del futuro.
Sobre el Anarquismo muestra otro aspecto de este exitoso autor: los principios anarquistas que lo han guiado desde su adolescencia. Esta compilación de ensayos, charlas y entrevistas – seleccionadas e introducidas por Barry Pateman, Editor Asociado del Emma Goldman Papers de la Universidad de California en Berkeley – incluye trabajos que nunca antes habían sido publicados, entrevistas presentadas por primera vez en inglés, así como materiales que vieron la luz por primera vez en panfletos difíciles de encontrar y periódicos anarquistas. Tomados en conjunto, pintan un renovado cuadro de Chomsky, mostrando su antigua y permanente participación en la comunidad anarquista, su constante compromiso con modelos no-jerárquicos de organización política, y sus esperanzas de un futuro mundo sin dominadores.
Para cualquier persona que se inspire en el penetrante análisis que hace Chomsky de nuestra situación actual, así como para quien busque una discusión inteligente y coherente del anarquismo, Sobre el Anarquismo será una experiencia fascinante y sorprendente.
Noam Chomsky es uno de los principales intelectuales del mundo, padre de la lingüística moderna, franco crítico de los medios y de la política exterior, e incansable activista. Vive en Lexington, Massachusetts.
Topics: AK News, Spanish | 2 Comments »
2 Responses to “Sobre el Anarquismo: Chomsky on Anarchism now available in Spanish”
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August 30th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
It’s such a shame that Chomsky, after a lifelong commitment to radical non-hierarchical politics, is now supporting Chavez government in Venezuela. Suddenly, when progressive forces make it into government, so called anarchists forget that anarchism meant, among other things, “against all governments, including those governing on behalf of the people”.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Chavez/construye/mundo/diferente/posible/elpepuint/20090825elpepuint_4/Tes
September 5th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Hi Pablo.
I think it’s a little dangerous to take what is essentially a single sound-bite from mainstream news coverage and use it to decide that Chomsky is no longer an anarchist. His attitude toward the State and the reforms possible under it has always been complex and nuanced. One doesn’t have to agree with it (and I don’t always) to understand that his goals are still the abolition of the State.
Yes, in the article you cite he says, “I write about peace and criticize the barriers to peace; that’s easy. What’s harder is to create a better world… and what’s so exciting about at last visiting Venezuela is that I can see how a better world is being created.” But he doesn’t say exactly *how* he thinks a better world is being created.
You, Chavez, and the mainstream press interpret that as support for the Chavez regime, but in most of his previous writing and interviews, Chomsky has been careful not to unequivocally do that. When he was interviewed on the topic in 2007, the interviewer kept trying to get him to support Chavez…and he didn’t. Here’s an interesting excerpt:
EVA: I read a quote of yours which said power is always illegitimate unless it proves itself to be legitimate. So in Venezuela right now we are in the process of Constitutional reform. And within that reform the People’s Power is going to gain Constitutional rank, above in fact all the other state powers, the executive, legislative and judicial powers, and in Venezuela we also have the electoral and the citizen’s power. Would this be an example of power becoming legitimate? A people’s power? And could this change the way power is viewed? And change the face of Latin America considering that the Bolivarian Revolution is having such an influence over other countries in the region?
CHOMSKY: Your word, the word “could”, is the right word. Yes it “could” , but it depends how it is implemented. In principle it seems to be a very powerful and persuasive conception, but everything always depends on implementation. If there is really authentic popular participation in the decision-making and the free association of communities, yeah, that could be tremendously important. In fact that’s essentially the traditional anarchist ideal. That’s what was realized the only time for about a year in Spain in 1936 before it was crushed by outside forces, in fact all outside forces, Stalinst Russia, Hitler in Germany, Mussilini’s fascism and the Western democracies cooperated in crushing it. They were all afraid of it. But that was something like what you are describing, and if it can function and survive and really disperse power down to participants and their communities, it could be extremely important.
EVA: Do you think it’s just an idealist illusion or can it really be manifested?
CHOMSKY: I think it can. It’s usually crushed by outside force because it’s considered so dangerous…
EVA: But in this case when it’s the government who’s promoting it? The state who’s promoting it?
CHOMSKY: That’s what going to be the crucial question. Is it coming from the State or is it coming from the people? Now, maybe it can be initiated from the State, but unless the energy is really coming from the population itself, it’s very likely to fall into some sort of top-down directed pattern, and that’s the real question. In Spain in 1936, the reason for the very substantial success is because it was popular – it’s a quite different situation from Venezuela. In Spain, the anarchist tradition was very deeply rooted. There had been 50 years of education, experiments, efforts which were crushed, I mean it was in people’s minds. So when the opportunity came they were developing what was already in their minds, what they had tried to do many times, it wasn’t spontaneous, it was the result of decades of education, organizing and activism on the ground. Now Venezuela is a different situation, it’s being initiated from above, and the question is can that lead to direct popular participation and innovative and energy and so on. That’s a real historical experiment, I don’t know the answer.”
The rest of the interview is here: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2659
Best,
charles