Homage to Anarchism

Disclaimer: This is a political discussion. As such, I understand that many people will disagree with my opinions (those people are wrong!). If you do disagree, feel free to comment on the article, but please only comment if you have an informed and coherent opinion. Offensive posts or posts containing current dogmas about political systems (basically, anything that claims that democracy is fair government or that it safeguards freedom, liberty or anything else that Americans like to go to war over) will be deleted.
Also, the historical facts mentioned in this post are based on Orwell’s account of the war. If you were there and can prove that they are wrong, please enlighten the rest of us.

I am currently re-reading George Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia”. I started reading it when I was a lot younger and don’t believe I ever finished it as I was too young to really appreciate what it was about.

It is particularly interesting to read it while living in Barcelona. He writes about marching around the “municipal park” opposite Plaza Espanya. I find it hard to imagine companies of anarchists and communists parading in military formation around present-day Montjuic. It’s such a tranquil place in the winter time and so plagued with tourists in the summer time.

It’s also interesting to cycle around the city, contrasting it with Orwell's description of it in civil war times. Barcelona is famous for its impressive architecture and ostentatious buildings. When Orwell was here, they had all been taken over by the communists and anarchists and the businesses in them collectivised, right down to the city’s bootblacks.

Now, walking around the city, it seems that the Bourgeoisie has been replaced by the capitalist elite. Walking down Passeig de Gracia, you see all the famous buildings designed by Gaudí and the like, but their bottom floors are occupied by the outlets of multinational corporations doing a brisk trade selling goods to tourists. The quioscos on the street sell drinks made by Coca-Cola and ice cream made by Frigo/Walls/HB/Whatever it’s called in whatever country you live in.

It seems that Barcelona has become a whore to capitalism. And I don’t think that this is a necessary state of affairs. There are those who would claim that prosperity comes from capitalism, but this is confusing the issue. Prosperity comes from industry (ranging from heavy manufacturing to selling ice cream to tourists). Under capitalism, the industry is in the hands of a select few, who often have a parasitic relationship with the general population, profiting from their labour without giving much back. In an anarchist or communist setting, the industry is collectively owned and all labourers should benefit from it fairly. The key word is “fairly”, but it is outside the scope of this post to discuss what precisely that entails.

It seems to me self-evident that locally and popularly owned industry would make Barcelona a wealthier place, as measured by the tangible wealth and quality of life of the average citizen and not by the amount of money exchanging hands (a system that measures wealth based on the exchange of glorified IOUs between those who have them is really missing the point!). The tourists will continue to come here as they are not brought here by the Nike shops, the Sony Centres and the Burger Kings, all of which they can probably find in their home towns – they are brought here by the impressive beauty of the city, its vibrant nightlife, pleasant climate and generally friendly inhabitants.

In Orwell’s time, class distinctions were abolished. “Respectful” terms such as “señor”, "usted”, etc. were banned and everybody was treated as an equal. Orwell famously got in trouble for trying to tip the lift operator boy at his hotel! That’s really impressive if you stop to think about it. He is describing a society in which a lift operator is wealthy enough to be able to snub tips from clients! Imagine a world in which you didn’t have to tip your waiter because you know he is correctly rewarded for his work. Under the anarcho-syndicalist government in Barcelona, prostitutes were asked to stop being prostitutes and get more rewarding work. I cannot imagine a society in which a significant proportion of the population is not forced to do unpleasant or dangerous work in order to survive. Nor can I imagine one where the lowest employees of a service business don’t have to resort to tips in order to pay the bills.

It seems to me that “democratic” capitalism is a deeply flawed system and, in Barcelona, at least, anarchism has been shown to work. The reason the anarchist government collapsed was, essentially, because the fascists arrived with German and Italian weapons and shot them all. But while the government lasted, militias like Orwell’s defended the city from the invading rebels (Franco’s army – to anybody not entirely familiar with the Spanish Civil War, it should be noted that Franco and a few other generals and influential figures gathered the army and overthrew the democratically elected government because they did not agree with it) and they did so in an anarchist army. This meant that a mere private in the army did not have to salute a general and could, in fact, stroll up and have an informal chat with him. What’s more, a private was not obliged to follow orders unquestioningly and yet, as Orwell noted, very few men deserted the militia and most fought enthusiastically, if not always skilfully. The anarchist soldiers understood the validity of their endeavours and were allowed to question orders which they did not agree with. They believed in their cause and were prepared to fight for it. I don’t know of any group of men who would display similar loyalty to a capitalist system.

Orwell did not come to Barcelona to fight a war - he came to write articles because he was a journalist. And yet, when he arrived here, he perceived that there was something worth fighting for and he enlisted in a militia. And he wasn’t alone. The Spanish Civil War was famous for the huge amount of help from outside on both sides. We know what the fascists were fighting for – power and the established order, but the Reds were fighting for what they knew to be a superior system of government.

What has changed since the 30s? The monarchy and the church have lost their power, so we are no longer subservient to them. But in the 21^st century, people’s lives are dominated by multinational corporations. We work for unseen superiors whom we support with our labour. Wars are still waged for money and power, but today they are backed by large businesses instead of the monarchy and the church. The governments of the world are not directly accountable to the people and, in fact, go out of their way to keep their populations subdued. Things are not so different today. Why then should we not believe that anarchism can work today? Why is it no longer worth fighting for?