MHI Invites Anarchists to Debate

April 27, 2010 by MHI Alternatives to Capital

MHI issued the following invitation to anarchists to debate on April 17 by distributing it at the Anarchist Book Fair in New York City and sending it to the IWW.  To date, we have received no response; we hope someone will agree.  (We note that, historically, the IWW had many “socialist” as well as “anarchist” members.)

INVITATION

Marxist-Humanist Initiative hereby invites the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and any other anarchist or anarchist group, to a debate on Proudhon’s and modern Proudhonist alternatives to capitalism. We are ready and willing to engage in such a debate at any reasonable time and place. Theoretical development of a viable alternative to capitalism is a crucial need, in order to revitalize and help orient struggles for a new society, and a debate on this topic can help further the process of theoretical development.

During a panel we organized at the recent Left Forum conference in New York, “False Alternatives to Capitalism: Proudhonism and Its Progeny,” a supporter of the IWW asked whether any anarchist had been invited to speak on the panel. As we noted at the time, our prior efforts to have anarchists engage with us on this issue were not successful, so we didn’t try yet again. Since, however, the question from the IWW supporter suggests that representatives of the IWW and/or other anarchists may now be willing to engage with us on this issue, we are once again extending an invitation to debate us, at any reasonable time and place.

Executive Committee of Marxist-Humanist Initiative

2 Comments on “MHI Invites Anarchists To Debate”

  1. 1Lucid said at 5:22 am on May 1st, 2010:Why Proudhon? Why would communists be interested in that old Marx-Proudhon debate, when there are us anarchist communists to contend with? Besides, what’s with Marxists and figureheads?

    Happy May Day, anyways. =/

  2. 2Lucid said at 5:24 am on May 1st, 2010:*Why would Marxists (communists)…

    Damn typos. =.=

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3 Comments

  1. “Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and any other anarchist or anarchist group, to a debate on Proudhon’s and modern Proudhonist alternatives to capitalism.”

    Strange request, as most anarchists are libertarian communists and not mutualists. Moreover, most who would be in IWW would be of the communist-anarchist school.

    I’m interested in Proudhon and have produced an anthology of his work (“Property is Theft!”) but I’m a communist anarchist and would only debate Marxist misrepresentations of Proudhon’s ideas (and there are MANY). In terms of alternatives to capitalism, I like most anarchists, look to the school Kropotkin helped create.

    Anyways, for those interested here is an introduction to Proudhon’s ideas (the introduction to “Property is Theft!”):

    http://anarchism.pageabode.com/pjproudhon/introduction-contents

    And, yes, I know this is a bit late but I’ve just seen it.

    Reply

  2. Anarcho I disagree with your characterisation of the IWW – the IWW is not an anarchist organisation. It is an industrial union. I am a Marxist humanist and a member if the IWW in the UK, in the IWW here we are building an independent workers union not an anarchist group. The original founding congress of the IWW involved far far more than anarchists, certainly over here we are not anarchists.

    Reply

  3. In fact I owe Anarcho an apology – it was not he who describes IWW as anarchist but MHI. This is certainly not the case in the UK.

    Reply

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