this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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I am looking for good books that explain the relationship between anarchism and communism, and how they differ in practice. I am not looking for a book that takes a communist angle and calls anarchism merely utopian or a liberal version of communism that has no revolutionary potential, or the liberal anti-communist propaganda that calls itself anarchist or radical and mostly serves to spread the lie that Stalin was actually worse than Hitler.

I have had trouble finding books that do not approach each other from this lens but instead takes you through historical examples where both groups disagreed and why, and when there has been clear unity in the fundamental goal of communism and anti-capitalism

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[–] rentasintorn@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You might find it fruitful to look into the history of the split in the first international? Like Bakunin and Marx's falling out.

Idk of any specific title that might be helpful, but that may be a jumping off point.

I don't think you can avoid reading biased titles, though. The whole point is that the tendencies don't agree with each other, and anybody invested enough to write about it is going to have an opinion. Bias isn't avoidable, but it can be read with the author's perspective in mind.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Unfortunately, dbzer0 is defederated from grad.

[–] rentasintorn@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ah, I hadn't realized. Thank you!

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago
[–] rentasintorn@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago

We are not the kind of people who, when the word "anarchism" is mentioned, turn away contemptuously and say with a supercilious wave of the hand: "Why waste time on that, it's not worth talking about!" We think that such cheap "criticism" is undignified and useless.

https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1906/12/x01.htm