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anarchist rejections of the state 73
force of the oppressed. Primitivists, on the other hand, complement
their view of state alienation with a view that power is legitimate
only when exercised by the individual. The postmodern view is that
power has no real centre and that, rather than being possessed by
collectives or individuals, it permeates social relationships. From
this perspective, power can manifest itself in positive and negative
ways, but cannot be captured in legitimate or illegitimate spheres.
As representatives of the first view, Rocker and Kropotkin
imagined that the abolition of power would be achieved through the
expropriation of private property and the realization of common
ownership by the movement of workers and peasants. The state,
Kropotkin argued, would be abolished when ‘the workers in the
factories and the cultivators in the fields march hand in hand to the
conquest of equality for all’. Indeed, Kropotkin argued that ‘in the
task of reconstructing society on new principles, separate men,
however intelligent and devoted they may be’ were sure to fail. He
continued: ‘[t]he collective spirit of the masses is necessary for this
purpose’. 60 Rocker’s syndicalist idea was that the struggle against the
state ‘must take the form of … the solidaric [sic] collaboration of the
workers … through taking over the management of all plants by the
producers themselves …’. 61 Modern anarcho-syndicalists similarly
discuss the necessity of developing a ‘culture of solidarity’, of creating
‘a new … sense of community through the practice of solidarity’.
Primitivists do not deny the important role that mass actions
might have in undermining the state, but shy away from the idea that
individuals might be made subject to collective force. Zerzan
advocates wildcat strikes and factory occupations on the model of
the May 1968 uprising in France, political vandalism, roaming riots
and militant protest. However, unlike Kropotkin, his ambition is
not to organize workers to expropriate owners and dismantle the
means of industrial production. It is to encourage each individual –
separately – to engage in the struggle against the ‘domination of
nature, subjugation of women, war, religion … and division of
labor’. United, mass actions emerge from the impulse to individual
rebellion. John Moore offered a similar view. He argued that the
struggle against the state should be waged by individuals, communicating
through the arts – particularly poetry. His hope was that
anarchists would be able to touch popular passions and irrationalities,
reach out and communicate with others and ‘realize’ and
‘supercede’ the arts beyond their ‘alienated and commodified’ form.
The struggle would involve many people. But Moore’s underlying