George Walford: Doing the Splits (63)

Under this head IC presents instances of the political divisiveness displayed by the eidodynamics. When possible we also offer, for contrast, examples of the emphasis on party loyalty, faith in the leader and ‘don’t rock the boat’ of the eidostatics. (Co-operation being less newsworthy than conflict, these come less readily to hand). We invite readers to contribute and, particularly, to send in any counter-instances, any reports of political division among the eidostatics (roughly, in politics the traditionalists) or of political co-operation among the eidodoynamics (roughly, in politics the socialists, communists and anarchists).

EIDOSTATIC: Unlike the leaders of the Republic, Franco managed to establish political unity among his followers, persuading the Carlists, the Falange, the old Catholic party, and the monarchist generals to sink their differences for the duration. (Hugh Thomas TLS Oct 22,3) find a contrasting quote on the divisions within the Republic).

EIDODYNAMIC: Hans Van der Ven, in From Friend to Comrade, notes that factionalism remained one of the Chinese Communist Party’s characteristics. (Reported by Jonathan Mirsky, TLS April 9, 1993,26)

The revolutionaries of The Gadfly at work: ‘The matter was a somewhat difficult one to decide because, as usual, the Committee’s views upon the subject were much divided.’

Reviewing George Woodcock’s new Anarchism and Anarchists (Quarry Press) Kevin Davey speaks of his having left, soon after 1947, ‘the shrinking and feud-ridden anarchist movement.’ [1] He later describes the anarchist ideology as ‘irrepressible,’ and indeed the shrinking seems to have been no more than a phase. The feuds, however, continue.

Mikhail Tsovna reports from Russia: ‘The groups that were created by the dozen last year have tended to disintegrate, the number of the participants in anarchist groups stabilized approximately at the level of 1989 when the first country-wide anarchist federation (KAS) was created. Today the movement is still split in spite of all the talks of cooperation between different tendencies.’ Remarking that anarchists enjoy creating five groups out of four people, Mikhail does not expect the united anarchism that some people dream about. (From the former Sovietsky Soyuz, reprinted in Discussion Bulletin No. 81, September-October 93)

WRITING on the anti-fascist movement in Britain today, S.Panza notes ‘its degeneration into a qualid collection of mutually hostile rackets.'(Freedom February 5).

‘As odd as it is no doubt seems to the non-anarchist, there is a wide gap in perspective among anti-statists. In fact, there are some people who are downright enemies.’ (Zeising M. & Gunderloy M. ed 1991 Anarchy & the End of History, Introduction).

[1] Tribune, reprinted in Newsletter of the Anarchist Research Group October 93

from Ideological Commentary 63, February 1994.