This is what makes our group different from the white anarchist — besides he views his group as already free. Now he’s striving for freedom of his individual self. This is the big difference. We’re not fighting for freedom of our individual selves, we’re fighting for a group freedom.
This is the clearest description on the fundamental core of anarchism; Huey put it perfectly. It just shows that anarchists have more in common foundationally with libertarians than actual socialists. Anarchists are individualists, and as such, see any fight towards the collective liberation of society at odds with their line of thinking. It’s also why anarchism is predominantly seen as a Western phenomena; individualism is central to capitalism, and especially the US (i.e. “rugged individualists”), so in ther mind they attempt to consolidate the two forms of thinking: they want to keep the benefits of being the privileged of the world in the center of imperialism and keep in line with its alienated and individualist nature, but twist what liberation would mean for the working class into an edgy ideology of “no gods, no masters”.
Anarchism or Socialism really hones in on that point as well.
The point is that Marxism and anarchism are built up on entirely different principles, in spite of the fact that both come into the arena of the struggle under the flag of socialism. The cornerstone of anarchism is the individual, whose emancipation, according to its tenets, is the principal condition for the emancipation of the masses, the collective body. According to the tenets of anarchism, the emancipation of the masses is impossible until the individual is emancipated. Accordingly, its slogan is: “Everything for the individual.” The cornerstone of Marxism, however, is the masses, whose emancipation, according to its tenets, is the principal condition for the emancipation of the individual. That is to say, according to the tenets of Marxism, the emancipation of the individual is impossible until the masses are emancipated. Accordingly, its slogan is: “Everything for the masses.”
Clearly, we have here two principles, one negating the other, and not merely disagreements on tactics.
