Interviews, Reviews, Analysis, and Comment

Archive for the ‘Anarchism’ Category

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Anthony Arnove on The Essential Chomsky

In Anarchism, Arnove, Anthony, Chomsky, Noam, Foreign Policy, Media on March 29, 2009 at 4:54 pm

arnove-interview

Noam Chomsky is known around the world for his revolutionary work in linguistics and his critical analysis of US foreign policy. Author and activist Anthony Arnove has assembled twenty –five essays for The Essential Chomsky (The New Press, 2008), a rich volume suitable for those first encountering Chomsky’s thought or those continuing to learn from him. Mr. Arnove kindly took time to answer some questions about Chomsky’s work.

G&R: Chomsky is known for being extraordinarily prolific. How did you reduce such a large body of work to its “essentials”?

AA: Noam has written so much compelling work it would be absurd to claim that I have succeeded in collecting the most essential material in only one book. What I have done, I hope, is bring together a representative range of writing that will entice readers to dig deeper. I wanted to include work by Noam in linguistics and philosophy that I thought could be understood by readers who were not specialists. And I also looked for political essays that I thought spoke not just to the moment they were written but to the world today. I also wanted to represent the diversity of his work, to give people a sense of its range and interconnections. Read the rest of this entry »

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Interview with Noam Chomsky

In Anarchism, Chomsky, Noam, Media, Socialism on November 11, 2008 at 10:03 pm

GR: You’re probably the most well-known proponent of libertarian-socialism, which, as I understand it, is a political philosophy that embraces both non-Leninist forms of Marxism and the social forms of anarchism. Libertarian-socialism relies on a highly organized and class conscious working class and also rejects participation in electoral politics and representative government. Given the weak state of US labor and progressively untempered barbarism of the US government, do you see anarchism and left-wing Marxism as appropriate models for the US left?

NC: Well, libertarian-socialism has very loose links with Marxism. There are the left-Marxists — allegedly to the left. There was a left, anti-state Marxist movement, which was very far from the mainstream of Marxism, which had reasonably close relations and associations with libertarian-socialists. Libertarian-socialism is just a European phrase for anarchism. It’s not used in the United States but it’s a traditional phrase. It was the anti-state wing of the socialist movement. Pretty hostile to Marxism, in fact. Certainly to Marxism-Leninism, which was an enemy.

The weak state of the labor movement in the United States is a very serious matter. By now there is recognition of minority rights to an extent that was not true in the past: women’s rights, the rights of ethnic minorities, immigrant rights and so on. But one group has been excluded: labor rights. The labor rights have been significantly undermined, particularly in the United States since the Reagan years. But it’s been happening worldwide. That’s, in fact, what the strikes are about in France right now. Read the rest of this entry »