Marxist-Leninist Theory | "The Bakuninists At Work" by Engels (1873) [Audiobook] @marxist-leninisttheory8023 | Uploaded May 2020 | Updated October 2024, 10 hours ago.
"The Bakuninists At Work" by Engels (1873) [Audiobook]

Written: in September-October 1873;
First published: in Der Volksstaat, Oct. 31, Nov. 2 & 5, 1873;

marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1873/bakunin/index.htm

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Engels' pamphlet about the role of the Bakuninist anarchists in the Spanish bourgeois-revolution in 1872-73. The anarchists split from the International Workers' Association, and succeeded in getting a majority in the workers' movement in Spain.

The main criticism that Engels gives is the following:
1. The Bakuninists didn't want to be involved in politics because they saw it as reformism. They opposed participating in elections or government politics. They also opposed all revolutions which were not anarcho-communist.
2. As a result, when the revolutionary situation in Spain began, they didn't have any program. They prevented the International Workers' Association from being involved as an organization. However, they said that "as individuals" anybody can do what ever they want.
3. Therefore the Bakuninists got involved in the revolution "as individuals" without any party, organization or program. They allied themselves to the republican bourgeois (Intransigents).
4. The Bakuninists and Intransigents advocated de-centralization and federalism. The revolutionary towns split from each other and were easily crushed by the government one by one. The Bakuninist program of boycotting politics also prevented the main working class center (Barcelona) from joining the revolution, instead a general strike was declared in Barcelona and nothing else happened.

Engels concluded that centralism is better then de-centralism, instead of "boycotting politics" the workers must take an active part and fight for rights. The revolution would have been successful if the workers had prepared beforehand and been united, but the Bakuninists had advocated boycotting politics and de-centralism for years and couldn't correct their line fast enough. The Bakuninists began abandoning their anarchist principles during the revolution but it was sporadic and not a well planned correction of their line. The extremism of the Bakuninists and Intransigents contributed to the loss of the Republican side in the Spanish revolution, and to the victory of the monarchists.