Submitted by RAN in Communism

A reasonably enlightening discussion of this issue from a nominally Marxist viewpoint.

I found the following excerpt particularly interesting:

== Anarchists oppose the formation of any kind of state because a state is by definition repressive. This is true. However, it must be pointed out that a healthy workers’ state would differ fundamentally from all others that have existed in history in that it would promote and defend the interests of the majority against the minority that had previously exploited and oppressed them. In this sense, it is a semi-state. Consequently, it is a temporary measure. Once the threat of counterrevolution is eliminated and material needs are guaranteed for everyone, and the tasks of the state are reduced to administrative measures, there is no more need for a state. It will wither away and be replaced by the free association of humanity where the freedom of each is dependent on the freedom of all.

In his book State and Revolution, Lenin stated: “The proletariat needs the state only temporarily. We do not at all disagree with the anarchists on the question of the abolition of the state as the aim. We maintain that, to achieve this aim, we must temporarily make use of the instruments resources and methods of state power against the exploiters.”

Similarly, Trotsky wrote in an essay Stalinism and Bolshevisms: “Marxists are wholly in agreement with the anarchists in regard to the final goal: the liquidation of the state. Marxists are statist only to the extent that one cannot achieve the liquidation of the state simply by ignoring it.”

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Pop wrote

whoever wrote this does not know what anarchism is

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ziq wrote (edited )

Sure spends a lot of time trying to convince the reader we need a 'worker's' state.

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