Reply To: Review of book about the CNT’s integration into the State

Lew wrote “This hasn’t worked in the past, it isn’t working now and there’s no reason to suppose that it will be more successful in the future.”

But the paragraph you mention, when taken just by itself, is just a vague passage about the unity of means and ends and the need to develop capacities through practice. As socialism is a democratic society it can only be reached by democratic means; and for people to live in a democratic society they have to develop the skills required for living in that way – skills that are developed through practice.

The author of the book would presumably disagree, but the type of democratic activity that the SPGB engages in could fit this description – the SPGB doesn’t think that you can get to socialism by force, by decree or without the majority playing an active role.

I don’t know how different the published book will be from the PhD thesis, but the dissertation version can be downloaded for free from here:
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/thesis/The_revolutionary_strategy_of_anarchism_in_Europe_and_the_United_States_1868-1939/16961263/1