I have a big problem with the professional revolutionary -- the person who, in the style of Karl Marx, immerses him/herself into full-time revolutionary action.
Traitor! How can I say such a thing, and consider myself an anarchist? The reason I say this is because I think anyone who adopts a professional stance distances themselves from the rank-and-file, which sets the stage for eventually becoming a class unto themselves.
Revolutions aren't employment opportunities -- or shouldn't be. Some groups do make that their job -- we call them political parties. And surprise, they quickly lose sight of whatever their original goal was and focus on feathering their own nests out of your hopes and dreams, which they purchase through lies and skullduggery and slush funds.
To me, it's more vital for someone to be a part-time revolutionary and to work for a living, frankly -- because you learn things by your daily exposure to the cesspool of capitalist economics. It gives you perspective in what it's like to be a working person, something that's lost on many professional revolutionaries.
It's not wonder that Marx never worked a day in his life -- rather, he shacked up with Engel, who himself owned a factory. Only someone who'd never worked would have come up with "scientific socialism" ala Marx.
Anarchists must come from working people -- or if you're an anarchist, you ought to have a job somewhere. It brings you down to the street level of the day-to-day class war.
To date, the majority of would-be radicals come from the student populace -- this is a legacy of the 60s, really -- what came to be called the New Left. In the heyday of the radical left, radicals came straight from the working class -- you'd have people who worked by day and would get together after work and print pamphlets and otherwise organize.
That's what anarchists must do if they are to have a clue what day-to-day living is all about. Otherwise you'll end up isolated in your radical subculture and completely lose touch with working folks.
Part of my optimism about working people comes from being one myself -- I've worked since I was 16, in all sorts of jobs -- fast food, parking lot attendant, forklift operator, construction worker, stockworker, department store clerk, cafeteria worker, sandwich/pizza maker, temporary worker, editorial assistant, editor. In these jobs, I've encountered the class war every day, and have come to be radicalized by the marginal experiences themselves -- I've learned that bosses generally don't know jack, and that working people are capable of astonishing radicalism.
If I hadn't worked in all of these jobs, I might have that same Marxist snobbery that still infects a lot of the left -- the view that working people are just too backward or reactionary to achieve revolution. But, thankfully, I have seen otherwise. My faith in working people comes from being one of them.
If you're a student or are otherwise not working, then by all means get a job. This is not because I have faith in the system -- but rather, because it gives you enormous perspective you'll be lacking if you're not working; it'll energize your radicalism and give you an understanding why the working class doesn't rush off and follow you.
Most often, it's because they are tired; they want to spend time with their families -- they relish the time they have off the job, and don't want someone preaching to them in the time they have. They work all day with some putz on their back, telling them what to do -- the last thing they want is another putz telling them what to do.
Working people aren't reactionary -- working people are working. What you owe it to yourself to do is go out and work somewhere. Work fast food, and learn just how shitty that work is -- be sure to savor the burns you get on your wrists slinging French Fries for overweight Baby Boomers. Do customer service or retail work and get a front-row ticket to watching the bourgeois in action. Just get out there and work, and you'll learn all sorts of things. Do construction work and learn first-hand how solidarity really works.
Most importantly, you'll have an in road to working people you'd completely lack if you're a professional revolutionary.
That's right -- I think the full-time revolutionary is an unbalanced person, with all that this implies. The most successful full-timers were all unbalanced -- Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot.
They lose sight of what's really important in life, which is living itself. Perhaps they're seeking a surrogate in their Great Cause -- something to give their hollow lives value. I don't know.
But I'd prefer an everyday working person to some fevered professional revolutionary, who hasn't worked day in their lives -- and I think I'm not alone in this.
I don't reject revolution -- in fact, I welcome it. But I also don't lose perspective on what's important. I am more of a radicalized worker than a professional revolutionary, and I am proud of that distinction. I don't have all the answers, and don't pretend to. My own radicalism points to the enormous structural weakness of capitalist society.
Despite all of the propaganda, the $40 billion a year ad industry, and the near-total invisibility of the radical left, I became an anarchist. If I can do it, anybody can. This is what forms my own attitudes regarding anarchism, and why I object to would-be professional revolutionaries who think everyone's just so complacent and lazy because working folks don't embrace whatever program they forward.
It's important to do something -- to not let your status as a working person become and excuse for not doing anything. But that's entirely in your power -- and, based on your knowledge of your particular situation, it affords you unique insight into how to get your message across.
If you're a nonworking radical, please go work -- if you're a student, take a part-time job somewhere. If you're somehow neither student nor worker, then definitely get a job so you'll get a clue where working people are really at. I think you'll be surprised about what you see.
Oh, and if you're an anarchist, don't be a boss -- no anarchist can be a boss or a manager or a supervisor without bullshitting themselves. If you are one, you're no anarchist -- not at heart, anyway.
Dave Neal
11/14/97