Barry Pateman on Anarchist History and Challenges

The Final Straw Radio Podcast have put up a long conversation with Barry Pateman in which they ‘talk about anarchist history, community, repression, defeat, insularity, popular front with authoritarian Marxists, class analysis and how to beat back capitalism.’

If you’ve heard Barry talk before, you’ll know he’s not one to dish out easy answers. This is no exception, and he demands that we respect the lives of past anarchists, and never reduce them to ‘pawns to support our arguments now.’ (38 min. mark) There’s a fair bit on how important (and how challenging) it is to record the lives of the unknown militants. These are the ones who made up the movement: without writing anything, sometimes never reading any of the ‘essential anarchist texts’. There’s plenty, too, on the need (and challenge of how) to talk to non-anarchists. Interesting stuff, and well put together.

You can listen at https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2020/04/26/barrypateman2020/