Barbelith Underground > Switchboard

As an aside, your post didn't come across as mocking, at least not to me.

Two quick warnings with this. Firstly, much like anarchism, libertarian Marxism is a pretty broad category. It covers everything from council communism to situationism to autonomist Marxism. So this is obviously a broad overview. As well as that, I tend to use the phrase "libertarian Marxist" as shorthand for my own political views. It's truer to say I'm 'influenced' by Marx. There's a couple of important points I break with him on. And several more which I think are still useful but need a fair bit of alteration to make them relevant to the modern world. I also believe that conventional Marxism is best tempered with other ideologies, in particular feminism and ecosocialism. While I'll try to keep this as neutral a description as possible, it's obviously very unlikely my own politics won't seep in to at least some extent.

Libertarian Marxism is a form of Marxism that's often counterpointed to the more authoritarian forms (Leninism, Maoism etc.) as well as being less reformist then the social democratic variety. It places specific emphasis on the elements of Marx that places working class self-organisation and liberation at the forefront of Marxist politics. Largely speaking it disagrees with the Bolsheviks et al on the importance of the revolutionary party within the class struggle.

The main difference between libertarian Marxism and anarchism is that whereas anarchists would abolish the state pretty much instantly after the revolution, Libertarian Marxists do see the need for a transitional period, the Marxist 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. However, we'd see that dictatorship as being a dictatorship in the archaic sense of the word. That of merely meaning that the working class have absolute control over society, as the majority, rather than being an authoritarian dictatorship of a revolutionary party. And while the exact form of the organisation of that is a matter of some debate, all libertarian Marxists would see worker's democracy as being an integral and unnegotiable part of that transitional period.

In terms of your questions about the Internationals, in general terms we're broadly supportive of the first International. Highly critical of the second. And don't see ourselves as having anything in common with the third International onwards.

Anarchy!