One of the chapters in Wayne Price’s invaluable book is entitled ‘The Capitalist Epoch of Decline’ and it is hard to imagine that we are living in anything else. All of capitalism’s men are rushing around attempting to get the wheels back on the cart that is taking us ever-faster to hell. For many people at this stage it has become obvious that putting the wheels back on does nothing for the ultimate destination.

Anarchism essentially sees a free society where everybody has the opportunity to live as they want as achievable. But what does that mean in practice, and how do we get there.

Theoretically Marxists and anarchists have the same goal. A stateless, classless, communist society. Both of us realise that this state of affairs won’t come about spontaneously through revolution or through the intercession of Lenin’s or Bukarin’s ghost. Rather it requires organisation and work. And it is on this question, the manner of organising society, of fighting for change, and of organising as revolutionaries that major differences emerge

Bakunin is sometimes accused of being in favour of dictatorship. Indeed he often talks about secret dictatorships. However if you read what he actually said in detail it is quite obvious that what he was talking about was the classic anarchist position of a leadership of ideas.