WEBVTT - The Japanese Anarchists Part 2 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:09.520 I guess I'm starting this one. Hi, welcome to take 0:00:09.560 --> 0:00:13.239 it happen here. It's a show. If you're listening to 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:15.640 this episode, you probably listen to the last one. You 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.920 know what it's about. Yeah, please do don't start. I mean, 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:21.240 I guess you could start with this one because this 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.000 one is sort of wildly different than the last one. 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:29.400 But that's when we're rewriting it so they a'll survive. Yeah, 0:00:29.440 --> 0:00:32.960 I mean, I don't. No one gets executed this episode. Yes, 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:36.120 that is that is a win. And the cosmists come, 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:40.320 The Russian cosmists come, and they resurrect at least Knikofumico 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:45.120 um the rest, give or take whatever. Maybe the children 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:49.159 could be resurrected. That's how I would prioritize it in 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:55.000 that order. That makes sense. Yeah. Um. And that voice 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:58.720 you're hearing is Margaret Killjoy, host of Cool, host of 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.160 CPW d C. Yes, Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff, 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.800 Cool medio podcast that is launching its first episode on 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.840 May second, and episodes are every Monday and Wednesday. I 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:13.000 did it? Okay? Who that's true? All the things are 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:17.640 true except the cosmist part. Yeah, the cosmists, I don't know. 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.160 Maybe maybe maybe they'll still pull it off all right, 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:24.160 as as if yet, So we're gonna go back a 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:29.759 little bit. Um. We ended last episode with everyone sort 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:34.080 of dead. Um. But the reason that also didn't wipe 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:35.920 out the the anarchist movement was that there's that does 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:37.520 another sort of wing of it, and the other wing 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:42.480 of it is in in nineteen eighteen, labor movement in 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:45.240 Japan re emerges, and it re emerges because there's the war, 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:48.920 like Japan fights to over one, and there's just like 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:52.120 mass inflation and deprivation, and so even though striking is 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:55.800 like unbelievably illegal, people do it anyways because the underdative 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:59.960 is just starving to death. And so there's this reformist 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:03.320 trade union that eventually becomes Japanese Confederation of Labor that 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.279 swells and numbers to about thirty thousand people, and actually 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.079 mentioned like thirty thousand people is like, it doesn't sound 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:12.600 like that big for a union. I think this is 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:14.920 the biggest any union is going to get in this period. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:17.480 I think this union might get slightly bigger than that, 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.840 but like, yeah, most of the unions don't crack twenty 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:25.919 k because the size of the Japanese industrial working class 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:29.200 isn't that big and also the amount of oppression is unbelievable. 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.000 But you know, having having thirty thousand people in your 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:35.680 union means that your union is now the site of 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:42.959 Japanese intra left conflict, which is wonderful. People there is 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:47.920 actually like people up. Yeah, it's great. There's like, you know, 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.280 there's a period where everyone kind of gets along, like 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:52.320 like all of there was like everyone of the Japanese 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:54.720 Left knows each other, like all they're all dating each other, 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:56.799 Like this is true, Like you know, we've been talking 0:02:56.800 --> 0:02:58.359 about all the interest stating each other. The anarchist, the 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:00.919 communists all dating each other, like the reformists are also 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.760 dating each other, Like they're all sort of like everyone 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:07.240 knows each other, and for like a bit they're sort 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:12.519 of able to get along. Ah. But with with with 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:17.080 the the Japanese Confederation of Labor. This last for like 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:21.080 one year, and the anarchists and the Bolsheviks have split 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:24.320 over the question of the USSR. After the anarchists published 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.320 like Emma Goldman writing about how it's bad actually, and 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.720 suddenly these two factions are like yeah, these factions are 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:32.680 like fighting tooth and nail for control of like the 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:35.280 entire left because like these these these groups are like 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:38.320 the anarchists and the communists are in every social movement, 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:40.360 like they're they're in there in labor, they're in the 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:42.280 feminist movements, there in this movement they're like we haven't 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:44.680 really talked about, but it's going on the background of 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:48.400 all of this, which is the burak Kuman liberation movement 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:51.040 on the burk Kuman or this like this like hereditary class. 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.360 I'm pronouncing that extremely badly and I apologize, um, but 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.000 the hereditary class and like the old fuel system, which 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:59.240 is like technically abolished in the ladies and hundreds, but 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:03.480 like discrimination against them continues. It's it's very similar to 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:07.880 like like the untouchable like touchables in India. And so 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:10.440 they have this sort of movements and the anarchists back it, 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.400 and the communists like waffle on it because the Bolsheviks, 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.560 it takes to like a while before they're like no, no, no, 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.440 We're we're fully backing this now. And so yeah, I 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.080 mean that gets wrapped up in this this giant battle 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.640 for the control of the left, and the battle for 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:28.520 the control of the left leads to like one of 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:32.440 history's most common alliances which is Bolsheviks allying with reformists 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:36.120 who like also favor like centralized control to fight the anarchists. 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:44.360 You don't want centralized control. Yeah, there there are new things, yea. 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:47.560 And in labor movement, this this plays out in this 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.200 battle over like where power is supposed to be in 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:52.920 a union confederation. So you know, the question basically is 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:55.000 it supposed to be in the federation bureaucracy like the 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:56.800 people are like the sort of high level of the 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:58.400 bureaucracy it sself, or is it supposed to be in 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:01.160 the unions who are like the part of federation. And 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.200 and this has real consequences, you know, like in a 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.760 lot of sort of centralized union federations, like the central 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:07.400 union bureaucracy of the people who decide if you can 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:11.760 strike or not m hm. And you know, this is 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.320 extremely useful to both reformers bureaucrats who want to make 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:16.360 sure nobody goes on strike because they have their deal 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.760 with the capitalists and they don't want to refolution happen. 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:21.360 And it's also very useful for the Bolsheviks who want 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:23.120 to make sure they can purge anyone who they don't like, 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:25.320 and also want to make sure the Union movement just 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:28.760 like an extension of their politics. And so there's this 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.480 huge battle and it ends with basically like both the 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:35.400 Bolsheviks and the reformists pull out of the Union. Whoa, 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.440 so the anarchists win, Oh yes, sort of, Well they 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:41.440 do appear in victory. There's like nothing les Yeah, well 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:44.640 it's not there's nothing. So like twenty tho members go 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.160 with the reformists, like twelve thou go with the Bolsheviks, 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:51.720 about eight thousand go with the anarchists. So it's not 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:55.760 the best, but they rebuild and and into this phrase 0:05:55.839 --> 0:06:01.719 steps arguably Japan's greatest anarchist theorists of this period, Hottes Shoeso. 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:06.520 And this guy is a character like he's he's he's 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:08.560 barely known in Japan. I mean, there was a sort 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.880 of like renaissance in how does shoes a scholarship when 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:13.960 this one guy named John Krupp wrote this book called 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:16.880 how to Shoeso? How does Shuzo? And Pure Anarchism and 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.440 Interwar Japan, which is a mouthful of a title. But 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:20.960 I'm just gonna keep plugging this because like this is 0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:23.240 the book that made me an anarchist. Like this is 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:24.800 like I checked this book out from my library and 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:26.159 I read it and I was like, oh my god, 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:32.880 I'm an anarchist now. So yeah, he has he has 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.560 like A because she has a wild story. Um. He's 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.760 born in He's born in Japan in December six and 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.120 he sort of like bounces around like different manual labor 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.799 jobs in Tokyo, and like at one point he he 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:47.760 he wants to be like A. He tries to be 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:49.680 like I don't know if it's a long shot. He 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.039 wants to be like a sailor. So he gets on 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:53.600 a boat and he's gonna be a sailor, and then 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.480 he after like one sale ride to Taiwan, he immediately 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.039 decides he doesn't want to be a sailor anymore. So 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:00.920 he just gets off the boat and Eason doesn't come back. 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:02.800 I feel like that's what I would do if I decided, 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:07.880 Oh yeah, like that job, especially like the nineteen like twenties, 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.720 that jobs, he's awful. Yeah, You're like, I want adventure, 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:12.840 and then you're like, oh, adventure means bad things happen. 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.680 It's like, I mean, I I guess I understand why 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:20.120 all these people are anarchists, because like that is a 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:26.320 terrible job. But yeah, so she so winds up sort 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.080 of just like wandering around Taiwan. And one of the 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:30.960 things that happens when he's wanting around Taiwan, by the way, 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.240 is a Japanese colony at this point, um okay. And 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.120 while he's wandering around Taiwan, he becomes a Christian and 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:39.440 he like goes to school, it's like a theologian, but 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:41.840 he drops out, but then he somehow still becomes a 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:46.920 pastor because I don't know, this guy's career is wild. No, 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.840 she's always not like a normal pastor. He rapidly starts 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.960 pissing off like everyone around him because he's like every 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:55.960 all of his sermons are just him and taggetizing rich 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:58.560 people and preaching this like very very left wedged in 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:02.119 the Gospel to be like the read the Bible. Yeah yeah, yeah, 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.760 it's incredible that there's a great quote from Haweshizu and 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:08.880 Pierre anarchist of it Into War Japan about his time 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:10.760 as a pastor, from like someone who was there, it 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:14.360 was Pastor Hottes sermons were superbs, so much so that 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:16.480 I thought it was a shame that more people were 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:18.760 not there to hear them. It was like the Bible 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.200 talking in the spirit of pure socialism. And one of 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:23.760 my friends admired Pastor Hottes so much that the asid 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:30.560 to celebrate his marriage. Yeah, and you know this like 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.120 this does not make around. Yeah yeah, he say, Well, 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:36.400 it's funny because he starts like as a Christian, right, 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.080 but like he just like progressively keeps getting more and 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.360 more left wing and keeps realizing that like, okay, so 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:44.840 there's the Kingdom of God in heaven, right, but like 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.800 what if we did that here? And like as he's 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:50.840 getting like as he's pissing off more of the church, 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:54.640 um and as like they're they're they're in fighting, gets bigger, 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:56.720 he's becoming just more and more of an anarchist. And 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:58.800 by the end he just like gets up. He gets 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:00.960 booted out by his church and he's just like, okay, 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.520 I'm anarchist propagandist now, and sow four he just like 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:07.480 leaves and he's like, well, I'm anarchists now. Um, and 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.760 Shizo becomes what's known as a pure anarchist. And this 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.640 is something that is like entirely unique to Japan that 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.080 like there there's nothing there's this doesn't exist anywhere else. Um, 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.960 and this is different than like basically every other anarchist 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.480 theorist and movement in Japan until this point has been 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:25.240 like something you can find parallels with other anarchist movements 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.559 around the globe, Like there are nihilists and lots of 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.719 countries as egoists everywhere like their cynicalists literally in every 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:34.360 country has ever existed, and they mostly sort of believe 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:36.040 the same things. Um, you know, and you get some 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:41.280 like like oh yessaki is like combination of egoism and 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:45.280 syndicalism is like it's cool, but like I like that idea. Yeah, yeah, 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.800 it's a good idea, but it's also not like it's 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:48.960 like he's he's not he's not like he's not the 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.160 first person to ever do this right. And like the 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:53.920 japaneseynicalist movement is is built in the molde of like 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:57.120 the French syndicalists in the CGT, which is this big union. 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:00.680 H actually they're still around today there so in like 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:02.760 the very early eighteen hundreds they were there. They were 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:04.640 sort of a narcost Nicolas union and like nighte to 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:06.920 know six they have this famous charter about like anarchists, 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:09.280 but then they go reformist and they like they vote 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.719 for World War We're one and now they're famous for 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.920 there's been like twelve things that probably could have been 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:17.200 a revolution in France if the c GT had ever 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:19.040 a single time went to the barricades. And they never 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:23.040 do Whi's never ever, that's like their whole thing, Like 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:27.400 like they sat out by sixty eight, Like that's yeah, 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:31.480 this union. Yeah, and they sat out by sixty eight. 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:34.080 It's like it's incredible, but you know it's the But 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.680 you know, in like nineteen know six, right, the Japanese 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:38.480 are looking at like cyniccals looking at this like oh 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:40.960 my god, this just this union has like millions of 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.240 people in it, like it's enormous. It's a cynicals union. 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:48.600 So yeah, yeah, and like you know, they they the 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:51.719 Jamans anarchists do is sort of their standard cynicalist things 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:54.079 like that they're building up democratic unions. They're like working 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:56.440 cords in general, strike the season mused their production. They're 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:58.480 like fighting for a society or production is run by 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.040 workers themselves. Blah blah blah bla I should blah blah 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:04.280 blah blah. That's actually it's it's cool. It's fine, but 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:08.400 pure anarchism is not that I'm dying to know what 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.000 pure anarchism is. This new anarchism just dropped. I'm excited. 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:15.480 It's it's kind of a it's it's a version of 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:19.720 her communism. But like what if you like really really 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.480 rigorously applied in arcole communism and and this is this 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:25.560 is the thing. It doesn't exist anywhere else because everywhere, 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.480 like in the West and in Latin America, like syndicalism 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.640 and anarchist and anarcho communism just like fuse to the 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:33.240 point where like they're not really They're like, but there's 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:35.280 not really they're not really separate tendency like nobody's written 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:39.320 in archo communist theory, and like a hundred years like 0:11:40.400 --> 0:11:42.640 like they start, you know, they've basically ceased to be 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:47.400 separate tendencies. But in Japan, the cyndicicaliss of the and 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:51.080 comps like fighting it out to the death, and this 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.880 this produces pure anarchism and it rules can talk about 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:58.080 what it is because it's both wonderful and incredibly silly 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.959 at the same time. So okay, So so to understand 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:04.760 what they're arguing about, because this is this is this 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:08.440 this causes like a huge fracture in the annext movements. Um, 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:10.360 I think we need to sort of like go into 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:14.000 like the vulgar barkist conception of class structure that's kind 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:18.360 of shared by the cyndicalists. So okay, okay, so you're you're, 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.600 you're okay. The important thing about this is that, like 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:22.920 this doesn't work at your pan like the vulgar theory 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:25.839 of like marcutis class structure, right, is that like, okay, 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:28.640 so you're supposed to have the great industrial proletariat, Like 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:30.439 it's that's supposed to become a majority of the population. 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:32.439 It's supposed to be unified and organized by like the 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:35.240 discipline of the factory system, and the entire world is 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.160 supposed to reduce to two classes, like the borgewisi and 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:41.199 the proletariat, like one class of people who have nothing 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:43.240 to sell but their labor. One class of people who 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:48.360 exist purely too like extract wealth from people because like 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:51.360 you who you entirely supportless of my owning things. And 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:53.160 you know, eventually these are supposed to, like if you 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:55.480 if you read your communist manifesto, Eventually these two classes 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:57.439 are supposed to like meet themselves in like a final 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:03.959 conflict or the proletariat defeats it's called yeah yeah, yeah, 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.600 and you know, the proporteria defeats them, and then they 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:09.320 abolish the conditions of their own existence as a class 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.040 and you get stateless class lists. But in this society, 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.160 it's like a free association of workers. And this is 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:22.720 what communism is. And famously this never happened. Yeah, what 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.920 about the immortal science. Yeah, you know they well they 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:28.480 want the wortal science. Yeah, this, this is the This 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:30.400 is the problem the immortal science is that one, instead 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:33.760 of unifying the industrial proletariat, capitalism like divides it and 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.360 just sort of like like literally spatially like kicks them 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:38.240 into suburbs, and you can get this sort of like 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.760 the system where instead of like unifying everyone into one class, 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.000 everyone is now this like completely alienated like boomer living 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:47.200 in a suburb, even if it's still work in a factory. 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.480 And the other problem is that there's never just two classes. 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.320 And this is a problem that like, yeah, all the 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.520 other ones are our enemies. Yeah, this worried too, you know, 0:13:58.520 --> 0:13:59.920 but this is a real problem, right because like the 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:01.719 like the marxis run into this in Russia where it's 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:04.640 like okay, so we we did our thing, we did 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:06.600 our urban poultry and revolution, but like there's all these 0:14:06.640 --> 0:14:09.480 peasants and they don't like us because we keep taking 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.240 their granted gunpoint and but but you know that you 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:17.120 have you have this one problem and and popular, yeah, 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:19.520 it goes great, right if not nothing bad ever happens, 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.280 they don't famously have to kill enormal members of these people. 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.480 But then like you know, there's something weird happens, which 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:29.920 is in China, Stalin managed to get like the entire 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.560 or like the entire urban Chinese working class like builitic 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.040 working class killed, and so Mao has to like make 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.480 a revolution with peasants, and so you know, peasants become 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.280 the sort of like you know, this this sort of 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.440 like this, this is what the actual refolution strtuct of 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:46.120 communism wants up being. Like from the China Columbia, it's 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:49.240 these peasants. But like you know, okay, so you're your 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:51.360 three of the industrial politariats already down the toilet. And 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:53.240 this is what Shuzo is reacting to. Like he looks 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:56.800 at Japanese society and there's like five people who you 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:01.760 wage labor. Mostly there's this inor was like fourteen million 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:04.400 people who are tenant farmers who are like trying to 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.040 support their families and these like tiny plots of rented land. 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.320 But you know, and like in center Marxist theories like well, okay, 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:13.960 these people will inevitably be absorbed into capitalism, right, but 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.120 they will be driven by competition or whatever to the market. 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:18.800 But like they're not, it's not happening. They're just they're 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:20.760 sitting there and they're still just really poor in paying 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:25.040 their landlords. And yeah, yeah, well you just gotta wait 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:30.600 for all of Japan to be like annihilated. Yeah yeah, yeah, 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:32.440 it's it's it's it's going great. But and it's also 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:34.360 like there's all these other like classes to you, like 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.920 there's there's these classes of like there's just like petty 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:39.800 traders for example, or like like low level like really 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:43.240 low level government officials like like you know, you're like 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:47.400 like a clerk for example, who just don't fit into 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.640 this sort of class schem at all, Like if if 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:52.480 marks some things about like like small like I don't know, 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.240 people who like cut wood and then go into a 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:56.920 town and sell it. Like they're like, well, there's can 0:15:57.040 --> 0:16:00.280 these people are prete Bogwa like their reactionaries, and there's 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.320 this whole history of like anarchists organizing people like this 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:05.680 who marks just sort of like steer out, Like Bolivia 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:10.000 has this where like anarchists organized these like these indigenous 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.880 like they're not really these indigenous artisans whose things like 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:14.640 they go to market and they saw their craft. And 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:16.600 the Marxists were just like, how do we care about 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:21.160 the people? Like why yeah, workers, And it always seems 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:23.120 like the better I don't know, whenever I was presented 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:25.320 with the basic analysis of like, okay, we've got the 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.280 proletariat who have terrible lives and factories, and then you 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:30.800 have the lump and proletariat who refuse that kind of 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.280 work and are like beggars and thieves and people doing 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.720 work outside of the traditional system or whatever. And then 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:39.760 you have the petty bourgeoisie who are like you know, 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.480 owned stores or artisans or whatever. And then you have 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:45.040 the bourgeoisie over it. And it is always funny to 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:47.120 me because I look at I'm like, well, clearly, the 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:49.160 only ones that would be worth being would be lumping 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:52.240 proletariat or pet like they're the only ones to get 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:57.120 to have any fun like, yeah, you know, and I think, like, like, 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.560 this is a problem that that chooso sees. And I'm 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:04.800 gonna read part of um Krupt's book about his solution 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:07.680 to this because I think it's really interesting. Um. Given 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.280 the failure of the available methods of class analysis to 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.720 capture the subtleties of Japan's social structure, how To developed 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:17.159 the notion of the propertyless masses as an alternative concept 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.399 of the proletariat. That the propertyless masses was a wide 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:24.560 ranching term which encompassed tenant farmers, small traders, petty officials, artisans, 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.439 and even wage laborers when they are prepared to forsake 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:32.160 their preoccupation with narrowly defending advantages that accompanied their urban 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:34.200 lifestyle and we're ready to throw in their lot with 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.560 the other oppressed strata. Yeah, that makes sense. That's just 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.960 the you know, it's the like or's just the haves 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:43.440 and have nots. It's like, okay, well it's it's kind 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.080 of but but there's there's a crucial difference here, which 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:50.960 is that like, okay, so the other like the really 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:52.800 big thing about the pure anarchists that they don't believe 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:57.120 in class struggle, okay, and the reason why they don't 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.840 believe in class struggle is that they think that, Okay, 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:03.199 so they look at the history of the union movement, right, 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.280 and it's like, okay, so has the union movement ended capitalism? 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:08.159 It's like no, so like okay, what what does it 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:10.240 actually do? And the answer is it gets people slightly 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.800 more money under capitalism, which is nice too, yeah, which 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:15.919 which is nice. But it's also like shooes so like 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:18.160 adopted tube that there's no other Japanese anarchists who who 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:21.119 has this beta for It's like he he compares it 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.639 to like people fighting inside of like a bandit gang, 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:26.639 where it's like, okay, so if you have you have 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:28.600 like fight, like the bosses of the bandit gang are 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.560 obviously exploiting like the lower level people in the bandit gang. 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.040 But you know, I even even if even if the 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:37.560 lower level people in this bandit gang like take over, 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:39.880 they're not actually gonna stop being a bandit gang, right, 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.560 It's just that the the distribution of where the bandit 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:45.520 gang wealth is going changes. And this is a big 0:18:45.520 --> 0:18:48.320 thing for for for the purannicist because the puor anchists 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.000 are you know, they're there looking at the industrial working 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:53.560 classes like this is tiny and they're they're all exploiting 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:57.439 the countryside. Hm. And so because of that, like they 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.880 they look at this, they look at the union movement, 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.240 and they look at it at like class struggle, like 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:05.919 classical TM like class struggle, and they're like, well, this 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.560 doesn't cause a revolution. All this does is just like 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:13.480 sort of reorients like who's in power inside of Uh 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:16.480 that's what the Bolsheviks did, right, Yeah, But but it's 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:18.520 it's not just what the bulls they applies to the Bolsheviks, 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:20.520 but like it's also like there's analysis of what a 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:22.879 union is that you're like class struggles just defending your 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:27.080 position uder capitalism, but you're also fighting very specifically narrowly 0:19:27.160 --> 0:19:29.560 for your class. Right, So if you're like a factory worker, right, 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:32.480 you're fighting for you and the other factory workers. You're 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:34.640 not fighting for like I don't know, like a tenant farm. 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:36.520 But you're not you know, even fighting from like for 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:38.360 like the guy down the tree to BIG's bread. It's 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:41.760 like you're you know, the these these things that are 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.320 like that are but they look like instruments of class struggles, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:48.159 like your workers council, your unions or soviets like they 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:51.119 don't actually get rid of class. It's just now another 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:53.840 class has power. And it doesn't matter if it's sort 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:55.320 of like this is what they're argument is like, it 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:57.560 doesn't matter if it's like democratic, It doesn't matter if 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.639 it's like you know, like they're they're there's no difference 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.520 in how the actual eventually the class and amics will 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:05.520 play out. It doesn't matter if it's like you know, 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:08.960 like Lenin making like Stalin making himself dictator, or you 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.960 have a bunch of democratic like Soviets, because they're both 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:13.560 so intrimented class power and they're both sort of just 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:19.080 going to reproduce this, this whole system. And yeah, and 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:22.679 so they have this thing that they counterpose, which is 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.080 like class struggle is just about what stuff is happening 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.080