ABSTRACT
Anarchism and Marxism have, since the middle of the nineteenth century, strenuously competed for the minds of the Left. The major strength of anarchist theory has corresponded with the most obvious weakness of Marxism, namely the prediction (successful in the case of anarchism, unsuccessful in the case of Marxism) of the nature of a post-capitalist society brought into being by a revolutionary party seizing control of the state. Anarchists, such as Bakunin, have argued that the state cannot be used by revolutionaries in order to bring about a classless or non-oppressive society. They have argued that any attempt to use the state will inevitably frustrate such a goal. And the experience of ‘actually existing socialism’ would certainly seem to support the anarchist claim. It is somewhat ironic, therefore, that it is Marxist theory which has come to dominate left-wing thought.
