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GUY ALDRED (1886-1963):
THE SOCIALIST AS LIBERTARIAN
By Chris R. Tame
Libertarian Heritage No. 12
ISSN 0959-566X ISBN 1 85637 254 5
An occasional publication of the Libertarian Alliance,
25 Chapter Chambers, Esterbrooke Street, London SW1P 4NN.
(c) 1994: Libertarian Alliance; Chris R. Tame.
Chris R. Tame is the Director of the Libertarian Alliance. He
broadcasts regularly, and has contributed to a wide range of scholarly
journals and magazines.
A version of this essay first appeared in "The Match", Vol. 6, No. 1,
1975.
The views expressed in this publication are those of its author, and not
necessarily those of the Libertarian Alliance, its Committee, Advisory
Council or subscribers.
LA Director: Chris R. Tame
Editorial Director: Brian Micklethwait
FOR LIFE, LIBERTY AND PROPERTY
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In the many contemporary considerations of the history of anarchist
thought and action the name of Guy Aldred is notable only for its
virtually complete absence. Yet Aldred deserves to be rescued from the
obscurity to which he has, since his death in 1963, been so rapidly and
thoroughly consigned. He merits a place in the historical gallery of
such figures as Gustav Landauer and Domela Niewehuis, those who fought
to maintain an anarchist or libertarian meaning for socialism in an age
when its predominant interpretation and implementation was as
authoritarian statism.
LIFE ...
Born in London in 1886, Aldred made his first public impact at the age
of 16 as a child evangelist of the sort common at the time. By the age
of 18, however, he had become an atheist and shortly thereafter embarked
on his life-long career as an exponent of anarcho-communism. Aldred's
life was characterised by a remarkable vigour and dedication to the
furtherance of "progressive" causes. By the time of his death he had
edited five periodicals - "The Herald of Revolt", "The Spur", "The
Commune", "The Council", and "The Word" - and had engaged in such
diverse causes as that of Indian independence, the distribution of birth
control literature, and anti- war agitation before, and
anti-conscription agitation during, World War II.
... AND WORK
But rather than the memory of a life of undaunted activism, it is
Aldred's "intellectual" heritage with which I am primarily concerned
here. He was a prolific writer and left a large body of work which
includes autobiography, biographical and critical studies of other
libertarians (his works "Bakunin" and "Richard Carlisle" are still
concise and valuable introductions to their subjects), commentary on
current events and numerous polemics and theoretical statements. And
what is remarkable throughout the large proportion of this work is the
timeless quality and relevance of its libertarian message.
SOCIALISM, COMMUNISM AND FREEDOM
Aldred generally spoke of himself as a socialist or communist (he used
the terms synonymously) without the addition of the "anarcho-" tag -
for liberty was always a basic and indispensable part of his conception
of socialism. In Aldred's view, just as Noam Chomsky has more recently
argued, socialism was a fundamentally libertarian phenomenon, the
rightful inheritor of the Classical Liberalism and Radicalism of the
eighteenth century and the Enlightenment. Following Bakunin he declared
that ""Anarchism", the negation of authority, the negation of
priestcraft, was the essential factor in all real Socialism ...
"Anarchism" defines Socialism as Submission defines Capitalism." [1]
Although, again like Bakunin, Aldred accepted historical materialism and
Marxian economics, he could only deplore both Marx's personal
authoritarianism and his intellectual ambiguities and the subsequent
"authoritarian conceptions of communism for which the ultra-Marxians
stood."
Thus, although in 1940 he still entitled one of his collections of
essays "Studies In Communism" he felt constrained, as he put it, because
"Soviet Russia (had) identified Communism completely with authority", to
retitle one of its major theoretical pieces, "The Case for Communism",
as "The Case for Anarchism". For Aldred, then, it was Bakunin who
logically complemented Marx, and to those who asserted that Bakunin "was
Proudhon adulterated by Marx and Marx expounded by Proudhon," he replied
that "(t)o my mind, it means that Bakunin is an excellent guide,
philosopher and friend to the cause of Communism." [2]
CRITIQUE OF THE `LEFT'
Aldred, in fact, never ceased his denunciation of the directions which
the major parts of the `Left' had taken. He gave short shrift to the
twin reformisms of trade unionism and parliamentary socialism, indicting
both as reactionary, statist, and disastrous in their consequences:
"trade unionism has accomplished nothing so far as the well-being of the
"entire" working-class is concerned." [3] Similarly,
"parliamentarianism has ended in militarism and war, and has wasted this
long struggle toward a new order ... The Labour leaders have sold their
birthright, loyalty to peace and freedom, for a mess of potage, place
and career within the national constitution of capitalism." [4]
And while virtually the entire `Left' rushed to prostrate itself before
the monstrous statism of the Soviet Union, Aldred never hesitated to
denounce what he saw as a travesty of all he had believed Communism to
stand for. He frankly identified the "mediaeval terror" to which
"scientific socialism" had descended and called upon the workers "to
organise to destroy the Communist Party and Stalin terrorism, and to
rank it with Fascism and all other terrorism." [5]
FEMINISM
We should not neglect to mention, albeit in passing, Aldred's rejection
of sexual collectivism and the hypocrisy of marriage. His pamphlet
"Socialism and Marriage" (originally published in 1907) was especially
notable for its incisive attack on Christianity's role in the repression
of women. "For a thousand years the insane and inane denunciation of
women has been the teaching of Christendom." Proclaiming the
self-sovereignty of women over their own lives and bodies he was quite
resolute in his belief that "(t)he function of women is not to share
barracks with man and bear his children. [6]
SOCIALISM AND FREEDOM
But what is most vital and significant in Aldred's work, however,
remains his never ceasing proclamation of what he saw as the libertarian
essence of socialism, his belief that socialism "can only have its
expression in an era of freedom". [7] While the Soviet Union had made
the term communism "identical with dictatorship and totalitarian
oppression, assassination and darkness", [8] Aldred looked back to the
struggles and ideals of so many in earlier times. "It is impossible to
believe," he wrote, "that the working men who rallied round John Burns
at Trafalgar Square or marched in procession past the Carlton Club,
conceived of Socialism meaning the perpetuation of persecution, firing
squads, and the supremacy of the State." [9]
Certainly, Aldred never manifest that pathological and reactionary
hostility to individuality which has so undeniably and unfortunately
characterised such a large proportion of the socialist "mainstream",
that is, the "communism" and "kind of `oceanic' yearning for the
shucking-off of one's individuality" which Hal Draper once commented
upon. [10] Rather, he declared outright that "(u)nderlying progress is
the first law of Nature, the law of self- preservation ... it (is)
self-interest which dictated (man's) growth in wisdom and in moral
righteousness. Selfishness lies at the root of all social and
industrial development." [11]
While advocating "social ownership based in social production and
distribution" and a "sound and sane collectivism", [12] this was done
for the sake of, and in terms of, a "practical individualism" [13] and
"not" in the reactionary holistic terms of the alleged ethical necessity
of the suppression of the individual for some `higher' end or for some
alleged collective entity.
SOME CRITICISMS
But, of course, whether Aldred's "practical individualism" and "social
ownership" could, in practice, really attain the liberty he so desired
is another matter. He may have believed that he had effectively
synthesised individualism and liberty with collectivist organisation,
but his own writings never really descended from the level of glittering
generality, never evidenced any appreciation of the difficulties
involved, nor portrayed any concrete proposals as to how those
difficulties might be overcome. And is it really overly cynical to ask,
after long experience of the "actual", demonstrated preferences of the
masses, whether Aldred's vision of a "real", libertarian socialism as
the "genuine socialism of the proletariat" is anything more than a naive
and pretentious illusion?
Nevertheless, Aldred undoubtedly deserves a place in the minds and
memories of those concerned with the struggle for liberty. Whether his
own ideal of anarcho-communism constitutes more than a fruitless and
ultimately untenable synthesis will be, however, a question to which
classical liberals, free market anarchists and collectivist "anarchists"
will give very different answers.
NOTES
1. "Bakunin", in "Pioneers of Anti-Parliamentarianism", The Strickland
Press, Glasgow, 1940, p. 6.
2. "Bakunin", The Strickland Press, Glasgow, 1940, p. 47.
3. "Trade Unionism and the Class War", in "Studies in Communism", The
Strickland Press, Glasgow, 1940, p. 26.
4. "Foreword" to "Pioneers of Anti-Parliamentarianism", op. cit., p. 4.
5. "Against Terrorism in the Workers Struggle", in "Studies in
Communism", op. cit., p. 53.
6. In Ibid., pp. 42, 49.
7. "Representation and the State", in ibid., p. 21.
8. "Forword", ibid., p. 21.
9. Ibid., p. 21
10. Hal Draper, "The Two Souls of Socialism", "Our Generation", January
1969.
11. "The Case for Anarchism", "Studies", p. 9.
12. "Representation and the State", p. 18, "The Case for Anarchism", p.
8., ibid.
13. "The Case for Anarchism", ibid, p. 8.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Since this essay was first published two longer and more detailed
studies of Aldred have appeard: Nicholas Walter, "Guy Aldred
(1886-1963)", "The Raven: Anarchist Quarterly", Vol. I, No. 1.; and John
Taylor Caldwell, "Come Dungeons Dark: The Life and Tikes of Guy Aldred",
Luath Press, Ayrshire, 1988. These, and some of Aldred's writings, are
available from Freedom Press, Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street,
London, E1 7QX.