I just finished reading this book. It is one of the most clearly written books I've ever read, and though it was originally published in 1929 (under the title What is Communist Anarchism), it remains current and relevant to our times.

The book consists of nine chapters of Berkman's original work What is Communist Anarchism (Chapters 10-18). The first three chapters challenge reformist liberalism much of which still predominates the left in the United States and Canada. Chapter Four critiques the Socialist parties of Europe, and while they have succeeded in getting into power, they have failed to implement true socialism, and have instead become just like their liberal reformist cousins under the banner of "socialism." Chapters 5-9 gives an honest history of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Berkman argues, contrary to both mainstream liberal scholarship, and Marxist scholarship, that Lenin and the Bolshevik Party (later renamed the Communist Party) destroyed the Revolution upon seizing control of the state. Berkman points out that the Bolsheviks, to their credit, helped to destroy the feudal absolutist regime of the Romanov, as well as the weak capitalist regime of Karensky, by appropriating the rhetoric of anarchists and Left Socialist Revolutionists. The Bolsheviks were originally social democrats, however seeing that the peasantry did not want more reforms, they began advocating for more radical tactics like, expropriation and direct action. In other words, the Bolsheviks, while not accepting the anarchist goal of no government, were willing to use anarchist methods, "in order not to be left behind by the Revolution, as happened with the Mensheviks, the Right Social Revolutionists, the Constitutional Democrats, and other reformers." (p.86).

In Chapters 8 and 9, Berkman describes the actual conditions that the Russian proletariat lived under after 1917 up to 1929. Berkman exposes the "dictatorship of the proletariat" as really a dictatorship of one man. "That man was Lenin, and it was he who was the real "proletarian dictatorship", just as Mussolini...is the dictator of Italy." (p.103).

This short little review does little justice to the book. I suggest those who have socialist leanings should read this book, so they can sort fact from fiction, and know which tactics to use in the struggle against capitalism, and which ones not to use.

Reforming capitalism is not socialism. Nor is electing a "socialist" party which manages the entire economy socialism. Nor are the mainstream hierarchical unions, which discourage workers from going on strike and taking over their workplace, and instead beg the bosses for tiny scraps which don't amount to much when the bosses raise the cost of living.