Marxism and Anarchism

"Anarchism" is as heterogeneous as "Marxism," and yet the relationship between the two has consistently been a difficult one, in spite, or perhaps because of, their many commonalities. Marx was already at odds with Mikhail Bakunin, one of the most important exponents of revolutionary anarchism at the time. To this day, it has proven impossible to move beyond a debate that has often been fruitful, but also often unrewarding – a fact that is ultimately indicative of open questions associated with "the matter at issue".

From the outset, anarchism displayed greater awareness of forms of domination that are inherent to certain political forms, particularly the party and the state forms; conversely, Marxism has often accused anarchism of an unsophisticated understanding of economics and a critique whose premises are essentially moral.

In the best cases, this led to anarchism and Marxism mutually correcting one another, such that each of the two approaches was enabled, by the arguments presented by the other, to engage in self-criticism.

An attempt to combine anarchism wiht Marxism and to go beyond both is Associationism. The existence of this current is largely due to the Japanese philosopher Kojin Karatani, who has intensively studied and discussed the ideas of Kant and Marx, and attempted to exert political-theoretical influence on social movements during the 2000s.