As for the so-called "Marxist" movements, I think that Bakunin's early critique was quite perceptive. Particularly since 1917, Marxism -- or more accurately, Marxism-Leninism -- has become, as Bakunin predicted, the ideology of a "new class" of revolutionary intelligentsia who exploit popular revolutionary struggles to seize state power. They proceed to impose a harsh and authoritarian rule to destroy socialist institutions, as Lenin and Trotsky destroyed the factory councils and soviets. They will also do what they can to undermine and destroy moves towards authentic socialism elsewhere, if only because of the ideological threat. It is natural that the U.S.S.R. should have committed itself to the violent destruction of the popular revolution in Spain in 1936, just as workers councils in Hungary or democratic socialist tendencies in Czechoslovakia were intolerable to the "Red bureaucracy."

The appeal of these doctrines to the radical intelligentsia of the Third World is understandable. The doctrines justify their seizure of state power and their use of this centralized power. At best, they may construct a party dictatorship that is more or less benevolent, in that it will bring about a degree of modernization and development and improve health and welfare standards. Such achievements, if they take place, are not to be lightly dismissed, but they are also not to be confused with "socialism" in any sense of this term that is meaningful for the advanced industrial societies.

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