the only proper object of revolutionary discourse. In doing so, anarchists opened up a perspective on revolution that was foreclosed by the political and suppressed even in the think- ing of revolutionaries, who insisted on a social revolution but could not conceive of the social apart from the political tasks Anarchism in the Chinese of revolution. To affirm the fundamental significance of anar- Revolution chism in revolutionary discourse is not to privilege anarchism per se, but to reaffirm the indispensability of an antipolitical conception of society in raising fundamental questions about the nature of domination and oppression, which are otherwise Arif Dirlik excluded from both the analysis of ideology and historical anal- ysis in general. In declaring politics—all politics, including rev- olutionary politics—to be inimical to the cause of an authen- tic social revolution, anarchists pointed to the politicization of the social as an ideological closure that not only disguised the fact that revolutionary hegemony itself presupposed a struc- ture of authority that contradicted its own goals, but also cov- ered up areas of social oppression that were not immediately visible in the realm of politics (the family and gender oppres- sion were their primary concerns). More fundamental anar- chists explained that the revolutionary urge to restore politi- cal order was a consequence of the naturalization of politics— the inability, therefore, to imagine society without politics—as one of the most deeply ingrained ideological habits that per- petuated relations of domination in society. The explanation moved them past the realm of ideology to the realm of social discourses as the location for habits of authority and submis- sion that sustained both political and social oppression. Hence in the anarchist argument the project of social revolution was inextricably bound up with cultural revolution (rather than a political revolution, as with their competitors): the goal of rev- olution was, at its most fundamental, to transform the social 1991 64 ological opportunism in doing so. Some of the major figures in Chinese anarchism were also members of political parties, in particular the Guomindang, betraying in practise their formal repudiation of politics; worse, they were willing to instrumen- talize anarchism in the service of political power. More fun- damentally, in claiming for anarchism the status of scientific truth (following Kropotkin), anarchists, like their counterparts in the social revolutionary movement, sought to appropriate the discourse on the social for anarchism, thereby excluding from consideration crucial issues of social revolution. If they were not successful in doing so, it was because their organiza- tional diffuseness undercut their efforts to formulate acoher- ent strategy of containment, which ideological appropriation of the discourse presupposed. And yet this inability to appropriate the discourse by con- taining it was not accidental, or the product of intellectual fail- ure, but the result of a conscious refusal to do so, which was bound up with the most fundamental premises of anarchism, which were deconstructive rather than reconstructive. It is this other, deconstructive, aspect of anarchism, which has been suppressed in historical memory, that points to its significance in the discourse on revolution. My concern here is not to chron- icle what the anarchists achieved or did not achieve, or to eval- uate their sincerity in upholding the ideas they professed, but to recall from the history of anarchism the anarchist critique of ideology and its implications for revolutionary discourse. Al- though of considerable significance both in its immediate con- text and in the themes it contributed to the Chinese revolu- tion, anarchism from a political perspective was in the long run irrelevant, and it can be dismissed as a transient intellec- tual fad that owed its passing popularity to a naive utopianism that prevailed for a brief revolutionary period. It is precisely this issue of the sufficiency of a political perspective on revo- lution that anarchism raised, however, by uncompromisingly repudiating politics and pointing to the realm of the social as 63 political and organizational interests, which in turn were con- ceived in relationship to broader national and social interests. The process of ideological appropriation ultimately involved the question of hegemony over the revolutionary movement. While the importance of revolutionary hegemony for revo- Contents lutionary success is self-evident, the critical question for the future of revolution is whether hegemony is more desirable because it is revolutionary—especially since revolution, if suc- Back Matter ....................... 7 cessful, establishes itself as a new order. Is it not likely that Author’s Note ..................... 7 a revolution that takes as its premise the hegemony of revo- Dedication ....................... 8 lutionaries will result in a new structure of authority, repro- Acknowledgments ................... 8 ducing in its very hegemony that hidden relationship between ideology and power to overthrow which was the goal of rev- Chapter One olution in the first place, against which the only guarantee is Introduction: the good will of the revolutionaries or their claim to a scien- Anarchism and Revolutionary Discourse 11 tific discovery of the path to liberation? Is this not the point The Anarchist Presence in the Chinese Revolution- in revolutionary discourse at which revolution, which seeks to ary Movement . 23 dispose of ideology, itself becomes ideological because it dis- The Anarchist Contribution to Radical Ideology . 45 simulates in its discourse its relationship to power? Anarchism and Revolutionary Discourse . 53 At its most basic, anarchism in China derived its significance Chapter Two from the fact that anarchists were the only ones among so- Nationalism, Utopianism, and Revolutionary cial revolutionaries to raise these questions consistently. Their Politics: insistence that revolution could not achieve its goals through Anarchist Themes in the Early Chinese Revolu- methods contrary to its aspirations was a constant reminder of tionary Movement. 73 this basic problem of revolutionary discourse. The questions of- Nationalism and Revolution: Global Consciousness fer a critical perspective on the course the revolutionary move- and the Reconceptualization of Political Space 77 ment would eventually take in China. They also remind us of Initial Reception of Anarchism . 95 the links between the Chinese revolutionary movement and Anarchist Themes in the Early Revolutionary Move- the most fundamental problems of revolutionary discourse in ment . 112 general. In one sense, anarchists were as ideological as any of their so- cial revolutionary competitors. They not only sought to adjust their conception of social revolution to the exigencies of power in China, with a consequent suspension of their own revolu- tionary premises, but in some cases displayed considerable ide- 62 3 Chapter Three which he perceives as the goal of ideological activity.42 In other Science, Morality, and Revolution: words, the ideological appropriation of discourse appears as a Anarchism and the Origins of Social Revolution- containment of the discourse in accordance with specific social ary Thought in China 115 interests or outlooks. Containment is also primarily a proce- Anarchism and Social Revolution . 117 dure of exclusion, a silencing of those elements of the discourse The Place of Anarchism in Late Qing Politics . 121 that are inimical to the interests of the group. But it may also The Paris Anarchists . 128 mean, I suggest, a rearrangement of the terms of the discourse The Tokyo Anarchists . 146 so as to define its priorities in keeping with such interests. Vision and Revolution . 158 The critical conception of ideology, which has evolved out of analysis of the use of ideology within the context of estab- Chapter Four lished systems (capitalism in particular) to perpetuate the sys- Anarchists against Socialists in Early Republi- tem, is equally applicable, I think, to the problem of ideology can China 167 in socialism as a radical movement, as intimated in the distinc- Anarchist Currents in the Early Republic . 169 tion I have drawn with reference to the socialist movement in Shifu and Guangzhou Anarchism . 178 China between revolutionary discourse and ideology. The dis- Anarchism Against Socialism . 190 course is what socialist revolutionaries (and not just socialist Conclusion . 207 revolutionaries) shared in common. The discourse on the so- cial, as I have already observed, drew on disparate ideologi- Chapter Five cal sources in European socialism (even on liberal ideologies Radical Culture and Cultural Revolution: that sought to come to terms with the socialist challenge, from Anarchism in the May Fourth Movement 210 which China’s first socialists drew their inspiration). Neverthe- Contemporary Witnesses . 213 less, within the revolutionary movement in China, these ideo- The New Culture Movement and Anarchism . 221 logical sources were integrated, however uneasily, into the lan- Anarchist Activity After 1915 . 236 guage of a common discourse on revolution, and this explains The October Revolution and Anarchism . 249 the overlap between otherwise conflicting notions of the social. The Dialectics of Revolution: Social Revolution and For the same reason, we may also view the efforts of differ- Ethical Transformation . 253 ent groups of revolutionaries—anarchists