Why do anarchists reject the Marxist notion of “conquest of power”?
Mitchinson now decides to quote some anarchists to back up his spurious argument: “Their case was argued by Mikhail Bakunin and his supporters in the First International. At an anarchist conference in 1872 they argued ‘The aspirations of the proletariat can have no other aim than the creation of an absolutely free economic organisation and federation based on work and equality and wholly independent of any political government, and such an organisation can only come into being through the spontaneous action of the proletariat itself…no political organisation can be anything but the organisation of rule in the interests of a class and to the detriment of the masses…the proletariat, should it seize power, would become a ruling, and exploiting, class…'” To understand this passage it is necessary to place it in historical context. In 1872, the proletariat was a minority class within all nations bar the UK. In almost all nations, the majority of the working class were either artisans
