Formerly, Žižek’s critique of anarcho-syndicalism was watchable at this link. The link has since rotted. However, I have prepared a full transcription of the short video. Where this video was excerpted from , I do not know. Reach out to us at The Commoner if you want to amend this page.
I got caught into this argument once with anarchists groups, friends. They claim we hate states, we want small communities where, in a self-transparent way, we organize our lives, we run our lives.
I told them on two counts I am opposed to you — even on three counts.
First, are you aware that — I told them I love things when they really function like that — but are you aware that in order for this to function, you need a good efficient state to organize a complex background. Like, okay you organized the distribution of electricity — fuck you, where does electricity come from? It has to be rendered available. Education, health care and so on and so on.
So again, the second point: I even doubt to provoke you a little bit about this "local democracy" — my good friend Telen Bagyu [sp?] goes too much into this — that our ultimate goal should be not representative state but "living local democracy" where people are immediately present and self-organizing and so on and so on... Now I will you a very brutal argument but it was made once by Trotsky in a very intelligent way. Namely to be brutal: Would you really like to live in a shitty local democracy situation? Every afternoon you have to go to some stupid meeting, how to organize education of children, how we distribute water, how we do this, that.
No, sorry! I want to live in an nicely alienated state, by nicely alienated I mean that it's invisible there out of your control but it delivers, it functions. Water is here. I don't want to debate every afternoon where water comes from and how. I want water to be here. I want healthcare to be here. I want energy to be here.
Again, this is the big problem today. We don't need local democracy. Of course, when it functions it's nice. But isn't it that all the big challenges that we have today are challenges which need even more than state power. We will have to organize ourselves even at a transnational level.
Look, Jean L'puer, [sp?] the catastrophic theorist, he told me that as a member of some fucking European committee he was in Fukishima two days after the earthquake, tsunami, or whatever. And he told me that for one day, a little bit less, the Japanese government was in a total panic. Because they thought the pollution would be so strong that they will have to evacuate the entire Tokyo area of thirty million people. If this were to happen, can you imagine where they will put them? The rational solution would have been, of course, to ask Russia to give part of eastern Siberia. If I'm to be brutally rational that would have been the only solution. How can you do it? No mechanisms to do it or what. You see, we have to confront this problems. And I am sick and tired of this "local ..." No! We need larger global organisms.
This is my big problem with anarcho-syndicalism. Show me one — I just cannot imagine — one example of how it worked: taking over the state, replacing the state, whatsoever. Give me one example of anarcho-syndicalism in power. In what sense are you questioning power in general? Just opposing it or do you think humanity could be reorganized so that we all live together without power?
Let me put in another way: The challenges we are facing today — bio-genetics — the only way out, the only way to control the horror of private companies or states doing it — making terrible experiments — is with large very, very powerful state or another agency to control to limiting it and so on and so on. Very brutal control. Otherwise horrors are already happening. I hear all the time from my friends who have friends rumors about how, screw atomic arms, now we are in that level of bio-genetic arms — how to manipulate brains so you can ... So that's my first problem.
Second problem: Ecology. I cannot imagine how fight it, how to confront ecological challenges without mega large decisions and acts. Millions of people will have to be moved, and so on and so on. And I just want to know, yes it functions the way you said at the local level communities and so on and so on. But even isn't it that for communities to function, somebody has to provide the basic service, which means water, electricity, education, and so on and so on. For example, in today's confused situation, I think the most dangerous thing is to abolish universal obligatory state education and to say "oh each community can organize its own education" and so on and so on. Society will explode, rich people will become even different race. So you see what I mean?