The 'Advance Without Authority': Post-modernism, Libertarian Socialism, and Intellectuals

The eclipse of socialist statism and the advent of post-modernism have generated important questions about the role and future of left intellectuals, political organisation and theory. Socialist statism's vanguardism, elitism, scientism and substitutionism have been thoroughly discredited. The advent of post-modernism is one signal of this. The post-modern rejection of universalism, its critique of representation and its emphasis on situatedness provide a challenge to emancipatory thought. However, post-modernism's suspension of judgement, relativism and—most importantly—rejection of universalism is not a coherent emancipatory alternative. A more fruitful way of answering questions about intellectuals and political organisation is to examine the broad libertarian socialist tradition. At various times, thinkers within this political field have managed to steer a path between vanguardism and revolutionary waiting, between scientism and theoretical randomisation, advancing without authority to organise and theorise towards a radically democratic social order beyond state and capital.