this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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Anarchists aren't communists in the sense that they aren't advocating for Marxist communism. When one hears "communist," they think "soviet union," not Kropotkin. Anarchism and communism are entirely different things with different goals and methods.
Anarchism is primarily about communalization of production and distribution, while Marxism is primarily about collectivization of production and distribution.
When I say “communalization,” I mean anarchists propose horizontalist, decentralized cells, similar to early humanity’s cooperative production but with more interconnection and modern tech. When I say collectivization, I mean the unification of all of humanity into one system, where production and distribution is planned collectively to satisfy the needs of everyone as best as possible.
For anarchists, collectivized society still seems to retain the state, as some anarchists conflate administration with the state as it represents a hierarchy. For Marxists, this focus on communalism creates inter-cell class distinctions, as each cell only truly owns their own means of production, giving rise to class distinctions and thus states in the future.
For Marxists, socialism must have a state, a state can only wither with respect to how far along it has come in collectivizing production and therefore eliminating class. All states are authoritarian, but we cannot get rid of the state without erasing the foundations of the state: class society, and to do so we must collectivize production and distribution globally. Socialist states, where the working class wields its authority against capitalists and fascists, are the means by which this collectivization can actually happen, and are fully in-line with Marx’s beliefs. Communism as a stateless, classless, moneyless society is only possible post-socialism.
Abolishing the state overnight would not create the kind of society Marxists advocate for advancing towards, and if anything, would result in the resumption of competition and the resurgance of capitalism if Marx and Engels predictions are correct.
None of this was specific to Marxism-Leninism, but Marxism in general.
Okay, that was great and informative, but doesn't disprove my point. Those people still identify as communist and that's just as valid as your self identification as communist. The difference is still in the nature of it being authoritative, which is what gets you called tankie, not the communist bit. If you want to stop all communists from getting labeled as tankie, then stop identifying the two things as being interchangeable, especially when they aren't interchangeable and the people using them are telling you exactly how they aren't interchangeable.
When I said "tankie is a pejorative for communist," I meant communist in the way most people think of the term. If you want to call anarchists communists, even if I think that is more confusing than clarifying due to the dramatic differences in communalization vs. Collectivization, then I'll restate it for you: "tankie is a pejorative for Marxist," then. While I have seen anarchists get called "tankie" before, it's overwhelmingly used against Marxists, and when the average person hears communist they think of Marxism, not anarchism.