ORGANISE! For Revolutionary

Anarchy and the Thatcher years The SWP Anarchism in Latin America

£2.5080 €3.00 Free to prisoners Varieties of organising Privilege and Safer Spaces Anarchist Federation local groups and contacts Organise! England (and all general enquires) Organise! editors The magazine of the BM ANARFED, London, WC1N 3XX, Organise!, BM ANARFED, London, Anarchist Federation England, UK WC1N 3XX [email protected] [email protected] Issue 80 - Summer 2013 http://www.afed.org.uk Resistance editors Organise! is the magazine of the Anarchist Bristol AF Resistance, BM ANARFED, London, Federation (AF). It is published in order to [email protected] WC1N 3XX develop anarchist communist ideas. It aims http://bristolaf.wordpress.com/ [email protected] to provide a clear anarchist viewpoint on contemporary issues and to initiate debate Lancashire Sheffield AF on ideas not normally covered in agitational papers. [email protected] [email protected] We aim to produce Organise! twice a year. http://yorks-afed.org To meet this target, we positively solicit con- Leicester AF http://thefargatespeaker.wordpress. tributions from our readers. We aim to print [email protected] com/ any article that furthers the objectives of http://leicesteraf.blogspot.com anarchist . If you’d like to write Surrey and Hants AF something for us, but are unsure whether Leeds AF [email protected] to do so, why not get in touch first? Even [email protected] articles that are 100% in agreement with our http://yorks-afed.org aims and principles can leave much open to debate. Scotland/Alba As always, the articles in this issue do not Lincoln AF [email protected] necessarily represent the collective view- [email protected] http://scotlandaf.wordpress.com/ point of the AF. We hope that their publica- tion will produce responses from our readers Liverpool AF (including Merseyside) Aberdeen and spur debate on. c/o News From Nowhere Bookshop 96 [email protected] For the next issue of Organise! Please send Bold Street all contributions to the address on the right. Liverpool L1. Dundee It would help if all articles could be either [email protected] [email protected] typed or on disc. Alternatively, articles can be emailed to the editors directly at [email protected] London AF Edinburgh & the Lothians • BM ANARFED, London, WC1N 3XX, [email protected] England, UK http://edinburghanarchists.noflag.org. What goes in Organise! [email protected] uk http://aflondon.wordpress.com Organise! hopes to open up debate in many areas of life. As we have stated before, un- Glasgow less signed by the Anarchist Federation as a Manchester AF [email protected] whole or by a local AF group, articles in Or- [email protected] http://glasgowanarchists.org.uk ganise! reflect the views of the person who http://www.af-north.org/ has written the article and nobody else. Inverness If the contents of one of the articles in this Newcastle AF (including Tyneside) [email protected] issue provokes thought, makes you angry, Anarchist Federation, PO Box ITA, New- compels a response then let us know. castle Upon Tyne, NE99 1TA Stirling Revolutionary ideas develop from debate, [email protected] [email protected] they do not merely drop out of the air! Nottingham AF (including Notts) Box AF c/o The Sumac Centre Wales/Cymru 245 Gladstone Street Nottingham [email protected] NG7 6HX [email protected] http://www.afed.org.uk/nottingham/ http://nottsblackarrow.wordpress.com

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Letters 46 4 Organise! Margaret Thatcher politely died not least in Northern Ireland, These battles were not, of course, just in time for us to commemo- where working class people were lost without a fight and hugely rate her life appropriately, in brutalised and murdered under important acts of bravery and the 80th issue of Organise! We the divide-and-conquer approach inspiring solidarity. But the only will speak ill of the dead, and to domestic dissent. Her racist major working class victory in the go to press in the hope that the policies supported the rise of the Thatcher period was the struggle celebrations that began on Mon- far-right in Britain, and black and against the Poll Tax. This ideologi- day 8th carry on, showing the white youth were forced to fight cal class-based attack took place extent of contempt for Thatcher the police in the riots of 1980 in the context of the dismantling throughout the British working onwards (especially 1981): an and destroying things tradition- class.

The world we now live in is more dangerous, corrupt, un- equal, oppressive and impover- ished because of her particular legacy. From the start of her leadership in 1979, she turned Editorial up the heat internationally to What’s in the latest Organise! put Britain ‘back on the map’. She built up its military capabil- explosion of anger at what inner- ally understood as social prop- ity in the 1980s and established city life had become. She passed erty: the major industries, public Britain’s place in the Cold War, the first anti-gay legislation for services, jobs and welfare. The so that a generation grew up in 100 years, known as ‘Clause 28’. abolition of the Poll Tax was an- fear of a nuclear conflict with the In economic and industrial terms, nounced in 1991. The power of USSR. In 1982, by ‘defending’ the key focal points of working class opposition to the tax in Scotland Falklands with immense fire- militancy were attacked in ways since 1987 had quickly spread to power (which included the notori- that were openly divisive and England and Wales by amazing ous sinking of the Belgrano), she smashed much confidence in our feats of working class solidarity, heralded in an era in which Britain class. The Miners, who struck in organisation and a willingness to has gone to war at the drop of a 1984-5, were tragically defeated, take to the streets and fight. The hat. She supported the Apartheid as were the Wapping print-work- Poll Tax riot of 1990 and smaller, regime in South Africa, was best ers in 1986 (Murdoch, please die but very serious, local distur- pals with the Chilean dictator soon as well). bances were not organised by general Pinochet and was hated anarchists, as the state, the press and some left parties claimed (as though we could pull that off!), but neither did they come out of nowhere. In fact, for a time, it seemed that the working class could win.

This is not to suggest that things were great before Thatcher; ‘old’ Labour was an example of how not to share out common re- sources. And afterwards, ‘New’ Labour set about completing her legacy with their Thatcherite- Labourism, paving the way for the current cabinet’s unrelenting attacks on our class. As anarchists Organise! 5 we clearly understand, and all rism, in particular. It became one dammit, Thatcher wasn’t even this demonstrates, there is no of the back-bones of the anti- doing anything for women! Two, hope except in a class-based nuclear movement, and its de- both the established, London- revolutionary solution. But whilst centralised but hard-core legacy based tendencies and the new all politicians are the enemy of extended into the environmental regional groupings, tended to be the working class, some do more and anti-capitalist movements of dominated by older men with damage to us than others, and today. Several books of varying informal power and a certain rug- rightly we rejoice in the demise of quality have been written about ged . It was difficult those we have most to despise. this movement recently, and its to grow intellectually in their significance should not be over- company and female comrades If it seems strange to some peo- looked. tended to do a lot of listening ple that others would happily rather than speaking. Anarcha- dance on the grave of a long- Secondly, the 1980s also saw the feminists began to rattle estab- senile old lady, it’s because we growth of locally-focused ‘synthe- lished anarchism, by at times are still her victims, after all this sist’ anarchists groups in major organising on a women-only time. Although her death doesn’t UK towns, sometimes linking basis and by openly picking fights alter the challenges we face, even up regionally. Whilst unable to with macho-tendencies. As other small boosts in our confidence develop much theoretically, or articles in this issue of Organise! at this point in the class struggle even to agree about much at all show, feminists in the movement, are vital. If there is some sense aside from opposition to states male and female, rather took our of closure about the past as a and to the military infrastruc- eye off the ball after the 1980s. result of giving her a raucous and ture, these groups carried within This was arguably because until disrespectful send off, we have them a legacy of disillusionment to shake off the hangover and as workers in the mainstream use these couple of weeks as an . At the same opportunity to talk to our work- time as supporting strikers on mates, friends, family, everybody picket lines, they warned about about new beginnings and new the dangers of the authoritarian possibilities. But first, let’s Party! left and of back-sliding tenden- cies in leadership Is there anything useful for us to and were proved correct several say about her legacy? Anything times. There was an associated that the AF can say that can add upsurge in local anarchist papers to what is being written else- around local issues, and a re- more recently, anarcha- where? Perhaps it is that, think- newed interest in anarchist media did not have a class-based analy- ing back on the Thatcher years, as a result. This led to regionally- sis. As such, it rather rested on 1979-1990, four kinds of Anar- based anarchists taking stock its laurels when, post-Thatcher, chism were (re-)born in Britain, of tensions in London, between things did seem to improve for as a unique and specific response what looked from the outside to women at work and at home to the political shape Britain was be the ‘individualist-beardy’ anar- (but they hadn’t really and, let’s taking. chism of Freedom newspaper and face it, a lot of ex-striking miners’ the ‘hit-it-til-it-breaks’ anarchism wives did indeed return to the First, the anti-militarist anarcho- of Black Flag and Crowbar. Surely kitchen). punks of the late 1970s-1980s anarchism was more than rows came from the wider punk move- at the London , Finally, by far the most significant ment to rail against an, admit- established in 1983, between development of British anarchism tedly, rather abstracted and beardy old men and squatters, under Thatcher was the discov- individually-experienced ‘system’. the former unable to leave the ery of a fresh kind of class-based Their politics got better, and the 1960s and the latter the 1970s? anarchism, with the formation of movement approached collective, the Anarchist Communist Federa- if not class-based responses to Thirdly, female anarchists in par- tion (now Anarchist Federation) issues such as sexism and milita- ticular observed two things. One, and the formalising of Class War 6 Organise! as a national federation, both in wage, including the 'Bedroom We review the highly-significant 1986. There had been a revival of Tax', abolition of the Disability publication by the Solidarity Fed- British anarcho-syndicalism when Living Allowance in favour of a eration: Fighting for Ourselves. the Movement was new benefit where people will Appropriately, this May Day issue formed, in the year Thatcher be tested, Council Tax going into brings you also a review of the came to power, but it was male- local control with a 10% cut which Haymarket Scrapbook, launched dominated and rather workplace will be passed on to benefits to mark the 125th anniversary of obsessed, feeling like a relic from claimants, a limit on benefit and the execution of the Haymarket the past to the younger and more tax credit increases to 1% a year martyrs. Also, we review the Kate socially-orientated anarchism. In- so they will not be in line with Sharpley Library and Aotearoa fluenced more by a theoretically inflation, and an overall benefits Workers’ Solidarity Movement precise, if aloof and unapproach- cap as the Government seeks to publication about Werner Droe- able, left-communist milieu, Class introduce Universal Credit later scher. War and the A(C)F, although very this year. Along with all this ac- different in style and appeal - the cess to legal aid has been slashed This issue also reflects the fact former uniquely British and of its which will make it very hard for that whilst the working class as day, and the latter rooted more working class people to contest a whole is under attack, some securely in the historical Euro- employment cases. As well as the groups face additional levels of pean anarchist-communist tradi- welfare reforms, the way health- oppression and disadvantage. At tion - came of age in Thatcher’s care is administered was changed points of extreme economic crisis, Britain. on 1st April with reorganisation of women’s and minority struggles purchasing across the NHS which can get submerged within the at- That was all a long time ago. We will include an expected expan- tacks we all face. Those additional haven’t been successful. Thatch- sion of private provision. layers of oppression are less im- erism has dominated British po- mediate to those not experienc- litical life down the decades and In this issue of Organise! we also ing them. And when those not provided the perfect launch-pad discuss ways that anarchism has experiencing them (usually white, for the new attacks on welfare, structured itself and envisages heterosexual, able male-bodied) most beginning just one week structures which can transform are the most heavily represented before she died, and so quite society. We look at idea of the in setting the agenda for politi- possibly leaving a smirk on that ‘commune’ as a basic unit of cal struggle, we need structural rigid face that could never man- revolutionary organisation, and ways to make sure that other age a smile. April sees further at Platformism and other forms oppressions are to the fore in our destruction of welfare as a social of anarchism in Latin America. thought and activity nonethe- less. We need, as anarchists, to have a theoretical analysis of how and why oppressions intersect with class struggle that goes well beyond the traditional tacked-on clauses about women, racial mi- norities, LGBTQ and disabled peo- ple in our terms of reference. It is not the case that most anarchists still think these struggles ‘less important’ or something that should be subordinated to class struggle and resolved at some later time, but as a movement we lack a theoretical model for how to address this adequately. As such, we offer an article on ‘Privi- lege Theory and Intersectional- Organise! 7 ity’; an analysis that is exciting much of the AF at the moment and which we are trying to apply to our practice as anarchists, although the concept itself and its terminology is not ours.

Privilege theory helps us un- derstand why the ‘good inten- tions’ of political activists are not enough to ensure respect and safety for each other. In this issue of Organise! we address in particular the right of female- bodied comrades to feel safe from sexual-predation within the movement. It is clear that society encourage have never gone away. to prevent rape in the first place. in general is still ridden with rape Although they are arguably less Anarchist women are being raped apologia. It took courage for peo- prevalent within the anarchist and assaulted by men who call ple to come forward and speak movement than in wider society, themselves anarchists. We have about Jimmy Savile, but appar- women continue to experience to deal with it and introduce Safer ently no one will take action until sexual assault and sexual preda- Spaces and women’s and female- a high-ranking perpetrator dies tion within our movement. identified caucuses at events and and can no longer face the conse- in organisations. Otherwise we quences. This means that sexual We cannot “wish this away”. We cannot feel confident of making a assault was considered as accept- discuss this in our articles on better job of our internal account- able on the day before he died as Safer Spaces and on the recent ability than the SWP has. Rape it was in the sexist hey-day of the SWP bust-up. The assumption of still gets perpetrated and covered 1970s and 80s, when the popular good feminist analysis on the part up, and even accepted, where media degraded women rou- of men is clearly not enough to there is no structure in place to tinely and Legs & Co. on Top of keep us safe. As such, anarchist- stop it this. the Pops was “something nice for run events and places are rapidly the dads”. The anarcha-feminists beginning to adopt ‘safer spaces’ Finally, we have an article related described above railed against policies and to actively do what to the recent info-tour by the it because of the attitudes that seems paradoxical to anarchists: Belarusians of the International of lay behind it but were told it was to identify and exclude specific Anarchist Federations and Anar- “just a bit of fun”. Much has been people because they have been chist Black Cross in Belarus, the achieved within our movement. named by survivors as perpetra- 15 UK-leg of which was organised It is far less common to hear tors. This MUST be done because by the Anarchist Federation. The that there are “two sides” to a if it is not, women who feel highly successful tour took in sexual assault than it used to be. vulnerable in general or afraid France, Italy, Germany, Spain and When Le Monde Libertaire (the of specific people will stay away UK, to raise awareness and seek journal of the French Anarchist from events or resolve things in solidarity for five anarchists being Federation) recently published other ways or without community held prisoner by the Belarusian what amounted to an apologia support. Just as most anarchists state. for rape, it was instantly met would now respect the wishes of with horror within the FA itself a rape victim who wanted to go to and from other organisations. the police for her own protection But anarchists do still say these and that of others, organisers of things and evidently some will anarchist events have to take the still print them. These attitudes lead from women wanting to act and the thought-processes they 8 Organise! The Socialist Workers Party: Why it’s all Gone Wrong The recent conferences of the So- ment, opposition to student fees calling for its rejection (Ibid.; cialist Workers Party (SWP) have and trade union activity generally, Newman, 2013c). In effect, the seen its membership confront the SWP, and its various 'front' Party determined that nothing the Party's governing Central groups, have a high profile. As a would be done about a complaint Committee in an unprecedented result, there has been widespread of sexual violence levelled at a fashion. In tandem with this, a media coverage of its recent tur- senior figure, with no explanation series of leaked documents, and moil; the Guardian describes it as given. the explicit critiques of outgo- “the UK's most prominent far-left ing and expelled members, have organisation” (Malik and Cohen, Unsatisfied members soon left the SWP's internal machina- 2013). With such accolades apply- formed a faction called 'In De- tions subject to scrutiny by both ing to a membership estimated fence of Our Party' (IDOP). It was its bitter rivals and long-standing at approximately 2,000, the least both the largest, and the only opponents. One of the largest fac- that can be said is that the SWP irregular, faction in the Party's tions outside of electoral politics punches above its weight in the history (Newman, 2013b). They in Britain, the self-styled Party of political stakes. Yet the energy demanded an open discussion 'peace, justice, equality, and so- and passion of its members and within the Party to cialism' (SWP, 2013b), now finds organisers faces dissolution. In inform a itself rapidly losing members and the aftermath of what was on the defensive. There is wider surely a trau- political relevance to the episode. Not only does it show how

review of its disciplinary process, whilst matic seeking assurances that no action Party process, there is a would be taken against dissenting real risk that disillusioned activ- Party members. IDOP also called democratic process- ists will disappear from activity. for the immediate removal of es can be used to manage rather the Central Committee member than to support dissent, it also At the core of the conflict is an al- accused of rape from “any paid shows how utopian ideals can legation of rape, brought formally or representative roles in our construct a culture which then in September last year and dating party or united front work for the subverts them. This is something back to 2008, by a female party foreseeable future” ('SU Editors', which must be addressed at all member against a former Central 2013). Although it contradicts levels and within all forms of Committee member and current the party line established at organising that claim to be revo- full-timer. This was investigated Conference concerning the rape lutionary (including those calling internally by the Party's Disputes allegation, what is remarkable in themselves anarchist). Committee, and its findings pre- IDOP's declaration is its expressed sented to a tense meeting at the faith in both the Party's internal The SWP is certainly one of the regular January conference (New- democracy and its capacity to most visible and active explicitly man, 2013a). The Disputes Com- evolve. The decision to form a self-proclaimed revolutionary mittee's position amounted to faction should also be considered groups in the UK. Due to a good 'not proven', whilst explicitly not in light of an incident prior to the street presence, an orientation to disputing the testimony of the al- January conference. The incident recruitment and propaganda and leged victim. It was only narrowly saw four members expelled when involvement in prominent cam- endorsed by Conference, despite a private deliberation over chal- paigns such as the anti-war move- a ban on the distribution of texts lenging the Disputes Committee's Organise! 9 findings was leaked to the Central 2009). Committee (Newman, 2012). This In the event, the Central Commit- too had represented a show of It follows from this that SWP tee achieved a resounding victory. open defiance, and was a direct conferences have to be carefully As its representative system saw challenge to the Party leadership, stage-managed. Meetings of the split caucuses returning solidly- including criticism of the Party's Party's “supreme policy-making loyal delegates, the Central Com- supposedly ‘democratic’ culture body” are preceded by a three- mittee's main motion to Confer- ('SU Editors', 2013). month period during which the ence was backed by 77% of voters Central Committee meets with (Thomas, 2013). This disbanded IDOP's proposals were presented members through district 'aggre- IDOP, condemned internal dis- to the SWP's National Commit- gates' (whose composition they sent, decried the poor politics of tee (NC) in early February, where have also determined) in order to its student organisation (which they were rejected by a ratio highlight, and hopefully assuage, had been a key contributor to of votes exceeding 4:1 against any potential points of contention IDOP), began a process of mak- (Newman, 2013b). Despite, or (SWP, 2009). Faction formation ing the Disciplinary Committee perhaps bolstered by this show and submissions are also restrict- entirely rather than largely unac- of Party discipline, the Central ed by precedent to this period. countable and reaffirmed the con- Committee then called a Special Conference for March 10th, with the remit to “reaffirm the deci- sions of January’s conference and the NC, resolve recent debates, clarify some elements of the constitution and move the party forwards” in the face of IDOP's “extraordinarily unpolitical” fac- tionalism (Ibid.).

At this point, it is useful to con- sider the extent of the control afforded to the Central Com- mittee over the business of the organisation. Essentially every Comrade Delta AKA Martin Smith aspect, from the formation of branches to the appointment of senior party members, is subject The process of Conference itself tested decisions of the previous to the scrutiny of the Central is determined and overseen by conference (Ibid.). Their second Committee. Further to this, the a body appointed by the Central motion, which amended the Con- Committee has summary pow- Committee and subject to the stitution to limit both factions and ers over democratic process in provision that Party officials and Special Conferences in the future, branches and districts, including staff have automatic speaking was also passed “overwhelming- the representative basis on which rights (Ibid.). The March Special ly” (Ibid.). Mass resignations and delegates are sent to Conference Conference enjoyed all of the defections inevitably followed and elected to the National Com- above, whilst allowing only one Conference, demonstrating the mittee. In this context, it is not month for debate and the sub- extent of principled dissent in the difficult to see how the latter, a mission of motions. Considering Party and the intractability of the fifty-member body whose deci- the gerrymandering and control leadership (Seymour, 2013). sions are ostensibly binding upon of Party process and communi- the Central Committee, becomes cation available to the Central Where does the authoritarian merely an executive tool, primar- Committee, it is remarkable that practice evident in these process- ily charged with “assist[ing] the fully half of the motions to Spe- es come from, and how does it Central Committee in providing cial Conference were against its serve the SWP's ultimate declared leadership for the Party” (SWP, position (SWP, 2013a). goal: global leading to 10 Organise! a new society of world , fight of competing interests as a it. But in itself, this rarely drives a world of “peace, equality, jus- fair contest of ideas, democratic people from Socialist parties. This tice”, and workers' control (SWP, centralism posits its ideals as a is because the doctrine of why 2013b)? The Party maintains remote outcome of its current ‘democracy’ should be tem- that this machinery is necessary business, to decorate its activities pered with ‘centralism’ is actively to challenge the existing struc- but not inform them. As such, the expounded within them (not tures of power, as manifested in notion of the future free society least as an ill-informed argument “wealth, [the] media, courts, and and its values gain the distant against anarchism). the military” (Ibid.). By offer- allure of the Kingdom of Heaven, ing a disciplined framework of whilst having all of the practical In this case it has led to rape de- nial and to a bolstering of support at the top level for the perpetra- tor. This is an abuse too far for many in the Party, perhaps not least because it comes at a point when institutionalised abuse is at least beginning to be exposed and condemned within the sort of organisations that liberal democracy fosters (the BBC, The Liberal Democrats, mainstream religious organisations, and local authority-run children’s homes). The SWP leadership could scarcely have chosen a worse Alex Callinicos SWP Leader way through this crisis. The scale of revolt represented anything from about a third to half of its theoretical and tactical unity, the political impact of wallpaper. That membership being attached to combined strength of the prole- is to say, denying low-ranking the IDOP faction (650 members tariat can be yoked to the “ideas women in the Party protection in a party of about 1400-2000). and strategies that can overthrow against sexual violence on the A fair cross-section of the party capitalism entirely” (Ibid.). The part of Central Committee mem- was mobilized. In fact, it took real Party's model for attaining this bers is politically expedient, and determination on the part of the goal is “democratic centralism”. hushing it up and driving objec- leadership to evade what was tion underground is necessary for probably the easier option: to To understand how the SWP unity under Capitalism. engage with the malcontents on sees democratic centralism, some level other than alternat- it is helpful to think of it as al- The two models – democratic ing between being dismissive and most the inverse of mainstream centralism and liberal democracy belligerent. We suggest, there- “liberal democracy”. The latter – theoretically allow space for fore, that their chosen approach supposedly draws in a plurality of dissent but rarely, if ever, to the has more to do with the structure perspectives and charts a 'least- extent that it could topple the of organisations like the SWP. We worst' course between them; key beneficiaries of power. This is invite those ex-members to con- democratic centralism measures the political status quo dominat- sider whether the actions of the all input against its core positions ing both “liberal” and “centralist” SWP’s Central Committee are an and expects disciplined realign- democratic life. Those benefit- aberration within the party-polit- ment to these for the purpose of ting from that power are able to ical Left, or whether the oppor- political expediency (SWP, 2009). use the same formal structures tunities for abuse of power are In both cases, neither democracy against those that they are sup- embedded within the supposedly nor idealism is served. Whilst lib- posed to represent - those who ‘democratic’ structures at the top eral democracy misrepresents the have apparently given a leader- level of centralist organisations. mismatched, mixed-weight, fixed ship its legitimacy by voting for Organise! 11

Bibliography com/blp5hx8 [online]. Available from http:// Newman, A. (editor), 2013c, www.swp.org.uk/where-we-stand Note: although leaked documents “Documents of the SWP Opposi- ‘SU Editorial Team' (editors), are credited to their publishers / tion”, Socialist Unity [online] 17 2013, “New SWP Faction De- editors, their content is consist- February. Available from http:// clared: In Defence of Our Party”, ent in cross-referencing and their tinyurl.com/cs5qkyr Socialist Unity [online] 8 February. integrity is not seriously disputed. Seymour, R., 2013, “The SWP Available from http://tinyurl.com/ Where these documents have leadership has turned the party cowy5zr been redacted, this has been to into a sinking ship”, The Guardian Thomas, D. (editor), 2013, “Social- protect anonymity. References [online], 22 March. Available from ist Workers Party:[sic]”, Workers are correct at the time of going to http://tinyurl.com/crvk9qa United [blog, online], 11 March. press. 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(editor), 2013b, “SWP Leadership Calls Special Conference”, http://tinyurl.com/czznjaj Socialist Unity [online] 9 Febru- Socialist Workers Party, 2013b, ary. Available from http://tinyurl. “Where We Stand”, SWP Online 12 Organise! Privilege Theory and Intersectionality Aims and definitions taken off a privileged group and under patriarchy are expected focused on others, for example to not show weakness or emo- The purpose of this paper is to black and Asian youths being 28% tion and are mistrusted as carers. outline a class struggle anarchist more likely to be stopped and However, men are not oppressed analysis of Privilege Theory. Many searched by the police than white by patriarchy for being men; of us feel “privilege” is a useful youths2. The point here is not they are oppressed in these ways term for discussing oppressions that police harassment doesn’t because it is necessary in order that go beyond economic class. happen to white youths or that to maintain women’s oppression. It can help us to understand how being working class or a white For women to see themselves as these oppressions affect our social European immigrant doesn’t also weak, irrational and suited only relations and the intersections of mean you’re more likely to face to caring roles, they must believe our struggles within the economic harassment; the point is that a that men are stronger, less emo- working class. It is written by disproportionate number of black tional and incapable of caring members of the women’s caucus and Asian people are targeted in for those who need it. For these of the Anarchist Federation. It comparison to white people, and reasons, men showing weakness, does not represent all our views the result of this is that if you are emotion and a capacity for caring and is part of an ongoing discus- carrying drugs and you are white, labour are punished by patriar- sion within the federation. then all other things being equal, chy for letting the side down and you are much more likely to get giving women the opportunity to What we mean by privilege away with it than if you were challenge their oppression. What do we mean – and what do black. In the UK, white people we not mean – by privilege? Privi- are also less likely to be arrested It makes sense that where there lege implies that wherever there or jailed or to be the victim of is an oppressed group, there is a is a system of oppression (such a personal crime3. Black peo- privileged group, because systems as capitalism, patriarchy, white ple currently face even greater of oppression wouldn’t last long if supremacy, heteronormativity) unemployment in the UK than nobody benefited from them. It is there is an oppressed group and they do in the USA4. The point of crucial to understand that mem- also a privileged group, who ben- quoting this is not to suggest we bers of the privileged group of efit from the oppressions that this want a society in which people of any of these systems may also be system puts in place1. The privi- all races and ethnicities face equal oppressed by any of the others, leged group do not have to be disadvantage – we want to create and this is what allows struggles active supporters of the system of a society in which nobody faces to be divided and revolutionary oppression, or even aware of it, these disadvantages – but part activity crushed. We are divided, in order to benefit from it. They of getting there is acknowledging socially and politically, by a lack benefit from being viewed as how systems of oppression work. of awareness of our privileges the norm and providing for their This means recognising that, if and how they are used to set our needs being seen as what is natu- black and ethnic minority groups interests against each other and rally done, while the oppressed are more likely to face these break our solidarity. group is considered the “other”, disadvantages, then by simple and their needs are “special maths, white people are less likely The term “privilege” has a com- considerations”. Sometimes the to face them. That means they plex relationship with class strug- privileged group benefits from have an advantage, a privilege, gle, and to understand why, we the system in obvious, material including the privilege of not need to look at some of the differ- ways, such as when women are needing to be aware of the extent ences and confusions between expected to do most or all of the of the problem. economic and social class. Social housework, and male partners class describes the cultural identi- benefit from their unpaid labour. A privileged group may also, in ties of working class, middle class At other times the benefits are some ways, be oppressed by the and upper class. These identities, more subtle and invisible and expectations of the system that much like those built on gender involve certain pressures being privileges them; for example men or race, are socially constructed, Organise! 13 created by a society based on force men to give up their male- ness and thoughtful action are. If its prejudices and expectations ness, or white people to give up you take nothing else away from of people in those categories. their whiteness, or send them all this document, take this: You are Economic class is different: It de- to the guillotine and reclaim their not responsible for the system scribes the economic working and power and privilege as if it were a that gives you your privilege, only ruling classes, as defined by Marx. resource that they were hoarding. for how you respond to it. The It functions through capitalism Instead we need to take apart and privileged (apart from the ruling and is based on the ownership of understand the systems that tend class) have a vital role to play in material resources, regardless of to concentrate power and re- the struggle against the systems your personal identity or social sources in the hands of the cultur- that privilege them - it's just not a status. This is why a wealthy, ally privileged and question the leadership role. knighted capitalist like Alan Sugar very concepts of gender, sexuality, can describe himself as a “work- race etc. that are used to build ing class boy made good”. He is the identities that divide us. Answering objections to privilege clearly not working class if we look at it economically, but he A large part of the resentment of So if they didn’t choose it and clings to that social identity in the the term "privilege" within class there’s nothing they can do belief that it in some way justifies struggle movements comes from about it, why describe people as or excuses the exploitation within trying to make a direct com- “Privileged”? Isn’t it enough to his business empire. He confuses parison with ruling class privi- talk about racism, sexism, homo- social and economic class in order lege, which doesn't quite work. phobia etc. without having to call to identify himself with an op- Somebody born into a family who white, male and straight people pressed group (the social work- owns a chain of supermarkets or something that offends them? ing class) and so deny his own factories can, when they inherit If it’s just the terminology you significant privilege (as part of the their fortune, forgo it; they can object to, be aware that radical economic ruling class). Being part collectivise their empire and give black activists, feminists, queer of the ruling class of capitalism it to the workers and work in it activists and disabled activists makes it impossible to support themselves for the same share widely use the term privilege. struggles against that system. This of the profits as everybody else. Oppressed groups need to lead is because, unlike any other privi- Capitalists can, if they choose, the struggles to end their op- leged group, the ruling class are give up their privilege. This makes pressions, and that means these directly responsible for the very it OK for us to think of them as oppressed groups get to define exploitation they would be claim- bad people if they don't and the struggle and the terms we use ing to oppose. justifies taking it from them by to talk about it. It is, on one level, force in a revolutionary situa- simply not up to class struggle This doesn't make economic class tion. Men, white people, straight groups made up of a majority a "primary" oppression, or the people, cisgendered people etc., of white males to tell people of others "secondary", but it does can't give up their privilege - no colour and women what words mean that resistance in economic matter how much they may are useful in the struggles against class struggle takes different want to. It is forced on them by a white supremacy and patriarchy. forms and has slightly different system they cannot opt out of, or If you dislike the term but agree aims to struggles based on cul- choose to stop benefiting from. with the concept, then it would tural identities. For example, we This comparison with ruling class show practical solidarity to leave aim to end capitalism through a privilege makes many feel as if your personal discomfort out of revolution in which the working they're being accused of hoarding the argument, accept that the class seize the means of produc- something they're not entitled terminology has been chosen tion from the ruling class and to, that they're being blamed for and start using the same term as create an anarchist communist this and asked to feel guilty or those at the forefront of these society in which there is no rul- undergo some kind of endless struggles. ing class. For the other struggles penance to be given absolution mentioned, this doesn't quite for their privilege. This is not the Another common objection to work the same way; we can't case. Guilt isn't useful, aware- the concept of privilege is that it 14 Organise! makes a cultural status out of the and neutral, what we consider not be aware of. It means being lack of an oppression. You could different and other, what needs willing to listen when people tell say that not facing systematic explaining, what’s taken as read – us about how their experience prejudice for your skin colour isn’t the prejudices in favour of being differs from ours. It means trying a privilege, it’s how things should straight aren’t recognisable as to conceive of a new “normal” be for everyone. To face racism prejudices, because they’re built that we can bring about through is the aberration; to not face it into our very perceptions of what a differently structured society, should be the default experience. is the default way to be. instead of erasing experiences The problem is, if not experienc- that don’t fit into our privileged ing oppression is the default It’s useful to see this, because concept of “normal”. experience, then experiencing the when we look at oppressions in oppression puts you outside the isolation, we tend to attribute default experience, in a special them to personal or societal prej- Intersectionality and Kyriarchy category, which in turn makes a udice, a homophobic law that can lot of the oppression invisible. be repealed or a racial discrimina- Kyriarchy is the concept of com- To talk about privilege reveals tion that can be legislated against. bined systems of oppression; the what is normal to those without Alone, terms like “racism”, “sex- idea that capitalism, patriarchy, the oppression, yet cannot be ism” and “ablism” don’t describe white supremacy, heteronorma- taken for granted by those with how oppression is woven into the tivity, cisnormativity, theocracy it. To talk about homophobia fabric of a society and is a normal and other systems that we don’t alone may reveal the existence of part of life, rather than an easily necessarily have names for are prejudices – stereotypes about isolated stain on society that can all connected, influencing and how gay men and lesbian women be removed without trace, leav- supporting each other. The word behave perhaps, or violence ing the fabric intact.5 “kyriarchy” is also a handy ver- targeted against people for their bal shortcut that saves having to sexuality. It’s unusual to find Privilege theory is systematic. It list all the systems of oppression an anarchist who won’t con- explains why removing prejudice every time you want to explain demn these things. To talk about and discrimination isn’t enough this concept. It means everybody straight privilege, however, shows to remove oppression. It shows who’s fighting oppression of any the other side of the system, the how society itself needs to be kind is fighting the same war; we invisible side: what behaviour is ordered differently. When people just fight it on a myriad of differ- considered “typical” for straight talk about being “colour-blind” ent fronts. people? There isn’t one – straight in relation to race, they think it isn’t treated like a sexual catego- means they’re not racist, but it Intersectionality is the idea that ry, it is treated like the absence usually means that they think we are all privileged by some of of “gay”. You don’t have to worry they can safely ignore differences these systems and oppressed by about whether you come across of background and life experi- others, and that, because those as “too straight” when you’re ence due to race and expect that systems affect one another, our going to a job interview, whether the priorities and world views of oppressions and privileges inter- your straight friends will think everybody should be the same as sect. This means that we each you’re denying your straightness those of white people, which they experience oppression in ways if you don’t dress or talk straight consider to be “normal”. It means specific to our particular com- enough, whether your gay friends they think they don’t have to binations of class, gender, race, will be uncomfortable if you listen to people who are trying to sexuality, disability, age etc. 6 7 take them to a straight club or if explain why a situation is different they’ll embarrass you by saying for them. They want difference to Class struggle analyses tend to something ignorant about get- go away, so that everybody can mark out capitalism as separate ting hit on by somebody of the be equal, yet by trying to ignore from the other systems in kyri- opposite sex. This analysis goes difference they are reinforcing archy. As explained above, capi- beyond worries about discrimi- it. Recognising privilege means talism operates differently from nation or prejudice to the very recognising that differences of systems of oppression based on heart of what we consider normal experience exist which we may identity or culture, but it would Organise! 15 be too simplistic to dismiss these that forward the cause of any certain strands of radical femi- oppressions as secondary or as oppressed group against the nism have refused to accept the mere aspects of capitalism. Patri- interests of any other - not just validity of trans* struggles, keep- archy, in particular, existed long class. That doesn't mean that ing trans women out of women’s before modern industrial capi- every campaign has to forward spaces (see the controversies over talism and, there’s evidence to the cause of every single strug- Radfem 2012 and some of the suggest, before the invention of gle equally, but it does mean that workshops at Women Up North money itself8, and it’s not difficult we need to be aware of how our 2012 over their “women born to imagine a post-capitalist soci- privileges can blind us to the op- women” policies). The outcome ety in which oppressive gender pressions we could be ignorantly of this is as above: the most op- roles still hold true9. As anarchists walking all over in our campaigns. pressed get the shitty end of both are opposed to all systems of op- We have to consider a whole lot sticks (in this case cisnormativity pression, we recognise that fight- more than class struggle when and patriarchy), with feminism, ing capitalism alone is not enough we think about whether a cam- the movement that is supposed and that other oppressions won’t paign is moving us forwards or to be at the forefront of fighting melt away “after the revolution”. backwards as anarchists. Being the oppression that affects both If we want a post-revolutionary able to analyse and point out how parties (patriarchy) failing at one society free of all oppression, we systems of oppression intersect is of its sharpest intersections. This need all the oppressed to have an vital, as hitting these systems of also led to the fracturing of the equal role in creating it, and that oppression at their intersections feminist movement and stagna- means listening to experiences of can be our most effective way of tion of theory through failure oppression that we don’t share uniting struggles and building soli- to communicate with trans* and working to understand how darity across a number of ideo- activists, whose priorities and each system operates: in isola- logical fronts. struggles have such a massive tion, in relation to capitalism and crossover with feminism. One other systems of oppression and Some examples: positive that’s come out of these as part of kyriarchy.10 recent examples is the joining In the early 1800s, there were together of feminist and trans* We're used to talking about sex- several strikes of male textile activist groups to challenge the ism or racism as divisive of the workers against women be- entry policy of Radfem 2012. This working class. Kyriarchy allows us ing employed at their factories is leading to more communica- to get away from the primacy of because their poorer pay al- tion, solidarity and the possibility class, while keeping it very much lowed them to undercut male of joint actions between these in the picture. Just as sexism workers12. The intersection of groups. and racism divide class strug- capitalism and patriarchy meant gle, capitalism and racism divide that women were oppressed by The above examples mean that gender struggles, and sexism and capitalists as both workers and thinking about our privileges capitalism divide race struggles. women (being exploited for lower and oppressions is essential: for All systems of oppression divide pay than men), and by men as organising together; for recognis- the struggles against all the other both women and workers (kept in ing where other struggles inter- systems that they intersect with. the domestic sphere, doing even sect with our own and what our This is because we find our loyal- lower paid work). When changing role should be in those situations; ties divided by our own particular conditions (mechanisation) made where our experiences will be combinations of privilege and it too difficult to restrict women useful and where they will be oppression, and we prioritise the to their traditional work roles, disruptive; where we should be struggles we see as primary, to unions finally saw reason and listening carefully and where we the detriment of others and to campaigned across the intersec- can contribute constructively. Ac- the detriment of solidarity. This tion, allowing women to join the knowledging privilege in this situ- is why the Anarchist Federation's unions and campaigning for their ation means acknowledging that 3rd Aim & Principle11 cautions pay to be raised. it’s not just the responsibility of against cross-class alliances, but the oppressed group to challenge we should be avoiding campaigns From the 70s to the present day, the system that oppresses them, 16 Organise! it’s everybody’s responsibility, for working out how privileged or people into positions of power because being part of a privileged oppressed you are in relation to or responsibility, either as a group doesn’t make you neutral, somebody else, and no point in well-meaning attempt to ensure it means you’re facing an advan- trying to do so. The only way that that oppressed groups are repre- tage. That said, when we join the privilege or oppression makes sented or as a cynical exercise in struggle against our own advan- your contributions to a struggle tokenism to improve their public tages, we need to remember more or less valid is through that image. This serves the state and that it isn’t about duty or guilt or struggle's relevance to your lived capital by encouraging people to altruism, because all our struggles experience. believe that they are represented, are all connected. The more we and that their most effective op- can make alliances over the op- A black, disabled working class portunities for change will come pressions that have been used to lesbian may not necessarily have through supporting or petition- divide us, the more we can unite had a harder life than a white, ing these representatives. This against the forces that exploit us able-bodied working class straight is what we mean by cross-class all. None of us can do it alone. cis-man, but she will have a alliances in the 3rd A&P, and obvi- much greater understanding of ously we oppose the idea that, for the intersections between class, instance, a woman Prime Minister The myth of the “Oppression race, disability, gender and sexu- will be likely to do anything more Olympics” ality. The point isn’t that, as the for working class women than a most oppressed in the room, male Prime Minister will do for The parallels that are drawn she should lead the discussion; working class men. It should be between the Black and women's it’s that her experience gives her remembered that privilege theory movements can always turn insights he won’t have on the is not a movement in itself but an into an 11-plus: who is more relevant points of struggle: the analysis used by a diverse range exploited? Our purpose here is demands that will be most effec- of movements, liberal and radi- not parallels. We are seeking to tive, the bosses who represent cal, reformist and revolutionary. describe that complex interweav- the biggest problem, the best By the same token, the rhetoric ing of forces which is the working places and times to hold meet- of solidarity and class unity is class; we are seeking to break ings or how to phrase a callout used by leftists to gain power down the power relations among for a mass meeting so that it will for themselves, even as we use us on which is based the hierar- appeal to a wider range of peo- those same concepts to fight the chical rule of international capital. ple; ways of dealing with issues power structures they use. The For no man can represent us as that will very probably not occur fact that some people will use women any more than whites to anybody whose oppression the idea of privilege to promote can speak about and themselves is along fewer intersections. He themselves as community leaders end the Black experience. Nor do should be listening to her, not and reformist electoral candidates we seek to convince men of our because she is more oppressed doesn't mean that that's the core feminism. Ultimately they will be than him (though she may well reasoning or inevitable outcome "convinced" by our power. We of- be), but because it is vital to the of privilege theory. For us, as class fer them what we offer the most struggle that she is heard, and be- struggle anarchists, the identities privileged women: power over cause the prejudices that society imposed on us by kyriarchy and their enemies. The price is an end has conditioned into us, and that the politics that go with them are to their privilege over us.13 still affect the most socially aware about uniting in struggle against of us, continue to make it more all oppression, not entrenching To say that somebody has white difficult for her to be heard, for us social constructs, congratulating privilege isn’t to suggest that they to hear her. ourselves on how aware we are, can’t also have a whole host of claiming special rights accord- other oppressions. To say that Some would argue that govern- ing to our background or biology somebody suffers oppression by ments, public bodies and cor- and certainly not creating ranked patriarchy doesn’t mean they porations have been known to hierarchies of the most oppressed can’t also have a lot of other privi- use arguments like these to put to put forward for tokenistic posi- leges. There is no points system forward or promote particular tions of power. Organise! 17 it is possible for them to function ing class men's issues were more In the AF, we already acknowl- without engaging in liberalism important than those of working edge in our Aims and Principles and cross-class struggles, then we class women. Economic class is the necessity of autonomous must acknowledge that privilege not so much the primary struggle struggle for people in oppressed theory does not, of necessity, lead as the all-encompassing strug- groups; but rather than analyse to liberalism and cross-class strug- gle. Issues that only face queer why this is necessary, we only gles. It may do so when it is used people in the ruling class (such warn against cross-class alliances by liberals and reformists but as a member of an aristocratic within their struggles. The unspo- not when used by revolutionary family having to remain in the ken reason why it is necessary for class struggle anarchists. Privilege closet and marry for the sake of them to organise independently theory doesn't come with com- the family line) are not second- is privilege. Any reason you can pulsory liberalism any more than ary to our concerns but com- think of why it might be neces- the idea of class struggle comes pletely irrelevant, because they sary, is down to privilege: the with compulsory Leninism. are among the few oppressions possible presence of abusers; the that truly will melt away after potential of experiences of op- the revolution, when there is no pression being misunderstood, The class struggle analysis of ruling class to enforce them on mistrusted, dismissed or requir- privilege itself. We may condemn racism, ing a huge amount of explanation sexism, homophobia and general before they are accepted and the This may all seem, at first, to snobbery shown by members of meeting can move onto actions make class struggle just one the ruling class to one another, around them; even internalised struggle among many, but the but we don’t have common cause feelings of inferiority are trig- unique way in which ruling class in struggle with those suffering gered by our own awareness of privilege operates provides an these, even those with whom we the presence of members of the overarching context for all the share a cultural identity, because privileged group. This may not other systems. While any system they remain our direct and active be their fault, but it is due to the can be used as a “context” for any oppressors. existence of systems that privi- other, depending on which inter- lege them. The reason we need sections we’re looking at, capi- When we try to apply this across to organise autonomously is that talism is particularly important, other intersections than eco- we need to be free of the pres- because those privileged within it nomic class, we don’t see con- ence of privilege to speak freely. have overt control over resources, cerns that are irrelevant to all After speaking freely, we can rather than just a default cul- but the privileged group, but we identify and work to change the tural status of normalcy. They are do find that the limited perspec- conditions that prevented us from necessarily active oppressors, and tive of privileged activists gives doing so before – breaking down cannot be passive or unwilling re- campaigns an overly narrow the influence of those systems on cipients of the benefits of others’ focus. For instance, overwhelm- ourselves and lessening the privi- oppression. The ruling class and ingly white, middle class feminist lege of others in their relations the working class have opposing organisations of the 60s and 70s with us – but the speaking freely interests, while the privileged and have been criticised by women of has to come first. oppressed groups of other sys- colour and disabled women for tems only have differing interests, focusing solely on the legalisation To equate talk of “privilege” which differ less as the influence of abortion at a time when Puer- with liberalism, electoralism and of those systems is reduced. to-Rican women and disabled cross-class struggles is to deny women faced forced sterilisation, oppressed groups the space and This doesn’t make economic and many women lacked access the language to identify their class a primary oppression or to essential services during preg- experiences of oppression and so the others secondary, because nancy and childbirth. Although effectively organise against the our oppressions and privileges the availability of abortion cer- systems that oppress them. If we intersect. If women’s issues were tainly wasn’t irrelevant to these acknowledge that these organis- considered secondary to class is- women, the campaigns failed to ing spaces are necessary, and that sues, this would imply that work- also consider the affordability of 18 Organise! abortion and completely ignored 2 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ beautiful and sexually available the concerns of women being uk-16552489, http://www.guard- house-keeping-cleaning-serving denied the right to have a child. ian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/12/police- women in William Morris’ utopia Most feminist groups now tend to stop-and-search-black-people News from Nowhere. talk about “reproductive rights” (statistics not available for Scot- rather than “abortion rights” and land) 10 One anarchist analysis of in- demand free or affordable fam- tersectionality: http://libcom.org/ ily planning services that include 3 http://www.justice.gov.uk/ library/refusing-waitanarchism- abortion, contraception, sexual downloads/statistics/mojstats/ intersectionality. health screening, antenatal and stats-race-cjs-2010.pdf post-natal care, issues relevant to 11 “We believe that fighting women of all backgrounds.14 4 http://www.guardian.co.uk/ systems of oppression that divide world/2012/apr/13/black-people- the working class, such as racism We have to challenge ourselves unemployed-britain-us and sexism, is essential to class to look out for campaigns that, struggle. Anarchist-Communism due to the privilege of those who 5 “While it is important that cannot be achieved while these initiate them, lack awareness of individuals work to transform inequalities still exist. In order to how an issue differs across inter- their consciousness, striving to be be effective in our various strug- sections. We need to broaden out anti-racist, it is important for us gles against oppression, both our own campaigns to include the to remember that the struggle to within society and within the perspectives of all those affected end white supremacy is a strug- working class, we at times need by the issues we cover. This will gle to change a system, a struc- to organise independently as peo- allow us to bring more issues ture…For our efforts to end white ple who are oppressed according together, gather greater solidarity, supremacy to be truly effective, to gender, sexuality, ethnicity fight more oppressions and build individual struggle to change or ability. We do this as working a movement that can challenge consciousness must be funda- class people, as cross-class move- the whole of kyriarchy, which is mentally linked to collective effort ments hide real class differences the only way to ever defeat any to transform those structures that and achieve little for us. Full part of it, including capitalism. reinforce and perpetuate white emancipation cannot be achieved supremacy.” bell hooks, Killing without the abolition of capital- Notes Rage: Ending Racism, 1995 ism.” http://www.afed.org.uk/ organisation/aims-and-principles. 1 “A common form of blindness to 6 http://whatever.scalzi. html privilege is that women and peo- com/2012/05/15/straight-white- ple of colour are often described male-the-lowest-difficulty-set- 12 See Chapter 7 of The Struggle as being treated unequally, but tingthere- is/ for the Breeches: Gender and the men and whites are not. This… Making of the British Working is logically impossible. Unequal 7 Intersectionality as a term and Class by Anna Clark. simply means ‘not equal,’ which an idea has been developed by, describes those who receive less among others: Kimberle Williams 13 Selma James, ‘Sex, Race and than their fair share and those Crenshaw, bell hooks, Audre Class’ 1975 who receive more. But there Lorde, Patricia Hill Collins, Leslie can’t be a short end of the stick McCall, if you are interested in 14 Links to these examples are without a long end, because it’s further reading. on these posts at the Angry Black the longness of the long end Woman blog: http://theang- that makes the short end short. 8 Graeber’s ‘Debt: The First 5,000 ryblackwoman.com/2010/02/26/ To pretend otherwise makes Years’ suggests that young wom- reproductive-justice-linkspam- privilege and those who receive en were used in some pre-money a-starting-point/, http://theang- it invisible.” Allan G. Johnson, societies as an early form of cur- ryblackwoman.com/2008/04/14/ Privilege, Power and Difference rency or debt tally. poc-and-the-politics-of-medical- (2006). research/ 9 See the chapter with all the Organise! 19 The Fundamental Requirement for Organised Safer Space This article will be a very basic can see that it is full of prejudice. and posts up stupid messages on introduction to the foundations Gender, sexuality, age, physical Facebook with another’s log-in, of safer spaces, community ac- ability, social class, skin colour they are linguistically presented countability and transformational and being part of a specific ethnic as being of the same level of in- justice that arise from elements group are all used as excuses for justice and abuse as having been present from the very incep- society undertaking and accept- sexually assaulted. Sure, if we put tion of anarchism as a political ing a catalogue of abuses against people on the spot they would philosophy. These concepts are people. They can be subtle, such rate rape as being far worse than responses to verbal, physical and as in cases where a speaker is posting a message to embarrass sexual abuse that have always ignored or not taken seriously, or a friend, but this is just one small been present within radical com- can be as blatant as a murder tak- example out of an overarching munities and continue to present ing place in front of a crowd and pervasive system of misogynistic a challenge to this day. As such not one person present stepping language, objectification, belit- this article will touch on all forms forward as a witness. We have all tlement and trivialisation. This of abuse from problematic lan- been socialised not to rock the leads us to the point where rape guage through to rape and physi- boat; to partake in acts of op- is not only ignored as normal cal violence. An example of one pression and also receive abuse but can also be encouraged and such policy can be seen at http:// as a matter of course; to ignore celebrated by those around us. bit.ly/1207uq8 or minimise those people who Don't believe me? Type “Steuben- need our support; to put on trial ville rape” into your search engine I am writing this from my per- those who seek justice; to inter- of choice, and then keep in mind spective as a white trans*, queer, nalise the blame when we have I can find hundreds of examples able-bodied individual who was been abused, if we even allow like this from the past year alone. socialised as a straight, cis-gen- ourselves to recognise the issue dered male. My role within some at all. While these cultural norms The truth about sexual violence of the struggles I will describe is can be seen wherever oppres- is constantly hidden behind one of support when it is called sion takes place, I would argue myths that attack those who for. Safer spaces thinking has that one of the most pervasive have survived such violence and come about through survivors and widespread of these affecting protect the perpetrators of such of abuse determining the form all our radical spaces today are abuse from scrutiny. The idea is that their struggle must take and carried over from our dominant that a perpetrator is going to be a the ways in which they wish to culture's acceptance of rape and stranger, loner or fringe acquaint- receive support. For every person sexual violence. ance comes up time-and-time who has been able to speak out again. Rapists are perpetually there are hundreds of thousands We are constantly surrounded by characterised as monsters or that could not. We should re- language and images that validate some unthinking instinct-driven member that while the voices we and perpetuate rape. Everything, beasts. Both of these stereotypes hear may seem few, they carry from the comedy we are expect- are rarely the case. A rapist can with them a truth that, if ignored, ed to enjoy through to the legal be anyone you know. They can will render any attempts towards framework imposed upon us by be your best friend. They can be a futile gesture. the state, is predisposed to rape nice person that seems like the being something that is just part salt of the earth. They can be an Rape Culture of life. Rape is minimised within otherwise good comrade. They our culture to the point that are not a sex-crazed maniac who Looking at the world today we when someone sits at a computer always stands out in a crowd, but 20 Organise! instead they are someone who is of another. They cause crippling in order to be accepted in this looking to exert control through feelings of shame and guilt in particular community there will sexual violence, usually in very those who need to reach out for be certain behaviours we require private settings, over someone our solidarity and support. At the and others that we will not toler- they know well. They can use same time they cause those struc- ate. At the same time we may reason to convince those they tures built supposedly to help have additional requirements, attack that it is a one-off or that the survivor, to be anything from or even state, that someone is it wasn't their fault. This ties in unreceptive through to providing unwelcome within our spaces, with the false idea is that cases of outright hostility. in order to allow the community rape are always clear and obvi- as a whole to feel safe. Far from ous – that a man has overpow- Similar myths and misguided be- being authoritarian, this is a pre- ered a woman in some way in the liefs also surround other groups figurative step towards realising pursuit of sex and the survivor is that suffer oppression, to under- the concept of Free Association, immediately clear about what has take the same cycle of pinning where individuals and communi- occurred. While this can be the blame on those being abused. ties have a directly democratic say case, it is not the only way. Those You have to have a keen eye for in who they allow into their space with experiences that fall outside mainstream media to see how and how people are expected to of this black & white narrative pervasive the misinformation behave whilst there. often find themselves maligned and hatred it helps perpetuate is. or under suspicion. Questions As I write this piece, it emerges At the moment the most common are raised about why the survivor that a large factor in the recent attempt to make out spaces safer “let it happen” or “didn't speak suicide of Lucy Meadows was the than the word at large is to create up sooner”. No thought is given Daily Mail's decision to publish a a “safer spaces policy”. This is to the full spectrum of typical hate-filled personal attack on her. often a list of principles that we responses to a threatening situa- Examples such as this are merely hope everyone using a space will tion. This may be the familiar fight the public tip of a massive ice- adhere to and behaviours that are or flight, but could also lead to berg. expected in our spaces. Unfor- the lesser known freeze, submit tunately, turning our spaces into or attach response. Our culture Radical Spaces, Revolutionary something safer than the world turns this all around and starts Solutions around them takes far more than to ask what the survivor did, that a goodwill wish-list of things could have invited being raped. As anarchists, we should work to we hope predatory individuals Were they inebriated? Wear- make ourselves aware of these will or won't do. Just as laws do ing “inappropriate clothing”? systems of oppression and how nothing to deter crime; simply Had they not taken steps such as they intersect, listening to the having a code of conduct on carrying a whistle or something experiences of those who have the door of your event is pretty to protect themselves with? Did been oppressed and lending them redundant if not accompanied by they act in a way that caused the support in the struggles that they procedures of what to do when perpetrator to act the way they face. We should also be critical (not if) someone contravenes it. did? Had they had sex with the of the systems of response that What is required, to paraphrase perpetrator in the past? Let's be we hold over from the world at Errico Malatesta, is organisation, entirely clear – nothing causes large and look to prefigure the organisation and more organisa- rape apart from a rapist. world we would hope to live in. tion. This comes in many different We should also be realistic about forms: These myths all act to empower the resources and abilities we perpetrators of abuse and dis- have to hand. When we provide Open and Clear Processes for empower the survivor. They lead spaces, be they gatherings in Everyone those who have survived abuse physical space or virtual forums of to question their own judgement discussion, we must recognise the In first aid there are processes about a situation, placing blame responsibility we have to make that are drilled into medics so on themselves for the actions all that use the space aware, that that when an emergency situation Organise! arises, they are able to put most lence will differ greatly from how have the ability to take claims of 21 of their emotion and panic to one we are expected to deal with a abuse seriously and look at im- side and ensure that the situation case of someone using a slur in plementing strategies to protect is properly handled. The same conversation. No process is set our communities. When we do principle can be found in the in stone as each case is unique, nothing in the name of “not tak- preparation and organisation -re however the most common even- ing sides” or because we appeal quired to make our spaces safer. tualities can be covered, and our to the concept of being “innocent When someone acts in a way con- processes can be reviewed after until proven guilty”, the implicit trary to the “notice on the door”, the fact to include better practic- message we broadcast to those there needs to be a clear set of es as we develop and share them. surviving oppression is that any instructions upon what course of claims of abusive behaviour are action is open to someone who Survivor-Focus and Community unimportant to the running of has survived abuse, to someone Accountability Processes our spaces, that the claim might who has witnessed oppressive as well be a lie for all we care behaviour and to those it is being The world at large treats abuses and that we have no interest in reported to. in very different ways. When making our spaces welcoming to someone comes forward to those who may feel threatened Having a clear set of principles report that something has been by a possibly abusive character. about how we will act, as well as stolen from them, our first reac- an open account of the processes tion isn't to question whether this By taking a focus on listening and procedures that everyone has happened or not. We accept to the needs of the survivors of maintaining the space is trained the claim on face value and then abuse and basing our actions to follow when a problem occurs, work from that point on. The upon empowering their choices, means that everybody involved same is not true in cases of sexual we are going a small step towards has their expectations set as to violence. While investigation into keeping the agency that assault what will happen when the issue number of false accusations in can remove in their hands. We of abuse occurs. Survivors can these fields shows time and time are also working to make sure be put more at ease and feel like again that it is extremely rare for that everyone that is coming into order can be found in an emo- an accusation to be made without our spaces is being held to a high tionally chaotic situation, as they basis, the typical initial reaction level of accountability, in terms of will know before even raising an of the dominant culture is to deny the required and prohibited be- issue what will happen. Those of or discount the survivor's account haviours that have been commu- us maintaining a space will have of what happened and attempt to nicated in advance. We are often documentation to both help us minimise or erase the abusive be- not able to say whether someone move forward in a way that will haviour. If this cannot be done, it is innocent or guilty, instead we protect the community at large, attacks those who have been able are looking at what actions are while holding us back from taking to stand up and search for justice; required to ensure everyone com- any rash actions that would dis- people coming to us for help and ing into our spaces feels safe. empower a survivor or in them- support are put on trial. When we selves be abusive. For those who do believe the person, we often Education & Socialisation may possibly be perpetrators of perpetuate the removal of agency abuse, it shows up-front what to they have suffered by storm- When we decide that we are an- expect and explains why certain ing off to deal with the problem archists, we are not suddenly and action may be required from each ourselves, heedless of what the mystically absolved of all the ills person involved. survivor needs or wants from us. and prejudices that society has in- stilled in us. It takes a lot of work Multiple processes will be re- Almost universally, our spaces do to ensure that the ideals we pro- quired to deal with all the differ- not have at hand the ability to fess and the actions we undertake ent types of abuse that can be investigate truth or guilt behind are aligned. To this end, we can reported. For example, how we most claims of sexual violence or be open to criticism of our pat- handle reports of physical vio- severe abuse. However, we do terns of behaviour and listen to 22 Organise! those people and collectives who When matters of safer spaces have been in a position to have come up, there is often a flood Correction: we have never been survived abuse and want to guide of arguments about why these made aware of any problems be- our communities towards a better concepts should be ignored. fore. This is possibly because we way of handling future problems. In my experience, those mak- don't appear to take matters any The clear creation of processes ing these arguments are almost more seriously than the domi- is part of that; discussion about always white, able-bodied, cis- nant culture, due to our lack of incorporation of new ideas and gendered men and not people solid survivor-focused community situations where the process will from the groups being oppressed accountability processes. Even if be implemented, while imperfect, (coincidently often the strongest there have been no problems up is needed to keep things fresh voices calling for implementation to now, that isn't to say one won't and reflexive. We should also look of safer spaces processes). Most happen in the future; if we have at the language we use and be of these responses do not even to work out what to do in the open to changing it away from address the actual safer spaces heat of the moment our actions phrases that survivors advise are thinking being called for but will be worse than if we had a oppressive. instead attack the misconceptions well thought out - if imperfect - and misunderstanding that an policy. Through use of education, we individual has heard second-hand can inoculate those coming into or created in their own mind. We our spaces against undertaking or can all be guilty of this at one “Safer spaces policies are accepting abuse and on the cor- time or another, so I would like to flawed.” rect way to act when a problem take a moment to run through the becomes apparent. When some- common list of arguments against Yes, they often are. This isn't a one complains about our actions, safer spaces policies, burning any reason not to have one. It is a we need to train ourselves to hold straw men to the ground and reason to have one, and share back the reflexive defence mecha- clearing up any confusion or mis- best practice with others who are nisms society has taught us and understanding that has arisen: doing the same. We are trying to instead take some time to criti- grow a better world in the shell cally evaluate the situation. We of the old; not everything will must recognise that it is not the “Isn’t this all just asking for trou- be right first time. Not having a place of the person complaining ble?” clear procedural policy is far more to educate us about our abusive flawed. behaviours; it is our duty to seek Preparing for the problems that out forms of education and take permeate the world over is not the best practices learned back asking for trouble; it is making a “We are not responsible for oth- into our spaces. If someone who realistic assessment of what could ers' actions in this space.” has suffered oppression first hand happen and putting in place sen- is in a position to offer commen- sible structures to handle abuse Correct – they are responsible for tary upon what form our pro- as it comes to light. If we see an their actions, but you we respon- cesses should take, their advice increase in problems after put- sible for making them aware of will often be invaluable. Anarchist ting processes in place and having what is required to freely associ- praxis has for a long time said that them used in a responsible way, ate within our space. We are also an oppressed group must lead then we shouldn't be asking if the responsible for our actions when their struggle; when someone structures created the problem someone else decides to break warns you that you are acting in but why we were not aware of from these codes of conduct, and an abusive fashion then they are these problems before they were so it is best to have a guide to doing just that. We need to listen. put in place. what we should be doing and to have practised our responses in advance. The Strawman Army “We've never had a problem before!” Organise! 23 “Surely everyone can all act like feel this is acceptable: to malign lie. People in an oppressed group grown-ups...” someone for engaging with state may not want to share their op- services which, at present, we pression with everyone; they may Grown-ups rape. Grown-ups fight. cannot provide ourselves. By pre- not feel safe doing so. By putting Grown-ups oppress and exploit tending that we have magically in place these structures we are and abuse. The problem isn't with left the problems of the world be- not only saying we are safe to ap- people not acting like grown-ups; hind, we simply doom ourselves proach but that we are willing to the problem is with our com- to repeat its mistakes over. What leave the reigns of the struggle in munities not having a different is needed is acknowledgement of the hands of those affected. See approach to the world around us. the problematic behaviours we also the response to claiming to If we are serious about creating have been taught and an effort not having any problems before. social revolution, then we need to listen to those who have been to work on the structures and or- oppressed as to what is required ganisational methods that entails, to solve problems in our commu- “What if someone gets falsely not throw them out. nities. accused?”

Well, first up, thanks to the re- “If there is a problem I'll deal “By excluding someone you are sponse that is normally received, with it. Simple.” restricting another's freedom.” false accusations of rape or sexual assault are rare. But let's humour Sure, if there is a fight or violent Known abusers being allowed this for a minute - a case of sexual assault happening right in front of into our spaces is exclusionary of assault is reported and we have one of us, it is something we will others – by making no choice and two options being put on the want to break up. I've yet to see a taking no action when matters of table for how to handle it, each safer spaces process that doesn’t abuse are raised, we are in fact with a downside. The first is a allow for this in some way. How- making the choice to enforce our system where we focus on the ever, if by dealing with the prob- dominant society and back the survivor making the claim and put lem we are further removing the abuser. in place structures that protect agency from the survivor, then we the community as a whole. The are not causing social change but downside of this is that we may becoming another facet of the “This isn't anarchism.” inconvenience or exclude one problem. Also without a process individual while we look into to rely on, others will be forced to I would argue that this is part of actions that may lead to them take this same line of reasoning the prefiguration of free asso- re-integrating with the commu- and take direct action to remove ciation which is one of the very nity. The second approach means those seen as unsafe from our strongest concepts within anar- that in lieu of definitive proof, we spaces. chism. It is the structured move just let things carry on as normal. away from a society based upon The downside here is that a likely conceptions of state-imposed predatory or abusive individual “We're all equal here already.” law. It is a directly democratic is allowed free reign within our non-hierarchical means of acting spaces, while those who feel Lifestylists putting their fingers in within our communities. If this unsafe are driven away. If we go their ears can just bog right off. isn't anarchism then what is? for option two after thinking that Please. Their are rife over then well done – we're all with sexual abuse and informal arseholes. hierarchies of oppression. In fact, “Why did no one tell me about our radical spaces can be worse these problems before?” than the dominant society, be- “We aren’t equipped for this. cause we can frown on survivors Implicit in this question is the Some of these things are just too who feel the need to involve idea that if someone doesn't see complex for us to handle.” the state. Shame on those who it with their own eyes it may be a 24 Organise! I agree some problems will be too one of those comments has been countability, we know that a lot big for us to effectively handle. presented to me in all serious- of the paths we take will have In other instances the survivor ness, often by otherwise sound to be corrected and refined as may not have trust in our struc- comrades) we go. As we learn from these tures and will call upon the aid mistakes, our theory can become of the state. By putting the focus better at reflecting the realities on the needs of the survivor we Towards a Future of of oppression and abuse and should also be supporting them in Transformative Justice understanding how it works. As times where they feel the need to these theories become better, involve the police in these mat- The practice of organised safer the structures we build from ters. They have the biggest gang space is not something that has them will also be better suited in town, and all the good-will and been developed in an isolated to responding to oppression, in a solidarity in the world may not theoretical bubble. It has come strong and resilient fashion. Or- provide what a survivor of abuse about through thousands of ganised safer space is not a magi- requires. Support and respect a groups looking at ways to ex- cal land, perfect in every way. survivor in this choice. One day plain the problems they have We need to be aware that pitfalls we will feel ready to deal with worked on solving in their own could form from our thinking and these problems and others will communities and then spread acknowledge any unexpected dif- feel ready to put their faith in the best practices they could on ficulties before we can overcome us to do so; let's start small and to others. Seminal in this work them. work our way up. was “Taking Risks: Implementing Community Account- As this cycle of improved theory ability Strategies” by a collective based on action and improved “Who are we to determine guilt? of women of colour from Com- action based on theory, this Doesn't this unfairly place blame munities Against Rape and Abuse leadership of ideas, carries on, on the accused perpetrator?” (CARA). The ideas outlined in we will be able to move beyond this work can be seen to be that simply protecting our commu- In most cases we don't determine basis for much of what is go- nities and begin taking steps guilt or innocence – we simply ing into action throughout our towards implementing a form of don't have the means or knowl- social centres, bookfairs, groups justice that can someday rein- edge to do that. What we are able and internet forums today. Safer tegrate perpetrators of abuse to do is act in a way that ensures spaces collectives have sprung back into our spaces. While the that our spaces are made safer up to provide advice and help processes and requirements that for everyone who wishes to use to other groups around about our communities and, more im- them. I see this as the responsibil- them. Organisations that do not portantly, the survivors of abuse ity that comes with opening up a demonstrate that they are tak- require may not always be met space for others to use. ing the problems of oppressed within a lifetime, we should not groups seriously are likely to find close the door automatically. As that they will be boycotted, side- was mentioned before, perpetra- “Isn't this just a set of rules that lined or unable to grow beyond tors of the most horrific acts in will eventually be broken?” a mainly white, mainly able-bod- our society are not usually wild ied, mainly straight, mainly cis- beasts or monsters; they are No. The expected behaviour may gendered, mainly male audience, humans, and as anarchists we be the most widely read and as those providing spaces that do should look towards their well- distributed part of the policy, but lend the support being request- being, just never at the expense it is far from the bulk of it; an or- ed, rise up to the challenge and of another. ganised safer space also includes take their place. the processes which will be used to guide any report of abuse. While the initial aim of safer spaces processes is to provide (Just for the record, every single survivor-led community ac- Organise! 25 Teddy bears and Anarchy: Political Prisoners, Freedom of Speech & State Repression in Europe's Last Dictatorship On 24th March, despite the frost, bols. In October 2011 they were and gaps in the receipt of letters, lack of publicity and preventive amongst 350 people acknowl- solitary confinement, transfer arrests of opposition activists edged as ‘political prisoners’ by to a penal facility with a ‘special in the days before the protest, rights-watch organisations. This regime’. about 2,000 people marched improved their chances to be The anarchist federations that through the centre of the Belaru- freed, as the President of Bela- met together at the IAF Con- sian capital, Minsk. Many partici- rus, Alexander Lukashenko, faces gress in St. Imier, Switzerland pants had portraits of arrested pressure from the EU to free all strongly oppose the fact that our anarchists Dzmitry Dashkevich, political prisoners. Lukashenko comrades are now being traded Mikalaj Statkevich, Mikalaj Autuk- has stated that he will free only for benefits from the EU and hovich and Ales Bialatski. those who write a petition for condemn the pressure that they pardon, admitting their guilt and have been experiencing. We call They were commemorating asking him personally for mercy. on everybody to protest against Freedom Day, the anniversary of the 1918 declaration of the first, short-lived independent Belaru- sian state. State special forces detained demonstrators who were carrying portraits of politi- cal prisoners; activists say about ten opposition supporters and independent journalists were detained during a protest march. Several activists were arrested on the eve of the action, and there were detentions in other regions too where protests had not been granted permission (in Belarus gathering without a permit is illegal). This is just the Presidentof Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko latest episode in a long history of state repression, forced labour Five of the remaining imprisoned these tortures and demand the and blocks on freedom of speech activists have refused to sign, immediate liberation of all politi- in the country which is referred to whilst another signed it under cal prisoners of Belarus, including as “Europe's last dictatorship”. pressure but remains in prison. anarchists and democracy cam- All the remaining ‘political prison- paigners. Belarusian anti-authoritarian ers’ are under pressure from the More recently, despite the wel- activists; Ihar Alinevich, Mikalai prison authorities to sign. Meth- come release of Pavel Syramola- Dziadok, Artsiom Prakapenka, ods to attempt to force them to tau in September 2012, 5 com- Pavel Syramolatau, Aliaksandr do so include; transfers to other rades supported by the Anarchist Frantskievich, Jauhen Vas’kovich penal institutions, preventing Black Cross are still in Belarusian were sentenced to three to eight food supplies coming in, prevent- jails facing years of incarceration years in prison for a series of at- ing and limiting visits from rela- since being convicted of a range tacks on state and capital sym- tives, denying phone calls, delays of crimes in 2011. 26 Organise!

guilty of the attacks on the ‘Shan- to be released and, in the im- Artsiom Prakapenka was sent gri La’ and trade union building, mediate term, for them to be down for an attack on the KGB and participation in the anti-mil- allowed visits, medication, letters headquarters in Bobruisk, in soli- itarist demo, and was sentenced and literature, and raises money darity with anarchists arrested in to 4.5 years after being held for solicitors’ fees and to buy the 2010. He faces 7 years. illegally. He too denies charges comrades’ food. Supported by against him. the International of Anarchist Jauhen Vaskovich faces the same, Federations (IFA-IAF) they have being convicted of the same The criminal damage for which recently completed a tour of crime. these comrades were sentenced France, Italy, Germany, Spain and amounts to only a few hundred UK, to raise awareness and spark Ihar Alinevich faces 8 years, con- dollars in each case. They are be- further solidarity. The latter have victed of attacking the Russian ing in especially harsh conditions, a good chance of success because embassy in Minsk in solidarity reflective of their noncompliance. Belarus’ President Alexander Lu- with Russian anarchists arrested kashenko has expressed a desire in the high-profile Khimki case. These convictions form part of an for the country to be allowed to He was also convicted of arson ideologically driven repression of join the E.U. There are rumours at the Belarusbank and attack on anarchists in Belarus. They follow that this may be considered if the ‘Shangri La’ casino. He de- the revitalisation of Belarusian human rights in the country are nies all of these charges but was anarchism in the past few years. addressed. kidnapped by plain clothed cops Unlike in some other ex-Soviet when in Moscow and extradited Union countries and other mod- For More information and to Help to Belarus illegally. He was also ern dictatorships, anarchists do visit the Belarus ABC and Anar- sentenced for participation in an not form a minor part of a dissi- chist Federation websites anti-militarist demonstration near dent prison population consisting the headquarters of the General of the usual pro-democracy and Staff in Minsk. anti-corruption activists. They in fact make up just under half Aliaksandr Frantskievich was sen- of the ‘political’ prisoners in tenced to three years for partici- Belarus. This is partly because pation in an attack on the (state it is possible to have sentences controlled) Trade Union Federa- revoked if you admit your guilt tion building and for computer and write to the state asking hacking. Despite having serious forgiveness, which the five will health problems he is still being not do. held in a pre-trial facility. The Belarusian ABC has cam- Mikalai Dziadok was also found paigned consistently for them Organise! 27 The Idea of the Commune in Anarchist Practice

“The basic social and economic of anarchist communism, which work nor even to a general inven- cell of the anarchist society is the appears to have simultaneously tory of the city's resources. Nor free, independent commune”. (A. emerged among French exiles did it break with the tradition of Grachev, quoted by Paul Avrich, in Switzerland, within the Swiss the State, of representative gov- The Anarchists in the Russian Jura Federation of the First Inter- ernment, and it did not attempt Revolution). national itself, and in the Ital- to achieve within the Commune ian section of the International. that organisation from the simple “The communes of the next French workers like Dumartheray to the complex it adumbrated by revolution will not only break and Italian intellectuals like proclaiming the independence down the state and substitute Covelli appear to have assisted in and free federation of Com- free federation for parliamentary its birth, but it was eagerly taken munes. But it is certain that if the rule; they will part with parlia- up by those who had been close Commune of Paris had lived a mentary rule within the com- to Bakunin in the International, few months longer, the strength mune itself. They will trust the people like Malatesta, Costa, Cafi- of events would have forced it free organization of food supply ero and Brousse, by Elisee Reclus towards these two .” and production to free groups of and by latecomers like Kropotkin. (Kropotkin, Words of a Rebel). workers which will federate with This development would most like groups in other cities and likely have happened anyway, but In the article he wrote on the villages not through the medium it was the epochal events of the Paris Commune in 1880, Kropot- of a communal parliament but Paris Commune of 1871 that re- kin expands on the concept of the directly, to accomplish their aim”. ally left their mark on the birth of commune as the essential and (Kropotkin, The Paris Commune). anarchist communism as an idea. basic unit of the social revolution, The Paris Commune meant dif- in a characteristically optimistic Anarchist communism developed ferent things to Marx and his fashion: from the workers movement, followers than to the current within the first mass organisa- that had begun to define itself as “The next rising of communes tion of the working class, the First anarchist. To the first current it will not be merely a "communal" International or International meant the worker’s state and the movement. Those who still think Workers Association. It had its dictatorship of the proletariat. To that independent, local self-gov- roots in the communist current the latter it meant free federation erning bodies must be first estab- that had developed during the of a system of communes and the lished and that these must try to French Revolution, with Babeuf abolition of State and Govern- make economic reforms within and Sylvain Marechal, and then ment. Kropotkin was well aware their own localities are being car- with the communist banquets of of the shortcomings of the Paris ried along by the further develop- Belleville, a working class neigh- Commune, writing: ment of the popular spirit, at least bourhood of Paris in 1840, and in France. The communes of the then with Cabet and Wilhelm “The Commune of 1871 could not next revolution will proclaim and Weitling. In cross-pollination be any more than a first sketch. establish their independence by with the libertarian current that Born at the end of a war, sur- direct socialist revolutionary ac- emerged among the most ad- rounded by two armies ready tion, abolishing private property. vanced French workers in the to give a hand in crushing the When the revolutionary situation First International, themselves in people, it dared not declare itself ripens, which may happen any contact with the Russian Bakunin openly socialist and proceeded day, and governments are swept who had developed similar ideas neither to the expropriation of away by the people, when the to them, it mutated into the idea capital nor to the organization of bourgeois camp, which only exists 28 Organise! by state protection, is thus thrown Paul Brousse had dwelt on the Bakunin who in his writing on into disorder, the insurgent people ideas of the Commune as the the Paris Commune proclaimed: will not wait until some new gov- essential unit of the revolution in “I believe that equality must be ernment decrees, in its marvellous an earlier number of articles in established in the world by the wisdom, a few economic reforms. 1873, called Le Socialisme Pra- spontaneous organisation of la- tique (Practical Socialism). He saw bour and the collective ownership They will not wait to expropriate the Commune as the “vehicle of of property by freely organised the holders of social capital by a revolution”. The Commune, of producers’ associations and by decree, which necessarily would course, was already the basic unit the equally spontaneous federa- remain a dead letter if not ac- of French governmental adminis- tion of communes, to replace the complished in fact by the workers tration but increasingly became domineering paternalistic State.” Thus, whilst the organisation of workers within the workplaces always remained a major concern of the anarchists, certainly from it developing as a current within the First International and carry- ing on with the establishment of libertarian workers’ organisation in Spain and other countries as a direct consequence of develop- ments within the International, the idea of the Commune as the revolutionary vehicle was the cen- tral concern of those anarchists. This communal idea was seen as the most viable way of organis- ing the whole of the oppressed and not just in the workplaces. It would be the means of ex- pression of the mass of the oppressed, whether workers in large or small factories, women, the unemployed, the youth, the themselves. They will take pos- to be used in a different sense old, and it would as be as effica- session on the spot and establish by anarchists. So the Communes cious in the countryside among their rights by utilising it without on a local level would be seized the peasantry and the agrarian delay. They will organise them- through revolution involving the workers as it would be among the selves in the workshops to con- majority of the working class, ac- urban masses. The organisation tinue the work, but what they will cording to Brousse. “The autono- of workers in the workplace was produce will be what is wanted mous Commune, there you have seen as an extremely valuable by the masses, not what gives the the means, but not the ends”, adjunct to that, but it was not as highest profit to employers. They that being a far sweeping revolu- yet seen as a substitute for the will exchange their hovels for tion. At the annual Congress of idea of the Commune. The idea healthy dwellings in the houses of the Jura Federation in 1875, the of the Commune meant obviously the rich; they will organize them- anarchist Schwitzguelbel ad- a communal organisation of life selves to turn to immediate use vanced the idea of the Federation which would unite the interests the wealth stored up in the towns; of Communes, contrasting it with of the mass of the working class, they will take possession of it as the idea of the workers’ State. not just those sections actu- if it had never been stolen from With these ideas Brousse, Schwit- ally employed in factories and them by the bourgeoisie”. zguebel and Kropotkin were workshops. In his Ideas on Social expanding on the statement of Organisation written in 1876, the Organise! 29 close friend of Bakunin, James enumerated.” This created isolation from the Guillaume expanded on the mass of the working class (though nature of communal organisation Whilst the idea of anarchist it should be emphasised that the in both countryside and city. The communism and the Federation bulk of the anarchist movement idea of the Commune met with of Communes as the principal at that time was composed of approval at the 1880 congress of revolutionary vehicle remained advanced workers). Thus Kropot- the Jura Federation, which draft- central to anarchist ideas in the kin could say in 1880: “Perma- ed a statement including the fol- 1880s, in other ways the anarchist nent revolt in speech, writing, lowing: “The ideas set out regard- movement made a number of by the dagger and the gun, or by ing the Commune are open to the serious mistakes, not least those dynamite…anything suits us that interpretation that it is a matter originally advanced by those like is alien to legality”, although he of replacing the current form of Kropotkin and others from the always dissociated himself from State with a more restricted form, days of the First International. the extremely narrow definition to wit, the Commune. We seek These erroneous ideas were en- by Brousse of the idea of propa- the elimination of every form of gendered by the following ganda by the deed as defined as State, general or restricted, and individual acts of terrorism. In the Commune is, as far as we are 1. The climate of repression reign- addition he is referring not just to concerned, only the synthetic ing throughout Europe and the the conditions prevailing in West- expression of the organic form of ern Europe but those within the free human associations.” autocratic regime of Tsarist Russia 2. The bullying tactics used by so- where different tactics might be In another document drafted at cial democrats like Jaures, Hynd- called for. Whatever, in the long the same congress the functions man, Millerand, Bebel, Liebknecht run these concepts brought down of the Commune were defined: and Eleanor Marx to physically further repression on the anar- exclude anarchists and libertar- chist movement, with the execu- “What are to be the powers of ian socialists from the Socialist tion and imprisonment and exile the Commune? Upkeep of all Congresses of the 1880s. of many of the most courageous social wealth; monitoring usage militants. Kropotkin was able to of various capital elements-sub- 3. An increasingly narrow inter- see the dead end of isolation soil, land, buildings, tools and raw pretation of the idea and tactic of that the anarchist movement was materials- by the trades bodies; Propaganda by the Deed. Origi- marching into and had the pres- oversight of labour organisation, nally used to mean exemplary ence of mind to make various insofar as general interests are action by a small group of revo- corrective statements. concerned; organising exchange lutionaries to illustrate tactics of and, eventually, distribution direct action and/or spark revolu- Kropotkin was to pen a series of and consumption of products; tionary movements in a situation articles in 1890 where he stated maintenance of highways, build- that was ripe for revolution (as “that one must be with the peo- ings, thoroughfares and public seen by anarchists in southern ple, who no longer want isolated gardens; organising insurance Italy for example), it soon came acts, but want men (sic) of action against all accidents; health to mean attentats and assassina- inside their ranks”. He cautioned service; security service; local tions of individual members of against “the illusion that one can statistics; organising the main- the ruling classes, whether they defeat the coalition of exploiters tenance , training and education be from the monarchy or from with a few pounds of explosives” of children; sponsoring the arts, government and proposed a turn to agitation sciences, discoveries and appli- in mass movements. cations. We also want this local 4. A move away from the organi- life in these different spheres of sation developed in the Interna- It was in response, on the one activity to be free, like the organi- tional towards small and some- hand, to the trade unions under sation of a trade; free organisa- times secret groups organised the tutelage of parliamentarian tion of individuals, groups and through affinity of friendship and and legalistic social democratic neighbourhoods alike, to meet political conviction. parties, and on the other to the the various local services we have small anarchist 30 Organise! prone to attentats that a new ing free society. Indeed, it can be that the next revolutions will be tendency arose within the anar- seen that it became a key plank made. It is also in the independ- chist movement. This was anar- in the programme of the German ent communes that socialist cho-syndicalism, as pioneered by anarcho-syndicalist Freie Arbeiter tendencies are inevitably going French activists like Pelloutier and Union Deutschland (FAUD) as a to appear. It is there that the first Monatte. substitute for insurrection and outlines of the new society will be armed revolution and as a direct sketched out…” Kropotkin himself pointed out result of the defeat of the Ger- that the strategy of agitating man Revolution of 1918. In fact, At the international anarchist among associations of workers a specifically pacifist discourse congress of 1907 in Amsterdam, based in the workplace went around the idea of the General Pierre Monatte argued that syndi- back to some of the tactics used Strike was pushed by the main calism was “sufficient unto itself”. by Bakuninists within the First leading lights within the FAUD like Malatesta responded that whilst international, in Switzerland, Italy Rocker, although it had its internal he had always been involved with and Spain, and traced the birth of opponents like Karl Roche and working class politics such strug- French anarcho-syndicalism back among the youth, who refused gles were a means to an end, and to Bakuninist tactics. to reject the use of revolutionary that to see the as violence. a “panacea for all ills” was “pure Anarcho-syndicalist unions were utopia”. Malatesta agreed that seen as operating in two ways, on Thus, to a lesser or greater extent the anarchist movement had, in one hand defending the interests within the different anarcho- the decade of the 1880s, isolated of the workers in the here and syndicalist organisations, and itself from the working class now, through fighting for better according to local conditions, the movement, but now it was going pay and conditions, and on the General Strike came to be seen to another extreme and losing other hand providing the organi- as a substitute for insurrection itself in a syndicalist movement sation for a coming free society. and head on conflict with the open to reformism, bureaucratisa- As one of the chief propagandists State, whereas the idea of the tion and opportunism. Malatesta of anarcho-syndicalism, Rudolf Commune was always intimately attacked the idea of the General Rocker, put it: “According to the associated with revolutionary Strike in these terms: syndicalist view, the trade un- upheaval. ion, the syndicate, is the unified “Now, let us move on to the organisation of labour and has Kropotkin, Malatesta and other general strike. As far as I am con- for its purpose the defence of the veterans of the anarchist move- cerned, I accept the principle and interests of the producers within ment recognized the potential promote it as much as I can, and existing society and the prepar- of anarcho-syndicalist unions in have done so for several years. ing for and the practical carrying organising workers and in seiz- The general strike has always out of the reconstruction of social ing the means of production. On struck me as an excellent means life after the pattern of socialism” the other hand they were wary to set off the social revolution. (Program of Anarcho-Syndical- about the dangers of reformism However, let us take care to avoid ism). within the syndicalist movement. falling under the dangerous illu- Kropotkin recognised that: “Since sion that the general strike can One of the key concepts of the great struggle for which we make the revolution superfluous. anarcho-syndicalism, apart from prepare ourselves, is an essential- We are expected to believe that anti-parliamentarism and direct ly economic struggle, it is on the by suddenly halting production action, was the General Strike. economic ground that our agita- the workers will starve the bour- This moved from being one tion has to take place”. However geoisie into submission within a weapon among several that the whilst welcoming such organisa- few days. Personally speaking, I working class could use both in tion he put equal emphasis on the can think of nothing more absurd. everyday struggle and in times idea of the Commune. Saying “It The first to starve to death dur- of revolutionary upheaval, to the is necessarily under the banner of ing a general strike will not be main means of bringing about the the independence of the munici- the bourgeoisie who have all the social revolution and the ensu- pal and agricultural communes accumulated produce at their dis- Organise! 31 posal, but the workers, who only nent. Syndicalism, to the extent a time when clarity of thought is have their labour to live on. that it narrowed this broader what was needed in reconstruct- outlook by singling out the prole- ing a serious revolutionary anar- “The general strike as it is de- tariat and its industrial environ- chist politics, Bookchin’s powers scribed to us is a pure utopia. ment as its locus, also crucially of reason failed. His adventures Either the workers, starving after narrowed the more sweeping with libertarian municipalism, three days of striking, will go back social and moral landscape that and then his renunciation of to work with his tail between traditional anarchism had cre- anarchism and his adoption of his legs and we add yet another ated. In large part this ideological “” tells against him defeat to the list, or he will decide retreat reflected the rise of the on this score. Bookchin is cor- to take the products into his own factory system in the closing years rect in his understanding of the hands by force. And who will try of the last century in France and to stop him? Soldiers, gendarmes, Spain, but it also echoed the as- the bourgeoisie itself, and the cendancy of a particularly vulgar whole matter will be necessarily form of economistic decided with rifles and bombs. It (Marx, to his credit, did not place will be an insurrection and victory much stock in trade unionism), will lie with the strongest. to which many naive anarchists “So then, let us prepare for this and non-political trade unionists inevitable insurrection instead of succumbed. After the Revolution limiting ourselves to exalting the by Abad de Santillan, one of the general strike as if it were a pana- movers and shakers of Spanish cea for all evils.” anarcho-syndicalism, reflects this shift toward a pragmatic econo- Jean Grave was to add that “syn- mism in such a way that makes dicalism can- and must –be self- his views almost indistinguish- sufficient in its struggle against able from those of the Spanish exploitation by the employers, socialists - and, of course, that but it cannot pretend to be able brought him into collusion with to solve the social problem by the Catalan government, liter- itself”. ally one of the grave-diggers of de-emphasising of the idea of the Spanish anarchism.” (Deep Ecol- Commune, but on much else he is Murray Bookchin had deeply ogy, Anarcho-Syndicalism and the off the mark. One of his more lu- flawed criticisms of anarcho-syn- future of Anarchist Thought). cid works, The Spanish Anarchists dicalism, in the way he interpret- 1868-1936, deals with greater ed the proletariat in a narrow way Bookchin goes on to make the precision on syndicalism: as the industrial working class. sweeping and ludicrous state- He often hurled the accusation ment that “Syndicalism - be it “Syndicalism, to be sure, has of “vulgar Marxism “at his oppo- anarcho-syndicalism or its less many shortcomings, but its nents, when he was just as guilty libertarian variants - has prob- Marxian critics were no position of that offence in his understand- ably done more to denature the to point them out because they ing of what constitutes the pro- ethical content of anarchism than were shared by Socialist parties letariat. However sometimes his any other single factor in the as well. In modelling themselves salvos hit home as can partially be history of the movement, apart structurally on the bourgeois seen in the following: from anarchism's largely mar- economy, the syndicalist unions ginal and ineffectual individualist tended to become the organisa- “The authentic locus of anarchists tendencies.” Bookchin’s lack of tional counterparts of the very in the past was the commune judgement in conflating the class centralized apparatus they pro- or municipality, not the factory, struggle anarchist politics of anar- fessed to oppose. By pleading the which was generally conceived as cho-syndicalism with the deeply need to deal effectively with the only part of a broader communal destructive individualist anarchist tightly knit bourgeoisie and state structure, not its decisive compo- current does him no favours. At machinery, reformist leaders in 32 Organise! syndicalist unions often had little sort, but most, understandably, ally challenging and supplanting difficulty in shifting organisational can't see any alternative. They the capitalist political institutions. control from the bottom to the know the system screws them Being facebook, this can be done top. Many older anarchists were every which way. Hence the internationally and take on its mindful of these dangers and felt danger of over-focusing on elec- own momentum.” uncomfortable with syndicalist toral politics is you come across doctrines. Errico Malatesta, fear- as another group of wannabe's It can be also seen in the recent ing the emergence of a bureau- wanting power. In this pursuit of meetings where Occupy London, cracy in the new union move- votes the temptation will be to International Organization for a ment, warned that “the official is moderate the message because Participatory Society, Anti-Cap- to the working class a danger only of a hostile media, falling into the italist initiative and various an- comparable to that provided by Syriza trap of looking to be a cred- archists in the London area held the parliamentarian; both lead to ible government presiding over “cross-movement” assemblies: corruption and from corruption to a less harsh form of capitalism death is but a short step”. These - a bit of nationalisation here & “The people’s assembly model for Anarchists saw in syndicalism a there, a bit of redistribution, but organising and decision making shift in focus from the commune still capitalism. was discussed. Most participants to the trade union, from all of the felt that the people’s assembly oppressed to the industrial prole- “What is needed is to present an model could help to facilitate tariat alone, from the streets to alternative system rather than new forms of social relations the factories and, in emphasis at an alternative party. That means and organising. But it was also least, from insurrection to general building an alternative system pointed out that assemblies may strike.” now. Not vote for us who believe not always be appropriate, for in an alternative system and when example when working in com- So what of the idea of the Com- we get power, then we'll give it munities with already established mune in the present period? to you. Building an alternative processes of their own. Here, Anarchist Communism was the system now is like the Occupy some thought, perhaps introduc- principal current within anar- movement, or the structure of the ing participatory / horizontal chism between 1880 and 1920, IOPS website. It is direct democ- processes gradually into already and it remained so beyond that racy now. Giving people an equal existing community forums may period in places like Bulgaria and say in decision-making now. Not be a more conducive way of en- Japan. The post-war revival of an- another group of politicians, how- gaging practically and effectively archism involved a resurrection of ever well intentioned, separated in grassroots struggles, without anarchist communist ideas, and of from the people. fetishising certain methods of course it has been an advocate of coming to decisions. the Idea of the Commune in the “We can do this through face- last few decades. book. Already the Commune has “This led to participants ques- local Commune groups, not just in tioning what practical outcomes It seems that over the last year Britain but also in places like Cai- could emerge from the “Becom- or so, the Idea of the Commune ro. These can be opened up to all ing Catalysts” assemblies’ space. is being taken up by other groups who want the common ownership After several proposals and much and currents. We can see this of the means of production rather deliberation, we reached strong in the recent statements of The than the private ownership. The agreement that the “Becoming Commune group, where they say embryonic 21st century on-line Catalysts” assemblies had the on their Facebook page: Soviets, or councils, or assemblies, potential to bring different groups or whatever people want to call together, share information on “The case for local communes: them. We've gone for the name lessons learned and organise sup- The focus shouldn't just be on a communes after the Paris Com- port for local action, among other 'Party' and electoral politics. Vast mune of 1871. The hope is that things.” numbers of people instinctively as they attract enough people know that so-called 'representa- they meet regularly and become a Of course all of these develop- tive' democracy is nothing of the parallel system of power eventu- ments involve consciously po- Organise! 33 litical groupings and there are The opportunity could exist for In this time of greyness and me- problems with the politics of local assemblies, Communes, call dia-peddled notions that nothing some of those involved. A num- them what you will, to develop in can be done to counter austerity, ber of grouplets meeting together this time of increasing austerity any developments towards direct is of little value unless real social and cuts. The danger always exists decision making and attempts movements and struggles can for sabotage or cooption by the at new forms of organisation on be related to. In this respect the Labour Party or by various van- the communal model should be developments in Barnet over the guardist groups, but the strength encouraged. As anarchist com- last year are interesting. Here of a movement can be gauged by munists we should engage in any locally based people fighting cuts how strenuously such moves are such processes and not be afraid built an effective alliance with resisted. The much advertised to engage with, cooperate and activists from Occupy and others, Peoples’ Assembly, with a leader- indeed debate with other cur- using tactics of direct action. The ship of Labour and Green Party rents and tendencies within what local campaign rightly sees that MPs, trade union bureaucrats and could be embryos of new forms the privatisation being pushed leftist celebrities, backed by the of social organisation. through by the Council, the at- likes of vanguardist outfits like the tack on the NHS, the setting up of Coalition of Resistance etc, which academies and free schools, and holds a rally this summer, is a the attacks on postal workers and graphic example of what must be fire stations are interlinked. avoided at all costs. Review: Platformism in Latin America: The Uruguayan Example The Federacion Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU): crisis, armed struggle and dictatorship, 1967-1985. Texts by Juan Carlos Mechoso, Jaime Prieto, Hugo Cores and others translated and edited by Paul Sharkey. 50 pages. Kate Sharpley Library. £3.00 The forerunner to the Anarchist current of Platformism within was an attempt to understand Federation - The Libertarian Com- international anarchism is based why the Russian and Ukrainian munist Discussion Group-was on The Organisational Platform of anarchist movements met with founded in 1985-6 in an attempt the Libertarian Communists. The failure in the Russian Revolu- to renew the short lived tradition 1926 text drafted by Russian and tion of 1917. For us three main of Platformism that had devel- Ukrainian and Polish anarchists theses developed in the Platform oped in Britain in the early 1970s – the Organisation of Revolution- ary Anarchists, succeeded by the Anarchist Workers Association and then the Libertarian Com- munist Group and the Anarchist Communist Association. The evolution of the LCDG into the Anarchist Communist Federa- tion, which then became today’s Anarchist Federation, involved a critique of Platformism. The 34 Organise! and supported by Platformism a whole raft of legislation was freeze was introduced. The Army remain relevant for the Anarchist introduced in the mid 1910s. He broke strikes, and emergency Federation of today. They can be separated Church from State, laws were introduced. The excuse summed up as Federalism, Col- banned crucifixes in hospitals, for this was the supposed threat lective Responsibility and Tacti- removed references to God and from the leftist guerillas of the Tu- cal and Theoretical Unity. These the Bible from public oaths, gave pamaros but in reality to repress should be seen as the building widespread rights to unions and the agitation in the workplaces. blocks of a specific anarchist com- political parties and organisa- The FAU was set up in 1956. munist organisation, something tions, brought in the eight hour Militants within it like Juan Carlos else that was insisted upon by day and universal suffrage, intro- Mechoso began to agitate for the the Platform. However the Anar- duced unemployment benefits, creation of a specific anarchist chist Federation was clear that its legalised divorce, created more organization, as opposed to the political positions could not be high schools, promised and prac- anarcho-syndicalists who thought solely based on insights gained ticed no residency laws against that work in the unions was in the 1920s. In tandem with this exiled anarchists and other enough to bring out radical social was awareness of the need to in- radicals, opened universities to change. At first the FAU had been corporate other theoretical gains women, led a campaign to take an alliance of different anarchist and innovations developed in the away the control of industry and currents; from the anarcho- decades since 1926. In addition syndicalists through to those who the AF was critical of the practice believed in setting up anarchist and theoretical evolution of at communities in the here and now least some of the groups and or- and traditional anarchist com- ganisations that were or are part munists on to the group around of the actually existing Platformist Mechoso, Gerardo Gatti and Leon current. Duarte.

The Uruguayan experience Controversy had already arisen documented in this pamphlet in the international movement illustrates the trajectory that over the increasingly reformist one such Platformist group took. ideas of Rudolf Rocker. One of the The longest existing and perhaps pioneers of anarcho-syndicalism, strongest Platformist organisation he had taken a principled stand in Latin America is the Federacion against the First World War and Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU) of was interned in England as a Uruguay. This pamphlet describes result. However by 1945, af- a key period in its existence; one land from foreign capitalists (the ter his support for the Allies in that was marked by the death of a British capitalists had huge influ- WW2, Rocker began to reject large number of its militants, shot ence in Uruguay) and nationalised class-based notions of anarchism, down or tortured to death by the private monopolies. This disori- moving in an increasingly liberal dictatorship that had emerged ented some elements within the direction. In this he had the sup- in Uruguay. Just as important, fairly strong anarchist movement port of other German anarchists it sketches out the direction in Uruguay. like Augustin Souchy and ele- that the FAU took in its accom- ments within the Spanish CNT modation to Stalinism, towards Between 1948 and 1954 the in exile like Abad de Santillan. the politics of a broad front and working class in Uruguay was Nevertheless it was people like indeed to the development of a comparatively well off, with good Souchy who adopted a critical ap- political party. conditions and pay, in a country proach to the Cuban Revolution, presided over by a ruling class along with the Cuban anarchists Unlike other countries in South with a liberal outlook. This all themselves, who directly experi- America, Uruguay was known as changed between 1955 and 1959, enced repression from the Castro a stronghold of bourgeois democ- with an increasing cost of living. regime. Within the FAU itself, racy and social reform. Under Inflation began to rise sharply and there was intense debate over the its President Battle y Ordonez, strike waves broke out; a wage Castro regime between 1961 and Organise! 35

1965, with Mechoso, Gatti and fight against the Tupamaros. groups influenced by Castroism. co. supporting the Cuban regime. In 1973 political parties were FAU/OPR-33 lost a large number This led to a split in the FAU in banned, congress was closed of militants. At the same time late 1963 with the Gatti/Duarte/ down, public meetings were Gatti had pioneered the setting Mechoso faction retaining the banned and constitutional rights up of the People’s Victory Party FAU name and symbols, affirm- were suspended. The employers (PVP) whilst in exile in Buenos ing the class struggle nature of dropped their liberal outlook and Aires in 1975, along with Ruben anarchism but also giving critical banned the National Workers’ Prieto, Pablo Anzalone and oth- support to Cuba. The FAU now Convention (CNT), which federat- ers. The PVP was a heterodox began to incorporate elements ed many unions, when it called a mixture of anarchism and Castro- from different currents of Marx- general strike. Wages were driven ism/Guevarism. ism, calling for a synthesis be- down by 35% and inflation rose tween Marxism and anarchism, by 80%. The deaths of Gatti and co accel- whilst referring to Poulantzas and There was an increasing spiral of erated the move of the PVP away Althusser and later Gramsci. It in- repression and counter-attack by from anarchism. It participated in creasingly broke with the anar- the FAU/OPR-33 and many mili- the creation of the Broad Font- cho-syndicalists by moving from tants lost their lives in gun battles. Frente Amplio – a coalition of the need for a specific anarchist By 1974 the US security forces over a dozen political groupings organization, to talk of a Party. It launched in as well as unions and community set up the Student-Worker Resist- collaboration with the dictator- groups and in 1980 began to take ance (ROE), which was meant to ships now reigning in , part in its electoral activities. To- be a broad class struggle front Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay. Uru- day it is just another leftist parlia- and began to seek out alliances guayan and Argentinian security mentarian party. with the Tupamaros and other forces worked in tandem to kid- leftists. As a result many stu- nap FAU militants and many were What was left of the FAU re- dents influenced by ‘revolution- imprisoned in a torture camp, established its structures in 1986 ary Marxism’ began to join the where after many months of ter- after the fall of the dictatorship. ROE, accelerating the move away rible agonies, they were mur- It remains active in work in the from anarchism. The writings of dered. Gatti, Duarte and Alberto unions and the neighbourhoods. Che Guevara became popular Mechoso (Juan Carlos’s brother) As one French observer noted: and influential within this broad were among those murdered. “The FAU, like a number of other movement. The FAU established OPR-33 was seen as to be firmly organisations, fell headlong into its own armed wing, OPR-33, in under the control of the FAU the political cracks opened up by the late 1960s. and was meant to relate its ac- the Cuban revolution and backed tions to the workers movement it for years, even if it had become Juan María Bordaberry came to in Uruguay itself. However, in plain that that revolution was power in 1971 and gave increas- the final analysis its actions had turning into a bureaucratic dic- ing powers to the Army in the the same effect as those armed tatorship and even after Cuban 36 Organise! anarchists had been rounded up develop within the international and executed…The FAU eventu- anarcho-syndicalist movement in These questions need to be ally distanced itself from that the post-World War Two situa- looked at, examined, considered betrayed revolution and withdrew tion? and debated in the present pe- its support from it, though it does riod. We need to learn from our not appear to mean that it is 2. Why has Platformism as a mistakes, learn from them in a co- prepared to risk blunt criticism of current been prone to moving herent way and incorporate them the current Cuban regime”. This towards leftism? (uncritical sup- into a theory and practice that is observer notes a sympathy from port for Castroism, evolving into informed by an analysis strength- the leftist FARC guerillas in Co- silence on the Cuban situation ened by a satisfactory answer lombia and the Guevarist MRTA in and unwillingness to openly at- to these questions. We need to Peru, putting the anti-imperialism tack the regime there, support for strive for unity of all the libertari- of the FAU down as underpin- fronts with leftists like the ROE) an forces, recognising our similari- ning this sympathy “which is very ties and fighting for collective and probably bound up with a lack of 3. Why has Platformism been unitary practice at both an inter- critical information about such prone to a temptation towards national and regional level. At the authoritarian movements”. the development of political par- same time we have to recognise ties and towards electoralism? our differences and encourage a The pamphlet raises a number of (The PVP in Uruguay, the electoral debate that can overcome these key questions adventure of the Federation Com- differences if possible. muniste Libertaire of France in 1. Why did a reformist current 1956 etc) Anarchism in Latin America The following is an adaptation of 3) Its reflux and its virtual disap- pelletti in 1990, for the anthology a the text of a presentation given pearance from the 1930s to the Anarchism in Latin America. by Nelson Mendez, member of early 1990s. European origins and roots the editorial collective of El Lib- During the 1870s and the 1880s, ertario, an anarchist paper and 4) From the end of the 20th whilst the Anti-Authoritarian group in Venezuela, at the Inter- century to the 21st century: hope International was being born, an- national Anarchist Congress at for a resurgence, faced with the archism arrived in Latin America St Imier in Switzerland in August challenges of new realities and and gradually adapted and took 2012 the test of the potential of the root in this new reality. We must libertarian idea. first of all bear in mind how large I'll try to give here, a comprehen- sectors of the oppressed identi- sive introduction to the history, This timeline does not seek to fied the libertarian positions with characteristics and prospects of establish the exact sequence of egalitarian and collectivist tradi- anarchism on our continent. For what happened in our countries, tions which, for many indigenous this, I will consider four historical because circumstances were dif- peoples, Aztec or Inca, were pre- moments: ferent in each of them. For this sent before European imperialism reason, the perspective must be and who for people of African 1) The 19th century: its European adjusted to each specific context. descent were present before their origins and its implantation in enslavement. Latin America A major obstacle to the knowl- The effort towards the "acclima- edge of anarchism on the con- tisation" of anarchism occurred 2) The first third of the 20th cen- tinent is the silence imposed by very early. It was reflected in the tury: the rise of anarcho-syndical- the official historians, whether "Escuela del Rayo y el Socialismo" ism and the libertarian presence positivist, liberal or Marxist. in Mexico, Enrique Roig San Mar- in social struggles, political dy- Fortunately, there is a preceding tin and the newspaper Il Produc- namics and cultural and intellec- text of extraordinary value; the tor in Cuba, Manuel González tual scene on the continent. preface entitled "Latin American Prada in Peru and the unrest in Anarchism", written by Angel Cap- the Río de la Plata region, where Organise! 37 Uruguayan and Argentinean sec- Chile and the Anarchist Archives a fourth, which complements tions of the International were of Peru. them. founded with a markedly anar- chist orientation. During the first decades of the 1. The authoritarian wave that 20th century and even before swept through Latin America: Anarcho-syndicalism and liber- there was, in Latin America an Machado and Batista in Cuba, tarian struggles. explosion of experiments, tests Vargas in Brazil, Uriburu in Argen- and proposals to pave the way tina, Terra in Uruguay, et a sinister With the 1900s came the birth for the immediate construction et cetera in other countries. of the FOA and then the FORA in of the free world proposed by Argentina, the FORU in Uruguay, Anarchism: self-managed coop- 2. The foundation of the Com- the Operária Confederação Bra- eratives, solidarity and mutual munist Parties on the continent, sileira, the Federación Regional aid funds, schools freed from and their relative growth (in some Obrera Paraguay; indomitable ecclesiastical and State tutelage, cases at the expense of anar- libertarian union activity in Cuba experiences of community life, chism) had much to do with the and persistent illegal propaganda publishing efforts, non-profit, "revolutionary prestige" of the of the Mexican Liberal Party of independent projects of cultural Soviet Union; which controlled Ricardo Flores Magon to organize creation and dissemination. It is and supported them in their role workers. These were all signs that not surprising that a large num- as the international instruments show how anarcho-syndicalism ber of artists and intellectuals of state policy. converted into the most popular felt attracted to a way of thinking expression (but not the only) of and doing that proposed in lively 3.The emergence of populist anarchist ideas and praxis in Latin manner, breaking the suffocat- nationalist currents (Apra in Peru, America during the first third of ing conservatism that governed PRI in Mexico, Peronism, Acción the last century. society at the time. Democrática in Venezuela, Batl- At the dawn of the 20th century lism1 in Uruguay, etc.) which, All official interpretations from there developed on the continent with the support of emerging the right and the authoritarian an anarchist theory adapted to agents of power, were able to left have ignored, downplayed the specific features of our reality. spread a reformist pro –State and distorted the deep traces of Latin American Anarchism did not vaguely patriotic ideology. anarcho-syndicalism in the social wait for the light to come from history of Latin America. Cap- Europe, it gave new and coherent 4. The defeat of the Spanish Revo- pelletti opposes himself to this answers to questions such as op- lution and its effects in terms of based on documented references pression, racism and brutality suf- crisis and decline for Latin Ameri- for each country, later expanded fered by peasants and indigenous can anarchism. in quantity and quality through peoples; the aggressive advance valuable and profound historical of external imperialist capital- The survival even of groups, surveys. Some examples: Biófilo ism associated with the local publications and anarchist initia- Panclasta El Eterno Prisionero semi-feudal reactionary cultural tives was difficult. Certainly, Latin (1992) by Colectivo Alas de Xue hegemony of the Catholic Church; American anarchism of the late Colombia; El anarquismo in Cuba the exploitation of women. It was 1930s to about 1990 has not dis- (2000) by Frank Fernández; Ma- to make a socio-political move- appeared but in too many places gonismo: Utopia y revolución, ment resolutely rational and it seems to have disappeared 1910-1913 (2005) by Ruben Trejo; modern that anarchism sought to without a trace or survived only Historia do anarquismo do Brasil achieve its objectives. through a few aged spokespeo- (2006-2009), two volumes com- ple of the idea. The arrival of a piled by Rafael Deminicis, Daniel Decline and virtual disappear- large number of Spanish exiles Reis and Carlos Addor; La Chole- ance scattered across Latin America dad antiestatal. El movimiento after 1939 could not change this en el anarcosindicalismo Obrero According to Cappelletti, there trend. To make matters worse, Boliviano (2010) by Huascar Rod- three reasons for the decline of Marxism-Leninism claimed in ríguez; the content of web pages Latin American anarchism from 1961 by the leaders of the insur- of the group JD Gómez Rojas of the 1930s and 1940s. I would add rection that has been called the 38 Organise! Cuban Revolution appeared to of non-hierarchical coordination chism has suffered for not having many as the only way to carry and of action through networks, faced this, we are now stuck with out revolutionary and progressive always anarchist practices. "anarcho-Chavists” in Venezuela; changes in our continent; a faith as if the unfortunate parodies of claimed within branches of radical The past twenty years have seen "anarcho-Peronism" of "anarcho- populist nationalism (e.g. MIR in what I would call at a pinch the Battlisme" in Uruguay, and "anar- Venezuela, Peru and Bolivia) or by return of Latin American anar- cho-Castroism" were not enough. Catholic grassroots , in- chism: the growth of periodical cluding liberation theology, which publications (printed as well I emphasize that which I believe merged seamlessly with Marxism. as virtual); renewed efforts to to be essential for the return of Isolation meant that a part of the distribute libertarian books and Anarchism to be firmly rooted: we anarchist movement turned to an pamphlets, whether classic or must consolidate anarchy as a vi- abstract of nostalgia for a glorious recent; the continuing birth of able and constructive tool for au- past, whilst another part of the collectives and spaces of liber- tonomous social struggles today, movement advocated rapproche- tarian inspiration (even in areas in a revolutionary perspective. ment with Marxism (e.g. refusing with no previous anarchist pres- No doubt the current renaissance to criticize Fidel Castro, assuming ence); many creative expressions in Latin America has its roots in the ambiguous discourse on "na- of cyber activism; the rebirth of processes of mass culture such tional liberation" and / or adopt- anarchist activism, symbols and as punk, in efforts to revitalize an ing Guevarist-militarist myths proposals in the social struggle; audience for libertarian ideas and around the armed struggle). direct and specific interventions in political processes such as the in the most diverse cultural areas, emergence of the neo-Zapatistas Reasons for hope for a revival art, theatre, music, literature and since 1994 and the movement socio-historical thought and re- against globalization after Seattle The Soviet Union's collapse and search. All this somehow evokes in 1999. However, if these pro- failures of authoritarian Marxism the libertarian continental pano- cesses have subsequently been in our countries have furnished rama of a century ago but it lacks able to maintain themselves, it is "politically correct" alibis for all the primacy of approach and of because in many ways, they are in opportunism. With the collapse anarcho-syndicalist action that line with collective demands and of the certainties in force during existed at that time. conflicts. Although they are not as the previous decades, libertarian strong and broad as we would like ideas and practices won a rehear- Present difficulties them to be, these links exist and ing, if not showing an immediate provide opportunities to us that growth. Some external influences It would be a disaster for our would be unforgivable to miss. made themselves felt sometimes, movement if it could not define I share the assertion that anar- when it was clear that in the rest the autonomous course that was chism will be social action or it of the world, it was the libertarian our strength in the past; it must will not be. To associate or subor- camp which provided the revival avoid isolation and not dilute its dinate such action to exemplary of social struggles, collective or- objectives. Since the 1930s and acts, to prophecy, to attempts at ganization to bypass the obsolete 1940s, Latin American anarchism “days of rage” or “free lifestyle” Leninist model, or the defini- faces a challenge: how to oppose is a pretext for isolating oneself tion of revolutionary proposals. the demagogic nationalist pop- in an anarchism turned towards Today, throughout Latin America, ulism, whose varieties in muta- purely intellectual pleasure or a growing number of activists, tion are still dominant players on simply an aesthetic anarchism; it young critics, women, indigenous the political scene? The current would be to condemn our idea to people, students, workers and wave of "progressive govern- sterility and inertia. intellectually curious people are ments" is the new mask of the old coming to anarchism with an enemy, which it is vital to fight by 1. See review here in Organise! of unprecedented interest. Around giving appropriate, practical and Kate Sharpley Library pamphlet 1995-1996, became a means of theoretically coherent responses. on Uruguay. contact, exchange and dissemi- As evidence of the urgency of nation of anarchism as it favours this challenge, the confusion and models of horizontal relations, persistent damage that anar- Organise! 39 Fighting for Ourselves: Anarcho-syndicalism and the class struggle. Solidarity Federation. 2012. 121pp. Since its publication in October of last year, Fighting for Ourselves has been the subject of much discussion and deserved interest in the broad libertarian left. The book constitutes the first major exposition of the political per- spectives of the British section of the International Workers Asso- ciation since Winning the Class War, their previous attempt at providing such an outline in 1991.

The book attempts to give an historical overview of the work- ers’ movement, in what it de- scribes as its ‘mainstream’ and ‘radical’ forms, before describing the phenomenon of 20th Century anarcho-syndicalism through the experience of three unions in Germany, Spain and Argentina. Indeed, the bulk of the book is taken up with history; only the last 17 pages focussing on present day anarcho-syndicalism and spe- cifically the Solidarity Federation’s (SolFed) strategy for moving from being a ‘simple political propagan- da organisation’ to a ‘revolution- Book Reviews ary union’ (p.94). The historical section contains justification for why the SolFed believe that their notion of a difference between Subsequently, the structure which particular version of anarcho-syn- a union as simply an ‘association proceeds from this representa- dicalism has both universal and of workers’, which can take many tive role and which accepts the particular (or local) application. forms, and what they describe as legitimacy of capitalism becomes its ‘representative’ function. They a break on any potential rank and Before considering the histori- argue that these two possible file initiative that should emerge. cal precedents that have helped roles have become merged in the The bureaucratic and class collab- SolFed formulate its present form of mass trade unions, which orationist unions of the TUC are perspectives, the book outlines act as mediators between the the result of this. The alternative its understanding of the nature membership and capital. This, it is offered is a union that maintains of unionism itself, in the chapter argued, has tended to mirror the the associational form but does ‘The Mainstream Workers Move- consciousness of the member- not involve itself in representa- ment’. At the centre of this is the ship, which is not anti-capitalist. tion. In some senses, the SolFed 40 Organise! idea of what constitutes this as- involvement in the labour move- written in a period where large sociational unionism has parallels ment. Although the authors syndicalist unions still played a with the Anarchist Federation’s dismiss this as an attempt to keep significant part in the internation- espousal of Worker’s Resistance the anarchist movement ‘pure’, al labour movement, considered Groups. the international experience of organised intervention in these as those anarchists who do involve the priority for anarchists. The book subsequently deals themselves in the labour move- with ‘radical currents’ within the ment without advocating the Fighting for Ourselves then turns historic workers’ movement that fusion of anarchism and unionism to syndicalism itself, consider- developed differing perspec- suggests their motivation is far ing the first mass ‘revolutionary’ tives to the mainstream (social from a fear of ‘dirty hands’. syndicalist union, the French CGT, democratic or reformist) labour and the Industrial Workers of the organisations: specifically anar- This section also looks at the World (IWW). The formers rapid chism, syndicalism and council growth and the relatively concilia- communism. The discussion of tory approach of the French state anarchism, although relatively and capital in the 1910s are used brief, is interesting and partially as an explanation of its trans- echoes the traditional anarcho- formation, from an ostensibly syndicalist criticisms of those revolutionary union into one that anarchists who questioned the would support the First World fusion of anarchism and syn- War. However, although anar- dicalism (the very meaning of chists and others of the extreme anarcho-syndicalism, of course). left were indeed swamped by Whilst considering the SolFed as the influx of hundreds of thou- within the anarchist or libertar- sands of new members, the call ian communist tradition, Fighting to defend the French nation was for Ourselves sees many faults supported by a majority of the within that tradition. Notable is union’s militants – many anar- a claimed ‘lack of focus primarily Organisational Platform of the chists included. The lesson that on the labour movement’ (p. 31) Libertarian Communists, the sadly the book appears to take from within the early anarchist com- controversial document pub- the experience of the CGT is that munist movement. Presumably, lished in 1926 by exiled Russian its main failure was it ‘apolitical’ this is a comment on the failure and Ukrainian anarchists, which nature, which lead to its rapid of anarchist communists such as argues for a specific anarchist growth and therefore reformism. Kropotkin to abandon the idea communist organisation based on of the commune as the essential theoretical and tactical unity. The From its brief outline of the rise model of revolutionary transfor- Platform informs the practice of and fall of the IWW, it is obvi- mation (see article elsewhere in both ourselves in the Anarchist ous that the SolFed perceive this issue of Organise!) in favour Federation and others in the in- limitations in the tendency of the of the workers’ unions, but as this ternational anarchist movement, ‘Wobblies’ to look to create One is not made explicit we cannot be such as those around the web- Big Union and thereby potentially sure. site/network Anarkismo. Interest- dilute the revolutionary small p ingly, Fighting for Ourselves does politics of its preamble. The IWW Malatesta’s well-known 1907 con- not reject the essential political was (and indeed still is to some flict with the revolutionary syndi- premise of the Platform. This is extent) eclectic in the makeup of calist Monatte is also discussed. certainly a welcome development its rank and file, with Marxists, In this, the former criticised the from SolFed, who have historical- anarchists, syndicalists and others latter’s belief that a politically ly tended to regard Platformism working amongst a membership neutral syndicalism alone could as a form of anarcho-Leninism. that was mostly politically una- bring about social revolution. The authors rather focus on the ligned and attracted to the union Malatesta also argued against es- attitude of the Platform to syn- through its inclusive solidarity and tablishing purely anarchist unions dicalism. The Platform did not effectiveness. However, it is also but for the necessity of anarchist reject anarchist unions per se but, obvious that SolFed are influ- Organise! 41 enced by the Solidarity and Direct the anarcho-syndicalist union is learn from and perhaps adapt Unionism of the present day IWW permanent and engages in work- to contemporary circumstanc- in the United States and Canada, place activity beyond the dissemi- es. Certainly the three unions which we shall look at later. nation of propaganda, whereas demonstrate definite diversity Council Communist ‘unions’, of amongst historical anarcho-syndi- If Fighting for Ourselves pleasant- the 1920s and early 1930s, saw calists. ly surprises on the Platform, then themselves as essentially tempo- its engagement with the experi- rary formations, bringing together The FORA was essentially a mi- ence of is convinced communists in work- nority (though still mass) union revelatory. It is stated that Council places for educational and propa- of ideologically committed anti- Communism – a form of anti-Len- ganda purposes. industrialist anarchist commu- inist Marxism that emerged from nists engaged in a brutal struggle the revolutionary upheavals in Finally in the historical section, against semi-feudal bosses. The Germany in the period 1918-1923 the authors look at three anar- FAUD had been formed dur- cho-syndicalist antecedents they

– arrived at ‘some similar political consider of particular importance ing the German revolution and and organisational conclusions to the development of their own constituted a small but vibrant to anarchism and syndicalism’ vision of a ‘unitary’ or ‘political- part of both the libertarian left (p.45), and empathy is expressed economic’ unionism: the Regional and the broader radical labour for the tendency within Coun- Workers Federation of Argentina movement. The authors suggest cil Communism that favoured (FORA); the Free Workers Union that FAUD was greatly sustained a ‘unitary’ workers’ association of Germany (the FAUD) and the during the decade following the that dispensed with any separate National Confederation of Labour final defeat of the German revo- political organisation. However, of Spain (CNT). Whilst the authors lution through its cultural and whilst this seems to echo the state that they cannot ‘pluck’ any political work, which if anything anarcho-syndicalist idea of creat- of those unions from history as a they underplay – as the union ing political-economic unions, the ‘ready-made blueprint’, they do declined as an economic organi- essential difference that Fight- see them providing models that sation it actually grew as a work- ing for Ourselves claims is that modern anarcho-syndicalists can ers’ cultural-educational-social 42 Organise! association – until its destruction of relative social and industrial With their argument that at- under the Nazi regime. peace, broken internationally by tempts to transform the existing the May 1968 events in France trade unions into revolutionary Finally they turn to the most and the Hot Autumn of work- workers organisations are a waste legendary of anarcho-syndicalist ers struggles in Italy the follow- of time and energy, we are in full unions: the CNT, which the au- ing year. At home, the Winter of agreement. Neither organisation thors describe as a ‘contradictory Discontent is seen as the turning will be spending any time captur- amalgamation of syndicalist union point where capitalism began to ing leadership positions in the and anarchist organisation’ (p. shed the niceties of social part- TUC unions or attempting to build 55) – a situation which they argue nership with the trade unions and reform caucuses when we could led to the eventual compromises neoliberalism began to massively be building rank and file confi- the union made with the bour- restructure whilst launching wave dence and autonomy. geois state under the Popular Front in 1936. They suggest that The Anarchist Federation believes the union was simultaneously that building a political organisa- not syndicalist enough (i.e. not tion of anarchists is one of our preventing a bureaucracy) and central tasks; one that is active in not anarchist enough (i.e. failing all spheres of working class life, to ‘smash the state’ when it had including the cultural and social, the opportunity in Catalonia). as well as ‘economic’. However, This is certainly a controversial it is obvious that this is also what interpretation. SolFed have themselves built, albeit with the desire to become So what does the history lesson something else. It is hard indeed, in anarcho-syndicalism bring to not to regard our SolFed com- the theory and practice of the rades as anarchist communists in Solidarity Federation? This is after wave of assaults on working their working clothes. Whether not made very explicit but it can class living standards, which have they continue as a political -or be guessed at: From the FOR A, only intensified in the period of ganisation or transform into the they seem to take the idea that recession since 2008. political-economic association a union committed to an overtly remains to be seen; although we anarchist communist perspective The final chapter, ‘Anarcho- are convinced of their sincerity in can still be a mass organisation syndicalism in the 21st century’, this aim. given the right circumstances. attempts to put forward SolFed’s From the FAUD, they perhaps vision for the here and now. This Like the SolFed, we also have conclude that a strong cultural- part of the book most closely great reservations about the vari- educational-social role is impor- resembles their Winning the Class ous predominantly Leninist domi- tant, not least because it can War pamphlet. It might be useful nated union rank and files and sustain an organisation through to begin with what the authors left caucuses, and see little point difficult times. From the CNT, they actually reject as ways forward. in putting energy into endless de- suggest that a successful union These include attempts to reform bates with left activists when we requires an organic unification of the existing trade unions; to func- could be talking directly to other the political (anarchism) and the tion as a ‘political organisation of workers. That said, some rank and economic (syndicalism), which anarchists’; involvement in union file initiatives that are not party requires a complete identification rank and file movements; recruit- fronts do have the involvement of of the two. ing workers into the revolution- both SolFed and Anarchist Fed- ary union as a priority; and seeing eration militants (for example the Fighting for Ourselves brings us the anarcho-syndicalist union as Civil Service Rank and File); and up to date with discussion of the a ‘monolithic organisation’. Let’s we should perhaps consider how period from the Second World look at these individually to see we can work together to encour- War to the present, covering where there may be a commonal- age their continued vibrancy and the post-war social democratic ity between SolFed and ourselves. autonomy. settlement and the brief period Organise! 43 Related to this is the continued lutionary union, outside of any the vision of the Solidarity Fed- engagement of SolFed members large scale resurgence of class eration, providing a substantial in the revolutionary unionist/syn- struggle, then its intention not to historical context, with a definite dicalist Industrial Workers of the prioritise recruitment of workers internal consistency. The ques- World, in which many Anarchist into that union begs the question tion now is how this perspective Federation members are also ac- of how far they can go along the will be applied in practice. The tive. The model of unionism in the route from political to political- authors make clear that they see IWW in the UK may at times lean economic association. this as a case of trial and error, more towards the representative and that they are far from even one, but the dominant model SolFed’s acknowledgment that organising workplace branches, remains ‘Solidarity Unionism’ – a not all libertarian (nor indeed, never mind the insurrectionary variety of which, known as Direct working class) activity can take general strike. As the revolution- Unionism, has obviously been an place within the confines of the ary union movement that SolFed influence upon SolFed. anarcho-syndicalist union is wel- want to see emerge remains at come. Although other, broader the speculative stage, it prevents struggles, are mentioned in Fight- them (and us!) from ascertaining The SolFed’s approach of not ing for Ourselves, it is plain that whether their particular model of opening up their Industrial Net- their orientation is essentially non-representative unionism is works to militants unwilling to towards the workplace. Despite realisable. What is certain is that join SolFed itself, which can be that focus of struggle remaining their attempts to put the model seen as an attempt to prevent pivotal, the fight against capital- into practice over the next years the dilution of their politics, is on ism, the state and hierarchy does will be watched with supportive one level understandable. On the not end at the call centre car anticipation. other hand, if the organisation park. is to make the desired transition from propaganda group to revo- Fighting for Ourselves has set out Haymarket Scrapbook. Edited by Franklin Rosemont and David Roediger. 266 pages. Charles H. Kerr Publishing/AK Press. £18.95 In 1886 the Statue of Liberty was erected in New York. In the same year in another great city of the United States, , four anarchists were hanged whilst another cheated the noose by killing himself. These anarchists were not hanged for murder - in which they had had no part whatsoever - but for their devotion to their ideas and their important role in mobilis- ing the working class in Chicago for the fight for the eight hour day and eventually for social rev- olution. The American press in a concerted and united campaign whipped up prejudice against 44 Organise! the anarchists and ghoulishly cemetery in Chicago. and The Man With The Golden gloated over their executions. The book is a revised edition of Arm; members of the Industrial May Day was designated as a the one that appeared in 1986 Workers of the World; as well as holiday for these martyrs and as a to commemorate the centen- socialists, communists and pro- celebration of the struggle of the nial of the judicial murders. gressive reformers. As Ron Sa- working class on an international These editions owe much to the kolsky remarks at the end of the level for emancipation and libera- work of Franklin Rosemont and book; “this roster was not merely tion. his comrade Penelope. As such, a catalogue of politically-correct This book is a lavishly illustrated while this book gives much inclusivity, but a many-headed tribute to these fallen anarchists- space to the martyred anarchists hydra of subversive texts and , , and those of the same beliefs incendiary salvos aimed at the , Adolph Fischer, who sprang to their support, heart of the dominant order”. – and to their like Voltairine de Cleyre, Piotr Franklin Rosemont himself con- comrades- , Samuel Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, and tributed articles on the passion- Fielden, and - Johann Most, it also makes room ate young anarchist Louis Lingg, who spent long years in prison for radical historians like the late on Algren, on the great working as a result of the decisions of the Paul Avrich and Richard Drinnon; class philosopher Dietzgen and an kangaroo court. These last three writers and poets like the great extremely entertaining, eloquent are buried alongside their mur- realist novelist Nelson Algren, and well-informed piece on “The dered brothers in the Waldheim author of A Walk on the Wild Side Image of the Anarchist in Popular Culture”; in which he wrestles the caricature of the bearded, wild-eyed, bomb throwing madman to the ground. Practi- cally the only spoiler in this rich anthology is the limp and woolly foreword by Peter Linebaugh. His ramblings encompass Aneu- rin Bevan, “non-aligned” na- tions, Franz Fanon and Obama in a confection of incoherence only redeemed by his observa- tion: “class consciousness is the knowledge that emancipation is ours. Class struggle is the fight for it, the fight to be a class and then the fight to abolish the class system.” Buried right by the Chicago Martyrs and their memorial are other anarchists like De Cleyre, Goldman, Lucy Parsons, Boris Yelensky, the founder of the original , as well as supporters like Dietzgen. A little further away is the grave of Franklin Rosemont, who died in 2009. He would have been very proud. “Anarchists, as well as all other thinking people, claim that in the present society a great number of people are deprived of a de- cent existence. We demand the Organise! 45 reason will reign supreme. We say that crime will belong to the past and that the misdeeds of erring brothers can be righted by other means than those of today. Most of the crimes of our days are engendered directly by the system of today, the system which creates ignorance and misery”. Michael Schwab “Yet we shouldn’t be sad, nor should we grieve our dead. We should express our respect and vindicate our love for them. If anyone reading this feels tears welling in their eyes, they should listen to the song sung by A. R. reinstallation of the disinherited! government. We anarchists say Parsons, one of our dead, as he Is this a crime? Are we therefore that anarchism will be the natu- approached the scaffold. “Come dangerous criminals, whose lives ral outgrowth of universal co- not to my grave with your mourn- should be taken in the interests operation (communism). We say ings… Cease your sorrowful bell; of the common good society?” that when poverty has vanished I am well!” Ba Jin, one of China’s Adolph Fischer and education is the common foremost novelists, anarchist “Anarchism is order without property of the people, that then Free Society; a German exile in revolutionary Spain. Werner Droescher. Kate Sharpley Library and Aotearoa Workers’ Solidarity movement, 30 pages. £3.00

Werner Droescher was born in revolutionary spirit and organi- Germany in 1911. However, he sation that they decided to go found Spain a far more inviting over to it. Soon he was joined by place than Nazi German and he Greville, who had volunteered gratefully accepted a job in Tossa for the militia, and they fought de Mar as a private tutor to Ger- on the front together. man hoteliers. Here he began an Werner wrote that “experiencing affair with a young English wom- the communal life of the Anar- an, Greville Texidor. Relatively chists, I reached more and more “non-political”, he was swept up the conclusion that a communal in the social revolution in Spain in life free from authoritarian direc- response to the attempted Fran- tion was possible, even if the coist coup. He joined a column group was large”. His admiration of the dissident Marxist party the for anarchist ways of organisa- POUM. One day, whilst visiting tion increasingly grew with each the anarchist Durruti column, he new exposure to them. and other members of the POUM After fighting on the front, militia were so impressed by its Werner and Greville moved to 46 Organise! London where they engaged in has remained unpublished but Cleary offering a sketch of Wer- solidarity work with British anar- will apparently appear soon. ner’s life and a selection of mate- chists in support of the Spanish. They returned to Catalonia where rial from Werner’s unpublished Returning again to Spain, they they lived until 1960. There, they English autobiography which cov- took part in work for the Aid for learned of the death of thousands ers his time in Spain, “The Span- Spain Committee and support for upon thousands of anarchists ish Civil War and the Anarchists” refugees. They became aware of murdered by the Franco regime. and the Aragon Front. It also the sabotage of the Spanish revo- By now a rift appeared in their includes a series of notes that lution by the Communists. relationship and they parted. were published in the Wellington The pair eventually ended up in Greville moved to Australia where University Student newspaper, Sa- England again where they mar- she took her own life in 1962, lient, which summarises a talk he ried, but with the outbreak of the whilst Werner returned to New gave at the Victorian University of World War they were interned as Zealand. He remained attached Wellington for the Anarchist As- enemy aliens. After being re- to anarchist ideas until his death sociation in 1963. leased on appeal, they moved to in 1978. This little pamphlet de- New Zealand. There they raised scribes an episode in the Spanish two children, eventually mov- revolution in Werner’s words, and ing to Australia. Greville wrote a an exciting period in the lives of novel about her experiences as an Greville and Werner. anarchist militia woman, which There is an introduction by Farrell Letters

Dear Organise! ideologue, Franco Berardi, who counterposes action I enjoyed reading your articles on the Occupy move- in “the cybersphere, in the algorithms of financial ment in the winter 2012 issue, especially about how control, in the quantitative analyses that undergird Occupy is influenced by reformist thinkers like Col- trading, and so on”. Yes, and so on. Berardi rejects lins, Korten and Rifkin. However, whilst the article strikes, occupations and demonstrations on one mentions Adbusters as being one of the initiators of hand and on the other “violent riots or bank bomb- the Occupy movement, it failed to go into the actual ings”. He is an advocate of “new forms of exchange: political stand of the Adbusters group. like time banks, new forms of currency, community currency and so on”. Yes, once again and so on. For I am afraid this is all too obvious in their very glossy in the warp and woof of this magazine, like unap- magazine of the same name. In the most recent is- petising raisins and nuts in a Fruit and Nut bar of sue (Jan-Feb 2013), we might get a first impression ethical capitalism, are apologies for the veil as a that they are thoroughly against capitalism. Read- form of liberation, and pretentious tosh like rights ing on, however, we are treated to statements like for inanimate objects –“Rocks, gutter trash, sheep “Can we keep money circulating without derivatives tracks, bottle caps and bacteria”! and usury”; “Construct a global market regime in which the price of every product tells the ecological Yes, Adbusters have been an advocate of capitalism truth”; “Kill off corporations that break the public with a smiling face since its inception. What it now trust”. In other words, some corporations are okay appears to be doing in the aftermath of the col- if they don’t break “the public trust”; it’s fine to lapse of Occupy!, is to become an advocate of the have a market system if it’s ecologically sound; and so-called new forms of exchange, whilst arguing for money is fine if not contaminated by derivatives and quietism and against direct action. As to whether lending. Elsewhere we have suggestions for a “24- other elements that made up the Occupy move- hour stock ownership rule” and that old chestnut “a ment are radicalising or can be radicalised remains a Robin Hood tax on all speculative financial transac- moot question. tions”. R. A. London

In addition we have lengthy quotes from a new Organise! 47 Also available from the Anarchist Federation Pamphlets BEYOND RESISTANCE - A REVOLU- AGAINST NATIONALISM TIONARY MANIFESTO Published September 2009, an analysis of 6th edition, Autumn 2008. The AF’s in-depth nationalism and why anarchist communists analysis of the capitalist world in crisis, are fundamentally against it. Free download. suggestions about what the alternative Printed copies £2.00 +p&p. Anarchist Communist society could be like, Anarchist Communist Editions series ♣ and evaluation of social and organisational ACE#20 forces which play a part in the revolutionary process - £2.00 +p&p. Anarchist Communist Editions series ♣ ACE#11

WORK AND THE FREE INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHIST SOCIETY COMMUNISM

The name says it all. Why work is so ter- This pamphlet is made up of two parts that run rible and why it must be destroyed before it alongside each other. The main text lays out destroys us! - £2.00 +p&p. the fundamental ideas of anarchist commu- Anarchist Communist Editions series ♣ nism. Various boxes throughout the text give ACE#13 examples from history to illustrate the ideas described in the main section. Free download. Printed copies £2.00 +p&p. Anarchist Communist Editions series ♣ ACE#21

RESISTANCE TO NAZISM THE ANARCHIST MOVEMENT IN JAPAN Telling the stories of libertarian groups that were opposing Fascism in Europe before, The fascinating account of Japanese anarchism and into, the 1930s including Edelweiss in the 20th Century, by John Crump. Updated Pirates, FAUD underground, Zazous, 43 with postscript, May 2008 - £2.00 +p&p. group, Arditi del Popolo and dozens of other Anarchist Communist Editions series ♣ Italian groups - £1.50 +p&p. ACE#8 Anarchist Communist Editions series ♣ ACE#16

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1 The Anarchist Federation is an organisation of revolu- not play a part in its overthrow. Trades unions divide the tionary class struggle anarchists. We aim for the abolition working class (between employed and unemployed, trade of all hierarchy, and work for the creation of a world-wide and craft, skilled and unskilled, etc). Even syndicalist un- : anarchist communism. ions are constrained by the fundamental nature of union- ism. The union has to be able to control its membership in 2 Capitalism is based on the exploitation of the working order to make deals with management. Their aim, through class by the ruling class. But inequality and exploitation are negotiation, is to achieve a fairer form of exploitation of also expressed in terms of race, gender, sexuality, health, the workforce. The interests of leaders and representatives ability and age, and in these ways one section of the will always be different from ours. The boss class is our working class oppresses another. This divides us, causing a enemy, and while we must fight for better conditions from lack of class unity in struggle that benefits the ruling class. it, we have to realise that reforms we may achieve today Oppressed groups are strengthened by autonomous action may be taken away tomorrow. Our ultimate aim must be which challenges social and economic power relationships. the complete abolition of . Working within the To achieve our goal we must relinquish power over each unions can never achieve this. However, we do not argue other on a personal as well as a political level. for people to leave unions until they are made irrelevant by the revolutionary event. The union is a common point 3 We believe that fighting systems of oppression that of departure for many workers. Rank and file initiatives divide the working class, such as racism and sexism, is es- may strengthen us in the battle for anarchist communism. sential to class struggle. Anarchist-Communism cannot be What’s important is that we organise ourselves collectively, achieved while these inequalities still exist. In order to be arguing for workers to control struggles themselves. effective in our various struggles against oppression, both within society and within the working class, we at times 8 Genuine liberation can only come about through the need to organise independently as people who are op- revolutionary self activity of the working class on a mass pressed according to gender, sexuality, ethnicity or ability. scale. An anarchist communist society means not only We do this as working class people, as cross-class move- co-operation between equals, but active involvement in ments hide real class differences and achieve little for us. the shaping and creating of that society during and after Full emancipation cannot be achieved without the aboli- the revolution. In times of upheaval and struggle, people tion of capitalism. will need to create their own revolutionary organisations controlled by everyone in them. These autonomous or- 4 We are opposed to the ideology of national liberation ganisations will be outside the control of political parties, movements which claims that there is some common and within them we will learn many important lessons of interest between native bosses and the working class in self-activity. face of foreign domination. We do support working class struggles against racism, genocide, ethnocide and politi- 9 As anarchists we organise in all areas of life to try to cal and economic colonialism. We oppose the creation of advance the revolutionary process. We believe a strong any new ruling class. We reject all forms of nationalism, anarchist organisation is necessary to help us to this end. as this only serves to redefine divisions in the interna- Unlike other so-called socialists or communists we do not tional working class. The working class has no country and want power or control for our organisation. We recognise national boundaries must be eliminated. We seek to build that the revolution can only be carried out directly by the an anarchist international to work with other libertarian working class. However, the revolution must be preceded revolutionaries throughout the world. by organisations able to convince people of the anarchist communist alternative and method. We participate in 5 As well as exploiting and oppressing the majority of peo- struggle as anarchist communists, and organise on a fed- ple, Capitalism threatens the world through war and the erative basis. We reject sectarianism and work for a united destruction of the environment. revolutionary anarchist movement.

6 It is not possible to abolish Capitalism without a revolu- 10 We oppose organised religion and cults and hold to a tion, which will arise out of . The ruling class materialist analysis of capitalist society. We, the working must be completely overthrown to achieve anarchist com- class, can change society through our own efforts. Wor- munism. Because the ruling class will not relinquish power shipping an unprovable spiritual realm, or believing in a without their use of armed force, this revolution will be a religious unity between classes, mystifies or suppresses time of violence as well as liberation. such self-emancipation / liberation. We reject any notion that people can be liberated through some kind of super- 7 Unions by their very nature cannot become vehicles for natural force. We work towards a society where religion is the revolutionary transformation of society. They have to no longer relevant. be accepted by capitalism in order to function and so can-