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from Workers Solidarity No 34
paper of the Irish anarchist
Workers Solidarity Movement
Anarchist organisation
One of the greatest myths that has been fostered about
anarchists is that they are disorganised. Since the
anarchist movement first emerged in the International
Working Mens' Association in the 1870's it has
developed many trends. Each with its own method of
organisation.
>From the mass unions of the anarcho-syndicalists which today
include important unions like the General Workers
Confederation (CGT) and the National Confederation of Workers
(CNT-AIT) in Spain and the Central Organisation of Swedish
Workers (SAC) to the anarcho-communists in tighter, more
closely knit organisations.
In Ireland, the Workers Solidarity Movement is an anarcho--
communist organisation. The structure our organisation is
based on the way we would like to see society structured, and
the structure of any organisation reflects the politics that that
organisation holds.
Firstly democracy. Any anarchist organisation must be based on
the principle of true workers' democracy. The WSM is a
platformist organisation.
WHAT IS THE "PLATFORM"
The Platform or "The Organisational Platform of the Libertarian
Communists" was written by famous anarchists Nestor Makhno,
Peter Arshinov, Ida Mett and others in 1926, following their
experiences in the Russian Revolution.
Despite the fact that there were over 10,000 active anarchists in
Russia in 1917, they were quickly wiped out by the Bolshevik
Red Terror. As early as April 1918 the anarchist centres in
Moscow were attacked. 600 anarchists were arrested and dozens
killed.
Not all anarchists were clear about what needed to be done. A
few even went to the Bolsheviks but others fought on to defend
the gains of the revolution against what they saw was a new
developing ruling class. The Makhnovist movement in the
Ukraine and the Kronstadt uprising were the last important
battles. By 1921 the anti-authoritarian revolution was dead.
This defeat has had deep and lasting effects on the international
workers' movement.
It was the hope of the authors of the platform that such a
disaster would not happen again. The platform looks at the
lessons of the Russian anarchist movement, its failure to build
up a presence within the working class movement big enough
and effective enough to counteract the tendency of the
Bolsheviks and other political groups to substitute themselves
for the working class.
The Platform states for example that it is ludicrous to have an
organisation which contains groups that have mutually
antagonistic and contradictory definitions of anarchism. It also
says that we need formal agreed structure covering written
policies, the role of officers, the need for membership dues and so
on; the sort of structures that allow for effective and at the
same time large democratic organisation. And it says that we
must have fully worked out and agreed policies that we can
argue for as an organisation. We need to become a "leadership
of ideas".
These views are in contrast to the anarcho-syndicalist view
which is that all that is needed is one massive revolutionary
union. The problem with this is that people with widely
differing views are in the union and so when a crucial decision
comes up there will be a split or at least confusion as to what
way to go.
The best example of this is the action of the National
Confederation of Workers (CNT) in the Spanish revolution who,
while supporting the revolution of the working class of Spain
had no plan of what to do. They ended up joining the
government instead of smashing the state, and they did not
have any worked out policy of how the workers could defend
themselves from the backstabbing attacks of the Bolsheviks
directed by Stalin.
We call any group that agrees with the basic outlines of the
Platform a "Platformist" organisation.
STRUCTURE OF AN "ANARCHIST ORGANISATION"
Following the ideas of the platform, we want to build an
anarchist organisation. An "anarchist organisation" would be
organised on a branch level. There would be a regional
committee composed of delegates from the branches and there
would be a national committee. The important thing about this
structure is that control would come from the bottom up and not
from the top down.
To join, an individual or group must agree with the policies and
aims of the "organisation" but once inside all members would be
encouraged in a free atmosphere to question and develop these
policies.
The business of the organisation would be decided at regular
conferences of all members. Perspectives on the future, long and
short term, further policies and tactics would be decided and all
members bound to them. The representatives of regions and
national areas would also be elected and mandated to follow the
conference decisions.
In an anarchist organisation all representatives would be
mandated and recallable. This means that if they start doing
their own thing as people in positions of responsibility tend to
do, they can be removed from that position. And nobody would
be allowed remain in an important position for more than a few
years.
For us the position should never become a status symbol or a
position reserved for 'senior' activists. It should better be seen
as a temporary position that everyone could be expected to do at
some time.
But the most crucial aspect of an organisation of anarchists is
the internal life of the branch. In order for an organisation to
be truly democratic, education and development of all members
must be encouraged. People must develop the confidence to
speak at packed public meetings. The ability to question
someone else's ideas only comes if you know enough about the
subject being talked about.
Books must be circulated and read, a library of left wing books
used, articles and policies written by all. On the more physical
side, all must be willing to do their fair share of the donkey
work. Paper selling and postering, leafletting and picketing.
The day to day running of the organisation must also be well
organised; branch meetings must be attended, membership dues
paid, etc.
The best way to avoid an informal elite is to get everyone stuck
in and knowing what is going on. The situation where some
people do the "intellectual" stuff like writing articles and others
do the "manual" stuff like giving out leaflets and yet another
section are burnt out and don't do anything, must never be
allowed. If that does happen you can be fairly sure that there is
something wrong, politically, with such an organisation.
As anarchists we do not believe that we are the PARTY with
the TRUTH. We are quite happy to work with other anarchist
groups as long as there is a basic level of agreement. So in the
"organisation" of anarchists we expect that there would be many
ideas, groups and factions, the only condition necessary would
be agreement on the aims and policies of the organisation.
Factions would have to support the majority position but would
have full access to the internal bulletin and the organisation's
journals to argue their ideas.
THE ALTERNATIVES No.1- PARLIAMENT
No other political groups organise in this way. Any
parliamentary party is run on a hierarchical structure. The
higher you are the more control you have. Real decisions are
made by the elected TD's over the heads of the members and the
most important decision are made by the leader of the party and
a couple of cronies.
Their way of organising reflects their politics of "leave it all to
us" They encourage people to allow the bigger decisions that
effect their lives to be made by the small elite of the ruling class.
We are told to have faith in people who we are told know better
than us.
THE ALTERNATIVES No.2 - LENIN
A similar method of organisation is used by Leninist
organisations. Based on their failed tactic of "leading" the
working class to socialism they develop a ruling elite within
their organisations. Leninists do not believe that the working
class can develop political ideas. So, instead a Leninist party
must provide the leadership and the working class will follow.
They see themselves as 'shepherds leading the sheep'.
Within a Leninist party the future leaders of the working class
are bred. Central and Political Committees are elected who are
then given the right to make decisions for the whole
organisation. The ideas and orders therefore come from the top
down.
Central control can go to absurd lengths. One Leninist
organisation in Ireland is controlled from the USA. It has to
have everything checked and agreed by the central committee
across the Atlantic. This includes simple pamphlets which have
to be printed in the states and mailed over.
This formal leadership does the "intellectual" side of the
business while the majority are left to selling the paper and
going to branch meetings for their weekly orders. In these
organisations a leader can be a leader for life. Look at Lenin,
Stalin or Gerry Healey (English Leninist leader) for example.
As far as education goes, most members are brought up on a diet
of their own party literature which limits them to a low level of
disinformation about other peoples ideas. Unless you are being
trained for leadership there will be very little effort to develop
debating or writing skills.
This ties in nicely with their elitist and cynical view of politics.
Namely the gaining control of the working class sometime in the
future!
WORKERS' CONTROL
As anarchists we are committed to our democratic ideals. We are
members of the WSM because we want to win the battle of ideas
and fight for the control and self-management of society by the
working class. We are in an organisation because we agree on
our politics, have more resources as an organisation, are better
able to put across our views and can combine our forces in the
struggle to build an anarchist society.
If you like our ideas we want you to find out more about us, and
think seriously about joining us. We encourage everybody to
find out more about anarchism, its ideas and its actions.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Workers Solidarity Movement can be contacted at
PO Box 1528, Dublin 8, Ireland
Some of our material is available via the Spunk press electronic archive
by FTP to etext.archive.umich.edu or 141.211.164.18
or by gopher ("gopher etext.archive.umich.edu")
in the directory /pub/Politics/Spunk/texts/groups/WSM