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Text of Workers Solidarity Movement leaflet
to anarchy in the UK festival 21st-30th Oct.
Creating anarchism
Anarchism has a great potential to become
the dominant force in oppositional
politics following the collapse of the
authoritarian left. But this collapse
also means we have no longer any excuse
for failing to reach that position. This
conference will hopefully highlight that
potential, however if in the future we
fail to build mass anarchist movements,
then that failure falls on our heads.
Mass anarchist movements have been built
in the past. In other countries sizeable
anarchist movements exist today, and in
most countries outside Africa anarchism
is represented by at least one or two
organisations. In the last twenty years,
although the rest of the left collapsed,
anarchism has seen not only a recovery
but real growth, both in numbers and
geographical spread.
Britain unfortunately seems to be the
exception Despite the fact that over the
last couple of decades tens of thousands
have referred to themselves as
anarchists, the organisations that exist
today are tiny. All the groups appear to
be drifting away from anarchism, to
'revolutionary unionism' , council
communism or undefined post-anarchism.
Another national organisation the
Anarchist Workers Group (AWG) imploded
over two years ago. The bulk of its
members have either dropped out of
politics or a few, more bizarrely, joined
authoritarian organisations from the RCP
to the Labour Party.
What can anarchists do in this situation?
How do we go about creating a mass
anarchist movement, capable of
overthrowing capitalism? This leaflet is
an international contribution to that
debate, produced by an organisation based
in Ireland.
Firstly we have to recognise this is not
a short term process. There will not be
an anarchist revolution next year.
Anarchism will only become possible when
the majority of society understands and
also wants to introduce it. Too many
people spend their political life
searching for the quick fix, the magic
wand, instant revolution. Trotskyists
see this wand as a collection of 'right
slogans and right leaders'. Too often
anarchists have echoed this by seeing the
magic wand as media exposure resulting in
a sense of importance. From the period
of the Poll Tax on, anarchists have
received considerable media exposure but
almost nothing has come out of this.
We advocate a more long term approach,
one that recognises the possibility of
revolution, but also recognises the need
to build for it. Ideas have to be
developed and clarified. Organisation(s)
are needed that put forward coherent
ideas and collectively act on these
ideas. We have to be able to develop and
implement strategy for our organisations
in a democratic fashion. Anarchists have
to be able to argue confidently with
activists from other areas of the left
and win these arguments without resorting
to sectarianism.
There has to be involvement in real
struggle. This means learning to work
alongside other activists including those
who may be hostile to anarchism. There
has been too much of a tendency to stay
aloof from struggle in the interests of
maintaining ideological 'purity' or
setting up anarchist alternatives to much
larger campaigns. The need to confront
other ideas has thus been avoided.
We need clear ideas on getting involved
in struggles. There has been a tendency
for anarchists to end up as the foot
soldiers of campaigns, doing all the
donkey work but not contributing much to
the direction taken. We have to be able
to develop, put forward and win the
argument for campaign strategies based on
anarchist tactics.
There has to be a real commitment to
building anarchist organisations, one
that is reflected in the investment of
time, energy and money. This commitment
has to come from all the members, not
just a core group who volunteer and
finance just about everything. It's only
with this sort of commitment that the
small groups that are currently possible,
once formed can grow to much larger
organisations.
This outlines what we are currently
trying to implement in Ireland, a
strategy which has yielded us some
success to date. We are currently too
small to put significant resources into
helping people set up a similar group in
Britain. What we can do however is start
to develop contacts here and help in
putting like minded people in contact
with each other.
If you find yourself agreeing with the
broad outline of what we are putting
forward then check us out further. Talk
to any of the people distributing this
leaflet (or selling Workers Solidarity)
or write to us at WSM, PO Box 1528,
Dublin 8, Ireland.
If you want to be put on our
international mailing list, fill out this
form and send it to us. Include a
donation towards postage costs if you
can. (Please use block capitals).
Name
Address
Phone Number
Donation
An introduction to the WSM
We can create a better society. A world
where everybody is treated equally. A
world where we, the working class, get to
have the best of what we produce, and
where we get to make the decisions about
how we run our lives.
In order for capitalism to function, it
must exploit the working class. It is
only when capitalism is eliminated that
we can end poverty, war and oppression.
We believe that the working class, as a
whole, should take control of the means
of production, factories, schools,
hospitals, etc. The state must be
destroyed and all forces of oppression,
such as the police, army and judiciary,
disbanded. A socialist society should be
formed, based on workers federations,
organised at the lowest possible level.
We are part of the "platformist"
tradition within anarchism. The best
known statements from this current are
the "Organisational Platform of the
Libertarian Communists" (whose authors
included Nestor Makhno) and "Towards a
Fresh Revolution" by the Friends of
Durruti in Spain. That is, we believe
that the best way to fight for our goal
is through an organised anarchist group,
with clearly stated policies and
objectives.
We believe: