💾 Archived View for library.inu.red › file › sebastien-faure-reformism.gmi captured on 2023-01-29 at 13:59:57. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Title: Reformism
Author: Sébastien Faure
Date: 1934
Language: en
Topics: Anarchist Encyclopedia
Source: Retrieved on November 15, 2011 from  http://marxists.org/reference/archive/faure/1934/encyclopedia.htm

Sébastien Faure

Reformism

Reformism: “Reformism” is the doctrine of those who, while saying they

are in favor of a social transformation having as it objective

establishing society on principles and foundations opposed to that which

exist, propose to arrive at this result by a more or less considerable

series of more or less important partial reforms realized within the

framework of legality.

“Reformist” is the name that serves to designate a person, group,

organization or party that considers the whole of these successive and

legal reforms as the best, if not the only means of transforming the

social milieu, let us more precisely say, for substituting the

collectivist or communist world for the capitalist world.

Those political parties who say they are of the “vanguard” and proclaim

themselves revolutionary are all more or less reformist. The more

reformist they are, the less revolutionary they are, and — and this is

the logical consequence -the less revolutionary they are, the more

reformist they are....

The anarchists are frequently accused of professing the doctrine of “all

or nothing.” In this accusation there is some truth, but only some. For

it is exact that the Libertarians will not declare themselves satisfied

and won’t be so until they will have forever smashed all the social

obstacles that oppose themselves to their motto: well-being for each and

for all; liberty for all and for each. From this point of view it is

perfectly true they will fight until not even one stone remains on

another of the authoritarian fortress that must be totally destroyed, so

that no vestige remains. If it is thus that the doctrine of “all or

nothing” is conceived, then it is true, I don’t deny that such is the

libertarian doctrine. But it doesn’t at all follow from this that the

anarchists don’t take account of the blows that can be delivered, in the

efforts that can be accomplished, in the goal of attacking the fortress

that they intend to bring down. And even less does it follow that they

don’t appreciate the value of these efforts and blows which have as a

goal, and could have as a result, the weakening of the solidity, and the

diminution of the force of resistance of this fortress. The anarchists

are reasonable people with a practical sense. They want 100 and that’s

all. But if they can only have 10 they pocket this down payment and

demand the rest. They note that the improvements toward which reforms

tend are only agreed to by the capitalist and bourgeois rulers on

condition that they don’t fundamentally infringe upon the authority of

the rulers and the profits of the capitalists. They know from experience

that after having been for a greater or lesser time being backed against

a wall — buying time is a maneuver in which the leaders excel — the

privileged class ends up by granting that which it is in no condition to

refuse. They don’t ignore the fact that when a reform touches upon the

very bases of the authoritarian mechanism, the state and capitalism, it

runs into the desperate resistance of the established powers, and that

resistance can only be smashed by a revolutionary outburst. They only

put a price on the means directly employed by the proletariat working

for its emancipation, and they are certain that in no case, in no

conjuncture, will the latter truly free itself without having recourse

to the sole instrument of its liberation: the triumphant Social

Revolution...

— Sébastien Faure