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Title: From Riot to Revolution Author: Anarcho Date: 2003 Language: en Topics: riots, revolution, Argentina, autonomist Source: Retrieved on 3rd August 2020 from https://web.archive.org/web/20070709191823/http://anarchism.ws/writers/anarcho/argentina/riot2rev.html
“We have seen how the Revolution began with popular risings ever since
the first months of 1789. To make a revolution it is not, however,
enough that there should be such risings — more or less successful. It
is necessary that after the risings there should be left something new
in the institutions, would permit new forms of life to be elaborated and
established.” Kropotkin, The Great French Revolution
Anarchism is often portrayed by historians and others as somewhat
utopian, having no real idea of how to get from capitalism to a free
society. Lenin, for example, asserted that anarchists “while advocating
the destruction of the state machine, have absolutely no idea of what
the proletariat will put in its place.” The truth is, of course,
different. Anarchists see the initial framework of an anarchist society
as being created under statism and capitalism when working class people
organise themselves to resist oppression and exploitation. In summary,
the very process of collective class struggle would create the basis of
anarchism.
Therefore, anarchists do not abstractly compare a free society with the
current one. Rather, we see an organic connection between what is and
what could be. An anarchist society would be based on the working
class’s own combat organisations, as created in their struggles within,
but against, capitalism and the state.
In this sense, anarchy is not some distant goal but rather an aspect of
current struggles against domination, oppression and exploitation (i.e.
the class struggle). Anarchism draws upon the autonomous self-activity
and spontaneity of working class people in struggle to inform both its
political theory and its vision of a free society. Means and ends are
linked, with direct action being the means of generating combative
working class organisations and preparing people to directly manage
their own personal and collective interests. The struggle against
hierarchy is the school of anarchy. It teaches us not only how to be
anarchists but also gives us a glimpse of what an anarchist society
would be like, what its initial framework could be and the experience of
managing our own activities which is required for such a society to
function successfully.
The events in Argentina speak for themselves. Popular risings there have
been in abundance. After two-and-half-decades of IMF-backed free-market
reforms, more than 40% of the 38m population live below the poverty line
and 100 children die daily from hunger and disease. People have had
enough. Millions of people have challenged the state of siege. People
are fighting on the streets, standing up to those who express and
exploit them. In Cordoba, a car-making centre north-west of Buenos
Aires, workers protesting at government plans to reduce wages and apply
other austerity measures, occupied the town hall, and then set fire to
it.
Various governments have collapsed but in the lives of the working
class, nothing changed — except for feelings of victory. In the streets
the confrontations continued. The power they express, the power of mass
direct action, inspires and will not be easily forgotten.
The question is, what comes next? Will riot become revolution? The
answer to this question depends on what forms of popular
self-organisation are being created. Luckily, such forms of working
class power are being created.
The most exciting thing is the largely spontaneous appearance of
“popular assemblies” after the insurrection last year. These
self-managed assemblies are neighbourhood based on and run by huge mass
meetings of thousands. There are currently 30 assemblies in Buenos Aires
and many others all over the country. According to the anarchists of the
Argentine Libertarian Federation, the assemblies “meetings are open and
anyone who wishes can participate,” and common to all assemblies is the
“non-delegation of power, self-management, [and a] horizontal
structure.” In the French Revolution, the people of Paris formed the
directly democratic community assemblies called “sections.” Kropotkin
pointed to these as examples of both the popular institutions required
to make a revolution (“the districts of Paris laid the foundations of a
new, free, social organisation”) and “the principles of anarchism.” It
was by means of these popular assemblies that “the masses, accustoming
themselves to act without receiving orders from the national
representatives, were practising what was to be described later as
Direct Self-Government.” A similar process is at work in Argentina. As
one assembly moderator put it, “here, no one is in charge, we are going
to take turns.”
Other forms of popular power are developing. The unemployed workers
movement has played a key role in many of the revolts. It has been
building for the last five years and in the last year it has helped
force the government to introduce policies to aid the unemployed. Its
tactics are to paralyse transportation by blocking off major highways in
order to make their demands. They are called piqueteros (“the
picketers”). Any agreements made are discussed by the participants
directly. They do not delegate leaders to negotiate with the government.
They make it come to the blockades and the people there discuss what
they should demand and what they should accept. They have the same
healthy “distrust of all executive power” which Kropotkin praised the
Parisian Sections for!
There are attempts by workers to organise themselves. Throughout
Argentina strikes have occurred. Committees of struggle and to
co-ordinate the protests have been created. Occupations have started. In
RĂo Turbio, the mine workers have occupied the mines. In NeuquĂ©n, the
workers have occupied ceramics factory of ZanĂłn, where a workers
congress was held in December.
This congress saw almost 400 ceramics workers, teachers, unemployed
workers and students meet to discuss the current events. The main
organisers were the ceramics workers union (SOENC), the teachers’ union
of RĂo Negro (UNTER), a militant unemployed workers’ organisation (MTD)
and the teachers of ATEN Centenario. Members and delegations of several
other organisations of the region also participated. After intense
discussion on a multitude of issues, including the next measures to be
taken in their struggle and the need for co-ordination of current
struggles, a declaration was agreed. This stated that the ceramics
workers of Zanón “struggle for the nationalisation and the reopening of
the plant under worker control” and are “mobilising together with the
unemployed workers of Neuquén ... and with the teachers and government
employees.” They aim to intensify “the co-ordination and unity between
struggles with the aim of setting up a Regional Co-ordination” as a step
towards the unification of “the struggles on a national level”. They
called made “an urgent call for an immediate congregation of the
National Assembly of Employed and Unemployed Workers with a 1 in 20
representation, just as was voted in the last Picketers’ Assembly in La
Matanza.” This would seek to unite all those “that are struggling
through democratically elected representatives voted in Assemblies
within the workplace.”
On Saturday, February 16, such an assembly was created when thousands of
workers, unemployed and members of the popular assemblies, met in the
Plaza de Mayo square in Buenos Aires.
Clearly, Bakunin’s prediction that the “future social organisation must
be made solely from the bottom up, by the free association or federation
of workers, firstly in their unions, then in the communes, regions,
nations and finally in a great federation, international and universal”
is taking shape. The ideas of anarchism are being applied by those in
struggle. This is to be expected, as those ideas are just
generalisations derived from past working class struggles!
The anarchist group Organizacion Socialista Libertaria (OSL), the
strongest current of organised anarchism in Argentina, is playing an
important role in the struggles. According to one of their messages,
“anarchist militants have been battling the police since the morning in
the Plaza de Mayo” while the OSL have joined in marches to Plaza de Mayo
together with other social organisations.
The OSL are encouraging the process of working class community
self-organisation, with “each militant discussing in his or her
neighbourhood the best way to establish a minimal territorial
organisation with the goal of defeating the state of siege.” While
“governmental secret services are continuing to spread fear, paranoia
and battles between one neighbourhood and another,” the OSL have
“decided to start an ideological debate with others in those
neighbourhoods where self-managed peoples’ organisations are present. It
is in these areas where we will call on the other organisations to study
what has happened and to develop a way of acting which will allow us to
reorganise against the terror of the State and to organise
self-management, or at least, the seeds towards it.”
They are also involved in the unions, attending meetings called by the
CTA trade union federation to decide on its actions. They are aware that
the Trade Union leadership “did not want to go out and agitate as they
were afraid the situation could get out of their hands.” The key will be
to encourage any attempts by workers to organise independently of their
leaders.
The importance of anarchists getting involved in the struggle is clear.
As they put it:
“We must throw ourselves fully towards building people’s organisation,
because if we the people are not capable of giving ourselves the society
which we want and need, ex-President Menem is there waiting to be
called, as a replacement part so that nothing changes.”
The need for anarchists to argue for their ideas is important. A process
of revolutionary self-education is occurring in Argentina, as in any
revolution (as Kropotkin stressed, “by degrees, the revolutionary
education of the people was being accomplished by the revolution
itself”). For example, one Palermo neighbourhood assembly participant
notes that she was “very surprised because there are people
participating who otherwise never left their homes. My 70-year-old
neighbour had never taken part in anything, but now she has such an
extremist stance that it is truly astonishing.”
However, self-education and self-liberation through struggle is a
process, a process that anarchists can aid. As can be seen from many
demonstrations, the protests have a nationalist tinge to them. This is
to be expected, as the current crisis is the result of foreign
domination (aided and abetted by the local ruling class, of course). It
would be a tragedy is this working class revolt gets sidelined into
boosting Argentinean capital within the national market. Equally, many
of the protestors will be demanding that capitalism works correctly
rather than seeking its end. Anarchists must clearly argue that crisis
is inevitable under this system and, equally as important, that local
ruling elites as just as bad as foreign ones and so nationalism is no
solution. Anarchists must do all they can to argue that only working
class self-management can create a decent society and encourage the
struggle towards that end.
This struggle gives those involved a sense of their own power (both as
individuals and as a class). It also gives them experience of managing
their own lives and of organising their own struggles. This is a good
foundation for building a strong anarchist movement in Argentina. In
case we forget, one hundred years ago anarchism played the leading role
in the labour movement there. The current events are producing
organisations with a distinctly libertarian nature. Could these be the
basis of a regenerated working class anarchist movement like the old
FORA anarcho-syndicalist union federation? If so, it will not happen
automatically, it will require the anarchists to take an active part in
working class struggle and organisation. As can be seen, the OSL is
doing precisely that.
As anarchists have long argued, the class struggle creates the framework
of a free society. This process is at work in Argentina. How can the
transformation of riot into revolution be helped? While this task can
only be the work of those who take part in it, a few words of general
advice can be drawn from history — the first steps have already been
taken!
The practical basis of an alternative are already falling into place.
The embryo of popular power, of a free society, is being created in the
community and workplace assemblies. Self-management must be encouraged
within them and any attempts to delegate power resisted. These organs
must be strengthened and federated. As in every struggle, co-ordination
and solidarity must be ensured.
Many neighbourhoods are organising popular general assemblies to decide
how to carry the struggle forward. Their federation is essential. As
Kropotkin argued, the French popular assemblies “sought for unity of
action, not in subjection to a Central Committee, but in a federative
union.” This was ” made from below upward, by the federation of the
district organisations; it spring up in a revolutionary way, from
popular initiative.” The Argentinean ones have started to do the same,
with some assemblies already choosing delegates who participate in
weekly inter-neighbourhood plenary sessions (some of which draw some
4,000 people). Only by federating together the popular organs of
self-management can the state be abolished.
Consumer goods have been expropriated by the people. The next stage is
the expropriation of the means of production — the fields, factories and
workshops — by workplace assemblies. They must be placed under workers’
self-management and federations of workers’ assemblies created (to
co-ordinate struggle and self-managed production). Any attempt to
nationalise them (as the Leninists propose) must be opposed in favour of
socialisation — replacing private capitalism with state capitalism is no
solution. Only socialisation under workers’ self-management will see
capitalism ended.
An awareness of this need is developing. At the ZanĂłn congress, a 22
year old worker from the plant stated that the each centimetre of the
plant, each tile that was piled within the long corridors stood for “the
millions that we produced, and everything that the province gave to
Zanón, and now that Zanón doesn’t want to be responsible for it, it’s
going to be ours.” That perspective has to be generalised and turned
from a defensive strategy to an offensive one.
The building of federations between the community and workplace
assemblies is essential. This is for three reasons. Firstly, to build
working class power to resist and finally overthrow the current system
by combining economic and social self-organisation. The assemblies and
their federations must have the real power to ensure they become
expressions of the will of the working class and to provide a framework
by which collective decisions, direct action, solidarity and
self-defence can be organised. Secondly, to aid the creation and
distribution of goods. A step in this direction would be the community
assemblies setting up consumer co-operatives to facilitate the
distribution of goods and their encouragement and support of workers
expropriating their workplaces. Thirdly, to create a possible framework
in which to socialise the means of life and place them under true common
ownership and control.
In a nutshell: All power to the community and workplace assemblies!
The call for and subsequent creation of a “National Assembly of Employed
and Unemployed Workers” is a positive one, as long as it is made up of
mandated and recallable delegates and is complemented by local and
regional federations of assemblies. Without constructive building from
the bottom-up, any national assembly will be artificial, simply a
mouthpiece for various would-be politicians and new bosses. Nor can it
be a grouping of existing unions and party committees as this would
simply be a top-down joining of various bureaucratic committees and not
a real expression of popular self-rule. Any National Assembly must be an
organ for working class struggle, simply co-ordinating and executing the
decisions of the base assemblies. Only this can make the popular slogan
“all the politicians out” a reality.
Any attempt to centralise power must be resisted as it will disempower
the grass-root assemblies and kill the revolt. The seemingly widespread
call for a “Constituent Assembly” is basically a call for a left wing
bourgeois government and for the popular assemblies to be put under its
control. It must be opposed as it is the death of grassroots
self-management. The ruling class may try to recuperate the current
struggle by means of elections to such a body, side-tracking the revolt
into parliamentary channels. The left, by standing “revolutionary”
candidates, will aid this process of transferring the focus of the
struggle away from mass self-activity and self-organisation onto
“leaders” working within capitalist institutions. This will undermine
the autonomy and power of the grassroots organisations. Equally, the
left’s calls for a “workers’ government” must also be opposed as this
will simply replace working class power and self-management with party
power. To delegate power into the hands of a few party leaders will not
and cannot solve the current crisis or create socialism, which can be
created only from below by the people themselves.
There is a need to co-ordinate struggle, but this must be based on
bottom-up, federal, organisations. A call for a “People’s Assembly,”
based on mandated delegates from the community and workplace assemblies
is paramount — as is the awareness that popular organisations must not
surrender their self-rule and become mere ciphers, stepping stones for a
political party to take power. Any working class assemblies (and their
councils) must be autonomous, free from the control of any political
party or organisation (including anarchist!). All power to the
assemblies must not become transformed into “all power to the Party
through the assemblies.” Decisions must reflect the debate in the
assemblies, not in the small, restricted, leadership of a political
party!
Only self-organisation and direct action from below will ensure that
this mass protest does not simply result in a new gang of thieves being
placed in power. Only when the working class has organised itself from
below upwards will it be in a position to dispense once and for all with
bosses and politicians. The struggle against capitalism is building the
framework of the free society that will replace it. The job of
anarchists is to encourage these processes and show how they can form an
alternative to capitalism.
As in every revolution, the “principles of anarchism” are being born
from the class struggle, the deeds of working class people fighting for
a better life. Argentina is no exception and as can be seen, the embryos
of popular self-management as being created. We have a lot to learn from
these experiences. The current protests not only reinforces the validity
of anarchist ideas, it also allows us to improve these ideas just as
anarchists learned from past working class revolts.
The role of the unemployed workers movement is important, suggesting
that anarchists should seriously look at creating similar groups here.
Equally, the importance of the community assemblies is obvious.
Anarchists have long argued for this and we should apply this principle
in “community unionism.” These would be similar to the anti-poll tax
unions and such groups as Haringey Solidarity Group and the Govanhill
Pool protests in Glasgow. Equally, the need for a libertarian presence
in the workplace is essential. This may involve pronged strategy of rank
and file groups within existing unions plus dual unions to link up
activists across industries. Lastly, the anarchist movement needs to
discuss strategy and tactics in an open forum as in the conferences at
Bradford, Glasgow and London.
The events in Argentina also shows the direction the anti-globalisation
movement must take — it must apply its principles of direct action,
solidarity, self-managed self-organisation within everyday life and
struggles. While mass demonstrations like those of Genoa are essential,
they cannot replace the need to build strong roots in our communities
and workplaces. Without this grassroots activity, the anti-globalisation
movement will wither, just as a flower cut off from its roots.
Demonstrations by themselves will not end capitalism or its imposed,
top-down, globalisation. Only when the bulk of the population take
direct action, organise themselves and fight for their freedom will real
change occur. As Argentina shows.
The power of the working class in revolt is clear — it has managed to
bring down numerous politicians. The question is, will it be able to
bring down all governments and all bosses? That remains to be seen. The
possible framework of a free society can be seen, will the Argentinean
anarchists be able to encourage these first steps and help them become
organs of working class power? Hopefully. As the OSL say:
“we will be there with our conviction that a different way of living is
possible and that is what we are fighting for!”