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Title: Anarchist Synthesis Author: Jeff Shantz Date: 2009 Language: en Topics: synthesis anarchism Source: Retrieved on 22nd November 2021 from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp1662 Notes: Published in The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest.
Synthesist anarchism refers to organizing approaches that attempt to
bring together anarchists of varying tendencies and perspectives within
a single group, federation, or project. As a form of political action,
anarchist synthesis is sometimes referred to as “big tent” or “small-a”
anarchism.
The term is drawn from the critical response to the platformist position
of the Dielo Trouda Group by a number of Russian anarchists, including
notably Voline. The synthesist opponents of platformism argued for an
inclusive anarchist organization that could achieve the theoretical and
tactical unity advocated by the platformists.
Much of anarchist activity in North America is synthesist, still fitting
the description from Dielo Trouda in 1926: “local organizations
advocating contradictory theories and practices, having no perspectives
for the future, nor of continuity in militant work, and habitually
disappearing, hardly leaving the slightest trace behind them.” Many of
these short-lived projects are based on the “synthesist” model in which
contradictory or incompatible ideas and practices are expected to
coexist.
Many of these ephemeral organizations are built on the synthesist basis
that platformists have been and remain critical of. While synthesist
approaches can succeed, they do exhibit a tendency to be the “mechanical
assembly of individuals” that the platformists suggested. Such groupings
work relatively well as long as their level of activity doesn’t rise
above running a bookstore, infoshop, or free school. Unfortunately, even
in those cases disastrous rifts emerge when meaningful political
questions are broached. A consensus based on not wanting to offend other
members or declining controversial work because it threatens collective
harmony are too often the default positions of synthesist-type groups.
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REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS
Dielo, T. (1926) The Organizational Platform of the General Union of
Anarchists. Available online at
.
Skirda, A. (2002) Facing the Enemy: A History of Anarchist Organization
from Proudhon to May 1968. San Francisco: AK Press.
Various (2003) Platformism Without Illusions. Johannesburg: Zabalaza.
Voline, V. M. (1934) Anarchist Synthesis. Unpublished document.