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Title: Why the AWG
Author: Anarchist Workers Group
Date: July 1989
Language: en
Topics: Socialism from Below, Anarchist Workers Group, United Kingdom
Source: Retrieved on 27th October 2021 from http://struggle.ws/awg/awg_editorial1.html
Notes: This is the Editorial from Issue 1 of Socialism from Below, the journal of the now defunct Anarchist Workers Movement

Anarchist Workers Group

Why the AWG

Welcome to the first edition of Socialism From Below, discussion forum

of the Anarchist Workers Group. The AWG was formed in June 1988

following a split within the Direct Action Movement, over the issue of

building syndicalist unions in Britain. Although we are a young

organisation , we have not only grown in our first year of existence,

but we have started to re-establish, for anarchism, a reputation as a

serious ideological force to contend with. We have began the task of

creating an effective anarchist grouping, with clear and dynamic ideas,

which can put anarchism firmly on the political agenda.

What passes for an anarchist movement today, has become divorced from

the working class movement. For years anarchists have been content with

living outside of society, rather than trying to change it. Anarchism is

therefore seen as a ‘counter-cultural’ rebellion at society’s margins,

rather than as a dynamic force within our class. The article ‘Anarchism

in the Thatcher Years’ takes a critical view of anarchism in the last

decade, and argues for a complete re-think of anarchist strategy. A new

approach demands political discussion, and an abandonment of the ghetto

mentality. We hope that Socialism From Below can begin that discussion.

A WORKING CLASS MOVEMENT

Anarchism first appeared in the wake of the industrial revolution, born

out of the first workers struggles. The ideas of Bakunin emerged within

the First Socialist International as a school of thought distinct from

Utopian Socialism and the Marxian Socialists. The Bakuninists were the

only consistent opponents of the state as a agent for affecting social

change from above. Anarchists have always understood that the state

apparatus, which exists to protect class society, cannot possibly be

used as an instrument of workers emancipation. Bakunin warned that the

‘ambiguous ‘people’s state’ of Marx could provide cover for the

emergence of a new scientific ruling elite.

The experience of the Russian Revolution, where a tyranny calling itself

Socialist, grew out of the first workers revolution, proves the validity

of the anarchist case. Of course we realise the horrendous conditions

following the October revolution with famine and imperialist armies

wreaking devastation. However this can never excuse the use of

dictatorial methods against the working class itself., Workers democracy

and self-management of industry were concepts which the Bolsheviks used

and abandoned where they felt it was necessary. The factory committees

and Soviets, through which the worker’s exercised their power, were

systematically usurped by the Party. When the Kronstadt insurgents

demanded free elections to the Soviets in 1921, the Red Army was sent in

to settle the argument. it was clear that the working class had been

robbed of its power by the ‘workers state’, and a new ruling class

accountable only to itself had emerged.

AGAINST THE STATE

Anarchists have an entirely different vision of socialism. We see

workers democracy and self management of industry as essential

components of our socialism. We therefore see socialism as the product

of the self-activity of the mass of workers; a socialism from below,

rather than a set of nationalisation decrees imposed ‘from above’ by

parliament, or enforced at gun point by a ‘vanguard party’. We, unlike

much of the left, understand that working class is capable of achieving

its own liberation, and that this fundamentally democratic process

necessitates an entirely different form of social organisation from the

existing state machine with its civil service, standing army, judiciary

and police. We say workers power must be exercised through councils of

elected and recallable delegates, accountable to mass assemblies, and

the defence of the revolution must be carried on by democratic work

militias, accountable to the councils. The Marxists have shown in

practice that their term the ‘workers state’ does not necessarily entail

a commitment to this democratic aspect of class power.

Most Marxists also advocate the use of the existing capitalist state to

bring about progressive social change, whether through electing a left

Labour Government, or capturing local authorities. This latter strategy

of ‘municipal socialism’ has back fired in recent years as so called

socialists have made council workers redundant, slashed essential

services and co-operated with Poll Tax implementation. The article on

the Poll tax re-affirms that relying on the Labour Party to defend

living standards is a dead-end. Anarchists are un-compromising on this

issue. workers interests can only be furthered by the mass action of the

working class, controlled by the working class itself. We give no

political support ‘critical’ or otherwise, to the Labour Party because

it is a bosses’ party which has sent troops into break strikes,

tightened immigration laws and sent the army into Northern Ireland.

The keynote article ‘ Myth Illusion and War’ rejects the dominant view

that that the British troops are playing a ‘benevolent peacekeeping’

role in Ireland. We oppose the argument that the British army should

police withdrawal, by disarming Loyalists, just as we oppose longer

sentences for rapists. Even when it appears that the state is playing a

progressive role, for example in banning pornography or dealing with

child abuse- we recognise that any powers conceded to the state will be

used against the working class. The Marxist misinterpretation of the

state not only leads them to call for a ‘workers’ state’ but also brings

forth demands for greater state interference in our lives for example

laws to outlaw racism and ban fascists from marching.

POLITICAL ANARCHISM

To many people anarchism is the opposite of effective political

organisation. Anarchists have always understood, however, that workers

do not spontaneously become anarchists, but they must be won to our

ideas. During the 1920’s a group of Russian exiles drew similar vital

lessons from their experience of the failed Russian revolution; They

sketched out a short but clear outline of the necessity of anarchist

political organisation, to prevent a repeat of their tragedy in future

revolutions. The Organisational Plat- form of the Libertarian Communist

detailed a practical strategy that is relevant in Britain today where

anarchism finds itself disorganised and unable to wield much influence.

The ‘Platform’ is discussed briefly in our book reviews, end we will be

returning to this text in later issues of Socialism From Below.

The events in Spain during the 1930’s prove that anarchism can become a

reality. the fact that millions of workers joined an anarchist labour

union- the CNT, is proof that you do not need a Bolshevik Party to

precipitate a revolutionary situation. However because the working class

in Spain did not complete the revolution by destroying the old state

apparatus and establishing workers power, it allowed the ruling class to

re-organise and erode the gains of dual power (the militia’s and the

collectives.) Some anarchists in Spain did realise the necessity of

establishing class power, the most significant of these being the

Friends of Durruti, an anarchist grouping within the CNT, who opposed

CNT collaboration with the Popular front. The Friends of Durruti

understood that anarchism needed a sound theoretical base and a

programme of action. We in the AWG understand that anarchists must be

able to think as well as act, argue as well as fight.

Our political ideas will be elaborated and explained more fully in this,

and future, issues of Socialism From Below. our immediate aim is to make

libertarian communism clearly understandable; ultimately, we want our

ideas to take centre stage in the class struggle.

TOWARDS INDEPENDENCE

The failure of the labour movement to successfully stave off the

employers offensive in the 1980’s has created a political climate that

encourages defeat. The highly political nature of the attacks on our

class has considerably raised the stakes involved. Every industrial

dispute faces the full weight of state legislation media propaganda and

the economic threat of unemployment.

Reformism has proved itself incapable of rising to meet challenge,

because it equates workers interests with the prosperity of British

capitalism. This is the root of ‘New Realism’. We, unlike our labour

leaders are not prepared to wait until British capitalism revives before

we start to fight. Nor unlike some of the left, do we believe that the

workers are not yet ready for political independence. We are not going

to vote Labour and wait until Kinnock starts to break up strikes. Nor do

we think that the working class is dead. We believe it is not only

necessary but possible for our class to fight today and win. One of the

key failures of the labour movement has been to break from the shackles

the anti-trade union laws, which hamper every economic struggle today.

We say that whatever the prevailing economic and political climate, the

working class must mount a political challenge to Thatcher’s anti-union

legislation It is the task of anarchist to argue for and assist the

politicisation of all struggles and build a movement which is

ideologically and organisationally independent from the quango minded

bureaucrats who head the trade union machines. The article ‘Servants no

More’ argues the case for a rank and file movement in one particular

sector: the civil service. For anarchists, rank and file control of

struggle is vital to pave the way for a social system where the working

class is in control.

Part and parcel of the ruling class onslaught in the 1980’s, has been a

blatantly anti-working class ideological offensive. The role of women as

second class citizens and ‘nurturers’ has been reinforced. The promotion

of the family as a ‘natural’ social unit, and the stigmatisation of

homosexual couples as ‘pretended family’ relationships, have

ideologically underpinned the dumping of welfare provision (through

hospital closures, and benefit cuts etc.) onto the backs of working

class families and primarily onto women. The Tories champion the family

because it reproduces the labour force without pay, and atomises the

working class. The ‘Return to Victorian Values’, has involved a crude

series of moral panics about Aids, football hooligans, lager louts,

muggers, illegal immigrants and acid-house parties which all serve to

tighten the governments’ political control, and legitimise increasing

state intervention in all spheres of social activity. We plan to discuss

these issues further in Socialism From Below as we realise there

centrality to the battle against capitalism.

We intend to let no argument go unchallenged, and no question to go

un-answered. We intend to win the ‘battle of ideas’ through our active

involvement in all the vital struggles of our class, as we work to

re-build an influential anarchist movement. As we have said, our aim is

to make anarchist ideas the leading ideas in a victorious workers

revolution. Only in this way can we ensure the creation of a new world,

where the wealth we produce is put to the service of humanity, and

decision making power becomes the property of all. This is what

libertarians mean when we talk of ‘communism’. We want Socialism From

Below to become essential reading in the struggle for it’s realisation.