Today's Topics:
1. afed.cz: A3: Prezident Lync -- Zeman was promoted xenophobic
incitement of his call for arming. [machine translation]
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. Brazil, Movimento Libertário Anti Austeridade: Official
unopening of Exclusion Olympics - 2016 (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. Britain, Class War: Black Lives Matter more than Boris:
Class War supporting #BLM across UK, Friday 5 August
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Greece, Athens ESE: Articles of Workers Counter Bulletin
#125 (gr) [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. anarkismo.net: In retaking Mosul YPG/J and the Guerrillas
must be aware of the hidden agenda by Zaher Baher
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
6. US, black rose fed: Building a revolutionary anarchism
(a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
If you have it in the same "respect" as we are, download, print and spread the August
issue of wall newspapers A3. ---- Sharp summer heat can cause sunburn and temporarily
darken the mind. And in Prague's Hradcany sun beat down on the roof of the castle they
care. One would have said it was indiscriminate sun's rays are the cause of the castle
lord began to haunt the tower. Sun is in it, however innocently. The symptoms of mental
weakness because we can observe the long and the patient's condition is not improving.
---- Why not take the fact that the State acts as a private insurance company for the
players brought forecasting institute, who have divided power and smirk to give all out.
And Castle gets a hundred million on security measures because President Zeman believes
that it is a potential target of terrorist attacks. How else can deliver on its own
importance and yet let it pay you a nerd thing for him (or against) threw the ticket into
the ballot box, or those that nowhere nothing not throw and instead went to one draft, to
then at the table to repeat the old adage, both trough just replace Nazran hog hungry bitch.
Now we can guess how big gun you actually worth the amount of money it can provide.
Obviously nothing can be worn in a pocket or purse, it probably will not. Smaller firearm
recommended rather ordinary citizens. Mind was probably mainly those in the past in
xenophobic demonstrations gnashing their teeth at the sight of antifascists and cry, "Long
live Zeman" punctuated howl: "Let us for them!"
"The president has also advocated that citizens should arming because of terrorism," she
said last July day Czech News Agency. After the exhibition, in which the president
intoned, although the notes curled both sections, with a racist anthem jug on stage, so
now, for a change he stood in a row with racist Matejka of the SSO, who also gave his time
to hear that be- Where the streets more firearms, there will be safer. Lately, trendy
issue impressions per terms and ignore the experts in specific fields. Like an expert
study refutes the canard that migration is "guided invasion", others show that society is
full of weapons is much more dangerous, and moreover, she manifests an unwanted effect
called. Race to the bottom. But such studies can demagogues and populists wipe butts and
believes that a lie repeated a hundred times becomes the truth. Unfortunately, with such
policies in many celebrating success. Believe in stupidity and your faith gives you a
temporary feeling of satisfaction.
But it can also go on the president's friendliness towards the armaments lobby. Not so
long ago, he bowed to the armory Sellier & Bellot for how fast it grows sales and profits
for the export of ammunition to many countries of the world. And yet, if it helped
increase sales home! Originally he chose to army, but probably not enough. On the
sidelines remarked that the weapons and ammunition Czech production in a large up in the
hands of dictators and problem areas. Bucks here, but the consequences that this bloody
racket causes them to stay behind the barbed wire on the border of Europe or drowned in
the Mediterranean Sea.
The Constitution of the Czech Republic, Art. 54, para. 3 says: "The president is not the
exercise of his office." (Incidentally, in the Criminal Code, it referred to as
"insanity.") Aside from the fact that the president would actually do dot behaves under
this paragraph, it is clear that what has not passed his spoluzpevákovi jug is with the
president criminally untraceable. If therefore encourages the owner of firearms that is
neoprašovali home as a souvenir, but using them itself as the Judge Lynch. For the moment
it is can also say that he provides when it was necessary to use these weapons. And it is
not excluded that it will stop talking about gun license. Populist brandishing the danger
of terrorism in order to justify its protihumánní divisive politics, and so soon we can
wait and that impunity will stimulate the need for preventive lynching. Veterans for the
new Ku Klux Klan picks up on stage easily.
A man comes out of amazement and disbelief, "So perhaps totally screwed up" comments with
a view to the Castle every new gibberish of his boss or his loyal underlings castle.
Sometimes he comes to mind, if there's a long time not playing the game for more nonsense.
Banner "Truth wins" and over the castle looks very out of place and really should be there
more stood out those red shorts, with each gibberish more and more fucking.
A3 ( august 2016) download HERE . http://www.afed.cz/A3/A3-2016-08.pdf
Download, print, etching!
Wall newspapers A3 gives Anarchist Federation each month. They are especially designed to
spread through the streets pasting or posting in the workplace and in schools.
https://www.afed.cz/text/6497/a3-prezident-lync
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Message: 2
On one side: the whole apparatus made by the state to the privileged class have fun. In
the other: poor and residents of outlying regions, survivors or dead, removed, and
constrained access to access the "noble" areas in the city. The same people hidden from
foreign views are the ones paying with their work all these endless Olympic works. Works
that instead of improving the daily life, serve to further marginalize the working class,
increasing the social problems of the city. Teachers have their salaries paid in
installments! Public workers are threatened with dismissal! Students are cowardly attacked
in occupations! Black people are being killed by the PM and the state says it is "uncommon
case"! Peripheries and slums wake up with men of the armed forces in front of their
houses! There is no money for hospitals and popular restaurants! If like us you have
nothing to celebrate, come to the Official unopening of Olympics Exclusion - 2016 and
bring your agenda, your repulse, your protest! Bring your strength and join us! Proposal:
a night of cultural activities with music, theater, film screenings and debates focusing
the Olympic Games in the city amidst the progress of austerity measures across the
country, Mainly in Rio de Janeiro.
Freedom for Rafael Braga Vieira and the end of the poverty criminalizing.
https://www.facebook.com/events/497199940475056/
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Message: 3
Boris Johnson is away causing trouble on an undeserved holiday, so Class War decided to
cancel their well-planned march on Boris Johnson’s house on Friday 5th August and to
instead contribute to #ShutDown #BlackLivesMatter actions across the UK that day. ----
While we despise Boris, it is more important right now that we show how much
#BlackLivesMatter, so we will see you for widespread #ShutDown any time, any place, Friday
5th August 2016
----http://www.classwarparty.org.uk/black-lives-matter-boris-class-war-supporting-blm-across-uk-friday-5-august/
================ Actions supporting Black Lives Matter, London E1, Friday 5 August ----
When: 5th August 2016 @ 18:30 ---- Where: Altab Ali Park, Adler St, London E1, UK ----
#BlackLivesMatter across the UK, 5 August, more info to come… Text from facebook events
here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1161708690535045/
Crisis / 'kr??s?s / a time of intense difficulty or danger. For 400 years+ we have endured
crisis. This is a crisis.
5 years ago. 1 day after they killed Mark Duggan. 1 day before the riots. A moment for
rage, reflection and rebuilding.
#ShutDown
Turn up. Celebrate. Commemorate. Feel Rebellious.
We’re coming together to remember we have won before, and we will win again, that
racialised sexism, classism and homophobia will become a thing of the past, that we will
be free.
We hold up the names of those lost to state violence here. Sarah Reed. Mzee Mohammed.
Jermaine Baker. Mark Duggan and 1,562 others since 1990. Where is justice for Sean Rigg,
Leon Patterson and Kingsley Burrell?
And for those unknown names of black and brown fam who are killed in the tens of thousands
by Fortress Britain, at sea, in detention? When we say Black Lives Matter, we don’t just
mean Black British Citizens’ Lives Matter.
Where is the justice for our neighbours? Adama Traore in France, Emmanuel Namdi in Italy,
in the last month alone.
#Restart
Switch on. Community. Creation. Feel ambitious.
This is not just another march or demonstration, this is organisation. Invite your family,
your local sports club, your religious parish, your local pressure groups.
Let’s assemble, and decide how we move forward, together. This is about how we build
community defence and resilience. This is about self determination.
#JumpIn
Look around, we are the people we’ve been waiting for. Police monitoring groups.
Restorative justice groups. Anti-immigration raids networks. Self defence groups.
Community food grow schemes. International solidarity groups connecting the dots, showing
how until our fam overseas stop being oppressed, then nobody is free. If you have an idea,
or group, come through. Then take action in your area, whichever action works for your
community.
We need a new politics, to take decisions and our destiny into our own hands. This means
we need to get people up and out, talking and creating, listening and grieving, believing
that there is another way.
Spread the word.
We will win.
Black Power. People Power.
UKBLM
UKBLM are a coalition of activists from across the UK who believe deeply that
#BlackLivesMatter. UKLBM is not affiliated with any political party (e.g. Socialist Party,
Socialist Workers Party, or Labour). We work in co-ordination with other anti-racist
groups. For the sake of transparency we publicly state those whose work we support or
position we stand in solidarity with.
http://www.classwarparty.org.uk/event/blacklivesmatter-across-uk-5-august/
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Message: 4
Padlock, after eviction, he joined the private clinic "New Athenaeum", located in Pangrati
with the enterprise's owners Michael Christoforidis -the vascular surgeon and the
anesthesiologist John Topalidi - leaving debts million. The padlock entered the clinic
once the company owes to current and former employees of more than three million euros, an
amount that the management of the clinic had accepted that he is up to 11.25.2015 with
detailed nominal state was obliged to hand over to the Ministry of Labour. ---- They paid
for his hostel ARSIS workers in Oreokastro - The struggle continues! The workers at the
hostel minors asylum seekers Oreokastro paid Friday 15/6/2016 six salaries, and related
gifts. Colleagues had started from the 1/6 work retention as They stayed for 7.5 months
unpaid. All this time the workers were not alone.
The solidarity of all / s who supported this fight was also the driving force for
continued retention by paying a large sum of their accrued. An important part of the
struggle for the repayment of the hostel workers were protest actions in the management of
NGOs and solidarity with their colleagues. The fight ended in a winning result through:
weekly interventions outside the offices of the NGO ARSIS Thessaloniki, the meeting with
the bosses of the base unions SVEPSYKOI, SVEMKO (when committed for direct repayment), the
intervention in radio station ERT3 the show where he had spoken the legal representative
of the organization Mr. Gavalas, the presence of the association in the event at the
Mediterranean College during the interactive presentation of the Mobile School ARSIS the
soiree on "modern intercultural education within the geopolitical and cultural
developments, "the solidarity of colleagues / isson (members of the SSC Athens - Sector
Education) in Athens during the Festival European music for the NGO" ARSIS "poster stuck
on the streets of Thessaloniki and Athens (SVEPSYKOI, SVEMKO), the texts from the base
unions SVEPSYKOI, COP-Central Macedonia SVEMKO, any small or large solidarity movement
from his colleagues within ARSIS. However, the fight is not yet over. Issue was not only
the repayment of the employees. All information on the race winning HERE .
In organizing "white night" in Samos July 30, progressing the Commercial Samos Association
and the Association of Food. The fiestas bosses mean trampling every labor right:
xecheilomena hours, unpaid overtime, excessive fatigue etc. Mound in enforcement effort
medieval conditions for workers in commerce from the employers and the general employer's
arbitrariness, can be only from the bottom industrious races. Because as he and the
relevant slogan: "white nights" of black bosses mean life of the workers.
48-hour strike for the withdrawal of redundancies and signed BIP to further rights, held
Tuesday, the 26th and Wednesday, July 27, workers at the former «Phosphoric Fertilizers
Industry" (PFI) .The repeated 48-hour strike Thursday, the 28th 29 and Friday of July. The
morning of the first day of the strike (July 26) workers PFI found at the factory gate
safeguarding their strike, while intense was the presence of cops in riot police, who even
went to two arrests in an attempt to curb the moral and the fighting morale of others. It
is worth noting that employees of PFI, interests megaloapateona Lavrenti Lavrentiadis,
came out in June on forced leave and from July 1 to 3-month availability, there have been
45 dismissals. The 200 workers are demanding withdrawal of redundancies and signed
Collective Agreement with modern rights.
Revoke conceived, illegal and terrorist worker-trade union dismissal from "ALUMINOX"
require workers and the sectoral union metal. The employer proceeded to dismiss the
unacceptable excuse that "no job factory", but the reality is that the particular union
bothered with the action.
24-hour strike Thursday, July 28 for the claim accrued, held by employees of the company
"SAGITTARIUS SA", employed in DEDDHE projects in the region of Attica. The strike was in
response to the breach of the obligation of employers which are not paid salaries as
promised until July 25.
Continued and the week we spent their fighting demonstrations workers collaborating
poultry Livaditi businesses, Jury, Viokot, Eliza Alcott 'Jury' interests, claiming their
accrued. Workers in "Jury" operations, conducted informational campaign for their struggle.
24 hour strike and rally outside the factory held Tuesday, July 26, workers in
"Leventeris" industry against nine dismissals were the last two months. According to the
termination of employees, the company, although profits, presented as "injurious",
isolating the productive part of the trade, with a view to close the factory where it is
produced.
The attempt to prevent industrial action by employers telephone company «CYTA» terminate
employees in business. Specifically , the complaint states that employers blocked the
entrance member of the business association to get in the building of the Transfiguration
business.
The new raid round on labor and social rights, which is program the gate for their
demolition, in the circle of violent transformations in favor of capital, denounces the
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL, MEDICAL PRODUCTS & ALLIED PROFESSIONALS. The
reactionary changes to the new work -leei the Announcement have as main objective the
reduction of the income of which passes through: the drastic reduction of labor costs, the
cancellation of all conquests and the reactionary reform of all-freedom rights, to limit
the possibility of race the collective organization and assertion. Their aim is to
eliminate the few remaining labor and union rights in the private jungle and expansion
followed the public. It is obvious that this is not a simple adjustment or legislative
intervention, but for a deep and comprehensive reactionary anti-labor section. They
discussed and end key measures generalized and universal intervention in the labor market
in order to overthrow all that existed until now. Discuss and plan measures for the
private sector, such as: elimination of the 13th and 14th salary in the private
tomeathespisi and promote the general flexibility in employment relationships that further
legal rights-institutionalization of all "new" forms of cheap, unprotected labor.
Reductions in the minimum wage, remuneration below the Labour Contracts (General, sectoral
any!) Through individual employment contracts (ISRs), employer's right to override the
CRS. Remove the aftereffect of all CRS. Full liberalization of collective redundancies.
Dismissals without any quantitative and percentage threshold. With elimination of any
"administrative veto", that is why in each Ministry of Labour to approve or not a
collective dismissal. Legislative repeal all surcharges - bonus - Experience. Promote
institutional framework itself and parallel to what would legislate and implement the
private sector and in the public and utilities. Changing even the trade union law N.
1264/82 on the way and the strike declaration time. Reduction and elimination of
protective devices for industrial action, etc. Reset the employer lockout
They continued and the last week of July to mobilize the hotel employees «Athens Ledra»
with intervention in the Ministry of Justice to speed up the process of criminal sanctions
to employers of «Athens Ledra». Moreover, the on August 3 hotel employees will give the
"present" at the Labor Department, and that day the deadline expires that has given the
ministry of labor to employers in order for the latter to satisfy the demands of workers.
Also on Thursday 4 August , will go to intervention in the Cyprus Embassy in Athens in
order to update the family of owners who originates and resides in Cyprus. Even planning
fighting demonstrations in companies whose owners are shareholders in «Athens Ledra».
Revoked immediately all officials from the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia -
Thrace, require the intervention of the Deputy Minister of Migration Policy, the workers
and the sectoral union. It is worth noting that all secondments of officials from the
Decentralised Macedonia - Thrace Administration were involuntarily in response to the
staffing of the Asylum Service.
With two 24-hour strikes on Wednesday 27 and Friday, July 29 escalated their struggle
workers OASTH, claiming accrued June.
Finally, this is the last release for this season. The working counter-bulletin will go
vacation, but not the labor struggles that never stop. The release will return to its
normal flow of 30 August. Iasta la vista pet #!
Tags: anarcho-syndicalism , work release , AAR Athens
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Message: 5
This article is about retaking the city of Mosul that has been under control of Isis since
09/06/2014. At the moment the Iraqi government is in talk with KRG and US forces about
making plan to liberate it. In my opinion this will be one of the bloodiest battle that
could happen in Iraq since 2003 after the invasion. I believe there is a hidden agenda,
when Isis is defeated, it will try to run away. The liberator forces may push them to
withdraw towards Jazeea in Rojava. So it is necessary for YPG/J and the Guerrillas to
change their tactic. ---- In retaking Mosul YPG/J and the Guerrillas must be aware of the
hidden agenda ---- By Zaher Baher ---- August 2016 ---- The plan and conspiracy between
Turkey, Qatar and The Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) against Rojava will never end.
Documents disclosed by Wikileaks recently regarding the meetings and agreements between
the three of them and a special meeting between Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Barzani, the head
of KRG, proves the truth if we were previously in doubt. Please see the links at the end
of article.
When ISIS invaded Mosul it was to the benefit of Turkey, Qatar and KRG. The liberation of
Mosul will also be to the benefit of the above unless YPG/J (people and women protection
units) and Guerrilla forces are aware of the changing tactics.
Turkey, Qatar and KRG have completely failed in their previous polices in defeating the
social movement and destroying the Cantons in Rojava, no matter how hard they’ve tried.
Starting by invading Mosul, attacking Kobane, committing terrorist acts, setting up a
no-fly zone in Rojava and finally Turkey failed in joint action with Saudi Arabia to enter
Syria and Rojava to fight Kurdish forces under the pretext of fighting the terrorist groups.
The current plan is to “retake Mosul”. The plan involves conspiracy and hidden agenda.
This could be brutal; if YPG/J and the Guerrillas do not change their tactics, we may lose
whatever was achieved so far in Rojava.
What is the plan/hidden agenda?
There were few reasons for the Turkey military to cross the border of Iraq in the last
year and stationed close enough to Mosul. One of these is the historical reason; Mosul was
one of the regions of the Ottoman Empire in the olden days. Other reasons: after defeating
Turkey and ISIS in Kobane, Turkey considered it important to defend ISIS if they come
under attack in Mosul in order to return to al-Raqqha and their territory safely. It was
also to protect the oil tankers that are transferring the cheap oil to Turkey and
al-Raqqha, to pressurise YPG/J and the Guerrillas that they are protecting Ezidis
community there and also to support and help Barzani’s Peshmarga if the fighting break up
between them and the forces of YPG/J and The Guerrillas. More importantly comes the “big
plan or hidden agenda”, in an attempt to regain control of Mosul. It is anticipated the
outcome of the fight would defeat ISIS, as a result it would force ISIS to withdraw
towards Jazerra. This is the primary goal and original plan.
In my opinion this plan was made long time ago. It is hoped that when ISIS is defeated,
they will have nowhere to go but to withdraw towards al-Rabia. Al-Rabia and the areas
around it are under control of Barzani’s Peshmarga. In this situation it is easy for them
to penetrate Jazeera. Once they arrive there the plan that already designed will be
executed by launching the war against YPG/J in Jazeera and its citizens. What makes the
plan goes perfectly well is existing of he Kurdish National Council—the umbrella
organization composed of Syrian Kurdish parties created under Barzani’s sponsorship,
(ENKS). While the ENKS are Barzani’s allies if they do not support ISIS directly, they
certainly will support them indirectly.
The YPG/J, the Guerrillas and the Ezidis forces in retaking Mosul should try to defuse
Turkey and Barzani tactic. They should take part in this operation only very lightly.
Their main tactic should be gathering all their forces in the region behind the war line
to resist withdrawing ISIS towards Jazeera borders. Here it is extremely important to
prevent from entering Jazeera. They should be destroyed, if not, to be forced to withdrew
to inside Iraq and Bashur (Iraqi Kurdistan). Let the Iraqi government and KRG to deal with
them as initially both of them just did nothing when ISIS entered their lands and invaded
Mosul, in fact they let ISIS carried out genocide to the Ezidis.
I believe it is very necessary for the YPG/J and Guerrillas to stop this war that targets
the heart of Rojava, Jazeera; by defusing Turkey and KRG tactic in order to protect and
maintain what have been achieved so far there.
Links for reference:
ISIS survives largely because Turkey allows it to: the evidence ...
https://undercoverinfo.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/isis-survives-largely-because-turkey-allows-it-to-the-evidence/
WikiLeaks Reveals Saudi Arabia, Turkey & Qatar Secret Anti-Sy\
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&ved=0ahUKEwjz3KjH9KLOAhXmDsAKHby7CQoQFghbMAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mintpressnews.com%2Fwikileaks-reveals-saudi-arabia-turkey-qatar-secret-anti-syria-plot%2F211542%2F&usg=AFQjCNHbdfCLl9mLswG2fxhF87gsAnRdqQ
Yerevan Saeed one of the Rudaw TV staff that financed by the Prime minster of KRG,
Necheravan Barzani passed information on MIT about the PKK movement and its relationship
with the Kurdish political parties in Bashur.
In the link below Yerevan Saeed informing MIT about the movement of PJK ( the PKK
sisterhood in Iran) on the Iran/ Iraq borders
In the link below Yerevan Saeed informed MIT that PKK wants to have relationship with Israel.
zaherbaher.com
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29514
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Message: 6
This article speaks on the failures of the anarchist movement to grow, despite numerous
social movements, and how models of anarchist political organization point the way forward
to overcome these pitfalls. This piece originally appeared in Perspectives on Anarchist
Theory No. 27 (2014) published by the Institute for Anarchist Studies. ---- By Colin
O’Malley ---- Introduction ---- Two recent events have thrown critical challenges at the
anarchist movement in the United States: the financial crisis that began in 2008 and the
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement that sprung from that crisis in 2011. If the current
political and economic outlook in this country is any indication, we should expect more
frequent moments like these to arise. “Movement Moments” such as these are critical
opportunities for revolutionaries of any variety, left or right. Acceptance of the status
quo seems impossible.
—
OWS, in particular, presented an incredible opportunity for anarchism. It was largely
propelled by anarchists, in many places sustained by anarchists, and certainly got many
people talking about anarchism. In Mark Bray’s recent work Translating Anarchy: The
Anarchism of Occupy Wall Street, he looks at the influence of anarchism among organizers
in OWS and found:
The interviews showed that 39% of OWS organizers self-identified as anarchists. . . . I
noticed that 30% of organizers who did not self-identify as anarchists (34% of all
organizers didn’t identify with any overarching label) listed anarchism as an influential
element in their overall thought.
These Movement Moments don’t present themselves every day. It is essential for us to
critically examine what our movement has gained, what it has lost, and what it needs to be
stronger the next time that a Movement Moment happens. So, given the early influence of
anarchism to OWS organizers, what was gained? In some places it seems that
anti-foreclosure direct action groups have grown, in others the Industrial Workers of the
World (IWW) has seen growth in membership, and in general there is certainly a feeling
that anarchist ideas are increasingly a part of the dialogue in many social justice
movements. None are explicitly anarchist gains, though.
While the direct action anti-foreclosure movement and the IWW obviously have some internal
anarchist influence, neither is expressly anarchist and both often actively avoid a strong
connection to anarchists.
Bray concludes that Occupy Wall Street was a missed opportunity by anarchists:
When I step back to evaluate the tangible political outcome for the anarchist movement
after months spent before a world spotlight with thousands of eager new people beating the
doors down to get involved, I get the sinking feeling that to some extent we too “glided
through these events like ectoplasm through a mist.” We didn’t even have any competing
leftist formations. The field of political influence was left open to us and we didn’t get
as much out of it as we should have.
Bray credits a lack of organization as a key piece of this missed opportunity:
A lot of new organizers were inspired by the anarchist ethos and it would have been useful
for anarchist organizers to be able to say, “Oh, you’re interested in anarchism? Come to
our discussion Thursday evening about ‘anarchist perspectives on organizing’;” or “Maybe
you’d be interested in joining our anarchist organization/collective.”
Of course, the simple conclusion that anarchists should build, or even have, organization
isn’t a new or comprehensive idea. But, looking to anarchists in South America, we see
more clearly the concept of organizing as anarchists and the role of an explicitly
anarchist organization. Given the success that anarchists have had in South America, it’s
certainly worth considering their methods and applying those that make sense in our context.
Building a Revolutionary Anarchism Speaking Tour
I chose to coordinate the Building a Revolutionary Anarchism Speaking Tour to help us take
full advantage of these Movement Moments to build the popularity and influence of
anarchism in the US. Originally expected to be only three or four stops, the final tour
included seventeen stops throughout the entire US over most of the summer of 2013. I found
that many others share a frustration with the lack of progress made by organized anarchism
during these Movement Moments, and that many others are hunting for new ideas about
effectively organizing while also maintaining their ideals as anarchists. The timing was
perfect. I found people all over the country that had initially been very excited by
Occupy Wall Street, but had since found themselves struggling to envision unified next steps.
In my short time as a committed organizer for transformational and revolutionary change in
the United States, I’ve seen multiple “Movement Moments” come and go. In each case, it
seems we failed to grow our movement and learn the lessons necessary to prepare for the
next moment. Along with a growing number of individuals and organizations in the country,
it became clear to me that the lack of an explicitly anarchist organization is one of our
major weaknesses.
It was 2007 when I became convinced of the real value of creating explicitly ideological
anarchist organizations. While in Argentina, I became acquainted with some members of the
Red Libertaria of Buenos Aires, a formal anarchist communist organization engaged in a
wide variety of educational and organizational activities. Almost immediately, I was
struck by the thoughtfulness, intelligence, sincerity, and effectiveness of the anarchist
movement there. It’s an inspiration that I’ve focused on sharing since my return to the
United States.
The Building a Revolutionary Anarchism Speaking Tour helped me not only to share that
inspiration, but to dive into some of the detailed differences in organizing method that I
saw in Argentina. But it wasn’t simply minor organizational tweaks that I felt I needed to
share. Anarchists in South America had developed a theory of the role of the revolutionary
anarchist organization, especifismo . It was this understanding of ourselves and our role
in movement building that I felt a powerful urgency to share. And in June 2013, as the
scheduled tour dates quickly jumped from five to seventeen, I knew that urgency to be a
shared one.
Discomfort with Ideological Organization in the US
To explain my perspective on ideological organization prior to living in Argentina, I need
to back up a bit. It’s necessary to contrast my earlier experiences with those that I had
in Argentina, to better express my current perspectives.
I would have described myself as an anarchist since sometime in the year 2000. I became
aware of the ideas of anarchism through the anti-World Trade Organization demonstrations
in Seattle. At that time, I felt revolution right around the corner. Seeing resistance
popping up around the country was inspiring and seemed connected to other movements
internationally. I participated in a couple of black blocs, and even one effort to form a
local anarchist group in Buffalo, called BuffalA (get it?). But I always had some real
discomfort with ideological groups.
Basically, BuffalA tried gathering together everyone in Buffalo that called themselves an
anarchist. We never had any agreed-upon principles. We couldn’t agree if we should
organize a militant labor movement towards taking over industry, or burn down all the
factories. Some argued we shouldn’t even make formal decisions. Some argued we shouldn’t
even meet—despite being at a meeting. Obviously, it didn’t take long for this effort to
collapse.
Having come from an industrial rust belt city, having grown up on and off of welfare, and
having my family routinely evicted from awful housing, I always felt that the anarchist
movement wasn’t really connected to the people that needed to be at the front of it: those
most impacted by capitalism, the state, patriarchy, and white supremacy.
Instead, we seemed to almost intentionally create an isolated subculture that was
resistant to really engaging in the problems of the people around us. We talked about
movements and general strikes and mass action, but we never seemed to want to genuinely
engage with the people that we were talking about. This disconnectedness led to a strict
purist mentality about what kind of groups were “anarchist enough” to work with. At the
end of the day, it seemed clear to me that this kind of purity was actually just a way to
rationalize our inactivity and isolation. Over time, we did have some good potlucks and
punk shows, a Food Not Bombs, and an infoshop. But in the end, none of these projects
really developed stronger organizers. None of them led to any sense that greater social
change was on the way. None of them even led to a couple of new leaders from communities
of color or the working class. This isn’t a very new problem in the US anarchist movement.
In the 1930s, Lucy Parsons noted this:
Anarchism has not produced any organized ability in the present generation, only a few
loose struggling groups scattered over this vast country, that come together in
conferences occasionally, talk to each other, then go home. . . . Do you call this a
movement? . . . I went to work for the International Labor Defense because I wanted to do
a little something to help defend the victims of capitalism who got into trouble, and not
always be talking, talking, talking.
In my experience, the same proved true. Eventually, the purity, isolation, and outright
poor organizing skill seemed disingenuous. I began spending more time organizing with
broader “social justice” and “worker rights” groups. While I often had pretty serious
disagreements with the analysis of these groups, at least I saw some degree of real
organizing happening, and I felt less isolated in my own community. So, by the time I went
to Argentina, I would have called myself an anarchist, but I wouldn’t have argued for
anarchist organizations.
Anarchism in Argentina
I didn’t go to Argentina to learn about anarchism or anarchist organization. I went to
learn about the workers’ movements that had been taking over their workplaces. I was
intrigued about what made their workers’ movements so much more militant than ours. The
short answer I discovered is that they aren’t afraid of ideology. Anarchist, socialist,
and communist ideas were far more openly discussed than in the United States. Each of
these ideological groupings had multiple organizations, spaces, and publications, and all
had members inside of major unions, community organizations, and student groups.
It didn’t take long for me to meet the Red Libertaria de Buenos Aires, a citywide
organization of anarchist communists that described themselves as “especifistas”—a word I
had never heard and wouldn’t really understand until months later. To a lesser extent, I
also met members of the Federación Libertaria de Argentina.
Almost immediately, I saw real differences between the Red Libertaria and my previous
experiences. At the first Red Libertaria event that I attended, I met workers organizing
in their workplaces, students organizing in their student unions, people living in the
villas miserias (shantytowns) engaged in their community organizations. This depth of
presence in oppressed communities was almost the exact opposite of the isolated
subcultural groups I was accustomed to in the US. Even more important than the diversity
in the room, the conversation within was notably stronger. Anarchism was spoken of as a
road map for people actually engaged in day-to-day struggles. Immediately, I felt I should
pay attention to how they were organizing. While there are certainly anarchists in the US
that organize in a manner similar to Argentina, these methods don’t seem to be the
standard here. For the most part, Argentine organizing was much different from what I had
experienced in the US.
First, the Red Libertaria had developed clear points of unity. They were an expressly
anarchist communist organization. They weren’t building an organization of anyone that
called themselves anarchists. Rather, they developed specific agreements as a pretext for
joining. Often, this approach is treated as authoritarian in US anarchist circles. But
having a clear set of unifying points made organizing around those points so much easier,
even if it results in smaller founding groups.
Second, the Red Libertaria didn’t use consensus. This was an absolute shock to me. It had
been ingrained in me that consensus was the only acceptable form of decision making among
anarchists. On a global basis, our attitudes in the US are a bit of an anomaly. In most of
the rest of the world, anarchists don’t insist on consensus. As Andrew Cornell points out
in Oppose and Propose!: Lessons from Movement for a New Society, Quakers brought consensus
to US anarchism.
A vital door to creating much larger organizations rather than small nonsustaining
affinity groups, could be opened by allowing for simpler and quicker forms of decision making.
Third, the Red Libertaria had dues. Members paid dues to ensure a well funded organization
and to guarantee that everyone was sharing in the costs equally. This is important for a
couple of reasons. When an organization grows in membership, it also grows in resources
that help to fund a space, publications, a media wing, events publicity, etc. Meanwhile
membership shares equitably in the costs of the organization. It’s been shown in many
studies that poorer people will often give more out of their pockets than more well off
members. However, a scaled dues system ensures that those with greater resources help to
fund the organization to a greater degree.
Combined, these differences in organizing techniques paint a pretty obvious picture.
Anarchists in Buenos Aires were building formal organization and weren’t afraid to be
straightforward about that. There wasn’t a need to constantly bend to nearly hegemonic
antiorganizational views. I argue that the anarchist movement in the US has nothing to
lose from at least some of us doing the same. There are plenty of antiorganizational or
informal organizational groupings. Let’s stop assuming that there is something
anti-anarchist about building intentional and formal organization. Simplistic and purist
internal policing shouldn’t prevent us from experimenting with ways to build towards
revolution.
Especifismo
While even a handful of small process differences increase the strength of South American
anarchist organizations, the critical distinctions don’t stop there. Our differences run
much deeper than that. The Red Libertaria had a more comprehensive understanding of the
role of an ideological anarchist organization—how it worked to build anarchist ideas and
how it related to broader movements of working class people and communities. These ideas
are called especifismo and have become an important part of the organized anarchist milieu
in South America.
In the US, many of us were introduced to the notion of especifismo through the article,
“Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary
Organization in South America” by Adam Weaver in the eleventh issue of The Northeastern
Anarchist. While this article wasn’t my introduction to especifismo, I’ve found it to be a
useful summary of those ideas. In his article, Weaver breaks down especifismo into three
succinct points:
1. The need for a specifically anarchist organization built around a unity of ideas and
praxis.
2. The use of the specifically anarchist organization to theorize and develop strategic
political and organizing work.
3. Active involvement in and building of autonomous and popular social movements, which is
described as he process of “social insertion.”
This basic breakdown provides a road map for the development of anarchist organization
that has an impact beyond itself.
The Specific Anarchist Organization
In the statement, “Our Conception of Anarchist Organization,” the Federação Anarquista do
Rio de Janeiro (FARJ) say:
This model of organization maintains that the function of the specific anar – chist
organization is to bring together and coordinate the forces stemming from militant
activities, building a tool for solid and consistent struggle, that seeks a finalist
objective: social revolution and libertarian socialism. We believe that work without (or
with little) organization, in which each one does what they want, poorly articulated or
even isolated, is inefficient. The model of organization we advocate seeks to multiply the
result and effectiveness of militant forces.
Simply put, it’s through organization and collective action that our individual efforts
find a more compelling result. And, it’s through organization that we allow our efforts to
sustain themselves beyond the activity and participation of solid individual militants and
organizers. Organizations are capable of weathering through the more dormant moments
between mass movements; something that is vital if we are to genuinely learn from the
lessons of each movement in which we participate.
In Buffalo Class Action and in Rochester Red & Black, two local anarchist organizations
inspired by especifismo, my experience has been that an explicitly anarchist organization
enables us to make the ideas of anarchism more appealing and relevant to the day-to-day
struggles happening in our towns. In both cases, with little time, we found we were having
an impact beyond ourselves as others heard our ideas and welcomed our intentional support
for specific organizations and their fights. In the case of Rochester Red & Black, this
influence seems to have gone beyond Rochester. Despite being a group of fewer than twenty,
as I traveled the country speaking, I found quite a few people that were already familiar
with Rochester Red & Black. This kind of impact couldn’t have been accomplished to the
same degree by any one individual in our organization.
Developing Theory and Strategy
In anarchist circles we seem to be in a never ending conversation about tactics and
whether tactics are effective. In this case, we’re missing the forest for the trees. One
particular tactic isn’t universally effective or ineffective; its efficacy is based on how
it is incorporated into a broader strategy. In many anarchist circles, there is very
little conversation about strategy beyond simple tactical preferences, and these tactical
choices are often based on personal predisposition for a degree of superficial militancy
rather than effective integration into a larger strategy.
In “Huerta Grande,” the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU)—the initial developers of the
theory of especifismo—share the importance and connection of theory to the development of
strategic organizing.
Without a line for the theoretical work, an organization, no matter how big it is, will be
bewildered by circumstances that it cannot condition nor comprehend. The political line
presumes a program, which means goals to be achieved at each step. The program indicates
which forces are favorable, which ones are the enemy and which ones are only temporary
allies. But in order to know that we must know profoundly the reality of our country.
Therefore to acquire that knowledge now is a task of the highest priority. And in order to
know we need a theory.
Having a clear strategic program will simultaneously protect our organizations from
manipulation by larger political forces and allow us to offer strategic direction to
people in struggle for concrete gain. And if we can’t offer a genuine path to building
militant organizations that will eventually lead us into revolutionary conditions, how can
we really call ourselves revolutionaries? Without a clear program developed by anarchists,
we will find ourselves stuck working with reformist organizations while ignoring our own
beliefs or being revolutionary in name only—speaking the most militantly, no matter how
impractical our strategies really are.
Once we have such a theory and a program worked out, what to do with that program will be
a new challenge entirely. Do we move to enact that program with just our own small group
of committed, organized anarchists? The third point of Weaver’s breakdown of especifismo
helps to clarify the next step.
Social and Political Levels of Organizing
In many ways, the notion of “social insertion”—as it’s called in South America—is the
heart of especifismo. To thoroughly understand social insertion, we first need to
understand the distinctions between social movements and political organizations.
Basically, social insertion is how organizations and movements interact as well as the
role of the revolutionary anarchist political organization within that relationship.
As I’ve said, the anarchist political organization is simply an organization of
self-identified anarchists with an articulated unity of ideas and praxis that are working
to develop a strategic program of revolution leading to anarchist social and economic
structures. Of course, by its nature, this organization will be fairly small in comparison
to the general population and will expect a high level of commitment from its membership.
The other essential counterparts in our revolutionary efforts are social movements and
their organizations. In “Social Anarchism and Organization,” the FARJ explains the central
role of social movements in anarchist revolutionary thought:
If the struggle of anarchism points towards the final objectives of social revolution and
libertarian socialism, and if we understand the exploited classes to be the protagonists
of the transformation towards these goals, there is no other way for anarchism but to seek
a way to interact with these classes.
Social movement is the mass organization of exploited classes, including the unions of
working people, the tenants organization in apartment complexes, the student unions in
schools, the popular assemblies of neighborhoods, and the self-organization of the
unemployed. Social movements gain their strength from mass participation more than from
ideological purity. In a workplace struggle, all workers should be involved, not just the
anarchist ones.
The union would marginalize itself to only serve those workers that identify as anarchists
or require that a joining member be anarchist. To do so would weaken the union’s ability
to fight the bosses and, ultimately, weaken the struggle against capitalism.
Simply put, an anarchist and anti-vanguardist perspective of revolution is that the social
movements themselves are the revolutionary actors; their organizations will ultimately
bring about a social revolution. The anarchist organization is not the vanguard leading
the people to revolution. Rather, the anarchist organization offers genuine revolutionary
direction to social movements and the exploited classes that make up those movements.
Social Insertion and the Relation Between the Social and Political
How do anarchists intend to engage with the broader classes that make up social movements?
Especifista organizations argue that social insertion is the way that anarchists should
engage with those broader classes. The importance of social insertion can’t be overstated.
As the FARJ say, “Social work and insertion are the most important activities of the
specific anarchist organization.”
Social insertion is about engaging in social movements and their organizations as genuine
participants.
As participants in a revolutionary anarchist organization, we would then be participants
and members of two or more organizations. Dual organizational orientation brings us into
direct day-to-day contact with non-anarchists of the exploited classes, as they engage in
organizing and struggle for their survival.
Within these organizations, revolutionary anarchists should openly advocate for our
positions, even when in the minority, to clearly articulate the perspective that we offer.
Our ideas of direct action, horizontal organizing, class struggle, and anti-capitalism
should be openly discussed in the social movements as important strategic elements of
gaining power for the social movement.
It is important to highlight that open advocacy does not mean that anarchists should
attempt to capture leadership of these organizations or attempt to “ideologize” a social
movement into an anarchist social movement. Instead, the purpose of open advocacy is to
remind the broader social movements of the power that they hold and their ability to
fundamentally restructure society.
Our revolutionary anarchist ideals will find traction in social movements through our
influence as members of the social movement with a clear vision of a new world and with
the organizing skill of long-term militants. This means that, as anarchists we will teach
our ideas to our companions in struggle by “doing and showing” much more than by “talking
and explaining.”
Active engagement in building the social movement, doing the necessary day-to-day work to
exemplify a strong grassroots social movement member, and fighting on issues of survival
for the exploited classes will grow our own influence.
Not only will engagement of this sort help the anarchist militants and organizers to grow
their influence, but such direct activity is essential to informing their strategic and
theoretical perspectives. A perspective divorced from the on-the-ground class struggle
can’t possibly know the important local actors, the way they interact, and who to work
with and how. Knowing these details will make us stronger organizers and better allies to
those in our communities and social movements.
Actively breaking down the division between committed, organized anarchists and broader,
but likely more reformist, social movements is particularly important in the United States.
Since at least the 1950s leftist organizers have been actively, and sometimes brutally,
separated from larger social movements. Over the decades, social movements have grown
accustomed to having no revolutionary perspectives openly discussed and argued. At the
same time, ideological groups have grown accustomed to having little or no influence in
the arena of social movements. The result has been social movements afraid of asserting
their own power and even more afraid of discussing “radical” ideas. On the other hand,
ideological groups have developed a habit of creating perfect models of organizing that
will never see the light of day and using them to denounce the social movements for
failing in their mission. If we’re ever to see real change, the division between
revolutionary anarchists and social movements must be broken down. Social movements need
us, and we need them.
Social Movements Need Us
I find myself frequently speaking in anarchist circles. In these circles, I’ve noticed a
strong understanding of all the ways in which social movements need anarchists and our
perspectives.
The anarchist critique on the strategies and tactics used by most movements are familiar.
Unfortunately, these critiques are frequently used to denounce social movements and
rationalize our lack of activity rather than to propose more meaningful ways in which to
engage.
However, revolutionaries engaged in social movements often agree with our perspectives and
would also like to see them utilized.
One very obvious strategic perspective of anarchists that seems utterly lost on those in
more reformist social movements is the trap that electoral and legislative campaigns
really are. The anarchist perspective of direct action as the primary means to demand
change is critical to redirecting energy in many social movements away from their failed
reliance on electoral politics.
When unified and concerted activity by thousands of individuals is your primary source of
power, as it generally is for social movements, hierarchical organization is a huge
impediment to your own power. The notions of horizontal organization offered by anarchists
allow for the individual rank-and-filer to have a genuine sense of ownership of their
organizations and the decisions of those organizations, which in turn leads to more
committed and concerted activity on the part of those members.
Many social movements exist specifically for empowering groups of people in exploited
classes. In effect, this is participation in class struggle. Unfortunately, many such
groups have no intentional focus on class struggle. This confusion leads to serious
strategic blunders in selecting allies, accepting funding, and granting influence.
Without an understanding that the organization must build its own power to engage in class
struggle more effectively, many organizations undermine themselves. They hand internal
power over to those that would otherwise be class enemies, they accept funding with its
many strings from those same enemies, and then wonder why they can’t actually build power.
In truth, they’ve been coopted as a symptom of their own deficient class consciousness.
In all of these situations, anarchism has a clear perspective to offer to social movements
that would help them strengthen themselves. And if the anarchists involved were more
interested in strengthening the social movement than they are in always being right, then
they will know when and how to engage those internal debates.
We Need Social Movements
What many anarchist circles in the United States tend to forget is how important a real
connection to broader social movements is for the anarchist tendency. Rooting the ideas of
anarchism in the concrete day-to-day struggles of marginalized people gives anarchism a
necessary grounding in reality.
In the immediate sense, there is a clear need for organizer training in the US anarchist
movement. After decades of organizing largely in insular circles of other anarchists,
we’ve lost many of the large-scale organizing and institution-creating skills that many of
our predecessors possessed. The historic difficulties of keeping infoshops and other
anarchist spaces alive are an obvious result of these basic deficiencies. Given the recent
excitement generated by the IWW, in the anarchist milieu one would expect greater growth
in mem – bership. The waxing and waning of local anarchist organizations is often less the
result of some inherent problem with the notion of organization than it is the result of
simply lacking basic organi – zational skill of local anarchists. Basic organization of
meetings, maintenance of local publications, development of strong events and
mobilizations, and building local institutions of our movements are all things that we
could stand to learn from broader social movements.
Our collective weakness in organizing around peoples’ everyday experiences and developing
effective responses has led to another huge problem: a disconnect between anarchism and
working-class communities and communities of color. These are precisely the communities
where the self-emancipatory ideas of anarchism need to be rooted. And just as importantly,
the daily experiences of these folks help to inform the strategies, tactics, and thinking
of organizers. There is no way that the anarchist movement can claim to have any genuinely
revolutionary potential without being rooted in those communities that most need revolution.
A deeply rooted connection to the realities of everyday people has a more profound impact
than simply informing our organizing strategies and tactics; it also gives our ongoing
theoretical development a similar connection to reality. Many modern theories emanating
from the US anarchist milieu have very little meaningful connection to the realities of
marginalized people in our communities, and when we allow ourselves to remain only in
these insular communities, we eventually have debates that are totally unintelligible to
the people around us. If we intend to build mass movements, this disconnect and its
widening nature should frighten us.
Revolution, Counter-revolution, and Lessons Learned
The historical context of especifismo is important if we’re to think about what it means
for us today and the seriousness through which we should view these ideas. Especifismo
came out of Uruguay after years of dictatorship.
Despite having an incredibly powerful and influential anarchist movement in the early
1900s, Uruguay entered a dictatorial period from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. During
this period, some members of the FAU engaged in an intense process to learn what allowed
them to lose their country to fascism and how to strengthen future anarchist efforts.
Especifismo embodied the ideas that came from that process and which quickly found
thoughtful adherents in many other South American countries that were similarly escaping
dictatorship.
Similar conclusions were made by other anarchists after similar experiences. As the
Spanish Revolution devolved into a prolonged civil war, with the fascists taking a more
obvious advantage, the Friends of Durruti rose to defend the importance of a specifically
anarchist revolution. In their statement, “Towards a Fresh Revolution,” the Friends of
Durruti extol the need to learn from the mistakes of the July revolution:
Revolutions cannot succeed if they have no guiding lights, no immediate objectives. This
is what we find lacking in the July revolution. Although it had the strength, the CNT did
not know how to mold and shape the activity that arose spontaneously in the street. The
very leadership was startled by events which were, as far as they were concerned, totally
unexpected. They had no idea which course of action to pursue. There was no theory. Year
after year we had spent speculating around abstractions. What is to be done? The leaders
were asking themselves then. And they allowed the revolution to be lost.
In Russia, anarchists were an es – sential part of the revolution. Anarchists there
experienced one of the earliest betrayals as authoritarian communists destroyed the
instruments of worker power that anarchists had helped to create and, ultimately, drove
those anarchists out of the country. A few years later, based in France and looking back
on the Russian Revolution, the group of Russian Anarchists called Dielo Truda spoke of
their thoughts:
It was during the Russian Revolution of 1917 that the need for a general organization was
felt most deeply and most urgently. It was during this revolution that the libertarian
movement showed the greatest degree of sectionalism and confusion. The absence of a
general organization led many active anarchist militants into the ranks of the Bolsheviks.
In the “Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists,” Dielo Truda set out their
ideas of the importance of an explicitly anarchist organization built around a unity of
theory and practice, as well as the role it would play and the methods it would utilize.
“Anarchism is no beautiful fantasy, no abstract notion of philosophy, but a social
movement of the working masses; for that reason alone it must gather its forces into one
organization, constantly agitating, as demanded by the reality and strategy of the social
class struggle.”
Whether it was seeing the losses of an explicitly anarchist revolution in Spain or seeing
their country devolve into fascism, the lessons of how an anarchist movement can have a
greater impact on a larger scale are remarkably similar. If we hope to have any meaningful
impact in the United States as the world goes through ongoing crises in global capitalism,
we must consider these lessons seriously.
A Question of Scale and Timing
We don’t have time to learn these lessons in our own country. The political and economic
reality of the world and the United States’ role in the world is changing rapidly. The
decline of the American standard of living, the approaching “minority majority,” the
weakening ability of the United States government to enforce its empire abroad, and
impending ecological crises all make the status quo untenable for the elite as well as the
exploited classes. Social upheaval will only increase in frequency. Spontaneous rebellion,
whether militant or reformist, left or right, will happen.
Such uprisings and upheavals won’t always go our way. They typically go the direction of
those most capable of offering real or seemingly real answers well-organized anarchist
movement capable of offering our ideals with the strategies and tactics to get us there,
what makes us believe that any upheaval will move us towards true liberty, equality, and
solidarity? I fear that if we don’t actively work to further our influence and increase
our skills in day-to-day political and economic organizing, the battle of ideas will be
won by much worse people.
Could the approaching “minority majority” be used as a lightning rod for empowering racist
and fascist tendencies amongst a scared white working class?
The answer is yes, it already is. The membership of the Aryan Brotherhood is estimated as
high as twenty thousand in and out of the prison system. The anti-immigrant sentiment of
the Tea Party isn’t hard to turn in a more explicitly fascist direction. What about the
right wing “libertarians”? Is there any reason to believe that in a moment of social
disruption that they wouldn’t advocate for wholly private, for-profit policing to “secure
order”?
These moments require us to do more than treat anarchism like an interesting book club. We
need to engage in thoughtful, committed, and sincere organizing to prepare ourselves and
our communities for the challenges that lie ahead. We need to develop an anarchism with
deep roots in our struggling communities and work within those communities to develop a
counter- hegemonic intellectual and organizing tradition. It is and always has been the
only hope for achieving an anarchist future and is essential to defending against any
drift towards fascism. It’s apparent to me that especifismo offers vital lessons for us to
learn exactly these things. to some or all people. Without a
Class Struggle Anarchist Network and Beyond
While I write this, the local organization to which I belong, Rochester Red & Black, is
engaged in a nationwide anarchist organization along with a number of other local and
regional organizations in the United States. Many of these organizations are informed and
inspired by the methods of organizing detailed by the especifista organizations in South
America.
The development of this organization hasn’t been easy. And I don’t imagine that the
ongoing organizing of the group will be easy either. It may last through to revolution, or
it may fall apart. Either way, to go through the experiences and struggles with one
another and develop such an organization is essential to building the anarchist movement
in the US.
Personally, I have high hopes that such a formation will lead to an anarchist movement
that continues to hold its revolutionary ideas while building real depth in our
neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, and families. Without a popular anarchism, we can’t
have a revolutionary anarchism.
http://www.blackrosefed.org/building-a-revolutionary-anarchism
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