Official Anarchists.
May 21 2008
I don't know if this has ever been mentioned before, but there is something in the political positions of the ICC that has always puzzled me. Thus,.... "All factions of the bourgeoisie are equally reactionary. All the so-called 'workers', 'Socialist' and 'communist' parties (now ex-'Communists'), the leftist organisations (Trotskyists, Maoists and ex Maoists, official anarchists) constitute the left of capitalism's political apparatus."......... What is an OFFICIAL ANARCHIST when it is at home ?
May 21 2008
#2
Maybe its like the Official IRA / Provisional IRA split. What next? Real Anarchists. Continuity Anarchists.
I Cant Believe Its Not Anarchists.
May 21 2008
#3
Offical Anarchists That Hate Official Anarchists
May 21 2008
#4
32 County Soverignty Anarchists. Come to think of it......
May 21 2008
#5
Sorry, if you dont know what an official anarchist is then fuck off.
May 21 2008
#6
This thread should really be about libcom's role in fostering left-of-capital tendency among working class struggles. Very clearly you shoudl re-name this thread to reflect this, blah blah blah blah blah blah.
May 21 2008
#7
Could you shut up, I'm trying to reach the status of official anarchist here. Stop making jokes.
May 21 2008
#8
Jess wrote:
Could you shut up, I'm trying to reach the status of official anarchist here. Stop making jokes.
Pretty sure you know what you need to do, or gtfo.
May 22 2008
#9
guydebordisdead wrote:
Jess wrote:
Could you shut up, I'm trying to reach the status of official anarchist here. Stop making jokes.Pretty sure you know what you need to do, or gtfo.
you just can't stop can you 
May 22 2008
#10
Im just baiting you really. Libcommunitys very own white knight.
May 22 2008
#11
I'm no white knight!
May 22 2008
#12
Official Anarchists means the Anarchist Federations and their international - French, Italian, FAI, etc. The ICC sees that since the FAI joined the Republican Gov't, they are all part of the capitalist apparatus.
May 22 2008
#13
fnbrill wrote:
Official Anarchists means the Anarchist Federations and their international - French, Italian, FAI, etc. The ICC sees that since the FAI joined the Republican Gov't, they are all part of the capitalist apparatus.
That is simply fantastic
May 22 2008
#14
Ah but which Anarchist Federation, there are so many are there not? It's difficult to make hard and fast rules when the anarchists are so incoherent. In some cases, that's what saves them from joining the camp of capital. But the case of the CNT in 36 in Spain is pretty clear - it was integrated into the bourgeois state.
May 22 2008
#15
Well what did it mean in 1975?
May 22 2008
#16
I am the quarter master for the continuity anarchists.
We have stockpiles of all key anarchist materials.
May 22 2008
#17
Alf wrote:
Ah but which Anarchist Federation, there are so many are there not? It's difficult to make hard and fast rules when the anarchists are so incoherent. In some cases, that's what saves them from joining the camp of capital. But the case of the CNT in 36 in Spain is pretty clear - it was integrated into the bourgeois state.
You trace your heritage back to the third international. You are in no position to talk.
May 22 2008
#18
Quote:
You trace your heritage back to the third international. You are in no position to talk.
They trace their heritage to the original positions of the Comintern. The Left Communists were expelled from the Third International when they attempted to prevent it betraying its principles. I think Alf's point is that "official anarchists" (not all anarchists) are in continuity with the CNT's betrayal, just as the official CPs are in continuity with the betrayal of the Comintern.
May 22 2008
#19
Demogorgon303 wrote:
Quote:
You trace your heritage back to the third international. You are in no position to talk.They trace their heritage to the original positions of the Comintern. The Left Communists were expelled from the Third International when they attempted to prevent it betraying its principles. I think Alf's point is that "official anarchists" (not all anarchists) are in continuity with the CNT's betrayal, just as the official CPs are in continuity with the betrayal of the Comintern.
So anarchists are in continuity with the CNTs betrayal even if they reject it, like Platformists (and everyone else...) for example, but Left Communists hands are clean despite being in Stalins international?
You pick and chose which parts of history apply to whom and where, you are fucking madmen! (libcommunity, no ban).
May 22 2008
#20
guydebordisdead wrote:
So anarchists are in continuity with the CNTs betrayal even if they reject it, like Platformists (and everyone else...) for example, but Left Communists hands are clean despite being in Stalins international?
The ICC position (at least back in 1980) was that the old school AFs - the French AF, Italian AF and FAI, as well as the folks around them support the CNT's decision to join the Spanish gov't therefore are capitalists. They acknowledge that there are many strands of anarchism who are in the "proletarian milieu".
May 22 2008
#21
Blah blah blah blah, basically.
May 22 2008
#22
Who knows, we've gone through so many schisms its impossible to declare who is an "official" anarchist.
May 22 2008
#23
So, the IFA are the official anarchists? Does that make the platformists provos?
May 22 2008
#24
The ICC = nutjobs full fucking stop
GDID = loser who wants me as a Myspace friend for some reason...but apparently we'd get along well in person. Sounds like he might be entertaining on a night out.
The AF = as yet untapped potential, an intermittent tendency towards activism, need to be more critical of their membership and tone down emphasis on the word "anarchist" (which is just a word ultimately)...also needs to figure itself out WRT IWW. Met some good and bad members, although a number of dues only inactive types.
Solfed = as yet untapped potential, unfortunately occasionally rather monolithic and reductionist in its analysis of capital at times (the workplace is the CENTRE of struggle, not the only site), too caught up in deathly boring internal IWA politicking...lots of good members, especially in South London.
WSM = slightly confused and ass over tit WRT to parroting leftism, but are to be commended for their paradoxically Protestant work ethic and also their understanding of the potential of social movements.
This is Libcommunity so you can all call me a cunt, but then Arf'd get pissy and we all know how threads go downhill when she shows up.
I'd be a member of the any of the last 3 orgs that were active in my local area. If GDID was active in my local area, I'd publish his mugshot in the News of the World. If the ICC were active in my local area, I'd shoot down my roast pork dinner from the sky.
May 23 2008
#25
Alf wrote:
Ah but which Anarchist Federation, there are so many are there not? It's difficult to make hard and fast rules when the anarchists are so incoherent. In some cases, that's what saves them from joining the camp of capital. But the case of the CNT in 36 in Spain is pretty clear - it was integrated into the bourgeois state.
Yeah. There aren't a bazillion left communist sects and splinters from the iCC in particular. 
May 23 2008
#26
Alan wrote:
The ICC = nutjobs full fucking stop.
True, but Alf seems like a decent chap politics aside, love to come hear his band if I ever make it to London.
May 23 2008
#27
David in Atlanta wrote:
So, the IFA are the official anarchists? Does that make the platformists provos?
No, more like IPLO 
May 23 2008
#28
Quote:
So anarchists are in continuity with the CNTs betrayal even if they reject it, like Platformists (and everyone else...) for example, but Left Communists hands are clean despite being in Stalins international?
Straw man argument. I didn't say "anarchists", I said "official anarchists", i.e. those anarchist organisations and unions that participated in those actions and who perform a similar political role to the Trotskyists today. And the point about the Comintern is that it didn't start as Stalin's international anymore than the CNT started as a bourgeois organisation. Both were sucked in by the counter-revolution and turned against the working class.
May 23 2008
#29
Official anarchists are anarchists who always talk formally like lawyers and who wear suits all the time. As would be accepted by all, those people are clearly bourgeois.
Seriously though, I think the term, originating from describing the CNT's betrayal and also anarchists who actively supported the WW2, and now it applies to life-stylist anarchists, anarchists who have illusions in democracy, anarchists who think the "left" in power would be better than the "right" in power, anarchists who support nationalism and national liberation, anarchists who support political activity in the trade-unions, and also perhaps anarchists who are into "community" work. In other words anarchists who are and / or who aspire as cheerleaders to be integrated into the formal or informal institutions of bourgeois society, those who are a part of the left of capital just like the Trotskyists, Stalinists, Maoists etc. due to their political positions.
It is quite a valid emphasis, and also shows quite a fair approach to anarchism in my opinion.
May 23 2008
#30
No, it's a rubbish term. The harshest contemporary criticism I've seen of the CNTs actions during the civil war came from another section of the IWA. And the ICC don't actually believe their 'all factions of capital are equally reactionary' in practice anyway. Well, unless they also spend their time on stormfront trying to win fascists over to left communism that is.
The washing machine.