Explenation of Platformist Anarchism

I was wondering where all the tinfoil went!

Yeah, welcome comrade from Syria!

Who did that then?

George Fontenis was the secretary of the Anarchist Federation in France after world war 2, and decided to create the OPB (thought-battle organization), a secret internal faction of the FA, which worked to make sure that all of its members were the secretaries of the local groups, etc. Then he created another secret group inside the OPB to keep control of it.

This is all according to Skirde's history of platformism, including a letter by a group who left the OPB.

Fontenis also wrote the 'Manifesto of Libertarian Communism' which is considered a major platformist work. NEFAC have it on the 'Platformism' section of their site, just under the Friends of Durruti.

I would tend to agree with much of what booey has siad, though I would clearly consider myself more of an anarcho-syndicalist than anything else. But the need for a conscious, class struggle organization is what matters. Of course I would promote the WSA here in north america for that, but that's just my own bias

Ok, we can all share our criticisms of either platformism or syndicalism (depending on what side of thje coin one is coming from).

I think it might be good if we did some conteporary promotion of class struggle anarchists, rather than get caught up in particular documents.

For example, would would anarcho-syndicalism or class struggle anarchism be attractive to a teenager coming into the movment or an adult who hase been in a stalinist party in a closed country?

I think we have an opportunity to explain our particular views in constructive ways to two new comrades. Both coming from very different times in their lives.

I'd rather not waste the opportunity to have a mature discussion.

Because, Jack, that it is not the way to behave. You don't organise secret factions, you organise openly. So you think it was a good result that quite a few good social anarchists were expelled or forced out along with the individualists and that the FA transformed into the FCL then embarked on a derisory electoral adventure before tearing themselves apart because most of them then wanted to go "underground"?? Read Skirda again.

This Fontenis guy sounds like a don

No, because organising secretly led to all sorts of abuses, refusing to re-card good social anarchists like Maurice Fayolle, and then the secret group turning on its own members and hounding them out of the organisation , all of this within a feverish, apocalyptic atmosphere.The French movement still bears the scars of all of this and is only now beginning to recover, I feel.

Within an anarchist organisation, accountability matters. Secret factions wield more power as a group than individuals, but are completely unnaccountable, nobody knows who's in them, nobody knows what they're doing or why.

If you're that pissed off with the organisation you're in, you should split from it.

I agree with battlescarred and Madas: you can't seriously think that organising secretly will help your organisation in the long run if you think your organisation is anarchist.

You don't need to share every little initiative, but certainly if you are aiming to totally refound or change your group you must do it openly or you would just be manipulating people, not convincing them.

If they're, for instance, caucausing and operating as a group with the intention of changing the direction of the organisation or setting up another organisation altogether, yes.

I can't see how the FA being "loose knit" has anything to do with it. Factions have power, for instance through block voting and planning interventions, because of that, the rest of the organisation have to know what's going on, so that the faction can't manipulate the organisation or wield influence out of proportion to it's support.

what a timely thread! I suspect we may be talking around each other here.

For what its worth Jack and madas - the group which eventually left the AF last week organised openly, first as a declared and manifesto'd group, and then again when some of it joined another group outside the AF - and that is how i'd do it again

To be honest Tacks, there was a fair bit of confusion as to WTF you guys were up to and what you were trying to do. Eh, I suppose it's resolved now.

I'd have no problem with doing it within a union branch, it's another matter altogether if you're doing it within a political organisation. Like I already said, if you're that bothered, leave.

Ok, but its still a timely thread. What madas and Charlie have said could well be aimed at my group.

as he says its settled now

I wasn't having a pop, just saying that a lot of people weren't sure what was going on, partly because of the confusion between OOTS and this platformist thing. I thought the way you guys did things was mostly fair enough.

I suspect a bit of scene gossip has passed me by somewhat.

OOTS is the document Tacks referred to.

So you seriously think, Jack, that these abuses just appeared from nowhere and had nothing to do with the secrecy of the faction. Ever heard of the materialist method, ever heard of ends and means??

Looks like I'll have to guess what the letters stand for.

Out on the streets?
Out of the struggle?
Oi! Overthrow the State!?
Overcome oligarchy, Tacks says?

Am I getting warm?

Miles off, it's Out of the Shadows

There's nothing more to learn, really, Tacks summed up the whole thing a few posts back.

That reminds me I'm Hank Marvin meself, must have something to eat!

is there actually a record called 'out of the shadows'?!

I MUST OWN THIS

Not just a record...

'Queer Arts'?

Wtf is that?

'Careful Hirato - San, this one is knowledgable in the Queer Arts!'

I'm not against secret organization per se, there are some times where it's obviously called for, but even then the question of what's being done with the secret organization has to be asked. If it's set up to have everyone on it get elected to the right positions, and then to have a secret internal commission imposing hegemony over all members of the secret faction, and all of this is centered around one person, then yeah it's a bit of a problem.

which is what happened with the OPB and Fontenis

If you speak French then the text of the letter Fontenis sent to the co-founder of the OPB, Serge Ninn, is quite revealing
It's at the Fondation Pierre Besnard (French anarchosyndicalist site) along with other texts on the OPB
http://www.fondation-besnard.org/article.php3?id_article=526

Um if anybody actually curious about platformist anarchism is still reading the thread, please be aware that few people/groups currently identified with the platformist tradition recognize the actual political maneuvering of George Fontenis, which people have been arguing about for over half the thread, as a major inspiration.

From the Anarchist-Communist Federation's introduction to Fontenis' Manifesto:

http://flag.blackened.net/daver/anarchism/mlc/mlc1.html

Here is a broader range of primary documents, historical debates, and current reactions and reinterpretations: http://www.nefac.net/node/544