Explenation of Platformist Anarchism

Yes, I wrote that

Fontenis wanted to build an effective movement but the way he went about it was the wrong way. His intentions were good, his methods not.

Same like Lenin, Stalin and Mao.

Exactly.

I agree with Battlescarred on this- there is a lack of materialism here.
You can't divorce consequences from methods of organisation so easily. It is almost analogous to saying, "yeah, my grandad smoked every day, and he never got cancer". Yes, openly organised groups have committed all sorts of abuses and had all sorts of power struggles and the like, but it must be acknowledged that methods of organisation make these things more or less likely.

Or Juan Peiro, Federica Montseny etc etc

Yeah but at least modern syndicalists can explain why these, and Garcia Oliver, did what they did, and also acknowledge the gravity of what they did.

Rather than putting up a manifesto by them under a rubric on 'Syndicalism', with no comment.

Like Bekken and you Bekkenites?

I really don't understand why the mods don't ban you. Do you have have anything productive to say?

BTW does this comment qualify for a J. Rogue penance assessment?

1. Not to you.
2. That would be funny if there was some sort of friendliness here. There isn't.

I don't care about the funniness, just curious how much you're helping the IWW financially.

I would gladly deliver you an assesment stamp sometime.

Yeah? I'll take $5 on that!

Thug, Oliver, stop being twats and get back on topic. Anymore bollocks posts will be deleted..

hey oliver, not sure if you know but some french comrades have told me that the line you're spitting (which is what i was familiar with too via Skirda's Facing the Enemy) came out of a factional fight of which Skirda was a part of. Much of the french movement calls it slanderous. Personally I don't like Fontenis' language, and he rubs me wrong sometimes, but it could be that Skirda makes it sound way more conspiratorial than it was.

Now that is a remarkable thing to overlook... the thick plottens!

In order to know about platformism, I think the best thing is to read what Makhno, Archinoff and their comrades wrote on the subject, since they were, if not the first (I don't know), at least the most famous platformists in the history of anarchism. Thus I believe it would be a good idea to take a look at the website in which the pamphlet of Dielos Truda is published.

Apart from this, it's also strongly recommendable to read Volin's critic towards it, and his deffence of synthesis organisations (so as to get both points of view into perspective). To do this, you can have a look at his book The Unknown Revolution.

Greetings.

i think you'll find 'the platform' and much more published here

No, most of the French movement doesn't call it slanderous re. Fontenis and the OPB. To get yourselves up to speed you have to look at the memorandum of the Groupe Kronstadt which left the FCL a while AFTER the individualists (along with many social anarchists like Fayolle, Bouye) had been expelled or forced out of the FA/FCL and its accusations re the CONTINUED existence of the OPB. The Groupe Kronstadt along with other groups who left the FCL was to create the Groupes Anarchistes d'Action Revolutionnare which published Noir et Rouge
As Biard would have been 8 years old at the the time of the foundation of the OPB he could have hardly have been involved then could he?
This doesn't negate the fact that The Manifesto of Libertarian Communism of Fontenis is an very interesting read

Also, whilst Voline's Unknown Revolution is an interesting book, I can find no direct reference in it to either the Platform or the Synthesis

I have to say, Skirda's style of writing in 'Anarchy's Cossack' I found very annoying - he'd randomly go off on rants about how nasty Lenin was, detracting from the actual historical evidence provided on how Lenin behaved (not to mention detracting from all the material on the Makhnovschina as well). Based on that, it wouldn't surprise me if the Fontenis stuff is similarly, er, emotionally charged (although I've not read the Fontenis so don't have a view either way on that - although Jack's clearly being silly).

Battlescarred - waht happened next then? Its fair to say Fontenis failed to turn the FA into a communist org then? What is FCL - the group the FA became under him, or a splinter group he lead?

FA became the FCL. It's all in the intro that A(C)F wrote for the first English edition of the Manifesto of Libertarian Communism. Yes, it became an anarchist communist organisation biut there were big disagreements over the way that the OPB was still existing, Fontenis fell out with the other founder of the OPB, Serge Ninn, etc and there was the electoral adventure and fiasco that the FCL undertook. It's covered in greater detail in Skirda's book Facing The enemy.
Remember that Skirda is far from being hostile towards the Platform. OK he goes off on rants, but he is recording the facts about what happened in the FA/FCL.

comrade you know i don't read books!

Seriously tho, i find itr easier to pick ppls brains online. So; waht happend to the FA then, is the current FA a new group? Does FCL still exist? FA seem quite big and quite sorted from the prop i have seen and from what i saw in paris. But what are there politcs now...?

Oh come on, stop being lazy and look it up online see bios on Paul Zorkine, Henri Bouye, Guy Bourgeois, Andre Senez, etc here at libcom or read Skirda
Alright I'll give you this, the FCL collapsed in 1956. The FA was a group set up by those expelled or forced out of FA/FCL . It's a synthesist group but more and more leaning towards social anarchism in the last decade or so.
Fontenis was involved with several organisations the first Organisation Communiste Libertaire, then the Union des Travailleurs Communistes Libertaires (UTCL) and I knew him from then, when I was a member in France . UTCL changed its name to Alternative Libertaire and Fontenis is still in it though in his 80s and living in retirement in western France.

Also look at the bios of Roger Caron and Giliane Berneri here at libcom also very informative on the period

did you write them?

Who knows?

you, cos you wrote them?