The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation
We in the Anarchist Federation seek the abolition of capitalism and state in favour of bringing about a society based on the guiding principle ‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.’ This is anarchist communism. In order to achieve this we need a revolutionary organisation to undertake a certain role as part of the working class.
This pamphlet will explain why.
The role of the revolutionary organisation - Anarchist Federation - old edition
NB: The extensively revised 2014 edition of this pamphlet is available here.
Libertarian communists have a vision of a revolutionary organisation in bold contrast to that of Leninists and other authoritarians. At the same time our concept of revolutionary organisation is in political and organisational disagreement with the idea of informal groupings as advocated by some anarchists. This short pamphlet outlines the structure and importance of libertarian communist organisations as well as summarising the task it plays amongst the wider working class.
[i]First Published 1991, Reprinted Autumn 1995 by the Anarchist Communist Federation (now Anarchist Federation), ACE Edition.[/i]
The elephant that wasn’t there
A quick response to Scott Napalos’s recent piece What went wrong with the organizing, from John J. at the Seattle Free Press.
Recently, the IWW’s Scott Napalos put out a piece covering revolutionary politics and their relation to our projects, and which – by way of explanation - also touched on broader issues of motivation and obstacles to our organizing.
Thoughts on organization
Submitted by s.nappalos on Apr 7 2014 18:12
A 1923 article by Armando Triviño, organizer of the Chilean IWW, discussing the IWW and the role of anarchism in the workers movement. Translated from the book Armando Triviño: Wobblie by Víctor M. Muñoz C. Editorial Quimantú, Colección Papeles para armar. Chile 2009
Thoughts on organization
Armando Triviño
Industrial unity: a response to “Locality & shop”
Submitted by Recomposition on Apr 6 2014 19:56
A reply by E.A. Martinez to Scott Nappolos' 'Area, shop, and revolution: a case for both locality and workplace unitary organization'.
[i]We received a number of replies and great discussion from the piece by S Nappalos on the IWW’s locality versus industrial structures. E.A. Martinez has sent a lengthy response raising points of criticism and agreement that is worth engaging. While the discussion centers around structures of the IWW, bigger issues are at hand.
Area, shop, and revolution: a case for both locality and workplace unitary organization
Submitted by Recomposition on Mar 14 2014 02:43
An article by Scott Nappalos on some of the different IWW organizational structures that exist currently and why they continue to exist or fail.
[i]There’s been a long debate within the revolutionary union movement about structure and specifically about the relationship between locality-based units and workplace/trade/industrial based units.
Micropolitics and the Left
This article is an attempt to investigate certain problems of the left via the lens of micropolitics and macropolitics, terms first introduced by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (D&G).
Faced with the challenging nature of texts from post-structuralist thinkers like D&G or Foucault, many people make the assumption that they are really motivated by an elitist desire to confuse, intimidate and befuddle the masses and divert theory into useless abstractions, far removed from the concerns of ordinary people for social transformation and liberation from oppression and exploitation.
What next for engineers? - Ken Weller
1972 reprint by Big Flame of a Solidarity pamphlet by Ken Weller about the learnings for workers from the ten-week strike at Ford Dagenham in 1962, as Ford management begin to get tough at the Halewood plant.
Democracy mystified: a critical review of the book, Against Democracy by Miriam Qarmat (ICG) - Roi Ferreiro
Roi Ferreiro reviews Against Democracy, and subjects its attack on “democracy as a ‘thing in itself’” (“a fantasy of Bordiguist idealism”) and “liberty, equality and fraternity”—an attack that he depicts as abstract, ahistorical, reductionist, and reactionary “sophistry”—to a withering critique, asserting that such all-or-nothing verbal radicalism (“demagogy”) encourages “political indifferentism and passivity”, and he asks the rhetorical question, “is it possible for the ‘affirmation of the collective existence of men’ to be realized in any other than a ‘democratic’ way, and more concretely, in any other form besides that of ‘proletarian, direct and revolutionary democracy’?”.
Democracy Mystified – A Critical Review of the Book, Against Democracy by Miriam Qarmat (ICG) – Roi Ferreiro
Introduction
On being eaten by the young
John O'Reilly on some organization issues he sees in the IWW.
Like all organizations, the IWW has its problems to contend with. One of the ones that I've been observing recently that I think we continually cycle back towards is the problem of "being eaten by the young." Despite its name, its a problem that has nothing to do with age (I've seen people in their 20s be eaten by the young and I've seen retired people eat the old).
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