Manifesto of the Federación Anarquista Revolucionaria de Venezuela

1) The Federación Anarquista Revolucionaria de Venezuela is a collective that adopts the ideology of Libertarian Communism, a system where both capitalism and the bourgeois State that supports it are abolished, where the people as the producers of goods and services have control of what is produced in the form of collective ownership, where such production is distributed according to the principle "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs".

2) We operate under the principles of horizontalism, self-management, mutual aid, collectivism, the class struggle, anti-imperialism, and solidarity between peoples and the peoples' struggles.

3) We firmly believe in anarchist organization as the only form of struggle within libertarian communism, as only by working to certain principles and programmes, respecting individual work but having nothing to do with capitalist egoism and neoliberal trends, can we build the necessary platform where militants accept their collective responsibility.

4) We act politically as anarchists and work within the popular struggles, building collectively from the daily routine, walking the same path as the communities in order to promote increasingly libertarian principles. As methods and fields of struggle, we support direct action, revolutionary syndicalism, libertarian educational methods, alternative personal and communal communications, and popular participation, amongst other things. We believe that bourgeois democracy restricts the people's right of choice, so we advocate instead direct, popular democracy and communal self-government.

5) We support the Bolivarian process critically as radical militants of the Social revolution. That is to say, we are in favour of the creation of greater political, social, economic and cultural spaces within the process, but nevertheless we must fight against reformism, bureaucracy and other vices embedded in the national government, which we know are intrinsic to the State and any form of government other than self-government.

6) We are neither anti-Bolivarian nor anti-Chavez. These are expressions of the bourgeois opposition in the country; therefore, as a libertarian communist organization we oppose any area that plays into the hands of imperial factors, including a supposedly anarchist sector that rejects the class struggle and whose "anarchism" serves to hide their neoliberal intentions. We remain distant from these ideas and attitudes, and identify with the Bolivarian and Chavist popular struggles, as they are currently the hope for any future social and class-struggle revolutionary change in the country.

7) The anarchism we profess is that of the Bakuninists in the First International, of the Makhnovist Revolutionaries, of the anarcho-syndicalists in the Spanish Revolution, the proletarians of the FORA, the guerrillas of the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya, the Chicago Martyrs, Flores Magón and the Partido Liberal Mexicano, the pedagogy and mutual aid of Peter Kropotkin, and Proudhon's self-management. These struggles were framed within the class struggle between the dispossessed and their exploiters, between the workers and their bosses, between the peasants and the landowners.

8) We identify with the historical struggles of the Venezuelan people: the aboriginal resistance, the revolts of those of African descent and the Maroons, the libertarian ideas of toparchy and emancipation of Simón Rodriguez, the class war represented by the popular rebellion of 1814 with the pardos, blacks and amerindians of Boves, the struggle for the independence of the people by Simón Bolívar, the 1846 popular insurrection, the Federal War and Ezequiel Zamora, the advanced idealism of Pío Tamayo, the coup d'état of 23rd January 1958, the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), the investigation into the disappearances and torture of FALN guerrillas, the 1989 Caracazo protests, the insurrection of 4 February 1992, the Bolivarian process, the events of April 2002, among many other struggles which have involved the people of Venezuela.

9) This is why our struggle must always be framed in the social, political, economic and cultural context of Venezuela, expanding this framework to the Latin American and global level, but always starting from the local and regional level.

10) Our humble contribution must be, on the one hand to try to ensure that the socialist process follows libertarian paths as far as possible, while on the other hand, to ensure that anarchist and libertarian communist ideology is known for what it is, genuinely socialist and revolutionary, and not to be confused with false positions that mask the purest anti-popular, anti-class struggle neoliberalism.

11) To conclude, we wish to make it clear that the FARV is politically active in the central and central west of the country (Caracas, Barquisimeto and Valencia) and that it hopes to connect up with other anarchist individuals and collectives on a national level, either organically or through direct support. We consider it extremely important to create a true anarchist federation in Venezuela with branches in every state or city, as we believe that in this way our action is more serious and forceful and thus leave behind us the situation we have today where many comrades (clearly anarchist or not) do not have a serious organization with which to fight and where each simply makes his or her own individual contribution. Naturally, we respect those already-existing groups that do not wish to join us as a branch and invite them to join us as collectives and contribute everything they wish to contribute to the struggle; all this will help to create true, honest and selfless unity, with which we can head towards the social revolution throughout the country and, even with the differences that do exist which are understandable in these types of organizations, seek the path that leads to libertarian communism. And this is nothing other than the path of life. We conclude by adding the words of comrade Errico Malatesta: "In an anarchist organisation the individual members can express any opinion and use any tactic which is not in contradiction with accepted principles and does not harm the activities of the others. In every case a given organisation lasts for as long as the reasons for union remain greater than the reasons for dissent. When they are no longer so, then the organisation is dissolved and makes way for other, more homogeneous groups".

For the construction of a Venezuelan Libertarian Movement!
For Libertarian Socialism and towards the Federation of Communes!
For the worldwide Libertarian Communist Revolution!

FARV - Federación Anarquista Revolucionaria de Venezuela

(Translation by FdCA-International Relations Office)

Originally posted: October 11, 2011 at A-Infos