What is a universal point of no return though? Would you say that the CGT’s actions in 1914 were one?
Well I don't think there is one, there's not an objective set of criteria you can apply to all organisations. You participate in what is useful.
I am not quite sure what authoritarian structures
are.
Structures with formal hierarchies, in which statutory power is held over the mass of the membership by a leadership group.
You seem to be suggesting that the politics are flowing from the structures, and not the other way round.
I think that it happens both ways.
This is an interesting point. I don’t think though that the Spanish workers movement was particularly strong in 1914. It certainly didn’t appear to be stronger than the German movement. I think that it was more down to geo-politics.
Well, the Spanish state is weaker than the German one, the workers' movement is less controllable (less integrated into the state), and crucially anti-militarism was demonstrably more deeply felt in Spain (it's only 5 years since conscription caused a general insurrection).
If I remember rightly two of the four CNT ministers were also members of the FAI.
I find this strand of syndicalism which blames all the faults of the CNT on the FAI strangely similar to a strand of council communism (and equally unconvincing): if only the pure workers weren't corrupted by those politicos...
The fact is everyone has political views. Why shouldn't anarchists organise to advance theirs? Reformists and reactionaries do.