Chapter 5. General View

Submitted by Juan Conatz on December 21, 2010

The basic fabric of the future society is composed, in the Anarchist view, of three elements. The first is the producers' association of the people, leading, through the syndicalization of production, to producers' communism. The second is the consumers' association resulting, through the utilization of cooperatives in consumers' communism. The third is the territorial association of the people, leading through communism to unity in diversity, i.e. the confederation of nations, based on the fundamental principles of Anarchism -- liberty and equality.

However, the Anarchists do not visualize future society in such a simplified and schematic form. On the contrary, in their eyes it is represented by a far more complicated pattern, in which the basic fabric is interwoven by innumerable threads of varied and constantly overlapping human groupings, producing a great diversity of needs and activities on the part of the individual, in whom society is finally rooted.

THE EVERYDAY STRUGGLE


Organization, Tactics and Everyday Tasks.

To achieve and hasten success in the struggle against the State Capitalist structure the Anarchists organize in Trade Unions and strive to make them inclusive of the entire industrial proletariat and the working peasantry. The revolutionary Trade Unions, in the view of the Anarchists, are not only organs of the struggle against the contemporary structure; they are also the cells of the future society.

The Trade Unions of different industries, apart from the industrial association of workers in each separate industry, unite on a city-wide basis in federal councils. And all Trade Unions in the country unite in the General Confederation of Labor which adapting itself to changing conditions, will in the future take the place of the economic organization of Capitalism.

Since the Confederation of Labor is the prototype of the new organization of society, it must be built on principles which will serve in the future, i.e. on liberty -- the autonomy of individuals and organizations -- and on equality Hence its organizational principle will be complete Federalism.

Accepting fully the view that every political movement must be subordinated to the economic struggle, the Anarchists organize their own associations in accordance therewith and on the basis of ideological affinity.

They consider unification by Ideological affinity in the Anarchist propaganda groups, the further unification of these groups into local federations, and of federations into the national confederation, as vitally important, since such a confederation, not being directly involved in the Trade Union struggle, would supplement the Confederation of Labor in the field of mass propaganda and the struggle against the political parties. The Confederation of Anarchist groups, without interfering in the affairs of the Confederation of Labor, co-operating with and yet separate from it, is opposed to all political parties without exception.

It will carry on a relentless class struggle and expose the complete irreconcilability of the interests of the propertied classes with those of the proletariat and the peasantry. It will help to clarify the historic significance of the proletariat, and the inevitability and necessity of the social Revolution. At the same time, the groups must, in their everyday activities, reveal to the working people the hopelessness of their situation both in the capitalist and in the state socialist societies -- whether the latter is a "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" or some other state socialist form. They must point to the social revolution as the people's only escape from their miserable existence.

The interests of the international proletariat and of the social Revolution dictate that the struggle against the Bourgeoisie and all kinds of perverted socialism be conducted not only within national limits, but also internationally. On the one hand, the struggle must be maintained in the economic field against the reformist Amsterdam International of Trade Unions and against the Moscow "Profintern"; on the other hand, in the sphere of general politics, it must be directed against the political partisan Second and Third Internationals. The guidance in this struggle must be vested in the International of revolutionary productive unions, i.e. the International Workingmen's Association, established by the unification of revolutionary productive unions of all countries at the Berlin Congress on December 25, 1922.

As for the revolutionary activities of the Anarchists, their field is not limited to the Trade Unions, but includes also the co-operatives, schools, city and village administrations and, in general, all spheres where the pulse of working life is beating. The Anarchists, taking an active part in the struggle for everyday interests of the exploited classes, bring to it their Revolutionary methods. Responding to all burning questions of the day, they relate them to the final goal and utilize every opportunity for agitation, propaganda and the organization of the exploited classes.

The Anarchists reject the path of parliamentary activity. Their tactics are based on the principle of direct action: mass protests, strikes, boycott, sabotage and other methods of direct influence.

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