Capitalism, the State and other systems of oppression cannot be voted or convinced out of existence. The oppressed classes must lead a revolutionary struggle against the systems of domination of the elite classes and their defenders. This struggle will involve the destruction of the state; the expropriation of all land, capital, social institutions and wealth from capital; the ending of class-based economic systems; and the elimination of all forms of oppression.
The old oppressive political, economic, and social orders must be replaced by directly-democratic, egalitarian, and self-organized decision-making institutions.
These popular institutions must be federally linked from the local level to the global level, in order to organize for common needs and around common issues.
We seek an economic system that will be controlled socially through these cooperative structures that distributes our social products according to need and desires. We thus call for a social revolution where our lives, work, and products themselves are transformed, rather than merely a political revolution where capitalist production is redistributed, rearranged, or repartitioned.
However, the elite classes will not give up their privileges without a fight and will use violence, lies, withholding of resources and whatever other means of maintaining the state, capitalism and other forms of privilege and oppression. There will also likely be various parties and organizations that may try to co-opt the broad struggle of the oppressed classes by trying to centralize power in their hands supposedly “on behalf of” the revolutionary struggle. The popular revolutionary struggle of the oppressed classes must defend its autonomy against both these elite classes and against any political groups trying to use a revolution for their narrow benefit.
The revolutionary struggle must be organized to defend itself. Popular self-defense groups should be formed accountable to and controlled directly by the democratic councils and assemblies of their communities. While defense of our struggle will likely necessitate violence; all violence must seek to end systems and manifestations of oppression, not violence that seeks to reintroduce or recreate systems of oppression with different oppressors. Our goal is the liberation of humanity, and the tactical use of violence that reproduces authoritarian relationships is its antipathy.
It’s impossible to know how such a system will come into being; whether it will arise in our area and spread, or emerge across a network of regions, or through a large collapse of established power. Despite this we affirm the need for world-wide revolution. We are convinced however for the need to both advocate and build our alternative, and that we cannot allow capitalism or statist systems to survive when popular power becomes dominant. Whatever shifts occur as the revolution is expanded and defended, it must always stay within our view that our task is to go as deep as possible in creating living breathing anarchist alternatives within the popular process.
The role of members of our revolutionary organization in this struggle is one of equals making arguments and seeking influence through participation within the popular revolutionary struggle; as active militants on behalf of the directly democratic revolutionary struggles; and trying to defend against those who would seek to dominate within these popular revolutionary struggles through coercion or by seeking to institute systems of control, domination or exploitation.
We seek to build horizontal movements that reflect the complexities inherent in a revolutionary struggle — open revolutionary movements that combat capitalist exploitation and interlinked systems of oppression. Consequently we seek to critically engage with the traditions of anarchism and communism, as well as feminism, queer liberation, and anti-racism, all of which offer important insights in the fight against capitalism.
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