Honest minds of the Russian anarchist movement have long noted that a significant array of anarchist activities of our era is rather an imitation of activity. The most sorrowful type of imitation is an imitation of an organization.
A dozen years ago, when we were young, many of us realized it. But unfortunately we were almost completely deprived of worthy mentors and were forced to “build a house from its foundation”. It was the time when we concluded that affinity-grours,informal unions, individual and collective initiatives are more effective than “chimerical” organizations.
It was our inconception but it was a necessary step towards a better understanding of the mechanics of the revolutionary struggle.
The events of recent years — the “square” revolutions: Tahrir and Maidan, not at all “square” Syria, along with a number of other episodes showed something that could dimly be guessed before. There is no matter how great the potential of self-organization and the will to be free is inherent in the people at the time of a spontaneous revolutionary upsurge, they unavoidably will be dominated by well-formed, structured and self-confident political forces.
This suggests a wise conclusion: the forces that are trying to rebuild society on the principles of direct self-government also need to form a cohesive and ambitious political structure, which in the storm of revolutionary events can take a dominant place and not concede it to enemies. The task of the anarchist revolutionary organization, if you will, is to clear the scope for the self-organization and spontaneous creativity of the people — to clear it of those forces that seek to offer society new hierarchical models under a particular sauce. Another important task is by its own example, by tireless propaganda — and, perhaps most importantly, by active participation in the creation of relevant social institutions to encourage society to move along the libertarian path.
These tasks are beyond the strength of the loose and amorphous conglomeration of tiny groups — resolving problems requires coordination and the ability to concentrate efforts on priority areas.
It would be useful to take into account that the driving force of all revolutions was an active minority. Even in those cases when huge masses of people were involved in the revolutionary process. The largest and most massive anarchist organizations in history — syndicalist trade unions — even with sometimes over a million supporters — were unions of the working class minority. This simple arithmetic can not be neglected by anarchists. We are deeply convinced that it is possible and even necessary to build in a revolutionary way a society where every person will directly participate in the management of all social and economic processes in which he is involved. However, we cannot hope that such a society will arise as a result of the “conscious will of the WHOLE society.” Unavoidably it is an active minority will, one way of another, become a driving force of revolutionary transformations. Although, of course, we must strive to ensure that the movement is as wide as possible.
So, a necessary tool for an active minority is a revolutionary organization.
In this context it is necessary to note that work in a libertarian organization is a school of life in a libertarian society. It teaches to search for agreement and compromise with comrades, equal decision-making process and responsibility for them. Finally, it brings up discipline, constancy and other qualities that are necessarry for a revolutionary.
It is clear that the current realities exclude the emergence of a “single universal anarchist organization.” The reasons for this are entirely clear. However, the creation of several “centers of attraction”, an active and effective confederation of anarchist organizations, each of which will strive to be a cohesive political entity, is not only possible, but necessary at the present stage of our struggle. Take off the sleeves, comrade!
Freedom or death!
Long live the revolution!