#title Guerilla anarchism and its support base #author Renzo Durruti #SORTauthors Renzo Durruti #SORTtopics guerrilla war, insurrectionary anarchy, insurrection, Anarchist Fighter #date 28th April 2018 #source Retrieved on 15th August 2020 from https://bo-ak.org/index.php/en/theory-en/236-guerilla-anarchism-and-its-support-base #lang en #pubdate 2020-08-15T16:45:13 Guerilla anarchism is not a populist ideology and practice-it will never be a popular one either. Guerilla anarchism is built on, sustained by and shielded by networks of support, not organic communities within capitalism. It will always be a minoritarian tendency even within anarchist thought, nevermind within capitalist society. Despite this it plays an indispensable role in the formation and maintenance of the anarchist movement and the insurrectionary process of revolution. It forms the defence groups of the anarchist movement, its funding sources, a key propaganda tool and the forces of attack. Its support base is both rural and urban, based out of sympathetic individuals who provide finance, transport and shelter. Organic communities in capitalism, whether they be the local area, the workplace community ect ect, will often view the anarchist guerilla in hostile terms, and often act against the guerilla in a negative fashion. This is the reality of the anarchist guerilla. That is until the mass insurrectionary process, when the community engages in a social insurrection alongside the guerilla. Only then does the strength and necessity of the guerilla become apparent--as the sharp edge of the social insurrection. The guerilla insurrectionary process. A historical example such as the 1969 insurrection in the north of ireland is a prime example of the minoritarian role played by the armed insurrectionist in the wider insurrection. For most of the build up to the 1969 insurrection the republican guerrillas were tiny groups of isolated insurrectionists, based out of support networks rather than wider community support. Only when the insurrection breaks out on a mass scale does the the community come to the guerilla.
This led to free territories being established in the bogside of Derry (Free Derry) , west Belfast and almost all of south Armagh, with the near takeover of Crossmaglen police barracks by a handful of armed protestors. After these events the community came to the guerilla in large swathes, in a cyclical insurrectionary process of attack and repression and leading to the qualitative growth of the insurrectionary movement. The movement was eventually defeated from within by it’s own leadership and centralisation of power into the hands of reformists. Examples of the Anarchist Guerilla. Durutti, Facerias, and Sabate ,all Anarchist guerrillas, all recognised the necessity of of the underground guerilla in the qualitative and quantitative development of the overall anarchist movement. All recognised that the guerilla movement must be built on an anarchist praxis to avoid the pitfalls and dangers that Irish revolutionaries succumbed to, such as centralisation, militarisation and eventually, reformism. This does not negate the necessity of a polyform anarchist movement, engaged in various types of activity and propaganda. Anarchism is a broad church movement, with a broad back, that endures all. It means only the recognition that some of these “official” tendencies will oppose the specific guerilla tendency out of cowardice and self serving interests. This is too expected. Those of static activity and institutional forms will always have a vested interest in maintaining their own power and standing. All previous guerrillas have faced similar circumstances-these factors must be ignored or overcome, the academics of the movement will always place roadblocks on the path to insurrection. Viva la Insurrection!
Renzo Durruti. ---- Article received from our comrades by e-mail. We, as Anarchist Fighter, publish it as a mean of discussion, as interesting and informed opinion. Nevertheless, even if we agree, that guerilla Anarchist organizations possibly can’t hope to get billions of members before revolution starts, we believe that we need to put an effort to make guerilla Anarchism popular at least within Anarchist movement. And that guerilla Anarchist organizations should gain popularity within societies they act too. It will make much more simplier for us to achieve our goals in the future, gain fust grow, when revolution starts. This seems to us the only way to Libertarian revolution and we think we have good chances to reach it.