Violence and Social Change

These are some thoughts that I posted at the Carnival of Anarchy

1. I am in total agreement that individual and small group acts of violence such as attentats, bombings and vandalism serve no purpose, either in advancing the cause of anarchism or social change. In fact, such actions only hold back social change, and anarchism, to this very moment, has to endure the caricature of the mad bomber, due to the actions of a tiny minority more than 100 years ago.

2. Ideally, social change would come about without violence, and our approach, whether one that encourages or discourages violence, does have an effect upon the amount of violence that occurs. But our responses are only one aspect of the situation. We do not control the playing field. History and culture are major determinants. A society with a long history of violence and little history of peaceful change will not be positive ground for a successful non-violent movement. How much support the ruling class has, how great the level of disintegration of the old order determines how peaceful change will be. Mass movements involving violence, but in a limited manner, such as mass insurrections, or dual power situations backed by armed groups, may be the inevitable form that social change takes in most situations. We have seen this recently in Mexico with the Zapatista Movement which began as an armed insurrection, and the Oaxaca Commune where a certain amount of defensive violence occurred. In both cases, they faced an opposition that would not hesitate to engage in massacre, yet the movements engaged in minimally violent response.

3. Hence, barring a situation like East Germany where even the ruling elite's supporters abandoned the state en-mass, it appears the most we can ask for is a minimization of violence during mass social change.

4. This does not mean that pacifists ought to be criticized for their total rejection of violence, or that they can not, and would not, play a significant role in a social revolution. Even a revolution entailing a great amount of violent conflict involves much action that is non-violent in nature. Think of the Cuban revolution where the Directorate engaged in urban guerilla warfare and the 26^th of July Movement fought in the mountains. General strikes – a non-violent method – were also used and were an important aspect in the overthrowing of the Batista dictatorship.

Anarchists and the Ultra-Left– the Mine Canaries of the Revolution.

You all know what a mine canary is. The bird was brought down into the mine and if it passed out this showed gas was present and the mine was unsafe. So how are anarchists and ultra leftists the mine canaries of the Revolution?

Should a successful revolution be overtaken by an authoritarian or undemocratic party, which group truely threatens their power? Not the reactionary right, though it may commit terrorist acts. For the simple reason that it is discredited. Workers and peasants do not wish to see this lot back in. Furthermore, authoritarian revolutionary states tend to coopt many members of the old ruling class, putting them back in charge of the masses, but now working for the new state rather than old system – think of the Tsarist officers and bureaucrats coopted by the Bolsheviks and Mao's "Patriotic Capitalists". No, the parties and organizations to the left of the revolutionary rulers are the threat to their power. Such groups appeal to the egalitarian and libertarian desires of the people and of the revolution itself. They oppose the centralization of political and economic power and speak of popular power rather than party dictatorship. Hence, the first groups to be attacked by an authoritarian revolutionary state are the anarchists, left populists and ultra-left marxists.

Barely six months into the October Revolution, Lenin's Bolsheviks were harassing anarchists. Soon after they went for the Maximalists (far-left populists) By 1921, most anarchists and left-populists were in concentration camps or exile. Finally, in 1922, left-Bolshevik factions like the Workers Opposition were banned. Mao suppressed the anarchists and Trotskyists. The Viet Minh slaughtered Vietnam's large Trotskyist party. Soon after Castro's turn toward the Cuban Communist Party, the anarchists were all in exile or in prison.

There is nothing inevitable about this process. Revolutions do not necessarily "devour their children." The Costa Rican Revolution of 1948 and the Bolivian Revolution of 1952 did not see the liquidation of the far left, even though the Bolivian regime did eventually fall into corruption and was overthrown by the military. Not all left groups supported the Sandinistas. The Nicaraguan Maoists considered them "bourgeois", created their own trade union federation and ran as a separate party in elections. The Sandinistas, while not liking the Maoists, did not suppress them

This is the test we must apply when judging the new revolutionary governments such as in Venezuela, Bolivia and perhaps now Ecuador. How do they treat the Left Opposition? Do they let it be or persecute it? Since they let it be, stories about them being "dictatorial", "undemocratic", or "totalitarian" are nothing but neocon propaganda. But should the day come that the mine canary passes out, I will be the first to attack these governments.

Anarchist Advances In Uruguay and Brazil

This information is taken from Organized Anarchism In The South American Cone, an 8 page special supplement of Rojo y Negro, weekly newspaper of the CGT-E 10 de enero del 2007.

http://www.rojoynegro.info/2004/sommaire.php3

The two major anarchist groups in the Souther Cone are the Federacion Anarchista Uruguaya (FAU) and the Brazilian Federação Anarquista Gaúcha. (FAG) According to Rojo y Negro,

Their understanding of anarchism coincides with the CGT, their actions are not conditioned by intractable dogmas, they do not stand in a watchtower and relegate anarchism to the margins of society. But they intervene in society in order to transform it... (and) collaborate with other organizations acting in the neighborhoods, the work place and the countryside.

Anarchism has a long history in Uruguay going back to the 1870's. But in 1945 the syndicalist union federation, FORU, the main center of anarchism, collapsed and there was not much organized anarchist activity. There were a series of major strikes 1952-3 which created an impulse to revive anarchism. FAU was formed in 1956 and from its day of creation was involved in trade unions and workers struggles. 1957-8 saw FAU invoved in factory occupations, expropriations, and the formation of coops and a student organization. A radical union center, the Uruguayan CNT, was founded in 1965 largely by FAU militants.

All this activity made the government nervous, so in typically democratic fashion, FAU was banned in 1967 and the members went into clandestine action which included putting out an "illegal" newspaper. 1971 saw FAU involved in armed actions alongside the MIR, (Tupamaros) though they did not adopt the Guevarist foco ideology. The miltary took over in 1973 and the FAU was heavliy involved in the three week long general strike which followed. Subsequently, thanks to Plan Condor, the group was to lose more than 50 comrades who were tortured then murdered. Many others spent years in prison and were also tortured.

With the return to the parliamentary system in 1986, FAU immediately re-involved itself in the union, neighborhood and student movements. Today, FAU is involved in "all sectors" - PTA's, coops, neighborhoods, as well as work place actions. As a result, they have created 6 community radio stations, 4 community centers and three libraries. Their Solidarity and Mutual Aid organization unites and co-ordinates a host of social organizations.

The Federação Anarquista Gaúcha (FAG) developed out of contacts made between FAU and young Brazilian militants during the 1995 Puerto Allegre Meeting. After the return to "democracy", a decade of anarchist activities ensued, but no national movement arose. Meeting with FAU helped change that. One of FAG's major activities involves the National Recycling Workers Movement – there are about 800,000 recyclers in Brazil and some 40,000 belong to the movement. According to Rojo y Negro, The comrades of FAG developed a vast work of education with the recyclers as well as other workers of the poorer neighborhoods. They also created a Forum of Organized Anarchism (FAO) to unite and co-ordinate all the Brazilian libertarian-oriented groups. FAO has groups in the majority of Brazilian states including Bahia and Sao Paolo. FAO and FAG both work in conjunction with the MST (Landless Peasants Organization) to confront the poverty and corruption of the Brazilian system.

FAU and FAG helps to coordinate and gives an impulse to the libertarian movement in South America. Both were instrumental in setting up ELAOPA (Popular and Autonomous Organizations in Latin America Encounter) in 2003 to promote and co-ordinate anarchist ideas continent-wide. The meeting in Bolivia in 2004 saw 400 delegates from 59 organizations. 2006 saw the meeting in Uruguay with similar attendence.

13 Year Old Girl Arrested For Writing On Desk!

This is truly unbelievable. When I was a kid we would write on the desks all the time. No one thought anything of it. More proof that the people in charge of the US are dangerous lunatics and that the society is in free fall.

See http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_095170448.html

Workers Initiative Polish Anarcho-syndicalist Union

This is a small, but nonetheless functioning, anarchist trade union in Poland. This web site is in English http://paspartoo.w.interia.pl/

Coops In A Sustainable City

This video discusses coops in Emelia-Romagna and the application of the coop model to the city of Vancouver. See http://www.workingtv.com/cope/2007/public/tlkpltcs/coops/mar22.html

CGT Anarcho-syndicalist Video

La Lucha Sigue En La Calle! Here is what it is like to have a REAL movement. Thousands of anarchists demonstrating in Barcelona.

http://www.rojoynegro.info/2004/article.php3?id_article=11902