This is the promised detailed analysis of the end of the WSM following on from
our very brief announcement of December 7th, 2021 titled 'WSM has come to an end- we look forward to new anarchist beginnings'.Developed over a couple of dozenmeeting since it outlines our collective reflections on why we have taken thisdecision. It outlines the WSM's achievements, the challenges we have encountered,and the lessons we feel can be drawn for the future. We are writing for ourcomrades, friends and supporters who have worked with the WSM in the past. We arealso writing for fellow anarchists internationally and all those who struggle inour social movements and wish to see a world without bosses. We hope thisstatement will be useful to those who wish to start new conversations anddiscussions about the kinds of movements and organisations we need to winTable of Contents.WSM Closing Statement.Introduction.Campaigns, organisations & unions WSM was involved in.Publications.Accomplishments.Reasons for dissolving.Wider Challenges.Lessons Learned.Introduction.1.1 The Workers Solidarity Movement is no more. At a meeting in October 2021, wethe members voted to dissolve our organisation. While we are each committed tocontinuing the cause of anarchism in some capacity, we have collectively agreedthat the WSM is no longer the best vehicle to achieve that aim. We do not wish tokeep repeating the same actions when we no longer believe they will yielddifferent results.1.2 The following statement outlines our collective reflections on why we havetaken this decision. It outlines the WSM's achievements, the challenges we haveencountered, and the lessons we feel can be drawn for the future.1.3. We are writing for our comrades, friends and supporters who have worked withthe WSM in the past. We are also writing for fellow anarchists internationallyand all those who struggle in our social movements and wish to see a worldwithout bosses. We hope this statement will be useful to those who wish to startnew conversations and discussions about the kinds of movements and organisationswe need to win. Whilst the WSM has ceased to exist, we know that the struggle tochange this world continues.1.4 We intend to keep some level of activity as an informal collective - perhapsa WSM legacy group - which will aim to archive the WSM site by 30th November 2022.Campaigns, organisations & unions that the WSM was involved in.Many WSM members were simultaneously involved in various groups in manycapacities. In some cases WSM made a collective decision to join a group orcampaign and in other cases members were involved across groups on an individualbasis.Divorce Action CampaignDublin Abortion Information Group -> Dublin Abortion Rights GroupsAlliance for ChoiceChoice IrelandAbortion Rights CampaignAlliance for a No VoteAnti Racism CampaignAnti Racism Network IrelandImmigrant SolidarityAnarchists Against the (Gulf/Afghan) WarGrassroots Network Against the WarDublin Grassroots NetworkGrassroots GatheringMayday 2004 EU summit protestTrade Union Fightback - anti partnership campaignsSIPTU Fightback1913 Commemoration CommitteeJustice for Terence WheelockJustice for Mumia Abu JamalOld Head of KinsaleCommunities Against Water ChargesAnti Bin Tax CampaignAnti Household Tax CampaignCampaign Against Home and Water TaxesReclaim the Streets1% NetworkSocial Solidarity NetworkFEE - Free Education for EveryoneSlí EileRAMSI - Refugee and Migrant Solidarity IrelandCATU - Community Action Tenant UnionIHN - Irish Housing NetworkStrike4RepealWorking Class QueerosPrideInternational Summit protests (Prague, Genoa, Sterling, Dublin)OccupyBloody Sunday MarchQueer ThingCork Radical QueersUnlock NAMARAGSocial Centres.Garden of DelightSeomra SpraoiCork Autonomous ZoneBaracka BooksSolidarity BooksThe BarricadeLúnasa Cafe BelfastRealta CafeIndymediaShell to SeaRossport Solidarity CampInternational Solidarity (can include making financial donations)Irish Mexico GroupHands Off the People of IranAnti-Apartheid campaign. Dunnes Stores strike support group.Ireland Palestine Solidarity CampaignAnarchismo & International Secretary work.Unions.SIPTUIFUTINTOIWUIWWUNITENIPSAPSEUList of notable speakers that we brought over.Noam ChomskyMark BraySelma JamesMartha AckelsbergJanet BiehlAshanti AlstonElife Berk, Erjan Arboya, and Aysha Gokkan (Kurdish Movements)Lorenzo Komboa ErvinPublicationsWorkers SolidarityAnarchist NewsRed & Black RevolutionIrish Anarchist ReviewCommon ThreadsNorth City AnarchistThe LibertarianLiberaciónCircle AIrish Anarchist BulletinSolidarity Times(This is a partial list, see the subject index for some of the additional groups& atruggles)Accomplishments.2.1 Given the nature of revolutionary politics, in which so many different groupsand people have been and continue to be involved in social struggles, it is hardto pin down our specific contribution to those struggles and to the achievementsof wider movements. Nevertheless, we believe that any fair observer of the WSM's37 years of activity would say that the WSM can rightly lay claim to a number ofachievements. These include but are not limited to the following:2.2 We sought to make anti-authoritarian ideas the leading ideas in our movementsthrough a grassroots democratic approach to organising. As soon as someone joinedthe WSM they were part of the decision making process at a deep level. Wedeveloped bottom up organisational skills. We attempted to create an organisationthat not only spoke of participatory democracy, but built for it. Every memberwas encouraged to develop the kind of organising skills that would normally bethe preserve of officers in other groups. We promoted the use ofnon-hierarchical methods of organising because we believed that these methodshave the ability to both raise the skills and the capacity of the movement andare necessary if we are to scale up struggles.2.3. We demonstrated the power of collective direct action. Direct action is notanother term for militant action but rather indicates forms of action where theact itself delivers a significant proportion of what is demanded. Itseffectiveness means it is frequently criminalised but illegality in itself doesnot constitute direct action. In terms of our history direct action examples ofdirect action included the provision of (then) illegal abortion information, thenon payment of water and bin charges, the halting of military flights by masstrespass at Shannon airport and the occupation/squatting of buildings to use themfor accommodation and venues.2.4 We participated in the winning of victories by social movements, victoriesthat did not rely on the election of representatives.2.5 We took part in and helped resource social centres as spaces for organisingand community building. Social spaces such as Seomra Spraoi and Jigsaw anchoredorganisations and campaigns and were a focal point for networking, learning,friendships, and solidarity between individuals and groups. We consider this anintegral part of building a movement.2.6 We fought for social changes that were consistent with our anti-authoritarianpolitics, whether or not they were popular issues at the time. We directlychallenged the authority of the state and the church. During the early decades ofthe WSM activity the Catholic Church had tremendous power in Ireland, itinfluenced state policy, controlled schools and hospitals, and ensured that lawson divorce, contraception, sterilisation, abortion, gay rights, adoptionreflected church teachings. We were consistent throughout our organisational lifein the support of the right to choose, keeping the issue alive in times of lowactivity.2.7 The Anarchist Bookfair helped strengthen the anarchist and activist communityand brought many campaigners together. Bookfairs act as a forum for sharingknowledge, creating links, building relationships and friendships betweenpolitical and activist groups. The Bookfairs became an event where we coulddemonstrate how campaigns and movements built and organised struggle andresistance. At the Bookfairs the WSM showcased how victories could be built forby using democratic grassroots methods which could deliver victories outside ofthe ballot box.2.8 Our anarchist publications include: Red and Black Revolution, WorkersSolidarity, Irish Anarchist Review & Common Threads, Solidarity Times, ourTwitter Feed and our webpage.Over a 35 year period we documented the struggles of people fighting to changeIreland and the world at large for the better. Records of this sort have animmeasurable value. They provide first hand accounts of those who organised andparticipated in these struggles, a perspective that is often absent from officialrecords and reporting of events and movements. These publications also provideddetailed analysis and reports specifically from an anarchist perspective. Thesepublications not only documented the struggles but the ideological changes withinthe movement that occur in the context of struggle. Our hope is that thesepublications as archives can continue to help inform those involved or interestedin radical political struggle in Ireland and beyond.2.9 The WSM played a mobilising role in a variety of campaigns. In addition toparticipating ourselves, we helped advertise and encourage participation incountless marches, demonstrations, and social movement struggles.2.10 We had a commitment to oppose sectarianism within the left which meant thatwe facilitated co-operation between opposing groups in many campaigns, includingthe water charges and bin charges campaign, which strengthened those campaigns.The WSM's focus in a campaign was not just on winning the campaign, but doing soby building a participatory, broad based, democratic campaign.2.11 The WSM offered the 'leading ideas' on the left in Ireland during the early2000s, notably around the Zapatista encuentros, summit protest and anti-warperiod. We contributed theoretically and organisationally in building with othersan alternative pole of these movements.2.12 Through membership of the WSM, individuals gained confidence and skills inworking in campaigns, strategic thinking and planning, political writing,evaluating and forming opinions. Our members engaged in writing and collectiveediting as a way of learning about issues. We adopted a process of formulatingposition papers which allowed us to uncover the nuances within an argument. Webuilt and maintained an internal culture of discussion that for the most partensured an ability to have quite heartfelt disagreements in an atmosphere ofmutual respect and very often reached resolutions that were better than the sumof their parts.2.13 WSM hosted educational and public meetings, some of which are listed below.These educationals and meetings demonstrate the WSM's wide diversity of interestsand connections with local and international movements and struggles. You can getsense of the broad scope of these talks from the selection of those uploaded tohttps://www.mixcloud.com/workerssolidarity/2.14 The WSM provided a body of experienced activists that were useful tocampaign groups around the country. Members had, in general, well developedworldviews which countered reactionary ideas if and when they emerged in localgroups. Members also had the practical organisational skills to assist in theweek to week running of such grassroots campaign groups, while also being able torefer any problems back to the WSM which helped to find collectively agreedsolutions. WSM members always sought to promote non-hierarchical organisingmethods in groups in which members participated. Something as simple as havingthe positions of meeting chair or minute taker rotated weekly in a campaign groupresults in a significant increase in the organisational confidence of the group'smembers.2.15 The WSM established an international reputation as an active politicalorganising group whose politics was defined and tested in the heat of campaigns.We shared with our international comrades, particularly with respect to thestruggle in northern Ireland, our analysis of the political situation in Ireland.Reasons for dissolving.3.1 At the time of drafting this statement the WSM was an organisation of 10active members. We have increasingly ceased activity in the course of the recentCovid-19 global pandemic. Nobody expected to live in a science fiction novel!3.2 Members have cited the following reasons for dissolving the WSM.We failed to grow into an organisation large enough to have widespread politicalinfluence in local areas.The current membership did not have the energy todevelop new collective projects. Our small size and geographical distributionadditionally made it difficult to build local collective projects. This led to acatch 22 in that there was no 'project' to invite new members to participate in,yet it is in these projects that we would find sufficient motivation to grow theorganisation with fresh energy.The formal organisational approach of the (previously significantly larger) WSMdid not give people a sense of ownership, rather it was a barrier to new members'participation. Our existing internal culture could feel complex and resistant tochange. We now feel that energy is best expended in creating something new,rather than learning how to navigate a pre-existing organisational culture.We believe it is better and more effective at this point in time for anarchiststo build new networks, tools, projects and organisations adapted to the changingpolitical landscape.Changing role of an anarchist organisation.Pre-internet, especially in Ireland, one key function of an organisation was topropagate ideas that were unavailable elsewhere. With the rise of the internet,it is no longer necessary for organisations to be the main point for political orstrategic discussion as these discussions often now happen across organisationsonline. This leaves a vacuum - what is the role of an organisation now?The WSM saw its role in struggles to be involved in broad movements rather thanact on its own in front groups seeking recruits through publicity orientedevents. This worked well for much of our history when anarchism was a marginalidea. Our members were a visible pole in campaigns through our arguments infavour of direct action, direct democracy and against electoralism.However with the spread of anarchist ideas in the 2000's, anarchist methodsbecame more widely popular among the campaigning left. There was less need forinternal organisational coordination of our work in struggles to resistauthoritarian influences or to promote grassroots organising. Although weremained involved in struggles, internally there was less collective discussionand analysis of the campaigning organisations involved.The organisational visibility we obtained in the course of promoting directaction, direct democracy and anti-electoralism faded. Within campaigns, WSMmembers appeared as committed individuals rather than members of a grouppromoting a particular set of ideas. In addition, in the past, the distributionof printed publications by our members made a clear connection between ourmembers' work within a campaign, their membership of WSM and anarchist ideas. Theturn to online publishing meant that this visibility was lost. This led to animpression that the WSM produced content about the struggles of others ratherthan being integral in those struggles.A shared understanding and sense of purpose is vital for group cohesion,satisfaction and trust between members. One route to building that sharedunderstanding is through the collective internal discussion of campaigns andstruggles mentioned earlier.Another route to building this shared agreement is through collective WSMprojects. Our main collective projects have been holding regular meetings,regular educationals, and collective writing projects. Each year we workedcollectively on perspectives discussions at National Conference and on theorganisation of the Anarchist Bookfair,.Writing as a collective project declined over time. In part this was due to amove towards online platforms, which allowed much greater reach for our ideasthan print publications. However online platforms also require a different typeof content. It has to be produced quickly and frequently. This led to less of afocus on collective writing and a shift to individual writing. The impact of thischange on our collective writing projects was not explicitly discussed within theorganisation. It was felt that this on-line publishing on social media led to anincrease in workload, and stress associated with having to moderate publishedcontent, and administrative work in relation to comments. Social media can feellike a hungry machine that must always be fed at the expense of other organisingefforts. The challenge now is how to benefit from the distribution opportunitiesof social media platforms without allowing them to undermine the collectivebenefit of slower writing processes.We suffered from the tyranny of strategy-lessness. We no longer had an explicitstrategy to advance anarchism as a politics of revolutionary social change.Without a strategy we could not answer the question - 'why should you join theWSM?' or 'how will my joining the WSM make a difference?' The absence of acoherent strategy and set of priorities ensured that the work we wanted to do wasendless.Historically, the WSM's pathway to revolution was to empower people into joininga broad, revolutionary movement by winning workplace struggles and broad-basedcampaigns, instilling those campaigns with the 'ideas' necessary to build amovement based on anarchist principles. That is, we built movements that werebased on grassroots participation, which were democratic and focused on directaction as a key tactic. It was hoped that this diverse movement would grow instrength and through greater and greater victories, would become an ungovernable,revolutionary force.In writing this we discuss the use of a metaphor of a roadmap. We want toemphasise that we don't believe the role of a revolutionary organisation is todirect where the struggles should go. Rather our role is to identify where thestruggles exist and act to support and amplify them.Unfortunately, although the absence of a revolutionary strategy was identified,we could not develop a shared understanding of purpose. We continued to callourselves a revolutionary organisation but, in the context of actually-existing,current struggles, we no longer had a working theory for revolutionary change. Welost an answer to the question 'what is the WSM for?'We are not alone in lacking a revolutionary strategy. The far left has dissipateditself into social democracy. This is partly because currently there appears tobe no potential for anti-capitalist change.The challenge now is to find out what revolutionary strategy can be successful.Finding a process that would allow a very small volunteer organisation to haveimpact while retaining the enthusiasm and commitment of its members is difficult.Over the years, there were many campaigns which brought people into activity, butthere were also others which failed to mobilise people. When a campaign or issuefailed this led to disillusionment within the organisation.A recurrent discussion within the organisation was how to decide what areas ofactivity we should focus on. At times members felt it was best to prioritise onearea for all to work on, that is, the goal was to identify an issue or campaign,gain popular support and motivate people to become actively engaged in struggle. At other times members followed the principle of 'fight where you are', that ismembers would focus on areas that affected them or interested them personally.There are advantages and disadvantages in both approaches.Wider Challenges.3.3. Challenges posed by changes in wider society include:The idea that it is possible to create an alternative to capitalism is no longerpart of public imagination in our corner of the world. It has become easier toenvision ecological collapse or nuclear war than revolutionary change.Activism has always started with people expressing their outrage. In the past,this was often linked with a focus on building power. The next step aftermobilising opposition was to build collective power in more formal ways, waysthat can shift the balance of power in society in favour of our class e.g. unionpower, tenant power. This next step is often missing from current campaigns. Oneaspect of this is that for all of our existence, union membership has been indecline. Unions traditionally provided experience, tools and skills needed to besuccessful in struggles. There is little sense that now the union movement isbuilding power, or raising the capacity of their membership to build power. Mostunion activity is focused on individual court cases or union negotiations at anational level.Capitalism continues to control, shape, and dominate the means of communication.It has become more difficult for groups like the WSM to use it to propagateanarchist ideas. While the reasons for this are complex they include calculatedstate interventions, corporate ownership of media companies, increasing buyingand selling of influence, manufacture of fear, uncertainty, and doubt, a cancerof far-right grifters, as well as conspiracism.The internet's emergence in the 1990s offered hope of a space for the freeexchange of ideas and accurate information, offering huge potential forparticipatory democracy and revolutionary change. Similar hopes attached to theemergence of social media like Facebook in the 2010s. However, the machines andthe markets had different ideas. Online debate has been manipulated, for examplethrough the use of algorithms to create engagement through the promotion ofcontentious content. People often become entrenched in their positions as passivesupporters rather than active, democratic participants. Online discussion canoften be performative and sectarian and as a result draining.We have seen a rise in the far right. The challenge we face is how to engage inan effective opposition to this dangerous fringe while at the same time creatingthe necessary belief that an anarchist world is possible.The perceived legitimacy of the electoral democratic state is a challenge foranarchist ideas and organising. Potentially revolutionary energies in times ofcrisis are deflected towards established electoral channels. Well resourcedpolitical parties with lots of paid staff present a significant problem forvolunteer organisations.People who engage in electoral politics have a good understanding of how thecurrent system of government can be used to purchase and win political support,allocate local rewards and benefits. Local politicians leverage their knowledgeand access to the government structures to build their power base. This realm ofactivity is closed to us as we believe it is anti-democratic and fostersdependence and paternalism.Electoral change is easier to understand than revolution (a lot of unknowns andrisks). Elections give the appearance of regular change while structurallyeverything stays the same.Structural problems create needs. Politically, these needs are addressed bypeople voting for political parties, or contacting their TDs and councillors whocater to individual needs without addressing the core structural problems e.g. tobump someone ahead on a waiting list rather than build public housing for all.This highlights the absence or failure by the wider Left to create alternativeways of meeting people's needs.Currently the anarchist left lacks the credibility that is attached toelectoralism. Our challenge is building an organisational structure wherecommunities have input in the decisions that impact their localities and beyond.Anarchist organisations need to challenge the power that's centralised aroundTDs/counsellors and give people the confidence to assert their political voicebeyond the ballot box: "nothing about us without us".In all social struggles, there is a tension between political parties andorganising based on free association, between hierarchical electoralism andhorizontal forms of decision-making. Anarchist organisations need to develop analternative and durable ecosystem of political activity, to model an alternativeway of 'doing politics'. The challenge is for this anarchist alternative to becredible in the age of 'capitalist realism' and climate breakdown.Generationally, in Europe and North America, people who entered the workforce inthe 2000s will likely have a lower quality of life than their parents. They willwork harder and longer for less pay, less secure employment, and less securehousing, and avail of fewer public services as these are privatised. As they/wereach retirement, they/we can all look forward to boat-building and rising sealevels.People's expectations have been lowered since the financial crash of 2008 due tothe diminished return of the last economic "recovery". Housing, employment andaccess to social supports have become more precarious. This has had an impact onpeople's capacity to participate in social movements. With only sporadic wins forthe left, people's motivation to become involved in social movements is alsolessened.In saying that, we need to ask why younger activists and those directly affectedby some of the harshest conditions austerity produced did not join the WSM. Wesuspect that as the WSM declined in membership, those members with relativestability found it easier to remain active members. This created a morehomogenous group. This may have acted as a barrier to new recruitment.Until the aftermath of Occupy and the movement of the squares, the majority ofour members were students or unemployed, and so were able to commit much time tobuilding the organisation. Now the majority of members are older, in full-timeemployment, some with care commitments. It is not possible to give to theorganisation the time we feel it needs.Within capitalism today, workers are increasingly pressed for time, energy, andattention. Students working part-time jobs, precarious workers on short-termcontracts, and those commuting long distances to college or work do not appear tohave sufficient 'free time' to get involved in the often slow work ofparticipatory movement building.The WSM recognised this and responded by introducing a members and supportersmodel to acknowledge people's different levels of commitment and availability. Wecould, however, have adjusted our approach and expectations further andimplemented our strategy differently. Potentially, this may have meant movingaway from weekly meetings to a routine of sprints and breaks based aroundspecific projects and campaigns.The WSM didn't come up with a solution to the question of how to weave togetherthe work of running an organisation long term, versus the more energising, shortterm sprint of a campaign that has a lot of momentum behind it.Lessons Learned.4.1 Until anarchists are organised in sufficiently large numbers to maintainreasonably formal membership organisations on a permanent basis that bothpropagandise and organise in workplaces and communities, anarchism won't shapethe outcomes of future social struggles. Until then, the electoralist left - i.e.the non-revolutionary alternative - will maintain their position as the leadingideas of our class - and, most importantly, our class will not win.4.2 For the WSM, anarchist platformism provided a significant starting point forreinventing a revolutionary organisation fit for contemporary struggles. Ourmembers traditionally shared and continue to share different levels ofunderstanding of and perspectives on the role of platformism. The relevance ofplatformism to contemporary struggles remains something of an open question,perhaps to be asked by a new generation of activists.4.3 We learnt that it was important to have a collective project. Working as acollective through the WSM organisation has allowed each of us to contribute moreto our movements - and to the significant struggles that our class has mounted inthe past thirty-seven years - than we could have contributed as disparateindividuals. So long as the struggle continues, there will be a need forcollective organisation.4.4 When organising for revolution, there is a tension between the creativity andexperimentation that makes organisations relevant and attractive to individuals,and the organisational skills and structure building that allows an organisationto scale up and become a mass organisation. The value of organisation, includingadministration/'bureaucracy' or formal approaches to meetings, only becomesapparent over time.4.5 The quality of democracy and decision-making in our movements is enhanced byadopting basic organising strategies such as the holding of regular meetings withformal approaches to facilitating and minute-taking. A culture of democracy andtransparency is created. This facilitates the development of good relationshipsand trust being sustained over a long period of time. The ability to havediscussions where profound disagreements come out and to reach agreements thatcan be implemented is crucial.4.6 There is no substitute for meeting face to face, building relationshipsslowly over time, and building a sense of community. Social Centres are valuable.Significant options for collective action open up when a group or a movement havea physical space that can be used for meetings, events and storage. The settingup of such infrastructure is an important collective project for a movement ororganisation.4.7 Producing content or having a media campaign needs to be part of a consciousand considered strategy: a successful media campaign can be very empowering.4.8 We make choices about how to fight for a new world. These choices shape thetype of world we build. We recognise that people's intersectional experience ofoppression and exploitation will often determine how they fight back. Theprinciple of "nothing for us without us" is of central importance. We thereforerecognise that an anarchist revolutionary organisation should be diverse andmulticultural.4.9 Our experience has confirmed that we win through organising; that our poweris in our unions, our communities, and our streets. People learn their own powerthrough success. Winning is important and so is how we win. When we win by directaction people are empowered to deliver the change that they wish to see. Directaction becomes legitimate, and, as organisers, we are able to share the power ofa good example.Statement ends28 Feb 2023http://www.wsm.ie/c/workers-solidarity-movement-closing-statement_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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