WORLD WORLDWIDE GREECE News Journal Update - (en) anarkismo.net: The need for a restart of organized anarchism in Greece by Evripidis Kaltsas (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The following text presents thoughts, concerns and necessities for the

imperative, organizational reconstruction of the anarchist movement in Greece.
The proposals and points of criticism are submitted in the context of a wider
political, cinematic dialogue. The positions formulated are not written with the
purpose of arrogant suggestion, which would perhaps suit an instructor, despite
the biting tone in several places (the purpose is to motivate active
participation and organization to overcome the existing political and
organizational goals). These positions are the writer's findings, points of
criticism (therefore also self-criticism) and schematic proposals concerning the
organizational reconstruction of the anarchist movement in Greece.

It is a fact that during the pre-election period, a large part of society has its
ears and eyes open, to listen to proposals and programs that can theoretically
change or improve its life. Of course, he supports or validates these proposals
through the assignment that the municipal election fraud entails, without
actively participating in political developments. After all, radical social
changes require an upheaval not only in the political, but also in the economic
field, which determines the former. These changes cannot happen through peaceful
and institutional means, because the ruling class is not willing to lose without
a fight the material privilege that the capitalist system and its political
guardian, namely the state, ensures it. These changes, that is, the reformation
of all social and productive relations, can only be realized through the
revolutionary violence of the oppressed. That is why the organization of the
social revolution is necessary and the role of the revolutionary vanguard is
decisive.

During the pre-election period, of course, a political framework is formed that
allows anarchists to address their proposals in a targeted and comprehensive
manner to the working class (which they do, of course, throughout the year),
drawing a line of rupture with bourgeois institutions and delegation, aiming to
wrest the working class from the Sirens of bourgeois politics (especially from
the clutches of social democracy that strategically integrates and eviscerates
movements), calling it to active abstinence and participation in social and class
struggles.

Most bourgeois and reformist parties are guaranteed a visibility in society both
because of their financial and organizational resources (as the case may be). Do
anarchists currently have any political visibility in society? Where exactly are
we calling for the working class to organize? Are we as anarchists organized or
sufficiently organized in the first place? Do we have systematic and consistent
intervention, submitted proposals and a program that meets the needs, concerns,
concerns and interests of the social majority? These are critical questions that
we must immediately answer with similar political planning and actions in the
near future. These are chronic shortcomings of the anarchist movement in Greece.
They do not arise simply because of the shock result of the recent election.

Right now the anarchist space is fragmented and disorganized. The working class
in Greece is just as unorganized. The organizational situation of the anarchist
space at the moment does not allow it to intervene in the central political scene
and in the daily class struggle in decisive terms, so as to draw in and organize
in a militant and revolutionary direction sections of the working class. The
reformist delusions cultivated by SYRIZA, the harsh state repression and
persecution, the intensity of economic pressure and the material demands of daily
life, which also lead to the limitation of free time, as well as the alienation
entailed by the ideological and cultural dominance of bourgeoisie have
undoubtedly influenced the anarchist space, causing it to deteriorate.

Anarchism is historically and socially linked to the working class. It is an
organized movement of the working class that fights for social liberation. As
long as the anarchist space in Greece continues to operate according to accepted
organizational models, it will encounter enormous difficulties in order to make
its intervention in society effective. Personal networks and alternative
entertainment/entertainment/socialization are not organizational propositions. By
themselves they constitute an alienated, petty-bourgeois reality, which cannot
act as promoters for the struggles. Equally inadequate is, however, the
organizational form of the isolated, small-member kinship groups, which often
constitute the political appearance of a group of friends. The organizational
reconstruction of anarchists presupposes the transcendence of these
organizational forms. It presupposes the overcoming of the traditional political
cell of the organized anarchist space in Greece, i.e. the kinship groups. As long
as we remain attached to this organizational form, we will maintain the networks
of personal relationships, intra-cinema competition or "championship" of
collectives (and their often void of social interest, opportunistic
self-promotion done for reasons of self-preservation), sectarianism or hegemony,
the informal hierarchies and proprietary logics often inherent in kinship groups.

The intervention of the anarchists is aimed at the working class. But have we sat
down to adequately analyze the class subject we are addressing, its
categorizations and the reality it experiences? Have we worked out the class
composition and reality of the members of the Greek anarchist movement? Or do we
operate through theoretical automatisms? Before we outline the
class-revolutionary subject to which we are addressing and which we want to
organize in terms of horizontality and direct democracy, it is necessary to
achieve the internal, class convergence and homogeneity of the domestic anarchist
movement. Thus, our approach and intervention in the working class will be clear,
honest and more effective. It is necessary to synthesize the many and different
realities we experience as oppressed class subjects into a whole. To be aware of
the reality experienced by our partner and also the person to whom we are addressing.

With these in mind we should adapt the functioning and daily life of anarchist
formations and groupings to the needs of the working class, giving the
possibility for the development of political organization and the conscious,
active and equal participation of members. Such an important step presupposes the
"coming of age" of the anarchist space. It is a condition that requires
anarchists to look outside the circles of the university youth, without
disparaging it of course. This is a necessary step, because important functional
problems arise when the action of a group is largely based on a changeable social
subject, let alone when it instrumentalizes, even unintentionally, its participation.

In order to limit and eliminate "speed differences" it is necessary to share
knowledge and experience to all members of an anarchist organization. To fight
within our organizations the division of tasks that imitates capitalist standards
and to remove the separation of intellectual and manual work, as well as
specialization, which sometimes gives rise to privileges and sometimes heavy
responsibilities. To give time for collective political dialogue, exchange and
synthesis of opinions for the political fermentation and political formation of
the members. However, there must be a balance and dialectical relationship
between theory and practice so that we do not fall into either verbiage or activism.

Already now we must work hard within the anarchist groups to create a collective,
kinetic, comradely culture of struggle, which will promote solidarity, mutual
aid, empathy and understanding, commitment, consistency and self-discipline. In
other words, to create a new, libertarian anthropological type, which we will not
shape, however, in laboratory conditions for our safe microcosm and our isolated
"islands of freedom". This anthropotype of the anarchist fighter-comrade can only
be built within the processes and evolution of social and class struggles.

In these contexts it is useful to define our relationship with the dominant or
alternative cultural expressions, which greatly influence the physiognomy of
political subjects, their organizational forms and their means of struggle. A
political space that has claims for the revolutionary overthrow of the dominant
system cannot be defined - to a catalytic degree - by standards and behaviors
that are a reflection of sick elements of the capitalist system, even if they are
marketed as alternative and militant, with the aim of assimilation and alienation
of sections of the youth. We cannot "run" behind subcultures elaborately formed
by the capitalist system itself in the context of its cultural "modernization"
and the strategic integration, unblocking and division of the masses. We must
build as a counterweight to the dominant culture our own libertarian culture
which will be practically intertwined with organization, struggle and the
revolutionary cause. But even if the approach of new comrades/partners is done in
more cultural and social terms than political, within the political assembly the
libertarian education of the new members must be foreseen based on the principles
and values ​​of anarchism.

Let us return to the question of the required political visibility of anarchists
for their organized social intervention. Given the current state of
disorganization of the anarchist space in Greece, the creation of a special
anarchist organization, a coherent anarchist communist federalist organization
with pan-Hellenic action and as massive as possible participation and continuous
intervention becomes quite a difficult undertaking. It does not mean, however,
that it should not be a key organizational issue for the political upgrading of
the anarchists of the class struggle, the anarchists who connect the project of
social liberation, libertarian communism, with the distinct political
organization of the anarchists and the organization of their intervention in the
class movement. Based on existing organizational resources a stable coalition of
anarchist groups can and should now form a distinct libertarian opposition on the
street. To find common ground, positions and goals and to plan a common strategy
on key issues of the class struggle (eg labor struggles/unionism, anti-war
movement/anti-imperialism, anti-fascism). To unite in the street anarchist
groups, which have their eyes turned towards society and refer to the class
struggle, under the framework of a frontal formation of anarchists, which will
publicly claim its political visibility, independence and the propagation of its
positions in society. Such a frontal form of anarchists can be the prototype of
the necessary, special anarchist organization at a later stage.

The special anarchist organization required for the reconstruction and upgrading
of the anarchist movement is called upon to overcome the scopes and limits of
informalism and affinity groups. For these reasons, it cannot be linked to
organizational forms that have shown their limits in the past. The new anarchist
communist membership organization should be built around the axes of theoretical
and tactical unity, collective responsibility and its federal structure,
utilizing the theoretical wealth of the platformist and articulate tradition,
which carefully elaborated the strategy of organizational dualism, a strategy for
organized intervention of anarchists in the labor movement, social and class
struggles. The special anarchist organization should encourage and take
initiatives for organization and struggle in every field of the class struggle.
To try to find new methods and forms of social and class intervention and if
necessary to reframe the older ones, so that they respond more effectively to
today's reality. However, without the existence and massification of the social
and class organizations of the working class, the special anarchist organization
is weakened and "short-circuited" as logic, precisely because it is fed back by
these organizations, since its action is directly intertwined with the action of
these formations , in whom he must intervene and radicalize them with libertarian
ideas and practices, so that they move in a revolutionary direction.

Our gaze and performances should be directed towards society, not our safe, inner
microcosm. Today's situation calls for organization, mobilization, commitment,
responsibility and participation in social and class struggles. Applause, cheers,
hugs and comments on social media are not enough. It is not even enough to simply
accompany on the road (without the accompanying organization that is) which
usually defines someone as a simple follower. Resting in bars and self-organized
islands is not a solution. Nor, of course, can the false self-actualization of
simply carrying a political identity offer anything socially. Active engagement
and action are needed now more than ever. For resistance survival purposes, to
begin building the reconstruction and counterattack of the anarchist and class
movement. We must not, however, fall into the trap of self-consumption and
entrapment of our dynamics. The dynamics that we are progressively gathering
should be diffused into the social and class struggles with the aim of organizing
and sharpening them.

In the face of today's disillusionment, resignation and privatization or
disengagement, disorganization and impatience, which carries risks of elitism and
isolation from the working class, patience, political sobriety and organization
are needed. We have to erect collective dykes of resistance against the new
coordinated attacks of the state and capital, to organize the resistance, mutual
aid and self-defense of our class. Our concern should be the reconstruction of
the anarchist and class movement, the promotion of the rupture of the working
class with the bonds of the bourgeois system in the direction of
self-organization and the autonomy of social and class struggles, for the
conflict with the state and capitalism as dominant system of exploitation and
oppression, for the world social revolution and the building of the libertarian
communist society. We must therefore find the appropriate ways and forms of
struggle, so that on the one hand we can achieve important victories, of a
partial nature, for the improvement of the working and living conditions of our
class, on the other hand we can bring broad social masses into contact with the
vision and the necessity of social revolution and libertarian communism.

Right is on our side! Effort, commitment to the cause of social emancipation and
anarchy, organization and struggle! We will win in the end!

https://www.alerta.gr/archives/30491?fbclid=IwAR0QTpOa71_zP06tXzlI8q9fL8X0rrOsARjrFaJIrlLAkX4pnLvjGoJ1u-w

https://www.anarkismo.net/article/32776
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca