WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE GREECE News Journal Update - (en) Greece, Espive: Ba Jin and the "Platform" - From anarchism in Asian anarchism by Angel Pino* (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The article deals with the relationship of the Chinese anarchist Ba Jin

with the "Platform" debate, which was published by a group of Russian
anarchist exiles in France. ---- When Ba Jin went to France in February
1927, for a stay of just under two years, discussions had been going on
for many months in anarchist circles, especially among political exiles,
about the questions of organization and ideology. Discussions began in
the summer of 1925, initiated by Russian libertarian fighters fleeing
the terror of the Bolsheviks, and were to lead mainly to the publication
of this text, dated June 1926, which later acquired a passing
reputation, the Organizational Platform of the General Union of
Anarchists - erroneously called "Plataforma Arshinov" in homage to the
editorial secretary, while by some it is attributed to the famous
Makhno. (1) Ba Jin had only been there a few weeks when the most famous
criticism against this work appeared, in April 1927, which also had many
signatures, and which was mainly edited by Volin. (2)

The "platformists," as they were called, claiming experience in their
own country, were essentially to blame for the failure of the anarchist
movement-understanding the anarchist movement as a whole, and not only
the Russian movement, although the Russian Revolution had served in this
case as a catalyst for reflection - about the "lack of firm principles
and a consistent organizational practice". (3) Against "irresponsible
individualism" and pandering to others, they defended "collective
responsibility." (4)

Volin and his comrades, themselves armed with the same experience,
condemned the "exaggeration of the role and scope of the organization"
and denounced what they saw as merely "veiled revisionism in relation to
Bolshevism." (5" This opinion was shared by the Italian Malatesta,
another opponent of "Plataforma", who judged that the "platformists",
"obsessed with the success of the Bolsheviks in their country", wanted
"like the Bolsheviks, to recruit the anarchists into a kind of
disciplined army which, based on the ideological direction and practice
of some leaders, would march to attack the present regimes and with the
victory it would bring about the formation of the new society." (6) The
critics of "Plataforma" and Volin, in any case, advocated a
reconciliation, both ideologically and organizationally, uniting the
three main currents of anarchism: the communist current, the syndicalist
and the individualist. (7) And it was precisely what "Plataforma" was
condemning, rejecting the idea of creating a synthesis organization of
the currents, because it is theoretically and practically incapable of
gathering sympathizers from various aspects of anarchism. Such an
organization embracing a potpourri of evidence (in terms of theory and
practice) would be nothing more than a mechanical meeting of people with
diverse views on all the issues affecting the anarchist movement and
inevitably strays from reality." (8) (7) And it was precisely what
"Plataforma" was condemning, rejecting the idea of creating a synthesis
organization of the currents, because it is theoretically and
practically incapable of gathering sympathizers from various aspects of
anarchism. Such an organization embracing a potpourri of evidence (in
terms of theory and practice) would be nothing more than a mechanical
meeting of people with diverse views on all the issues affecting the
anarchist movement and inevitably strays from reality." (8) (7) And it
was precisely what "Plataforma" was condemning, rejecting the idea of
creating a synthesis organization of the currents, because it is
theoretically and practically incapable of gathering sympathizers from
various aspects of anarchism. Such an organization embracing a potpourri
of evidence (in terms of theory and practice) would be nothing more than
a mechanical meeting of people with diverse views on all the issues
affecting the anarchist movement and inevitably strays from reality."
(8) Such an organization embracing a potpourri of evidence (in terms of
theory and practice) would be nothing more than a mechanical meeting of
people with diverse views on all the issues affecting the anarchist
movement and inevitably strays from reality." (8) Such an organization
embracing a potpourri of evidence (in terms of theory and practice)
would be nothing more than a mechanical meeting of people with diverse
views on all the issues affecting the anarchist movement and inevitably
strays from reality." (8)

The dispute resulted in a radical split in the French anarchist
movement, until shortly before the beginning of the 1930s: in November
1927, the Union Anarchist-Communist (UAC)-which, in July 1926, was
joined by Nestor Makhno and Piotr Arshinov-adopted a Constitution
inspired by the "Platform" to evolve into the Revolutionary Communist
Anarchist Association (UACR), while opponents of the "Platform"
regrouped into the Association Des Federalistes Anarchistes (AFA) on
what he considered a "synthetic" basis Sebastien Faure. (9) It was in
April 1930 that the UACR finally rejected the "platformist" positions
and returned to the old principles, and in May 1934 it merged with the
AFA into a single organization, the Anarchist Union (UA). However,

The editorial team of the "Platform" had a specific ambition to
establish a worldwide International Union of Anarchists, which will be
"an international organization that will bring together a single
organization of forces in relation to the main theoretical positions and
practical proposals outlined in the "Platform". (10) Therefore, to
"prepare the ground," an "intermediate committee" was formed on February
12, 1927-a week before Ba Jin's departure from the Gare de Lyon-at a
meeting held in a Parisian bistro. , at 62 Rue de la Roquette, in the
presence of Russian, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish libertarians
(th Ranko or Benjamin Goldberg), as well as a Chinese libertarian, Wu
Kegang (called Chen). (11)

Wu Kegang was a young Economics student at the Sorbonne (12) whom Ba Jin
connected with as soon as he arrived in Paris. It was Wu Kegang who saw
Ba Jin when he got off the train, Wu Kegang who met Ba Jin and his
friend who had traveled with him from China, Wei Huilin (13), a hotel,
or rather, a kind of boarding house at 5 Rue Blainville, not the 5th
arrondissement, where he lived, and it was once again Wu Kegang, who, a
month later, moved with him to a second hotel near the first, at 2 rue
Tournefort .

Together, the three young people will rework a text that appeared in
Shanghai in April 1927, in the form of a book entitled "Anarchism and
Practical Pursuits", a book written by Huilin[Wei Huilin], Feigan[Ba
Jin]and Jun Yi[Wu Kegang](14) and in which each presented his arguments
on the question of whether or not anarchists would cooperate with the
Kuomintang.

Above all, Ba Jin intervened in the discussion of the "Platform" through
a written contribution intended for the provisional committee in which
Wu Kegang participated. For reasons that became clearer later, this
writing remains unpublished, except for a long excerpt that was confided
hidden behind the pseudonym Renping to "Pingdeng" (Equality), an
anarchist Chinese periodical of the time, circulated in the United
States, in San Francisco , entitled "Chinese Anarchism and the Quest for
Organization." (15) He called for the defense of the organization, an
organization that is not centralized, but is never mentioned, except in
the published part, in the program of the Non-Foreign Russian Anarchist
Group.

Ba Jin's support for the "Platform" movement seems to be limited to this
written contribution, and nothing allows us to suggest that, for
example, he attended any of the meetings organized by Wu Kegang's
comrades. He did not appear at these meetings, but he also found some of
these fighters: Makhno, according to Wei Huilin (16), and certainly
Aniela Wolberg, Ranko and Ida Mett, according to their autobiography. (17)

On February 22, this provisional committee held an international
conference, which began on March 20, 1927, at the Cinema Les Roses, Rue
de Metz, L'Hay-les-Roses (18), in the suburbs of Paris, exclusively for
those who they supported "Plataforma". Among the participants whose
presence is noted, there were members of the UAC-not as representatives,
because the UAC has not debated in favor of the "Platform"-were Peter
Lentente, Severin Férandel or Rene Boucher (Pierre Le Meillour was
absent, but declared his support by letter), from the Anarchist Youth,
Pierre Odeon (Pierre Perrin) and, of course, the group of Russian
anarchists, such as Archinov, Makhno and Ida Gilman (Ida Mett). Two more
teams of Italians, a team led by Viola (Giuseppe Bifolchi) and the
"Pensiero e Volontà" team with Luigi Fabbri, Camillo Berneri and Hugo
Treni (Ugo Fedeli). (19), a group of Poles including Ranko, Jean Walecki
(Isaak Gurfinkiel) and Aniela Wolberg, a Bulgarian, Avram Tchelebiev and
Spaniards. Finally, we saw people like Achille Dauphin-Meunier or Wu
Kegang but also the Russian Isaac Kantorivtich and the Italian Mario
Frazzoni, for whom, however, we do not know at what level they participated.

During the meeting, the plan to create an International Anarchist Union
was discussed with a "preparatory committee" set up for this event, and
a proposal was submitted for discussion, which included the following:
1) Recognition of the class struggle as the most important factor in the
system of anarchism.
2) The recognition of syndicalism as one of the two main methods of
action of anarchism.
3) Recognition of communist anarchism as the basis of our movement.
4) The need in every country for a General Union of Anarchists based on
ideological and tactical unity and collective responsibility.
5) The need for a positive and creative program for social revolution.

The discussions were obviously very lively. The "Pensiero e Volontà"
group was not entirely in line with the "platformist" views, Werny
(Fedeli) confirmed that the "Platform" presented was probably perfect
for the Russians "but not for them", while Fabbri shocked with certain
formulations of it. He stated that he does not share the "Platform" view
of the "class war", since the anarchist ideal is a "human ideal", immune
to any power. He therefore proposed some amendments to the proposal
tabled before the meeting, more numerous and less painful than those
mentioned. (20) In the first point, he asked to be corrected as follows:
"The recognition of the mourning of all the explored and oppressed
against the principles of the state and capital as the most important
factor of the anarchist system.

But on April 1, the provisional committee distributed a circular
publishing the express reservations about the Congress and alternative
counterproposals, and considered the creation of an "International
Revolutionary Anarcho-Communist Federation" based on the principles of
the "Platform" certain. But the group "Pensiero e Volontà" announced
that it preferred not to participate in the project and was followed by
other participants in the Congress. (21.

At the Congress the disagreements were not resolved, because the meeting
was interrupted by an unexpected raid by the police, of course alerted
by an informer, who betrayed everyone. (22"

Like other foreign activists arrested and imprisoned, the rooms of both
Wu Kegang and Ba Jin were searched. (23) After that, they received a
deportation notice. About thirty Russian, Polish, Bulgarian, Italian,
Chinese and Spanish anarchist activists received deportation notices,
asking them to leave France before June 10. These men, so unpleasantly
expelled from France, were forced to leave their respective countries
where harsh dictatorships reigned which outlawed anarchists. Among the
expulsions was another Chinese student... (24)

Ba Jin, who talks about the episode in the story of "Aniela Wolberg",
while also recounting the events in his letters to Emma Goldman and
Alexander Berkman (25), wrote that Wu Kegang had been expelled from
French territory. Indeed, the latter was deported from France in the
autumn of 1927 on a ship that also carried Jacques Reclus (26) to
Shanghai. The French authorities did not immediately inform: in October
1927, they decided that "the person named Woo Yang Hao[Wu Kegang],
...[was]still under investigation." (27). Early next year, when he
returns to China, he, along with Camillo Berneri, Ida Mett, Isaac
Kantorovitch, Avram Tchelebiev and Luigi Fabbri, will be allowed to
reside in France, "with the renewal of his stay every three months" . (28)

But the debate about the "Platform" did not die. In August the
"Plataforma" editorial team responded to Volin with the text "An Answer
to the Perplexed of Anarchism" (29) and shortly thereafter, as we have
seen, "Plataforma" was endorsed by the UAC. However, the International
Revolutionary Communist Anarchist Federation never saw the light of day,
and most of the announced deportations eventually took place when the
departures were not voluntary. (30)

Ba Jin moved in July 1927 to Chateau-Thierry, not Aisne, a few
kilometers from Paris. We suppose elsewhere that the reasons he has
always given to explain this decision - to offer his lungs with
healthier lungs a healthier weapon than to give him capital and save his
pocket by choosing a cheaper lifestyle - you may be able to
enlargements. unwilling to get involved in this matter in which Wu
Kegang was involved and, as a last resort, that he only treated him from
a distance31.

Notes - References:

1) First published in Russian in the magazine "Dielo Truda", beginning
in June 1926, it was translated into French the following October, in a
version edited paradoxically by Volin, its chief critic, who was also
accused of distortion of the original text.
2) Answer of several Russian anarchists to the ?Platform", Librarie
Internationale, Paris 1927 (Sobol, Fléchin, Schwartz, Steiner, Volin,
Lia, Roman, Ervantian). These documents and other materials have been
reproduced in the following two books, sometimes in revised translation
(which, to say nothing of the second, is not cited): Alexandre Skirda,
Individual Autonomy and Collective Force: Proudhon's Anarchists and
Organization today , Paris, AS, 1987; A Organização Anarquista: textos
fundadores, edições do Entr'aide,[Paris], 2005. On the controversy, in
addition to Skirda's book, see Gaetano Manfredonia, "Le Débat
"plate-forme" ou "synthesis", in: The Anarchist Organization, pp. 5-22
(excerpt from Directions: a life, a think, n° 13, "Voline", 1995, pp.
33-41); and René Berthier, "Lições de outubro: sobre o 80o aniversario
da Revolução Russa', Le Monde libertaire, special issue no. 9, 18
December 1997-29 January 1998.
3) "Platform", in: Alexandre Skirda, p. 253
4) Ibid., p. 280.
5) Response of several anarchists in: L'Organisation anarchiste, p. 120.
6) Errico Malatesta, Alexandre SkirdaResponse to the Platform" (1927),
ibid., p. 133.
7 See his article, "De la synthèse," in La Revue anarchiste, Nos. 25 and
27 March and May 1924, pp. 2-8 and 2-4.
8) Archinov, (June 20, 1926), in: Alexander Skirda, p. 255.
9) Sébastien Faure, "La Synthèse anarchiste" (1928), in: L'Organisation
anarchiste, pp. 135-146.
10) Unless otherwise stated, the following information is taken from a
report of the International Meeting on Roses Anarchist Cinema,
L'Hay-les-Roses, March 20, dated March 21, 1927 (Arquivos da Prefeitura
de Polícia, Paris, BA, 1899, 350,000-H6); eo testimonio de un dos
participants, Ugo Fedeli, "Principi e metodi dell'organizzazione"
Volontà 4-5, November 15, 1948, pp. 267-272, no. 6, 15 January 1949, pp.
373-382.
11) In other cases, his name is transcribed as Cen ou Tchen. It is
probably the "chinês" who had participated in the commemorative meeting
of the first anniversary of the birth of the magazine "Dielo Truda", on
June 20, 1926 (Skirda, p. 164).
12) Wu Kegang (1903-1999) - or Wu Yanghao (Woo Yang-hao) - librarian and
professor, specialist in cooperative economics, moved to Taiwan after
1945, where he died. See Angel Pino, "Wu Kegang" note, in: Dictionnaire
biographique du mouvement libertaire francophone[DBMLF](not prelo).
13) Wei Huilin (Wei Hwei-lin, 1900-1992), ethnologist and sociologist,
student in Paris, who moved to Taiwan in 1949, when the Communist Party
took power in China. See Angel Pino, 'Wei Huilin' note, em: DBMLF.
14 Huilin[Wei Huilin]Feigan[Ba Jin]and Jun Yi[Wu Kegang]Wuzhengfuzhuyi
shiji goi yu ("Anarchism and Practical Quests"), ela Minzhong, Shanghai,
April 1927.
15) Renping[Ba Jin], "Zhongguo yu wuzhengfuzhuyi zuzhi goi" ("Chinese
Anarchism and the Question of Organization") Pingdeng (Equality), San
Francisco, vol. 1, ??. 2, 1 October 1927. now in Ba Jin Quanji (Complete
Works of Ba Jin), Renmin Wenxue Chubanshe, Beijing, vol. 18, 1993, p.
129-132.
16) ??. Paul Avrich, Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in
America, Oakland, AK Press, 2005, p. 408.
17) Ba Jin gave some characters like them, such as Wu Kegang in his
stories "Yalianna"[Aniela](1931) and "Yalianna Woboerge"[Aniela
Wolberg](1933). In the French versions of these two texts, their names
were transcribed incorrectly: in defense of the two translators, it must
be admitted that Ba Jin, with his Sichuan accent, has trouble
distinguishing some of the sons. Deve ler Aniela Wolberg for Ariana
Volberg and Ranko for Handke. See "Roman", 1980, pp. 139-153 and 155-165.
18) On April 20 in Bourg-la-Reine, as written many times, we see
confusion in Fedeli's story.
19) In the police files he is registered as Hugo Werny, city of Russia
(Arch. PPo, BA 1899).
20) As Gaetano Manfredonia apontou, Luigi Fabbri, le mouvement
anarchiste italien et la lutte contre le fascisme, Paris, Editions du
Monde libertarire, Paris, 1994 p.136 sq.m. For Skirda, by contrast,
Fabbri suggested only a "slight modification" (p. 178).
21) Found in "Notes for a Bibliography of Berneri" compiled by
Giovambattista Carroza for the collection Selected Works of Camillo
Berneri (introduction by Gino Cerrito, Paris, Editions du Monde
Libertaire, 1988, pp. 322-323) list of places two Italian anarchists,
especially those who will participate in this conference, about the
"Platform".
22) Malcolm Menzies gives a slightly different version of events, which
unfortunately is not based on verifiable sources: he did not find a seat
in his own cinema, but in an apartment above, and we formed the
participants who decided to say goodbye when they realized that the
police were closing the property. They then tried unsuccessfully to
escape by mingling with moviegoers leaving the cinema, but not before
burning all incriminating documents ("Makhno, an epic: the anarchist
movement in Ukraine from 1918 to 1921," translated from English by by
Michel Chrestien, Paris, Belfond, 1972, p.237).
23) Ba Jin, "Ariana Volberg", p. 158.
24) F.[Férandel], "Expulsão em massa de ativistas libertários", Le
Libertaire, June 10, 1927.
25) Letter from Li Yao Tang[Ba Jin]to Emma Goldman, July 5, 1927, The
Emma Goldman Papers. Letter from Li Tang Yao to Alexander Berkman, 18
July 1927, International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, IISG,
Alexander Berkman Papers, General Correspondence, 47, letter dated 20
May 1925. 26) Shaokelu[Jacques Reclus], "
Wo suo renshide Li Yuying xiansheng' (Mr. Li Yuying as a wise woman),
Zhuanji wenxue (Biographical Literature), 45, no. 3, 1984, seven. pp.
87-88. About Jacques Reclus (1894-1984), son of Paul, son of Elisee, who
spent a quarter of a century in China, see the article we dedicate to
him in DBMLF.
27)[Georges]Renard, Director of General Security, Chef de Cabinet of the
Minister of the Interior, for the Police Commissioner, Office, Office 1,
19 October 1927 (Arch.PPo, BA 1899).
28) The Minister of the Interior to the Prefect of Police, Council of
Ministers 1, 9 January 1928 (Arch. PPo, BA 1899). 29 Grupo de
Anarquistas Russos no Exterior, Resposta aos confusionistas do
anarquismo, Librairie Internationale, 1927 text published in Skirda, pp.
295-311.
30) Makhno could not remain in France, as long as he strictly complied
with the demands of the political conditions, thanks to the intervention
of the anarchist Louis Lecoin with the police commissioner Chiappe
(Louis Lecoin De burg en burg, 1947 Antony, pp. 176- 177).
31 Angel Pino, "Ba Jin, France and Chateau-Thierry", ???: Ba Jin, a
popular writer in the country of Jean de la Fontaine, Chateau-Thierry,
Jean de la Fontaine Museum, 2009, ???. 193.

*Originally published in March 2013 in the 45th French anarchist
magazine "A Contretemps: Bulletin de Critique BIbliographique".
Translated and slightly modified by Nick Heath.

** Reposted from: neither god nor master

https://anarchism.espivblogs.net/2023/07/03/o-ba-jin-kai-i-platforma/
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