WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, FDCA, Il Cantiere #21: Our roots OUR ORGANIZATION - Nestor Makhno (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

This brief, yet fundamental, speech by comrade Nestor Makhno perfectly
summarizes the characteristic and peculiarity of our political current
within anarchism. ---- 8 years after the revolutionary events of the
former Tsarist Russia, events in which Makhno himself had a great
political and military role, the reflection is now mature, profound,
thoughtful, albeit painful. ---- The distortion and emptying of the
structures that are expressions of direct workers' democracy, the
Soviets and the Factory Committees, by the Bolshevik Party has in fact
led to a rapid bureaucratic and authoritarian involution of the
representative bodies themselves, up to the formation of a new ruling
class composed of Bolshevik leaders and elements of the old bourgeoisie
and the establishment of state capitalism in place of communism.
Makhno and with him a good part of the Russian anarchist comrades who
had taken refuge in France and who had contributed to the revolutionary
and Soviet experience in tsarist Russia in 1917, came to the conclusion
that the "cohesion of all active anarchists, expressed with serious
collective action, is unanimously considered necessary by each of us".
"If we present ourselves once again without having first organized
ourselves adequately, we will remain powerless, unable to prevent events
from being dragged inexorably into the vortex of statist systems".
After the collapse of all the self-declared socialist or communist
economic and political systems, from the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics to China, up to the dictatorship of North Korea, passing
through the tragic Cambodian and Vietnamese experiences up to today's
Venezuela, the project of the liberation of the popular masses, even
today, can only start from a profound and precise condemnation of those
experiences and the relaunch of a libertarian communist project which
sees communism as the economic system of distribution and anarchy as the
mode of social organisation.
The current historical phase, which sees the rising tide of the rebirth
of nationalism, war and the possibility of a nuclear military clash, is
in many ways incredibly similar to that in which comrade Makhno
expressed himself.
We were in the early twenties of the last century, with an Italy already
dominated by fascism, in Germany the Waimar Republic was inexorably
collapsing, preparing the ground for the rise of Adolf Hitler's National
Socialism and we were only a few years away from the great international
economic crisis of 1929 , a general capitalist crisis that was resolved
only following the Second World War, with all the subsequent death and
destruction, culminating in the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japanese
soil.
Therefore, in coherence with the reflections expressed by comrade Nestor
Makhno and the group of Russian exiles in France, in this historical
phase, we work for the development of our political organization, for
its militant growth and for its real social rooting, so that the
libertarian communist project can be and become the reference for large
proletarian masses in their incessant struggle for liberation and
direction in the aftermath of the future revolution.
Editorial note
Our organization

The times in which the working class all over the world currently lives
impose on revolutionary anarchists the maximum tension of thought and
the maximum energy to clarify the most important questions. Every
comrade must be aware of this need, make it the object of his
reflections and come to the conclusion that only through a united
organizational force can anarchists quickly identify and analyze the
issues that concern the masses and inspire them successfully. Those of
our comrades who played an active role in the Russian revolution and who
remained faithful to their beliefs will have realized the damage that
the absence of a solid organization has done to our movement. These
comrades are in an excellent position to make a particularly useful
contribution to the search for unity that is currently underway. I
imagine that it will not have gone unnoticed by these comrades that
anarchism has been a factor in the insurrection among the revolutionary
masses of workers in Russia and Ukraine: inciting them to fight always
and everywhere. However, the absence of a large specific organization,
capable of gathering its resources in opposition to the enemies of the
revolution, prevented anarchism from assuming an organizational role.
The libertarian spirit in the revolution then suffered the tragic
consequences. If they become aware of this deficiency, Russian and
Ukrainian anarchists must not allow it to happen again. The lesson of
the past is too painful and, keeping it in mind, they should be the
first to set an example through the cohesion of their forces. As? By
creating an organization that can fulfill the mission of anarchism, not
only during the preparations for the revolution but equally in the
aftermath of the revolution.
Such an organization must unite all the revolutionary forces of
anarchism and work without hesitation in preparing the masses for the
social revolution and for the struggle to realize the anarchist society.
Although most of us are aware of the need for such an organization, it
is regrettable to note that only a tiny number of militants are willing
to face[the task - ed.]with the seriousness and perseverance that are
indispensable.
At this time, the sequence of events is accelerating throughout Europe,
including Russia, caught in the networks of the pan-Bolsheviks.
The day is not far when it will be necessary to be active participants
in these events. If we show up once again without having first organized
ourselves adequately, we will remain powerless, unable to prevent events
from being dragged inexorably into the vortex of statist systems. The
cohesion of all active anarchists, expressed through serious collective
action, is unanimously considered necessary by each of us. It would
therefore be very surprising if some adversaries of our Union join our
ranks. The question to be resolved concerns only the organizational form
that this Union of Anarchists will be able to adopt.
Personally, I believe that the necessary organizational form that best
suits our needs is that which presents itself in the form of a Union of
anarchists, built on the basis of the principles of collective
discipline and the common direction of all anarchist forces.
Thus, all the organizations that would join it would be linked to each
other by the commonality of socio-revolutionary objectives, but also by
the sharing of the means that each would bring as a contribution. The
activities of local organizations must adapt to local conditions if
possible; however they should also always be consistent with the
direction of the overall organizational practice of the Union of
Anarchists across the country. Whether this Union is called a party or
otherwise has only secondary importance.
What is fundamental is that it brings about the concentration of all
anarchist forces in a common and united practice against the enemy,
pushing forward the fight for workers' rights, the realization of the
social revolution and the future of anarchist society!

Delo Truda, no.6, November 1925, pp.6-7
Translated from Russian into French by Alexandre Skirda and from French
into Italian (with reference to Russian) by Nestor McNab.

Construction site no. 21 November 2023 ilcantiere@autistici.org

http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
_________________________________________
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