Thanks to the bar "La Bascule" for inviting us tonight. We share the
same values of a self-managed place and the principles of cooperativism---- What is anarchism? ---- => A political philosophy, the state of
mind of vaguely utopian dreamers or on the contrary the expression of a
desire to destroy all forms of domination by all possible means,
including violence? ---- How to campaign for anarchism to change
society? ---- First of all, we will tell you where we are speaking from
because it is essential to know who defends which ideas in the name of
what? ---- => Presentation of the group La Sociale, the local La Commune
and the Anarchist Federation. (RL works, Editions, ML)
=> Basic principles of the FA
=> Press table and a box for the support of the local La Commune and
leave the contacts
/////
Main principles of anarchism:
Very official definition of Larousse:
Political and social conception which is based on the rejection of all
governmental, administrative, religious supervision and which privileges
individual freedom and initiative.
According to the eminent geographer of the 19th century, Elisée Reclus,
it is also "The highest expression of order"
Anarchism is not a fixed project. We aim to build together the tools of
emancipation and the political project according to the social, cultural
and historical reality, which makes anarchists realistic supporters of
scientific materialism and not the deranged (dreamers or terrorists) as
they are often presented by those who are afraid of Freedom. The
plasticity of this conception of political project therefore makes
anarchism a political philosophy more in touch with reality than
Marxism, because the latter has remained frozen in a dogma from the 19th
century and which has not adapted to the evolution of social relations.
In broad terms, anarchism defends the following essential values:
First, Liberty => "the freedom of some extends mine to infinity" by
Bakunin rather than his bourgeois conception "Individual freedom stops
where that of others begins". Anarchism adds that freedom is the very
condition for the realization of Equality
Then, Equality which is the very condition for the realization of
Freedom. Freedom without equality is the law of the strongest, the
freedom of the fox in the henhouse. Equality without freedom is the
confinement of our hopes, our dreams within the narrow framework of the
State, in short, the end of any desire to achieve an emancipatory
political project.
Finally, Socialism, which is the pooling of the means of production and
the disappearance of their private property
Anarchism is of course translated by the end of all forms of political
domination. The abolition of the State is therefore the first condition
for the real emancipation of Society. This therefore involves, in
particular, the rejection of the dictatorship of the Proletariat
But how can society be organized in the absence of a State? The basic
cell of society is the individual and not the family as in the bourgeois
system. But man being a social animal, he builds these relationships
with others. The idea of anarchism is that these social relationships
are free from any form of power and domination. All social relations are
based on trust and relationships of shared and freely consented
interests, rather than on constraint.
=> In the anarchist project, Federalism and Self-management (or direct
management) are the 2 tools of management of society by workers and by
the population proposed by anarchists.
As for Federalism:
On the economic level, the Federation or union of workers, with the
federation of consumers define their needs and decide together what to
produce.
On the political level, the Commune makes decisions at its level
according to its concerns on the subjects that concern it. It does not
do so selfishly in denial of the needs of other communes, but within the
framework of shared interests within the Federation of communes which
would be in charge of the construction of politics (in the sense of
"life of the city") on a larger scale.
Anarchism is not localism or selfishness: we are in favor of all the
resources of the planet being used everywhere by all those who might
need them. Thus, the municipality that has reserves of water should not
selfishly keep this access for itself but on the contrary make others
benefit from it, in the name of the principle of solidarity.
Overall, for the consumption of all types of resources, we will be led
to collectively define our needs: for example, will we really need, in a
system freed from capitalism, so many technologies in view of their
impacts? Can we not also take into consideration the constraints of the
populations who must suffer the environmental consequences of the mining
extractivism of rare metals? For example, let us admit that tomorrow the
community decides that it absolutely needs cobalt or lithium to drive
electric cars or for mobile phones, their extraction will obviously have
to be done without exploitation of labor, and even less of children, and
in the least polluting way possible.
As for the distribution of tasks in the future society, we hope that the
most thankless tasks will not always be reserved for the same people,
and we believe that the average increase in education levels should
allow everyone to decide in their soul and conscience what job they want
to do, even if it seems obvious that some jobs are more necessary to the
functioning of society than others. These jobs, often the most
thankless, are also the lowest paid. It would be different in an
anarchist society. Every hour of work would be valued in the same way
regardless of the activity. The most difficult jobs should benefit from
a reduction in working time and be shared between all, as far as possible.
It is understood that each will only be asked according to their
ability, and each will receive according to their needs. Overall,
according to the anarcho-syndicalist Pierre Besnard in his work "Le
Monde Nouveau", the coherence between needs and their satisfaction by
the production of workers could be ensured by the feedback of
information from statistical institutes, and the coordination by a
Confederation of workers and consumers, representing their interests, to
be converged within the framework of current constraints, in particular
environmental ones.
Collective organization goes through federalism. The Collective Force is
organized from the various components of society.
Concerning self-management. Self-management is not managing one's
subjugation as it can sometimes be proposed to us in companies, through
quality circles, or other participatory bodies within the framework of
social relations that employers seek to pacify.
Self-management means deciding together, based on real production
information shared by all, what we should produce more of, or continue
to produce as much, or what we could stop producing because it is
useless, and what we should stop producing because it is harmful. These
decisions on the use of the production tool can only be made by taking
into account all the constraints: place of production, environmental
impact, difficulty of the work, working time.
Productive decisions are made without any consideration of the profit
that will be generated, the surplus value generated by the work can then
be shared between all the workers in this sector of activity and with
the workers in other sectors of activity, and the community. The notion
of the value of work will no longer be based on the profit generated by
this surplus work, but on its exclusive social utility.
There will therefore be no self-management without the socialization of
the means of production - and therefore an end to capitalism - nor
without the liberation of public services from the grip of the State, a
State that decides on the allocation of budgets according to its own
interests.
Notions of skills and Example of self-management of a hospital. If I am
an electrician in the hospital, I will not do surgical work and vice
versa, however, each department of the hospital can operate autonomously
to the extent that it serves the common and coordinated interests within
the framework of public health offers.
There is therefore a logic of contract between the stakeholders of
society: producers and consumers, mandated and represented.
This is not about delegating our responsibilities as producers,
consumers, and inhabitants of a territory to professionals in politics,
even if they are anarchists. It is about everyone taking their affairs
in hand, getting involved in social and public life, to defend their
interests and those of the people they can represent.
Indeed, we cannot decide democratically in a general meeting with 10,000
people. We must therefore put in place the principles of the imperative
mandate and the revocable mandate.
Explain the principle of imperative mandates and the revocable mandate
Examples of anarchist or libertarian-inspired revolutions: The Paris
Commune 1871, Spain 1936, Ukraine between 1917 and 1921
Examples of Scoop 10 years of Scop-TI (the former elephants- FraLib),
Duralex, LIP in the 70s, self-managed companies in Argentina 2001
Territories freed from exploitation, Exarchia in Athens, communities
like Christiania or ZAD. Chiapas in Mexico, Rojava. Self-organization of
peoples
CONCRETELY
Today more than ever the reasons to fight are numerous: to put an end to
billionaires, the destruction of what remains of public services, to
increase wages, to reduce working hours to share them, to safeguard the
living
This last point is central: What is the use of a political project
defended by the most predatory species on the planet if it does not
integrate the question of which survivors could benefit from it? The COP
29 which ends today in Azerbaijan, takes note, after all the previous
ones for 32 years, that 6 planetary limits exceeded out of a total of 9:
The pollution and exploitation of natural resources by humanity have
already led to the crossing of limits such as climate change,
deforestation, loss of biodiversity, the quantity of synthetic
chemicals, the scarcity of fresh water and the balance of the nitrogen
cycle. The acidification of the oceans and the concentration of fine
polluting particles in the atmosphere are at the critical threshold.
Only the state of the ozone layer would be below the acceptable threshold.
This environmental issue will generate major geopolitical unrest in the
years to come.
Knowing how revolutionary activists can respond to this issue is essential
What are our means of action?
=> We are not an enlightened vanguard
=> We do not dissociate the means from the end. We do not campaign in
France 2024 in a phase of social decline as in 1936 in Spain in a
revolutionary phase.
=> We do not run for election. "Power must not be conquered, it must be
destroyed" and "Take the most radical revolutionary and place him on the
throne of all the Russias or within a year he will become worse than the
Tsar himself.»
=> The anarchist project is not a reformist project, which could be
brought about gradually to anarchize a culture, an economy, a State.
Positioning itself in rupture with capitalist exploitation and against
the State, an anarchist society could only come about through a social
revolution.
This does not make anarchists dreamers with their heads in the stars,
waiting for the big day that may never come. On the contrary, anarchist
activists are convinced that action is the driving force of history.
Anarchists have been and will always be on the side of those who suffer
and who fight to change the course of things.
It is in social struggles that awareness of the need for radical change
of system is created. This is why we have been involved in all social
struggles since our origins, on the one hand, to improve the concrete
conditions of the exploited, and on the other hand to bring the idea of
a necessary overthrow of the established order.
Beyond the great or small facts of history, anarchists have succeeded in
getting many ideas accepted today: the right to abortion, to birth
control, the abolition of the death penalty, freedom of conscience,
thought and expression, anarchists were at the origin of trade unionism
(revolutionary at the time) and are still active in many countries, were
organizers and promoters of mutual aid societies before the creation of
Social Security (from each according to their possibilities, to each
according to their needs), participated in all anti-authoritarian fights
against nuclear power, and in defense of the environment, and were
insubordinate and conscientious objectors to military service...
What do we do as a social group? How do we campaign for anarchism in 2024?
Why join us?
We believe that we must massively reinvest and put trade union
organizations at the service of the exploited. We work with the forces
of progress. We promote alternatives in action, even if they do not
represent a current break with capitalism, the power of example can help
to ask questions about the overall functioning of society. The reformist
struggle can be a "Revolutionary Gymnastics". We work within the
framework of reformist organizations (associations, unions, etc.) and
sometimes with reformist organizations, when it seems to us that this
allows us to advance our ideas within the framework of a political
situation that is not revolutionary. Our perspective is always
revolutionary, so we are not fooled by attempts to recover autonomous
struggles by political professionals, which we will always denounce.
Because we promote that everyone takes their affairs in hand, where they
live and work. We start from the reality experienced by the exploited.
We have nothing else to propose than an education in the science of
one's own misfortune.
//
A current thinker of anarchism, Gaetano Manfredonia, identifies three
typologies of social change in the anarchist: insurrectional,
syndicalist or educationalist-realizer
//
Anarchism is not a leftism. It predates the publication in 1920 of
Lenin's work "The infantile disease of communism" by at least 50 years.
It distinguishes itself from the various Marxist sects in particular on
the rejection of any form of authoritarianism and in particular by the
fundamental rejection of its political expression: the State
Published by Groupe La Sociale de la Fédération Anarchiste on Monday,
December 02,
https://www.falasociale.org/2024/12/texte-introductif-au-debat-quest-ce-que.html
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
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