#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ITALY #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Italy, A rivista anarchica #377[Saint-Imier 1872-2012]: Without forward or backward escapes by Donato Romito (ca, de, it, fr, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 An extraordinary moment of encounter of the multifaceted international anarchist

movement, a proof of its internal pluralism. But there is the need not to stand
still at the starting blocks. Above all, we need revolutionary strategy and a
political program, organization and social alternative. ---- The analysis of the
Swiss meeting by a member of the Federation of Anarchist Communists (FdCA). ----
In the geologically famous Swiss Jura Mountains lies the town of Saint-Imier. The
history of the international workers' movement has passed through here at least
three times: the first for the struggles of the local watchmakers, the second for
the Saint-Imier congress of 1872 (the starting point of the anti-authoritarian
international and anarchism), the third - 140 years later - in August 2012.
The latter was certainly an extraordinary moment of encounter of the multifaceted
international anarchist movement, a proof of its internal pluralism, the mirror
of a composite reality of various currents, of different souls, of historical and
more recent identities, of small-scale libertarian practices scale and mass ones,
analytical approaches that are never stereotyped and concrete and proactive
policies. A universe that does not like hieratic "ipse dixit", nor remains
enchanted by the shrill sirens of an orthodoxy that does not exist, ready with
their litanies to issue sentences - and those are Bolsheviks, and those others
are confusing, and these are old man and those there, madonna, what reformists!
The insu, then! And so on: uselessness even appearing in some - fortunately rare
- report on Saint-Imier 2012,
The anarchist movement has come a long way since 1872 and how much has changed
through the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century... and how
much has remained the same as 140 years ago.
Saint-Imier 2012 started auspiciously. Since the end of summer 2011, the Swiss
Libertarian Socialist Organization (member of the Anarkismo network) and the High
Mountain Federation of the French Anarchist Federation (member of the
International Anarchist Federations-IFA) have been developing a commemorative
idea limited to a weekend, matured over inside the Espace Noir Social Center of
Saint-Imier (hub and beating heart of all of Saint-Imier 2012), in the direction
of an international and internationalist five-day event.

An international organizing committee is born to which several national
federations adhere, both members of the IFA and the Anarkismo network. The effort
of listening and cooperation (political, economic, logistical, etc.) of the
delegates to the numerous preparatory meetings held between Switzerland and
France produces a proposal for an event full of conferences, debates, workshops,
official self-management groups, to which innumerable informal moments
self-generated by the willingness to confront the at least three thousand
anarchists gathered in Saint-Imier were added over the five days. An
international assembly that seems to promise big news in terms of dialogue and
political confrontation between all the components. In the same days, in fact,
the IFA holds its congress: the political ties between the member federations are
strengthened and the political commitment renewed at the international level. On
Friday 10 August alone, the Anarkismo network holds its first intercontinental
meeting in a marquee fromBelle Époque with white and blue stripes: the birth of
no international of the organizations belonging to this network was foreseen, so
it was not a missed objective or even postponed. Anarkismo seems to be fine this
way, in reticular form. The common inspiration, by the organizations adhering to
Anarkismo, to the Organizational Platform of the General Anarchist Union of 1926
(that of Makhno and Archinov for short) or the Libertarian Communist Manifesto of
1953 by Georges Fontenis (1920-2010), or even a Towards a New Revolution of the
Agrupaciòn de Los Amigos de Durruti (1937), or the tradition of Latin American
"especifismo", is not a sufficient historical reason for building an international.
It is 2012, but we are still at the starting blocks of 1872.
We need much more: we need a revolutionary strategy and a political program for
the present. Organization and social alternative. For the 21st century. And then
the need is felt, right in the midst of a crisis of civilization unleashed by the
contradictions of capitalism which so far does not seem to oppose a unitary
international movement (organizations of male and female workers, political
organizations, associations and grassroots movements, practices alternatives...)
of struggle and change in the direction of libertarian communism.
Saint-Imier 2012 begins with a conference of European alternative trade union
organizations inspired by anarcho-syndicalism or revolutionary syndicalism or
grassroots libertarian syndicalism. Well, that sounds like a good start. The
spirit of Saint-Imier 2012 seems to produce those situations of listening and
dialogue between different components (even in the trade union field, yes),
augurs the exemplary unitary course (fruit of political intelligence and
foresight) taken in Spain by the CNT-Confederaciòn Nacional del Trabajo, by the
CGT-Confederaciòn General del Trabajo and by SO-Solidaridad Obrera, with general
strikes and common mobilizations throughout the country, in the face of the
devastating crisis for the Spanish working class.
Was there a report of the various situations? Here I am! But there has been a
lack of political listening and therefore of debate and therefore also of
dialogue. Was it not perhaps to be taken into account after decades in which
European libertarian syndicalism and anarcho-syndicalism have torn apart and
divided? Maybe yes. But this side is one of the most well-founded hopes we can
count on to rebuild libertarian practice in the workers' movement, to get out of
the state of minority and share conflicting and class goals in the short and
medium term. On the evening of Saturday 11 August, militants from the various
trade union organizations present met in an open space outside the Anarkismo tent
to open channels of direct communication. It's already something.

Saint-Imier 2012 had a debate on the sovereign debt crisis in the euro area
scheduled for Saturday at 9.00. Perhaps, in the five days, one of the very few
moments of analysis and discussion on the central issue with which we have been
dealing with it on a daily basis for at least four years.
Paul Bowman (of the Irish Workers Solidarity Movement, adherent of Anarkismo),
Francesco Carlizza (of the Italian Anarchist Federation, adherent of the IFA),
Laurent Esquerre (of the French Alternative Libertaire, adherent of Anarkismo),
make up an admirable argumentative and analytical frame, also if from different
approaches, in front of a small audience, with little time and little debate.
Could it be that the boring questions of economic analysis don't have much
"appeal" in the anarchist movement? Difficult to answer. But this was probably
one of the most important moments where you could find some common dialogue and
proactiveness. The three generous companions reported on the subject and it ended
there, amidst the thanks and applause of those present.
It seemed, almost at the end, that there were sufficient conditions for a single
conclusive statement of Sait-Imier 2012, even knowing that it was not foreseen. A
statement that served for the political and social action of organized anarchism
and anarchists as individuals engaged in various fields of struggle, resistance
and the creation of experimentation and alternatives. The attempt by delegates
from the IFA (represented by the French FA) and the Anarkismo network
(represented by the Swiss OSL, the Italian FdCA and the French Alternative
Libertaire) to reach it was concrete, but stalled before the final general
assembly . Evidently, those political conditions did not exist and, despite the
initial spirit of Saint-Imier 2012, there are still many bridges to be rebuilt.
Drawing up a political assessment of Saint-Imier is not easy, once the ability of
the international anarchist movement to stay to itself in five days of
self-management and an intense agenda of commitments has been ascertained.
Meetings, hugs, handshakes, songs, toasts and engaging experiences on a personal
and collective level, strengthening international relationships, discovering that
you can speak unknown languages even just to recognize each other in belonging to
the same movement, at least once in a lifetime, on the same occasion as its
historic commemorative performance. All of this was Saint-Imier 2012.

But that's not enough. It can't be enough.
Saint-Imier 2012 closed with an enormous deficit: the great gain on the
relational level within the movement risks not being translated into a factual
and ideal investment of political proposals to be shared today with male and
female workers from all over the world, with exploited men and women of the
entire planet, with the oppressed men and women of all states.
In fact, a clear and strong political indication has not emerged on how to deal
with the current situation of economic, social, political, environmental,
cultural, civilizational crisis, which is beating all of us, proletarians,
working class, popular classes oppressed and political activists and anarchists
and libertarians, we natural enemies of capitalism. Not a clear, practicable,
spreadable indication, however multifaceted, on how to build the libertarian
alternative to the existing state of affairs. Is this too much to expect from an
international, intercontinental anarchist meeting like the one at Saint-Imier
2012? It might be comforting to answer that yes, it is asking too much.
And yet, today, only from the anarchist movement could answers to the need to
understand the crisis, to respond to the attacks of capitalism and the States, to
elaborate and implement practices of libertarian solidarity and to build another
social and collective dimension, organized from below and starting from immediate
needs. Which is exactly what the congressmen who attended Saint-Imier in 1872
tried to do.
If we are not still there, as a political movement and as our proactive capacity
towards our natural interlocutors in society, then the time has come to
commemorate Bakunin, Guillaume, Cafiero, Malatesta and the others of Saint-Imier
1872, working for the unity of the exploited and oppressed, for the coordination
of anarchist federations in positioning themselves as the orientation of
anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist ideas throughout society, to rebuild the
conditions for our emancipation from capitalism and the state.
Don't we have the strength? So let's rebuild it. Standing in the materiality of
the very harsh social clash in progress, between those who have often made the
international anarchist movement strong in history, the exploited men and women
and their organizations and movements capable of expressing libertarian
practices. Without forward escapes. No leaks back.

Donato Romito

http://www.arivista.org/?nr=377&pag=25.htm
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