1. Can you begin by describing the origins of CAB and various iterations that the project has gone through, starting back in 2002? Would you detail the differences between the 'forum' stage, the 'coordination' stage, and perhaps what the future trajectory will be?
CAB: The changes CAB has undergone over time reflect the challenges of finding a common path for action in a country as vast as Brazil. This trajectory began with collaborations among diverse groups in Brazil, guided by a shared initiative: to build a framework for anarchist action grounded in collective organization and a direct connection to the struggles in the territories and spaces built by its activists from a perspective of popular and autonomous organization.The formation of a Forum of Organized Anarchism (FAO) was realized based on the experience of these diverse organizations, seeking to understand how to pool their capacities to propose an analysis of the current situation and joint action with tactical and strategic frameworks, articulating the needs of various struggles and the understanding of Brazil as a diverse yet singular whole. At that time, the Forum already had broad representation from various states spread across Brazil's five regions.
Common understandings regarding the interpretation of the Brazilian political and social moment, as well as the need for joint articulation of political lines and tactics for each moment of transformation, were gradually built within these national spaces, which evolved over time into increasingly solid agreements and a search for more concrete standards for membership processes, forms of social action, and the construction of a "militant profile" and propaganda capable of presenting anarchism as a force for transformation within our context.
Each of these agreements, with varying degrees of influence on the day-to-day operations of the organizations, gradually shaped new organizational stages that were distinguished by different names, such as "Construction," "Forum," or "Coordination," the latter marking the organizational form by which we identify ourselves today. Gradually, the cumulative processes in the formation of nuclei, decision-making structures, and the establishment of executive and deliberative bodies allowed us to build a network whose scale has consolidated a national presence. Our plans include even more defined coordination agreements among each of our local chapters, the expansion of the organization throughout the national territory-ranging from more central cities to less populated and more rural areas-and the solidification of an ever-greater coordination with the organizations of our sister countries in Latin America.
Beyond these gains, an important task for a political organization swimming against the tide would also be to build the political relationships and capacities of its activists, and to allow such efforts to generate accumulated strength over the long term, despite the difficulties that political regimes and the mode of production impose on all of us. We have persisted and insisted on this task for over 30 years, which has taken on the significance of a historical process of uninterrupted construction of organized anarchism in Brazil, and, specifically, we have now been part of CAB for 14 years.
2. CAB is made up of several organizations in the various states and regions of Brazil. How were these regional organizations established?
CAB: Initially, each of these organizations was established through its own dynamics, by individuals and collectives who came to learn about and study anarchism separately throughout their lives in their respective regions. From groups fighting to preserve the student structures that guarantee access to higher education in Brazil, to groups of workers organized to fight for labor rights, in general the first groups encountered anarchism through study groups on possible ways to confront capitalism and through inspiration from experiences such as those of the fAu, FAG, the Spanish Revolution, and the Organizational Platform, which were studied and discussed through dialogues among these activists. These ideas became the driving force behind organizing these people into an organic structure.
Throughout the organization of the CAB, there were various efforts to find groups of individuals in other locations with the same desire to organize. Each of the organizations focused on a specific geographic region to engage in dialogue and form small groups with the potential to build new local organizations. Today, we continue to seek to organize new groups, either actively, by seeking to bring together and organize anarchists in their territories through CAB nuclei, or by welcoming people and groups interested in our organizational strategy.
3. What areas of social movement organizing does CAB strategically prioritize? In other words, what areas of work are militants of CAB involved in?
CAB: The three main areas of struggle around which the people in CAB organize are labor, student, and territorial movements:
By labor struggles, we refer to organized groups of workers who fight for rights related to their workplaces, such as better wages, shorter work hours, and safety guarantees in the workplace, among other issues.
Student struggles generally bring together higher education students around issues such as ensuring the continued operation of public universities-whose budgets are frequently threatened by neoliberal governments- investment in improving spaces for the development of knowledge and science, as well as public policies to enable students from working-class and low-income backgrounds to remain in university, with assistance for food and housing.
In the territorial sphere, activists are united in the struggle to guarantee access to land, whether to work independently, preserve traditional ways of life, or ensure decent housing and access to community public services, such as healthcare, public transportation, or urban infrastructure. This field brings together agrarian reform, indigenous movements, neighborhood movements, community libraries, popular education initiatives, the struggle for reproductive justice, community radio stations, and urban art groups.
An important characteristic is the solidarity among these fields of struggle. Various spaces share an understanding of the struggles to be waged together and seek to coordinate their demands. Furthermore, CAB advocates for the creation of these spaces in close alignment with the construction of an anti-racist and anti-patriarchal society, seeking mechanisms to combat these forms of oppression on a daily basis within the spaces where we operate.
4. The Platform document published by Dielo Truda is now 100 years old. Is the framework put forward by the document still relevant in 2026? How does CAB relate to the ideas put forward in it?
CAB: There is a widely held view in Latin America, supported by historical records, that the concept of "especifismo" was an original creation of the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation, aimed at coordinating the specific anarchist organization with the region's social movements within a model of horizontal struggle, in which the influence of the two levels would be mutual and continuous-a concept that could be described today as "Organizational Dualism."
Throughout the development of anarchism on our continent and through contact with new translations of documents from various languages, anarchist researchers and activists could not help but notice the similarities between our development and the ideas and formulations proposed by the Dielo Truda group.
In recent years, an increasing number of activists and organizations have come into contact with the Portuguese translation of the Organizational Platform, which has had a significant impact on understanding the historical paths taken by various anarchist activists in different locations and has brought us closer to organizations with similar proposals around the world. The text is frequently studied and, along with Juan Carlos Mechoso's book The Strategy of Especifismo, has become essential reading for understanding the propositions and paths of anarchism's organizational strategy.
5. How does CAB coordinate and communicate with its sibling organizations across the South American continent? What work do you undertake together?
CAB: The history of anarchism in Brazil is closely linked to organizations across our continent. The influence and support of the fAU in Uruguay, our ties with the Anarchist Federation of Rosario in Argentina, and all the other organizational initiatives that have emerged over the years are inseparable from the history of the CAB.
The goal of this coordination, now embodied in the Latin American Anarchist Coordination (CALA), is to share an understanding of the political and social moment of our continent in relation to the world, the relations of exploitation organized by the bourgeoisie among our countries, and an active interest in supporting and structuring new organizations in every country and every place where there is a thirst for struggle for social transformation that guarantees us a socialist and libertarian society.
6. The current of 'organized anarchism' appears to be growing across the world, including in Latin America, what do you think accounts for this?
CAB: The advance of capitalism and its increasingly frequent crises impose a necessity on the peoples of the world: to create tools to unite our forces and fight for a new world.
A world with greater economic, gender, and racial equality among people-in contrast to the capitalism, racism, and patriarchy in which we live. A world whose relationship with the earth is one of care and balance-in contrast to the destruction of biomes and indigenous ways of life, and to mining and hydrocarbon extraction that pollute rivers, lands, and air. A world with guarantees of comprehensive and broad education, where access to art and leisure is not a luxury, where life is joyful and dignified.
In Latin America, these dreams have been persecuted and crushed over the past century by dictatorships imposed by the state and the bourgeoisie, terrified by the people's ability to organize and demand this necessary transformation. We are witnessing a major setback in the process of organizing anarchism and other strands of socialism on our continent.
Over the past 40 years, following a long period of resistance to dictatorship, clandestine organization, and the building of underground networks, anarchism has had the opportunity to resume propaganda and publicly debate its ideas. During this period, anarchist organizations have openly resurfaced, a long and ongoing process of reconstruction that continues to this day. There has been no shortage of opportunities to put these ideas into practice. We have waged immense struggles, such as the anti-globalization movement of the 1990s, the rise of neoliberalism, and the repeated attempts to destroy everything that was built as a collective guarantee-such as our public education system, the Unified Health System, public energy and water distribution networks, and even the high-tech industry, where unions have significant influence.
The struggles over the years have strengthened the capacity of anarchists in Brazil, Latin America, and the world to confront the oppressors-those at the top-through the initiative, effort, and organization of the oppressed, those at the bottom.
https://www.blackrosefed.org/platform-100-interviews-vol-1/#coordenacao-anarquista-brasileira-brazilian-anarchist-coordination
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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