1. Embat emerged as a preliminary project in 2013 and took a number of years to cohere as a formal organization. What can you tell us about this process? Was it a deliberate choice to move slowly?
Embat: The Procés Embat ('Embat' means the wave of the sea crashing against the rock) was born in 2013 as a discussion and debate process aimed at the libertarian movement of Catalonia. We did not consider ourselves an organization until 2015. During those two years we worked on the militant culture necessary to form the organization. We also worked on spreading social and organized anarchism as a necessary concept to shape that kind of organization. Therefore, we can say it was a deliberate choice.The Process consisted of various conferences and meetings in several spaces of the anarchist movement. In these places we connected with those people who sympathized with our ideas or organizational proposals, and some joined our organization.
Given the lack of a specifically anarchist organizational tradition in our land, we also needed some time to learn how organizations work.
Paradoxically, Catalonia, one of the territories in the world with the largest number of anarchists, almost completely lacked libertarian organizations, beyond anarcho-syndicalism. In the period 2007-2011, the limits of informal and anti-organization anarchism became apparent, and anarchist militants were looking for other references. We found them in previous organizational attempts (such as Alternativa Libertaria of 1999 and Red Libertaria Apoyo Mutuo of 2002) and in Latin American anarchism of the especifista type, or in the anarkismo.net network.
2. The anarchist movement in Catalonia is most famous historically for its expression through the anarcho-syndicalism of the CNT in the early 20th century. Though a kind of rudimentary organizational dualism existed with the FAI, the specific tenets of Dielo Truda's Platform did not seem to have an impact on the anarchist movement in Catalonia, or elsewhere in territories claimed by the Spanish state, until recently. What accounts for this?
That's right. Organizational dualism in Catalonia has always revolved around the FAI. However, as a synthesis anarchist organization, within the FAI there have been groups or currents favorable to our tendency. The exception to this lack of interest towards our tendency was the Agrupación Los Amigos de Durruti (Friends of Durruti), born in 1937 amid the revolutionary struggle, in response to the predominance of the collaborationist stance within the FAI. But they appeared too late and their organizational work didn't last.
In the 1970s, there were various very diffuse organizational expressions of anarcho-communist tendencies: the Organización Libertaria de Trabajadores (Libertarian Workers' Organization), the Movimiento Comunista Libertario (Libertarian Communist Movement), the Grupos Obreros Autónomos (Autonomous Workers' Groups) and some others, or the Comunas Revolucionarias de Acción Socialista (Revolutionary Communes for Socialist Action) in Asturias, and Askatasuna in the Basque Country. These kind of groups oscillated between anarchosyndicalism and libertarian Marxism or autonomism, as they were likely unaware of the theoretical foundations of anarcho-communism, which at that time was developing with some strenght in France or Italy, for example.
The first organization that fell within our current was the Federació Anarquista Comunista Catalana (FACC - Anarcho-Communist Federation of Catalonia), born in 1981. Some of its members came to know the Platform and spread it in our territory, but that organization did not survived the 80s and some created the short-lived Federació Anarquista-Comunista Llibertària (FACL). The following attempts (Alternativa Libertaria and Apoyo Mutuo) could be considered within anarcho-communism, but still in a very loose way.
Until our founding, all federations, networks, and libertarian coordinating bodies were synthesis-based. Even the libertarian groups, collectives, or anarchist squats and athenaeums were synthesis-based. No particular tendency predominated beyond 'anarchism'. In most cases it was social anarchism or libertarian socialism, but in others individualist and anti-organization tendencies were evident, which made any lasting organizational effort impossible.
It took years for Embat to be accepted in the libertarian movement, because there were people who did not find it "normal" for anarcho-communist organizations to exist, let alone for them to advocate for popular power, as we did.
3. What areas of mass organizing does Embat participate in? Why are these strategically prioritized?
At this moment we are mainly participating in the housing movement and the union/syndicalist movement. In both cases we have struggle fronts dedicated to coordinating these tasks. At other times we have also been working on other issues, such as the ecosocial transition, the neighborhood movement, the remunicipalization of public services, or the self-determination of Catalonia.
Our fronts are work areas of the organization that try to bring the organization's program and strategies to other mass struggles and organizations, connecting with those people closest to our ideas who are already working in them. However, in our case, we do not start any struggle in which we do not already have militants working there. We consider that the social insertion of our membership is very important. But this insertion must be real and verifiable. We do not accept people who are not already active somewhere.
4. How does Dielo Truda's Platform inform your organizational structures, strategy, or approach?
The Dielo Truda Platform was one of the documents we had as references. We do not consider ourselves a "platformist" organization, but rather we identify with the debates that gave rise to the Platform and that derived from the document. Therefore we are in the same political tradition. We define ourselves as a cadre organization of libertarian socialists, whose goal is libertarian communism, and we have especifismo as our method of revolutionary organization. And so that people outside the movement understand us, we define ourselves within the tendency of "social and organized anarchism."
We use the Platform as the theoretical basis to emphasize the need for theoretical unity, strategic unity, collective responsibility, and federalism, which were the essential organizational points of Dielo Truda's program.
5. What relations do you maintain with anarchist communist organizations in your region, continent, and on a global scale?
Embat: Our goal is to relate to all anarcho-communist organizations that emerge in our region. For example, we maintain relations and coordination with Batzac, Joventut Llibertària de Catalunya; Liza, Plataforma Anarquista Organizativa (Madrid and Granada); Hedra, anarchist organization of Alicante; Xesta, Organización Anarquista Galega; and all others that arise in our state.
Embat is part of the International Coordination of Organized Anarchism (ICOA) and within it also of the European coordination. Therefore we share tendency with many anarcho-communist or platformist organizations and hope that soon there will be many more in new places.
We encourage all people who want to see a free and socialist world to join this type of organization or to form them in their cities and territories. We understand that anarchism is one of the best forms of liberation for humanity and the planet, but for it to grow and triumph, organization is necessary.
https://www.blackrosefed.org/platform-interviews-vol-2/#embat-catalonia
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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