1. What is the history of Die Plattform? How, when, and under what circumstances was your organization formed? --- Die Plattform: Die Plattform was founded as an initiative in 2019 after long discussions between comrades who have been active in a broader anarchist organization and felt the need for an organization composed of more committed militants around a shared strategy.
The "Organizational Platform of Libertarian Communists" was just translated a few years earlier into German and had a great influence on what they perceived as an alternative form of organization. Originally and still today, the critique of the broader anarchist milieu and movement in Germany is something we think is needed. It took a lot of space in our first publication. But limiting the formation of Die Plattform to solely disagreements inside the anarchist movement would be shortsighted.Many socialists realized after the crisis of 2008/2009 that there is a need to get more rooted in the working and popular classes and build organizations that are actually able to build toward a social revolution while also having a practical impact in daily life. This is what we today call "power from below."
We also felt the need for a more coherent anarchist organization that connects us as revolutionaries and helps us stay true to our ideals and values. There have been many debates, congresses, organizations and initiatives that have influenced our organization and work today.
2. Historically speaking, what have been the most visible expressions of organized anarchism in Germany? Did there exist any groups inspired by Dielo Truda's Platform before the establishment of your organization?
Die Plattform: As far as we know, there hasn't been any organization in Germany inspired by Dielo Truda's Platform before us, but there had been similar experiments in the 1920s, with the Federation of Anarchist Communists of Germany and around some newspapers, but they never gained any real influence. At the same time, especially during the revolutionary phase between 1918 and 1923, we see the most visible expression of anarchism as a social revolutionary movement in Germany, composed around the Free Workers Union of Germany (FAUD), which grew out of a localist union culture in contrast to the central unions close to the social democrats. They adopted an anarcho-syndicalist programme and at one point had organized more than 150,000 revolutionary workers. After the fascist purges, the shoah and the second world war, the anarchist movement never really grew bigger or more influential again.
Still, anarchist ideas always came back, and they influenced the autonomous movement, social movements and other political groups after the revolt in 1968, but anarchists were not able to build a coherent revolutionary organization. But we do find some autonomous housing projects, publishers and newspapers connected to the anarchist movement, as well as the FAU anarchosyndicalist union, which has grown over the last 10 years.
3. The Platform document is now 100 years old, is it still relevant for the year 2026? How does platformism inform the practical activity of your organization?
Die Plattform: If we do understand the original document not as a finished programme for an anarchist organization, but as a self-critique, a reflection, an attempt to keep true to anarchism as an ideology rooted in the workers and peasant movements of their time after losing in a revolution, there is still relevance. First of all, we think that their reflection of their experiences, gains and losses are important tools and aspects of revolutionary organizing in general, which we admire. Secondly, we still agree with their conclusions about the need for a coherent anarchist organization based on a common theory and strategy, collective responsibility for our work, and a federalist structure.
From our own experiences in various social movements in the last ten years, we recognize the limits and boundaries inside them to form structures coherent enough to be both practically and ideologically strong. In our practical activities, this influences us in the separation of political organization with the discussion we have around a common programme, as well as our work in the social movements. But we are less about tying our strategy to a specific historical document: rather, it helps inform our historical and present experiences in broader social and libertarian movements. We have to try and figure out what strategy works best for our current times.
4. Your organization sometimes uses phrases and concepts borrowed from Especifismo, such as 'social insertion'. To what extent do you believe there is similarity or difference between Especifismo and Platformism?
Die Plattform: We consider both as parts of an older anarchist tradition, called organizational dualism. In this tradition, we find common ground in the specific anarchist organization and the work to be done within the working classes. As there are sadly not many translations from the especifist tradition into German, it is difficult to say where exactly we can find similarities or differences, but we are eager to find out more about it. While it is interesting to study the details, we think it is more important to be practical about it and not to make up unnecessary differences, which distance us more from each other than bring us closer together in political discourse.
5. What areas of social or mass organizing are members of Die Plattform engaged in?
Die Plattform: Since our foundation, our view of which movements our members should engage in has changed, which is why we gained experiences first in the climate justice movement and feminist organizing as well as in antifascist groups. Right now, we are mostly engaged in neighborhood and tenant organizing, while some members are also active in the union movement and feminist organizations.
6. What relationship do you have with other Platformist or Especifista anarchist organizations in Europe and beyond?
Die Plattform: Together with many other organizations of our tendency, we founded the International Coordination of Organized Anarchism (ICOA), in which we participate. In Europe, we do have close ties to the Swiss organisation Midada and the Union Communiste Libertaire in France. We try to keep in regular exchange and when possible participate in each other's events.
7. How has Die Plattform changed in its seven years of existence? What are the main obstacles you have faced and how have you overcome them?
Die Plattform: Die Plattform is constantly changing. From an initiative inside of a synthesist anarchist organization, we became a federation with local groups. In these seven years as a federation, we struggled with internal disagreements, patriarchal and racist behavior that required correcting, as well as with confusion about what terms like "social insertion" mean exactly to us in our reality in Germany, and how to adapt concepts from different places and put them into practice.
Beyond that, we gained a lot of experience organizing as anarchists. We are part of an ongoing process to find out what it means to be an anarchist organization and what our internal processes and structures should look like. Over the last two years, there has been increasing interest in our organization. We have also realized that for real unity, it takes more than just declaring it: it must be created through education, common practice, and long discussions to understand the conditions of our struggle.
https://www.blackrosefed.org/platform-interviews-vol-2/#die-plattform-germany
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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