>> The
>> current sutructure of the US anarchist movement has to
>> radically change if it is to build this.
>From: Chuck0 <chuck at tao.ca>
>Andrew and I, and other activists, had a long discussion about this
>several years ago. I think we even placed a bet on this, which I'm
>waiting to collect on. ;-)
Given the central role anarchist organisations on the model I've been arguing for played in Quebec (NEFAC) and Prague (ORA-Solidarita) I think this bet is swinging my way rather then yours.
>The nuances of this discussion are too complex for me to comment on
>briefly, but basically it revolves around strategy. Andrew and other
>class war anarchists in Europe and North America believe that we should
>organize federations and organizations in order to pursue a
>revolutionary strategy. I've argued the anti-organizational position,
>which relies more on the type of social networking that has provided the
>means by which the "anti-globalization" movement has become successful.
I think this either/or argument is not the real division. We have argued for the creation of organisations that are involved in struggles on the ground. These organisations where they exist have played an important role in providing a structure for the broader network and as importantly explaining what anarchists are actually fighting for.
>The "organizationalists" operate on an anarchist version of traditional
>Left organizing, i.e. focus on getting folks to join your party.
This is dreadfully inaccurate almost to the point of being slanderous! We go out of our way to say you don't have to join our organisation to be active. See http://struggle.ws/rbr/rbr3_organise.html for an article I wrote in '97 criticising the 'join the party' approach.
This accusation is also hard to square with our involvement around the Zapatista encounters, I was in Chiapas in '97, Spain in '98 and in Bradford later in '98 (Bradford began the planning process that led to J18 after the follow up Glasgow meeting in '99).
Chuck is quite right to say it makes no sense to throw all of your energy into building political organisations. He is wrong to imagine that is what we argue for or the other groups in agreement with the Anaarchist Platform (see http://struggle.ws/platform.html )
Actually we emphasise the importance of building a vibrant movement that is independant of any organisation - this to a large extent is what has happened over the last period.
Now back to ganging up on the rest of you!
Andrew
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International anarchism
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