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Manifesto of the Federação Anarquista Comunista de Portugal

category iberia | anarchist movement | policy statement author Tuesday October 16, 2007 17:07author by Federação Anarquista Comunista de Portugal - FACPauthor email facp-geral at riseup dot net Report this post to the editors
In the Founding Assembly on 5th-6th-7th Ocober 2007, the members of the FACP approved the general orientation lines (see Manifesto), as well as the internal organisation of the federation and decided on some short-term actions and several proposals that will soon be made public.


Manifesto of the
Federação Anarquista Comunista de Portugal

(Anarchist Communist Federation of Portugal)

(approved by the Founding Assembly on the 7th October 2007)

Introduction

Anarchism embraces two worlds: the world of ideas and the world of action, which are profoundly connected with each other. It can be said that anarchism is a material analysis of a practice for social struggle carried out by the workers (*) or self-organised communities in order to defend their own interests and not external interest, which may be imparted by political parties or illuminated vanguards. The workers and fighting communities are naturally more concerned with the objective and practical side of anarchism. Their essential principle is the workers’ revolutionary initiative and their liberation by their own forces.

All the revolutionary social movements that existed up to now took place within the framework of a capitalist regime and received little influence either from anarchist theory or practice, with the exceptions of Spain (1936-1939), Ukraine (1917-1921) and Mexico (1910-1920); nevertheless, with more or less success, with greater or lesser influence from anarchists and their organisations, all the worker-class struggles from the past and present are precious and should be learnt from. This is easy to understand as the social struggles and their actors evolve, not in the ideal world, but in the world that surrounds them, and must daily confront the physical and psychological action of the oppressive forces. Today’s numerically small anarchist movement is unable to provide enough help to the social struggles and the workers suffer from the permanent influence of the environment of a capitalist system and from other intermediary groups associated with it, namely: the political parties, who defend the reformist approach and parliamentary politics; the unions, who are manipulated for the benefit of the dominant classes and not of the workers (who have little voice within the union organizations, run by a few leaders); the mass media, which builds a fictional reality and fictional truths, which perverts the perception of reality, and which is unfortunately the sole source of information for too many people. (1)

Although the anarchist ideal is rich in its multiplicity, the anarchists’ role in the social struggle has been, and continues to be, scarce or non-existant in Portugal. Our goal should be to help the social struggles take the path to emancipation and to the building of the future society. While the mass movement is still working towards the decisive confrontation, the role of anarchists should focus on cooperation within the social movements, both helping these movements interpret the forthcoming fights, and helping define the work needed to be done and its goals, together with counteracting the influence of opportunist politicians who never miss an opportunity to restrain the social movement. Once the class struggle has entered a decisive phase, then anarchists should participate in it without delay; they should do whatever they can to help the first constructive efforts, ensuring that the chosen path meets with the basic expectations of both workers and communities. We should on all occasions promote within the worker class and the people the ideals of self-government and self-management.

We see in Portugal today a scenario where anarchists are totally dissociated from the social struggles, the exact opposite of what should be the practice of anarchists, and this in spite of men like Emídio Santana, Manuel Joaquim de Sousa, Mário Castelhano or Neno Vasco, or organisations such as the revolutionary syndicalistist Portuguese CGT or the anarchist-communist UAP (União Anarquista Portuguesa) that was part of the FAI (Federação Anarquista Ibérica). These organisations, these men and women, fought for the complete emancipation of the workers and were also brave fighters against fascism. The anarchist ideal motivates the enthusiasm of many sincere anarchists, but the most frequently-encountered explicitly anarchist literature is too often full of abstract banalities and vague digressions that have nothing to do with the workers’ social movement. There is, however, one common trait to all these – their total allergy or aversion to organisation (2).

The Portuguese anarchists have long suffered from one terrible ailment: disorganisation. This sickness has destroyed in them the need and enthusiasm for practical thought and has condemned them to inactivity at times of important social struggles. Disorganisation comes together with a lack of responsibility, and both serve to impoverish ideas and nullify any practical intervention. There must be organisation, and organization there will be if we can draw together all those who take anarchism seriously, those who are really devoted to the revolution and to social struggle.

Another serious infirmity that afflicts anarchism is the navel-gazing into which it was plunged by those who have less a relation to anarchism than to petit-bourgeois, liberal feelings: the nihilists, existentialists, anarcho-capitalists, primitivists, etc.

“Anarchism does not mean mysticism, nor vague words on beauty, nor despair. Its greatness is mainly due to its devotion to the cause of oppressed humanity. It carries within itself the masses’ aspiration for the truth, their heroism and their condensed will; it represents at present the only social doctrine upon which the masses can rely and trust to undertake their struggle. It is not enough for anarchism to be a great idea and anarchists its platonic representatives. The anarchists must take part permanently in the mass revolutionary movement and cooperate with it. Only then will this movement truly breathe the authentic atmosphere of the anarchist ideal. Nothing is obtained for free. All causes demand efforts and sacrifices. Anarchism must find a unity of aims and action and attain an exact realization of its historical role. Anarchism must penetrate the hearts of the masses and fuse with them.”

If we are dispersed, our influence will be reduced during the course of the struggles, especially if we are few in number; in such a situation our capacity is greatly reduced, we lack projects, we see what is going on around us, but lack the capacity to act and we fall into depression. Sometimes comrades associate themselves with projects from other trends with whom they have irreconcilable disagreements. Therefore, our proposal is that we organize ourselves. We want to see the Anarchist Movement back on the streets, in the factories, communities, schools and universities. We want it to be a revolutionary force, fighting capitalism and authoritarianism through the methods of mass direct action, horizontality, solidarity, self-management, liberty, equality and federalism.

It is our belief that preparation work is unavoidable if social struggles are to be victorious. It will be our task to establish a revolutionary class-struggle strategy on which the movement’s future will depend to a great extent. It is therefore necessary to organize ouselves. We do not want to set ourselves up as an illuminated vanguard, but to promote the self-organisation of workers and their communities; that is why we defend organisation as a means and not an end in its own right. We wish to stress that we do not want to be a synthesis of various anarchist currents, but a class-struggle collective, that identifies itself as anarchist communist, even though the word “communist” still scares many people.

We have therefore adopted the following principles:

1. We are anti-capitalists, which means we consider that the present organisation of society, based upon the exploitation of waged work, has to disappear. This also means that although we combat the most extreme expressions of capitalism such as the great corporations, the large regional and worldwide centres that dictate policies throughout the globe, we are also against more archaic forms of exploitation, be they capitalist or not. We will not defend small capitalists against big capitalists or national capital against foreign capital, with treason against the interests of the workers – as has been the rule among the reformist and authoritarian left. It is also quite clear to us that until now, no society has ever installed any form of socialism or communism. The societies at present ruled by “communist” parties, such as the People’s Republic of China, North Korea or Cuba among others, are forms of State capitalism, where oligarchies decide in name of a proletariat that is constantly trampled underfoot and humiliated.

2. We are anti-authoritarian, which means that one of our goals is the destruction of the State (one of the greatest supports to capitalism) and its replacement with a society of free communes and generalised self-management in all domains, both in production and elsewhere. This also means that we are against the existence of vanguards or elitist groups who style themselves the “consciousness” of the exploited people and who expect to be allowed to guide them to the victorious revolution. We know that the organisational forms we adopt today will be important in the various stages of the fight for a libertarian communist society. We do not accept that some of us command and others are commanded. Because we are anti-authoritarians, we collectively discuss and decide by direct democratic means all the various aspects of our life as an organisation, the organization being composed of all those who share our actions.

3. We are for theoretical unity, which means that we share a common doctrine or body of theory that develops and becomes more detailed with the experience of practice, through fraternal discussion amongst ourselves and with other collectives and entities with whom we have an affinity.

4. Because our strategies and tactics derive from our theory, these should generally speaking exhibit unity, though may be adapted according to geographical and other factors.

5. We are for collective responsibility. This means that the collective way of working and decision-making is shared by all militants. All must give their best so that the Collective functions correctly and that initiatives are successful. The fact that some tasks are assigned to some members does not exempt the others from responsibility: firstly, because they have participated in the decision to assign the task; secondly, because everybody has the duty to help when the execution of such tasks is lacking, for whatever reason. Because decision making is carried out by means of an entirely democratic and shared process, it is not possible for some members to stand aside under the pretext that they were not in agreement with this or that decision. We also condemn the practice of one individual acting under his or her own responsibility.

6. We are for direct democracy. In this, the assembly is sovereign in making decisions concerning its members. All individual members have freedom to speak and are encouraged to do so. Decisions must take account of the opinion of all. If possible, consensus should be reached. If not, a vote is taken. It is a myth to pretend that anarchists never vote. They vote in their assemblies, each time this procedure is necessary. The existence of a discussion that is as ample as the assembly desires, means that most decisions are taken by consensus or by a large majority. Our decision-making mechanisms preserve the positions of any minority. Logically, assembly members feel responsible for all decisions collectively taken. This means that all have the obligation to ensure implementation of any decisions that are taken (collective responsibility), as they have actively participated in making the decision.

7. We are internationalists, because we are conscious that there is only one human species; that there are no races; that the ideologies of national or cultural supremacy are untenable; that evil comes from capitalism and affects all peoples.

8. We are anti-militarist, because armies are made to support the State and capitalism, maintaining a rigid hierarchy, totally separated from the people and at the service of particular interests. We are for the people in arms to defend the triumphant revolution from its enemies, having to self-organise in revolutionary militias.

9. In our milieu and in society in general, we shall energetically combat all discrimination. Capitalism and the State maintain their ruling position thanks also to patricharchy, racism, xenophobia, sexism and homophobia, which make up and aggravate class oppression. We will ceaselessly fight for the respect of the rights of immigrants, following the principle that “no human being is illegal”.

10. We are ecologists/environmentalists, because the world’s environmental crisis is caused by the action of capitalism. Living in harmony with Nature as a goal is incompatible with the individual appropriation of production goods. As long as capitalism exists, environmental problems can only increase. For this reason, too, the anti-authoritarian revolution is becoming more and more necessary and urgent.

In general terms, these will be the aims of the Federation:

1. To make anarchism known as widely as possible, and return it to the workers as part of their own heritage.

2. To fight all preconceptions against anarchism, denouncing also pseudo-expressions of anarchism such as primitivism, chaos, individualism, life-stylism, terrorism, anarcho-capitalism, etc.

3. To take part in all the struggles of the social movement, with the aim of leading to general emancipation, but also to obtain better material and non-material conditions for the workers and oppressed classes. In this fight we are ready to cooperate with others, without neglecting our criticism of authoritarian and/or vanguardist drifts. In this sense, we will be working inside existing union structures or in the promotion of new ones, always respecting the workers’ will in such structures. We consider support for and work with other anti-authoritarian collectives in the fields of ecology, prisoner support, anarchist feminism, housing, anti-racism, and anti-fascism, amongst others, to be an equal priority.

4. In our Collective we have room for anyone who wants to take full responsibility for their commitment, which includes mutual help in order to enhance our practice and theory as class-struggle anarchists.

5. To work together at an international level with other specific organisations, whose positions are essentially the same as ours (Anarchist Communist Federations and Groups, class-struggle Anarchists), and also with mass organisations (Unions, etc.) since they maintain a line of defence for the workers’ interests and independence in relation to power.


Notes :

(*) By “worker”, we mean any person, male or female, who needs to sell his or her labour in order to survive, whether remunerated or not for this labour. In this category we include students, jobless people, immigrants, scholarship holders, precarious artists, etc.

(1) Noam Chomsky makes a lucid analysis of the media in his book, “Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda” (Seven Stories Press, 2002): “In what is today called a totalitarian or military state, it is easy: one keeps a big stick suspended above peoples’ heads and when there is too much unrest, they are beaten. However, when society becomes more democratic, this possibility is lost. Propaganda therefore becomes necessary. It’s a clear logic. Propaganda is for democracy what the stick is for the totalitarian state”.

(2) Piotr Arshinov defines the question very well: “Many anarchists spend their energies trying to solve the problem whether anarchism is the liberation of the class, of humanity or of the individual. The question is senseless. Nevertheless it is based in some vague anarchist positions and opens the way to abuse, in the idea of anarchism first and in the anarchist practice in second. Slowly, men of action who possess a firm will and a quite developed revolutionary instinct will see in the idea of individual liberty the idea of the restless fight for the anarchist masses’ freedom. But those who have no revolutionary passion, who think primarily about their ego, understand this idea in their own way. Each time practical organisation, responsibility, is demanded, they hide themselves in the anarchist idea of individual liberty and appropriating it they try to escape any responsibility and to preclude organisation. Each of them retires himself in his corner and preaches his own particular anarchism».
(translated from História do Movimento Makhnovista 1917-1921, Assírio & Alvim, 1976)

(3) Nestor Makhno – The Struggle Against the State & Others Essays, AK Press.

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