The next session of the Fantin Reading Group is Sunday 21st October @ 2pm. We will be reading Errico Malatesta’s “Anarchy”, which you can download here: errico-malatesta-anarchy
There are also some paperback copies for sale at the MAC Infoshop, which is open every Sunday 12-5pm. Register your attendance on fb here: https://www.facebook.com/events/368974903184933/?context=create
Yes, after a considerable hiatus, the Fantin Reading Group is back – about time! We will be meeting more often from now on, so watch this space for future sessions.
Join us on Sunday 9th September at 2pm as we kick things off again in a special session that is being hosted by the Direct Action Collective.The text we will be reading is an excellent essay by Robert Sparrow entitled “Anarchist Politics and Direct Action” which you can download here: rob-sparrow-anarchist-politics-direct-action
The Direct Action Collective is a joint initiative of MAC & the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation of Melbourne. The DAC is an informal collective of Anarchists – that is, libertarian socialists/libertarian communists & anarcho-syndicalists. Together, we aim: to be engaged in working class struggles & socially progressive movements; to maintain an Anarchist presence at protests, strikes and other direct actions; to unite revolutionary Anarchists; and to promote the ideas of Anarchism to the public.Why march alone? JOIN US! If you want to get involved, send an email to melbourneanarchistclub@gmail.com
Light finger food and refreshments will be available, but feel free to bring something for yourself and others, especially now that we have a well equipped kitchen!
Don’t forget that the MAC Infoshop is now open every Sunday from midday to 5pm.In addition to hosting an Anarchist bookshop, we also have a library and social space. Did you know that MAC is also available for hire for film & documentary screenings and other causes?
The broad anarchist tradition has consistently stressed the significance of ideas for the libertarian and socialist reconstruction of society as well as the need for a “fundamental transvaluation of values” and the removal of the “authority principle” from the hearts and minds of the popular classes. Even the insurrectionist anarchists, for example, saw armed action as important primarily for its educative function. The same concern with the centrality of ideas is seen in the mass anarchist strand, the promotion of revolutionary countercultures, Bakunins emphasis on anarchism as a “new faith,” Malatestas stress on the “revolutionary imagination,” the intellectual work of figures like Reclus, Foster s idea of a militant minority, and so on.
The issue that arises, however, is how best to spread the new faith, and it is here that we encounter a wide range of different tactical positions on a crucial question: Is it necessary for the militant minority of anarchists or syndicalists to form themselves into a specifically anarchist or syndicalist political organisation in order to promote their ideas and pursue their strategies? If so, how should such a group be organised?
There are a number of key positions. There is an “antiorganisationalist” one, which argues for an informal network of revolutionaries. There is the view of some syndicalists that a revolutionary union can undertake all the tasks of an anarchist or syndicalist political organisation, making such an organisation redundant. Finally, there is organisational dualism, which is the stance that there must be a specific and distinct anarchist organisation that would promote anarchist or syndicalist ideas.
Download Chapter 8 here.
“In this chapter and the one that follows, we will shift our analysis toward an examination of anarchist tactics, asking, What were the different positions adopted in pursuit of long-term anarchist strategies? This chapter will explore two main sets of tactical issues. The first deals with the tactical issues posed by the activities of the state machinery, and how the movement responded to questions of warfare, labour law, and state welfare systems. How can the military operations of the state be opposed? Should anarchists and syndicalists participate in statutory industrial relations systems? Should anarchists and syndicalists support state welfare systems?“
Both insurrectionist and mass anarchism are faced with a series of difficult challenges. In this chapter, we explore syndicalism in more depth, addressing ourselves to several critical issues: how can a syndicalist union avoid evolving into orthodox unionism, which focuses solely on immediate issues, and typically develops large and moderate bureaucracies? If anarchism is about the emancipation of the popular classes as a whole, how can syndicalism address the needs of those sectors of the working class and peasantry that are outside wage labour? Finally, assuming a revolutionary general strike takes place, can syndicalism effectively deal with the threat of armed counterrevolution?
“This book has consistently linked anarchism to syndicalism, and grouped the varieties of anarchism, including syndicalism, into the broad anarchist tradition. We have also stated that syndicalists who identified themselves as Marxists, like Connolly and De Leon, should be considered part of the broad anarchist tradition, while figures like Godwin, Proudhon, and Tolstoy should be excluded from that tradition. In this chapter, we develop these arguments more fully, focusing on broad strategic distinctions; we also deal with the various issues that arise, such as the origins of syndicalism, its early history, the relationship between anarchism, syndicalism, and the IWW, and the De Leonist tradition.“
…We have dispensed with the commonly used categorisations of different types of anarchism, such as the notions of “philosophical anarchism,” “individualist anarchism,”and “spiritual anarchism,” stressing that anarchism is a coherent intellectual and political current dating back to the 1860s and the First International, and part of the labour and left tradition. It is at the level of strategy, we would suggest, that distinctions between the types of anarchism should be drawn.
