See Also: Get involved in Anarchist Affinity.
The development of formally organised Anarchist political groups on the basis of
Theoretical Unity,
Tactical Unity,
Collective Action, AND
Federalism
is essential if Anarchist ideas are to be seriously advanced in the Australian context.
We need an organisation of anarchist militants, committed to Anarchist propaganda and actively engaged in the economic, political and social struggles of the working class.
This is not something that can be pulled out of thin air. The following is a very loose sketch of the approach I favour.
Individual anarchists in geographic areas must link up, and begin the work of developing a shared understanding both of Anarchist theory, and of the situation in which we are operating.
As groups cohere geographically and theoretically, they must seek to engage in wider struggles to the extent that capacity allows. It is only by acting that theory can be tested and further developed, and that small groups can begin making wider contacts.
As groups develop capacity, they must begin to publish. They must begin the task of taking anarchist ideas to a progressively wider audience. Propaganda is essential and anarchists mustn’t shy away from it. It is only by seeking to convince others of the merits of our ideas that we will ever build a larger grouping of committed anarchist militants with the capacity to have an impact on wider struggles.
As groups develop they must communicate, coordinate, and federate, and thus cohere into a larger Australia wide anarchist political group.
Our aim must be to build an organisation of committed militants engaged collectively in struggle. However, such an organisation should also develop a wider formal network of supporters.
In this way, the organisation can consist of committed militants with a high level of shared theoretical understanding and practical commitment, and others can participate as supporters whilst developing their understanding and engaging in political activity as time or interest allows.
If your understanding of anarchism roughly aligns with mine, and you broadly agree with this basic platformist/specificst approach, please consider getting in touch.
So, basically just like the FARJ article on social anarchism and organising? I agree, we need to build specific anarchist organisations that are active in struggle and promoting anarchist ideas.
Pretty much. I want to get in touch with people who are keen to organise along those lines.
I agree with the sentiments in this post, but I find the trouble in Australia is every few months someone makes a grand call or polemic for a new mass organisation or a new federation without making any attempt to arrange basic communication between groups or set up working relationships first; any organisation or federalism should come out of this not some ‘build it and they will (or should) come’ mentality. The other problem is that peoples grand schemes for federation often leave out individual group autonomy, wanting to homogenise the movement under this or that name. I’d like to see some form of federalism but i dont see it happening through endless ‘time for federalism’ conferences. I think we should start with basic working relationships and supporting each others organisations first.