Synthetic anarchism

Synthetic Anarchism or Synthetic Federation is a form of anarchist organization that tries to unite anarchists of different currents according to the principles of anarchism without adjectives . In the 1920s, Volin and Sébastien Faure were their main representatives. Synthetic anarchism is a key feature of the regional federations that make up the International of Anarchist Federations .

Origins

Volin was a prolific writer and anarchist intellectual who played a central role in organizing the Nabat . The Nabat Federation of Anarchist Organizations, better known under the short form Nabat (Набат), was an anarchist organization that gained some prominence in Ukraine from 1918 to 1920 . The area in which she had the most influence is sometimes referred to as the Free Territory , with Nabat having a presence in all major cities in southern Ukraine.

Volin

Volin was entrusted with the task of creating a basis for Nabat that would be acceptable for all important currents of anarchism, in particular anarcho-syndicalism , anarchist collectivism and anarcho-communism as well as individualistic anarchism . The unified platform for Nabat was never decided, but Volin used his notes and Nabat's ideas to design his “anarchist synthesis”. The proposed platform for Nabat included, among other things, the following sentence, anticipating synthetic anarchism: "These three elements (syndicalism, communism and individualism) are three aspects of a single process, the establishment, the organization of the working class (syndicalism), the anarcho-communist society, which is nothing other than the necessary material basis for the whole fullness of the free individual. "

The context of the discussion on the Organizational Platform of Libertarian Communists , written in 1926 by a group of exiled Russian anarchists called Djelo Truda, also gave rise to the discussion of synthetic anarchism. The platform has been heavily criticized by large sections of the anarchist movement, including some of the most influential anarchists such as Volin , Errico Malatesta , Luigi Fabbri , Camillo Berneri , Max Nettlau , Alexander Berkman , Emma Goldman and Gregori Maximoff . Volin, Molly Steimer , Senya Fleshin and others wrote a reply, saying, “Viewing anarchism as just a class theory reduces it to a single point of view. Anarchism is more complex and pluralistic than life itself is. Its class element is above all a struggle for liberation; its humanitarian character is the ethical aspect and the basis of society; his individualism is the goal of humanity. "

Two texts were written in response to platformism, each suggesting a different anarchist organizational model and forming the basis for what has been termed synthetic organization or syntheticism. Volin wrote an essay in 1924 calling for anarchist synthesis and published an article in Sébastien Faures Encyclopedie Anarchiste on the same subject. The main reason for the synthesis was that the anarchist movement in most countries was divided into the three main currents communism, syndicalism and individualism and such an organization could well unite anarchists of all three currents.

Sébastien Faure

The platformists planned to give their idea a boost through an international anarchist congress on February 27, 1927. Shortly afterwards, the Djelo Truda group succeeded in making platformism more popular at the nationwide congress of the French Anarchist Union (UAF), so that it changed its name to Revolutionary Anarcho-Communist Union (UACR). Sébastien Faure was at the center of a faction within the UACR that believed that traditional anarchist ideas were threatened by the Djelo Truda platform, decided to split off and founded the Association of Federal Anarchists (AFA). Shortly afterwards, in his text The Anarchist Synthesis , he put forward the view, “These currents are not opposed to each other, but complement each other: anarcho-syndicalism with the strength of mass organization and the best practical implementation, libertarian communism with a blueprint for a future based on the needs of each individual Society, anarcho-individualism as the negation of oppression and affirmation of the right to individual personal development and to improve the well-being of each individual in every respect ”.

The Djelo Truda platform was also confronted with severe criticism in Spain. The founding member of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica Miguel Jimenez summarized it as follows: too much influence of Marxism, false separation and reduction of anarchists to individualists and communists and the attempt to standardize on anarcho-communist line. He interpreted anarchism in a more complex way in the sense that the currents would not be mutually exclusive, as the platformists believed, and that both the individualistic and the communist view could integrate syndicalism. Sébastien Faure had good contacts in Spain, which made his proposal more successful among Spanish anarchists than the Dielo Truda platform achieved, although the influence of individualistic anarchism in Spain was even less than in France. The main goal here was to bring together anarchist communism and syndicalism.

Synthetic Federations

In 1945 the Synthetic Italian Anarchist Federation (FAI) was established in Carrara . In it, the individualistic anarchist Cesare Zaccaria played an important role in bringing the conflicting factions together. The Italian FAI passed an “Associative Pact” and the “Anarchist Program” according to Errico Malatesta . Throughout its history it has included individualistic anarchists such as a major group that decided to split off in 1965 and form the Gruppi di Iniziativa Anarchica , as well as the groups that split off in the 1970s to form a platformist group.

The Fédération Anarchiste - French-speaking anarchist federation (FA) was founded on December 2, 1945 in Paris, France. It consisted of a majority of activists from the former FA (which supported Volin's synthesis) and some members of the former anarchist union that advocated CNT- FAI support for the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War , as well as a few young resistance fighters. After a neo-platformist parliamentary group - led by George Fontenis - achieved that the name of the organization was changed to the Libertarian Communist Federation (FCL) and the associated centralization and unanimous vote of internal procedures, a new FA was re-established in December 1953, while the FCL broke up shortly thereafter.

Banner of the synthetic anarchist federation Rhine / Ruhr with the inscription "Abolish capitalism, overcome states, organize anarchism", Mannheim 2012

The new FA principles were written by the individual anarchist Charles-Auguste Bontemps and the anarcho-communist Maurice Joyeux , who established a multidirectional organization and the autonomy of federated groups organized around the synthetic principles.

The International of Anarchist Federations (IFA-IAF) was founded in 1968 during an international anarchist meeting in Carrara of the three existing European anarchist federations: France ( Fédération Anarchiste ), Italy ( Federazione Anarchica Italiana ) and Spain ( Federación Anarquista Ibérica ) as well as the Federation of Bulgaria founded in French exile. These organizations were also inspired by synthetic principles. In the 2010s the IFA joined these federations as well as the Federación Libertaria Argentina , the Anarchist Federation Belarus, the Federation of Anarchists in Bulgaria, the Czech-Slovak Anarchist Federation, the Federation of German-Speaking Anarchists in Germany and Switzerland and the Anarchist Federation in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} "J.3.2 What are" synthesis "federations?" ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in "An Anarchist FAQ" 
2. ^ Paul Avrich : The Russian Anarchists . AK Press , Stirling 2006, ISBN 1-904859-48-8 , pp. 204 .
3. ^ Paul Avrich: Russian Anarchism and the Civil War . In: The Russian Review . July 1968, pp. 296-306.
4. ^ Daniel Guérin : No Gods, No Masters: An Anthology of Anarchism , Paul Sharkey, AK Press , 2005.
5. ↑ "Estos tres elementos (el sindicalismo, el comunismo, y el individualismo) son tres aspectos de un único y mismo proceso la construction, por el método de la organización de clase de los trabajadores (el sindicalismo), de la sociedad anarcocomunista que no It más que la base material necesaria a la plenitud completa del individuo libre. " Primera Conferencia de las Organizaciones Anarquistas de Ukrania" Nabat " ( Memento of the original of August 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ "Especifismo and Synthesis / Synthesism" by Felipe Corrêa
7. ^ Bob Black : Wooden shoes or platform shoes? On the organizational platform of the libertarian communists . 2002
8. ↑ J.3.4 Why do many anarchists oppose the “Platform”? ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on "An Anarchist FAQ" 
9. ^ "To maintain that anarchism is only a theory of classes is to limit it to a single viewpoint. Anarchism is more complex and pluralistic, like life itself. Its class element is above all its means of fighting for liberation; its humanitarian character is its ethical aspect, the foundation of society; its individualism is the goal of mankind. "in " Reply by several Russian Anarchists to the 'Platform' "by Various Authors
10. ^ "Especifismo and Synthesis / Synthesism" by Felipe Corrêa
11. ↑ Jason Garner. "La búsqueda de la unidad anarquista: la Federación Anarquista Ibérica antes de la II República." ( Memento of the original of October 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ↑ "Tras la victoria de los plataformistas en el Congreso de París de 1929, una sección de los que consideraron que las ideas tradicionales del anarquismo estaban siendo atacadas se separó de la UACR para formar la Asociación de los Federalistas Anarquistas a comienzos de 1928 principal figura de la AFA fue Sébastien Faure que, como respuesta a la Plataforma, expuso sus propuestas para un movimiento anarquista unificado en La síntesis anarquista, que apareció primero como un suplemento del informe de la AFA de febrero de 1928 titUnado Le Trait d'Unificado Libertaire " Jason Garner. "La búsqueda de la unidad anarquista: la Federación Anarquista Ibérica antes de la II República." ( Memento of the original of October 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
13. ^ Sébastien Faure: The Anarchist Synthesis
14. ↑ Original: “These currents were not contradictory but complementary, each having a role within anarchism: anarcho-syndicalism as the strength of the mass organizations and the best way for the practice of anarchism; libertarian communism as a proposed future society based on the distribution of the fruits of labor according to the needs of each one; anarcho-individualism as a negation of oppression and affirming the individual right to development of the individual, seeking to please them in every way " " Especifismo and Synthesis / Synthesism "by Felipe Corrêa , accessed on April 29, 2016.
15. ↑ "Jiménez evitó ahondar demasiado en sus críticas hacia la naturaleza abiertamente marxista de algunas partes de la Plataforma, limitándose a aludir a la crítica de Santillán en La Protesta, que afirmaba que los rusos no habían sido el únciónico grupiro de permit las ideas marxistas, lo que iba claramente dirigido a los sindicalistas de España17. Jiménez aceptó que la Plataforma había sido un intento encomiable de resolver el eterno problema de la desunión dentro de las filas anarquistas, pero consideraba que el programa ruso tenía sus defectos. La Plataforma se basaba en una premisa errónea sobre la naturaleza de las tendencias dentro del movimiento anarquista: dividía a los anarquistas en dos grupos diferentes, individualistas y comunistas, y con ello rechazaba la influencia de los primeros y proponía la unificación tmovimient en movimient a la ideas de los segundos. Jiménez afirmaba que la realidad era mucho more más compleja: esas diferentes tendencias dentro del movimiento anarquista no eran contradictorias ni excluyentes. For ejemplo, what posible findsrar elementos en ambos grupos que apoyaran las tácticas del anarcosindicalismo. Por tanto, rechazaba el principal argumento de los plataformistas según el cual las diferentes tendencias se excluían entre sí. ” Jason Garner. "La búsqueda de la unidad anarquista: la Federación Anarquista Ibérica antes de la II República." ( Memento of the original of October 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
16. ↑ "Debido a sus contactos e influencia con el movimiento del exilio español, la propuesta de Faure arraigó más en los círculos españoles que la Plataforma, y ​​fue publicada en las prensas libertarias tanto en España como en Bélgica25. En esencia, Faure intentaba reunir a la familia anarquista sin imponer la rígida estructura que proponía la Plataforma, y ​​en España se aceptó así. Opuesta a la situación de Francia, en España la influencia del anarquismo individualista no fue un motivo serio de ruptura. Aunque las ideas de ciertos individualistas como Han Ryner y Émile Armand tuvieron cierto impacto sobre el anarquismo español, afectaron sólo a aspectos como el sexo y el amor libre. " Jason Garner. "La búsqueda de la unidad anarquista: la Federación Anarquista Ibérica antes de la II República." ( Memento of the original of October 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
17. ^ "Given his ability to mediate between all of the competing currents at every anarchist congress. Once debate reached stalemate in gatherings, Zaccaria used to draft some motion that would also express the thinking of the dissenters and would therefore succeed in getting it passed. All of the motions from the Carrara congress, the Bologna congress and the Canosa congress had been drafted by Cesare Zaccaria. " Pier Carlo Masini and Paul Sharkey. "Cesare Zaccaria (August 19, 1897-October 1961)"
18. ↑ ^{a b} El movimiento libertario en Italia by Bicicleta: Revista de comunicaciones libertarias ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
19. ↑ Giovanna Berneri. "The French Anarchist Movement"
20. ^ Cédric Guerin. "Pensée et action des anarchists en France: 1950–1970" ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
21. ^ Cédric Guerin. "Pensée et action des anarchists en France: 1950–1970" ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
22. ^ Cédric Guerin. "Pensée et action des anarchists en France: 1950–1970" ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.