The Anarchist LibraryAnti-Copyright

Colin ONationwide Organization of Revolutionary Anarchists in the

United States?2012, December

Retrieved on June 21st, 2015 fromhttp://rocredandblack.org/nationwide-organization-of-

revolutionary-anarchists-in-the-united-states/

theanarchistlibrary.org

Nationwide Organization ofRevolutionary Anarchists in

the United States?

Colin O

2012, December

come frequently. To miss this moment may mean setting theanarchist movement in the US back decades. As the nationseconomy slowly implodes, wealth concentration becomes in-creasingly obvious to millions of people, and the social safetynet gets destroyed it becomes clear to millions that the statusquo cant maintain itself and that drastic change is necessary.We are foolish if we think that capitalists, fascists, authoritar-ian communists, and otherswont be organizing inmassive andcoordinated ways to take advantage of the moment and ma-nipulate millions of people to fight against their own interests.If we dont make building anarchist organization on a nation-wide scale a priority, than we should understand that we areeffectively surrendering the moment to other forces.Instead lets take the challenges being thrown at us as an

opportunity to build and legitimize to millions our visions of arevolutionary anarchist society. In the coming months, I hopethat we will be announcing the creation of a nationwide US-based revolutionary anarchist organization. Lets get behindthis effort quickly and powerfully to show that our ideas aremore than just ideas, but an inspired road-map ofmass struggleto a genuinely free and equal world.

11

could allow anarchists to influence the political and economicnarrative in a purposeful and strategic way. To have the ca-pacity to push issues forward as anarchists, we wouldnt haveto continue trying to put a radical spin to an otherwise liberaleffort.Honestly, in many ways our ability to mass mobilize without

the funding and support of big, liberal non-profits is the keyto legitimizing our perspectives and tactics throughout socialjustice struggles. We can strategically decide on ways to movedirect action forward as a key method of social struggle locally,regionally, and nationally.

Internationalism not NationalismWe dont believe in nations, so why nationwide organiza-

tion and not continental? The immediate response is that wedo live in a political reality of nations. The politics, economics,and foreign policy largely emanate from a national level. Ac-knowledging this and organizing on that basis doesnt meanthat we are nationalists, it means that we are organizing basedin a shared reality. The Federation of Anarchists-Communistsof Argentina, the Anarchist Federation of Uruguay and the an-archist Worker Solidarity Movement of Ireland are not nation-alist organizations.We should be building towards an internationally coordi-

nated anarchist movement. Part of what anarchists in theUnited States can do is build a strong US organization that canconfederate with allied organizations throughout the world.

Our Moment is Now!The economic context of the United States is drastically

changing and this is having an impact politically. We need totake advantage of this moment, because these moments dont

10

ContentsWhy Anarchist Organization in the First Place? . . 5Mass Propaganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Solidarity at Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Build Local Chapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Open to Various Levels of Participation . . . . . . . 7Bridging the Rural-Urban Divide . . . . . . . . . . . 8Impact Politics and Organization on a National Scale 9Ability to Mass-Mobilize Effectively . . . . . . . . . 9Internationalism not Nationalism . . . . . . . . . . . 10Our Moment is Now! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3

Impact Politics and Organization on aNational ScaleSomany of the issues that wework on are national questions.

While we arent nationalists, we do live in a political realitywhere many policies are decided on a national level. Opposi-tion to US invasions for instance require nationwide oppositionand organization. When those broad-based anti-war organiza-tions are working at a national level, for anarchists to have animpact on their strategies and tactics, we need to coordinate ata national level as well. Rather than have this happen acciden-tally through networks of friends, why not do this purposefullyon an ideological and strategic basis?The same can be said about most major unions. We often

complain the activities of workers within the major unionsthroughout the country dont match our political or strategicorientation. Well, why would they? We have zero capacity tocoordinate the activities of revolutionaries in the rank and fileof these organizations. We cant strategically choose to orientour efforts at any union larger than the IWW, and even thererevolutionary anarchists often cant assert any coordinated in-fluence. To believe that we will have any real impact on thedirection of the labor movement without a nationwide organi-zation of anarchists is to fantasize about the possibility ratherthan organize towards it.

Ability to Mass-Mobilize EffectivelyIn the case where anarchists throughout the country are try-

ing to instigate a fight rather than influence the direction ofa larger organization, we could actually decide on strategiesand tactics together and mass-mobilize on a regional or na-tional scale. Being able to turn out hundreds or even thousandswithout having to rely on liberal and progressive organizations

9

pants to immediately become high-level thinkers and organiz-ers. For most people, particularly those most affected by thedisastrous consequences of the state and capitalism, constantorganizing simply isnt possible. An effective organization iscapable of accommodating various levels of involvement, andmaking it easy for members to move fluidly through those lev-els of involvement. A unitary nationwide organization wouldallow members to join without requiring that they becomesuch effective and committed organizers as to have to buildchapters immediately, but could help to ensure that whateverlevel of commitment they can agree to can have a positive im-pact. This is particularly important to anarchists that may notbe surrounded by other revolutionaries in small cities, rural ar-eas, or more than 50 miles from the Bay Area.

Bridging the Rural-Urban Divide

Can a serious revolution happen with organization only inthe cities? Can the anarchist movement really have an impacton rural issues when were incapable of supporting more iso-lated rural anarchists? When we talk of organizing the unor-ganized and building militant worker movements how do ourmovements continue to miss the various opportunities to workwithin and find the militants already organizing in immigrantand farm-worker communities?When there is an option for isolated individual anarchists in

rural communities to join up with a nationwide organization,not only can they connect with anarchist organizers in citiesnearby, but with other anarchists working in rural communi-ties throughout the entire country.

8

Over 150 years of the anarchist theoretical and organizingtradition have passed, yet anarchist influence in the UnitedStates is practically non-existent. In some local contexts, we dosee occasional anarchist influence, but in a nationwide contextanarchists are practically irrelevant.There has been a conversation brewing for a few years

among some anarchists. This conversation has moved forwardspecifically in a grouping of organizations that have come to-gether in recent years around the Class Struggle AnarchistConferences. Since the first Class Struggle Anarchist Confer-ence in New York City in 2008, its been increasingly clear thatthese different organizations have a great deal of agreementand could be strengthened by unification into a nationwide an-archist organization.In anticipation for an upcoming conference of these organi-

zations that intends to found this single, nationwide organiza-tion, this article is an effort to bring together the many argu-ments for why such an organization is desirable. More thanthat, I hope to show the inspirational possibilities of such anorganization in the broader anarchist movement, so that thisorganization can take off after its founding.

Why Anarchist Organization in the FirstPlace?A great deal of literature already exists on the question of an-

archist specific organizations and the role of such a revolution-ary organization. For those who arent familiar with these tra-ditions, many of the organizations already involved in this pro-cess are explicitly informed by dual-organizationalist, especi-fista, platformist, and syndicalist traditions. These traditionsraise the importance of anarchists organizing specifically asanarchists to spread and further develop the influence and un-

5

derstanding of our revolutionary ideas alongside more broad-based social movements.Given that many anarchists in the United States are increas-

ingly informed by these traditions, Id like to focus on the valuespecifically of a unified and nationwide revolutionary anar-chist organization.

Mass PropagandaAn organization with hundreds of members throughout the

country is capable of spreading anarchist ideas at a larger scalethan weve seen from the anarchist movement in decades. Wecould manage and sustain national or regional agitational pa-pers like Freedom/Libertad and Four Star Digest, as well as themore intensive theoretical literature of Ideas & Action and theNortheastern Anarchist. More importantly, with the skills ofanarchist media workers around the country, we could surelymove into creating high quality audio and video addressing thewide array of radical organizing already happening.Beyond simply producing media at larger scale and more en-

ergy intensive media, we can also create the spaces for debateon ideas, tactics, and strategies within the anarchist movementthat help us to unify and coordinate our efforts.

Solidarity at ScaleWhen anarchist organizers around the country face repres-

sion by the state or bosses, or are engaged in particularly diffi-cult or important campaigns, the ability to coordinate nationalsolidarity in a unified way can be instrumental. Bail or legalfunds can be immediately paid off from the treasury of a na-tionwide organization with hundreds of regular dues-payingmembers. When a fight of national or international signifi-cance is happening, members could coordinate solidarity ef-

6

forts around the country. When hot-spots of struggle pop up,anarchist organizers from around the country could be sent toparticipate in the on-the-ground organizing.

Build Local ChaptersThe hardest organizing one can do is the real task of creating

an organization from the ground up, developing the skills ofmembers, finding effective work that the group can do and suc-ceed at, and work to make all of that effort sustainable enoughthat it doesnt fall apart in just a few years. Many of the anar-chist organizations around the country right now are startedby members of other organizations that have moved to a newcity and work to start groups like their previous group.Why not work to develop an ability to help people start lo-

cal chapters, train some of them in basic organizing skills, givethem agitational literature to use in their town, and supportthem through the challenges that they will inevitably face?Why not strategically consider where we would like to devoteresources and energy to creating local chapters, rather thanhave the anarchist movement grow more or less by accident?Many current anarchist organizers have also written books

or developed inspirational presentations and gone on speak-ing tours. Lets maximize the potential of these tours by givingthose touring the tools to recruit people that agree into form-ing locals after the speaker leaves. At the very least, why nothave national tools that help us to keep in touch with sympa-thetic people in cities where we may not be able to build locals,but might have that ability in a couple of years?

Open to Various Levels of ParticipationPart of what keeps so much of the anarchist movement small

and fairly homogenous is that in effect we require all partici-

7