THE ROLE

OF THE
REVOLUTIONARY
ORGANISATION
2 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

First Published 1991

Reprinted Autumn 1995
Completely Revised and Republished April 2003

Anarchist Federation
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 3

The Role of the

Revolutionary Organisation
Anarchist Communists have a vision of a revolutionary organisation very
different from State-orientated parties and groups. But there is also
something wrong with the idea of informal groupings as advocated by
some Anarchists. To understand why a revolutionary individual needs to
be part of a revolutionary organisation it is necessary to first describe
the thing itself: its structure, its relationship with the working class and
the theoretical basis of that relationship coupled with a precise under-
standing of class spontaneity.

The first fifty years of the 20th Century saw a sea change in the nature
of capitalism. Traditionally capitalism was governed by the iron laws of
supply and demand. Now what is produced matters less and less so
long as marginal increases in profit are achieved. Economic necessity
and technological inevitability mean increased investment and produc-
tion no longer mean more jobs - they increasingly mean fewer jobs.
With the end of the age of antagonistiC nation states and blocs that ex-
isted between from 1875 to 1995, the capitalist powers can now ma-
nipulate the global economy, shifting finance and production as opportu-
nity dictates. Statist parties and groups have long proclaimed the solu-
tion - nationalisation. But since investment does not increase jobs there
is no argument for seizing the 'commanding heights of the economy',
only abolishing them and finding new ways to organize work. Growth as
a means of full employment is self-defeating since growth under capital-
ism is only achieved through increased competitiveness, competitiveness
through productivity and productivity by shedding labour. Unemploy-
ment cannot be solved by increasing the amount of non-working since it
depends on lower incomes and inevitable inequalities. Capitalism may
have created wealth but it was stolen from the past (the ideas, knowl-
edge and technics accumulated by pre-capitalist societies) and filched
from the future (irreplaceable future commodities, gene pools, environ-
mental degradations and so on).

Work and employment are not neutral. Work reproduces work's social
 4 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

relationships. A person's activity is productive only if it can be sold. If it

can't be sold it has no 'worth', nor do we. It is sometimes argued that em-
ployment would be okay if work was pleasurable but it isn't. Why? Industri-
alists discovered it was easier to control a machine than a person and easi-
est of all to control people by subjugating them to a machine. The technol-
ogy of production has been systematically applied to de-skill and make
workers docile. This is being repeated in the process of consumption where
we compulsively consume, but only what we are fed and for a clever rea-
son: to balance production and consumption. The area of freedom within
work is narrowing, matched by a narrowing of freedom out of employment.
Attacks on the welfare state, dole scroungers and stay-at-home mums mir-
rors increased coercion at work and for the same reasons; we are being
compelled to work in order to have the means to consume (however little
we can afford to buy). Employment is seen as a socialising force, which no
one should escape, and places where there is no work are feared as com-
modity-free deserts populated by junkies, criminals and deviants. Dehu-
manised and alienated, we face a future in which technology and the opera-
tion of society will be used to produce what the founders of modern indus-
try wanted all along - weak people, easily controlled. Alongside this degra-
dation, rationalisation and intensification of work causes massive amounts
of illness, mental aberration and stress. These will inevitability increase as
modern technologies compel greater productivity from workers. The fet-
ishisation of work and consumption has a crushing effect on our minds and
bodies when we become unemployed and cannot buy things. Forced to
work, forced to consume, we are trapped in a system in which inequality
and social division persist because the hierarchy of labour creates a socially
destructive hierarchy.

From workplace to revolution

The historical argument that the factory would provide the means to create
a revolutionary proletariat or source of social mobilization was false from
the start and proved a disaster for humanity. How could industrial workers
alone, in tightly managed workplaces and offered only the choice of alien-
ated labour or enforced leisure, ever be capable of carrying through a liber-
tarian revolution? Without freedom, industrial development has simply led
to managerialism, technological control of the workplace - managing the
unmanageable - and to social compulsion or catastrophe.
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 5

However not all is lost. Urbanization continues to create a vast, displaced,

hungry, dispossessed and desperate working class across the globe. The
way capitalism works, life is a red-in-tooth-and-claw struggle for survival
where the "least successful" are swept to the margins of society where they
can be ignored (if they work), despised (if they don't) and punished for be-
ing different or in anyway resisting. 'Progress' constantly replenishes the
margins with newly obsolescent humans - an ever-present strata of alien-
ated and isolated people, less and less likely to escape economic and social
exclusion. The State constantly raises the spectre of invasion by the mar-
ginalized who are demonised by the media. These ghettoised communities
are always described as 'threatening' while actually being subject to vicious
divide and rule and law-and-order experiments. Prime targets are those
who can be made out to be different, for instance refugees and asylum
seekers. Other bogeys are those who deny 'modern' moralities. Visible, dif-
ferent, recognisable: you're likely to be a victim of hatred and violence
whipped up by the bosses to keep the masses occupied, a class apart,
separate from the rest of society, to be feared but also a convenient scape-
goat.

But oppression takes subtle forms. The ruling class tinkers with the benefit
system, offers ways for a person to 'rejoin' society, intensifies education
around bourgeois norms, beefs up its police force and builds more prisons.
Measures such as welfare-to-work carry a set of moral, ethical and political
values and imperatives to do solely with the middle class's fear of the im-
poverished sections of the working class and ruling class distrust of any-
thing not completely under its control. At times this class is indeed margin-
alized, inert, trapped by circumstance and culture, rejecting bourgeois no-
tions of work and value, a class which grudgingly accepts authority and is
prone to any marketing hype or hysteria, including the exploitative cant of
politicians or priests because it is uneducated, unknowing, naive. At other
times its anger and thirst for justice bursts free of these constraints and it is
then that resistance and revolution become possible. Therefore we should
not attempt to 'reverse the process of marginalisation' but accelerate it.

This is not understood by all 'revolutionary' groups. The crisis of market

capitalism in the West and collapse of state capitalism in Eastern Europe,
China and Cuba on every level (economic, social, cultural and sexual) is re-
flected in the crisis of the organisations of the so-called revolutionary left.
These organisations duplicate ruling class values in their authoritarianism,
their high degree of centralisation, their worship of hierarchy and the
sheep-like submission of the rank-and-file to omnipotent and all-wise lead-
 6 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

erships. As the crisis in capitalism deepens, revolutionary organisations

should increase in strength and numbers but instead the related crisis in the
Left parties and groups becomes more extreme, with splits, opportunism
and collaboration with the social-democratic agents of the bosses such as
New Labour. The Socialist Party (ex-Militant) seeks to show its respectabil-
ity, denouncing anarchists to the police, while the once influential Workers
Revolutionary Party has splintered into a dozen fragments. Corruption,
shady financial support from authoritarian regimes, turncoat politics and
policies have become commonplace. It is vital that a strong libertarian
movement in all areas of social life is created so that working people can
defend themselves against the capitalist onslaught and create a free self-
organised SOciety. To assist in the building of such a mass movement, a lib-
ertarian revolutionary organisation is necessary: an organisation that fights
for the co-ordination of all anti-capitalist struggles. Such an organisation
must have a structure that ensures permanent political debate and must be
controlled by the whole membership.

Class spontaneity
The emancipation of the workers must be brought about by the workers
themselves.
Declaration of the First International.

The working class by itself can only attain trade-union consciousness.

Lenin, What Is To Be Done.

A vast abyss of theory and practice lies between these two statements.
Leaders from the managerial strata and intelligentsia often proclaim as fact
that workers need leaders or centralised parties. This is true of fascists,
'revolutionaries' like Lenin and even social democrats like the Blairites. They
try to incorporate the workers into a totalitarian state, a quiescent mass or
a moral majority, claiming mandates and support but not legitimacy (since
power needs none): the idea of the Worker's State may be discredited but it
has been replaced by it's capitalist equivalent, the Consumer SOciety. They
do this because they want or need to believe that the working class cannot
itself bring about revolutionary change and has no (as it is called) working
class spontaneity. This concept of working class spontaneity has been dis-
torted and misunderstood for so long.
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 7

It is wrong to ignore history or, studying it, to draw the false conclusion (as
some anarchists do, for their own reasons) that the working class springs
into revolutionary activity with no memory of or connection with previous
struggles and no previous agitation by revolutionary minorities. On the con-
trary, the work of revolutionaries over many years to clarify and co-ordinate
struggles in the working class greatly helps the revolutionary process.

Working class spontaneity is the ability of that class to take direct action on
its own behalf and to develop new forms of struggle and organisation. This
happens in every great revolutionary upsurge where working people have
formed committees and councils independent of "vanguards". In this coun-
try the flying picket and mass picketing were developed as weapons of
struggle. 'Pit commandos' emerged during the 1984-85 Miners Strike. Road
blockades and reclaiming the streets are all forms of struggle developed in-
dependently from the Revolutionary Party (whichever one that happens to
be). The activities of the working class have taken place regardless of and
sometimes against the urgings of the revolutionary elite.
 8 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

Why should we be organised?

Anarchism is organisation, organisation and more organisation Errico Malat-
esta

WHAT IS 'ORGANISATION'? It's a vast subject so let's think about one kind
of organisation relevant to anarchists. This is the 'Revolutionary Organisa-
tion'. Each kind of organisation has its own purpose enabling people to ac-
complish what they cannot individually, harnessing energy and resources in
productive ways. However organisations are not pure rational constructs.
They have their own culture, often obscured by formal structures. Strip
away the theoretical organisation of states, corporations and political parties
and you reveal the hierarchy, authority, fear and greed that is true organi-
sation in a capitalist sOciety.

Because of this some anarchists reject not only the 'ordering' imposed on
our minds by capitalist society but all forms of organisation. We in the Anar-
chist federation recognise the problems of organisation but accept that it is
necessary both in and in achieving a libertarian sOciety. What is important is
to make organisations that reflect the ideas of anarchist communism in their
own practice.

To create effective organisations we must know our own and other's minds,
therefore there must be a high degree of communication, of sharing. We
must set about creating aspiration, setting achievable targets, celebrating
success, rededicating ourselves again and again to the reasons why we
have formed or participate in the organisation. And because organisation is
a mutual, sharing activity these things cannot be contained within one mind
or merely thought but acted out and given a tangible existence through
words and actions. At the same time, we must remain individuals, capable
of independent and objective appraisal, not cogs in some vast machine.
What then is the purpose of 'revolutionary organisation'? Can it be de-
scribed?

Given that the need for revolution already exists, revolutionary organisation
must increase the demand for revolution. It must increase the measurable
'weight' or 'force' of the resources joined to demand revolution. The struc-
ture must increase the ability of the organisation to perpetuate itself while
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 9

its ends remain unrealised. It must increase the ability of the organisation
to resist attack, by increasing the determination and solidarity of members
and by so arranging itself that damage caused to it (from external attacks,
defections, internal conflicts and so on) are minimised. It must be flexible,
be able to absorb or deflect change or challenges to it, have the ability to
change or cease as circumstances dictate and the self-knowledge to initiate
change when change is required. High levels of positive communication,
mutual respect and celebration, shared aspirations and solidarity all de-
scribe the revolutionary organisation.

Creating a revolutionary structure

Anarchists in a free society will be self-ordering and society will be self-
regulating. The organisations we construct will arise out of the needs of the
moment, filtered by our knowledge and perceptions. Organisations, whether
free associations, collectives, federations, communes or 'families', will be
fluid and flexible but retain the ability to persist. They will be responsive to
individual and social need. They will have a structure and culture matching
the needs, beliefs and purpose of members. They will not have the super-
ordered, monolithic or divergent cultures of competition, fragmentation,
subordination or conflict that exist within organisations today. Creating or-
ganisations that have a revolutionary structure is an act of revolution itself.
The more we do it, successfully, the better we will be at making the revolu-
tion and the closer we will be to achieving revolution. But to be successful
we have to learn far more about the nature of organisations, what is effec-
tive communication and how we respond to demands for change.

The Anarchist Federation is one attempt to put these ideas into a practical
form. We do not claim to have all the answers, but we are convinced that
anarchist communism can only hope to make real progress as the leading
idea in a united revolutionary movement. Working as an organisation has
made our interventions in the class struggle stronger and our ideas clearer
than they could be alone or in local groups, and though we still have a long
and hard road to travel, ever increasing co-ordination is unmistakably the
way forward. A powerful revolutionary organisation will not come about by
people simply agreeing with each other. Only through the dynamics of
working together can we achieve the unity of activity and theory necessary
to bring about a free and equal society.
 10 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

Questions of consciousness
Let us put it quite bluntly: the errors committed by a truly revolutionary
workers movement are historically far more fruitful and valuable than the
infallibility of even the best central committees.
Rosa Luxembourg, Organisational Questions of Russian Social Democracy.

The experiences of working class life constantly lead to ideas and actions
that question the established order. This leads to "working class conscious-
ness" but different sections of the working class may reach different de-
grees of consciousness. At the same time, the ruling class seeks to keep the
working class divided, undermining solidarity based on culture and common
experience through its control of the media and education and by perpetu-
ating racism and sexism. The working class is never wholly atomised nor, at
the moment, solid and united, conscious of itself and its power.

The anarchist organisation must always be part of the working class. This
creates a tension. While on the one hand it's consciousness is more devel-
oped ("in advance"), it's ability to develop and extend its influence in the
class depends on not being too far in advance. If it is, it will fall into the
trap of ignoring or rejecting the new forms of struggle and organisation
which, as we have said, can benefit other workers and which workers eve-
rywhere must learn. There are dangers in this contradiction and the revolu-
tionary anarchist organisation needs to develop ways of acting based on an
awareness of the contradiction. We must always be ready to learn from the
class and constantly revise our tactics with the unfolding situation. The
revolutionary organisation is transformed as the working class is trans-
formed in the revolutionary process. Theory and practice must be rooted in
concrete conditions.

The anarchist revolutionary organisation understands this. It also realises

that the only possible working class revolution is one where people use
mass action to smash the apparatus of the ruling class (the police, courts,
bureaucracy etc) and the class itself. Any other revolution leads only to the
formation of a new ruling class. To bring the working class revolution about,
the anarchist organisation has several tasks to perform.
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 11

Tasks of the Organisation

Accepting that the revolution can only be made by the self-activity of the
working class, the anarchist revolutionary organisation still has a number of
tasks to perform. It must act as a propaganda grouping, untiringly putting
over the message that the working class must destroy capitalism and estab-
lish a libertarian communist society. It must also show how this can be
done by giving examples of self-activity. It must search out the history of
past struggles and share the lessons to be learned with the rest of the class
as part of the development of class-consciousness. When important devel-
opments occur, the revolutionary organisation must spread the news
through its links with organisations in other countries. But the organisation
is not just a propaganda group: above all it must actively work in all grass-
roots organisations of the working class such as rank and file groups, ten-
ants associations, squatters and unemployed groups as well as women's,
black and gay groups. It must try to link unionised and non-unionised work-
ers, building a movement at the base.

Reclaiming ourselves can only occur in areas outside the main focus of capi-
talist control: our neighbourhoods, campaigns of resistance or protest, ar-
eas of greater freedom (such as squats) and libertarian initiatives. This is
where we reconnect with the 'unemployed', the 'underclass', the 'socially
excluded'. Since work does not depend on employment and freedom is
about what we do not how much money we earn, there should be no
boundaries between revolutionaries and those laying the foundations for a
self-organized society. The need to control our lives, to use our skills in a
'good' cause, to choose who we transact and interact with, to achieve a bal-
ance between giving and receiving, to entrust our lives to others, all are
central to us as human beings and all can be experienced through work
only on a personal or local level, never within a mass SOciety. Inevitably
smaller-scale production will spread throughout the free society. The revo-
lution may be led by an awakened proletariat breaking out of the prison of
the workplace but is just as likely to begin with a radicalised populace call-
ing the workers out to join them. The true test of the revolutionary poten-
tial of a situation will be the extent to which workers struggling within the
workplace connect with those acting outside. The revolution will re-connect
workers and non-workers as people, not classes, it will be made and led by
affinity groups sharing common values about work, the environment and
 12 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

social relations, rather than trade unions. These groups will be free associa-
tions built on mutual respect rather than associations created by economic
necessity. The free society will be a society where there is no social coer-
cion compelling the individual to work. But it is also one where the work
that needs to be done will be done because it must be done. The bounda-
ries between what we call work and play will disappear until all we are left
with are the things we choose to do. There will never be a moment in our
waking lives that we are not individuals expressing ourselves through our
activity and our leisure and members of a society contributing who we are
and what we do to it. And we will know that what is true of ourselves will
be true of all else.

The organisation seeks to work inside single-issue groups to help radicalise

them and to argue for a break with reformism and authoritarian revolution-
aries. At the same time it respects the independence and autonomy of
working class movements and (unlike others) does not try to subordinate
them to the revolutionary organisation. This does not mean that it does not
seek to spread its ideas in these movements. The organisation works to
bring about mass participation inside all these groups and the class as a
whole, working for self-activity and self-organisation in every struggle and
aspect of life. These ought to be working class organisations as cross-class
movements hide class differences and imply that the working class have
shared interests with the ruling class. Full emancipation cannot come about
without the destruction of capitalism. Only by building such organisations in
the course of struggle can the working class hope to achieve liberation.

To make revolution more likely, working class communities must be united

in both thought and action. The creation of self-managing and autonomous
groups within society will make the revolution more likely as we see what
life might be like outside state control and the iron logic of profit and com-
petition. Agents and apologists of the ruling class will resist us. Neighbour-
hood groups will clash with local councils, workers with trade unionists, art-
ists with the cultural elites who control funding and so on. Activity that is
unofficial, unsanctioned and independently organised is more likely to build
the self-confidence and skills of people than initiatives that are bureaucra-
tised or led by reformists from the start. Campaigns that set out forthright
demands and are fuelled by people's anger avoid the danger of partial, ne-
gotiated solutions. Movements that can count on a high degree of solidarity
or which strike a chord among many communities will exert far more pres-
sure than isolated struggles.
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 13

The revolutionary organisation itself must have mass participation and deci-
sion-making. It must also be organised federally as only federalism can hin-
der bureaucratic degeneration and encourages active participation by all
members in the organisation. The anarchist organisation realises that the
social revolution cannot be won without struggle at the point of production
and the seizure of the means of production. However, it does not relegate
struggles in other areas of life (unemployed, sexual, anti-racist, environ-
mental and cultural) to a secondary role. All these struggles within capital-
ism are closely intertwined. The questioning of one facet of capitalism can
lead to a total rejection of the system. The militants of the revolutionary or-
ganisation who are involved in these groups must seek to pinpoint in what
ways the class system causes and/or perpetuates the problems different
sections of society are confronting.

It is vitally important that a 'libertarian front' of all these movements and

groups is built. Thus, revolutionary work consists in part of linking each area
of struggle, bringing out all latent anti-capitalist and libertarian tendencies.
Revolutionary anarchist militants seek to unite all those whose struggle is
global and act as a driving force of this unity, constantly drawing in radical-
ised elements and building a mass movement. The revolutionary organisa-
tion is a means of communication and a weapon to be used by the working
class, not how anarchists take over mass movements.

In opposition to authoritarian and leftist ideas of leadership, the anarchist

organisation fights for the leadership of ideas within the class through ex-
ample and suggestion. In a non-revolutionary period people will generally
accept conservative ideas and values. In this period the organisation keeps
revolutionary ideas alive. Interested only in control, left organisations are
often taken by surprise by the speed at which revolutionary activity devel-
ops and the audacity and imagination of the revolutionary masses. The an-
archist organisation must be aware of this danger and not act as a brake on
revolution or resistance. If the revolution progresses, counter-revolutionary
forces will press for statist or piecemeal solutions; the revolutionary organi-
sation has to defend the advanced ideas of the masses. With its clearer un-
derstanding of hierarchical SOCiety, the concept of self-organised society
and authoritarianism, the revolutionary organisation is well placed to resist
'revolutionary' parties based on authoritarian notions of power and elitism.
It will be a struggle at the grass roots, a war of ideas and tactics against
authority and bureaucracy, using revolutionary anarchist theory and prac-
tice.
 14 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

Building the revolutionary

organisation
The ultimate goal of Anarchists, including members of the Anarchist Federa-
tion, is to achieve Anarchism or, in our case, Anarchist Communism. But
how is this to be achieved given the small number of anarchists and the
weakness of their organisations? Obviously, the main priority must be to
build mass movements and organisations and to increase the awareness
and acceptance of the ideas and methods of Anarchism. But this commit-
ment to recruiting can lead to passive, paper memberships and degenera-
tion. What is needed is a movement based on self-organisation (which may
in fact be many movements): active, aware and voluntary. If equality is to
mean anything then education and communication cannot be the preroga-
tive of leaders but must be a group activity, coming from within the working
class and in which there is as much 'learning' as there is 'teaching'. We
need to be vocal as anarchists, when possible, in all our daily struggles as
well as within broader-based, 'political' campaigns. Anarchist Communists
believe in fighting to win as quickly and as effectively as possible. If it's
struggle in the workplace we push war with the bosses, if it's in the commu-
nity, we work for the best possible outcome with no compromises. What
we suggest and propose must be honest and come from our beliefs, pos-
sess some integrity. As anarchists we are generally respected for our prin-
cipled positions even if people disagree with us; we win people to the strug-
gle by exposing the lies and manipulations of the Left. Even if people don't
join revolutionary organisations, as long as they accept and practise some
of our ideas this can help build a culture of resistance.

Where do we start?
But where are these people to come from? Where do we start? Firstly,
with friends or people we meet who may be sympathetic to our ideas, start-
ing with discussion and gradually working towards jOint activities. Secondly,
where we work, in community groups or associations, or at political events
where people disaffected with contemporary and left politics may come to-
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 15

gether. From these actions a small group may develop that can then start
to widen the network, build up a picture of who is prepared to work and
struggle towards similar ends. This group must try to involve as many peo-
ple as possible and to build strong contacts with isolated people and groups
or those in other countries with similar aims and tactics. If the group is
functioning well it will generate enthusiasm. It will balance the joy of suc-
cessful action with the need for thought and careful planning. Mobilisations
and mass demos can be very energising, reminding us that resistance is al-
ways going on and providing an opportunity for getting our ideas across to
a lot of people. It is also the opportunity for us to demonstrate to others the
strength and practicality of our ideas while at the same time developing
those ideas through practical experience. The propaganda we produce
should have the strength that comes from honesty and truth, giving practi-
cal solutions to social questions and struggles, soundly based in theory and
ideology. It should also meet the needs of the moment: sometimes we
need to fire people up, to agitate and mobilise. At other times we need to
prepare for action by discussing ideas in depth. Similarly when we try to
put our ideas across in written form, we need simple, straightforward bulle-
tins to reach a large audience and at other times more detailed and focus-
sed pamphlets, going into greater detail.

The culture of resistance

Consider where we are today. What community there is is artificial, based
on hated workplaces, our rank in the pecking order, the family, alienation,
consumerism and corrupting ideas like patriotism, sexism, xenophobia, self-
seeking individualism. Our true sense of community and culture only comes
to life when we resist, when our class acts for itself. The more we resist
the stronger our culture and community become and the more rebellion and
social revolution become possible. This is seductive. Many degenerated left-
ist parties confuse activity with progress. They get drawn helplessly into
single-issue politics, becoming parasites feeding off exploitation and strug-
gle. Anarchists should work to link up various struggles not merge solely
with one cause. Building links is an important task, links between cause and
effect, between struggles and campaigns, between ideas and theories, be-
tween people. If there is a local anarchist or libertarian communist group-
ing, you should be involved, individually and collectively. Don't try to force
your ideas onto people as you will either split the group, exclude yourself or
create de-energised and bored people, alienated from the idea and practice
16 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

of revolution. Don't be rigid or push forward rigid formulas. People's

views change through struggle not by being harangued or having deadly
theory shoved down their throats.

In the workplace
As we all know, the basis of work is EXPLOITATION and the bosses have
no mercy for those who rock the boat. Yet spreading anarchist ideas
and organising in the workplace is vital. Here, more than anywhere
else, resistance and rebellion can and will have the most effect on the
boss class. Be careful. Get to know the job but get to know your work-
mates better - friendships at work are a more reliable source of support
than any temporary alliance with workplace activists. People don't have
to call themselves revolutionaries to be good class fighters. As a rule,
unionised workplaces offer a better working environment but remember
that during disputes the union is NOT on the side of the workers. And
it's this message that needs to be put across to those we work with. An-
archists don't get involved with union politics (although some anarcho-
syndicalists do!); our job is to push ideas of resistance and the most ef-
fective tactics among those we work with and that often means chal-
lenging and exposing the leadership of the union.

In non-unionised workplaces there are usually fairly high levels of dis-

content and resentment with many opportunities to fan the flames of
resistance but also less solidarity and the danger of being grassed-up to
management. Its relatively easy to get people worked up but the dan-
ger is that there will only be two options to taking the struggle forward:
joining a union and negotiating or launching an isolated strike likely to
end in defeat unless the bosses have been thoroughly softened up.
What is needed is for the potential battlegrounds to be broadened and
strong links made with local communities and other workers. This tends
to require forming a workplace resistance group. Don't confuse this with
rank-and-file groups that emerge for short periods where the leadership
is particularly bad or there are ambitious leaders or factions who encour-
age resistance from below and then defuse dissent when their own
agendas have been achieved. Workplace resistance groups work out-
side the union though you may all be members. They are anti-work,
anti-boss, anti-union, anti-capitalist organisations advocating class war
and practicing direct action. They are not 'revolutionary unions' but a
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 17

way to band together the most militant workers for direct action. They
aren't the machinery of collective bargaining but a way to make things
hot for the bosses. They aren't interested in radicalising unions or push-
ing the leadership leftwards. They are not legal and definitely semi-
underground. Their membership is defined not by theory but by the de-
sired end - the destruction of the power and authority of the owners and
bosses.

Collective action
Contrary to popular prejudice, fostered by both media caricatures and by
the antics of a small number of self-proclaimed 'anarchists', anarchism is
neither 'rugged individualism' nor individualistic rebellion.

Whilst anarchists argue that the realization if individual freedom is cen-

tral to any authentically revolutionary politics, we don't equate this fun-
damental freedom with the right of individuals to manifest their ego
without regard for social totality. More importantly, it is our belief that it
is collective action which creates change and is essential to anarchism
rather than the activity of isolated and atomised individuals.

This is such common sense that it should not require comment but so
often individualism is regarded as the bedrock of anarchism rather than
its actual opposite. That is not to say, of course, that social anarchists,
especially anarchist communists, are opposed to individuality - far from
it - but that in capitalist society individualism is at best an excuse by
some to selfishly indulge themselves and at worst an ideology which en-
courages the most horrendous competitiveness and exploitation. capi-
talism loves (and sings the highest praises of) individualism while crush-
ing real individuality. Capitalism fears, however, collective action. A
trade union's strength is founded upon the potential of its members to
take for collective action. The union's ability to mobilize and control this
action is crucial to its credibility and position as a mediating influence
between worker and boss. If the possibility of collective action is re-
moved, trade unions tend not to be taken seriously by either employers
or members any more.

The individual can be compared to the finger of a hand. On it's own it is

18 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

not particularly strong or effective but in unison with the other fingers it
can become a fist. The working class, in whatever context whether com-
munity or workplace, is more easily dominated and exploited when it is
divided and, because divided, powerless. When it organises itself collec-
tively, it has the potential to act in a concerted manner against capital.
The workplace provides opportunities for individual action such as sabo-
tage, absenteeism and 'theft' but these activities, even when organised
clandestinely, can be more effective when done collectively. Individual
actions may alter relations and conditions within a class but not between
classes or permanently. And it is far more likely that the actions of the
ruling class in manipulating social relations to its advantage will bring
about change far more easily than the efforts of one or more individuals.
If not mutuality, what then? As Malatesta says, 'My freedom is the free-
dom of all. ,

Collective action also creates a spirit of combativeness as people realize

that, far from being powerless, they do have the power to bring about
change. The most outstanding example in recent years was the Anti-Poll
Tax movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s. If resistance to that tax
had been purely in terms of individual non-payment, of individuals sepa-
rated from others refusing to pay, rather than in the form of a community
of collective struggle, then it would have rapidly collapsed as isolated indi-
viduals were picked off by the State.

Mutual aid as a basis for human society and all forms of social relation-
ships and organization is vastly superior as an organizing principle than
competition or regulated interaction (contract). Kropotkin showed conclu-
sively that mutual aid was the rule amongst the most successful species
(of all kinds, including predatory ones and humankind): "Those species ....
which know best how to combine have the greatest chance of survival and
of further evolution". Success for the individual is always bought at the
expense of the group and is both destructive and energy consuming. At
the same time 'species that live solitarily or in small families are relatively
few, and their numbers limited' - and the energy required for them to live
at any other than a rudimentary level is great. A simpler life for some
means less life for others. The social relation that activates and extends
mutuality in time and space is solidarity. It is what changes the natural
impulse to co-operate and to share into a force governments fear. It is the
means by which the potential new social relations acquire the strength to
change society and which enable relations and institutions based on mu-
 The Role ofthe Revolutionary Organisation 19

tual aid to retain their strength.

The individual anarchist can only do so much on her/his own. The feeling of iso-
lation which capitalism imposes on the individual rebel can often lead to disillu-
sionment and despair. Collective action in the shape of an anarchist group can
accomplish far more whilst a national network constantly keeping militants in-
formed and motivated ... .. well, who knows what we could achieve? Why not
take the individual decision to take collective action with the Anarchist Federa-
tion?

The power (and weakness) of direct action

Direct Action may be a protest designed to draw attention to a grievance or in-
justice. It may be designed to stop actions such as destruction of the environ-
ment or attacks by the ruling class. It may be an act of solidarity with a commu-
nity or individual under attack. But unless it is part of a political strategy for fun-
damental change it can only be defensive and transient, overwhelmed by the
capitalist response and the much greater resources of the ruling class. Direct
Action can have positive outcomes even within the framework of capitalism.
Forcing the State to bear higher and higher costs (economic, political, social) as
it tries to ram a roads-only policy down people's throats has had an effect. But
it has not led to sensible and sustainable transport policies. As a type of political
protest, Direct Action may be growing but because it is not part of a generalised
class struggle it is unlikely to be a real threat to the ruling class in the long-term.
It is unlikely to break out of the marginalized and embattled ghetto the media
and police state are busy creating for it.

The strength of Direct Action is that it is based on ACTIVITY and not simply
ideas. It requires higher levels of co-operative communication and interaction,
the development of consensus and agreement on the target, the tactic, out-
comes and organisation. Based on ideas like autonomy and empowerment, Di-
rect Action avoids disputes and divisions among leadership groups which weaken
the struggle and result in a lowest-common denominator approach: leaders
make assumptions about what people can and should do in the pursuit of a ster-
ile and entirely fictitious unity. This is most often seen on marches and demos
today. No collective consciousness develops because no collective action takes
place. No change occurs because the crowd does not act against that which
keeps it divided, it remains an assembly of atomised individuals. This is not true
if the march comes under attack from the State: then people acting together to
 20 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

defend themselves and each other, out of the control of the leadership, working
together, often develop new levels of consciousness and emerge from the fight
energised and empowered. The weakness of Direct Action is that co-operation is
rarely sustained or sustainable because there is no generalised opposition or re-
sistance - there is no CULTURE OF RESISTANCE.

Without a political strategy that makes Direct Action one weapon in a rising tide
of anti-State protest it will fail. The measure of this weakness is the relative
strength of the Non-Violent Direct Action (NVDA) movement. This offers no chal-
lenge to Power, proposing instead a principled pacifism that allows and encour-
ages the police to run riot instead of paralysing their will to act through fear.
The danger of single-issue campaigning is that people in struggle remain alien-
ated from the struggle for general emancipation and are inevitably either mar-
ginalized or reincorporated into capitalism.

Direct Action has limited aims and if those aims are achieved, however partially
or temporarily, all the energy and rebellion dissipates. Some anarchists argue
that as capitalism increasingly demands we become passive producers and con-
sumers, rights and freedoms will constantly decrease and that, in consequence,
the rights-based struggle (human rights, freedom, anti-discrimination) will con-
tinue to grow. In fact the lack of a coherent program and the basic disunity of
those who put forward an individualistic, moral and liberal version of rights com-
pared to those who are resisting collectively and on a broad front will keep the
movement fragmented.

Successful Direct Action requires a comprehensive analysis of the enemy's weak-

ness. Particular types of Direct Action, chosen to exploit these weaknesses,
must be flexible enough to meet changing conditions. This flexibility is a tactic
and must not become an end in itself - this leads to 'stunt-ism'. Each day of ac-
tion, each campaign, each new point of confrontation must be understood to be
part of a growing and expanding sphere of resistance. But this needs sustaining
and prolonging. Local social and mutual aid centres create the space for people
actively engaged in resistance to meet and interact on a PERMANENT, ONGOING
BASIS.

Such interaction helps overcome the artificial divisions capitalism creates. Creat-
ing a culture of resistance in which Direct Action would be more effective re-
quires changes of consciousness (for instance people becoming more radical)
and permanent change in social relations. Does participation in a squat or roads
campaign fundamentally and permanently overcome alienation and atomisation?
Does the change in consciousness lead to a more generalised resistance?
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 21

Therefore, while we get involved in struggle because very often the struggle is
ours as well, anarchists always try to raise consciousness and transform social
relations through education, building bridges, positive communication, creating
trust, empowering people in ways that (hopefully) leads to an increase in the
numbers of people committed on a wide front to permanent struggle.
 22 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

When revolution comes

Traditionally Left groups called for the General Strike to overcome capitalism. By
this they meant a mass, economic general strike, arising during one of the peri-
odic crises of capitalism. So long as a vanguard party or, in the case of syndical-
ists, a politicised union stood ready to convert this war of economic grievances
into a pOlitical general strike against the power of the ruling class, all would be
well, we were told. But the dangers of taking the working class down a road
they are not yet prepared to travel themselves are - sadly - well known by now.
That way lies the disaster of authoritarianism or counter-revolution.

This does not mean revolution is impossible, only that a set of objective condi-
tions must apply beforehand. It is possible to imagine a rising tide of land and
road occupations, students on strike, factories paralysed, mass consumer boy-
cotts and demonstrations choking the streets of our major cities, which may,
possibly, break the will of the ruling class to resist. The Sem Terra and Chiapas
movements are modern examples of the landless and rural poor rising to reclaim
an economic future. Such movements are finding allies among the urban prole-
tariat, among workers being pulverised by capitalism's juggernaut. All over the
planet there is growing disenchantment over wealth inequalities, the corruption
of political and social elites, privatisation of basic utilities and public services and
pressure on the means of life: water, land, shelter and energy.

In some countries economic failure is the foundation for conservative or reac-

tionary movements that seek to create or perpetuate the myth of national unity.
But in many other places the revolt is by workers of all kinds, in alliance with the
angry and dispossessed, and against the ruling class and international capital-
ism. Mass general and social strikes, boycotts, 'invasions' of major cities or
other symbolic places of power, rent strikes and the expropriation of capital
through the occupation or destruction of factories, theft of electricity, food or
fuel, all suggest that the power of capitalism and the ruling class is by no means
secure.

The danger in such a revolution is that, because the revolution is the means and
not the end, it will not be a unified or unifying process. Some groups may balk
at certain actions or have less determination. They may be satisfied with partial
outcomes and resist further development of the struggle. No successful revolu-
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 23

tion can arise out of the unification of either means or programmes amongst the
multitude of protest and agitational groups involved in resisting attacks by the
ruling class without the development of a generalised revolutionary conscious-
ness in which the focus of action shifts from short-term goals towards achieving
the revolution. If this consciousness does develop all sections of the working
class who recognise the need to overthrow capitalism and who want to create an
anarchist communist society may coalesce in one or a relatively few organisa-
tions. Elements of other classes and strata who see the need for the victory of
the working class will also be gathered alongside these organisations and their
aim must be to bring about the conditions for and the organisation of a general
political strike, using both mass industrial action and mass social protest, strikes
and boycotts to first paralyse the will of the ruling class to fight and then,
through the means of occupation and expropriation, deny it the means to resist.

Without a mass organisation or federation, anarchist groups will be just one ten-
dency in the revolutionary movement, existing with other tendencies. Anarchist
communists in the new, autonomously organised workplaces and neighbour-
hoods will need to fight against authoritarian groups and tendencies. They will
act within the working class to ensure that the new structures function with the
full partiCipation of all on an equal basis. They will fight against any party or or-
ganisation that aims to take power in the name of the working class. If they try
to use force to destroy the gains of the working class then anarchist organisa-
tions must be fully prepared to combat them on a physical level. It follows from
this that in the revolutionary period the anarchist organisation must call for and
assist in arming all working people for defence and for the formation of workers
militias. Anarchist organisations should not dissolve immediately after the initial
insurrectionary phase of the revolution. Anarch ist communists will continue to
struggle until anarchist communism is fully achieved. As this ideal is realised, the
organisation becomes looser and eventually disappears completely.

End Note
This short pamphlet sets out some of our ideas about how a revolution against
capitalism may come about and the role individuals, communities and organisa-
tions could play in helping to bringing it about. It is one of the few pamphlets
produced by the Anarchist Federation that intends to be authoritative and pre-
scriptive. Here, more than anywhere, we mean what we say. We judge the im-
portance of people committing themselves to a life of resisting power and greed,
and joining groups and organisations with a revolutionary aspiration, as being
 24 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

fundamental to our ambition to one day live free in a free sOciety.

It is our hope that these words contribute to a general understanding of the

need for organisation among all people seeking to be free, and of the impor-
tance of building a mass revolutionary movement throughout the world. We do
not advocate a single party, a single organisation or even a single movement to
do this, recognising the diversity of resisting groups and cultures. But these
movements must have one aim - to abolish capitalism and the state - and one
means: the expropriation of the ruling class by taking over the productive forces
of society and putting them to our own use, on our own terms. On that road
lies freedom.

Other Anarchist Federation Publications

Anarchism As We See It £1
Describes the basic ideas of anarchist communism in easy to read form

NEW: Work And The Free Society £1

A powerful analysis of the reasons work has become meaningless drudgery for millions,
how we escape the cage we are in and what we imagine human activity might be like in
the future free society

The Anarchist Movement In Japan £1.50

A fascinating account of Japanese anarchism in the 20th Century. Japan had an anarchist
movement of tens of thousands. This pamphlet tells their story

NEW: Aspects of Anarchism £1

Thoughts and commentary on some of the most important issues that anarchists must
confront. Collected articles from the pages of Organise! on the fundamentals of anarchist
communism

Against Parliament, for Anarchism £1

Insights into the political parties of Britain and why anarchists oppose all parties.

NEW: Beyond Resistance £1.50

A fourth revised and updated edition of our popular pamphlet setting out an analYSis of
capitalism in crisis today, our vision of the future free society and ideas about how to get
from here to there.
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 25

Basic Bakunin £1
This revised edition outlines the ideas of one of the 19th century founders of class strug-
gle anarchism.

NEW: Where There's Brass, There's Muck £1.50

Our newly-revised and extended pamphlet on ecology. A fascinating and powerful analy-
sis of the ecological catastrophe facing the planet and its roots in capitalism and western
ideologies.

A Brief Flowering of Freedom £1

An exciting account of the Hungarian uprising against the Stalinist monolith in 1956. Also
includes a history of the Hungarian anarchist movement

Towards A Fresh Revolution: The Friends of Durutti

£1.50
The Friends of Durutti were a much misunderstood group who attempted to defend and
extend the Spanish Revolution of 1936. Included are a historical introduction and two po-
litical statements by the Friends themselves

All pamphlet prices include postage and packing. For overseas add 25%. Send to AF eto
84b Whitechapel High Street, London, El 7QX, England, UK

Also available from the AF:

Organise: magazine of the AF, covering analysis of current issues, feature articles, re-
views and letters. £6 for 3 issues or £9 to support Organise! production.
Resistance: the AF's regular news bulletin. £4 for the next 12 issues
 26 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation

ANARCHIST FEDERATION
Aims and Principles
1. Anarchist Federation is an organisation of revolutionary class struggle an-
archists. We aim for the abolition of all hierarchy, and work for the creation of a
world-wide classless society: anarchist communism.
2. Capitalism is based on the exploitation of the working class by the ruling
class. But inequality and exploitation are also expressed in terms of race, gen-
der, sexuality, health, ability and age, and in these ways one section of the work-
ing class oppresses another. This divides us, causing a lack of class unity in
struggle that benefits the ruling class.
Oppressed groups are strengthened by autonomous action which chal-
lenges social and economic power relationships. To achieve our goal we must
relinqu ish power over each other on a personal as well as political level.
3. We believe that fighting racism and sexism is as important as other as-
pects of the class struggle. Anarchist-communism cannot be achieved while sex-
ism and racism still exist. In order to be effective in their struggle against their
oppression both within society and within the working class, women, lesbians
and gays , and black people may at times need to organise independently. How-
ever, this should be as working class people as cross-class movements hide real
class differences and achieve little for them . Full emancipation cannot be
achieved without the abolition of capitalism.
4. We are opposed to the ideology of national liberation movements which
claims that there is some common interest between native bosses and the work-
ing class in face of foreign domination. We do support working class struggles
against racism , genocide, ethnocide and political and economic colonialism . We
oppose the creation of any new ruling class. We reject all forms of nationalism,
as this only serves to redefine divisions in the international working class. The
working class has no country and national boundaries must be eliminated . We
seek to build an anarchist international to work with other libertarian revolutionar-
ies throughout the world .
5. As well as exploiting and oppressing the majority of people, Capitalism
threatens the world through war and the destruction of the environment.
6. It is not possible to abolish Capitalism without a revolution, which will arise
out of class conflict. The rul ing class must be completely overthrown to achieve
anarchist communism . Because the ruling class will not relinquish power without
the use of armed force, this revolution will be a time of violence as well as libera-
tion.
7. Unions by their very nature cannot become vehicles for the revolutionary
transformation of society. They have to be accepted by cap italism in order to
function and so cannot play a part on its overthrow. Trade unions divide the
working class (between employed and unemployed, trade and craft, skilled and
 The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation 27

unskilled, etc). Even syndicalist unions are constrained by the fundamental na-
ture of unionism. The union has to be able to control its membership in order to
make deals with management. Their aim, through negotiation, is to achieve a
fairer form of exploitation for the workforce. The interests of leaders and repre-
sentatives will always be different to ours. The boss class is our enemy, and
while we must fight for better conditions from it, we have to realise that reforms
we may achieve today may be taken away tomorrow. Our ultimate aim must be
the complete abolition of wage slavery. Working within the unions can never
achieve this. However, we do not argue for people to leave unions until they are
made irrelevant by the revolutionary event. The union is a common point of de-
parture for many workers. Rank and file initiatives may strengthen us in the battle
for anarchist-communism. What's important is that we organise ourselves collec-
tively, arguing for workers to control struggles themselves.
8. Genuine liberation can only come about through the revolutionary self-
activity of the working class on a mass scale. An anarchist communist society
means not only co-operation between equals, but active involvement in the shap-
ing and creating of that society during and after the revolution . In times of up-
heaval and struggle, people will need to create their own revolutionary organisa-
tions controlled by everyone in them . These autonomous organisations will be
outside the control of political parties, and within them we will learn many impor-
tant lessons of self-activity.
9. As anarchists we organise in all areas of life to try to advance the revolu-
tionary process. We believe a strong anarchist organisation is necessary to help
us to this end. Unlike other so-called socialists or communists we do not want
power or control for our organisation .
We recognise that the revolution can only be carried out directly by the
working class. However, the revolution must be preceded by organisations able
to convince people of the anarchist communist alternative and method .
We participate in struggle as anarchist communists, and organise of a fed-
erative basis. We reject sectarianism and work for a united revolutionary anar-
chist movement.
 Anarchist Federation
Contacts
London: AF, c/o 84b Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QX
Birmingham: AF, PO Box 3241, Saltley, Birmingham B8 3DP
Leicester: 73 Humberstone Gate, Leicester LE1 1WB
e-mails: LeicesterAF@aoLcom
Manchester: PO Box 127, Old ham OL4 3FE
e-mails: anarchist_federation@yahoo.co.uk
Merseyside: c/o 96 Bold Street, Liverpool L 1
South East: AF, PO Box 375, Knaphill, Woking, Surrey GU21 2XL
Tyneside: PO Box 1TA, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE99 1TA8

Wales/Cymru: PO Box 7, Pontypool, Gwent NP4 8YB

emails: afedcymru@yahoo.co.uk
Scotland/Alba, AF, PO Box 248, Aberdeen AB25 1JE, Scotlandl
Alba e-mails: af-alba@hushmaiLcom
Ireland: Anarchist Federation Ireland, PO Box 505, Belfast BT12
6BQ
Phone: 07951 079719 ireaf@yahoo.ie

Other areas, contact via London address.

On the Web

Anarchist Federation: www.afed.org.uk

AF Ireland: http://flag.blackened.net/af/ireland
AF Scotland/Alba: http://flag.blackened.net/af/alba
Leicester AF: http://hometown.aoLco.uklleicesteraf/myhomepage/
opinion.html
Manchester AF: www.af-north.org

Email theAF:anarchistfederation@bigfoot.com