The Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists (PDF ebook)

£2.00

Still a controversial document, the Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists offers suggestions for effective forms of anarchist communist organisation. Based on their experiences during the Russian Revolution, the authors re-assert the class struggle basis of anarchism that was born within the First International. Attacked at the time as an attempt to “Bolshevise” anarchism, the Platform still remains a valuable reference for those who wish to develop ways of breaking anarchism out of ghettoised isolation and once again become an important influence within the social struggles of the present day. With the addition of an extensive history of Platformism, and additional material from the authors, as well as a debate with Errico Malatesta, this edition of the Platform is the one that both anarchist militants and historians of the movement will wish to consult.

Description

The Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists and the Synthesis

by the Anarchist Communist Group

The Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists is probably one of the most controversial documents about theory and practice within the anarchist movement. Today Platformism, as it is known in terms of those who support its central tenets is represented by the groups around the international coordination Anarkismo. This coordination includes those groups and organisations influenced by Especifismo, which developed in Latin American anarchist circles, and which shares many of the same tenets as the Platform.

Today there is still controversy about the Platform, as some position themselves firmly for the Platform, whilst others, usually influenced by Synthesism or anti-organisational insurrectionism, take a stand against it.

For us, it is important to recognise the Platform as an important historical reference that offers notable suggestions as how anarchist communists should organise effectively, namely through theoretical and tactical unity. It also posited the concept of the ‘leadership of ideas’, that is, the importance of establishing a strong anarchist communist influence within the workers’ movements, social movements etc. As Arshinov noted,

Direction of the masses from the ‘ideas’ point of view simply means the existence of a guiding idea in their movement. In the world of socialist struggle and socialist demands, such ideas are not numerous. But it is natural that we anarchists wanted the toilers’ guiding idea to be the anarchist idea and not that of the social democrats for example, of those who have only recently betrayed the Viennese workers’ revolutionary movement (1927).

The Organisational Platform was written in 1926, and as such, has many gaps and omissions, as recognised by its authors themselves.

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