Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:38, 16 June 2019

</image> <label>Author</label> <label>Illustrator</label> <label>Published on</label> <label>Publisher</label> <group layout="horizontal"> <header>Publication order</header> <label>Previous</label> <label>Next</label> </group> </infobox>Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism is a 2013 book by Michael Schmidt (published by AK Press) that covers an 155 year history of anarchism from 1868 to 2013. It presents anarchism as occurring in 5 'waves', focusing on new unique issues in response to technological, geopolitical and cultural changes.

Summary

The First Wave, 1868–1894: The Rise of the Broad Anarchist/Syndicalist Movement in the Era of State and Capitalist Expansion

Events covered include the:

The Second Wave, 1895–1923: Consolidation of Syndicalism and Specific Anarchist Organisation in a Time of War and Reaction

Events covered include the:

While the self-described anarchist/syndicalist movement in Russia, barring the critical exception of the PACF and the anarchist tendency within the Kronstadt Soviet, failed to grasp the bull of power by the horns—in part because they never managed to achieve critical mass among the popular classes as in the Ukraine, the Makhnovist strategy of combining flexible military daring with a libertarian praxis of pluralistic internal democracy, and submitting the whole to civilian plenums, thereby liberating (for a time at least) a shifting territory with some 7 million inhabitants, made the Ukrainian Revolution the most holistic of the anarchist social experiments, despite the dire and continually-shifting circumstances of the war, which prevented it from achieving the continuity of the later Spanish Revolution. Both the Ukrainian and Russian Revolutions, defended so bravely by the anarchist forces from the assaults of the imperialists, indigenous nationalists, and pro-monarchist Whites, were mercilessly put down by the Bolsheviks. By the time the Global Revolt finally collapsed, with the last gasp of the failed 1918–1923 German Revolution, during which libertarian councillist praxis—the Munich Soviet in particular—had been tested and found wanting, the world was a totally changed place. The First World War and the Spanish Influenza epidemic had wiped out an entire generation, the Conservative counter-revolution was in full swing, the Chinese, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires had collapsed, and had been replaced by a constellation of fragile nation-states in which right-wing nationalism ran rampant, and technological innovations like steamships, tanks, aircraft, the telephone, and the automobile had shrunk the world. All of this took place while Fascism and statist Marxist “communism” (or, rather, authoritarian state-capitalism) were deluding the working class with false alternatives to capitalism.

And yet, the Second Wave transformed anarchism into a truly global phenomenon, with sizeable mass anarchist organisations fighting the class war from Costa Rica to China, Portugal to Paraguay, and Sweden to South Africa. Furthermore, global anarcho- and revolutionary syndicalism was drawn together in the International Workers’ Association (IWA), founded in Berlin in 1922, a reformation of the libertarian wing of the First International, and representing between 1.5 million and 2 million revolutionary workers globally.72 In 1922, the IWA’s largest sections were the Italian Syndicalist Union (USI) with half a million members, the Argentine FORA, with some 200,000 members, the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) of Portugal, with 150,000 members, the Free Workers’ Union of Germany (FAUD), with 120,000 members, and the Committee for the Defence of Revolutionary Syndicalism (CDSR) in France, which had taken 100,000 members away from the now irrevocably reformist CGT, which had peaked at 2.5–million members, most of them white-collar workers far removed from the blue-collar origins of the CGT (one of the ironies of this period is that when the CDSR founded the CGT Unitaire (CGTU) in 1921 as a revolutionary rival to the CGT, the new federation attracted Senegalese sailors who had abandoned the Marxists in 1919 after a failed strike). Minor anarcho-syndicalist organisations present at the founding of the IWA came from Czechoslovakia, Mexico, Norway, and Sweden, as well as the Chilean IWW (while most other branches of the IWW were closely sympathetic, they never joined the new international).

The Third Wave, 1924–1949: The Anarchist Revolutions Against Imperialism, Fascism, and Bolshevism

Events covered include the:

The Fourth Wave, 1950–1989: Rearguard Actions in the Shadow of the Cold War and Decolonisation in Africa and Asia

Events covered include the:

The Fifth Wave, 1990–Today: The Anarchist Movement’s Resurgence in the Era of Soviet Collapse and Neoliberal Hegemony

Events covered include the:

External Links

Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism at anarchyinaction.org

@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 === The Second Wave, 1895–1923: Consolidation of Syndicalism and Specific Anarchist Organisation in a Time of War and Reaction ===
 Events covered include the:
-*
 * [[National Labour Secretariat (Netherlands)]]
 * [[Federation of Freedom-loving Communists (Netherlands)]]
@@ Line 54: / Line 53: @@
 * [[Anarchist Black Cross]]
 * [[Industrial Workers of the World]]
+* [[Propaganda of the Deed]]
 * [[All-Japan Libertarian Federation of Labour Unions]]
 * [[Libertarian Federal Council of Labour Unions of Japan]]
+* [[Xinhai Revolution (China)]]
+* [[Society of Anarchist Communist Comrades (China)]]
+* [[Teahouse Labour Union (China)]]
+* [[Guangzhou Commune]] ([[China]])
+* [[Confederation of Labour Associations (China)]]
+* [[Hunan Workers’ Association (China)]]
+* [[Wonsan General Trade Union (Korea)]]
+* [[Free Trade Union (Korea)]]
+* [[Shinmin Autonomous Region]] (Korea)
+* [[International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam]]
+* [[Anarchist Communist Alliance (France)]]
+* [[Anarchist Federation (France)]]
+* [[Co-ordination of Anarchist Groups (France)]]
+* [[Libertarian Communist Organisation (France)]]
+* [[Libertarian Alternative (France)]]
+* [[Argentine Regional Workers’ Federation]]
+* [[Argentine Regional Workers’ Confederation]]
+* [[Argentine Libertarian Alliance]]
+* [[Anarcho-Communist Port-workers’ Group (Argentina)]]
+* [[Resistance Society of the Port-workers of the Capital (Argentina)]]
+* [[Uruguayan Regional Workers’ Organisation]]
+* [[Uruguayan Anarchist Federation]]
+* [[Brazilian Regional Workers’ Federation]]
+* [[Brazilian Labour Confederation]]
+* [[Workers’ Federation of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)]]
+* [[Local Federation of Labour of Santos (Brazil)]]
+* [[Workers’ Federation of the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)]]
+* [[Workers’ Federation of São Paulo (Brazil)]]
+* [[Chilean Labourers’ Federation]]
+* [[Chilean Regional Workers’ Federation]]
+* [[Paraguayan Regional Workers’ Organisation]]
+* [[Paraguayan Regional Workers’ Centre]]
+* [[Nationalist Revolutionary Alliance (Paraguay)]]
+* [[Workers’ Trade Union Reorganisation Council (Paraguay)]]
+* [[Havana Labour Federation (Cuba)]]
+* [[Cuban Workers’ Confederation]]
+* [[Cuban National Labour Confederation]]
+* [[Mexican Regional Workers’ Organisation]]
+* [[House of the World Worker (Mexico)]]
+* [[General Confederation of Labour (Mexico)]]
+* [[Venezuelan Regional Workers’ Federation]]
+* [[Peruvian Regional Workers’ Federation]]
+* [[Local Workers’ Federation of Lima (Peru)]]
+* [[Colombian Workers’ Federation]]
+* [[Local Workers’ Federation of La Paz (Bolivia)]]
+* [[Feminine Workers’ Federation (Bolivia)]]
+* [[Bolivian Regional Workers’ Confederation]]
+* [[Guayas Workers’ Regional Federation (Ecuador)]]
+* [[National Confederation of Labour (Spain)]]
+* [[General Confederation of Labour (Portugal)]]
+* [[Carnation Revolution]]
+* [[Revolutionary League (Mozambique)]]
+* [[Mexican Revolution]]
+* [[Baja Commune (Mexico)]]
+* [[Struggle (Mexico)]]
+* [[Red Battalions (Mexico)]]
+* [[Morelos Commune (Mexico)]]
+* [[Liberation Army of the South (Mexico)]]
+* [[National Agrarian Party (Mexico)]]
+* [[Syndicalist Conference in London (1913)]]
+* [[Industrial Syndicalist Education League (UK)]]
+* [[Irish Transport & General Workers’ Union]]
+* [[International Syndicalist Information Bureau]]
+* [[International Workers' Association]]
+* [[Federation of Anarchist-Communists of Bulgaria]]
+* [[Vlassovden Confederation (Bulgaria)]]
+* [[National Confederation of Labour (Bulgaria)]]
+* [[Feburary Revolution (Russia)]]
+* [[October Revolution (Russia)]]
+* [[Ukrainian Revolution]]
+* [[Black Army (Ukraine)|Revolutionary Insurgent Army of the Ukraine]]
+* [[Anarcho-Communist Group (Ukraine)]]
+* [[Nabat]]
+* [[Donetz Syndicalists]]
+* [[Free Territory of Ukraine]]
+* [[Pan-Russian Insurgent Committee of Revolutionary Partisans (Russia)]]
+* [[Anarchist Federation of the Altai (Russia)|Anarchist Federation of the Altai]]
+* [[Kuzbass Autonomous Industrial Colony|Kuzbass Autonomous Industrial Commune]]
+* [[All-Russian Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists]]
+* [[Petrograd Anarchist Communist Federation (Russia)]]
+* [[Union of Anarcho-Syndicalist Propaganda (Russia)]]
+* [[Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups (Russia)]]
+* [[Black Guards (Russia)]]
+* [[Villa Durnova Commune]]
+* [[Kronstadt Commune]]pSn
+While the self-described anarchist/syndicalist movement in
+Russia, barring the critical exception of the PACF and the anarchist
+tendency within the Kronstadt Soviet, failed to grasp the bull of power
+by the horns—in part because they never managed to achieve critical mass
+<nowiki> </nowiki>among the popular classes as in the Ukraine, the Makhnovist strategy of
+<nowiki> </nowiki>combining flexible military daring with a libertarian praxis of
+pluralistic internal democracy, and submitting the whole to civilian
+plenums, thereby liberating (for a time at least) a shifting territory
+with some 7 million inhabitants, made the Ukrainian Revolution the most
+holistic of the anarchist social experiments, despite the dire and
+continually-shifting circumstances of the war, which prevented it from
+achieving the continuity of the later Spanish Revolution. Both the
+Ukrainian and Russian Revolutions, defended so bravely by the anarchist
+forces from the assaults of the imperialists, indigenous nationalists,
+and pro-monarchist Whites, were mercilessly put down by the Bolsheviks.
+By the time the Global Revolt finally collapsed, with the last gasp of
+the failed 1918–1923 German Revolution, during which libertarian
+councillist praxis—the Munich Soviet in particular—had been tested and
+found wanting, the world was a totally changed place. The First World
+War and the Spanish Influenza epidemic had wiped out an entire
+generation, the Conservative counter-revolution was in full swing, the
+Chinese, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires had collapsed, and
+<nowiki> </nowiki>had been replaced by a constellation of fragile nation-states in which
+right-wing nationalism ran rampant, and technological innovations like
+steamships, tanks, aircraft, the telephone, and the automobile had
+shrunk the world. All of this took place while Fascism and statist
+Marxist “communism” (or, rather, authoritarian state-capitalism) were
+deluding the working class with false alternatives to capitalism.
+And yet, the Second Wave transformed anarchism into a truly
+global phenomenon, with sizeable mass anarchist organisations fighting
+the class war from Costa Rica to China, Portugal to Paraguay, and Sweden
+<nowiki> </nowiki>to South Africa. Furthermore, global anarcho- and revolutionary
+syndicalism was drawn together in the International Workers’ Association
+<nowiki> </nowiki>(IWA), founded in Berlin in 1922, a reformation of the libertarian wing
+<nowiki> </nowiki>of the First International, and representing between 1.5 million and 2
+million revolutionary workers globally.72 In 1922, the IWA’s largest
+sections were the Italian Syndicalist Union (USI) with half a million
+members, the Argentine FORA, with some 200,000 members, the General
+Confederation of Labour (CGT) of Portugal, with 150,000 members, the
+Free Workers’ Union of Germany (FAUD), with 120,000 members, and the
+Committee for the Defence of Revolutionary Syndicalism (CDSR) in France,
+<nowiki> </nowiki>which had taken 100,000 members away from the now irrevocably reformist
+<nowiki> </nowiki>CGT, which had peaked at 2.5–million members, most of them white-collar
+<nowiki> </nowiki>workers far removed from the blue-collar origins of the CGT (one of the
+<nowiki> </nowiki>ironies of this period is that when the CDSR founded the CGT Unitaire
+(CGTU) in 1921 as a revolutionary rival to the CGT, the new federation
+attracted Senegalese sailors who had abandoned the Marxists in 1919
+after a failed strike). Minor anarcho-syndicalist organisations present
+at the founding of the IWA came from Czechoslovakia, Mexico, Norway, and
+<nowiki> </nowiki>Sweden, as well as the Chilean IWW (while most other branches of the
+IWW were closely sympathetic, they never joined the new international).
 === The Third Wave, 1924–1949: The Anarchist Revolutions Against Imperialism, Fascism, and Bolshevism ===