Hundreds of dead and thousands of injured, sacrificed on the altar of Zionist expansionism and fundamentalism. In Europe, the foreign ministers of every EU country talk about an “exaggerated”, though “legitimate”, reaction on the part of Israel, reversing the true situation with an operation that would make the most cynical illusionist feel proud by making the aggressor, the State of Israel, appear to be the victim.
They continue to pretend that they do not remember that Gaza — one of the most densely-populated regions with around one and a half million inhabitants, about half of whom are children — has been the object of a total embargo for years, an embargo which includes medicines and basic necessitie... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici will be participating in the demonstration to be held in Genoa on 17th November, using the mobilization to denounce and protest against the latest reactionary decisions by the Italian government regarding the parliamentary inquest on the tragic events of Genoa 2001.
Prosecutors in the trial of 25 people for “devastation and pillage” have demanded a total of 225 years in prison and millions of euro in compensation for their “moral complicity” in the events of 2001. Some of those on trial were also injured by the State forces either at the Diaz school or at the Bolzaneto police station. To make matters worse, it has been decided that demonstrators will not be compensated for the... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Introduction
So what’s all the hype with “platformism” anyway? For those who don’t know, “platformism” is a tendency within the wider anarchist movement of groups and organizations who share a basic agreement with “The Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists” published by the Dielo Trouda (Workers’ Cause) group in 1926 after their experiences in the Russian revolution of 1917–1921. The Platform is not seeing as a “bible” which we need to obey but as a solid base with which to build a theory of revolution and of revolutionary organization on.
The texts that make up this pamphlet are taken from the Northeastern Anarchist #6 (Spring/Summer 2003). The Nort... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The FdCA-Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici is pleased to announce the forthcoming opening of the premises that will host the Centro di Documentazione “Franco Salomone” (CDFS), which will take place on Saturday 30th October 2010.
The event will be the realization of the FdCA’s commitment to our dear, late libertarian communist comrade Franco Salomone made back in 2005. Franco, whose life of militancy was based in Liguria and in particular in the city of Savona, died in 2008. But thanks to him, the FdCA now has the possibility to provide new spaces and give a new boost the its anarchist communist social and political activities while, at the same time, fulfilling another commitment to comrade Salomone – that of gath... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici supports the initiatives in defense of the public ownership of water, including the campaign for a referendum by the Forum Acqua Bene Comune which seeks to repeal three articles from laws concerning the environment, energy and economic development, as well as opposing the obligatory enforcement of EU regulations.
By means of these articles, local authorities will be obliged to tender out the running of water services to private companies or mixed public-private bodies where the latter must hold the majority of shares (70% within 2015, with a progressive increase from public to private in companies which are entirely public or mixed).
We are aware that the management of collective resources and prope... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) I — General
Art.1 — The Internal Regulations — as per Art.29 of the Statute — complete the Statute and provide further detail, and are designed to be a more flexible and adaptable instrument of self-regulation for the various phases in the growth of the organization.
Art.2 — The Internal Regulations are approved (as per Art.30 of the Statute) by Ordinary Congress.
II — Branches
Art.3 — A number of militants may form a Branch if:
they have the use of premises, known as “FdCA Branch premises”, which can allow sympathizers to gather round the organization on the basis of its political positions;
they have the capacity and ability to express, as FdCA, the organization&rsquo... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Preface
This is the story of the International Anarchist Congress that was held at the Plancius Hall in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 26 to 31 August 1907. The previous anarchist congress had been back in 1881 in London and was an attempt to re-launch the old International, though it inaugurated the age of “anarchist terrorism”, moving the anarchist movement away from the masses of the working people.
The period between 1881 and 1907 saw huge changes within the workers’ movement. By then, however, the anarchists had placed themselves firmly outside the sphere of labor, though some comrades did remain close to the workers. When the anarchist movement eventually understood that it had to put an end to its isolation, t... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) 1. The crisis
2007 was the year when the “neo-liberal” model of economic development entered an irreparable period of crisis following its introduction in the 1980s. It produced a domino effect: the property bubble burst, mortgage repayments from sectors with insecure incomes failed to be made, house prices became excessive, bank lending became overly “generous”, the solvency of banks was questioned and their share prices fell dramatically over a very short period. The entire credit system crashed. In a monetary economy of production [1], the banks are not just one sector among many – they are the fulcrum of the circulation of goods and money.
Capitalism is M-G-M [2] and credit anticipates, fluidifies and e... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Every time a movement for social and/or labor struggle evades the control of the State and its apparatus of government thanks to its use of direct action and grassroots organization, it isn’t long until we start to see the “strategy of tension”, repression, the criminalization of dissent, the police State.
The movements in struggle over recent years have managed to resist the call of the institutionalized parties and the bureaucracies of the trade union federations, and have demonstrated that self-management of the struggles, grassroots participation and union democracy all meet with wide approval and this is something that worries the powerful and the oppressors.
In this context, as Capital is worried about the possibil... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The myth of the people’s Islamic Republic in Iran has finally collapsed in a sea of blood.
The bloodbath being carried out by the leaders of the islamic republic is crushing the peaceful opposition of the people, putting an end to the myth that Islam-inspired States are different from the West’s so-called “secular” States: when the classes in power, be they a secular bourgeoisie or a religious bourgeoisie, are called by the people on the streets to account for their power, their abuse of power, their privileges, their limitations on the freedom of opposition forces, the result is always the same — fierce repression, people being shot, security forces savagely launching themselves on the people to destroy the d... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) 90 years ago in Villa Giusti, Austria surrendered to Italy. Victory! For Italy, World War I was over!
But it was a war that the workers did not want and was imposed on them with force by the Italian State.
Does anybody nowadays remember that in 1915 in Milan, Rome, Turin and other towns there were mass demonstrations against the war? That in Turin, 100,000 striking workers clashed with police and troops in a struggle that lasted two days?
It was clear that the workers did not want to be cannon-fodder. They had no intention of paying for the cost of a war imposed by the bourgeoisie, the industrialists and the upper echelons of the army.
And we are unlikely to be reminded over the next few days that during the war there were a million tri... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The debate which surrounded the publication of the „Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists – Project“ between June and October 1926 was lively and widespread, involving a great number of anarchists both in France, where it had been published, and abroad. However, as Paris in those days was a sort of magnet for anarchists who had been forced to flee their countries of origin or who were drawn there by the great activity of others already present, a large part of the debate regarding the proposals of the Group of Russian Anarchists Abroad (GRAZ)[1] was centered on Paris.
Publication of the „Platform“ itself was preceded by a series of articles regarding anarchist organization in Delo Truda, n... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Wide-scale interference in public affairs in Italy by popes, bishops, cardinals and various catholic ministers is reaching truly embarassing levels. Just a few months ago we were being told how the clash of cultures was being won by the superiority of western civilization which, on the contrary to islamic states, was able to make a clear distinction between civil affairs and religious affairs. Now, however, not a day goes by without having to listen to some lofty pronouncement from the Vatican on a whole range of issues.
Those who had hoped for a media-unfriendly pope, penalized by the charismatic nature of his predecessor, were not entirely wrong: this pope is, and remains, particularly unpleasant.
But to make up for this, he does seem t... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) For the second time in 5 years, and the third time in a decade, Italians are being called to vote on changes to the Constitution: first, in 1997, the D’Alema Bicameral Commission referendum;[1] second, the October 2001 referendum on Title 5 of the Constitution;[2] third, the forthcoming referendum which concerns the entire structure of the Republic.
A subversive strategy by both sides
For over a decade now, the best part of Italy’s political powers and representatives of capital have been following two objectives:
stability in the country’s political system, and
the introduction of the principle of subsidiarity.
Both of these objectives require profound changes to the Constitution, as the stability of th... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) On 14th May, Italy’s lower house passed a bill on security which for the first time establishes the legal basis for new discriminatory policies in all levels of civil society against other human beings and workers who emigrate to Italy in their search for a better future.
Despite the protests from civil society, despite the voices of common sense from people involved in the sector, despite the attempts to take the edge off some of the harshest parts of the new law, the introduction of the new crime of clandestinity effectively sanctions the enslavement of women and men who live in this country, depriving them of their most basic rights and handing them over to the international criminal organizations that control this huge market in ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) From the press, we learn of admissions of responsibility, of plots as easy to dismantle as lego, of the fault being anarchists’ (all the TV news shows) or anarcho-insurrectionalists (RAI 3 news), of “organizations” responsible for the various “Jack-in-the-box” attacks — those little surprise packages, letter bombs or suchlike.
Bologna: Jack-in-the-box for the mayor, Cofferati.
Presumed motives of those responsible (according to the minister): Yeah, we’ll show that old Stalinist wanker we’re not joking and put the fucking Disobbedienti in the shit at the same time.
Motives of the secret services: The State is on the Mayor’s side; a shadow is thrown on the movement against the evictio... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Arab peoples, the Arab proletariat, finally seem to be entering the post-modernist age. After centuries of domination and violence by the Turkish Empire first, then colonialism and finally the dictatorships that lasted throughout the second half of the last century, these peoples, this proletariat, are finally coming out of their solitude and challenging the power that oppresses them and denies them their freedom and dignity in which to live their lives.
The awareness of being exploited, of being excluded from the wealth of the dictators and their clans, of living without freedom or rights has rapidly turned into an awareness of being able to rely on their own strengths, of being able to organize themselves into popular committees that... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Italian army has taken up position on Lebanon’s southern border. The fleet will be patrolling the coasts, now that Israel has lifted its naval blockade. As far as the rebuilding of Lebanon is concerned, Italy has good hopes of doing business with Beirut’s powerful construction companies.
Hezbollah is contented. Israel says thank you. Syria, for the first time in ages, is spoken to firmly, but this time without threats. Italy’s head of government receives the Iranian delegation on the “nuclear question”. France, Spain and Turkey follow behind and join up. On the Mediterranean front of the great conflict there is now the chance for a break in the war that nobody wants to win because it never ends.
In fact, ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) As of the 7th Congress of the FdCA of 1st October 2006, this document ceases to be part of the FdCA’s Basic Strategy.
Anarchist Communist Criticism of “Real Socialism”
The Bolshevik model for the construction of communism already showed signs of crisis with Lenin’s introduction of the NEP. This was no sudden, unexpected crisis. It had been presaged by certain political and governmental choices in the wake of October 1917, in particular:
the liquidation of the governing coalition of all those forces which supported the revolutionary transformation of the country. The consequence of this act was the suppression of the institutional environment which hosted the dialectic and debate between the various political ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper in opposition in Russia, has published a series of reports about Chechnya about the detention of dozens of men in a secret prison “due to their nontraditional sexual orientation or its suspicion”. The Russian newspaper writes that recent waves of repression have led to the arrest of more than 100 men and to the death of – at least – three of them.
The atrocities that the Russian newspaper brought to the fore have not yet [note from the translator : it has been since] been confirmed by independent sources but the NGO Human Rights Watch claims that indeed something is going on there, based on information from reliable sources.
Tanya Lokshina, head of HRW program in Russia says that give... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) For far too long major segments of the working class have been dormant under the illusion that change can be delegated to exterior organizations or parties. When our struggles are bureaucratized and delegated to others, we lose ownership over them and in turn lose many benefits gained through them. A victory for the working class can only be established if our class is active in the struggle leading to victory.
From the battle for the 8 hour day, to the struggles witnessed this past year, these examples cry out for the need to organize the fight back against the war that is being waged on workers at home and abroad. Through these examples we can begin to see an alternate future and experiment towards it. This new workers’ movement mu... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) For capitalism, workers are nothing more than living numbers — production numbers, redundant numbers, mobile numbers, numbers to be cut down through job losses. And they are still just numbers even when they die at work. Exploited lives and broken lives are only a cost. A number. Now, Italy’s national agency for insurance against workplace injuries, INAIL, has announced that in 2006 there were a total of 1,280 workplace deaths, with a sharp rise in the figures for women and non-EU citizens. These numbers tell us that in 2006 a total of 1,115 people died in the industrial sector (280 in construction alone), 114 in agriculture and 11 civil servants. The number of women dying at work has increased: 103 in 2006 as against 88 the pre... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) With the Regional elections now over, the political coalitions continue to court the Vatican, offering the Catholic Church a breather from the tragic situation it finds itself in thanks to the scandal of pedophile priests. And given the fact that current policies are geared towards criminalizing foreigners or, in less extreme cases, reducing the numbers of foreigners in the various holding centers — which translates into big business for Catholic bodies — the only ace left up Italian politicians’ collective sleeve in their attempt to curry favor with the Pope is to take it out on women.
Thus we see the Northern League threatening to block the use of the abortion pill mifepristone in the North’s public hospitals and ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) We will be taking part in the 24 November demonstration against violence on women as this is something that concerns not just women, even though it is women, of whatever sexual orientation, who need to defend themselves from it.
They have to defend themselves from it when they are subjected to it, they have to defend themselves from it when it is used against them in order to restrict everyone’s freedom.
It is true that violence against women is something that crosses class borders, but it reproduces a mechanism of imposition and dominion that is the cornerstone of exploitation.
There are the victims that hit the front pages of the papers, shamelessly used to hide the absence of social policies for support, of housing policies, the... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Catholic Church continues incessantly with its political goal of a return to the res publica sub Deo (“public affairs, under god”), or the domination of civil power by religious power. It is a policy that helps us to understand, in the clearest possible terms, the profoundly reactionary and conservative nature of the historical role of the Catholic Church, its institutional functions and its use as a tool for social control, within the general framework of a capitalist class society based on exploitation and inequality.
The demonstration to be held in Rome on 10th February 2007 is the result of an urgent, pressing need that affects Italy today: the need to defend and free civil society from the policies of the Church, which... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Are we so sure that Italy is in crisis? The latest official figures on orders and sales in industry indicate increases of, respectively, 11.1% and 12.9% in August 2005 compared to August 2004. Foreign demand is growing at a rate of over 15% while demand at home is up by 9.4% on sales and 11.4% on orders.
Yet the 2005 Budget provides for a reduction of labor costs of €1 bn for companies and the Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Maroni, has even gone so far as to forecast an extra €2 bn remaining in the hands of industry.
In the meantime, the engineering workers’ contract renewal is blocked on an offer by the employers’ federation of an extra €65 a month, though it is this very sector (+30.9%) which is leading ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The situation in Italy’s universities is somewhat untypical compared with other areas of the public sector, and in particular in relation to schools. Faced with progressive disinvestment on the part of the State’s central administration, responsibility has gradually and with difficulty moved to the country’s Regions, who have occupied themselves more with the service aspects rather than concentrate on the aspects of research and education. But there has been no united response over the years to this state of affairs from lecturers, researchers, casual workers, administration personnel and students. Various Budget reforms and the still-nascent Gelmini Reform, have been continuing this trend towards the dismantlement of Ital... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Introduction
One of the most difficult problems of “revolutionary socialism” (by which we mean the ideas of those comrades who were to develop in the 19th century a strategy for a socialist revolution) is the period when society moves from a capitalist social structure (economics, politics and ideology) to a “communist” social structure.
The period, or better still, the phase of transition. There is no shortage of slogans regarding this question. There is an abundance of empty polemics and academic opinions. But what there isn’t is clarity.
Given the confusion and resulting polemics, it is essential to clarify the matter fully — the phraseology, the vocabulary, the concepts and the strategy, not with... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The mobilizations in Vicenza to block the opening of a new military base in the Dal Molin area are an important milestone for the whole anti-war movement, with two important aspects emerging.
On the one hand, the experience of Vicenza has placed the question of military bases at the heart of the initiative, a step forward from the ethical approach of rejecting war, by pinpointing and proposing concrete objectives for anti-militarist action. On the other hand, the “No Dal Molin” movement is a fine example of social resistance to the militarization of society and direct democracy. With the lies of the governing parties both local and national being unmasked, parties who were involved in the decision-making processes that has allo... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) I — General Notes on the Organizational Problem
Apart from the problem of coming up with a strategy for a process which can revolutionize the conditions which make up the current political situation, the development of class consciousness also throws up another problem, an internal problem, for class-struggle militants: organization.
The organization of the proletariat is a requirement, a need, an essential premise for its emancipation.
It is a requirement because in any situation of struggle, the tasks of class-struggle militants differ and can be distinct and specialized, but together they must be designed to reach the same result, both at the level of immediate objectives and on a more general and comprehensive level.
It is a... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)