Group of Russian Anarchists
Abroad
(also known as the Dielo
Truda group)
with a foreword
by
Piotr Arshinov
FOREWORD: THE CRUX OF THE MATTER
The debates provoked by the "Organizational
Platform" have thus far focused chiefly upon its various arguments or indeed the draft organization proposed by it. Most of its critics, as well as several of its supporters, have at no time been clear-sighted in their appreciation of the matter of the Platform's premises: they have never tried to discover what were factors that prompted its appearance, the point of departure adopted by it's authors. And yet these are matters of the greatest importance to those who seek to understand the spirit and importance of the Platform.
The recently publish... (From: NestorMakhno.info.)
Reply
by the
"Pensiero e Volontà" Group
to an invitation to join the International Anarchist Communist Federation
Luigi Fabbri, Camillo Berneri, Ugo Fedeli
Translator's introduction: Following publication of the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists by the Group of Russian Anarchists Abroad, a series of discussions were held in Paris to discuss the setting up of a new Anarchist Communist international. Italy was represented by several groups and individuals, the most prestigious of which was the group representing the journal "Pensiero e Volontà": Fabbri, Berneri and Fedeli. Fedeli, in fact, presided over a meeting held in Paris on 12th February 1927 which called an international conference to discu... (From: NestorMakhno.info.)
Many people, especially left-wing politicians, have a tendency to regard "soviet" power as a State power different from all the rest, to be sure, but painting that difference in the rosiest of hues:
"Soviet power," they tell us,
"is a worker and peasant power and, as such, has a great future ahead of
it."
There can be no more absurd assertion. "Soviet" power is a power no better and no worse than any other. Currently, it is every bit as wobbly and absurd as any State power in general. In certain respects, it is even more absurd than the rest. Having achieved total political domination over the country, it has become the unchallenged master of its economic resources and, not content with that crassly exploitative situation, it has s... (From: NestorMakhno.info.)
(Telegram
No.416)
To all district, cantonal,
communal and village executive committees in the governments of Ekaterinoslav,
Tauride and neighboring regions;
To all units of the First Insurgent Division of the Ukraine, known as the Father
Makhno Division;
To all Red Army troops stationed in the same areas.
To one and all.
At its sitting on May 30, the executive committee
of the military revolutionary council, after scrutiny of the impact upon the
front of the onslaught of White gangs, and consideration of the overall
political and economic situation of soviet power, came to the conclusion that
only the toiling masses themselves, and not individuals or parties, can devise a
solution to this. Which is why the executive commi... (From: NestorMakhno.info.)
As was to be expected, the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists has sparked very lively interest among several militants of the Russian libertarian movement. While some wholeheartedly subscribe to the overall idea and fundamental theses of the Platform, others frame criticisms and express misgivings about certain of its theses.
We welcome equally the positive reception of the Platform and the genuine criticism of it. For, in the endeavor to create an overall anarchist
program as well as an overall libertarian organization, honest, serious and substantial criticism is as important and positive creative initiatives.
The questions we reprint below emanate from just the sort of serious and necessary criticism, an... (From: NestorMakhno.info.)
To all workers of the plow and the hammer!
Brothers! A new and mortal danger is approaching all
working people. All the dark forces that served the bloody Nicholas have united
with the help of the Polish landlords, the French instructors and the traitors
of the Petliurist movement in the Ukraine in order to establish an autocracy
over us, to burden us with landlords, capitalists, Zemstvo leaders,
policemen and other hangmen of the peasants and workers.
Comrades! The commissars and bosses of the
Communist-Bolsheviks are good fighters only against the poor and oppressed.
Their punitive detachments and Chekas can splendidly shoot peasants and workers
and burn down villages and hamlets. But against the true enemies of the ... (From: NestorMakhno.info.)
Why, comrades, are you sitting at home? Why are you not in our ranks?
Or are you waiting for the arrival of the commissars with punitive detachments to draft you by force? Don't fool yourselves that they won't find you, that you will hide, escape. The Bolshevik authority has already shown that it will stop at nothing: they will arrest your family and relatives, they will take hostages, if necessary, they will fire upon the entire village with artillery - and in some way or another, you and your comrades, who are presently still at liberty, will sooner or later be drafted by the government.
And then they will send you, with weapons in hand, to kill your brother peasants and workers - the revolutionary insurgent Makhnovists.
We, Mak... (From: NestorMakhno.info.)
Comrade laboring Cossacks! For two years you languished under the oppression of the Czarist general Denikin. For two years your deadly enemies, the pomeshchiks and barons, forced you to defend the interests of the rich, the oppressors of the working people. For two successive years you were forced to knuckle under, and by your own sweat and blood the rich made themselves richer, feasted and led depraved lives. For two years in the region of the Don and the Kuban the tears and blood of the workers of the
plow and hammer flowed. For two successive years, laboring cossacks, the revolution was stifled in your land.
But through your efforts, comrades, the yoke of Denikin and his commanders was thrown off and in the Don and the Kuban the... (From: NestorMakhno.info.)
Brother peasants and workers! For more than three years you have been engaged in a struggle with capitalism and thanks to Your efforts. Your steadfastness and energy, You have brought this struggle nearly to a close. The enemies of the revolution have been exhausted by Your blows and You, anticipating victory, got ready to celebrate. You believed that Your unceasing, often unequal, struggle with the enemies of the revolution, would give You a chance to put into practice the free soviet system for which we all were striving. But, brothers, You see who celebrates in Your place. The uninvited rulers are celebrating, the Communist hangmen, who came here in readiness and along open roads which had been cleared with Your blood, the blood of your ... (From: NestorMakhno.info.)