[mobglob-discuss] [Fwd] "Against Organizationalism" Editorial - Anarchy Magazine

Wed Dec 4 21:02:49 PST 2002

This is bullshit if I ever read it.
Liz
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom_Childs at Douglas.BC.CA <Tom_Childs at Douglas.BC.CA>
To: rad-green at lists.econ.utah.edu <rad-green at lists.econ.utah.edu>
Cc: project-x at lists.resist.ca <project-x at lists.resist.ca>;
mobglob-discuss at lists.resist.ca <mobglob-discuss at lists.resist.ca>
Date: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 5:42 PM
Subject: [mobglob-discuss] [Fwd] "Against Organizationalism" Editorial -
Anarchy Magazine


>Some interesting thoughts here from the editor of Anarchy Magazine.  TC
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>  ----- Forwarded message: -----
>Delivered-To: infoshop-news at flag.blackened.net
>From: "Jason McQuinn" <jmcquinn at coin.org>
>To: "infoshop-news" <infoshop-news at infoshop.org>
>Subject: [Infoshop News] "Against Organizationalism"
>  --Editorial from Anarchy magazine #54/Fall-Winter 2002-03
>Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 00:47:36 -0600
>
>
>>From Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed #54/Fall-Winter
>2002-03: http://www.anarchymag.org/54/editorial_organization.html
>
>
>Against Organizationalism:
>Anarchism as both Theory and Critique of Organization
>
> One of the most annoying and oft repeated cliches of leftist political
>rhetoric concerns the unquestioned imperative for nonspecific, generic
>"organization." Whatever else might define the left, it has always and
>consistently called for the creation and development of formal
>organizations that are supposed to represent and lead the masses or the
>working class (or these days often the appropriate identity-group or
>"minority"). Of course, when leftists leave the realm of rhetoric and
>enter the realm of practice, it becomes quite evident why the details of
>organization are usually left unspecified. It's easy to say that
>unorganized or disorganized people probably won't have much success
>pursuing large, complex projects. But when the form of organization
>actually proposed calls for a "transmission-belt" structure with an
>explicit division between leaders and led, along with provisions to
>discipline rank and file members while shielding leaders from
>responsibility to those being led, more than a few people wise up to the
>con game and reject it. Even the addition of a little democracy these
>days isn't enough to disguise the stench of power politics.
>
> None of this is surprising to most anarchists, because the mainstream
>left has been explicitly hierarchical, authoritarian and statist since
>the time of the Jacobins and the French Revolution. However, even
>anarchists-or at least the more leftist of anarchists-have not been
>immune to organizational fetishism. From a genuine concern for helping
>to create the conditions for the have-nots to take back their world, the
>leftist organizational imperative is too often mistaken for a healthy
>underlying strategy which has unfortunately been undermined and
>discredited by unethical or power-hungry authoritarian leftists.
>
> It's true that the increasingly widespread disillusionment with formal
>organization amongst genuine radicals is often a direct result of two
>hundred years of counterproductive leftist practice. But leftist
>organizational practice isn't just a good strategy corrupted by bad
>personnel. The same organization-building strategies with more radical
>theory and values grafted in place would continue to produce the same
>type of self-defeating practice precisely because the underlying
>problems are structural and not incidental. The cult of
>organizationalism-in which the construction and enlargement of formal,
>mass political and economic organizations take priority over the
>encouragement and generalization of anarchist self-organization-directly
>contradicts anarchist principles and goals. Organizationalism encourages
>and produces authoritarian, hierarchical, and alienating practices
>because it is based on the idea that people should be organized by
>politically-conscious militants rather than the anarchist idea that
>people must organize themselves for their own liberation.
>
> Historically, the anarchist idea, anarchist theory and the international
>anarchist movement all originated in large degree in critical response to
>the problems posed by radical organization. Yet, today, all too many left
>anarchists are taking on the job of rehabilitating a highly problematic
>organizationalist rhetoric and practice, relying only on superficial
>criticisms of the explicitly authoritarian, statist left to prevent-they
>hope-their own projects from duplicating the duplicity of the many
>leftist disasters that litter revolutionary history.
>
> All anarchists differ from the political left in one central way:
>anarchists propose individual and communal self-activity, self-direction
>and self-organization as the only possible method for genuinely taking
>control of our lives. The political left, on the contrary, proposes
>organizing people as objects in order to gain the political power
>necessary to change institutional social conditions. The more radical of
>leftists will add that such change in institutional conditions can help
>bring about the possibility that the masses will eventually develop
>enough self-awareness to directly govern themselves. But this is, of
>course, relegated to the indefinite future.
>
> Given the ongoing disintegration of the international left, it has
>become ever more important for anarchists to rediscover and reconsider
>the foundations of the anarchist movement in the anarchist theory and
>critique of organization. As more leftists and ex-leftists drift into
>the anarchist milieu, it becomes increasingly important to remember that
>anarchism isn't merely a form of leftism without an explicit goal of
>taking state power. The entire leftist political culture of
>representation, hierarchical organization, heteronomous discipline and
>the cult of leadership is contrary to the anarchist culture of autonomy,
>free association, self-organization, direct action and personal
>responsibility. The leftist practice of creating formal mass
>organizations in order to build political power involves entirely
>different assumptions and goals than the anarchist practice of
>encouraging generalized self-initiated, self-directed activity.
>
> All the various forms of left anarchism involve attempted syntheses of
>aspects of left organizationalism with aspects of anarchist organization.
>And all of these attempted syntheses require some degree of sacrifice of
>anarchist theory, practice and values in exchange for an anticipated
>increase in ideological appeal or practical power. But anarchists will
>always sacrifice their own principles at great risk. There have been
>powerful left-anarchist syntheses that have made great practical
>contributions towards revolt, insurrection and revolution at times in the
>past: the heyday of anarcho-syndicalism around the turn of the 19th to
>the 20th century being one. But these have always come at the price of
>also diluting and confusing the anarchist side of the syntheses, which
>has ultimately led to their defeat.
>
> In order to prevent further defeats, we can consciously base our practice
>on consistent principles of self-organization, always with as few
>compromises as possible, and with a clear eye on our goals.
>
>Jason McQuinn, Editor
>C.A.L. Press
>POB 1446
>Columbia, MO 65205-1446
>USA
>Alternative Press Review web site:
>http://www.altpr.org
>Anarchy magazine web site:
>http://www.anarchymag.org
>
>
>
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>
>--
>Tom Childs - Audio/Visual Resources
>Douglas College Library
>New Westminster, B.C. Canada
>T: 604 527-5713 - library
>T: 604 524-9316 - home
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>    "There's no way to delay, that trouble comin' everyday."
> --Frank Zappa
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