Platformism is a tendency within the wider anarchist movement originally theorised by Nestor Makhno and is mainly based on his concept of anarchism and the organisational theories in the tradition of Dielo Truda's Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft).[1] The document was based on the experiences of Russian anarchists in the 1917 October Revolution, which led eventually to the victory of the Bolsheviks over the anarchists and other groups. The Platform attempted to address and explain the anarchist movement's failures during the Russian Revolution. The book drew both praise and criticism from anarchists worldwide.
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Concepts
Anti-authoritarianism · Anti-capitalism · Anti-statism · Proletarian internationalism · Class consciousness
Class struggle · Classless society · Common ownership · Commons · Commune · Consensus democracy · Co-operative economics · Direct democracy · Egalitarian community · Free association · Free store · From each according to his ability, to each according to his need · Mass strike · Gift economy · Market abolitionism · Mutual aid · Prefigurative politics · Primitive communism · Stateless communism · Stateless society · Workers control · Workers cooperative · Workers council · Wage slavery |
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Organizational forms
Insurrectionary anarchism · Platformism · anarcho-communists also have participated in Synthesis federations
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The Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) was written in 1926 by the Group of Russian Anarchists Abroad, a group of exiled Russian and Ukrainian anarchists in France who published the Delo Truda ("Workers' Cause") newspaper. The pamphlet is an analysis of the basic anarchist beliefs, a vision of an anarchist society, and recommendations as to how an anarchist organization should be structured. The four main principles by which an anarchist organization should operate, according to the Platform, are ideological unity, tactical unity, collective action, and federalism.
Until recently, the Platform was known in English as the Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists, a result of its being translated from the French edition popularised in the early 1970s. Alexandre Skirda in his book Facing the Enemy: A history of Anarchist Organization from Proudhon to May 1968 (p. 131) attributes much of the controversy about the Platform to the original 1926 French translation made by its opponent Voline. Later translations to French have corrected some of the mis-translations and the latest English translation, made directly from the Russian original, reflects this.
The Platform argues that "We have vital need of an organization which, having attracted most of the participants in the anarchist movement, would establish a common tactical and political line for anarchism and thereby serve as a guide for the whole movement".
It should also be noted that many so-called "Platformist" organizations today are unhappy with the term, often preferring to use descriptions such as "anarchist communist", "social anarchist" or "libertarian communist/social". Most agree that the 1926 Platform was sorely lacking in certain areas, and point out that it was actually a draft document, never intended to be adopted in its original form. The Italian FdCA, for example, do not insist on the principle of "tactical unity", which according to them is impossible to achieve over a large area, preferring instead "tactical homogeneity".[2]
The Platform has 4 key organizational features which distinguish it from the rest of the anarchist movement. They are:
Today there are organizations inspired by the Platform in many countries, including the Workers Solidarity Movement in Ireland, North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists (NEFAC) in the USA, the Communiste Libertaire in Quebec, Common Cause [1] in Ontario, the Federación Comunista Libertaria (FCL) and Organización Comunista Libertaria (OCL) in Chile, the Federación Anarco-Comunista de Argentina (FACA) and Línea Anarco-Comunista (LAC) in Argentina, the Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (FdCA) in Italy, the Fórum do Anarquismo Organizado in Brazil, Unión Socialista Libertaria in Peru, the Organisation Communiste Libertaire and Alternative Libertaire in France, the Alianza de los Comunistas Libertarios (ACL) in Mexico, the Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group (MACG) and Sydney Anarchist Communist Trajectory (SACT) in Australia, Motmakt in Norway, Libertære Socialister in Denmark, Liberty & Solidarity in the UK and the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) in South Africa. RKAS - Revolutionary Confederation of Anarcho-syndicalists by the name of. N.I. Makhno (Революционная конфедерация анархо-синдикалистов им. Н. И. Махно) - an international anarcho-syndicalist, platformist confederation. Sections and individual members of RKAS exist in Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Germany, Latvia, Bulgaria and Israel. Organizations inspired by the Platform were also among the founders of the now-defunct International Libertarian Solidarity network.
The website Anarkismo.net is run collaboratively by around 30 "Platformist" organisations from all over the world.
The Platform attracted strong criticism from many sectors on the anarchist movement of the time including some of the most influential anarchists such as Voline, Errico Malatesta, Luigi Fabbri, Camillo Berneri, Max Nettlau, Alexander Berkman,[7] Emma Goldman and Gregori Maximoff.[8] Malatesta in a written response to the Platform commented that "Their organisation, being typically authoritarian, far from helping to bring about the victory of anarchist communism, to which they aspire, could only falsify the anarchist spirit and lead to consequences that go against their intentions."[9] However, in his last response to Makhno — after seeing a Platformist group in formation — Malatesta concluded that he was actually in agreement with the positions of the platform; but had just been confused by the language they had used:
As an alternative to platformism Voline and Sebastien Faure proposed synthesist anarchist federations[11] who they envisioned to form under anarchist without adjectives principles.[12]
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