Especifismo
Started reading [[Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization]] as [[Especifismo]] is [[node club]] node this week.
Sounds really good so far. Seems very adjacent to [[Anarchist Cybernetics]] in it's push towards organisational structures within anarchism.
Sounds related to [[Platformism]] too.
born out of nearly 50 years of anarchist experiences in South America
– [[Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization]]
Three key points
- The need for specifically anarchist organization built around a unity of ideas and [[praxis]]
- The use of the specifically anarchist organization to theorize and develop strategic political and organizing work.
- Active involvement in and building of autonomous and popular social movements, which is described as the process of "[[social insertion]]"
What does 'specifically anarchist' actually mean?
Specifically anarchist
Especifists inherently state their objection to the idea of a synthesis organization of revolutionaries or multiple currents of anarchists loosely united
– [[Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization]]
Interesting. What (specifically) is a synthesis organisation? Ah OK - [[Synthesis anarchism]].
North American anarchists have also offered their experiences of synthesis organization as lacking any cohesiveness due to multiple, contradictory political tendencies
– [[Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization]]
the Especifists criticize these tendencies for being driven by spontaneity and individualism and for not leading to the serious, systematic work needed to build revolutionary movements
– [[Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization]]
A particular stress of the Especifismo praxis is the role of anarchist organization, formed on the basis of shared politics, as a space for the development of common strategy and reflection on the group’s organizing work
– [[Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization]]
All sounds a bit like some of the critiques of [[Occupy]] - in that it failed because there was no organisational structure. See e.g. [[Horizontalism vs verticalism]], [[Anarchist Cybernetics]].
On organization, the Especifists call for a far deeper basis of anarchist organization than the Platform’s “theoretical and tactical unity,” but a strategic program based on analysis that guides the actions of revolutionaries
– [[Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization]]
Social insertion
[[social insertion]].
Especifismo’s conception of the relation of ideas to the popular movement is that they should not be imposed through a leadership, through “mass line,” or by intellectuals
– [[Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and Revolutionary Organization]]
- Especifismo is considered to have come to broadly similar conclusions to the Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists (Draft) and may be considered to be very similar to [[platformism]][citation needed], which in turn claims its roots lie in the organisational work of figures like Mikhail Bakunin, Errico Malatesta and [[Nestor Makhno]].
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[[social insertion]]
- the oppressed are the most revolutionary sector of society, and that the seed of the future revolutionary transformation of society lies already in these classes and social groupings
- anarchist involvement in the [[daily fights of the oppressed]] and working classes
- https://blackrosefed.org/especifismo-weaver
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key concepts
- The need for specifically anarchist organization built around a unity of ideas and praxis.
- The use of the specifically anarchist organization to theorize and develop strategic political and organizing work.
- Active involvement in and building of autonomous and popular social movements, which is described as the process of “social insertion.”
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The Especifists put forward three main thrusts to their politics, the first two being on the level of organization. By raising the need for a specifically anarchist organization built around a unity of ideas and praxis, the Especifists inherently state their objection to the idea of a synthesis organization of revolutionaries or multiple currents of anarchists loosely united.
- The result of these types of union are libertarian collectives without much more in common than considering themselves anarchists
- North American anarchists have also offered their experiences of synthesis organization as lacking any cohesiveness due to multiple, contradictory political tendencies
- Without a strategy that stems from common political agreement, revolutionary organizations are bound to be an affair of reactivism against the continual manifestations of oppression and injustice and a cycle of fruitless actions to be repeated over and over
- Especifists criticize these tendencies for being driven by spontaneity and individualism and for not leading to the serious, systematic work needed to build revolutionary movements
- trust within the members and groups is built that allows for a deep, high-level discussion of their action.
- It must have as a foundation the experience of the [[struggle of the oppressed]] and their aspirations, and from those elements it must set the goals and the tasks to be followed by the [[revolutionary organization]] in order to succeed not only in the final objective but also in the immediate ones.
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[[the platform]]
- The authors of the Platform were veteran partisans of the Russian Revolution. They helped lead a peasant guerilla war against Western European armies and later the Bolsheviks in the Ukraine, whose people had a history independent of the Russian Empire
- In comparison, the praxis of Especifismo is a living, developed practice, and arguably a much more relevant and contemporary theory, emerging as it does out of 50 years of anarchist organizing
- Whereas the Platform can be easily read as seeing anarchists’ role as narrowly and most centrally within labor unions, Especifismo gives us a living example that we can look towards and which speaks more meaningfully to our work in building a revolutionary movement today.
[Nestor Makhno]: Nestor Makhno.md "Nestor Makhno" [social insertion]: social insertion.md "social insertion" [//end]: # "Autogenerated link references"
Backlinks
- [[especifismo]]
- [[especifismo]]
Backlinks last generated 2022-01-28 07:55:20
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- public document at doc.anagora.org/especifismo
- video call at meet.jit.si/especifismo
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anarchist cybernetics
daily fights of the oppressed
especifismo
especifismo the anarchist praxis of building popular movements and revolutionary organization
go
horizontalism vs verticalism
identity
nestor makhno
node club
occupy
platformism
praxis
revolutionary organization
social insertion
struggle of the oppressed
synthesis anarchism
the platform
trust