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Synthesis anarchism

August 26, 2023

Not to be confused with Synarchism.
For New religious movement, see Syntheism.

Synthesis anarchism, also known as united anarchism,[1] is an organisational principle that seeks unity in diversity, aiming to bring together anarchists of different tendencies into a single federation. Developed mainly by the Russian anarchist Volin and the French anarchist Sébastien Faure, synthesis anarchism was designed to appeal to communists, syndicalists and individualists alike. According to synthesis anarchism, an anarchist federation ought to be heterogeneous and relatively loosely-organised, in order to preserve the individual autonomy of its members.

History Edit

 
Errico Malatesta, a forerunner of synthesis anarchism and a leading figure in the Italian anarchist movement.

Since the 1890s, there had been a drive within the anarchist movement to foster cooperation between the various anarchist schools of thought and to unite them across ideological lines. During the dispute between the collectivists and communists, the Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta and the Spanish anarchist Fernando Tarrida del Mármol advocated for anarchists of both tendencies to unite, according to the principle of "anarchism without adjectives".[2]

Over the subsequent decades, Max Nettlau developed this principle into a call for anarchists to unite into a single organisation, which would preserve individual autonomy and encourage mutual aid between its members.[3] The principle of individual autonomy was particularly central to the organisational ideas of Sébastien Faure and Emma Goldman, as well as to the Japanese "pure anarchists" that advocated for a more loosely-organised grouping. The Russian anarchist Volin considered all anarchist schools of thought to be valid, advocating for a pluralistic organisation that unites anarchists of different tendencies behind a set of common principles and goals.[4] While Goldman considered the best path to be a loose framework that extended autonomy to each tendency, Volin and Faure would go on to develop a "synthesis" of the different tendencies, with the aim of creating an organisational platform that would be acceptable to the entire anarchist movement.[5]

Revolution in Ukraine Edit

Following the October Revolution, many Russian anarchists attempted to escape the Red Terror by fleeing to Ukraine. They established their headquarters in Kharkiv, which became the center for their campaign to unify the disorganised anarchist movement into a coordinated revolutionary organisation,[6] which they hoped would be able to combat the rise of Bolshevism.[7] This campaign resulted in the establishment of the Nabat Confederation of Anarchist Organizations, which quickly spread throughout all of Ukraine's major cities.[8]

 
Volin, one of the founders of synthesis anarchism and a leading figure in the Nabat.

The statutes of the Nabat were drawn up by Volin, who established it according to the principles of "united anarchism" (Russian: единый анархизм, romanized: yedinyy anarkhizm).[9] The organization was designed to extend a great deal of autonomy to its membership and be open to members from all of the major anarchist schools of thought: anarcho-communism, anarcho-syndicalism and individualist anarchism.[10] This "united anarchism" was immediately criticised by Volin's former anarcho-syndicalist comrades,[11] who regarded it as an ineffective way to unify the anarchist movement and feared the dominance of anarcho-communists in such an organization.[12]

Despite its establishment according to the principles of "united anarchism", as the Ukrainian Revolution progressed, the Nabat developed into a more tightly-organised federation with its own unitary policy. The Nabat's secretariat acted as the organisation's executive, directing the organisation's membership and overseeing its resources. It quickly threw its support behind the Makhnovist movement and the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, which it hoped would spearhead the organisation of the Ukrainian anarchist movement.[13]

Synthesism versus platformism Edit

After the Russian and Ukrainian anarchist movements were forced into exile, they experienced a split over organisational principles.[14] Inspired the model of the Nabat, Volin had proposed the organisation of an anarchist federation, which would account for discipline and collective responsibility by means of "natural, free and technical centralisation",[15] while also accounting for a diversity of anarchist tendencies within the organisation.[16] But members of Delo Truda quickly rejected Volin's "synthesis" as incoherent and out of step with anarchist theory.[17] Within the Soviet Union itself, former members of the Nabat had also since gravitated away from Volin's organisational principles.[18]

In June 1926, Peter Arshinov, Nestor Makhno and Ida Mett collaborated on the drafting of The Organisational Platform, which called for the establishment of a specific anarchist organisation according to the principles of ideological and tactical unity, in order to combat chronic disorganisation within the anarchist movement.[19] In April 1927, Volin penned a reply to the Platform, which was co-signed by other exiled anarchists such as Senya Fleshin and Mollie Steimer.[20] The Reply criticised the Platform as running counter to anarchist ideology, accusing the platformists of desiring to establish a centralised anarchist political party and eventually a state, which Volin directly compared to Bolshevism.[21] Volin, Fleshin and Steimer went on to accuse the Delo Truda group of anti-intellectualism and even antisemitism.[22]

 
Sébastien Faure, one of the founders of synthesis anarchism and a leading figure in the French anarchist movement.

In the autumn of 1927, at a congress of the French Anarchist Union, the platformist majority within the organisation overruled the synthesist minority. The French Synthesists, led by Sébastien Faure, split from the Union and established their own Federal Association of Anarchists (AFA).[23] Faure himself desired to create a powerful organisation that could unite disparate revolutionary groupings and be capable of leading an insurrection. Although Faure had rejected the Platform as sectarian and ideologically homogeneous, preferring instead to cultivate good faith and mutual aid between anarchists, he set his own conception of synthesis apart from Volin's "dilettantism".[24] In 1928, Sebastien Faure published The Anarchist Synthesis, arguing for looser organisational principles that allowed ideological diversity.[25]

Formation of synthesis federations Edit

In 1927, the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) was established along synthesist lines, in order to act as a counterweight to the reformism expressed within the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT).[26] In the wake of the FAI, synthesis federations were also formed in other countries, including the Francophone Anarchist Federation (FAF) in 1937 and the Italian Anarchist Federation (FAIt) in 1945.[27] Following the defeat of imperial Japan, the Korean anarchist movement reorganised into the Federation of Free Society Builders (FFSB),[28] which was formed along synthesist lines and continued to function in the South Korea until the October Restoration, when martial law was declared in the Republic of Korea.[29]

In 1968, the International of Anarchist Federations (IAF) was established at a congress in Italy, building on the previously established international network at the initiative of the FAF. Established along synthesist lines, the IAF brought together anarchist federations from Argentina, Australia, Britain, Bulgaria, Cuba, France, Germany, Greece, Iberia, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland.[30] The IAF affirmed its commitment to the principles of libertarian communism at its second congress in 1971, but soon lost its Cuban section due to its soft line on the Castro government. Nevertheless, the IAF managed to develop further links in Hong Kong and Vietnam and made contact with other anarchist federations in Europe and South America.[31]

References Edit

  1. ^ Avrich 1971, pp. 204–205; Malet 1982, p. 159.
  2. ^ van der Walt & Schmidt 2009, p. 244.
  3. ^ van der Walt & Schmidt 2009, pp. 244–245.
  4. ^ van der Walt & Schmidt 2009, p. 245.
  5. ^ van der Walt & Schmidt 2009, pp. 245–246.
  6. ^ Avrich 1971, p. 204.
  7. ^ Malet 1982, p. 159.
  8. ^ Avrich 1971, p. 204; Malet 1982, pp. 159–160.
  9. ^ Avrich 1971, p. 205; Malet 1982, p. 159.
  10. ^ Avrich 1971, p. 205; Malet 1982, p. 159; Skirda 2002, p. 123.
  11. ^ Avrich 1971, p. 205; Malet 1982, pp. 159–160.
  12. ^ Avrich 1971, p. 205.
  13. ^ van der Walt & Schmidt 2009, p. 257.
  14. ^ Schmidt 2013, pp. 64–65; Skirda 2004, pp. 277–278.
  15. ^ Skirda 2002, p. 123.
  16. ^ Skirda 2004, pp. 277–278.
  17. ^ Skirda 2002, pp. 123–124.
  18. ^ Schmidt 2013, p. 66; Skirda 2002, p. 131.
  19. ^ Skirda 2002, p. 124.
  20. ^ Skirda 2002, p. 132.
  21. ^ Skirda 2002, pp. 132–133.
  22. ^ Skirda 2002, p. 134.
  23. ^ Skirda 2002, pp. 135–136.
  24. ^ Skirda 2002, p. 136.
  25. ^ Schmidt 2013, pp. 63–64.
  26. ^ Schmidt 2013, pp. 65–66.
  27. ^ van der Walt & Schmidt 2009, p. 246.
  28. ^ Schmidt 2013, p. 79.
  29. ^ Schmidt 2013, pp. 89–90.
  30. ^ Schmidt 2013, pp. 92–93.
  31. ^ Schmidt 2013, p. 93.

Bibliography Edit

  • Avrich, Paul (1971) [1967]. The Russian Anarchists. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00766-7. OCLC 1154930946.
  • Malet, Michael (1982). Nestor Makhno in the Russian Civil War. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-25969-6. OCLC 8514426.
  • Schmidt, Michael (2013) [2012]. Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism. Edinburgh: AK Press. ISBN 978-1849351386. OCLC 881111188.
  • Skirda, Alexandre (2002). Facing the enemy: A history of anarchist organisation. Translated by Sharkey, Paul. Oakland: AK Press. ISBN 1902593197. OCLC 490977034.
  • Skirda, Alexandre (2004) [1982]. Nestor Makhno–Anarchy's Cossack: The Struggle for Free Soviets in the Ukraine 1917–1921. Translated by Sharkey, Paul. Oakland: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-902593-68-5. OCLC 60602979.
  • van der Walt, Lucien; Schmidt, Michael (2009). "Militant Minority: The Question of Anarchist Political Organisation". Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism. Edinburgh: AK Press. pp. 239–267. ISBN 978-1-904859-16-1. LCCN 2006933558. OCLC 1100238201.

Further reading Edit

  • Faure, Sébastien (1927). "The Anarchist Synthesis". Translated by McNab, Nestor – via The Anarchist Library.
  • Group of Russian Anarchists Abroad (March 1926). "The Problem of Organization and the Notion of Synthesis". Delo Truda. Translated by McNab, Nestor – via The Nestor Makhno Archive.
  • Shantz, Jeffrey (2010). "Anarchist Synthesis". In Ness, Immanuel (ed.). The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest. p. 1. doi:10.1002/9781405198073.wbierp1662. ISBN 9781405198073.
  • Volin (1924). "Synthesis (Anarchist)". In Faure, Sébastien (ed.). Anarchist Encyclopedia. Translated by Wilbur, Shawn P. Paris: Librairie internationale – via Libertarian Labyrinth.
  • Volin (April 1924). Faure, Sébastien (ed.). "On Synthesis". La Revue anarchiste. No. 25–27. Translated by Wilbur, Shawn P. Paris – via Libertarian Labyrinth.
  • Volin; et al. (April 1927). "Reply to the Platform". Noir Et Rouge. Translated by McNab, Nestor. Paris – via The Nestor Makhno Archive.

External links Edit

  • "Synthesis Anarchism / Anarchism Without Adjectives" (an archive with texts related to synthesis anarchism as well as anarchism without adjectives).
  • "J.3.2 What are "synthesis" federations?". An Anarchist FAQ.
  • "Especifismo and Synthesis/ Synthesism" by Felipe Corrêa
  • J.3.4 Why do many anarchists oppose the "Platform"? on An Anarchist FAQ

August 26, 2023
synthesis, anarchism, confused, with, synarchism, religious, movement, syntheism, also, known, united, anarchism, organisational, principle, that, seeks, unity, diversity, aiming, bring, together, anarchists, different, tendencies, into, single, federation, de. Not to be confused with Synarchism For New religious movement see Syntheism Synthesis anarchism also known as united anarchism 1 is an organisational principle that seeks unity in diversity aiming to bring together anarchists of different tendencies into a single federation Developed mainly by the Russian anarchist Volin and the French anarchist Sebastien Faure synthesis anarchism was designed to appeal to communists syndicalists and individualists alike According to synthesis anarchism an anarchist federation ought to be heterogeneous and relatively loosely organised in order to preserve the individual autonomy of its members Contents 1 History 1 1 Revolution in Ukraine 1 2 Synthesism versus platformism 1 3 Formation of synthesis federations 2 References 3 Bibliography 4 Further reading 5 External linksHistory Edit Errico Malatesta a forerunner of synthesis anarchism and a leading figure in the Italian anarchist movement Since the 1890s there had been a drive within the anarchist movement to foster cooperation between the various anarchist schools of thought and to unite them across ideological lines During the dispute between the collectivists and communists the Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta and the Spanish anarchist Fernando Tarrida del Marmol advocated for anarchists of both tendencies to unite according to the principle of anarchism without adjectives 2 Over the subsequent decades Max Nettlau developed this principle into a call for anarchists to unite into a single organisation which would preserve individual autonomy and encourage mutual aid between its members 3 The principle of individual autonomy was particularly central to the organisational ideas of Sebastien Faure and Emma Goldman as well as to the Japanese pure anarchists that advocated for a more loosely organised grouping The Russian anarchist Volin considered all anarchist schools of thought to be valid advocating for a pluralistic organisation that unites anarchists of different tendencies behind a set of common principles and goals 4 While Goldman considered the best path to be a loose framework that extended autonomy to each tendency Volin and Faure would go on to develop a synthesis of the different tendencies with the aim of creating an organisational platform that would be acceptable to the entire anarchist movement 5 Revolution in Ukraine Edit Following the October Revolution many Russian anarchists attempted to escape the Red Terror by fleeing to Ukraine They established their headquarters in Kharkiv which became the center for their campaign to unify the disorganised anarchist movement into a coordinated revolutionary organisation 6 which they hoped would be able to combat the rise of Bolshevism 7 This campaign resulted in the establishment of the Nabat Confederation of Anarchist Organizations which quickly spread throughout all of Ukraine s major cities 8 Volin one of the founders of synthesis anarchism and a leading figure in the Nabat The statutes of the Nabat were drawn up by Volin who established it according to the principles of united anarchism Russian edinyj anarhizm romanized yedinyy anarkhizm 9 The organization was designed to extend a great deal of autonomy to its membership and be open to members from all of the major anarchist schools of thought anarcho communism anarcho syndicalism and individualist anarchism 10 This united anarchism was immediately criticised by Volin s former anarcho syndicalist comrades 11 who regarded it as an ineffective way to unify the anarchist movement and feared the dominance of anarcho communists in such an organization 12 Despite its establishment according to the principles of united anarchism as the Ukrainian Revolution progressed the Nabat developed into a more tightly organised federation with its own unitary policy The Nabat s secretariat acted as the organisation s executive directing the organisation s membership and overseeing its resources It quickly threw its support behind the Makhnovist movement and the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine which it hoped would spearhead the organisation of the Ukrainian anarchist movement 13 Synthesism versus platformism Edit After the Russian and Ukrainian anarchist movements were forced into exile they experienced a split over organisational principles 14 Inspired the model of the Nabat Volin had proposed the organisation of an anarchist federation which would account for discipline and collective responsibility by means of natural free and technical centralisation 15 while also accounting for a diversity of anarchist tendencies within the organisation 16 But members of Delo Truda quickly rejected Volin s synthesis as incoherent and out of step with anarchist theory 17 Within the Soviet Union itself former members of the Nabat had also since gravitated away from Volin s organisational principles 18 In June 1926 Peter Arshinov Nestor Makhno and Ida Mett collaborated on the drafting of The Organisational Platform which called for the establishment of a specific anarchist organisation according to the principles of ideological and tactical unity in order to combat chronic disorganisation within the anarchist movement 19 In April 1927 Volin penned a reply to the Platform which was co signed by other exiled anarchists such as Senya Fleshin and Mollie Steimer 20 The Reply criticised the Platform as running counter to anarchist ideology accusing the platformists of desiring to establish a centralised anarchist political party and eventually a state which Volin directly compared to Bolshevism 21 Volin Fleshin and Steimer went on to accuse the Delo Truda group of anti intellectualism and even antisemitism 22 Sebastien Faure one of the founders of synthesis anarchism and a leading figure in the French anarchist movement In the autumn of 1927 at a congress of the French Anarchist Union the platformist majority within the organisation overruled the synthesist minority The French Synthesists led by Sebastien Faure split from the Union and established their own Federal Association of Anarchists AFA 23 Faure himself desired to create a powerful organisation that could unite disparate revolutionary groupings and be capable of leading an insurrection Although Faure had rejected the Platform as sectarian and ideologically homogeneous preferring instead to cultivate good faith and mutual aid between anarchists he set his own conception of synthesis apart from Volin s dilettantism 24 In 1928 Sebastien Faure published The Anarchist Synthesis arguing for looser organisational principles that allowed ideological diversity 25 Formation of synthesis federations Edit In 1927 the Iberian Anarchist Federation FAI was established along synthesist lines in order to act as a counterweight to the reformism expressed within the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo CNT 26 In the wake of the FAI synthesis federations were also formed in other countries including the Francophone Anarchist Federation FAF in 1937 and the Italian Anarchist Federation FAIt in 1945 27 Following the defeat of imperial Japan the Korean anarchist movement reorganised into the Federation of Free Society Builders FFSB 28 which was formed along synthesist lines and continued to function in the South Korea until the October Restoration when martial law was declared in the Republic of Korea 29 In 1968 the International of Anarchist Federations IAF was established at a congress in Italy building on the previously established international network at the initiative of the FAF Established along synthesist lines the IAF brought together anarchist federations from Argentina Australia Britain Bulgaria Cuba France Germany Greece Iberia Italy Japan the Netherlands Norway and Switzerland 30 The IAF affirmed its commitment to the principles of libertarian communism at its second congress in 1971 but soon lost its Cuban section due to its soft line on the Castro government Nevertheless the IAF managed to develop further links in Hong Kong and Vietnam and made contact with other anarchist federations in Europe and South America 31 References Edit Avrich 1971 pp 204 205 Malet 1982 p 159 van der Walt amp Schmidt 2009 p 244 van der Walt amp Schmidt 2009 pp 244 245 van der Walt amp Schmidt 2009 p 245 van der Walt amp Schmidt 2009 pp 245 246 Avrich 1971 p 204 Malet 1982 p 159 Avrich 1971 p 204 Malet 1982 pp 159 160 Avrich 1971 p 205 Malet 1982 p 159 Avrich 1971 p 205 Malet 1982 p 159 Skirda 2002 p 123 Avrich 1971 p 205 Malet 1982 pp 159 160 Avrich 1971 p 205 van der Walt amp Schmidt 2009 p 257 Schmidt 2013 pp 64 65 Skirda 2004 pp 277 278 Skirda 2002 p 123 Skirda 2004 pp 277 278 Skirda 2002 pp 123 124 Schmidt 2013 p 66 Skirda 2002 p 131 Skirda 2002 p 124 Skirda 2002 p 132 Skirda 2002 pp 132 133 Skirda 2002 p 134 Skirda 2002 pp 135 136 Skirda 2002 p 136 Schmidt 2013 pp 63 64 Schmidt 2013 pp 65 66 van der Walt amp Schmidt 2009 p 246 Schmidt 2013 p 79 Schmidt 2013 pp 89 90 Schmidt 2013 pp 92 93 Schmidt 2013 p 93 Bibliography EditAvrich Paul 1971 1967 The Russian Anarchists Princeton Princeton University Press ISBN 0 691 00766 7 OCLC 1154930946 Malet Michael 1982 Nestor Makhno in the Russian Civil War London Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978 0 333 25969 6 OCLC 8514426 Schmidt Michael 2013 2012 Cartography of Revolutionary Anarchism Edinburgh AK Press ISBN 978 1849351386 OCLC 881111188 Skirda Alexandre 2002 Facing the enemy A history of anarchist organisation Translated by Sharkey Paul Oakland AK Press ISBN 1902593197 OCLC 490977034 Skirda Alexandre 2004 1982 Nestor Makhno Anarchy s Cossack The Struggle for Free Soviets in the Ukraine 1917 1921 Translated by Sharkey Paul Oakland AK Press ISBN 978 1 902593 68 5 OCLC 60602979 van der Walt Lucien Schmidt Michael 2009 Militant Minority The Question of Anarchist Political Organisation Black Flame The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism Edinburgh AK Press pp 239 267 ISBN 978 1 904859 16 1 LCCN 2006933558 OCLC 1100238201 Further reading EditFaure Sebastien 1927 The Anarchist Synthesis Translated by McNab Nestor via The Anarchist Library Group of Russian Anarchists Abroad March 1926 The Problem of Organization and the Notion of Synthesis Delo Truda Translated by McNab Nestor via The Nestor Makhno Archive Shantz Jeffrey 2010 Anarchist Synthesis In Ness Immanuel ed The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest p 1 doi 10 1002 9781405198073 wbierp1662 ISBN 9781405198073 Volin 1924 Synthesis Anarchist In Faure Sebastien ed Anarchist Encyclopedia Translated by Wilbur Shawn P Paris Librairie internationale via Libertarian Labyrinth Volin April 1924 Faure Sebastien ed On Synthesis La Revue anarchiste No 25 27 Translated by Wilbur Shawn P Paris via Libertarian Labyrinth Volin et al April 1927 Reply to the Platform Noir Et Rouge Translated by McNab Nestor Paris via The Nestor Makhno Archive External links Edit Synthesis Anarchism Anarchism Without Adjectives an archive with texts related to synthesis anarchism as well as anarchism without adjectives J 3 2 What are synthesis federations An Anarchist FAQ Especifismo and Synthesis Synthesism by Felipe Correa J 3 4 Why do many anarchists oppose the Platform on An Anarchist FAQ Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Synthesis anarchism amp oldid 1140938194, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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