Mar 31, 2014
Zine: BSN Organising Guide
As a practice and over-arching worldview anarchism is fundamentally about sticking up for each other – against the whims of bosses, landlords and bureaucrats, against systemic and psychological systems of social control, against racism, sexism and other forces that hold illegitimate power over our lives. At the same time anarchist theory looks at how we can organise ourselves and our struggles in a way that reflects the kinds of society we want to see, and the nuts and bolts of doing this in such a way so that our movements can’t be demobilised or sold out from above, or used as trampolines for political careerists, NGO’s and those who seek to become managers over and above the people.
None of this theorising matters if we don’t try to implement our ideas beyond the realm of traditional Activist politics & propaganda and into the areas of our lives where we experience exploitation most directly: in our workplaces and neighbourhoods. Our situation in Queensland is one where strike action is basically illegal. Trade-Unions for the most part act as representative service organisations and NGO’s do – with all the rotten fruits of bureaucracy, paid officials and hierarchy. Most of the workforce have never been in or participated in union culture and there are not many opportunities to learn from struggle. In terms of organising, this sounds bleak; there is so much to do. When we look at significant fighting organisations like the CNT, the FORA, the IWW, the FAU etc, we have to look at how they developed and the organising that led up to them. The COBAS in Italy for example grew out of the workplace base assembly movement.
Against the social order that demeans our human dignity, we need more and better organisers, and we need the confidence and support to make attempts where in the past we have laid down and been walked over. At the same time we need to make attempts at forming the organisations and infrastructurenecessary to build a healthy culture of working class hospitality, resistance and sustenance. In that vein, the following looks at the nuts & bolts of how we can be better organisers , and represents what we hope will be an ongoing tradition of sharing the practical wisdom that we glean from struggle – the school of social change.
Until all are free.
Collective denial, subversion and sabotage our choice;
Self-organisation, solidarity and social-revolution our way.
Every workplace a battlefield; Every worker a partisan.
—Brisbane Solidarity Network, 2014