Black Rose: Organizing Toward Revolution

Black Rose: Organizing Toward Revolution

From Revolutionary Left Radio

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Aug 16, 2023

Roxana and Enrique from the Black Rose Anarchist Federation join Breht to discuss their new political program, the analysis and strategy contained therein, the importance of organization for revolutionaries, their orientation toward Marxists in their organizing, platformism and Especifismo, the importance of
internationalism, and more! Then Breht and Enrique discuss modern american history and current politics together.

Check out their political program and get a free pdf version of it, fully illustrated, here: https://blackrosefed.org/program-may-day-2023/

There are 21 Comments

Unintentional self-parody for the win! Failed strategies? No problem! This time we'll try even harder and faster!

I'm starting to believe that platformists and other libsocs are the best enemies of anarchy and could very well be a front by three-letter agencies. But maybe I'm just late and others realized this already.

"Organizing Toward Revolution"

"An Anarchist Program For Popular Power"

seriously?

no, seriously?

fuck them.

I suppose that if actual anarchists with principles were to engage with these insane documents, that a decent critique and counter-propositions might result. Kinda like how Engels used the doofus Dühring as a foil for making a fuller exposition of Marxism (good thing Marx was dead by then). Sadly, I fear (from having read too many BRRN documents over the years) that it would be an exercise in frustration and gnashing of teeth since these fools seem committed abd determined never to learn any lessons from history. Hell, they haven't even dealt with the defection of a majority of the women who had been affiliated...

A piece of socialist trivia: Contrary to your statement, Marx was alive when Engels wrote Anti-Duhring. In fact Marx contributed a chapter, as well as read through all of Engels' chapters in the book.

So when you write, " these fools seem committed and determined never to learn any lessons from history," I wonder just what "lessons from history" you have in mind (since you do not bother to tell us), considering your own ignorance.

Thank Bakunin, Wayne is here to scold those anarchists who aren't up on their Marxist trivia. Who gives a shit of Marx was alive or not when Engels wrote whatever the fuck it is that anon and Wayne are arguing over?

I'll chime in with a lesson from history: a self-selected cadre-based organization of professional revolutionaries cannot organize a revolution, especially with a strategy that includes wooing non-revolutionary union workers (who in the USA number a whopping 18% (give or take, i suppose Wayne will be only too thrilled to correct my number, with it without a statistical standard deviation). That's a minority trying to organize another minority. For all their yammering about "popular power" (which one at least hopes is another way of invoking some species of democracy) this base of revolutionaries can only remain a self-conscious minority. The lesson? Doctrinal and tactical intolerance for anyone not kowtowing to the revolutionary minority; this is the legacy of Blanquism and Leninism. Read their text about revolutionary organization and it sounds far more like "State and Revolution" than anything by recognizable anarchists.

Anon (Thank Bakunin) raises the usual anti-organizationalist argument: look, attempts to build anarchist revolutionary organizations (democratic and federalist) orientated to mass workers struggles--have never worked. See, we still live under capitalism and the state. The obvious rejoinder is that no other strategy has worked either: not individualism, anti-organizationalism, networks, only local journals, etc., etc. All these other anarchist programs have also failed. We still live under capitalism and the state. So this is not a very good argument against any school of anarchism, unless we want to abandon anarchism as a whole, which I do not wish to do.

In the US today, "non-revolutionary union [and non-union] workers" are about 80% of the work force--counting all non-supervisory employees who get wages or salaries. Your "18%" probably refers only to workers in heavy industry.

To say that most workers are non-revolutionary (and many are reactionary) is to say that the US population is non-revolutionary. Which is true. Unless we can win over most of these people--whether as workers or as women or as African-Americans or as citizens--we cannot change this awful system into libertarian socialism. To do this we have to stop sneering at each other.

"Unless we can win over most of these people--whether as workers or as women or as African-Americans or as citizens--we cannot change this awful system into libertarian socialism. To do this we have to stop sneering at each other."

So what you are saying is that if we KILL the 80% of non-revolutionary (pr reactionary) workers in the US we can make the change we state-anarchists desire! Sounds good to me!

For the self-determination of the working people except for the non-revolutionary working people unless they change their views to our views! And also women and black people (unless see above)!

Huzzah!

Ok so finally Wayne has revealed to us the secret of building effective popular revolutionary movement: to stop sneering at each other. Great. As if we're still factories form 100 years ago, back when most Workers could talk to each other in the factory's backyard in sudden massive assemblies or while they walk to the job, lol.

You clearly doesn't seem to get what's going on in this society. a.k.a the current social context where you are.

It's always funny that when hyper-organizationalists accuse others of being anti-organization, what I hear isn't usually "we don't want to be in any organization at all" but "we don't want to be in YOUR organization specifically." But because the hyper-organizationalists think they've (re)discovered the best way of being organized with the best organizational program and the best organizational structure and strategy, that anyone who doesn't want to be part of it must be against all forms of organization. It totally reminds me of all those creeps who think the state is synonymous with the people.
Doing my level best not to sneer.

"I wonder just what "lessons from history" you have in mind (since you do not bother to tell us)"

Oh, can't speak for them, but I think they were referring to your sheer avoidance over the history from the '30s 'til now, coz a lot of stuff DID happen in the decades that followed the Spanish Civil War, just to let you know. Including many cases of workerist -or worse, populist- attempts at building their mass revolutionary movement, based on the exact same avoidance of their history of failure, and historical context in general...

anon 15:17 here. you did a fine job of providing one of the many lessons. the goofs in BRRN haven't bothered to look at the history of mass movements (and anyone with a critical grasp of mass movement politics looking at BRRN objectively can easily figure out that their semi-anarchist hybrid model of a "revolutionary organization" will know immediately that they will never be able to achieve anything close to a "mass"). just like all self-described anarchists who remain wedded to "the Left," they insist on perpetuating the delusions of anti-state (?) socialism, circa 1918. the rest of the world has moved on.

AaaAaand what lessons have YOU learned about the history of warfare in norther Europe huh? NOTHING! Cos Russia biiIiig,,,,,Ukraine SMall ,,
The lesson to learn is you let BOTH belligerant nationalistic sides fight to the death WITHOUT interfering because they have reached the point of irreconcilable tit-for-tat revenge and hate!

commenters in here seem to be mad that this (rather blah) organization is more effective at writing and doing promo for their inane documents than 99% of anarchists. seems like ppl are mostly just telling on themselves

I understand the impulse towards a common platform, so that we don't have to be bogged down by endless arguments about meta beliefs and get shit done, but it seems they kept the endless meetings and inaction part and just closed themselves off to the "popular" that they're allegedly courting.

Indeed, I've seen live roleplaying games attracting more people -with all the enthusiasm- than these sad tired games of "organizing the revolution". Only reason why it kept going is Western college kids, imo.

everyone who makes fun of black rose is a fascist!

-- black rose, probably

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