The FAI in the CNT - how does it work?

[thomasludd]

Am I right that the FAI in Spain is an underground organization that works within the CNT? I know that it's not a vanguard party, but how does it work? I can't find internet resources on some sort of SOP for FAI members in doing their revolutionary work (I know, i may be stupid). Any insights from communist and anarchist comrades and left academics who know more on them?

Note to everyone: I would like to request to keep trollish remarks off, as well as those insensitive comments that lead to a tendency war. I'm no moderator, but as OP, my purpose here is to learn from this thread.

[Yazman]

Does anybody know more about this? It would be good to have some detailed info (or any info at all).

[Adi Shankara]

Does anybody know more about this? It would be good to have some detailed info (or any info at all).

Yes, they are basically a relic left over from the Spanish civil war, they believe in pan-Iberianism, and the abolition of any formal territories on the Iberian peninsula, and they are strongly antifascist, as they are ideological descendants of the leftist fighters who fought against the rightwing fascist Franco; the only difference is they didn't advocate Republicanism like the Communist Party of Spain, but of total disslution of the Spanish state (hence, anarchists).

They draw their support from trade unions, and sometimes are synonomous with trade unionism in Spain and Portugal, but mostly Spain. I read about this in a Russian anarchist online pamphlet once, since removed as the site has been DDOS'd into oblivion.

if you can read Spanish, here is their monthly newspaper:

http://www.nodo50.org/tierraylibertad/

and again, here is their manifesto:

http://www.nodo50.org/tierraylibertad/documentosifa.html

hope I helped :)

[thomasludd]

hope I helped :)

Thanks Thomas, i appreciate the effort. I already went to this site before but left it ASAP because i can't read Spanish .. Thanks for putting the 2nd link, i didn't see it before.

Now what i need is a translator... or a source in English.

[Adi Shankara]

Thanks Thomas, i appreciate the effort. I already went to this site before but left it ASAP because i can't read Spanish .. Thanks for putting the 2nd link, i didn't see it before.

Now what i need is a translator... or a source in English.

Enter the URL into google, then click on "translate this page" that should be right of the text.

[syndicat]

Juan Gomez Casas wrote a history of the FAI that has been translated into English. but it deals with the period up thru, possibly, the '70s.

[thomasludd]

Juan Gomez Casas wrote a history of the FAI that has been translated into English. but it deals with the period up thru, possibly, the '70s.

Thanks! i'll search for this...

any other resources that would feature more recent times? essays and articles would work- even critiques within anarchism...

[Devrim]

Am I right that the FAI in Spain is an underground organization that works within the CNT? I know that it's not a vanguard party, but how does it work? I can't find internet resources on some sort of SOP for FAI members in doing their revolutionary work (I know, i may be stupid). Any insights from communist and anarchist comrades and left academics who know more on them?

I think that you might get a more detailed answer to this question on Libcom (http://libcom.org/).

Devrim

[thomasludd]

I think that you might get a more detailed answer to this question on Libcom (http://libcom.org/).

Devrim

You're right on that one, of course. I'm supposed to do that later. I wanted to get info from all available resources that i have, including revleft as well.

[x359594]

A recent book on the FAI is We, The Anarchists! by Stuart Christie. Christie's book is both a history and a criticism of the FAI.

Concerning the original question, how did the FAI work within the CNT? Christie describes the relationship between the two organizations in some detail. An interesting note is that neither Buenaventura Durriti no Garcia Oliver belonged to the FAI.

[Os Cangaceiros]

A recent book on the FAI is We, The Anarchists! by Stuart Christie. Christie's book is both a history and a criticism of the FAI.

Was just about to mention that.

Black Flame talks about the FAI a bit. Supposedly it was a steering committee of sorts for the CNT, to make sure that it's lean stayed libertarian.

[syndicat]

the FAI was a loose federation of groups that were mainly active within the CNT unions. so a FAI group in a paraticular union would be like a rank and file revolutionary group there. Because the CNT unions were run through mass assemblies and elected shop steward councils, not a paid bureaucracy, the FAI members had to be persuasive to their fellow workers. the anarchists had been propagandizing for decades in Spain so there was by the '30s a lot of mass support for the positions taken by the FAI activists.

also, the FAI changed its organizational structure under pressures of the revolution. the original "affinity group" structure was abandoned, and they went over to larger geographical chapters. they did this so they could recruit more people, to compete with the Communist Party.

in regard to Durruti and Garcia Oliver, their group Nosotros was originally independent of the FAI but i think it did affiliate by 1936.

there were also significant internal conflicts within the FAI, for example, over the course of Republican Popular Front participation.

[thomasludd]

A recent book on the FAI is We, The Anarchists! by Stuart Christie. Christie's book is both a history and a criticism of the FAI.

Concerning the original question, how did the FAI work within the CNT? Christie describes the relationship between the two organizations in some detail. An interesting note is that neither Buenaventura Durriti no Garcia Oliver belonged to the FAI.

Thanks! I'll get that book ASAP.

And it's a surprise to me that those two weren't FAI members. Which means i have to read more.

[Devrim]

Concerning the original question, how did the FAI work within the CNT? Christie describes the relationship between the two organizations in some detail. An interesting note is that neither Buenaventura Durriti no Garcia Oliver belonged to the FAI.

I remember reading that his was in Abel Paz's biography. Admiditedly I read it about twenty years ago, and it could be my memory that is faulty, but it is usually good with things like this.

Devrim

[this is an invasion]

I remember reading that his was in Abel Paz's biography. Admiditedly I read it about twenty years ago, and it could be my memory that is faulty, but it is usually good with things like this.

Devrim

I've started reading this. I'm pretty sure Durruti was part of the FAI.

[Nachie]

The FAI in the CNT - how does it work?

It's kinda like magnets, really: no one knows.

[revolution inaction]

some stuff about the FAI here http://www.iaf-ifa.org/publications/ifa_mag_en.html


The Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI)
is a federal group. That is, it is free,
based on equality and solidarity
between the affinity groups of which it
is made. Its purpose is to provide an
effective coordination between the
different anarchist groups of Spain and
Portugal, so that it is possible to
organise a social revolution which,
abolishing private property and waged
labour, can establish a new society
based on anarchist communism. It
strives for an order without imposition,
without government, without authority
of any kind and without exploitation.
An order based upon the freedom of
every human being, based on social
equality, on free agreement, on mutual
aid and on solidarity.
It is a coherent organisation, and
therefore it is internationalist. FAI
understands that a social revolution in
Spain and Portugal must be part of an
anarchist global revolution. Opposing
every kind of nationalism, colonialism
or imperialism, FAI, which is a member
of IFA since its foundation supports a
practical solidarity between the
exploited classes, the poor and governed
of the whole world, as part of a
revolutionary struggle striving for the
destruction of capitalism and the
abolition of national borders. Its broader
aim is a free federation of the different
communities, peoples and regions of the
world.

FAI fights the state in all its shapes
(monarchy, republic, representative or
popular democracy, dictatorships of
any kinds..). For the federation only the
disappearance of the oppressors by the
action of the oppressed, and of the state
by those governed, will bring about the
liberation of the human kind

It fights for an anarchist society to be
brought about only through anarchist
means, through direct action and not by
any political mean, reformist or through
laws.
The federation can not be legalised and
can not be part of an institution. Its
action is only based upon the capacity
of its members, on international
anarchist solidarity and the freedoms
conquered. FAI won’t dwell on the
grounds of given « freedoms »,
regulated by the state, and it does not
enter into any kind of agreement with
institutions, whether of a political or
religious nature.
In agreement with this practice, which
questions the metaphysical or religious
principle of authority upon which the
slavery of the individuals is based, the
federation states to be rationalist and
atheist : it will oppose religion in all its
forms.
Accordingly to these rationalist ideas
and against religion, the federation
fights for a new social environment
based on individual freedom and aiming
at the total development of every human
being. It also considers, on the other
hand, that this individual development
is not a separate issue from the social
question, and that therefore it is only
possible in the free society which is
sought.

The Fai opposes the official and
bureaucratic unions, as they thwart the
development of the worker’s direct
action and try to contain the social
struggle inside democratic legality,
while aiming at making of the
proletariat a piece or tamed component
of democratic capitalism.

FAI refuses any cooperation with
individuals, groups or associations,
which call themselves libertarians, but
which take part in institutions of the
status quo, which try to transform the
libertarian movement in just another
part of the democratic society, as it
understands that their attitude goes
against anarchism. It only supports
those who actively and consequently
refuse power under any guise.
Through a work of specifically
anarchist propaganda, of the peaceful
constructive example and the
intervention in different social
movements against the many realities of
state and capitalist usurpation, the FAI
fights for the creation of an insurgent
movement, which questions the whole
of the authoritarian society. Its way is
direct action, considered in its widest
and most dynamical, constructive and
revolutionary shape.

Tierra y Libertad

It was in 1888 when an anarchist newspaper with the name Tierra y libertad was first
published. The name was taken from a popular russian movement of the same name, as it was
thought to condense the hopes of the dispossessed of this world. Published every fortnight, it
lasted for about one year. It reapeared ten years later as a supplement to La Revista Blanca,
becoming a separate weekly a couple of years later. It was a dialy for the second half of 1903.
The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera banned it in 1923, altogether with all the libertarian
press. It reappeared in 1930 as a weekly, now published by the Federación Anarquista Ibérica
(FAI), becoming again a daily in the years of the spanish revolution (1936-39).
After the fascist victory it was published underground, without any fixed periodicity, acting
as a vehicle of the hopes of the libertarian movement. At the same time, in Mexico, the
spanish anarchist in exile had a monthly newspaper with the same name, calling out to all
those deceived by the that mexican revolution, which after the Land and Freedom! rallying
cry had risen against opression, only to be later betrayed by a small group of demagogues
who took over the country.
In Spain, in 1977, with the libertarian reorganization that followed Franco ́s death, the groups
in FAI decide to retake Tierra y Libertad, monthly. This newspaper is the most veteran of the
libertarian publications in spanish language, and one of the oldest in the world.
Tierra y Libertad does obviously not receive any grants from any institution and survives only
on contributions and subscritptions. You can help by subscribing to it. It costs 12 euros (15
outside Spain). Check on http://www.nodo50.org/tierraylibertad/suscripciones.html for the
details.

and i think this is there web site

http://www.nodo50.org/fai-ifa/

you may also find more about them here www.iaf-ifa.org