Active Anarchist Groups

[Anderson]

Are there a active anarchist groups anywhere is the world with significant following to be politically relevant?

[Railyon]

CNT immediately comes to mind.

[Bronco]

Whereabouts in the world are you? I'd say the IAF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_of_Anarchist_Federations) and the IWA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers_Association#IWA_Today) are the main two international groups with a presence in a few countries, the first is more Anarcho-Communist whereas the latter is a Syndicalist organisation

[Anderson]

Any particular reasons why no Anarchist ideology influence in Third World countries?

Or are there groups in Asia, Africa or Latin America

[x359594]

It would depend on what you mean by politically relevant, but where I live there are several anarchist formations doing political work by example: Cop Watch, Revolutionary Autonomous Communities, Food Not Bombs and Housing Not Bombs come to mind. There's also the pirate radio outfit Raise the Fist.

[ed miliband]

Any particular reasons why no Anarchist ideology influence in Third World countries?

Or are there groups in Asia, Africa or Latin America

you don't actually care about whether there are any active anarchist organisations do you? you already "know" (whether yr knowledge is correct or not) that there aren't.

now i'm aware of anarchist groups in asia, africa and latin america, and i would point you in their direction, but it's very clear i'd be wasting my time doing so.

[Anderson]

From Wikipedia

Revival and the modern period (1980-present)

The IWA’s 1980 congress showed much improvement, reaching ten sections and benefitting from the reorganization of the CNT, which was able to send delegates from Spain (as opposed to exiles) for the first time since the 1930s. Reformed sections in Italy (USI) and Norway (NSF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norsk_Syndikalistisk_Forbund)), along with others from the UK (Direct Action Movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Action_Movement)), USA (Workers Solidarity Alliance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers_Solidarity_Alliance)), Germany (Free Workers' Union (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Workers%27_Union)) and Australia Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation (http://www.asf-iwa.org.au/), were among those who joined.
All existing groups reported growth and by 1984 at its 17th congress the International could boast three unions as members, CNT of Spain, CNT of France and USI of Italy. [34] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers_Association#cite_note-33) The IWA grew throughout the decade, adding two new groups from Japan and Brazil (Confederação Operária Brasileira|COB).
Further growth was recorded in the 1990s, although the Workers Solidarity Alliance along with the Japanese and Australian sections ceased to be members. However the 1996 Congress saw two sections split over the question of participation in trade union elections, with the French section divided into the CNT-F (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conf%C3%A9d%C3%A9ration_nationale_du_travail) (also known as CNT Vignoles) and CNT-AIT (http://cnt-ait.info/) sections (the latter becoming the official IWA affiliate) while the Italian USI's "Roman tendency" was expelled. Czech, Slovak and Russian sections were added at the same event. Four years later, the Serbian and Brazilian sections joined.
Throughout the modern period significant differences in approach have forced many of the largest syndicalist unions to operate outside the IWA — the Spanish CGT, Swedish SAC and the CNT-F are regarded by the international as syndicalist (economic but not political) unions. These groups often work together and until recently were federated within the alternative ILS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Libertarian_Solidarity) international which admitted anarchist, anarcho-syndicalist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-syndicalist), revolutionary syndicalist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicalism) and clearly anti-statist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism), non-party aligned social organizations.

How do the Anarchists politicize workers when they run trade unions? How do they avoid doing exclusively economic struggles??

[x359594]

Any particular reasons why no Anarchist ideology influence in Third World countries?

Or are there groups in Asia, Africa or Latin America

There are anarchist formations in Japan and the Republic of Korea, in South Africa and all throughout Latin America including Mexico. For more information go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anarchist_movements_by_region

[Anderson]

you don't actually care about whether there are any active anarchist organisations do you? you already "know" (whether yr knowledge is correct or not) that there aren't.

now i'm aware of anarchist groups in asia, africa and latin america, and i would point you in their direction, but it's very clear i'd be wasting my time doing so.

Why do you make this conclusion?

If you know something, you should tell.

This is what I have been highlighting for the past 1 week at revleft; labels make us intellectually inferior by blocking us to be unbiased and clouding our ability to engage in good debates.

[Anderson]

(From wikipedia) The victory of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution and the resulting Russian Civil War did serious damage to anarchist movements internationally. Many workers and activists saw Bolshevik success as setting an example; Communist parties (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_party) grew at the expense of anarchism and other socialist movements. In France and the United States, for example, members of the major syndicalist movements of the CGT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conf%C3%A9d%C3%A9ration_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale_du_trav ail) and IWW (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Workers_of_the_World) left the organizations and joined the Communist International (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comintern)

What is the state of affairs now? Are the Anarchist groups able to attract members today?

[Railyon]

How do the Anarchists politicize workers when they run trade unions? How do they avoid doing exclusively economic struggles??

Syndicalists regard the "economic struggles" as a way to "politicize workers", to infuse them with class consciousness through their active participation and seeing the success of class struggle in attaining concrete goals. If you ever have the chance to attend an AS union meeting, you'll see their activity goes beyond purely workplace related struggles, but it's a big part of it.

[Joe Payne]

Historically, and now, the some of the largest anarchist organizations have been in the Third World. Today the largest anarchist organizations exist in Latin American and Africa. There are many organizations listed here, all of which are active: http://www.anarkismo.net/about_us

[Tim Cornelis]

Any particular reasons why no Anarchist ideology influence in Third World countries?

Or are there groups in Asia, Africa or Latin America

South Africa has Zabalaza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabalaza_Anarchist_Communist_Front), which is quite small. But you also have the Abahlali baseMjondolo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abahlali_baseMjondolo), which is not explicitly anarchist but its practices have been described as such. It does have secretaries, etc., but all decisions are made democratically and from what I know, it seems they are fully accountable to the lowest ranks). The Shack Dwellers have tens of thousands of members on the province of KwazuluNatal.

In Southern Mexico we have the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxacap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Indigenous_Council_of_Oaxaca_%22Ricardo_Fl ores_Magón%22), which has some 2,000 members and participated in the popular assembly of the peoples of oaxaca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Assembly_of_the_Peoples_of_Oaxaca) which enjoyed widespread popular support. The Zapatistas and the EZLN have, of course, named themselves after anarchistic revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, but is not really anarchist.

There are some anarchist organisations in Kenya and Nigeria like the Awareness League but they only have a few thousand members.

[Sentinel]

The syndicalist union SAC in Sweden had about 6000 members last I heard. I'm not sure if they define themselves as anarchists anymore (I think there was some kind of controversy about that within the org recently), but the rest of the left does anyway.

[Anderson]

Can the working class be Anarchist in its approach - how will it safeguard its interests after the current system is broken down ?:confused: