Workers Solidarity Movement
closing statement
Date: Mon, 2023-03-06 11:35
This is the promised detailed
analysis of the end of the WSM following on from our very brief announcement of
December 7th, 2021 titled 'WSM has come to
an end - we look forward to new anarchist beginnings'.Developed over a couple of dozen meeting since it
outlines our collective reflections on why we have taken this decision. It
outlines the WSM’s achievements, the challenges we have encountered, and the
lessons we feel can be drawn for the future. We are writing for our
comrades, friends and supporters who have worked with the WSM in the past. We
are also writing for fellow anarchists internationally and all those who
struggle in our social movements and wish to see a world without bosses. We
hope this statement will be useful to those who wish to start new conversations
and discussions about the kinds of movements and organisations we need to win
Table of Contents.
WSM Closing Statement.
Introduction.
Campaigns, organisations & unions WSM was involved in.
Publications.
Accomplishments.
Reasons for dissolving.
Wider Challenges.
Lessons Learned.
Introduction.
1.1 The Workers Solidarity Movement is no more. At a meeting in October
2021, we the members voted to dissolve our organisation. While we are each
committed to continuing the cause of anarchism in some capacity, we have
collectively agreed that the WSM is no longer the best vehicle to achieve that
aim. We do not wish to keep repeating the same actions when we no longer
believe they will yield different results.
1.2 The following statement outlines our collective reflections on why
we have taken this decision. It outlines the WSM’s achievements, the challenges
we have encountered, and the lessons we feel can be drawn for the future.
1.3. We are writing for our comrades, friends and supporters who have
worked with the WSM in the past. We are also writing for fellow anarchists
internationally and all those who struggle in our social movements and wish to
see a world without bosses. We hope this statement will be useful to those who
wish to start new conversations and discussions about the kinds of movements
and organisations we need to win. Whilst the WSM has ceased to exist, we know
that the struggle to change this world continues.
1.4 We intend to keep some level of activity as an informal collective -
perhaps a WSM legacy group - which will aim to archive the WSM site by 30th
November 2022.
Campaigns, organisations & unions that the WSM was involved in.
Many WSM members were simultaneously involved in various groups in many
capacities. In some cases WSM made a collective decision to join a group or
campaign and in other cases members were involved across groups on an
individual basis.
Divorce Action
Campaign
Dublin Abortion
Information Group -> Dublin Abortion Rights Groups
Alliance for
Choice
Choice Ireland
Abortion Rights
Campaign
Alliance for a No Vote
Anti Racism
Campaign
Anti Racism Network Ireland
Immigrant Solidarity
Anarchists Against the (Gulf/Afghan) War
Grassroots
Network Against the War
Dublin Grassroots Network
Grassroots
Gathering
Mayday 2004 EU
summit protest
Trade Union Fightback - anti partnership
campaigns
SIPTU Fightback
1913
Commemoration Committee
Justice for
Terence Wheelock
Justice for
Mumia Abu Jamal
Old Head of Kinsale
Communities
Against Water Charges
Anti Bin Tax
Campaign
Anti Household
Tax Campaign
Campaign Against Home and Water Taxes
Reclaim the
Streets
1% Network
Social
Solidarity Network
FEE - Free
Education for Everyone
Slí Eile
RAMSI - Refugee and Migrant Solidarity Ireland
CATU - Community Action Tenant Union
IHN - Irish
Housing Network
Strike4Repeal
Working Class Queeros
Pride
International
Summit protests (Prague, Genoa, Sterling, Dublin)
Occupy
Bloody Sunday
March
Queer Thing
Cork Radical Queers
Unlock NAMA
RAG
Garden of Delight
Seomra Spraoi
Cork Autonomous Zone
Baracka Books
Solidarity Books
The Barricade
Lúnasa Cafe Belfast
Realta Cafe
Indymedia
Shell to Sea
Rossport Solidarity Camp
International Solidarity (can
include making financial donations)
Irish Mexico
Group
Hands Off the
People of Iran
Anti-Apartheid campaign. Dunnes Stores strike support group.
Ireland
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Anarchismo & International Secretary work.
Unions.
SIPTU
IFUT
INTO
IWU
IWW
UNITE
NIPSA
PSEU
List of notable speakers that we
brought over.
Noam Chomsky
Mark Bray
Selma James
Martha Ackelsberg
Janet Biehl
Ashanti Alston
Elife Berk, Erjan Arboya, and Aysha Gokkan (Kurdish
Movements)
Lorenzo Komboa Ervin
Publications
Workers
Solidarity
Anarchist News
Red & Black
Revolution
Irish Anarchist
Review
Common Threads
North City Anarchist
The Libertarian
Liberación
Circle A
Irish Anarchist Bulletin
Solidarity Times
(This is a partial list, see the subject
index for some of the additional groups & atruggles)
Accomplishments.
2.1 Given the nature of revolutionary politics, in which so many
different groups and people have been and continue to be involved in social
struggles, it is hard to pin down our specific contribution to those struggles
and to the achievements of wider movements. Nevertheless, we believe that any
fair observer of the WSM’s 37 years of activity would say that the WSM can
rightly lay claim to a number of achievements. These include but are not
limited to the following:
2.2 We sought to make anti-authoritarian ideas the leading ideas in our
movements through a grassroots democratic approach to organising. As soon as
someone joined the WSM they were part of the decision making process at a deep
level. We developed bottom up organisational skills. We attempted to create an
organisation that not only spoke of participatory democracy, but built for
it. Every member was encouraged to develop the kind of organising skills
that would normally be the preserve of officers in other groups. We
promoted the use of non-hierarchical methods of organising because we believed
that these methods have the ability to both raise the skills and the capacity
of the movement and are necessary if we are to scale up struggles.
2.3. We demonstrated the power of collective direct action. Direct
action is not another term for militant action but rather indicates forms of
action where the act itself delivers a significant proportion of what is
demanded. Its effectiveness means it is frequently criminalised but
illegality in itself does not constitute direct action. In terms of our history
direct action examples of direct action included the provision of (then)
illegal abortion information, the non payment of
water and bin charges, the halting of military flights by mass trespass at Shannon airport and
the occupation/squatting of
buildings to use them for accommodation and venues.
2.4 We participated in the winning of victories by social movements,
victories that did not rely on the election of representatives.
2.5 We took part in and helped resource social centres as
spaces for organising and community building. Social spaces such as Seomra Spraoi and Jigsaw anchored organisations and
campaigns and were a focal point for networking, learning, friendships, and
solidarity between individuals and groups. We consider this an integral part of
building a movement.
2.6 We fought for social changes that were consistent with our
anti-authoritarian politics, whether or not they were popular issues at the
time. We directly challenged the authority of the state and the church. During
the early decades of the WSM activity the Catholic Church had
tremendous power in Ireland, it influenced state policy, controlled schools and
hospitals, and ensured that laws on divorce, contraception, sterilisation,
abortion, gay rights, adoption reflected church teachings. We were consistent
throughout our organisational life in the support of the right to choose,
keeping the issue alive in times of low activity.
2.7 The Anarchist
Bookfair helped strengthen the anarchist and activist community
and brought many campaigners together. Bookfairs act as a forum for sharing
knowledge, creating links, building relationships and friendships between
political and activist groups. The Bookfairs became an event where we could
demonstrate how campaigns and movements built and organised struggle and
resistance. At the Bookfairs the WSM showcased how victories could be
built for by using democratic grassroots methods which could deliver victories
outside of the ballot box.
2.8 Our anarchist publications include:
Red and Black Revolution, Workers Solidarity, Irish Anarchist Review &
Common Threads, Solidarity Times, our Twitter Feed and our webpage.
Over a 35 year period we documented the struggles of people fighting to
change Ireland and the world at large for the better. Records of this sort have
an immeasurable value. They provide first hand
accounts of those who organised and participated in these struggles, a
perspective that is often absent from official records and reporting of events
and movements. These publications also provided detailed analysis and reports
specifically from an anarchist perspective. These publications not only
documented the struggles but the ideological changes within the movement that
occur in the context of struggle. Our hope is that these publications as
archives can continue to help inform those involved or interested in radical
political struggle in Ireland and beyond.
2.9 The WSM played a mobilising role in a variety of campaigns. In
addition to participating ourselves, we helped advertise and encourage
participation in countless marches, demonstrations, and social movement
struggles.
2.10 We had a commitment to oppose sectarianism within the left which
meant that we facilitated co-operation between opposing groups in many
campaigns, including the water charges and bin charges campaign, which
strengthened those campaigns. The WSM’s focus in a campaign was not just
on winning the campaign, but doing so by building a participatory, broad based,
democratic campaign.
2.11 The WSM offered the ‘leading ideas’ on the left in Ireland during
the early 2000s, notably around the Zapatista encuentros,
summit protest and anti-war period. We contributed theoretically and
organisationally in building with others an alternative pole of these
movements.
2.12 Through membership of the WSM, individuals gained confidence and
skills in working in campaigns, strategic thinking and planning,
political writing, evaluating and forming opinions. Our members engaged in
writing and collective editing as a way of learning about issues. We adopted a
process of formulating position papers which
allowed us to uncover the nuances within an argument. We built and maintained
an internal culture of discussion that for the most part ensured an ability to
have quite heartfelt disagreements in an atmosphere of mutual respect and very
often reached resolutions that were better than the sum of their parts.
2.13 WSM hosted educational and public meetings, some of which are
listed below. These educationals and meetings
demonstrate the WSM’s wide diversity of interests and connections with local
and international movements and struggles. You can get sense of the broad scope
of these talks from the selection of those uploaded to https://www.mixcloud.com/workerssolidarity/
2.14 The WSM provided a body of experienced activists that were useful
to campaign groups around the country. Members had, in general, well developed
worldviews which countered reactionary ideas if and when they emerged in local
groups. Members also had the practical organisational skills to assist in the
week to week running of such grassroots campaign groups, while also being able
to refer any problems back to the WSM which helped to find collectively agreed
solutions. WSM members always sought to promote non-hierarchical organising
methods in groups in which members participated. Something as simple as having
the positions of meeting chair or minute taker rotated weekly in a campaign
group results in a significant increase in the organisational confidence of the
group’s members.
2.15 The WSM established an international reputation as an active
political organising group whose politics was defined and tested in the heat of
campaigns. We shared with our international comrades, particularly with
respect to the struggle in northern Ireland, our analysis of the political
situation in Ireland.
Reasons for dissolving.
3.1 At the time of drafting this statement the WSM was an organisation
of 10 active members. We have increasingly ceased activity in the course of the
recent Covid-19 global pandemic. Nobody expected to live in a science fiction
novel!
3.2 Members have cited the following reasons for dissolving the WSM.
We failed to grow into an organisation large enough to have widespread
political influence in local areas.The current
membership did not have the energy to develop new collective projects. Our
small size and geographical distribution additionally made it difficult to
build local collective projects. This led to a catch 22 in that there was no
‘project’ to invite new members to participate in, yet it is in these projects
that we would find sufficient motivation to grow the organisation with fresh
energy.
The formal organisational approach of the (previously significantly larger) WSM
did not give people a sense of ownership, rather it was a barrier to new
members’ participation. Our existing internal culture could feel complex and
resistant to change. We now feel that energy is best expended in creating
something new, rather than learning how to navigate a pre-existing
organisational culture.
We believe it is better and more effective at this point in time for anarchists
to build new networks, tools, projects and organisations adapted to the
changing political landscape.
Changing role of an anarchist organisation.
Pre-internet, especially in Ireland, one key function of an organisation
was to propagate ideas that were unavailable elsewhere. With the rise of the
internet, it is no longer necessary for organisations to be the main point for
political or strategic discussion as these discussions often now happen across
organisations online. This leaves a vacuum - what is the role of an
organisation now?
The WSM saw its role in struggles to be involved in broad movements
rather than act on its own in front groups seeking recruits through publicity
oriented events. This worked well for much of our history when anarchism
was a marginal idea. Our members were a visible pole in campaigns through our
arguments in favour of direct action, direct democracy and against
electoralism.
However with the spread of anarchist ideas in the 2000's, anarchist
methods became more widely popular among the campaigning left. There was less
need for internal organisational coordination of our work in struggles to
resist authoritarian influences or to promote grassroots organising. Although
we remained involved in struggles, internally there was less collective
discussion and analysis of the campaigning organisations involved.
The organisational visibility we obtained in the course of promoting
direct action, direct democracy and anti-electoralism faded. Within
campaigns, WSM members appeared as committed individuals rather than members of
a group promoting a particular set of ideas. In addition, in the past, the
distribution of printed publications by our members made a clear connection
between our members' work within a campaign, their membership of WSM and
anarchist ideas. The turn to online publishing meant that this visibility was
lost. This led to an impression that the WSM produced content about the
struggles of others rather than being integral in those struggles.
A shared understanding and sense of purpose is vital for group cohesion,
satisfaction and trust between members. One route to building that shared
understanding is through the collective internal discussion of campaigns and
struggles mentioned earlier.
Another route to building this shared agreement is through collective
WSM projects. Our main collective projects have been holding regular meetings,
regular educationals, and collective writing
projects. Each year we worked collectively on perspectives discussions at
National Conference and on the organisation of the Anarchist Bookfair,.
Writing as a collective project declined over time. In part this was due
to a move towards online platforms, which allowed much greater reach for our
ideas than print publications. However online platforms also require a
different type of content. It has to be produced quickly and frequently. This
led to less of a focus on collective writing and a shift to individual writing.
The impact of this change on our collective writing projects was not explicitly
discussed within the organisation. It was felt that this on-line
publishing on social media led to an increase in workload, and stress
associated with having to moderate published content, and administrative work
in relation to comments. Social media can feel like a hungry machine that must
always be fed at the expense of other organising efforts. The challenge now is
how to benefit from the distribution opportunities of social media platforms
without allowing them to undermine the collective benefit of slower writing
processes.
We suffered from the tyranny of strategy-lessness. We no longer had an
explicit strategy to advance anarchism as a politics of revolutionary social
change. Without a strategy we could not answer the question - ‘why should you
join the WSM?’ or ‘how will my joining the WSM make a difference?’ The absence
of a coherent strategy and set of priorities ensured that the work we wanted to
do was endless.
Historically, the WSM’s pathway to revolution was to empower people into
joining a broad, revolutionary movement by winning workplace struggles and
broad-based campaigns, instilling those campaigns with the ‘ideas’ necessary to
build a movement based on anarchist principles. That is, we built movements
that were based on grassroots participation, which were democratic and focused
on direct action as a key tactic. It was hoped that this diverse movement would
grow in strength and through greater and greater victories, would become an
ungovernable, revolutionary force.
In writing this we discuss the use of a metaphor of a roadmap. We want
to emphasise that we don’t believe the role of a revolutionary organisation is
to direct where the struggles should go. Rather our role is to identify where
the struggles exist and act to support and amplify them.
Unfortunately, although the absence of a revolutionary strategy was
identified, we could not develop a shared understanding of purpose. We
continued to call ourselves a revolutionary organisation but, in the context of
actually-existing, current struggles, we no longer had a working theory for
revolutionary change. We lost an answer to the question ‘what is the WSM for?’
We are not alone in lacking a revolutionary strategy. The far left has
dissipated itself into social democracy. This is partly because currently there
appears to be no potential for anti-capitalist change.
The challenge now is to find out what revolutionary strategy can be
successful.
Finding a process that would allow a very small volunteer organisation
to have impact while retaining the enthusiasm and commitment of its members is
difficult. Over the years, there were many campaigns which brought people into
activity, but there were also others which failed to mobilise people. When a
campaign or issue failed this led to disillusionment within the organisation.
A recurrent discussion within the organisation was how to decide what
areas of activity we should focus on. At times members felt it was best to
prioritise one area for all to work on, that is, the goal was to identify an
issue or campaign, gain popular support and motivate people to become
actively engaged in struggle. At other times members followed the
principle of ‘fight where you are’, that is members would focus on areas that
affected them or interested them personally. There are advantages and disadvantages
in both approaches.
Wider Challenges.
3.3. Challenges posed by changes in wider society include:
The idea that it is possible to create an alternative to capitalism is
no longer part of public imagination in our corner of the world. It has become
easier to envision ecological collapse or nuclear war than revolutionary
change.
Activism has always started with people expressing their outrage.
In the past, this was often linked with a focus on building power. The next
step after mobilising opposition was to build collective power in more formal
ways, ways that can shift the balance of power in society in favour of our
class e.g. union power, tenant power. This next step is often missing from
current campaigns. One aspect of this is that for all of our existence, union
membership has been in decline. Unions traditionally provided experience, tools
and skills needed to be successful in struggles. There is little sense that now
the union movement is building power, or raising the capacity of their
membership to build power. Most union activity is focused on individual court
cases or union negotiations at a national level.
Capitalism continues to control, shape, and dominate the means of
communication. It has become more difficult for groups like the WSM to use it
to propagate anarchist ideas. While the reasons for this are complex they
include calculated state interventions, corporate ownership of media companies,
increasing buying and selling of influence, manufacture of fear, uncertainty,
and doubt, a cancer of far-right grifters, as well as conspiracism.
The internet’s emergence in the 1990s offered hope of a space for the
free exchange of ideas and accurate information, offering huge potential for
participatory democracy and revolutionary change. Similar hopes attached to the
emergence of social media like Facebook in the 2010s. However, the machines and
the markets had different ideas. Online debate has been manipulated, for
example through the use of algorithms to create engagement through the
promotion of contentious content. People often become entrenched in their
positions as passive supporters rather than active, democratic participants.
Online discussion can often be performative and sectarian and as a result
draining.
We have seen a rise in the far right. The challenge we face is how to
engage in an effective opposition to this dangerous fringe while at the same
time creating the necessary belief that an anarchist world is possible.
The perceived legitimacy of the electoral democratic state is a
challenge for anarchist ideas and organising. Potentially revolutionary
energies in times of crisis are deflected towards established electoral
channels. Well resourced political parties with lots
of paid staff present a significant problem for volunteer organisations.
People who engage in electoral
politics have a good understanding of how the current system of
government can be used to purchase and win political support, allocate local
rewards and benefits. Local politicians leverage their knowledge and access to
the government structures to build their power base. This realm of activity is
closed to us as we believe it is anti-democratic and fosters dependence and
paternalism.
Electoral change is easier to understand than revolution (a lot of
unknowns and risks). Elections give the appearance of regular change while
structurally everything stays the same.
Structural problems create needs. Politically, these needs are addressed
by people voting for political parties, or contacting their TDs and councillors
who cater to individual needs without addressing the core structural problems
e.g. to bump someone ahead on a waiting list rather than build public housing
for all. This highlights the absence or failure by the wider Left to create
alternative ways of meeting people’s needs.
Currently the anarchist left lacks the credibility that is attached to
electoralism. Our challenge is building an organisational structure where
communities have input in the decisions that impact their localities and
beyond. Anarchist organisations need to challenge the power that’s centralised
around TDs/counsellors and give people the confidence to assert their political
voice beyond the ballot box: “nothing about us without us”.
In all social struggles, there is a tension between political parties
and organising based on free association, between hierarchical electoralism and
horizontal forms of decision-making. Anarchist organisations need to develop an
alternative and durable ecosystem of political activity, to model an
alternative way of 'doing politics'. The challenge is for this anarchist
alternative to be credible in the age of 'capitalist realism' and climate
breakdown.
Generationally, in Europe and North America, people who entered the
workforce in the 2000s will likely have a lower quality of life than their
parents. They will work harder and longer for less pay, less secure employment,
and less secure housing, and avail of fewer public services as these are
privatised. As they/we reach retirement, they/we can all look forward to
boat-building and rising sea levels.
People’s expectations have been lowered since the financial crash of
2008 due to the diminished return of the last economic “recovery”. Housing,
employment and access to social supports have become more precarious. This has
had an impact on people’s capacity to participate in social movements. With
only sporadic wins for the left, people's motivation to become involved in
social movements is also lessened.
In saying that, we need to ask why younger activists and those directly
affected by some of the harshest conditions austerity produced did not join the
WSM. We suspect that as the WSM declined in membership, those members with
relative stability found it easier to remain active members. This created a
more homogenous group. This may have acted as a barrier to new recruitment.
Until the aftermath of Occupy and the movement of the squares, the
majority of our members were students or unemployed, and so were able to commit
much time to building the organisation. Now the majority of members are older,
in full-time employment, some with care commitments. It is not possible to give
to the organisation the time we feel it needs.
Within capitalism today, workers are increasingly pressed for time,
energy, and attention. Students working part-time jobs, precarious workers on
short-term contracts, and those commuting long distances to college or work do
not appear to have sufficient 'free time' to get involved in the often slow
work of participatory movement building.
The WSM recognised this and responded by introducing a members and
supporters model to acknowledge people's different levels of commitment and
availability. We could, however, have adjusted our approach and expectations
further and implemented our strategy differently. Potentially, this may have
meant moving away from weekly meetings to a routine of sprints and breaks based
around specific projects and campaigns.
The WSM didn’t come up with a solution to the question of how to weave
together the work of running an organisation long term, versus the more
energising, short term sprint of a campaign that has a lot of momentum behind
it.
Lessons Learned.
4.1 Until anarchists are organised in sufficiently large numbers to
maintain reasonably formal membership organisations on a permanent basis that
both propagandise and organise in workplaces and communities, anarchism won’t
shape the outcomes of future social struggles. Until then, the electoralist left - i.e. the non-revolutionary alternative
- will maintain their position as the leading ideas of our class - and, most
importantly, our class will not win.
4.2 For the WSM, anarchist
platformism provided a significant starting point for
reinventing a revolutionary organisation fit for contemporary struggles. Our
members traditionally shared and continue to share different levels of
understanding of and perspectives on the role of platformism. The relevance of
platformism to contemporary struggles remains something of an open question,
perhaps to be asked by a new generation of activists.
4.3 We learnt that it was important to have a collective project.
Working as a collective through the WSM organisation has allowed each of us to
contribute more to our movements - and to the significant struggles that our
class has mounted in the past thirty-seven years - than we could have
contributed as disparate individuals. So long as the struggle continues, there
will be a need for collective organisation.
4.4 When organising for revolution, there is a tension between the
creativity and experimentation that makes organisations relevant and attractive
to individuals, and the organisational skills and structure building that
allows an organisation to scale up and become a mass organisation. The value of
organisation, including administration/‘bureaucracy’ or formal approaches to
meetings, only becomes apparent over time.
4.5 The quality of democracy and decision-making in our movements is
enhanced by adopting basic organising strategies such as the holding of regular
meetings with formal approaches to facilitating and minute-taking. A culture of
democracy and transparency is created. This facilitates the development of good
relationships and trust being sustained over a long period of time. The ability
to have discussions where profound disagreements come out and to reach
agreements that can be implemented is crucial.
4.6 There is no substitute for meeting face to face, building
relationships slowly over time, and building a sense of community. Social
Centres are valuable. Significant options for collective action open up when a
group or a movement have a physical space that can be used for meetings, events
and storage. The setting up of such infrastructure is an important collective
project for a movement or organisation.
4.7 Producing content or having a media campaign needs to be part of a
conscious and considered strategy: a successful media campaign can be very
empowering.
4.8 We make choices about how to fight for a new world. These
choices shape the type of world we build. We recognise that people's
intersectional experience of oppression and exploitation will often determine
how they fight back. The principle of “nothing for us without us” is of central
importance. We therefore recognise that an anarchist revolutionary organisation
should be diverse and multicultural.
4.9 Our experience has confirmed that we win through organising; that
our power is in our unions, our communities, and our streets. People learn
their own power through success. Winning is important and so is how we win.
When we win by direct action people are empowered to deliver the change that
they wish to see. Direct action becomes legitimate, and, as organisers, we are
able to share the power of a good example.
Statement ends
28 Feb 2023