First of all what does the collapse of Stalinism mean for us ? Many people saw the Stalinist countries as actual existing socialism or well on the way there. The various communist parties who held this view are now either totally defunct or gone over to social democracy. Those on the left of many social-democratic parties and most of the Leninists saw these economies as an advance on Capitalism. These have either suffered a rude awakening or stuck their heads further in the sand. Most of the Leninists are only holding their own. Others such as Militant have suffered major splits and desertions. Time is running out for Leninism.
As this present time the ideas of market Capitalism appear to have won by default. Capitalism is still obviously a rotten system inflicting misery on the whole world. However people looking for alternatives believe that socialism is a non-starter. Its a nice idea but it just couldn't work. So they are more likely to turn to other ideas like green politics, feminism, nationalism, religion, mysticism or whatever turns them on. None of these offers a coherent alternative to Capitalism as all can be accommodated within it.
In mainstream politics a new consensus the social market has appeared. Social democrats have abandoned their socialist rhetoric. Ideas of a paternalistic state socialism looking after welfare and health and nationalising major industry have generally been dropped. In the recent British Elections the Labour party was no more than a diluted Tory. Even that noted pinko paper "The Financial Times" urged a Labour vote. The electorate was unconvinced that Labour could offer an alternative. John Major talks of dismantling Thatcherism and cherishing the National Health Service. Labour and the Conservatives have now become virtually indistinguishable.
We must be absolutely clear that neither Stalinists, Leninists or social democrats have anything to offer. The defeat of Stalinism in fact means the removal of a force which has consistently anti-socialist in character and massacred socialists on many occasions (Spain 1936/7, Hungary 1956) The return to the market in Eastern Europe was merely the delayed result of the real defeat of Soviet workers 70 years ago. We must speed the departure of Leninism and Stalinism to their well earned historical position - The Dustbin.
A political vacuum exists which we cannot fill. We are small relatively new on the political scene in a country with no real anarchist tradition. The defeat of Stalinism has a loss of many activists, community organisers, shop stewards etc. Added to this is the last 20 years in Ireland have seen major defeats. Firstly the loss of 2 major referendums on divorce and abortion was a major setback. Workers have seen the sell-out and defeat of the Tax Campaign and the 1987 health cuts campaign, mass unemployment, 2 tier picketing, casualisation and increase in part-time working, the defeat of major strikes and repeated sell-outs by the Union bosses. National agreements [government, employers and unions] such as PNR and PESP have undermined the position of stewards and rank and file union activists. This has led to mass demoralisation with workers increasingly wondering what is the point of union organisation and signing individual contracts. In some cases the left now has a major voice in branches simply due to the apathy and non-interest among the majority of members.
Despite mass unemployment there is almost no radical fightback like that of the unemployed in the fifties. The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed is entirely dominated by Union hacks, poverty pimps, CV trippers and time servers.
We should not be entirely pessimistic. We know that things can change quick, fast and in a hurry. The massive mobilisation in the case of the attorney general Versus the X case and the climb down it caused is ample proof of this. We can't afford to throw up our hands and give up on activism. We must not retreat into the realms of theoretical abstraction (i.e., Analysis). We have to constantly put our ideas to the test of action in the real world. Where they are lacking we must be prepared to refine and improve.
Historically Anarchism has proved the only socialist tradition capable of admitting and learning from it's mistakes. After the experience in the Russian revolutions, anarchists attempted to reforge and re-elaborate their positions in the light of mistakes that were made. We are proud to be part of that tradition within Anarchism that has proved capable of so doing. Could this be one of the reasons that we are the only socialist philosophy expanding rather then contracting internationally. Also unlike the Leninists and the social-democrats we have never imposed dictatorship and massacres on the working class.
As I have already mentioned we are a small and relatively young organisation in a country with no real anarchist tradition. Therefore a lot of our time is devoted to producing "Workers Solidarity" which now has a circulation of 750 and which we hope to boost to 1000 in the near future. We also publicise Anarchism through a series of pamphlets and our anarchist book service.
We believe that working class is the only one with the collective means and ability to defeat Capitalism. There is no doubt that there have been changes in recent decades. Those who see socialism been ushered in by whistling workers in cloth caps and clogs may have a long time to wait. The decline in the manufacturing and the rapid rise in service work, office work, information technology etc. has meant that workers are no longer concentrated in huge plants. In Ireland there is only one company with 6 sites having over 1000 workers. The nature of office work makes it more difficult to organise in small offices where workers are on first name terms with their bosses. Yet white collar workers like the bank officials are capable of organising effectively as the national bank strike proved. We must take account of these things.
For our ideas to find a resonance with the working class we must relate to their needs and struggles. We must intervene where woking people are at. People come to oppositional politics in a huge variety of ways. To concentrate on work in trade unions alone would be a major mistake. At present we are involved in campaigns such as ACTUP ( AIDs Coalition to Unleash Power ), Dublin Abortion Information Campaign, Repeal the Eighth Ammendment Campaign, Divorce Action Group, Portobello Unemployed Action Group and Trade Unionists Against the PESP. In all these campaigns we intervene as an organisiation with clear ideas for how these campaigns can move forward and we also empasise the importance of democracy in them. Of course we also make no secret of the fact that we want to win people to our ideas. We also try to push the limits in these campaigns, getting people to question assumptions and expectations. We do not want to be so abstract reveloutionary that we cannot relate to people, but we also wish to move them forward to more left wing views.
Despite the many problems with the Unions the new realism of the bureaucrats, the apathy and non-activity of the members we still intervene actively where we have members. Union membership is a minimal political act which acknowledges to some extent the "Them & Us" relationship towards the bosses. Of course the extent to which this occurs will vary greatly for example between a workplace fighting for union recognition and one where one automatically joins the union on joining the workplace. Our aim is to build a rank and file movement which cuts across unions and workplaces and also brings in workers who at present belong to no union aswell as the unemployed. For the moment we concentrate on at least raising arguement and debate among workers at branch and section level. This sort of intervention bringing politics into the workplace is our strategy as opposed to getting out banners or well rounded trade union officials to campaign particular issues.
Politisiation is VITAL. We believe that workers have often moved spontanously well beyond what Lenin termed trade union consiousness. In Russia in 1905, Hungary '56, France '68 workers were well on the way to workers control with almost no organised left in evidence. However it is vital to try and push things further. In the North, for example, protestant andcatholic workers have united in major strikes in 1907,1919,1932, and on a smaller scale on many other occasions. But the bosses have always succeeded in playing the Orange Card and winning protestant workers bacj to unionism. This is a clear case where an Anarchist organisiation with good Anti-Imperialist politics might have made a major difference.
We were delighted to see new groups springing up in Cork and Northern Ireland. Unlike the Leninists we do not see similar organisiations as rivals or threats. On the contrary we welcome a plurality of organisiations as a healthy sign. We hope to build links with these organisiations and open discussions on the issues which face anarchists in Ireland at this juncture. Of course, we believe our ideas are the best and we will be trying to convince and win over other anarchists.
We are a platformist organisiation. We argue for stong united anarchist organisistion(s) with a high level of political agreement. The WSM has agreed written policies, membership dues, with full internal education and democracy which we see as vital in an anarchist organisiation. We are against the synthesis idea of organisiation which believes that many different views of anarchism can be accomodated in an open structure with a minimum of agreed positions. With small numbers a lot of our time is spent on internal education and debate and possibly less than we might wish in being involved in struggles and campaigns. However we still try to involve members in as much campaign work as they can accomodate. Being a member of the WSM does require a lot of commitment and a fairly high level of political understanding. For this reason and given that we are in a period of low class struggle we are prepared for fairly slow growth while we attempt to win a broader audience for anarchist politics in general.