Insurrectionary anarchism is a revolutionary
theory, practice and tendency within the anarchist
movement that emphasizes insurrection within
anarchist practice.
It is critical of formal organizations such
as labor unions and federations that are based
on a political programme and periodic congresses.
Instead, insurrectionary anarchists advocate
informal organization and small affinity group
based organization.
Insurrectionary anarchists put value in attack,
permanent class conflict and a refusal to
negotiate or compromise with class enemies.
== Origins and evolution ==
=== 19th century ===
An influential individualist concept of insurrection
appears in the book of Max Stirner, The Ego
and Its Own from 1844.
There he manifests: Revolution and insurrection
must not be looked upon as synonymous.
The former consists in an overturning of conditions,
of the established condition or status, the
State or society, and is accordingly a political
or social act; the latter has indeed for its
unavoidable consequence a transformation of
circumstances, yet does not start from it
but from men's discontent with themselves,
is not an armed rising, but a rising of individuals,
a getting up, without regard to the arrangements
that spring from it.
The Revolution aimed at new arrangements;
insurrection leads us no longer to let ourselves
be arranged, but to arrange ourselves, and
sets no glittering hopes on 'institutions'.
It is not a fight against the established,
since, if it prospers, the established collapses
of itself; it is only a working forth of me
out of the established.
If I leave the established, it is dead and
passes into decay.
Now, as my object is not the overthrow of
an established order but my elevation above
it, my purpose and deed are not a political
or social but (as directed toward myself and
my ownness alone) an egoistic purpose and
deed.
Mikhail Bakunin "was historically important
to the development of an anarchism that focused
its force in insurrection.
Unlike Marx, who built his support in the
First International, mostly within the central
executive structure, Bakunin worked to build
support for co-ordinated action through autonomous
insurrections at the base, especially in Southern
Europe.
And since Bakunin's time insurrectionary anarchists
have been concentrated in Southern Europe."
Later in 1876, at the Berne conference of
the First International, "the Italian anarchist
Errico Malatesta argued that the revolution
"consists more of deeds than words", and that
action was the most effective form of propaganda.
In the bulletin of the Jura Federation he
declared "the Italian federation believes
that the insurrectional fact, destined to
affirm socialist principles by deed, is the
most efficacious means of propaganda."As anarcho-communism
emerged in the mid 19th century it had an
intense debate with Bakuninist collectivism
and as such within the anarchist movement
over participation in syndicalism and the
workers movement as well as on other issues.
So "In the theory of the revolution" of anarcho-communism
as elaborated by Peter Kropotkin and others
"it is the risen people who are the real agent
and not the working class organised in the
enterprise (the cells of the capitalist mode
of production) and seeking to assert itself
as labour power, as a more 'rational' industrial
body or social brain (manager) than the employers."So
"between 1880 and 1890" with the "perspective
of an immanent revolution", who was "opposed
to the official workers' movement, which was
then in the process of formation (general
Social Democratisation).
They were opposed not only to political (statist)
struggles but also to strikes which put forward
wage or other claims, or which were organised
by trade unions."
But "While they were not opposed to strikes
as such, they were opposed to trade unions
and the struggle for the eight-hour day.
This anti-reformist tendency was accompanied
by an anti-organisational tendency, and its
partisans declared themselves in favour of
agitation amongst the unemployed for the expropriation
of foodstuffs and other articles, for the
expropriatory strike and, in some cases, for
'individual recuperation' or acts of terrorism."
=== 
Narodnism and Russian populism ===
The Narodniks were a politically conscious
movement of the Russian middle class in the
1860s and 1870s, some of whom became involved
in revolutionary agitation against tsarism.
Their ideology was known as Narodnichestvo
(народничество), from the Russian
народ, narod, "people, folk", so it is
sometimes translated as "peopleism" or more
commonly "populism".
A common slogan among the Narodniks was "хождение
в народ", khozhdeniye v narod, "going
to the people".
Though their movement achieved little in its
own time, the Narodniks were in many ways
the intellectual and political forebears of
the socialist revolutionaries who went on
to greatly influence Russian history in the
20th century.
Narodnaya Volya's program contained the following
demands: convocation of a Constituent Assembly
(for designing a Constitution); introduction
of universal suffrage; permanent people's
representation, freedom of speech, press,
and assembly; communal self-government; exchange
of the permanent army with a people's volunteer
corps; transfer of land to the people; gradual
placement of the factories under the control
of the workers; and granting oppressed peoples
of the Russian Empire the right to self-determination.
Narodnaya Volya's program was a mix of democratic
and socialist reforms.
Narodnaya Volya differed from its parent organization,
the narodnik Zemlya i volya, in that its members
had come to believe that a social revolution
would be impossible in the absence of a political
revolution; the peasantry could not take possession
of the land as long as the government remained
autocratic.
One response to this repression was the formation
of Russia's first organized revolutionary
party, Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will"),
in June 1879.
It favored the use secret society-led terrorism
as an attempt to violently destabilize the
Russian Empire and provide a focus for popular
discontent against it for an insurrection,
justified “as a means of exerting pressure
on the government for reform, as the spark
that would ignite a vast peasant uprising,
and as the inevitable response to the regime's
use of violence against the revolutionaries”.
The group developed ideas—such as targeted
killing of the 'leaders of oppression'—that
were to become the hallmark of subsequent
violence by small non-state groups, and they
were convinced that the developing technologies
of the age—such as the invention of dynamite,
which they were the first anarchist group
to make widespread use of—enabled them to
strike directly and with discrimination.
Much of the organization's philosophy was
inspired by Sergei Nechayev and "propaganda
by the deed" theorist Carlo Pisacane.
The attempt to get the peasantry to overthrow
the Tsar proved unsuccessful, due to the peasantry's
idolisation of the latter as someone "on their
side".
Narodism therefore developed the practice
of terrorism: the peasantry, they believed,
had to be shown that the Tsar was not supernatural,
and could be killed.
This theory, called "direct struggle", intended
"uninterrupted demonstration of the possibility
of struggling against the government, in this
manner lifting the revolutionary spirit of
the people and its faith in the success of
the cause, and organising those capable of
fighting".
On March 1, 1881, they succeeded in assassinating
Alexander II.
This act backfired on a political level, because
the peasantry were generally horrified by
the murder, and the government had many Narodnaya
Volya leaders hanged, leaving the group unorganized
and ineffective.
=== Illegalism and propaganda by the deed
===
After Peter Kropotkin along with others decided
to enter labor unions after their initial
reservations, there remained "the anti-syndicalist
anarchist-communists, who in France were grouped
around Sebastien Faure's Le Libertaire.
From 1905 onwards, the Russian counterparts
of these anti-syndicalist anarchist-communists
become partisans of economic terrorism and
illegal 'expropriations'."
Illegalism as a practice emerged and within
it "The acts of the anarchist bombers and
assassins ("propaganda by the deed") and the
anarchist burglars ("individual reappropriation")
expressed their desperation and their personal,
violent rejection of an intolerable society.
Moreover, they were clearly meant to be exemplary,
invitations to revolt."In late April 1919,
at least 36 booby trap dynamite-filled bombs
were mailed to a cross-section of prominent
politicians and appointees, including the
Attorney General of the United States, as
well as justice officials, newspaper editors
and businessmen, including John D. Rockefeller.
Among all the bombs addressed to high-level
officials, one bomb was addressed to the home
of a Department of Justice Bureau of Investigation
(BOI) field agent once tasked with investigating
the Galleanists, Rayme Weston Finch, who in
1918 had arrested two prominent Galleanists
while leading a police raid on the offices
of their publication Cronaca Sovversiva.
Such acts of rebellion, which could be individual
were in the long run seen as act of rebellion,
which could ignite en masse insurrection leading
to revolution.
Proponents and activists of these tactics
among others included Johann Most, Luigi Galleani,
Victor Serge, and Severino Di Giovanni.
"In Argentina, these tendencies flourished
at the end of the 20s and during the 30s,
years of acute repression and of flinching
of the once powerful workers movement –this
was a desperate, though heroic, of a decadent
movement."The Italian Giuseppe Ciancabilla
(1872–1904) wrote in "Against organization"
that "we don't want tactical programs, and
consequently we don't want organization.
Having established the aim, the goal to which
we hold, we leave every anarchist free to
choose from the means that his sense, his
education, his temperament, his fighting spirit
suggest to him as best.
We don't form fixed programs and we don't
form small or great parties.
But we come together spontaneously, and not
with permanent criteria, according to momentary
affinities for a specific purpose, and we
constantly change these groups as soon as
the purpose for which we had associated ceases
to be, and other aims and needs arise and
develop in us and push us to seek new collaborators,
people who think as we do in the specific
circumstance."
Nevertheless, he also says "We do not oppose
the organizers.
They will continue, if they like, in their
tactic.
If, as I think, it will not do any great good,
it will not do any great harm either.
But it seems to me that they have writhed
throwing their cry of alarm and blacklisting
us either as savages or as theoretical dreamers."An
article by eco-anarchist magazine Do or Die
manifests that "This is a debate that has
gone on and still goes on within the insurrectionary
anarchist circles; Renzo Novatore stood for
individual revolt, Errico Malatesta for social
struggle, whilst Luigi Galleani believed there
was no contradiction between the two."
=== Contemporary approaches ===
A resurgence of such ideas for Joe Black happened
"in the peculiar conditions of post war Italy
and Greece".
"Towards the end of World War II there was
a real possibility of revolution in both countries."
"Greece was to suffer decades of military
dictatorship while in Italy the Communist
Party continued to hold back struggles.
Insurrectionalism was one of a number of new
socialist ideologies which arose to address
these particular circumstances."
In Italy a tendency that did not identify
either with the more classical Italian Anarchist
Federation or with the platformist inclined
(GAAP Anarchist Groups of Proletarian Action)
started to emerge as local groups.
These groups emphasized direct action, informal
affinity groups and expropriation for financing
anarchist activity.
From within these groups the influential Italian
insurrectionary anarchist Alfredo Maria Bonanno
will emerge influenced by the practice of
the Spanish exiled anarchist Josep Lluís
i Facerias.
One insurrectionalist has described how the
ideas spread from Italy: "Insurrectionary
anarchism has been developing in the English
language anarchist movement since the 1980s,
thanks to translations and writings by Jean
Weir in her Elephant Editions and her magazine
Insurrection....
In Vancouver, Canada, local comrades involved
in the Anarchist Black Cross, the local anarchist
social center, and the magazines No Picnic
and Endless Struggle were influenced by Jean's
projects, and this carried over into the always
developing practice of insurrectionary anarchists
in this region today ... The anarchist magazine
Demolition Derby in Montreal also covered
some insurrectionary anarchist news back in
the day."Insurrectionalist ideas also spread
to the New Left movement in the United States,
often being present in various revolutionary
terrorist organizations, such as the Weathermen,
Black Liberation Army, and M19CO.
Weathermen leader Bernardine Dohrn argued
for violence, saying: "We've known that our
job is to lead white kids into armed revolution.
We never intended to spend the next five to
twenty-five years of our lives in jail.
Ever since SDS became revolutionary, we've
been trying to show how it is possible to
overcome frustration and impotence that comes
from trying to reform this system.
Kids know the lines are drawn: revolution
is touching all of our lives.
Tens of thousands have learned that protest
and marches don't do it.
Revolutionary violence is the only way."
Magazine Do or Die reports that "Much of the
Italian insurrectionary anarchist critique
of the movements of the '70s focused on the
forms of organisation that shaped the forces
of struggle and out of this a more developed
idea of informal organisation grew.
A critique of the authoritarian organisations
of the '70s, whose members often believed
they were in a privileged position to struggle
as compared to the proletariat as a whole,
was further refined in the struggles of the
'80s, such as the early 1980s struggle against
a military base that was to house nuclear
weapons in Comiso, Sicily.
Anarchists were very active in that struggle,
which was organised into self-managed leagues."
Later in 1993 the Italian insurrectionary
anarchist Alfredo Bonanno writes For An Anti-authoritarian
Insurrectionalist International in which he
proposes coordination between mediterranean
insurrectionists after the period of the dissolution
of the Soviet Union and civil war in the ex-Yugoslavia.For
Joe Black "That insurrectionalism should emerge
as a more distinct trend in English language
anarchism at this point in time should be
no surprise.
The massive boost anarchism received from
the summit protest movement was in part due
to the high visibility of black bloc style
tactics."
In the USA Feral Faun (later writing as Wolfi
Landstreicher and Apio Ludd) gained notoriety
as he wrote articles that appeared in the
post-left anarchy magazine Anarchy: A Journal
of Desire Armed.
Feral Faun wrote in 1995, "In the game of
insurgence—a lived guerilla war game—it
is strategically necessary to use identities
and roles.
Unfortunately, the context of social relationships
gives these roles and identities the power
to define the individual who attempts to use
them.
So I, Feral Faun, became [...] an anarchist
[...] a writer [...] a Stirner-influenced,
post-situationist, anti-civilization theorist
[...] if not in my own eyes, at least in the
eyes of most people who've read my writings."
Also Wolfi Lanstreicher has translated works
by Alfredo Maria Bonnanno and other similar
writers such as the early 20th century Italian
illegalist anarchists Renzo Novatore and Bruno
Filippi as well as other insurrectionist texts.
This shows how more recent theories have taken
relevance within insurrectionary anarchist
theory along the egoist anarchism of Max Stirner.
This contemporary approach has relevance in
other place such as Chile where in 2008 after
a few incidents of bombs claimed by anarchist
groups a group called Frente Anarquista Revolucionario
(Anarchist Revolutionary Front) after correcting
what they see as misunderstandings of their
position they wrote in the same pamphlet how
they have been influenced by the "postmodernists
texts of Alfredo Bonnano, Wolfi Landstreicher,
etc, as well as other insurrectionary anonymous
texts".The contemporary imprisoned Italian
insurrectionary anarchist philosopher Michele
Fabiani writes from an explicit individualist
anarchist perspective in such essays as "Critica
individualista anarchica alla modernità"
(Individualist anarchist critique of modernity)
As was mentioned before, insurrectionary anarchist
discourse also had relevance in Greece.
In the 2008 Greek riots the old disputes between
organizationalist and insurrectionary anarchists
reappeared when there was a conflict "between
insurrectionary anarchists associated with
the Black Bloc, and the heavily organized
Antiauthoritarian Movement (AK, in Greek)
... the schism between insurrectionists and
the Antiauthoritarian Movement has even led
to physical fighting....
People with AK bullied and beat up anarchists
whom they suspected of stealing some computers
from the university during an event AK organized,
getting them in trouble.
In response, some insurrectionists burned
down the Antiauthoritarian Movement's offices
in Thessaloniki."The Informal Anarchist Federation
(not to be confused with the synthesist Italian
Anarchist Federation also FAI ) is an Italian
insurrectionary anarchist organization.
It has been described by Italian intelligence
sources as a "horizontal" structure of various
anarchist terrorist groups, united in their
beliefs in revolutionary armed action.
In 2003, the group claimed responsibility
for a bomb campaign targeting several European
Union institutions.
In 2010, Italy's postal service intercepted
a threatening letter containing a bullet addressed
to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
A large envelope containing a letter addressed
to Berlusconi with the threat "you will end
up like a rat" was discovered on Friday in
a post office in the Libate suburb of the
northern city of Milan.
On 23 December 2010, credit for exploding
parcels delivered to the Swiss and Chilean
embassies in Rome was claimed by the Informal
Anarchist Federation,.During the first years
of the 2000s, the Iberian Federation of Libertarian
Youth in Spain started to evolve towards insurrectionary
anarchist positions and its differences with
anarcho-syndicalism became more evident due
to the influence of the Black bloc in alterglobalization
protests and the examples of developments
from Italy and Greece.
The FIJL faced repression from the state,
which led to inactivity A new generation of
anarchist youth decided to establish a new
FIJL in 2006.
It tried to establish a clear difference with
the other insurrectionist FIJL while defending
anarcho-syndicalism critically.
In 2007 it re-established itself as the FIJL
since it did not have news from the other
insurrectionist organization, but after finding
out of a communique by the insurrectionist
organization it decided to name itself "Iberian
Federation of Anarchist Youth" (spa: Federación
Ibérica de Juventudes Anarquistas or FIJA)
but knowing that they are the continuing organization
to the previous FIJL from the 1990s.
They publish a newspaper called El Fuelle.
In march of 2012 the FIJL of insurrectionist
tendencies decides to not continue and so
the FIJA goes to call itself again FIJL.
== Theory ==
A few main points can be identified within
contemporary insurrectionary anarchism that
go back to tactics employed by illegalism
and propaganda by the deed anarchists.
1.
"The concept of 'attack' is at the heart of
the insurrectionist ideology."
As such it is viewed that "It is through acting
and learning to act, not propaganda, that
we will open the path to insurrection."
although "propaganda has a role in clarifying
how to act."
In the state of action is in the state that
one learns.
The Italian text Ai ferri corti says: "An
individual with a passion for social upheaval
and a 'personal' vision of the class clash
wants to do something immediately.
If he or she analyses the transformation of
capital and the State it is in order to attack
them, certainly not so as to be able to go
to sleep with clearer ideas."
"Attack is the refusal of mediation, pacification,
sacrifice, accommodation, and compromise in
struggle."2.
Insurrection(s) and Revolution: Revolution
is seen as "a concrete event, it must be built
daily through more modest attempts which do
not have all the liberating characteristics
of the social revolution in the true sense.
These more modest attempts are insurrections.
In them the uprising of the most exploited
and excluded of society and the most politically
sensitized minority opens the way to the possible
involvement of increasingly wider strata of
exploited on a flux of rebellion which could
lead to revolution."3.
"The self-management of struggle" as "those
that struggle are autonomous in their decisions
and actions; this is the opposite of an organization
of synthesis which always attempts to take
control of struggle.
Struggles that are synthesized within a single
controlling organization are easily integrated
into the power structure of present society.
Self-organized struggles are by nature uncontrollable
when they are spread across the social terrain."
It is seen that the system and its institutions
are afraid of rebellious acts becoming propaganda
by the deed and thus making rebellion extend
itself.
"Small actions, therefore, easily reproducible,
requiring unsophisticated means that are available
to all, are by their very simplicity and spontaneity
uncontrollable."
This also means that insurrectionary anarchists
should not see themselves as a vanguard or
as the conscious ones but just as part "of
the exploited and excluded".4.
Temporary affinity groups instead of permanent
organizations: This means rejection of "thus
we are against the party, syndicate and permanent
organization, all of which act to synthesize
struggle and become elements of integration
for capital and the state."
Instead the view that "organization is for
concrete tasks".
"The informal anarchist organization is therefore
a specific organization which gathers around
a common affinity."5.
The transcendence of the dichotomy between
the individual and the rest of society and
of individualism and communism: "Insurrection
begins with the desire of individuals to break
out of constrained and controlled circumstances,
the desire to reappropriate the capacity to
create one's own life as one sees fit."
But the view that "Individuality can only
flourish where equality of access to the conditions
of existence is the social reality.
This equality of access is communism; what
individuals do with that access is up to them
and those around them.
Thus there is no equality or identity of individuals
implied in true communism."Insurrectionary
anarchists often identify with differing theoretical
positions within the anarchist spectrum.
== See also ==
Anarchism in Greece
Black bloc
The Coming Insurrection
Direct action
Errico Malatesta's speech during the International
Anarchist Congress of Amsterdam (1907)
Expropriative anarchism
Illegalism, the main precedent of this form
of anarchism
Propaganda of the deed
Tiqqun
