Anarchism

Anarchism represents one of the two major wings of the international socialist movement. Anarchism first emerged in the 19th century revolutionary cauldron of the First International as the international labour movement began to envision a new society and develop its understanding of how it could be brought about. Anarchism developed as the federalist, anti-state, and revolutionary wing of the socialist movement in contrast to the parliamentary strategy of the Marxist tendency. Anarchism was not created as an abstraction but through the concrete practice and lessons of the labour movement in their struggles against capitalism.

Anarchism cannot simply be reduced to being the anti-state tendency of the socialist movement. Rather anarchism is defined by a set of interrelated concepts regarding revolutionary strategy and the organisation of a socialist society. These concepts encompass the coherence of means and ends, federalism, workers self-management, and a dedication to revolutionary class struggle. From these principles stems the anarchist rejection of the State as a means for transitioning from capitalism to socialism.

We do not use the term "anarchism" to describe our envisioned society, but rather to denote the method we employ to create this society. Anarchism defines our values - freedom, equality, solidarity - as well as our strategy, encompassing direct action, a rejection of parliamentarianism and state seizure, and an emphasis on organising within the working class to push forward the class struggle and construct organs of workers' power capable of overcoming and replacing the state. For us, anarchism is understood as an interconnected set of strategies and values coherent with our vision of socialism.

The terms used to describe our aspirations are an anarchist, socialist, or communist society. In such a society, class relations, the state, private property, and national borders would be eradicated and consigned to the dustbin of history. Workers' self-management would replace private property and minority rule in all aspects of production and distribution. Decisions would no longer be dictated from above, but instead made by the working class themselves in workplace and local assemblies, federated across ever larger areas and populations. This system would facilitate complex coordination and the execution of large-scale projects, from local to regional and international levels.

Communism

We reject characterisations of communism as inherently authoritarian. Furthermore, we dismiss the idea that communism solely belongs with the Marxist tradition. Rather we understand communism as the economic component of the socialist society. There are many viewpoints around how to organise work, distribution, and production in a socialist society. However, we maintain that, to attain a society where the working class is genuinely free and can realise its full potential, the guiding principle must be the communist creed: "from each according to their ability, to each according to their need."

Everything produced is produced by society as a whole and cannot be attributed to the individual contributions of one person or another. Only through communism can society truly achieve freedom and equality, leaving class society behind as a dark chapter in history.

We have no doubt that the transition to a communist model will not happen immediately. Global inequalities, the urgency of addressing the climate crisis, and the challenges of counter-revolution mean that communism will emerge unevenly at varying times and places. Different models of economic production and distribution will likely be experimented with across locations and periods. Yet communism represents the most complete repudiation of class society, and the most potent means to realising human potential.

To believe that a society of this nature can emerge or operate successfully through the State, whose very existence perpetuates the alienation of the working class from economic self-management and political power, is both unrealistic and utopian. This is why we fight for anarchist-communism, where communism is adopted and built from below rather than imposed from above. Our objective is not to force or merely declare communism, but rather to establish social structures that actively contribute, both amid and following a revolution, to the creation of a worldwide communist system.