Building Revolution Through the Conquest of Reforms

The working class will not wake up spontaneously one morning and create the revolution. The strength, consciousness and organisation of the class must be built up preceding a revolutionary period to lay the groundwork for insurrection and social transformation. It is not enough then to simply call for revolution, or push the working class to leap directly into revolutionary struggle. The capacity for revolution is built through the myriad of struggles that the realities of capitalism force upon the working class.

The nature of the class struggle is that the capitalists are always seeking to maximise their exploitation and domination of the workers. The working class is inevitably forced to push back against these efforts to improve our lot in life. While we cannot expect the majority of the working class to immediately be won over to the overthrow of capitalism, workers are brought into the struggle against capitalism through direct action to improve their immediate conditions.

Drawing increasing layers of the working class into struggles against bosses and politicians for their interests plays an essential role in developing a revolutionary consciousness. At any given time, there is likely to be a limit on the number of workers open to revolutionary ideas, and how deeply these ideas can penetrate the class. Popular education and the propagation of socialist ideas are limited at any given time by the material conditions surrounding them.

For example, a worker with no practical experience of the power of collective action is likely to be sceptical that the working class has the power to collectively overthrow capitalism or self-manage society. However, this same worker, after experiencing the power that workers hold by engaging in strike action in their workplace, may gain a new understanding of the power of the class as a whole, the importance of solidarity, and the ability of workers to democratically make decisions for themselves. This can open space in their worldview for a more concrete understanding of socialism to grow.

This is not to say that direct action is itself sufficient for the development of a revolutionary consciousness. While workers engaging in strike action may gain an understanding of the strength of collective action, this does not itself lead to revolutionary conclusions. Popular education maintains an essential complementary role. Direct action and popular education reinforce each other. Engaging in direct action allows us to transform our material conditions and expand what workers can see as possible. Popular education concretises these experiences, draws out new lessons and provides a revolutionary vision and direction.

Daily and immediate struggles against the bosses and the state maintain the most potent means for both improving the conditions of the working class today and building the strength and organisation of the class to destroy capitalism. These struggles can take on an economic character such as struggles within the workplace or industry for better conditions or pay, or political, such as struggles against oppression, to overturn laws or to establish increased political freedoms. Even economic struggles are political in the final analysis; they are waged against the capitalists who control our society, and are inevitably forced to confront and deal with the State that backs them.

Anarchists and the Struggle for Reforms

We maintain that it is essential for anarchists to support, encourage and engage in working-class struggles to win reforms. We reject the notion that struggling for reforms is incompatible with anarchism or revolutionary transformation. Instead, we see the struggle for reforms as an essential component in increasing the strength and organisation of the working class. The struggle for reforms acts as the school of socialism, in which workers engage in collective organising and action as they fight to have their needs met. Reform brings the class into a political struggle against the state and the ruling classes. It is natural that the working class seeks reforms to alleviate or improve their conditions; in doing so the class develops its capacities. To reject this need as anarchists would serve to only isolate ourselves from the class. By engaging in struggles for reforms that improve working class conditions we also alter the material conditions and allow for increasing layers of the class to be won over to revolutionary perspectives.

The Limitations of Reforms under Capitalism

Reforms are not in themselves enough. While the struggle for reforms can temporarily improve working-class conditions under capitalism, they cannot resolve the inherently exploitative nature of capitalism and the domination of the ruling class. Maintaining any gains that are made is reliant on the power of the class and its willingness to engage in militant defence of them. The capitalists will seek to reverse any gains made at the earliest opportunity. As the balance of forces between workers and capitalists shifts in the capitalist's favour, reforms are likely to be stripped away. The final resolution can only be found in revolution and the destruction of class society. Yet to make this revolution a reality an ongoing and expanding conquest of reforms by the working class is an essential component.

The struggle for reforms must be understood as a means and not an end unto themselves. This means the manner in which it is waged is of vital importance. Reforms must be conquered by the direct struggle of the working class rather than relying on electoral victories of this or that political party. This ensures that the class builds the power it needs to hold onto and enforce any gains made and that the working class is being drawn directly into the struggle against capitalism and the state, rather than remaining passive actors relying on the actions of politicians.

The Deadend of Reformism

We differentiate between the struggle for reforms and reformism. Reformism sees reforms as the end in and of themselves and understands capitalism as a system that can either be reformed away, or reformed into a kinder, more equitable system. As reforms themselves are the goal under reformism, how they are won is irrelevant, meaning that politicians and political manoeuvring are emphasised rather than worker self-activity. Instead, we understand the central point of the struggle for reforms is that the workers are directly engaging in struggle for working-class gains through which piece by piece workers' power is built.