A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #22-25 - Bakunin and Mass Organization (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

These brief notes are an adaptation of Gino Cerrito's "The Role of 
Anarchist Organization." They are also a tribute to this great historian 
and activist; we hope they contribute to the rediscovery of this 
important text. ---- Tiziano Antonelli ---- In the years surrounding the 
Paris Commune, Mikhail Bakunin reached a definitive formulation of the 
mass organization and the anarchist organization that would bring 
together the conscious anarchist minority.
Regarding this latter organization, the Russian revolutionary realized 
that the problem was, ultimately, one of means-ends synthesis, a human 
moral problem, a problem based on the tools employed by the "enlightened 
minority" in the struggle against the state and for collective and 
individual freedom, a problem whose core is the action of "popular 
self-determination, on the basis of absolute equality, of complete and 
multifaceted human freedom." Only these humanistic and solidaristic 
elements can save the revolution from the authoritarian order or the 
arbitrary will of Jacobin minorities.

Only an "enlightened minority" with "a thought that expresses the 
desires, instincts, essence, and needs of the people," strong in its 
"clearly understood purpose amidst a crowd struggling aimlessly and 
without principle 'in the milieu of the doule des hommes luttants sans 
bout et sans plan'" can solve the problem of social revolution. For such 
a minority, rejecting all vanity, greed, and personal ambition, would 
direct the popular revolution toward its just libertarian and federalist 
goals.

As for mass organization, Mikhail Bakunin, his friends, and all young 
anti-authoritarian internationalists in general seem excited by the 
events. For them, despite everything, with its resistance, its heroism, 
its internal vicissitudes, and the faith it instilled in workers and the 
radical bourgeoisie itself, the Paris Commune was tangible proof of the 
possibility of further mass insurrectionary movements. But the 
revolutionary organization's continued efforts in this direction must 
now be based on the recognition that the masses are not only demanding 
radical social transformation; they are primarily demanding an 
improvement in their current and intolerable living conditions.

Bakunin himself-whose ideas were echoed by several internationalist 
periodicals of the time-supported the establishment of trade 
associations as a tool for revolutionary association, solidarity, and 
the struggle against the employers to achieve more humane living 
conditions. "To interest and draw the entire proletariat into the work 
of the International," Bakunin wrote in La protestation de l'Alliance of 
1871, "it was and is necessary to approach it not with general ideas, 
but with a real and living understanding of its real ills... To touch 
the heart and win the confidence, assent, adherence, and cooperation of 
the uneducated proletariat... we must begin by speaking to them not 
about general ills... nor about the general causes that cause them, but 
about particular, daily, private ills. We must talk to them about their 
profession and the conditions of their work in the very place where they 
live... And when proposing to them the means useful for combating their 
ills and improving their position, we must not begin by speaking to them 
about those general and revolutionary means...[because]they would 
probably understand nothing of all those means... No, we must begin by 
proposing to them the means whose usefulness natural common sense and 
daily experience cannot fail to recognize and be tempted to reject. 
These initial means are...": the establishment of factory unions, the 
federation of organizations within the same trade and locality, and the 
creation of resistance funds to be used during strikes. These local 
trade-based workers' organizations form the section of the International 
and are one and the same, establishing a federal link with the sections 
in other localities.

This was precisely the type of organization that spontaneously formed in 
Romagna, where in December 1871 the sections created a "local federal 
unit" known as the Fascio Operaio. The discussions within this Fascio 
Operaio regarding whether to join one of the two main currents of the 
International Workingmen's Association, or whether to opt for complete 
autonomy, prove the validity of Bakunin's considerations regarding the 
difficulties of propaganda among the working masses. Their ability to 
comprehend the major organizational problems being debated within the 
IWA was limited, and they were often inclined to accept certain 
solutions not because of their understanding of them, but rather because 
of a personal relationship, trust in a person, or a direct link with the 
representative of a certain movement. This relationship was particularly 
important in southern Italy; and it was precisely on such connections 
that the very uniformity of choice among Bakunin's followers and the 
groups they managed to influence was sometimes based.
The trade union, the federation of workers' organizations, strikes, and 
worker solidarity through resistance funds were not-for Bakunin-to 
preclude systematic insurrectionary pressure. Believing it was essential 
to seize every opportunity to spark popular movements aimed at educating 
the masses, bringing them closer to the ultimate goal, Bakunin and the 
anarchists focused their attention on the economically less advanced 
countries where the Commune had had significant effects: Russia, but 
especially Spain and Italy. However, to realize this project of 
revolutionary incitement, seizing favorable opportunities everywhere, it 
was necessary to focus precisely on the decision-making autonomy of 
local sections, thereby eliminating any centralist structure.

These ideas of Mikhail Bakunin would inform the action of the 
anti-authoritarian tendency of the IWA and would remain alive in the 
anarchist movement in France and Spain, inspiring the major achievements 
of the workers' movement in those countries.

Gino Cerrito

Adapted from "The Role of Anarchist Organization" by Tiziano Antonelli

https://umanitanova.org/bakunin-e-lorganizzazione-di-massa
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