A-Infos (en) Spaine, Regeneration: Anarchist Teachers and Specific Organization (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

By HEDRA ANARQUISTA ORGANITZACIÓ ESPECIFISTA DE ALACANT ---- "The ideal 
of anarchists is not to abolish schools, on the contrary, to make them 
grow, to make society itself an immense organism of mutual learning, 
where everyone would be simultaneously students and teachers." ---- 
Elisée Reclus, L'Évolution, la révolution et l'idéal anarchique (1897) 
---- At the beginning of each school year, various unions approach the 
teachers' lounges to "listen to our needs," remind us of the 
"suffocating bureaucracy" and the various demands they carry on their 
posters, among which "better salaries" stands out. Some, the more 
radical ones, even organize seminars and meetings to extensively 
criticize the latest law. The thing is, as an anarchist teacher, I'm not 
interested in organizing to achieve salary increases. I could elaborate, 
but it boils down to "I'm not here for the money." Nor am I interested 
in complaining about the paperwork, which, in practical terms, isn't so 
stifling; it's quite avoidable, and, why not admit it, it often helps us 
do our work better. But above all, what I'm not at all interested in as 
an anarchist is wasting a single minute criticizing a law I don't 
believe in philosophically, and which I will therefore disobey, if 
necessary, to carry out my teaching practice. Moreover, in the current 
case, even at the risk of being pelted with stones, it gives me the 
green light to undertake numerous projects that wouldn't be so easy to 
carry out under a previous legal framework.

The spaces for teacher organization and activism must go beyond 
improving working conditions; we must organize because teaching is "one 
of the major fronts of struggle for the profound transformation of 
society" (Paulo Freire, Letters to Those Who Dare to Teach , p. 86) .¹ 
And we must do so from anarchist and libertarian pedagogy, focusing on 
the education of students and the transformation and management of 
schools, because, as Hugues Lenoir points out in his work, Libertarian 
Education , libertarian education is the deepest and most lasting of 
anarchism's victories against authoritarian society. Libertarian 
educational thought has been largely absorbed and digested by official 
pedagogical thought: rejection of violence and the omnipotence of the 
teacher, withdrawal of coercion, project-based pedagogy, fostering 
dialogue and recognition of the other (Various Authors, Anarchist 
Education , Eleuterio Publishing House, p. 46 ) .² That is why we must 
continue the transformation begun by Fourier, Proudhon, Ferrer i 
Guardia, and Paul Robin. They would be proud of the progress we have 
today, and they wouldn't stand still, just as we must continue to move 
forward, using the victories and spaces we have won to fight for more 
freedom, community, and total emancipation.

In his book , *Anarquismo especiefista 3* , Felipe Corrêa discusses how 
anarchists must " organize themselves, as anarchists... so that this 
gives them sufficient strength to act within the sphere of social 
movements ." That is, they must be active within the anarchist 
organization to enhance their militancy in other spaces-the social 
movements-thus making their "dual militancy" effective, a core element 
of anarchist praxis according to this current. Throughout the text, and 
as is implied in publications and interventions on *anarquismo 
especiefista*, these "social movements" are understood as the primary 
spaces for achieving social insertion, a term defined by Corrêa himself 
as "the search for the social vector lost by anarchism." Without clearly 
defining what this social vector is, he suggests that "social insertion 
reinforces the idea that anarchists must seek... to play a relevant role 
in the struggle of social and popular movements," thus placing anarchist 
action outside the libertarian organization itself once again within the 
sphere of social movements. But are there other spaces, beyond "social 
movements," around which we can organize ourselves to achieve social 
integration? I would like to think so. We cannot ignore the rest of our 
daily lives, in which we likely spend most of our time, from home and 
work to the bar or our group of friends. In many of these places, as 
Collin Ward explains in * Anarchy in Action * , the vast majority of 
people practice mutual aid, reject authority, and engage in 
self-management, cooperation, and direct action. Our task as anarchists 
is to incite, encourage, and promote these practices anywhere and at any 
time, to bring to light the anarchist society that, according to Ward, 
already exists and is hidden within these daily practices of the masses, 
whose collective reality remains invisible and overshadowed by the 
dominant system.

But even beyond social movements and our core circle of friends, 
community, or neighborhood... are there key spaces for social 
integration where we anarchists should act? It's impossible not to think 
of the vast literature written on libertarian pedagogy. Education, 
schools, the meeting point for young people, the starting point where 
the first social relationships beyond the family are formed-this is 
possibly the most important space in which to carry out the social 
integration proposed by libertarianism, and not only as we would in our 
daily lives, but with the utmost militant commitment, because as Paulo 
Freire wrote: " We are political activists because we are teachers ," 
with a clear transformative zeal and with clear objectives: 1. To fight 
for the maximum integral development of each student; 2. To create and 
transform each school into an ideal place to prepare people to live in 
anarchy, or in other words, to educate for anarchism.

The first objective puts the students at the center and is independent 
of whether or not we manage to get closer to our revolutionary ideal, 
understanding that the urgency of each young person is to learn to live 
and survive in the world they have been given at the same time as they 
are given tools and shown the way to become a free individual capable of 
intervening actively and collectively in the transformation of that world.

The second objective places at its center a broader and more 
revolutionary libertarian ideal, a strategic goal that should guide our 
actions aimed at creating and transforming the educational center at 
both a spatial and relational level. The work of anarchist teachers is 
not directed solely towards students but also seeks to influence the 
daily functioning of the center, as well as its pedagogical and 
management approach, achieving changes among the teaching staff and 
administration that move towards horizontality, collaborative and 
cooperative work, and that direct teaching practice in its entirety 
towards libertarian objectives such as anti-punitiveness, the rejection 
of coercion and subordination of students, and above all, the search for 
an authority as a moral and explained guide, in the sense of Noam 
Chomsky ( On Anarchism , 2022) 5, leaving behind coercive hierarchical 
authority.

These two objectives demonstrate how anarchists cannot focus solely on 
teaching practices in our classrooms, but must influence the entire 
school, all aspects of daily life in schools and institutes that can and 
should be transformed to achieve the education we want for our society.

Let us recall José Luis Sampedro in an interview with Quintero, stating 
that, for him, anarchism would be the best system, assuming-and he 
added, " this assumption is not met "-that we were all educated for 
anarchism. In this interview, he also explains what an anarchist means 
to him, simplifying it to a person who does not accept imposed 
authority, who does not accept being oppressed, nor does he want to 
dominate anyone. He goes on to say that he can accept moral authority, a 
guide, a teacher, but not coercive authority, thus aligning himself with 
Noam Chomsky as a contemporary thinker and following in the footsteps of 
the great anarchist educators. This excerpt concludes by stating that, 
since the aforementioned condition is not met, anarchy cannot exist 
either, making it clear that the hopes for the practical possibility of 
anarchy rest solely and exclusively on the education and preparation of 
people to live anarchically.

With these simple reflections, he shows us the need to focus our efforts 
as anarchists on education and the basic principles of anarchism to 
address our teaching practice.

Of course, he wasn't the only one to reach this conclusion, and 
countless anarchists focused on analyzing and proposing libertarian 
pedagogies that would foster the holistic development of students from 
and for freedom, equipping them with the tools for emancipation. I would 
like to emphasize the nuance of the expression " educating for anarchism 
," because it reveals the anti-dogmatic nature of those of us who 
embrace the libertarian ideal. No libertarian pedagogy attempts to 
instill in students an anarchist path or immutable truths; rather, it 
seeks to prepare human beings for freedom, a state of affairs that is 
quite difficult to manage, preparing people so that they neither want to 
be oppressors nor accept being oppressed. The absence of this condition, 
which manifests itself in a lack of morality, resulting in repugnant 
actions among equals-as well as between oppressors and oppressed of 
different kinds-makes evident the need for meaningful libertarian 
practice in all spheres of life. It is essential that, as anarchist 
teachers, we work in our educational centers with the libertarian 
objective in mind every day, and for this we need the support of the 
anarchist organization. In this way, just as the goal is not for all 
participants in social movements to be anarchists, but rather to 
incorporate our practices into these spaces, we do not seek to instill 
anarchism as an ideology in classrooms and schools, but rather to bring 
there the practices that we consider effective and necessary for our 
society.

Given the need to act from an anarchist perspective in our teaching work 
and the close relationship with the social integration approach made 
from a specificist standpoint, how can we combine or put into practice 
coordinated and strategic work from the anarchist organization so as not 
to act merely as individuals?

Initially, there doesn't necessarily have to be other colleagues at the 
school with whom we share an ideology-it's very likely there will be, 
and it would be a parallel task to bring them together and entice them 
to expand the grassroots membership in the organization-and that, just 
as it doesn't happen in social movements, shouldn't be an impediment to 
seeking common ground with whom to start working along the lines 
mentioned above; common ground regarding the specific projects and 
changes to be worked on and the object of our transformative vision, but 
with whom we may strongly disagree on any other aspect, which should in 
no case prevent collaboration, dialogue, and cooperative work.

But it's important to understand that this specific work within the 
school has a deeper impact, and that's where the specialized 
organization comes in. We meet locally to strengthen and motivate 
anarchist teachers and integrate their actions into a broader strategy. 
Within this organization, it's more likely that we'll connect with other 
teachers with whom we can share experiences, as well as with other 
members of the organization who, while not teachers, can support the 
transformation. This support can include facilitating the school's 
opening to the community and supporting social integration projects 
they're involved in through their dual activism, as well as coordinating 
and expanding our grassroots efforts to include the families of our 
school community.

At a final level, the federation of local organizations could include in 
its strategic plan the creation of education committees, building 
networks of knowledge, resources, strength, and discourse. From these 
committees, projects could be coordinated such as the creation of 
manuals and materials, or support for teachers to carry out school-based 
projects rooted in libertarian principles. Texts and materials could be 
created for students in different subjects, incorporating libertarian 
practice and ideals, presenting it as a viable option rather than a mere 
anecdote that died in 1939. The federation could even consider 
scholarship programs and student gatherings based on libertarian 
principles to counter the massive efforts of capital to infiltrate 
educational institutions and influence the education of young people.

Currently, there are many initiatives in Spain that identify as 
libertarian or alternative-and which many associate with anarchism. 
Without entering into debate, it is clear that these centers, besides 
being included in the previous proposal by speaking of
"creating" and not just "transforming," do not serve a significant part 
of society, while our objective is total social transformation. 
Therefore, the teachers in these centers should be welcomed into the 
anarchist organization, but we must go further and seek the 
transformation of all centers in the state and the world, regardless of 
ownership, if it is within our power. Any criticism of these autonomous 
initiatives should not be at odds with the need to broaden the 
specificist and platform-based organization.

The seed that all anarchists can plant in our daily lives; the 
structural political force coming from mass fronts; the example of 
possibility, experience, and results provided by autonomous spaces; and 
the work in the different spaces of social insertion where practices of 
gradual but radical transformation of the system are carried out, 
respecting the vital rhythm of the people who inhabit them, are the 
necessary pieces for the possibility of revolutionary transformation of 
society, with the specificist organization being the source from which 
the revolutionary anarchist starts and to which he always returns for 
strength, inspiration, and motivation.

All this work must be accompanied by the existing and established labor 
unions that perform essential work to safeguard the physical and 
psychological integrity of workers, including ourselves. However, these 
actions cannot be limited to this task but must be accompanied by a 
transformative force that carries out actions with a clearly 
transformative focus on the students, that is, neither stagnating in old 
demands, nor settling for reforms or labor improvements, but moving 
towards an emancipatory education with all its characteristics and 
consequences.

C., a member of HEDRA


Bibliography and webography:

[1]Paulo Freire (1994): Letters to Those Who Dare to Teach . Ed. Siglo 
Veintiuno Editores

[2]Various Authors (2012): Anarchist Education . Eleuterio Publishing 
House. Retrieved from: 
https://periodicolaboina.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/educacion-anarquista-editorial-eleuterio.pdf

[3]Felipe Corrêa (2014): Specific Anarchism . Recovered from: 
https://es.anarchistlibraries.net/library/felipe-correa-anarquismo-especifista

[4]Collin Ward (1982): Anarchy in Action . Retrieved from: 
https://www.solidaridadobrera.org/ateneo_nacho/libros/Colin%20Ward%20-%20Anarquia%20en%20accion.pdf

[5]Noam Chomsky (2022): On Anarchism . Ed. Capitan Swing

[6]Jose Luis Sampedro. Recovered from: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvlznkQ_LOU

https://regeneracionlibertaria.org/2025/11/06/el-profesorado-anarquista-y-la-organizacion-especifica/
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