A-Infos (en) US, BRRN: The Platform at 100: Voices of Organized Anarchists Around the Globe (Vol. 2) III. Die Platform - Germany (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

1. What is the history of Die Plattform? How, when, and under what 
circumstances was your organization formed? --- Die Plattform: Die 
Plattform was founded as an initiative in 2019 after long discussions 
between comrades who have been active in a broader anarchist 
organization and felt the need for an organization composed of more 
committed militants around a shared strategy.
The "Organizational Platform of Libertarian Communists" was just 
translated a few years earlier into German and had a great influence on 
what they perceived as an alternative form of organization. Originally 
and still today, the critique of the broader anarchist milieu and 
movement in Germany is something we think is needed. It took a lot of 
space in our first publication. But limiting the formation of Die 
Plattform to solely disagreements inside the anarchist movement would be 
shortsighted.

Many socialists realized after the crisis of 2008/2009 that there is a 
need to get more rooted in the working and popular classes and build 
organizations that are actually able to build toward a social revolution 
while also having a practical impact in daily life. This is what we 
today call "power from below."

We also felt the need for a more coherent anarchist organization that 
connects us as revolutionaries and helps us stay true to our ideals and 
values. There have been many debates, congresses, organizations and 
initiatives that have influenced our organization and work today.

2. Historically speaking, what have been the most visible expressions of 
organized anarchism in Germany? Did there exist any groups inspired by 
Dielo Truda's Platform before the establishment of your organization?

Die Plattform: As far as we know, there hasn't been any organization in 
Germany inspired by Dielo Truda's Platform before us, but there had been 
similar experiments in the 1920s, with the Federation of Anarchist 
Communists of Germany and around some newspapers, but they never gained 
any real influence. At the same time, especially during the 
revolutionary phase between 1918 and 1923, we see the most visible 
expression of anarchism as a social revolutionary movement in Germany, 
composed around the Free Workers Union of Germany (FAUD), which grew out 
of a localist union culture in contrast to the central unions close to 
the social democrats. They adopted an anarcho-syndicalist programme and 
at one point had organized more than 150,000 revolutionary workers. 
After the fascist purges, the shoah and the second world war, the 
anarchist movement never really grew bigger or more influential again.

Still, anarchist ideas always came back, and they influenced the 
autonomous movement, social movements and other political groups after 
the revolt in 1968, but anarchists were not able to build a coherent 
revolutionary organization. But we do find some autonomous housing 
projects, publishers and newspapers connected to the anarchist movement, 
as well as the FAU anarchosyndicalist union, which has grown over the 
last 10 years.

3. The Platform document is now 100 years old, is it still relevant for 
the year 2026? How does platformism inform the practical activity of 
your organization?

Die Plattform: If we do understand the original document not as a 
finished programme for an anarchist organization, but as a 
self-critique, a reflection, an attempt to keep true to anarchism as an 
ideology rooted in the workers and peasant movements of their time after 
losing in a revolution, there is still relevance. First of all, we think 
that their reflection of their experiences, gains and losses are 
important tools and aspects of revolutionary organizing in general, 
which we admire. Secondly, we still agree with their conclusions about 
the need for a coherent anarchist organization based on a common theory 
and strategy, collective responsibility for our work, and a federalist 
structure.

From our own experiences in various social movements in the last ten 
years, we recognize the limits and boundaries inside them to form 
structures coherent enough to be both practically and ideologically 
strong. In our practical activities, this influences us in the 
separation of political organization with the discussion we have around 
a common programme, as well as our work in the social movements. But we 
are less about tying our strategy to a specific historical document: 
rather, it helps inform our historical and present experiences in 
broader social and libertarian movements. We have to try and figure out 
what strategy works best for our current times.

4. Your organization sometimes uses phrases and concepts borrowed from 
Especifismo, such as 'social insertion'. To what extent do you believe 
there is similarity or difference between Especifismo and Platformism?

Die Plattform: We consider both as parts of an older anarchist 
tradition, called organizational dualism. In this tradition, we find 
common ground in the specific anarchist organization and the work to be 
done within the working classes. As there are sadly not many 
translations from the especifist tradition into German, it is difficult 
to say where exactly we can find similarities or differences, but we are 
eager to find out more about it. While it is interesting to study the 
details, we think it is more important to be practical about it and not 
to make up unnecessary differences, which distance us more from each 
other than bring us closer together in political discourse.

5. What areas of social or mass organizing are members of Die Plattform 
engaged in?

Die Plattform: Since our foundation, our view of which movements our 
members should engage in has changed, which is why we gained experiences 
first in the climate justice movement and feminist organizing as well as 
in antifascist groups. Right now, we are mostly engaged in neighborhood 
and tenant organizing, while some members are also active in the union 
movement and feminist organizations.

6. What relationship do you have with other Platformist or Especifista 
anarchist organizations in Europe and beyond?

Die Plattform: Together with many other organizations of our tendency, 
we founded the International Coordination of Organized Anarchism (ICOA), 
in which we participate. In Europe, we do have close ties to the Swiss 
organisation Midada and the Union Communiste Libertaire in France. We 
try to keep in regular exchange and when possible participate in each 
other's events.

7. How has Die Plattform changed in its seven years of existence? What 
are the main obstacles you have faced and how have you overcome them?

Die Plattform: Die Plattform is constantly changing. From an initiative 
inside of a synthesist anarchist organization, we became a federation 
with local groups. In these seven years as a federation, we struggled 
with internal disagreements, patriarchal and racist behavior that 
required correcting, as well as with confusion about what terms like 
"social insertion" mean exactly to us in our reality in Germany, and how 
to adapt concepts from different places and put them into practice.

Beyond that, we gained a lot of experience organizing as anarchists. We 
are part of an ongoing process to find out what it means to be an 
anarchist organization and what our internal processes and structures 
should look like. Over the last two years, there has been increasing 
interest in our organization. We have also realized that for real unity, 
it takes more than just declaring it: it must be created through 
education, common practice, and long discussions to understand the 
conditions of our struggle.

https://www.blackrosefed.org/platform-interviews-vol-2/#die-plattform-germany
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