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

1. Embat emerged as a preliminary project in 2013 and took a number of 
years to cohere as a formal organization. What can you tell us about 
this process? Was it a deliberate choice to move slowly?
Embat: The Procés Embat ('Embat' means the wave of the sea crashing 
against the rock) was born in 2013 as a discussion and debate process 
aimed at the libertarian movement of Catalonia. We did not consider 
ourselves an organization until 2015. During those two years we worked 
on the militant culture necessary to form the organization. We also 
worked on spreading social and organized anarchism as a necessary 
concept to shape that kind of organization. Therefore, we can say it was 
a deliberate choice.

The Process consisted of various conferences and meetings in several 
spaces of the anarchist movement. In these places we connected with 
those people who sympathized with our ideas or organizational proposals, 
and some joined our organization.

Given the lack of a specifically anarchist organizational tradition in 
our land, we also needed some time to learn how organizations work.

Paradoxically, Catalonia, one of the territories in the world with the 
largest number of anarchists, almost completely lacked libertarian 
organizations, beyond anarcho-syndicalism. In the period 2007-2011, the 
limits of informal and anti-organization anarchism became apparent, and 
anarchist militants were looking for other references. We found them in 
previous organizational attempts (such as Alternativa Libertaria of 1999 
and Red Libertaria Apoyo Mutuo of 2002) and in Latin American anarchism 
of the especifista type, or in the anarkismo.net network.

2. The anarchist movement in Catalonia is most famous historically for 
its expression through the anarcho-syndicalism of the CNT in the early 
20th century. Though a kind of rudimentary organizational dualism 
existed with the FAI, the specific tenets of Dielo Truda's Platform did 
not seem to have an impact on the anarchist movement in Catalonia, or 
elsewhere in territories claimed by the Spanish state, until recently. 
What accounts for this?

That's right. Organizational dualism in Catalonia has always revolved 
around the FAI. However, as a synthesis anarchist organization, within 
the FAI there have been groups or currents favorable to our tendency. 
The exception to this lack of interest towards our tendency was the 
Agrupación Los Amigos de Durruti (Friends of Durruti), born in 1937 amid 
the revolutionary struggle, in response to the predominance of the 
collaborationist stance within the FAI. But they appeared too late and 
their organizational work didn't last.

In the 1970s, there were various very diffuse organizational expressions 
of anarcho-communist tendencies: the Organización Libertaria de 
Trabajadores (Libertarian Workers' Organization), the Movimiento 
Comunista Libertario (Libertarian Communist Movement), the Grupos 
Obreros Autónomos (Autonomous Workers' Groups) and some others, or the 
Comunas Revolucionarias de Acción Socialista (Revolutionary Communes for 
Socialist Action) in Asturias, and Askatasuna in the Basque Country. 
These kind of groups oscillated between anarchosyndicalism and 
libertarian Marxism or autonomism, as they were likely unaware of the 
theoretical foundations of anarcho-communism, which at that time was 
developing with some strenght in France or Italy, for example.

The first organization that fell within our current was the Federació 
Anarquista Comunista Catalana (FACC - Anarcho-Communist Federation of 
Catalonia), born in 1981. Some of its members came to know the Platform 
and spread it in our territory, but that organization did not survived 
the 80s and some created the short-lived Federació Anarquista-Comunista 
Llibertària (FACL). The following attempts (Alternativa Libertaria and 
Apoyo Mutuo) could be considered within anarcho-communism, but still in 
a very loose way.

Until our founding, all federations, networks, and libertarian 
coordinating bodies were synthesis-based. Even the libertarian groups, 
collectives, or anarchist squats and athenaeums were synthesis-based. No 
particular tendency predominated beyond 'anarchism'. In most cases it 
was social anarchism or libertarian socialism, but in others 
individualist and anti-organization tendencies were evident, which made 
any lasting organizational effort impossible.

It took years for Embat to be accepted in the libertarian movement, 
because there were people who did not find it "normal" for 
anarcho-communist organizations to exist, let alone for them to advocate 
for popular power, as we did.

3. What areas of mass organizing does Embat participate in? Why are 
these strategically prioritized?

At this moment we are mainly participating in the housing movement and 
the union/syndicalist movement. In both cases we have struggle fronts 
dedicated to coordinating these tasks. At other times we have also been 
working on other issues, such as the ecosocial transition, the 
neighborhood movement, the remunicipalization of public services, or the 
self-determination of Catalonia.

Our fronts are work areas of the organization that try to bring the 
organization's program and strategies to other mass struggles and 
organizations, connecting with those people closest to our ideas who are 
already working in them. However, in our case, we do not start any 
struggle in which we do not already have militants working there. We 
consider that the social insertion of our membership is very important. 
But this insertion must be real and verifiable. We do not accept people 
who are not already active somewhere.

4. How does Dielo Truda's Platform inform your organizational 
structures, strategy, or approach?

The Dielo Truda Platform was one of the documents we had as references. 
We do not consider ourselves a "platformist" organization, but rather we 
identify with the debates that gave rise to the Platform and that 
derived from the document. Therefore we are in the same political 
tradition. We define ourselves as a cadre organization of libertarian 
socialists, whose goal is libertarian communism, and we have especifismo 
as our method of revolutionary organization. And so that people outside 
the movement understand us, we define ourselves within the tendency of 
"social and organized anarchism."

We use the Platform as the theoretical basis to emphasize the need for 
theoretical unity, strategic unity, collective responsibility, and 
federalism, which were the essential organizational points of Dielo 
Truda's program.

5. What relations do you maintain with anarchist communist organizations 
in your region, continent, and on a global scale?

Embat: Our goal is to relate to all anarcho-communist organizations that 
emerge in our region. For example, we maintain relations and 
coordination with Batzac, Joventut Llibertària de Catalunya; Liza, 
Plataforma Anarquista Organizativa (Madrid and Granada); Hedra, 
anarchist organization of Alicante; Xesta, Organización Anarquista 
Galega; and all others that arise in our state.

Embat is part of the International Coordination of Organized Anarchism 
(ICOA) and within it also of the European coordination. Therefore we 
share tendency with many anarcho-communist or platformist organizations 
and hope that soon there will be many more in new places.

We encourage all people who want to see a free and socialist world to 
join this type of organization or to form them in their cities and 
territories. We understand that anarchism is one of the best forms of 
liberation for humanity and the planet, but for it to grow and triumph, 
organization is necessary.
https://www.blackrosefed.org/platform-interviews-vol-2/#embat-catalonia
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