#cnt

Seeing more MLs again in my feed, to no surprise. Listen there are some good among them, hard to believe as it may be, but Jesus it seems like 80% of them are the most horrifically uneducated 15 year olds on the planet. "Anarchism has never worked, and Democratic Socialists are fascists, Marxism-Leninism is the only viable option because it's the only one that's produced results (after killing millions of course to get there)!!1!"

Anyone who says that Anarchism has never worked is just uninformed. The CNT in Spain during the Civil War is an excellent example, and probably the biggest one. Within less than a year, they had peacefully collectivized between 50-65% of the farmland within the Republican (so, anti-fascist in this case) zone and controlled 70% of industrial manufacturing.

Production both agricultural and industrial also saw a 20% boost across the board under them, and products fell to 1/4 or less than their prices before the CNT gained power if they weren't outright free (which they were in many areas). Oh and they gave women full equality and built hospitals and abortion clinics of course. In addition, they pushed for more relaxed social attitudes towards sex and love, and created a sort of free-love culture that wouldn't be seen again in the West until a few decades later with the Free Love hippie movement.

All in less than a year. They were incredibly efficient. That's what you get when you have 12.12% of the population of workers united under a leftist cause (that number is a combined statistic from CNT membership numbers and UGT members, the UGT was a more mild socialist organization that collaborated with the CNT in their work and contributed significantly), instead of just a few hundred at the top calling all the shots and making the workers carry out their orders, regardless of whether or not they're "for their own good."

The only reason the Spainish Anarchists failed was because of the Civil War. They had to join ranks with the other leftist factions in the Republic, and more and more concessions were made until their power was gone for the sake of leftist unity and ease of organization for the Republicans and MLs, because during war you have to make compromises to survive sometimes. They gave up everything they gained to help their comrades win the war against fascism.

And then, on December 17th of 1938, Pravda published this "The purge of Trotskyists and anarcho-syndicalists has already begun in Catalonia; it has been carried out with the same energy as in the Soviet Union."

Anarchism failed in many cases because Marxist-Leninists stabbed their comrades in the back. It happened in the Russian Revolution and Civil War, too. Saying that Anarchism never works as a Marxist-Leninist is like when Liberals say that Socialism never works while ignoring the fact that the CIA has destroyed every Socialist revolution it possibly could. Historically, agents of states run by people following your ideology have done very similar things.

And I'm not even an Anarchist. I'm a Democratic Socialist with strong syndiclist beliefs and I sympathize a lot with Anarchists, but I believe Democratic Socialism is our current best bet in the USA and Europe. I don't think that Anarchism can properly take root and flourish here like it did in Spain for those precious few years. We don't have a wider sociopolitical climate that's conducive to it yet, and I don't know if we will again. But that doesn't mean it can't be tried on a local level (I'm all in favor of trying to form local collectives and mutual aid if such a thing is ever possible and I think we should try it) and that doesn't mean it shouldn't be tried in the developing world, where it could really shine right now. If I woke up tomorrow and saw that suddenly there was an Anarchist uprising in, say, Madagascar, I would be overjoyed. If I were a rich girl, I'd buy a plane ticket to go assist for as long as I reasonably could, I would be incredibly hyped.

(...)

Here it is clear to everyone that the de facto position of the CNT-CIT to involve in a conflict with another anarchist union the state judicial system, which in the case of Spain is a post-Francoist system, already directly invalidates their position as anarchists. This break with facts, which are on top of having contact with police forces and transphobic groups previously, should drop the false mask of the CNT-CIT for good and simply be expelled from any international confederation that advocates anarchist principles. At this historical moment we cannot let such undeniable and destructive inconsistencies pass, and therefore from now on people should no longer in any way think of the CNT-CIT as an anarcho-syndicalist group.

At the same time it is interesting to see how the CNT-AIT compañeras allow themselves to be involved in the state judicial system in order to defend themselves. Long gone are the days when anarcho-syndicalists flatly refused to recognise and accept not only the existence of the state judiciary, but actively participate in it. We think that in this case we should return to the practice of sabotage. Don't show up at the trials, don't obey the judgement, let alone be present in this capitalist circus we are living through. We know that the consequences of such a sabotage can be very serious, and at the same time we must think about the long-term signals we are giving.

(...)

We know that the consequences of not legitimising the process, the Audiencia Nacional or the fine can be serious. But here the third question arises: why is it not raised and made public that the process is not given validity and that nothing will be paid?

The consequences of attending the trial, of falling into this legal game is not only to endorse the action of CNT-CIT and endorse the court, it is to abandon the usual anarchist practices of sabotage and refusal to abide by the decisions of the state powers in similar situations. And this, to be fair, is not something only the CNT-AIT should be questioned for, it is a general tendency of all anarcho-syndicalists and part of the anarchist movement. The response to the conflict generated by the CNT-CIT from a neoliberal perspective is framed in a context of anarchist methods and proposals falling into oblivion in a serious international situation of ecocide, the rise of fascism and racism, transphobia, ableism, homophobia and machismo, as well as brutal neoliberalisation and normalisation of genocides. Are we willing to completely abandon our anarchist red lines that unite our principles, our ethics and our tools? So why do we talk about anarchism or that we carry a new world in our hearts when we do not build it by defending our principles with deeds?

(...)

A very concrete point of the CNT-CIT's denunciation of the CNT-AIT is to be able to own the buildings of the CNT-AIT headquarters. It would not be necessary to point out the contradiction of having a dispute over private property, since anyone with a minimal anti-capitalist perspective knows that private property is the main expression of everything we have been fighting against for centuries.

This denunciation is one of the points that have also remained without a forceful response, reflecting and publicly stating, not only from the CNT-AIT, but from international anarchist movements, that regardless of the ruling of the national court, the headquarters will be occupied if they are taken by state and police force. The question on this issue, then, is why we are waiting for an institutional body that we don't even believe in and that we actually want to abolish, to make a decision on this issue. Whatever happens at the Audiencia Nacional, we encourage the occupation, not only of the CNT-AIT headquarters, but all the places that are needed to be able to rebuild our movements and our anarchist unions.

If we take a historical look at anarchist movements, are physical spaces such a trigger for our struggles that they must be defended as private property? Anarchist struggles take place in whatever space is necessary, without the need to have them institutionally approved. We are aware that occupations have been persecuted by the media in recent years by demonising them. Part of the neoliberal propaganda is precisely to delegitimise certain collective practices in favour of so-called legal practices. This should not permeate within anarchist movements, rather we should continue to struggle and and organise popular education so that people understand that being able to have autonomous and free places to live, to organise, to meet and to maintain our communities is a right.

Do so many people really think that if the CNT-AIT is left without its heritage, anarcho-syndicalism would be lost? It is the people practising our anarchist principles and ideals who build and defend anarchist movements, not the walls, doors or furniture of a building. It would be important to rethink whether, apart from the pain of the loss of a historical testimony such as a headquarters building, anarchist struggles go far beyond private material properties which in reality are an invention of capitalism."

Cartelería de la primera manifestación, en Gijón, contra la privatización y externalización de los servicios públicos que presta Emulsa.

Una mala gestión, previsión y adquisiciones de la mano de José Ramón García Cañal y Rodrigo Pintueles, están provocando el desmantelamiento de la entidad pública.

En su defensa, los dos individuos, arremeten contra los trabajadores, exagerando la verdad y mintiendo a la opinión pública.

Condenadas seis sindicalistas de @CNTsindicato a tres años y medio de carcel por participar en un piquete contra el propietario de una pastelería en Gijón.