From ‘Endless Struggle’, No.9, Winter 1989, Vancouver, BC
From Riot to Insurrection
By Alfred M. Bonanno. Elephant Editions
“Analysis for an Anarchist perspective against Post-Industrial capitalism’.
The basic premise of this book is that capitalism is approaching a significant turning point where much of Anarchist theory of the past, as in Anarcho-syndicalism, is no longer practical. The society of the future will create two different groups, the excluded & the included. The first will be cast out from the productive process, penalised for not being able to fit into the “new competitive logic of capital”.
This logic will shift the emphasis from the worker in the factory to the technician, particularly as capital continues to become more technologically advanced. This is a logical direction for capitalism to take, as robotics etc. creates less workforce, meaning more profits, which inevitably leads to mass unemployment. Our reaction may be a shorter work-week, but in the long-run I don’t think that is the solution to the “new logic of capitalism”.
According to Bonanno. the excluded will also not have access to a new language, what this new language is specifically he never says (although one might suspect It to be in the form of technology). With this the excluded will communicate more and more in terms of graphics, images, music etc… something which Is defInitely occurring. Much of the underprivileged will reside in ‘pastel’ ghettos – not the Harlems or Brixtons. They’ll have VCRs, TV’s etc. Again, a trend we see happening today. Capital will create an environmentally sound situation, & we see how big business today as well as political parties in the elections have jumped on that band-wagon. In fact the adaptability of capital now is even making a business out of creating non-pollutant wrappers/products etc. Not on a satisfactory scale, for sure, but the seeds do seem to have been sown.
As for the included, they will “remain suffocating on the Islands of privilege”. Here Bonanno concedes that this scenario will depend somewhat on whether or not one gives credit to man & his “real need for freedom”. These people will be the most merciless executants of the attack on capital. The society Bonanno sees, with its dangerous contradictions, will lead towards “a period of bloody clashes & very harsh repression”.
With this logic, the seemingly ‘non-political’ eruptions of violence, in the forms of riots, striking easily identifiable targets of repression (police vehicles, stations, gov’t, offices etc.) are reactions to the stagnation, isolation, & frustration of the ghettos (included in ‘riots’ are soccer hooliganism, although not I’d imagine fascist organised, as well as ‘unruly’ mobs of youths at music concerts, beach festivals etc.).
The idea then is to move from ’irrational’ riot to conscious insurrection. This, according to Bonanno, can only be achieved by informal anarchist organisations, by applying the principles of self-management, permanent struggle, & direct action, by working in affinity groups to an immediate common goal.
“From Riot to Insurrection” is an attempt to re-evaluate the Anarchist perspective, to take into account the changes of modern society. Much of the text is hard to plod through, & sometimes you lose track of what the author was really trying to say. The text was also translated from Italian so there could also be difficulties in that respect. Either way, I did find it a bit hard to get through.
Once you pick up on the style, & grasp what is being said, “From Riot to Insurrection” is quite interesting & offers new ideas to our present situation.
Elephant Editions, BM Elephant, London. WCIN3XX, England.
Insurrection and the Informal Organization
From ‘Reality Now’, Issue 8, Winter 1988 – Spring 1989, Toronto, Ontario
The following is a synopsis of some of the ideas on organisation presented in the anarchist magazine Insurrection. We feel that although we may or may not agree or fully understand the implications of these ideas, they are a unique challenge for the anarchist movement to consider. We recommend all readers to obtain a copy of the whole magazine at the address given at the end of this article. [-Reality Now]
One of the most difficult problems anarchists have had to face throughout their history is what form of organization to adopt in the struggle.
An anarchist movement that is really active and incisive needs two main factors: an agile and effective instrument and an objective that is sufficiently clear in perspective. We think that the informal organization and insurrection are the concrete possibilities that present themselves at the present time.
Insurrection, a necessary phase along the road to revolution, is for almost the whole of the revolutionary anarchist positions seen as a mass revolt set off by certain socio-economic forces. Anarchists are limited to propagandizing, but the mass must do everything themselves.
There is a different way to envisage revolutionary struggle in ап insurrectionalist key, in our opinion.
We consider that the anarchist organization, so long as it is informal, can contribute to the constitution of autonomous base nucleii which, as mass organisms, can programme attacks against structures of social, economic and military repression. These attacks, even if circumscribed, have all the methodological characteristics and practices of insurrectional phenomena when not left to the blind forces of social and economic conflict but are brought into an anarchist projectuality based on the principles of autonomy, direct action, constant attack and the refusal to compromise.
Beyond Syndicalism
We believe the revolutionary struggle is without doubt a mass struggle. We therefore see the need to build structures capable of organizing as many groups of exploited as possible.
We have always considered the syndicalist perspective critically, both because of its limitations as an instrument, and because of its tragic historical involution that no anarchist lick of paint can cover up. So we reached the hypothesis of building autonomous base nucleii lacking the characteristics of mini-syndicalist structures, having other aims and organizational relations.
We believe that due to profound social transformation it is unthinkable for one single structure [such as a union or federation -Reality Now] to try to contain all social and economic struggle within it. In any case, why should the exploited have to enter and become part of a specific anarchist organization in order to carry out their struggle?
Autonomous Base Nucleus
The main aim of the [autonomous base] nucleus is not to abolish the State or capital which are practically unattackable so long as they remain a general concept. The objective of the nucleus is to fight and attack this State and this Capital in their smaller and more attainable structures, having recourse to an insurrectional method.
The autonomous base groups are mass structures and constitute the point of encounter between the informal anarchist organization and social struggles.
The organization within the nucleus distinguishes itself by the following characteristics:
a) autonomy from any political, trade union or syndical force;
b) permanent conflictuality (a constant and effective struggle towards the aims that are decided upon, not sporadic, occasional interventions);
C) attack (the refusal of compromise, mediation or accommodation that questions the attack on the chosen objective).
These attacks are organized by the nucleii in collaboration with specific anarchist structures which provide practical and theoretical support, developing the search for the means required for the action, pointing out the structures and individuals responsible for repression, and offering a minimum of defence against attempts at political or ideological recuperation by power or against repression pure and simple.
The base structures have a single objective. When this objective has been reached, or the attempt fails, the structure either widens into a situation of generalized insurrection, or dismantles as the case may be.
Informal Organization
The basic project of an informal organization has, in our opinion, the objective of intervening in struggles in an insurrectional logic. This organization does not give one area privilege over another, does not have a stable centrality. It singles out an objective which at a given moment presents a particularly acute area of social conflict and works in a perspective of insurrection.
Affinity Groups
Basically, to have an affinity with a comrade means to know them, to have deepened one’s knowledge of them. As that knowledge grows, the affinity can increase to the point of making an action together possible; but it can also diminish to the point of making it practically impossible. What it is necessary to know is how the comrade thinks concerning the social problems which the class struggle confronts [them] with, how [they] think [they] can intervene, what methods [they] think should be used in given situations, etc.
Once the essentials are clarified the affinity group or groups are practically formed. The deepening of knowledge between comrades continues in relation to their action as a group and the latter’s encounter with reality as a whole.
The affinity group … finds it has great potential and is immediately addressed towards action, basing itself not on the quantity of its adherents, but on the qualitative strength of a number of individuals working together in a projectuality that they develop together as they go along. From being a specific structure of the anarchist movement and the whole arc of activity that this presents — propaganda, direct action, perhaps producing a paper, working within an informal organization — it can also look outwards to forming a base nucleus or some other mass structure and thus intervene more effectively in the social clash:
We think it is never possible to see the outcome of a struggle in advance. Even limited struggle can have the most unexpected consequences. And in any case, the passage from the various insurrections — limited and circumscribed — to revolution can never be guaranteed in advance by any procedure. We go forward by trial and error, and say to whoever has a better method — carry on,
Copies of Insurrection are available in North America from D. Imrie C/O Box 121, [XX] McCaul St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada MST 2W7 [(555) 555-5555] and distribution for other continents can be reached at Elephant Editions, BM Elephant, London WCIN 3XX, England. Also read “From Riot to Insurrection” by Alfredo M. Bonanno, available from Elephant Editions for $2.50. [-Reality Now]
Also:
From Riot to Insurrection, by Alfredo M. Bonanno
Insurrection: Anarchist Magazine, Issue Four
The Revolutionary Project, by Alfredo M. Bonanno (layout by Fugitive Distro)
Intro to Insurrectionary Anarchism, by M.Gouldhawke (2022)
A Project of Liberation, by the Insurrectionary Anarchists of the Coast Salish Territories (2004)
Squatting in Vancouver: A Brief Overview, by M.Gouldhawke (2002)
The Right to Life Isn’t Begged For, It is Taken, by Endless Struggle (1990)
Against Imperialism: International Solidarity and Resistance, by Endless Struggle (1990)
Survival Gathering: Toronto, July 1-4, 1988, by Jean Weir
Breaking out of the Ghetto, by Jean Weir (1988)
Against Ecology, by Pierleone Porcu (1988)
NATO Fighter Planes Invade Innu Territory, from Open Road (1987)
At home in the house of the Lord, from Open Road (1984)
How We See It, by The Vancouver Five (1983)
Protect the Earth, by the Free the Five Defense Group (1983)
Italian Cops Trample Flowers, from Open Road (1980)
Martin Sostre and the Open Road Interview (1976)
An Archive 