Facing the Enemy: A History of Anarchist Organisation from Proudhon to May 1968

by Alexandre Skirda, Paul Sharkey (Translator)

Drawing on decades of research, Skirda traces anarchism as a major political movement and ideology across the 19th and 20th centuries. Critical and engaging, he offers biting and incisive portraits of the major thinkers, and more crucially, the organizations they inspired, influenced, came out of, and were spurned by. Bakuninist secret societies; the Internationals and the clash with Marx; the Illegalists, bombers and assassins; the mass trade unions; and of course, the Russian and Spanish Revolutions are all discussed through the prism of working people battling fiercely for a new world free of the shackles of Capital and the State. Alexandre Skirda is the foremost anarchist theorist and activist writing in Europe today. Also Available from AK
No Gods, No Masters , Books One & Two
Book TP 16.95, 1-873176-64-3 • CUSA
Book TP 16.95, 1-873176-69-4 • CUSA

Genres: History, Politics, Philosophy, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Alexandre Skirda was born in 1942. His mother was Ukrainian and his father was Russian. He is a historian and a translator, specializing in the Russian anarchist revolutionary movement. His writing is in French.

Reviews

[todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explores the history of anarchist organization in its thought and practice, but focusing on spain, france, and russia. The emphasis is mostly on France, which is nice since that history is not available in English so much, but at the expense of other histories. Still this book did a great job of showing the common problems within anarchism throughout time, and an emergent solution that has arisen. The book falls into hero worship a little too much, but also is good at being critical of movements it supports. A useful tool either way.

[Andrewf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well worth reading but not quite what is says on the cover as its more focused on the platformist tendency of the anarchist movement and in the later states on a particular side of the split in the French end of that tendency.

[NEFAC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the full review at
http://nefac.net/en/node/162

reviewed by Geert Dhondt (Valley Anarchist Organization, Western Massachusetts)

The focus of Facing the Enemy is on anarchist organizations in France, Russia and Spain. It is divided in 20 chapters plus an appendix of about 100 pages of original documents (such as The Organizational Platform) and a bibliographic list of names. The book starts off with Stirner and Proudhon, continues with chapters on Bakunin, Bakuninist Organization, The Alliance and the First International, propaganda by the deed, anti-organizationists and Bombers, the rise of syndicalism, international congresses, World War I, the Russian Revolution, and a large part on the Dyelo Truda group (a group of Russian anarchists in exile in France) their Organizational Platform of LIbertarian Communists and the debates around the platform, the CNT-FAI and as well as some more recent anarchist organizations in France.

In 'Facing the Enemy', Alexandre Skirda historically and theoretically analyzes why it is that anarchism throughout history has failed to bring about a new and free society. "Torn between strident individual autonomy and a sometimes lumbering collective approach, libertarians have regularly failed to leave a definitive liberating imprint upon events and upon the movement of history." (pg.4) Skirda believes that a reason why anarchists have failed to make an imprint on these events is because anarchists have failed to build effective organizations. The main focus of the book is the organizational platform of the Dyelo Truda group. The book builds up the writing of the Platform as the highlight of anarchist organization, drawing on the lessons of the Makhnovists during the Russian Revolution and the following chapters discuss the influence of the platform on those organizations.

...

I have found this book extremely relevant if not invaluable to my understanding and approach to the issues we face in today's anarchist movement. But the book is much, much more than that. It is a complete and easy to read history of anarchist organizations in 19th and 20th century Europe. It covers the struggles our deceased and beloved comrades faced and how important anarchist figures related to organizations. Facing the Enemy also includes interesting details and anecdotes (such as a police-paid-for anarchist paper in Paris, police infiltration of anarchist "propaganda by the deed" groups or how Voline translated the platform to French from Russian to give certain important words different meanings in an attempt to undermine the platform). Skidra exhibits full control of the subjects he discusses and the book is full of quotes, interesting analysis and insights into the events that shaped 20th century anarchist theory. Skirda's invaluable historical account is written in a serious and sometimes witty style. Facing the Enemy also gives an accessible overview of how different trends within anarchism developed throughout the last 150 years. I sincerely hope that this important book will be widely read.

[David Grobgeld · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skirda reviews the attempts at large "mass" type anarchist organizations in France, Russia and Spain. Throughout the book, he argues for the creation of an anarchist international federation, complete with elected representatives and what have you, and deplores the anti-organizationalist tendencies which have worked against such a federation. I learned a lot from this book, and actually enjoyed much of it. It had many fun and interesting anecdotes, and the writing is engaging and personal. Nonetheless, I cannot in good conscience give it a high score. For one thing, the selection criteria seem scattershot and arbitrary. It clearly reflects Skirda's conviction that revolutionary, mass organization of the platformist kind is the only thing that matters. But what really mars this work is the lack of charity with which Skirda treats all the anarchists who have historically critiqued his preferred form of organization. It's fine that he is a platformist, and it's good that he is upfront about that - but every anti-organizationalist, individualist, and insurrectionist critique is brushed aside and misrepresented without serious engagement. What's most infuriating, Skirda engages in recurring copjacketing, at several points dishonestly implying that illegalists, individualists and propagandists of the deed were probably agents of the state, without stating it outright!

Above all, I just feel it's so important to state that this is not a well-rounded history of anarchism, and I'm slightly horrified at the thought of someone new to anarchism picking it up as an introduction. Such a reader I implore to check out alternative schools of thought within anarchism, including but not limited to individualist anarchism, market anarchism, insurrectionary anarchism and anarcho-feminism. For the anarchist geek who wants to chuckle at a century of scene drama, this is worth the read, though.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classic example of platformist historiography. it contains detailed discussions of certain form of anarchist organisation, those supposed to be the anarchist cannon and a direct legacy of the platform proposal (the First International, the CGT, CNT and various parrochial conflicts in Western European anarchism). While tendencies and individuals that do not fit the author's picture of an organization defending the "integrity" and the "health" of the anarchist movement are conveniently taken out of the picture or defamed.

Obviously, this leads to contradictions: Victor Serge can be a traitor joining the Bolsheviks in the revolution showing how inept "individualism" is, but the return of Archinov to the USSR after becoming a Stalinist is never mentioned. Los Solidarios, the zealous Spanish militants, took interest in the platform while in exile, but could not bring it to Spain on time to influence the movement... Thus García Oliver (member of Los Solidarios) ends up in government (with many leading voices of the Movimiento Libertario)?

This is how NOT to write a history of a movement that defended the variety of strategies, forms of organizations and fronts of struggle.

[Doug Brunell · Rating 2 out of 5]

For some, this book's title may sound utterly drab. Unless you are interested in anarchist history, why would you even read it? Well, it is fairly drab, and you wouldn't read it unless you were interested in the subject matter. That said, if you are interested, there are some good takeaways here . . . especially in the form of the organizational documents themselves.

Organization and anarchism have mixed as well as oil and water for the most part, and this books delves into some of the reasons why, and shows the power of organizing in way that still keeps the movement's values intact (not an easy task).

I just wish the writing had made the subject matter a tad bit more interesting.

[Silas Bache · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good summation of the history anarchist organisation in Europe. I liked that it talked a lot about platformism, because that’s a topic that i’ve wanted to learn more about for a while. I’ll definitely reread this again at some point to get a better understanding of anarchist history

[Nestor.mcnab · Rating 4 out of 5]

The documentation at the back of the book is what makes it for me. I'm afraid I haven't actually ever sat down to read it, cover to cover. I tend to use it to dip into when I need to see what was happening in one period or another. One thing I didn't enjoy was the rant about Fontenis and I certainly felt none the wiser having read this particular bit.

[Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most astute exploration of the history of anarchism, from Proudhon to Bakunin and the Alliance and the IWMA as well the individualists and the platform, the Spanish anarchists, and the enrages of 1968.

I very much appreciated the appendix full of primary source documents on the platform and the controversy surrounding it, principally advanced by Voline vs. Makhno and Arshinov.

[Keir]

I found the authors description of the CGT's reaction to WW1 very interesting. Seemingly the CGT was floored by the patriotism of the masses and their revolutionary cadres were unsure of how to react to this situation. There are surely lessons to be learnt here for syndicalists today.