Every year around July I start asking fellow anarchists around the world what they think the is the state or health of Anarchism, globally and locally. Partially this is a prompt for submissions to Spindrift, however deeper than that, it’s become my own annual tradition to gauge what’s going on globally and locally. A time in which I restate my assumptions, consider them in context of the now, and start drawing together the framework for the rest of the year and ask, what can I personally be doing that fulfils my anarchism, personally, communally, and politically.
I have something of a tendency to get lost in the philosophical and big picture stuff, I’ve been working through the year on a major text considering the post revolutionary interregnum and developing society so my thoughts have been quite distant from the here and now, this flight of wishful fantasy was brought crashing down by the revolutionary moments in Indonesia and Nepal, where our anarchist comrades, as part of a popular uprising against corruption and authoritarianism have been hitting the streets, fighting the fight, and taking on horrific brutality in the name liberty and solidarity.
Like many, I watch these scenes with a mixture of concern for the people, the fire of solidarity, and the envy of a distant comrade in a land. A land which seems to have replace it’s agency with complacency, other than the diverse milieu of Palestine Action, who have respond to live streamed genocide with measured direct action against the profiteers and local mechanisms of that brutality we seem to have lost the spirit and left a void which has been filled with xenophobic grifters, keen to import and platform the most vile hate to tell working class people their enemy arrives via raft and has dark skin.
Let’s be honest, your average Joe on the street has no clue what Anarchism is and even less inclination to understand the differences between these TLAs and crews various. They are trapped in despair as the largest “left-wing” party is openly supplicant to the far-right popularist hate which has come flooding back. Poverty is drowning us and the act of protest is being illegalised as our very identity is being enclosed and codified. All I care about is Anarchism becoming more of a conscious element in the minds of our class and people seeking to empower themselves rather than rely on the false promises of would be despots or the sycophantic platitudes of popularist socialism.
I had written a text about the rising zeal amongst younger anarchists, something I’ve seen swell and swell over the past few years, something I tend to call a “New Renaissance“, and my concern that those of us who ostensibly work to build the framework to facilitate revolutionary action are consistently failing the task, suggesting means and methods in which we can improve on our utility, and then I read this:
“Predictable to hear of the imminent dissolution of the Anarchist Federation”
It was posted on main by the Anarchist Communist Group (ACG), they tagged the Anarchist Federation (AF), it had one like, and more than a couple people had screen grabbed it and sent it me. Some were earnest and asked whether it was true, others were looking for goss as I’m rather annoyingly at the crux of ACG’s animosity towards the AF, and known to generally be happy to chat about organisational issues.
The post is petty and I worry deeply that one of the supposedly major vessels of anarchism would so openly gloat and be jubilant at the demise of another, that the characters involved would think that that was OK, or in some way a positive, I look at this and I talk to comrades around the world and I’m tired. We need to do better. I say this all the time, and I mean it. I mean it for them and I mean it for me and I mean it for the AF, and part of doing better is being open and clear. People shouldn’t have to ask their connect what is happening in the AF, it should be addressed openly.
So here we go, let’s discuss the state of anarchism and the Anarchist Federation. Now as someone who is often struck with prodigious stream of conscience, an awkward vernacular and a habit of straying away from the point, I do not wish my peers in the AF to be associated with this piece, We’re not a monoculture and I am just another member – I am sure if you asked any other member you’d get a different view – so it’s in that capacity, as a individual and member, in which I speak.
What connects us is so much more powerful than what divides us and while I absolutely think there are people with ideological absolutes I find utterly repugnant, they are not the entirety of the body politic and collective responsibility is a bad game to play. So we just all carry on. Occasionally I have to explain to a international comrade who the AF, ACG, and ACN were. They ask me what I think about these organisations and I tell them and I’m sad. I’m sad because a strong anarchist contingent is needed, we’re not doing well out there… but we’re all so lost.
I can’t speak to the entire world of anarchism in Britain at this moment, but I can speak as to the Anarchist Federation 2025, what’s happening. If you were hoping to see is shut up shop, I am sorry to tell you that isn’t the case. After 2017 we were hit with a big loss to our shared knowledge base, our resources, our capacity as a section containing founding and principle members broke off, later forming the ACG. The drama of it all this and issues such as the uprising in Hong Kong, the war in Ukraine, and the genocide in Palestine would continue to cut a grove between us and other anarchists. This has been a huge weight and energy drain that seems to come and go with the tide when all we really want to do is get back to in the kitchen and doing the work.
The organisation the rest of us inherited was bloated with bureaucracy, paper membership, anxiety over purpose and direction and a lack of drive. We then subsequently became embroiled indirectly with the badjacketing of a visiting Anarchist via London AF, who had became a semi-autonomous network we only had spotty communications with. Internally drive and inclination waned. This was a critical point.
Understand, all of the active membership are lifelong Anarchist revolutionaries who are involved in any of a number of organisations while having lives and trying to survive capitalism, none of us have any vanity over maintaining the provenance, keeping the organisation alive just to be there, churning out boring newsletters and historical texts no one reads, pretending to be some massive organisation when it’s five people in a forum occasionally spotted with hopeful newbies before they drop out. So what to do?
Our first response was to fix the admin and comms. We had a bunch of bland but difficult problems that jammed up the works, some examples of problems and solutions….
– Our forums were quickly becoming a thing of the past, our older membership had become used to the format, but our younger membership was using encrypted chat apps and the such. So we tried a few different solutions which have included such fantastic names as “Riot” and “Revolt”, but these would had utility for a few, for a while Discord was serviceable but an experiment with Signal saw a shift and bit by bit we stopped using Discord and the Signal would wax and wane with activity as and when things happened.
– The subscriptions to our periodical came over from the folk who had left and it was a couple dozen jotted addresses. We took the political hit and decided to start using Patreon. A “trusted” platform with people outside of the choir it soon proved itself useful. We’re not keen on it but that’s the realities of surviving capitalism in the digital age. We absolutely fucking hate these platforms but the alternatives are not quite there. We’re still exploring options but as we grow and grow, capricious shifts become more and more of an issue.
– The AF we had inherited was populated by members who were not members, folk who had signed up because they want to support us but never came to anything or did out. We’d be running about saying “ah yeah we’re the biggest Anarchist club in town” when in reality we’re a milieu of an active thirty or forty. We decided we’d rather be a small group with intent and provide alternatives for those who just want to support us. So we went through the membership, do you want to stay in and are you “active”, ie do you want notifying about things, yeah or nay, and that’s how we got to the current body and why some folks get emails and asked about things and other people don’t. Anyone can change their status at any time and this way we avoid tiered membership while allowing people to find a state of play that suits them.
Little problems like these take time to fix. Yet another plate for people dealing with poverty, family illness, babies, retirement, travelling, dramas, university, fighting landlords, organising national events, protests, covert operations, fundraisers, new books, enjoying the odd show and just fucking living. Coming into 2025, we had a cool and clear attitude, tho we lacked the keen drive and energy.
We are living in increasingly interesting times, as a body of anarchists we need to be stepping up or we should stand aside entirely, close doors and focus on other projects. We’re anarchists, our organisations are inherently temporary and to fit purpose. If they don’t have a purpose, we close doors. I repeat myself here, because we repeated ourselves then.
So we had a meeting, attended by a few with the details relayed to the rest. The result was this. If we were to close the AF, we’d simply be in a casual network of comrades, we all want to work together. Bristol AF especially, even if they took the sign down, they are still going to be doing all the same things. What would change? Well the AF has got the bureaucracy of a much larger organisation, the membership model via the specific A&Ps was locking out engagement, we needed to reaffirm out internal solidarity and community, and we needed a new focus on our purpose. Purpose, that’s the ultimate matter at hand. What is our purpose and was the organisation, by any name, able to fulfil it.
The Anarchist Federation isn’t a street level squad going about doing the things in the way the Anti-Fascists crews or Hunt Sabs are, We’re not like SolFed, Acorn, or IWW holding a certain remit and focus (while occasional branching out of course) taking that political theory into physical practice. We’re not an archive, we’re not a study group, we’re not a distro… and so on. Members are involved in all these things or more and sure, occasionally as the AF we go and do these things, fund these things and support these things but it’s not the AF’s purpose, we can say it’s “acting as the memory of the working class” and such all day but what does that actually mean in reality, the membership are involved in various archiving and propaganda efforts but the AF itself? No.
What we are, we concluded, is a network of politically aligned comrades, who have a a shared wealth of knowledge, resources, and connections. Where we excel, and what we feel is our function, is the dissemination of this beautiful idea of anarchism, helping others empower themselves, and establishing new fronts for the struggle and bastions of solidarity.
We want to help build frameworks which our members and our class can build up. Whatever tendency, however you verbalise it, whatever your focus… if you want to build a better world rooted in solidarity, autonomy, freedom and kick this capitalism hell-scape and authoritarian government to the curb, we’re with you and we want to help make your crew make it happen. We don’t want an AF stamp on it, we just want people to build and organise.
Alongside this a very meaningful change for me, we turn away from the social media and digital comms and try to pivot more towards in person meetings. Internally and externally. This is a bit more difficult than written, especially when we’re talking about public or semi-public stuff, but it’s where we want to shift.
So that was our conclusion. How we go about that we’re working out. It’s very tempting just to say “death to the AF, long live the AF” and just wake up with a new framework and plan, but this easy quick solution is liable to come with a whole host of administrative and organisational issues, so we grit our teeth, and carry on the slow and steady work. This stuff takes time. We’ve too few resources, too much life to live, and we’re all spinning a dozen other plates organising things, hitting the streets, writing articles, and pitching in. This will take time and what the resulting blossom will look like I’m not really sure. It all means different things to different members, some are more engaged than others, but we carry on and -frankly- all of this could change at any time.
The “Anarchist Federation” name isn’t precious, if we closed the door, we’d simply open ten more.
While we are about we’re helping others open them regardless.
So the question is this. Are you opening a door? Are you organising? If not, why not? Is that something you need help with? Whether you want to join the AF or not, contact us and let’s work together. Working together is a vital part of Anarchism and it’s something we all need to do more of, even if you’re in an mob fixated on antagonism with the AF, make it better, build it into something more. We don’t need to be friends to express solidarity in this class war we are so bitterly struggling to defend ourselves in.
We can all grow and I truly hope that in time, the AF, ACG, ACN, the local organisation such as NEAG, Bournemouth Anarchists, Hackney Anarchists, SCAO, RAG and all the rest, Anarchist communists, informal insurrectionary groups and the vast assorted milieus in between. We need to come together and grow, not delight in the failings of others. We’re better than this and we need to do better. Find connections where you can and build up these beautiful, powerful moments of community and resistance.
Enough of the dramas and sectarianism.
Forward Anarchism to the revolution now!
Peter Ó’Máille
