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LOU BARON
Photojournalist and filmmaker
Anarchism in Perpignan
“Anarchism is the highest degree of freedom and order that humanity can achieve”, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
Anarchism is a movement of ideas and action founded during the 19th century aimed at developing a society devoid of all forms of intellectual, economic, physical and political authority and domination; where the main values would be sharing, mutual aid, social justice. It would be a self-managing and libertarian society.
“Today norms and social rules are felt as imposed things because we live in a hierarchical society where we have decided nothing and participated in nothing. ”, according to the Anarchist Organization.
Anarchist ideology may have been poorly perceived by part of the population who consider that it means absence of rules and chaos. According to this ideology, for freedom to exist, we must learn to organize ourselves in society with a common goal. Standards and rules would therefore be essential to a sustainable organization. But these rules should be established by and for all individuals, getting rid of all exploitation, oppression and alienation coming from the current hierarchical organization.
According to the Anarchist Organization, “The refusal to participate in the electoral charade is not a passive act, […] but a refusal to maintain the illusion.”
Anarchist ideology resonates in the premises of the Perpignan anarchist group, PUIG ANTICH in homage to the famous Catalan libertarian, active member of the Iberian Liberation Movement (MIL) assassinated in February 1974 by the Franco regime. This group was founded in 1980 and became a member of the Anarchist Federation (FA) in 1984. It now has around twenty active members.
Edward SARBONI, former "freelancer", notably at L'Artisan catalan and L'Indépendant, former trainer and former teacher within the General Mission for Integration of National Education and author of activist and historical works, was a speaker at the first national conference on anarchism in Perpignan in 1995. He was appointed to the secretariat of internal relations of the FA in 1998 and 1999. The Puig Antich group to which he belongs, in disagreement with some of the modes of operation of the FA, de-federated from this organization and participated in the creation of the Coordination of Anarchist Groups (CGA) with the South-West Regional Union of the FA and the Montpellier group. After the massacre perpetrated at “Charlie Hebdo”, the Puig Antich group, as well as other French anarchist groups, left the CGA. This de-federation followed deep and numerous disagreements making their union impossible.
Anarchists are against the establishment of strong power or an ultra-secure and totalitarian state aimed at repressing the masses which they consider to be a fascist state. They reject the current government and in particular the “asylum and immigration law” which, according to them, gives rise to fascist inspirations because it is radical, racist and violent for many identity groups. They do not feel they belong to any nation, but to the people of the world, to a Humanity without borders and international solidarity. In short, a social, anti-fascist and not ultra-liberalist globalism.
Anarchism advocates gender equality but does not recognize itself in radical feminism. He fights against all individual oppressions generated by capitalist society such as classification by gender, race, sexuality and disability. Therefore, it is not man who must be rejected by feminists but capitalism. Indeed, anarchists draw an analogy between the patriarchal belief that men are made to dominate women and that according to which the upper classes are made to dominate other social classes.
By wanting to destroy the patriarchal system, which only recognizes two possible identities, men and women, anarchists fight against homophobia, sexism and transphobia.
Since November 17, 2018, just like the anarchist movement, the Yellow Vests movement, has wanted to counter many social inequalities caused by the capitalist system of domination, media manipulation, political, economic and intellectual servitude.
In many respects, this similarity with the anarchist movement is palpable and/or real. However, the demand for a Citizens' Initiative Referendum (RIC) is not one of them. Indeed, according to Edward SARBONI, "anarchist ideas are based on the principle of direct democracy and direct action, without intermediaries, by individuals and collectives, which implies the participation and responsibility of all in the decisions that concern the community", "Without a radical change of system, a revolutionary change, all intermediate solutions are only palliatives". For Edward SARBONI, "How can we seriously believe that this system could accept even the slightest form of ICR and run the risk of being disapproved?"
During the February 06, 2020 demonstration in Perpignan, there was an altercation between CGT members and anarchists. The CGT attacked the anarchists, who didn't want them to stand in front of their banner rather than behind it. For the Anarchist Organization, Syndicalism originally defended an anti-capitalist, anti-state and anti-political dimension. It saw itself as syndicalism-revolutionary. It was against bourgeois domination, exploitation at work, and the alienation of the majority of men and women from employers and government. It advocated autonomy in struggle and independence. But today, "trade unionism, colonized and caporalized by the intrusion of 'politics' in its midst, has emptied itself of its revolutionary substance, and today is satisfied only with the role of partner".
Anarchists fight against capitalism, which they see as "a system that is interested only in profits, in the exploitation of resources, and in attacking human beings". According to Edward SARBONI, "it seeks profits on the backs of workers trapped in the chains of alienated wage labor". For them, it is essential to replace this centralized "vertical" organization with a "horizontal" one based on the free association of individuals. All decisions would be taken by those concerned, in the form of voluntary contractual agreements. Overproduction would be banished from this society, as production would be based on people's needs.
According to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, "property is theft". In short, for anarchists, it's necessary to distribute wealth equally. And for an improvement to benefit everyone, the privileges given to the bosses must be destroyed. They intend to overthrow alienated wage labor, as well as private and state ownership, which are the economic foundations of Capitalism. According to Edward SARBONI, "Economic and social equality will be a reality when "material and immaterial" wealth, i.e. the common property of all producers, is at equilibrium, and work becomes an autonomous and freely associated creative activity. Anarchism would provide every worker with the means to live and produce.
The anarchists claim to belong to the "revolutionary abstentionist" movement. According to an article in the journal Infos et Analyses Libertaires, "between the "citizen's duty", which is limited to the obligation to cast a ballot in a ballot box and thus give up our own sovereignty, and the political and militant approach of participating directly in societal debates and decision-making related to the need to change the system, anarchists choose to take on the role of actors rather than spectators."
For Edi Nobras, a member of the Coordination des Groupes Anarchistes, "the need for organization in social life is so obvious that it's hard to believe that anyone would argue with it. The organization of the social movement in its resistance to the state and capitalism is today the way of recourse, even if the anti-organizers are still numerous." And "the setting in motion of anarchist institutions in which individuals can live, create equality, justice and thus their own freedom is a type of organization totally consistent with attempts at revolutionary achievement."
For anarchists, freedom can only emerge from the autonomy of the individual in society. Man's freedom (his autonomy) is born from the processes of rebellion against Authority and the self-construction of society. To answer social and political questions, they proposed a social organization based on widespread self-management of society and federalism. In their view, direct management of society, production and the distribution of goods and services can be built right now within autonomous struggles.
For anarchists, the motto "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité", inspired by the philosophy of the Enlightenment and aimed at emancipating the population from religious dogma and despotic power, does not seem to be respected in our society. How can we speak of "Liberty" when "Equality" and "Fraternity" are nothing more than slogans that are contradicted on a daily basis in state-run, liberal or social-democratic societies, societies that precarity and isolate individuals. Their motto, "Neither God nor Master", expresses their refusal and rejection of all forms of power, domination and all religions, considered "as doctrines and obstacles that hinder people, preventing them from thinking freely."
From the outset, anarchists have been aware of the importance of educating children. The current education system is seen as a means of perpetuating the various systems of domination, alienation and exploitation. They therefore recommend a libertarian education in which children have "free will", and their conduct is not limited to their parents, teachers or the state, but to themselves. The aim would be to provide tools and resources that would be useful for each child's own trajectory. Pedagogical "paths" that lead to the autonomy that "learners" need to appropriate. "In this type of school, competition has no place. On the other hand, the emphasis on self-management practices should enable the emergence of responsible, autonomous individuals. Their aim would not be to produce anarchists in the making, but to enable them to acquire the individual and collective means to "live by rules constructed together".
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