Theanarchist synthesis, also known simply asthe synthesis or by its earlier nameunited anarchism, is an organisational principle that seeksunity in diversity, aiming to bring together anarchists of different tendencies into a single federation. Developed mainly by the Russian anarchistVolin and the French anarchistSébastien Faure, the anarchist synthesis was designed to appeal tocommunists,syndicalists andindividualists alike. According to the synthesis, an anarchist federation ought to be heterogeneous and relatively loosely organised, in order to preserve the individual autonomy of its members.
Since the 1890s, there had been a drive within the anarchist movement to foster cooperation between the variousanarchist schools of thought and to unite them across ideological lines. During the dispute between thecollectivists andcommunists, the Italian anarchistErrico Malatesta and the Spanish anarchistFernando Tarrida del Mármol advocated for anarchists of both tendencies to unite, according to the principle of "anarchism without adjectives".[1]
Over the subsequent decades,Max Nettlau developed this principle into a call for anarchists to unite into a single organisation, which would preserve individualautonomy and encouragemutual aid between its members.[2] The principle of individual autonomy was particularly central to the organisational ideas ofSébastien Faure andEmma Goldman, as well as to the Japanese "pure anarchists" that advocated for a more loosely organised grouping. The Russian anarchistVolin considered all anarchist schools of thought to be valid, advocating for a pluralistic organisation that unites anarchists of different tendencies behind a set of common principles and goals.[3] While Goldman considered the best path to be a loose framework that extended autonomy to each tendency, Volin and Faure would go on to develop a "synthesis" of the different tendencies, with the aim of creating an organisational platform that would be acceptable to the entire anarchist movement.[4]
Following theOctober Revolution, many Russian anarchists attempted to escape theRed Terror by fleeing toUkraine. They established their headquarters inKharkiv, which became the center for their campaign to unify the disorganised anarchist movement into a coordinated revolutionary organisation,[5] which they hoped would be able to combat the rise ofBolshevism.[6] This campaign resulted in the establishment of theNabat Confederation of Anarchist Organizations, which quickly spread throughout all of Ukraine's major cities.[7]
The statutes of the Nabat were drawn up byVolin, who established it according to the principles of "united anarchism" (Russian:единый анархизм,romanized: yedinyy anarkhizm).[8] The organization was designed to extend a great deal of autonomy to its membership and be open to members from all of the majoranarchist schools of thought:anarcho-communism,anarcho-syndicalism andindividualist anarchism.[9] This "united anarchism" was immediately criticised by Volin's former anarcho-syndicalist comrades,[10] who regarded it as an ineffective way to unify the anarchist movement and feared the dominance of anarcho-communists in such an organization.[11]
Despite its establishment according to the principles of "united anarchism", as theUkrainian Revolution progressed, the Nabat developed into a more tightly organised federation with its own unitarypolicy. The Nabat's secretariat acted as the organisation's executive, directing the organisation's membership and overseeing its resources. It quickly threw its support behind theMakhnovist movement and theRevolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, which it hoped would spearhead the organisation of the Ukrainian anarchist movement.[12]
After the Russian and Ukrainian anarchist movements were forced into exile, they experienced a split over organisational principles.[13] Inspired by the model of the Nabat, Volin had proposed the organisation of an anarchist federation, which would account for discipline and collective responsibility by means of "natural, free and technical centralisation",[14] while also accounting for a diversity of anarchist tendencies within the organisation.[15] But members ofDelo Truda quickly rejected Volin's "synthesis" as incoherent and out of step with anarchist theory.[16] Within theSoviet Union itself, former members of the Nabat had also since gravitated away from Volin's organisational principles.[17]
In June 1926,Peter Arshinov,Nestor Makhno andIda Mett collaborated on the drafting ofThe Organisational Platform, which called for the establishment of a specific anarchist organisation according to the principles of ideological and tactical unity, in order to combat chronic disorganisation within the anarchist movement.[18] In April 1927, Volin penned a reply to thePlatform, which was co-signed by other exiled anarchists such asSenya Fleshin andMollie Steimer.[19] TheReply criticised thePlatform as running counter to anarchist ideology, accusing the platformists of desiring to establish a centralised anarchist political party and eventually astate, which Volin directly compared toBolshevism.[20] Volin, Fleshin and Steimer went on to accuse theDelo Truda group ofanti-intellectualism and evenantisemitism.[21]
In the autumn of 1927, at a congress of the French Anarchist Union, the platformist majority within the organisation overruled the synthesist minority. The French Synthesists, led bySébastien Faure, split from the Union and established their own Federal Association of Anarchists (AFA).[22] Faure himself desired to create a powerful organisation that could unite disparate revolutionary groupings and be capable of leading an insurrection. Although Faure had rejected thePlatform assectarian and ideologically homogeneous, preferring instead to cultivategood faith andmutual aid between anarchists, he set his own conception of synthesis apart from Volin's "dilettantism".[23] In 1928,Sebastien Faure publishedThe Anarchist Synthesis, arguing for looser organisational principles that allowed ideological diversity.[24]
In 1927, theIberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) was established along synthesist lines, in order to act as a counterweight to thereformism expressed within theConfederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT).[25] In the wake of the FAI, synthesis federations were also formed in other countries, including theFrancophone Anarchist Federation (FAF) in 1937 and theItalian Anarchist Federation (FAIt) in 1945.[26] Following thedefeat of imperial Japan, the Korean anarchist movement reorganised into the Federation of Free Society Builders (FFSB),[27] which was formed along synthesist lines and continued to function in theSouth Korea until theOctober Restoration, whenmartial law was declared in theRepublic of Korea.[28]
In 1968, theInternational of Anarchist Federations (IAF) was established at a congress in Italy, building on the previously established international network at the initiative of the FAF. Established along synthesist lines, the IAF brought together anarchist federations fromArgentina,Australia,Britain,Bulgaria,Cuba,France,Germany,Greece,Iberia,Italy,Japan,the Netherlands,Norway andSwitzerland.[29] The IAF affirmed its commitment to the principles oflibertarian communism at its second congress in 1971, but soon lost its Cuban section due to its soft line on theCastro government. Nevertheless, the IAF managed to develop further links inHong Kong andVietnam and made contact with other anarchist federations in Europe and South America.[30]
