IMPORTANT MESSAGE - PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR OWN NETWORK
THE
MANDATE OF
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL OF ANARCHISM AND THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ANARCHIST INTERNATIONAL
A documentary of the IJ@'s mandate:***
The mandate of IJ@, seen historically, is close connected the history of "Folkebladet" and to the foundation of the Northern section(s) of IFA/IAF, the Anarchist International. The foundation of the Northern section(s) of IFA/IAF started with the affiliation of the Anarchist Federation of Norway. This is documented, among other things, in the Bulletin C.R.I.F.A, the official organ of IFA at that time. The "Commision de rédaction de bulletin CRIFA 145 Rue Amelot 75011 Paris France" and "C.R.I.F.A. Umberto Marzocchi Casella Postale no 22 17100 Savona (Italia)" were responsible for the publication. C.R.I.F.A. is the "Commission de relations de l'internationale des fédérations anarchistes". In C.R.I.F.A. Bulletin no 39 avril-mai 1982 p. 10 the following was reported:
DÉCLARATION D'ADHÉSION A L'INTERNATIONALE DES FÉDÉRATIONS ANARCHISTES / IFA DE LA PART DE LA FÉDÉRATION ANARCHISTE DE NORVÉGE / ANORG
L'ANORG a été fondéé à Oslo le 13 mars 1977 et a été depuis la seule organisation anarchiste de Norvège. et, ensemble avec la petite fédération syndicaliste NSF/AIT, les seules organisations libertaires dans tout le pays. L'ANORG, a des adhérents dans tout le pays. Nous vous joignons notre journal extérieur "Folkebladet" organe de l'ANORG, et nous avons également un bulletin intérieur.
Même si vous ne comprenez pas ce qui est écrit, nous pensons qu'il peut être intéressant que vous voyiez ce que les anarchistes norvégiens font.
L'ANORG a été invité par des anarchistes danois à rejoindre l'IFA. Congrès du 23-27 mars 1978, mais nous avons décidé avant d'avoir plus d'expérience et d'être capable d'y participer autant que les autres fédérations. Cependant le 15 janvier 1979 l'ANORG a voté à l'unanimité de rejoindre l'IFA sur les principes approuvés par le 3e congrès de l'IFA. Mais maintenant nous pensons qu'il est temps de participer au travail international sur un pied d'égalité avec les autres fédérations anarchistes. - Fédération anarchiste de Norvège.
A note about the founding date: "Foregangsgruppa i ANORG" - the interim group in the Anarchist Federation, rooted back to Kultursyndikatet, the Culture Syndicate in the late 1960'ties, had worked for several years as a loose network to found an anarchist federation, without semilibertarian marxists and liberal/individualists. Foregangsgruppa was formally founded 13 Mars 1977. This group did a lot of work to join the forces of the different groups and individuals of the anarchist movement, and after a wide debate, arranged the statutory general meeting of the federation, "stiftelsesmøtet", Tuesday 13. September 1977. Thus, Anarkistføderasjonen i Norge (AFIN) - Anarkistenes Organisajon (i Norge) - ANORG, the Anarchist Federation of Norway, was finally founded 13.09.1977. Folkebladet was founded in 1971, and had been the organ of different groups, before it became the organ of the Anarchist Federation. It had also been distributed internationally, mainly in Scandinavia.
The affiliation to IFA recorded in Bulletin C.R.I.F.A. no 39 avril-mai 1982, was confirmed in a letter from C.R.I.F.A. Umberto Marzocchi, dated 12th of May 1982 and another letter 09.11.1982. The first letter also urged the first Nordic Anarchist Congress. The term "Nordic" means Northern, i.e. in the North in general, as confirmed on a later congress.The Northern section(s) of IFA was founded at the first Nordic anarchist congress in Oslo, 15-18 October 1982. The Bulletin C.R.I.F.A no 42 novembre-février 1982 declared :
(There were a Spanish (p. 4) and an English (p. 5) report in this issue of the Bulletin C.R.I.F.A, but the Spanish version seems to be the most correct of the two, compared to the Swedish and Norwegian reports printed in Folkebladet, and other material. Thus we will quote the Spanish version here. Where the English version is more precise, this is noted in [...] brackets):
EL PRIMER CONGRESO ANARQUISTA NÓRDICO
El primer congreso anarquista nordico se ha celebrado del 15 al 17 de octubre del [19]82 en Oslo (Folkets Hus, Youngstorget). Ha estado organizado por la ANORG/IFA (Federación anarquista noruega afiliada a la IFA). Este congreso se ha celebrado según el deseo de Umberto Marzocchi, secretario de la [IFA/]CRIFA, siendo expressado en una carta el 12 de mayo del [19]82 a la ANORG. Estaban presentes los delegados de varios paises nórdicos así que los observadores de la SAC (Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation) ... y un representante de la Federación anarquista francesa [a delegate from the French Anarchist Federation (FAF/IFA), was also present].
El principal tema de este congreso ha sido la cooperación anarquista nórdica... La meta a alcanzar es la adhesión de los anarquistas a una sección nórdica de la IFA a través de sus propios Federaciones nacionales. A este fin el congreso unánime decide la puesta en marcha de un secretariado nórdico de la IFA. Por el momento ese papel será tenido por el secretarioado administrativo [the expeditionary group] de la ANORG.... Los anarquistas que quieran adherir a la IFA podrán hacerio teniendo como intermediario el secretariado nórdico de la IFA. Estos anarquistas se encontrarán en la misma situación con respecto a la IFA que los miembros de la ANORG (decidiones, cotisaciones, etc.)
El secretariado nórdico publicará ocho bolitinos al año que serán adjuntos a Folkebladet ... o sea al boletin interior, o bién según el caso, un sepacio será reservado en sus publicaciones para las informaciones procedentes del secretariodo...
El secretariado nórdico a través del
boletin deberá contribuir a organizar actividas comunes, entre
otras, congresos, conferencieas, tribunas anarquistas, simposios,
seminarios, encuentros estivales y actividades culturales... El
secretariado deberá encargase de la coordinación de las
actividades [direct actions of different kinds] nórdicas.
____
El primer número del "Boletin Nórdico" editado por el
congreso, ha sido publicado en suplement del número 4 de
Folkebladet (año 1982). Su título es "IFA-Solidaritet"
(órgano de las secciones nórdicas de la IFA).
COMMISION DE REDACTION DU BULLETIN CRIFA.
The conclusion of these documents recorded in Bulletin C.R.I.F.A no 39 avril-mai and no 42 novembre-février 1982, is that the Anarchist Federation of Norway - Anarkistføderasjonen i Norge (AFIN) - Anarkistenes organisasjon (i Norge) ANORG, was affiliated to IFA/IAF from 15.01 1979 with the organ "Folkebladet", and that the Northern Section(s) of IFA was/were founded and affiliated to IFA/IAF 15-17.10.1982, with the bulletin "IFA-Solidaritet", IAF-Solidarity, published in close connection to Folkebladet. The Northern section(s)' affiliation to IFA, was/were also confirmed on later IFA-congresses arranged in Oslo, and documented in issues of Bulletin C.R.I.F.A and IFA-Solidaritet, the two officially and mandated organs of IFA at that time. Furthermore, there were no opposition to these decisions recorded in the Bulletin C.R.I.F.A and IFA-Solidaritet, so they were decided by general consent *). Some of the new Northern sections of IFA, i.e. the Danish, the Swedish and the Finnish, were in one years time refounded as IFA-federations, i.e. in 1983. This was unanimously decided upon by a general ballot, referendum, among the members of the Northern sections.This is recorded in IFA-Solidaritet, which was distributed to the other IFA/IAF-sections, among other things, via the C.R.I.F.A. The documents also imply that the IFA-secretariate in Oslo was not considered as a sub-secretariate to C.R.I.F.A, but on equal footing, i.e. as commissions for the Northern and Southern sections respectively.
In 1983 there were 4 Northern (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish) and 3 Southern federations (French, Italian and Iberian) in IFA/IAF plus the UAB (Bulgarian Anarchist Union) and the Northern sections outside Scandinavia. In the following years the Bulletin C.R.I.F.A declined in number of issues and quality, and it was necessary to do something to keep up the anarchist international information service. In 1984 Folkebladet and IFA-Solidaritet were gathered in one publication, and the name International Journal of Anarchism was introduced. At the same time the distribution started to develop world wide, not only in Scandinavia. Also "Brand", the Swedish anarchist paper of AFIS/APF, and later "International Journal of Organization Research", the organ of IIFOR, were included in IJA. The Danish anarchist paper "Dialog" was also included.
Since the IJA is a direct follower of Folkebladet, the volumes of the journal are counted from the founding of Folkebladet in 1971. Thus, issues of the volumes are noted as the number of the issue, plus the volume number, say 1 (31) for the first number of the 31st volume, i.e. year 2001. These changes were also confirmed on the later Northern IFA congresses. During the last part of the 1980ties the Bulletin C.R.I.F.A declined further, and finally finished publishing. Thus International Journal of Anarchism became the only officially mandated and publicly registered organ for the anarchist international IFA/IAF and the anarchist movement in general. The international journal registration number of IJA is ISSN 0800-0220. In 1996 IJA was introduced on Internet, and since 1998 it has been an electronic online-journal, distributed on the Internet and/or by e-mail world wide to anarchists and others with interest of anarchist information. There will however also be issues on paper distributed to IFA-sections and others interested in anarchy, anarchist(s) and anarchism internationally, that do not have access to e-mail or internet. IJ@ is also the organ of the International Anarchist Tribunal, founded in 1982.
The mandate for the International Journal of Anarchism, in addition to what is mentioned above, is similar to the mandate made for the Bulletin C.R.I.F.A.in the old days, decided by the International of Anarchist Federations IAF/l' Internationale des Fédérations Anarchistes IFA, (see Bulletin C.R.I.F.A no 42 novembre-février 1982 p. 2) updated to the modern IT-age:
We call again the decisions that have been taken at congresses of the Anarchist International IAF/IFA. After a long discussion about the development of IFA/IAF, and the best way to maintain links between the anarchists in the world, the next points have been decided:
- The IJ@ will be sent to the whole international libertarian movement (organizations, papers, reviews,...);
The IJ@ will be written in several languages: French, English, Spanish, Scandinavian, etc. and articles should be provided with an English summary. The summary may be omitted if the article is short and written in English;
- Circulars will be sent to the sections to discuss particular points and to convene reunions of work;
- Reunion of work convened by the joining sections, with summary in order to prepare these reunions. An objective of these reunions are to prepare new conferences of international campaignes.
- Internet and e-mail are suitable means to reach these ends.
In 1997 the term Anarchist International was introduced. This is a wider concept than the IFA/IAF meaning the affiliated federations. There are also sections and federations for anarcha-feminism, green/eco-anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism, affiliations to the Community Action Network, CAN, and the Anarchist Black Cross, ABC, and for collectivist and communist/commune anarchism; social-, social-individualist and federalist anarchism, as well as individualist and mutualist anarchism, since 1982. The Anarchist International is based on the IFA/IAF-federations, i.e. mainly in Europe, but also includes groups and individuals that are anarchists or interested in anarchist information broadly defined all over the world. The constitution of the Anarchist International AI was officially confirmed on the International Anarchist Congress, i.e. the 5th Anarchist Biennial, arranged by the NAC/IFA/AI in Oslo medio December 1998. In the later years the networkmembers/subscribers have been more and more global, no longer mainly in Europe.
Thus, the Anarchist International is a) a non-sectarian, non-dogmatic, non-dialectical and non-metaphysical broad based, including - and not expulsing - organization and network, b) covering all libertarian tendencies, where c) everybody on equal footing, coordinate, and co-operative without coercion, from each according to ability - to each according to need - may contribute to the research front of valid anarchism via the method of modern science, introduced by d) Kropotkin**, and based on research, consistency, skepticism, dialog, and free, matter of fact, criticism, in short e) the anarchist scientifical way of thinking. A short summary of the updated, consistent, research front on anarchism is found at http://www.anarchy.no/a_e_p_m.html with links, and at IIFOR's homepage http://www.anarchy.no/iifor.html . A basic course to easily be updated on the research front on anarchism, according to need, is presented at AIUF's homepage at URL http://www.anarchy.no/au.html .
The purpose and aim is among other things to work stand by for one affiliated anarchist federation in each country, based on these principles, so the International may be a really anarchist alternative to the UN, i.e. for the whole world. Furthermore the IJ@ is distributed not only to libertarians, but to "the people, anarchists and authorities world wide", including the international newsmedia. This is to inform the world of resolutions from anarchist-congresses, -conferences, -seminars, -tribunals and other activities, and to organize common actions to promote more anarchy and less authoritarian tendencies in the different countries.
The AIIS - Anarchist International Information Service at www.anarchy.no , is the main international anarchist news-agency of today, and it is also engaged in the fight for anarchism world wide. AIIS, named "Anarkistenes Informasjonstjeneste - AIT" in Norwegian, was officially founded in 1994 by AIUF/AU, and established on Internet in 1996. In 1997 the AIIS was taken over by the AI/IFA-secretariate in Oslo, that had been doing media and information work all of the time since the founding in 1982, continuing the work of the secretariate of AFIN since the founding in 1977, with different mandates and staff. At the International Anarchist Congress, i.e. the 5th Anarchist Biennial, arranged by the NAC/IFA/AI in Oslo medio December 1998, the AIIS was mandated to be the offical newsagency of the Anarchist International. The AIIS is industrially and with respect to copyright a co-operative branch of IJ@ ISSN 0800 - 0220. (Source IJ@ no 5 (31), The history of AI-IFA-IAF and AIIS, see links on this page).
*) As mentioned above the founding and membership of the Northern IFA-sections 1979-1982/3 were accepted by general consent throughout the rest of IFA, and thus it was of course not on the agenda at the congress in the South, i.e. Paris, 1986, as a few have misunderstood, where four elected delegates of the Northern IFA-sections participated by phone and written material was sent in advance, with the resolutions from the 4th IFA congress in Oslo, i.e. in the North, earlier same year, - (and not later).
**) This method, the scientifical anarchist way of thinking, was mainly introduced by Peter Kroptkin in 1903-13 in the book "Modern Science and Anarchism", but indicated in a more vague way already by Pierre J. Proudhon in the middle of the 19th century. Later on this method was developed further by, say, Frisch, Haavelmo, Santillan, etc.
***) We have seen some weird stories on Internet produced by Jamal Hannah et. al. that IJA is not a real organ of the Anarchist International and IFA/IAF a.s.o. This is probably rooted back to some intrigues against the Northern sections of IFA-IAF from some of the Southern federations (not the Spanish). To set things right we have made a documentary on the mandate of International Journal of Anarchism and the Anarchist International Information Service stating the facts by real historical documents, so everybody for themselves can confirm the truth about the mandate, and see that we are not posing, but the real ones. We are sick tired of these intrigues and will in this way try to put and end to it.
In 1986, at the fourth IFA-congresses in the north, and in the south where NAC, The Northern Anarchist Confederation's four federations participated by phone, the southern IFA-federations, the French, Spanish and Italian turned leftwards at the economical political map due to leftist-marxist tendencies. They thus left the anarchist quadrant on the economical-political map. The three southern IFA-federationas turned out to be "the children of Marx". (The Bulgarian Anarchist Union, UAB, was not a federation, but an authoritarian group, and thus not recognized by the International Anarchist Tribunal as a member of IAF-IFA.) This leftist-authoritarian position of the southern IFA federations made it necessary to reorganize the IFA to save it from the marxist- leftist positions. Thus, the majority of the IFA federations, the four northern, decided to reorganize the IFA, and started the Anarchist Biennials, a series of international anarchist congresses, the first one in 1990. The three southern IFA-federations and their secretariate were suspended by the majority of the federations, the four Northern, and the International Anarchist Tribunal, see http://www.anarchy.no/aptm.html , and the resolutions of their later congresses were disallowed, included the one in 1990. The suspension and the disallowance of their congresses will remain until the marxist-authoritarian tendency of the southern IFA-federations is removed. So far this has not happened. Thus the resolutions from their congresses from the fifth in 1990 and later are disallowed, due to significant marxist authoritarian tendencies. The latest statement (2007) from the Southern IFA/IAF federations against the Anarchist International is a.o.t: "The main problem is some lunatic in Norway". Thus they state that people that do not agree with them are lunatic, just like in the Soviet Union. This only confirms that the Southern IFA/IAF federations are marxistoid communist/collectivist on the economical-political map, and not anarchist. We can assure you that the about twenty persons working parttime for the AI/IFA-secretariate in Oslo are not lunatic, and neither are the rest of the Anarchist International.
The Anarchist International is a broader network than the IFA/IAF-sections in the north and south. The Anarchist International is a global, undogmatic, free thinking, nonsectarian modern anarchist international, with sections for anarchoindividualist, anarchocollectivist, social individualist and mutualist anarchist and anarchocommunist as well as green/ecoanarchist, anarchosyndicalist and anarchafeminist anarchists. The Anarchist International has about 2000 networkmembers/subscribers, groups and individuals, of which about 500 are in the northern sections of IFA/IAF, i.e. counted without the Southern IFA/IAF-federations. The Southern IFA/IAF is a dogmatic, sectarian communist "anarchist", leftist marxistoid organization with little interest for the Anarchist International. The Southern IFA/IAF is more communist than anarchist, i.e. collectivist on the economical political map. Outside the anarchist quadrant on the map, far left in the marxist quadrant.
Further readings on the conflict between the Southern IFA-federations and the Anarchist International are "About the northern and southern sections of IFA-IAF and the Anarchist International AI-IFA-IAF" http://www.anarchy.no/ija235.html , "The southern IFA-IAF-federations are marxist" http://www.anarchy.no/ija338.html ,"THE SO CALLED "ANORG-WARNING" IS FALSE " http://www.anarchy.no/anorgwarning.html and "The Southern IFA Federations" http://www.anarchy.no/southern.html .