Union communiste libertaire

Last updated
Union communiste libertaire
Leader Collective leadership
Founded10 June 2019
Ideology Anarcho-communism
Anarcha-feminism
Anti-racism
Social ecology
Political position Far-left
International affiliationAnarkismo.net
Colours Red, Black
Website
unioncommunistelibertaire.org

The Union communiste libertaire (UCL, English: Libertarian Communist Union) is a French platformist federation, established in 2019 from the merging of Alternative Libertaire and the Coordination of Anarchist Groups. In addition to revolutionary struggle, they engage in social and environmental struggles.

Contents

History

UCL demonstration in Paris, January 2020 Cortege de l'Union libertaire a la manifestation du 11 janvier 2019 a Paris.jpg
UCL demonstration in Paris, January 2020

At a founding congress organized in the Allier from 8 to 10 June 2019, Alternative Libertaire (AL) and the Coordination of Anarchist Groups (CGA) enacted their fusion, the result of a year of discussions. AL, the successor of the Libertarian Communist Workers' Union founded in 1991, and the CGA, a split of the Anarchist Federation founded in 2002, were two libertarian communist organizations. Close ideologically and in their political practice, they began their merger in February 2018. [1]

The new organization, which wants to set up self-organized struggles, aims to lead feminist, anti-racist, pro-LGBTI and ecologist struggles at the same time as the anarcho-communist and revolutionary struggle. It wants to be able to lead a "popular counter-power", which is placed "neither on the electoral ground nor on the level of institutions". UCL retains red and black colors, symbolic of communism and anarchism, as well as the Libertarian Alternative newspaper, which did not change its name. [1] In the same month, UCL claimed about forty local groups linked to the organization and more than five hundred members. [2] Many were trade unionists, from unions such as Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques or the General Confederation of Labour and associations. [1]

UCL, anarchist protest in France, on October 16th 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic

The Libertarian Communist Union supported the Yellow vests movement since its inception. [1] The group created a branch in Millau in late 2019. [3]

Related Research Articles

Anarchist communism is a political ideology and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retention of personal property and collectively-owned items, goods, and services. It supports social ownership of property and the distribution of resources "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front</span> Political party in South Africa

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front, formerly known as the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZabFed), is a platformist–especifista anarchist political organisation in South Africa, based primarily in Johannesburg. The word zabalaza means "struggle" or "active rebellion" in isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati and isiNdebele. Initially, as ZabFed, it was a federation of pre-existing collectives, mainly in Soweto and Johannesburg. It is now a unitary organisation based on individual applications for membership, describing itself as a "federation of individuals". Historically the majority of members have been people of colour. Initially the ZACF had sections in both South Africa and Swaziland. The two sections were split in 2007, but the Swazi group faltered in 2008. Currently the ZACF also recruits in Zimbabwe. Members have experienced oppression in South Africa and Swaziland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alternative libertaire</span> Political organization in France

Alternative libertaire was a French anarchist organization formed in 1991 which publishes a monthly magazine, actively participates in a variety of social movements, and is a participant in the Anarkismo.net project. In 2019 the organization merged into the Union Communiste Libertaire

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchism in France</span>

Anarchism in France can trace its roots to thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who grew up during the Restoration and was the first self-described anarchist. French anarchists fought in the Spanish Civil War as volunteers in the International Brigades. According to journalist Brian Doherty, "The number of people who subscribed to the anarchist movement's many publications was in the tens of thousands in France alone."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union of Communist Students</span> Political party in France

The Union of Communist Students is a French student political organization, part of the Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France. It was founded in 1939 but dissolved after World War II. The UEC was re-created in 1956, along with the MJCF. It is independent from the French Communist Party (PCF) although it remains close to it. It maintains exchange contacts with the PCF, in particular on student issues. The UEC is organized in sectors, by university, and is led by a national collective elected during the congress of the MJCF and renewed during the National Assemblies of the facilitators, every year. A national coordination runs the organization.

Contemporary anarchism within the history of anarchism is the period of the anarchist movement continuing from the end of World War II and into the present. Since the last third of the 20th century, anarchists have been involved in anti-globalisation, peace, squatter and student protest movements. Anarchists have participated in armed revolutions such as in those that created the Makhnovshchina and Revolutionary Catalonia, and anarchist political organizations such as the International Workers' Association and the Industrial Workers of the World have existed since the 20th century. Within contemporary anarchism, the anti-capitalism of classical anarchism has remained prominent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchist Federation (France)</span>

Fédération Anarchiste is an anarchist federation in France, Belgium and Switzerland. It is a member of the International of Anarchist Federations since the latter's establishment in 1968.

Platformism is an anarchist organizational theory that aims to create a tightly-coordinated anarchist federation. Its main features include a common tactical line, a unified political policy and a commitment to collective responsibility.

Henri Félix Camille Beaulieu was a French accountant, naturist, anti-militarist, anarchist and then communist. He wrote many articles in radical journals. In his later years he was active in the Committee of Social Defence (CDS), an organization that helped political prisoners and exiles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georges Vincey</span> French anarchist (1900–1960)

Georges Vincey was a French metal worker and militant anarchist. In October 1954 he became the first administrator of the newly reinvented Monde libertaire, a monthly publication produced on behalf of the Paris based Anarchist Federation.

Le Libertaire is a Francophone anarchist newspaper established in New York City in June 1858 by the exiled anarchist Joseph Déjacque. It appeared at slightly irregular intervals until February 1861. The title reappeared in Algiers in 1892 and was then produced in Brussels between 1893 and 1894.

Libertarian possibilism was a political current in early-20th-century Spanish anarchism that advocated achieving the anarchist ends of ending the state and capitalism by participation in structures of contemporary parliamentary democracy. The name of the political position appeared for the first time between 1922 and 1923 within the discourse of the Catalan anarcho-syndicalist Salvador Seguí when he said, "We have to intervene in politics in order to take over the positions of the bourgeoisie".

Georges Fontenis was a school teacher who worked in Tours. He is more widely remembered on account of his political involvement, especially during the 1950s and 1960s.

Anarchism in Portugal first appeared in the form of organized groups in the mid-1880s. It was present from the first steps of the workers' movement, revolutionary unionism and anarcho-syndicalism had a lasting influence on the General Confederation of Labour, founded in 1919.

Anarchism in Bulgaria first appeared in the 1860s, within the national movement seeking independence from the Ottoman Empire, strongly influenced by the Russian revolutionary movement. Anarchism established itself as a distinct political movement at the end of the 19th century. It developed further in the 20th century, so much so that Bulgaria was one of the few countries in Eastern Europe where the organized anarchist movement enjoyed a real establishment throughout the country, until the seizure of power by the Bulgarian Communist Party. Under the People's Republic of Bulgaria, the anarchist movement survived underground, but was the victim of severe repression. From 1989, anarchism has been freely reconstituted.

Anarchism spread into Belgium as Communards took refuge in Brussels with the fall of the Paris Commune. Most Belgian members in the First International joined the anarchist Jura Federation after the socialist schism. Belgian anarchists also organized the 1886 Walloon uprising, the Libertarian Communist Group, and several Bruxellois newspapers at the turn of the century. Apart from new publications, the movement dissipated through the internecine antimilitarism in the interwar period. Several groups emerged mid-century for social justice and anti-fascism.

The Union of Libertarian Communist Workers was a political organization established in France and created in 1978 after splitting from the Revolutionary Anarchist Organization two years earlier. It was active until 1991, when Alternative libertaire was created.

The Coordination of Anarchist Groups was a French anarchist organization that split off from the Anarchist Federation at its 60th congress in June 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revolutionary Anarchist Organization</span> French political organization active in the 1970s

The Revolutionary Anarchist Organization was a French libertarian communist organization that was active during the 1970s.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Abel Mestre, "À l'extrême gauche, les libertaires jouent l’union", Le Monde
  2. "Pragmatiques, deux organisations communistes libertaires fusionnent", Le Figaro
  3. Guilloteau, Victor (December 11, 2019). "Sud-Aveyron : l'Union communiste libertaire prend racine". Midi Libre (in French). Retrieved August 16, 2020.