Another 1994 production by the class struggle wing of the Anarchist Revolutionary Movement (ARM) in Johannesburg, this was a reprint of The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation by Britain’s Anarchist Communist Federation (ACF, now the Anarchist Federation or AFed). It also included a South African introduction: this is part in the scan, but will also be published in a separate post.
Some copies of the ACF paper Organise! for revolutionary anarchism had made their way to South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. The paper was apparent banned in the apartheid censorship index. Unlike the Class War Federation (see here) and the class struggle wing of ARM (the nucleus of the later Workers Solidarity Federation, or WSF), the ACF was generally hostile to unions and to national liberation struggles. However, the ACF claimed to take Platformism as a reference point, and also kept in print George Fontenis’ controversial 1953 Manifesto of Libertarian Communism – often regarded as part of the Platformist tradition.While in retrospect a bit vague about the internal structure and operations of an anarchist political organisation, The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation certainly argued for the importance of anarchists engaging in class struggles in an organised way in order to win the battle of ideas in the working class.
As with Revolutionary Organisations, also issued in 1994, the class struggle wing of ARM issued The Role of the Revolutionary Organisation as part of making the case for a far stricter and more cohesive structure than ARM the provided. Both publications had the additional merit of outlining a concrete alternative to Marxist vanguard parties, an important issue to address in the activist milieu in which the class struggle wing of ARM engaged.
SAASHA 