Image: 

Although anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist organizations have a different focus and may have different areas of activities, both types of organizations are usually based on a few fundamental ideas that are common in organizing on a libertarian basis. The first is that we have no leaders or authorities: every member or, in the case of anarcho-syndicalist federations, every member organization is equal and has an equal right to contribute to discussion and the decision-making process.

However, throughout the world, we see that many libertarian organizations can encounter problems with either authoritarian or toxic behaviour that causes the organization a lot of headaches and often wastes time which could be devoted to more pressing issues.

It is certainly true that individuals might understand the idea of authoritarianism in different ways and propose different ways to deal with this. Usually it helps to explain the problem and why it is problematic to other members, asking for a remedy. However, this does not always work, especially if a person is very ego-centric, being more concerned with some perceived individual rights that the overall welfare of the group.

In today's age, much of what used to go on behind closed doors now takes place in public forums and this is the inspiration for writing this article – not so typical for our pages. We all know about the problems caused by internet trolling. In Poland, they even spread hate under the guise of „exercising free speech”.

Unfortunately, a few people also attack our organization or our international federation or other member Sections in a way we consider unethical. This includes both disseminating untrue information and making personal attacks based on personal animosity. As many radical people do not use their real names in public debate, it is sometimes hard to know who is behind this. In many cases, those behind such attacks purposefully disguise who they are, so they cannot be challenged or held accountable.

As part of a more libertarian ethics, people should not be subject to such behaviour unless they are able to directly address these issues and know who they are addressing. Why does knowing who help with the issue?

First, we need to know that people who are supposed to be our comrades take responsibility for their words or for spreading information from others – especially if that information is false or baseless. Second, it may also help inform our opinion and the reliability (or not) of the information.

Most recently, the ZSP has been accused of affinity with both Leninism and Trotskyism. As our friends and followers know, this is quite far from the truth. Such types of accusations have been levelled at us before – from fascists or from the extreme-right leaders of some Solidarity branches. It is a way to try to scare people and discredit people without offering any proof.

What is true is that we oppose the politics inherent in both ideas since our political tendency is libertarian – in other words, we oppose the authoritarian structures implied in such political tendencies and we do not support a dictatorship of the proletarian or of any kind.

There are some French fanatics who claim to be in the same tendency as ourselves but what behaviour have we seen recently from them? First, they have published and disseminated a slanderous article against our sister union in Australia, the ASF. As we have informed all of our affiliate unions, the article has no merit and was written by a person who has a lot history of making problems for them, especially related to actions taken against him by his former union (IWW) related to sexual harrassment of a member of ASF. In this situation, this information is informative when reading – although we suppose that any half-intelligent person can understand that this text is mostly personal vitriol.

The thing is that we know who wrote this article. This source of it is not hidden. What is hidden are the indentities of the people who are disseminating it and, at the same time, trying to label ZSP as Leninists for opposing it. (Another sister union, ASI, also comes under fire.) The people disseminating the information on the one hand claim to be an „unofficial page of the IWA” but on the other hand claim they are not affiliated with the IWA.

This presents another ethical problem which is the misrepresentation of the IWA. The IWA has official pages and those who administer them are known and accountable to the whole federation. On the other hand, we have some anonymous people and nobody knows who they are.

Those who have spread the article claim that they are just „showing a different point of view”. This argument doesn't really hold weight. First, people who administer websites and chose to post content on it have some ethical responsibility to check if an article full of accusations is true or even has a likely factual basis. Second, if any reasonable person can see that the content is a little loopy hack job, it reflects badly on the credibility of the sight. But lastly, we unfortunately do not think the selection of such an article in a coincidence but just is more reflective of the personal anger of certain individuals in France towards organizations like the ASF who have spoken up about the misuse of „free speech” to harrass other organizations and individuals.

It looks like the boundaries of „free discussion” on the internet is often crossed and anonymity is abused not only by the far right, capitalists and others who wish to discredit from the comfort of their sofas, without ever showing their faces.

For a libertarian organization to be what it claims, „free discussion” cannot be replaced with lies, innuendos and baseless accusations.

LA, ZSP Warsaw Union