A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #367 - International - Brazil: The OSL and the Reconstruction of Mass Anarchism (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Recently, comrades from Brazil visited us in France. This was an 
opportunity for them to reiterate that the creation of a mass anarchist 
movement is a long-term process that takes into account all the 
components and specificities of the working classes. --- The Libertarian 
Socialist Organization (OSL) was founded in July 2023, convinced that in 
Brazil, anarchism must rediscover its original character: that of a 
movement rooted in the working class, oriented towards building a 
self-managed popular power, and focused on the structural transformation 
of society. This foundation is the result of decades of debates and 
experiences which, despite their limitations, have allowed us to 
understand the historical tasks of anarchism in the 21st century.

The OSL is the result of the unification of organizations and 
collectives that were active in different territories. Among them were 
the Rio de Janeiro Anarchist Federation (FARJ), the Minas Gerais Popular 
Anarchist Collective (COMPA), Rusga Libertária (MT), and the Libertarian 
Socialist Anarchist Organization (OASL), as well as several independent 
activists. We made the joint decision to dissolve our structures in 
order to create a unified national political organization with a 
program, a strategy, and collective discipline.

Defending Organizational Dualism
For us, reclaiming the "social vector of anarchism" means affirming that 
anarchism is not simply an individual attitude or an aesthetic 
reference, but a historical force built within the oppressed classes. We 
believe that anarchism must act where the people live, work, and resist: 
in the outlying neighborhoods, in workplaces, in urban and peasant 
occupations, in unions, student movements, and territorial struggles. It 
is on this social terrain that the OSL focuses its militant energy.

We adopt the principle of organizational dualism, present in the 
Alliance of which Bakunin was a member, as well as in the platformist 
and specificist traditions of anarchism, because we understand that, to 
be effective, our action requires two complementary organizational 
forms. On the one hand, the specific political organization-in this 
case, the OSL-unified, programmatic, disciplined, with strategic unity; 
and on the other hand, the popular and social organization-popular 
movements, trade unions, community collectives, peasant, student, and 
territorial struggles.

We do not believe that spontaneity or the mere sum of mobilizations is 
sufficient to build a self-managed popular power capable of accumulating 
strength and transforming class society. Our concrete experience has 
shown us that a conscious, organized, and collective political effort is 
necessary to transform social energy into a historical force capable of 
confronting the State and capitalism. This is why we criticize 
anti-organizationalism and interpretations that reduce anarchism to a 
tactical methodology or an individual sensibility. Our commitment is to 
a revolutionary political project that articulates theory, strategy, and 
practice in the daily struggle.

The current OSL did not emerge from nothing. Between 1997 and 2000, 
there was an initial experiment under this name, which failed due to 
organizational limitations and a lack of collective maturity for a 
national structure. We had to recognize that it was not possible to 
"build the house from the ground up." In the following years, various 
specific organizations consolidated at the local and regional levels. 
But despite the progress, there was a lack of unity at the national level.

Demonstration on January 6, 2025, in Cuiabá (Mato Grosso, Brazil) 
against the increase in femicides.

OSL
The decision to unify was the result of a process of evaluation and 
self-criticism: we understood that for anarchism to intervene coherently 
in the Brazilian class struggle, it was necessary to build an 
organization with clear principles, solid internal structures, and 
strategic cohesion. And that the activists in this organization had to 
go through a rigorous membership process and operate according to 
well-defined concentric circles.

Building Self-Managed Popular Power
We are committed to the independent organization of the oppressed 
classes: militant unions, popular assemblies, community associations, 
peasant movements, collectives of precarious workers, neighborhood 
committees, all structured around practices of self-management, direct 
democracy, and solidarity.

For us, self-managed popular power is the foundation of a libertarian 
socialist project. It is through this lens that we envision the 
construction of a society in which economic, political, and cultural 
resources are socialized, decisions are collectivized, and human freedom 
is the expression of profound social equality.

This horizon demands the development of a libertarian social theory. We 
strive to understand contemporary changes in the world of work, in class 
composition, in the Brazilian racial system, in gender relations, in the 
environmental crisis, and in the current mechanisms of state and 
capitalist domination. A revolutionary strategy can only be sound if it 
is based on a rigorous analysis of reality.

For a Libertarian Socialism
We want our existence to be relevant to Brazilian and Latin American 
anarchism, and consequently to the class struggle. On a continent 
scarred by state violence, profoundly unequal wealth accumulation, 
racism and patriarchy, as well as the environmental crisis, we affirm 
the necessity of an organized, classist, and internationalist anarchism.

We want to contribute to rebuilding anarchism as a social force, a mass 
movement, and a practice rooted in concrete struggles. We do not claim 
theoretical purity, but strategic commitment. We do not seek 
institutional shortcuts, but paths to popular power. We do not act as 
spectators of politics, but as an active part of the working class in 
struggle.

We believe that our experience can engage in dialogue with libertarian 
organizations in Europe, Latin America, and around the world, not as a 
model, but as an integral part of a global process of recomposing this 
militant and revolutionary anarchism, this libertarian socialist 
alternative for the present.

We are building what begins now. And we invite everyone to march 
alongside us in the construction of a self-governed, egalitarian, and 
truly free society.

Libertarian Socialist Organization, Brazilian sister organization of UCL

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Bresil-L-OSL-et-la-reconstruction-d-un-anarchisme-de-masse
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