A-Infos (en) US, BRRN: VI. Organização Socialista Libertária - Libertarian Socialist Organization (Brazil) (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

1. OSL is a new formation, but it is made up of seasoned militants from 
FARJ, OASL, RL and COMPA. Within OSL do these groups maintain their 
distinct identities, or have they officially fused to become federal 
chapters of OSL? If so, what did this process of fusion entail?
OSL: OSL was formed precisely through a process of organizational merger 
among these organizations and collectives. Our understanding was that, 
in order to advance the construction of a national anarchist political 
organization, it was not enough to maintain merely a coordinating 
relationship among autonomous organizations; it was necessary to build a 
common organizational structure, with a deeper ideological, theoretical, 
strategic, and tactical unity. In our view, this coordination of 
autonomous or relatively autonomous organizations, which was what 
existed within the CAB, was a factor that hindered the effective 
construction of a national anarchist organization.

For this reason, FARJ, OASL, RL, COMPA, and other individual militants 
decided to cease to exist as separate political organizations in order 
to form a single national organization: the OSL. Of course, we continue 
to recognize the different historical legacies, regional experiences, 
and political trajectories that each of these organizations has built 
over the years. These legacies remain fundamental to the collective 
construction of the OSL.

However, organizationally, we no longer operate as a federation of 
autonomous groups, each preserving its own lines. Our local cells and 
regions have become part of a single national structure, functioning 
under a common organizational framework, with unified instances, shared 
political lines, and collective mechanisms for decision-making and 
accountability.

This merger process involved several years of political and 
organizational convergence. Since at least 2021, our regional chapter of 
the then CAB (Southeast-Central-West) had already been functioning in 
practice in a highly integrated manner, unifying internal processes, 
political coordination, formulations, and work fronts. This experience

concretely demonstrated the advantages of moving from coordination to a 
unified political organization.

The general guidelines of the OSL were developed during the different 
stages of our first congress (I CONOSL), where we debated and decided on 
issues related to organizational structure, strategy, theory, program, 
and national expansion. We understand this process as part of an effort 
to mature Brazilian anarchism and to build a more homogeneous, coherent 
political tool capable of consistently intervening in the Brazilian 
class struggle.

2. Let's discuss organizational dualism. The groups which came together 
to form OSL are well known for their work in receiving, articulating, 
and transmitting the organizational-strategic concept of especifismo-the 
most widely known example being FARJ's Social Anarchism and Organization.

We are conducting this interview on the 100th anniversary of the Dielo 
Truda Group's publication of the Platform. While both especifismo and 
"platformism" are expressions of organizational dualism, there are often 
questions about the similarities or differences emphasized in each 
approach. Does OSL view these differences purely artificial and 
aesthetic? Or is there a substantive divergence between them?

OSL: We understand that especifismo and platformism are distinct 
historical expressions of the same anarchist tradition: organizational 
dualism, whose origins can be traced back to Bakunin and the experience 
of the Alliance. Both defend the need for a specific anarchist 
organization with theoretical, ideological, strategic, and tactical 
unity, working in a complementary manner with popular and mass movements.

For us, the differences between especifismo and platformism are not 
merely artificial, nor do they constitute irreconcilable divergences. 
They pertain, above all, to the historical and regional conditions in 
which these experiences developed. Platformism emerged in the European 
context following the Russian Revolution, particularly from the 
experience of the Dielo Truda Group and the critical analysis of 
anarchist failure in the face of Bolshevism. Especifismo, on the other 
hand, developed mainly in Latin America, led by the Uruguayan Anarchist 
Federation (FAU), incorporating reflections on imperialism, dependency, 
and strategies for social integration in peripheral countries.

The OSL claims both traditions as legitimate heirs to the anarchist 
organizational dualism of Alliance-based origin. We consider that there 
are more convergences than divergences between them, and we seek 
precisely to synthesize their historical, organizational, and strategic 
contributions into a proposal suited to the contemporary Brazilian and 
Latin American reality.

3. How does the Platform inform the theory, practice, and/or 
organizational structure of OSL?

OSL: The Dielo Truda Group's Platform holds fundamental historical 
importance for our current, especially because it clearly systematized 
organizational principles that were already present in earlier 
experiences of revolutionary anarchism. Its defense of theoretical, 
tactical, and strategic unity, collective responsibility, and federalism 
contributes directly to our organizational conception.

The OSL understands anarchist organization as a programmatic political 
organization. We understand that without unity and organic coherence, 
anarchists tend toward dispersion and an inability to influence the 
actual processes of class struggle.

We seek to articulate the Platform with the contributions of Latin 
American especifismo, especially those of FAU, which has delved deeper 
into issues related to social integration, mass work, and the need for 
the sustained building of popular power in peripheral and dependent 
contexts.

Thus, the Platform influences our national organizational structure, our 
understanding of the role of the specific anarchist organization, and 
our defense of a revolutionary project based on self-management, 
federalism, and class struggle.

4. OSL puts forward the concept of Libertarian Materialism as an 
alternative to both idealism/postmodernism and the classical conception 
of Dialectical Materialism. Can you articulate briefly the framework of 
this analysis?

OSL: Our conception of materialism-or libertarian realism-seeks to 
construct a libertarian social theory capable of interpreting 
contemporary reality without falling into either the limitations of 
classical Marxism or the problems of postmodernism and poststructuralism.

On the one hand, we consider it necessary to overcome problematic 
aspects of Marxism, especially its economistic, deterministic, and 
statist tendencies, as well as the historical identification between 
socialization and nationalization (society and the state) that 
characterized much of the experience of so-called "real socialism." We 
also understand that certain formulations of "historical materialism" or 
"dialectical materialism" have ended up crystallizing excessively rigid 
interpretations of social reality.

On the other hand, we reject the contemporary advance of postmodernism 
and progressive liberalism in broad sectors of the left. We consider 
problematic the fragmentation of social analyses, the denial of the 
centrality of class struggle, epistemological relativism, and the 
replacement of structural perspectives with exclusively discursive or 
identity-based approaches.

Our libertarian materialism seeks to affirm a critical science and 
reason, articulating class, race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, and 
nationality within a structural and class-based perspective. We seek to 
construct our own libertarian social theory, grounded in classical and 
contemporary anarchist authors, capable of strategically guiding our 
political practice and our revolutionary project.

5. What areas of mass or base organizing does OSL prioritize or involve 
itself in presently?

OSL: OSL is active on various fronts of grassroots organizing and social 
work, seeking to strengthen the self-organization of oppressed classes 
and build a project of popular power with a socialist and libertarian 
character.

We are involved in labor, community, student, agrarian, and territorial 
movements, as well as initiatives related to the struggle for housing, 
organizing in the periphery, and various forms of popular mobilization. 
We understand that popular movements constitute the fundamental terrain 
of the class struggle and that it is from them that real processes of 
social transformation can emerge.

Our work seeks to strengthen practices of grassroots democracy, direct 
action, class independence, combativeness, and self-management. We also 
defend the need for long-term political and organizational accumulation, 
understanding that revolutionary transformation requires a prolonged 
process of building social power.

Furthermore, we have made progress in expanding the OSL's organizational 
reach to different regions of Brazil, seeking to build a national 
organization effectively rooted in the concrete struggles of the 
oppressed classes.

6. The current of "organized anarchism" appears to be growing across the 
world, including in South America, what do you think accounts for this?

OSL: First and foremost, it is important to note that the term 
"organized anarchism" can be misleading. This is because it has at least 
two meanings. On the one hand, it can refer solely to the 
organizationalist wing of anarchism (which opposes the 
anti-organizationalists), and in this sense, anarcho-syndicalists, 
synthetists, and other currents would also be included, since they too 
advocate for organization (albeit in forms different from those we do). 
On the other hand, various organizations that draw from our tradition 
(alliance-based, platformist, and specifist) use the term "organized 
anarchism" to refer to our current. In this case, organized anarchism 
and our current would be synonymous. It is always good to make this 
distinction, because we do not advocate "organization"; we advocate a 
specific form of organization, which differs from others, such as 
anarcho-syndicalism and synthesism, for example.

In any case, we believe that this organizational growth of anarchism is 
related to various historical and political factors. First, there is a 
prolonged crisis of traditional forms of the left, especially 
social-democratic and Marxist-Leninist experiences, which in many cases 
have demonstrated profound limitations, both strategically and 
organizationally.

At the same time, the effects of the problems of 
state-capitalism-deepening inequalities, the precariousness of labor, 
the rise of authoritarianism, wars, environmental destruction, and the 
intensification of forms of domination-have brought the need for 
revolutionary alternatives back to the forefront.

We understand that this is still a modest process given the scale of the 
challenges at hand. But we believe that this international strengthening 
of "organized anarchism" expresses an attempt to rebuild a socialist, 
revolutionary, and libertarian alternative rooted in the concrete 
struggles of the oppressed classes.

Compared to other currents of socialism, our understanding is that there 
is a retreat of anarchism and of all revolutionary expressions of 
socialism. Internationally, alongside the rise of the far right, there 
is also a rise in highly centralized and authoritarian expressions of 
socialism. In Brazil, this is visible, and we do not yet have a thorough 
analysis to explain this phenomenon. However, regarding anarchism and 
the revolutionary movement, we believe that organized anarchism has 
grown and positioned itself as a libertarian socialist alternative 
approach to the challenges of class struggle.

https://www.blackrosefed.org/platform-100-interviews-vol-1/#organizacao-socialista-libertaria-libertarian-socialist-organization-brazil
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