A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #373 - History - Internationalism: The Failure of the Libertarian Communist International (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Faced with a globally organized capitalism, libertarian communists have 
consistently attempted to build their own international structures. From 
Diélo Truda's Platform to the coordination experiments of the anarchist 
movement, this history reveals a question that remains relevant today: 
how to unite revolutionary forces across borders without replicating the 
authoritarian logic of centralized parties?
The workers' internationals of the 19th and 20th centuries-from the 
First International to the Communist International-express a simple 
idea: Capital is global, and so must revolution.

Libertarian internationalism presupposes permanent structures, shared 
strategic debates, and genuine material and political solidarity among 
revolutionary organizations on a global scale. Without these, each group 
remains isolated in the face of its own state.

Russian anarchism suffered a major defeat during the 1917 Revolution. 
Nestor Makhno himself was forced into exile after leading a significant 
peasant and libertarian revolutionary experiment in Ukraine. It is in 
this context that the Delo Truda group wrote in the introduction to the 
Platform that anarchism was suffering from a "chronic general 
disorganization." The Platformists sought to address this weakness, 
notably by considering the necessary question of libertarian 
internationalism.

Nestor Makhno (1888-1934) led an insurgent peasant army for three years, 
claiming to adhere to communist anarchism.

A First Attempt Failed
In 1927, the Delo Truda group attempted to open up a concrete prospect 
for a Platformist International. On February 5, they announced the 
holding of an international anarchist congress. On February 12, a 
preliminary meeting took place, marked by controversies and 
disagreements among the Synthetists. But the Platformists persisted: 
without lasting coordination and a common strategy, libertarian 
communism would remain doomed to fragmentation.

The congress was held on March 20, 1927, at the Les Roses cinema on Rue 
de Metz in L'Haÿ-les-Roses. Activists from China, Russia, France, Italy, 
Poland, Bulgaria, and Spain participated.

From the very first session, discussions began on creating a Universal 
International Union of Anarchists based on the principles of the Platform.

Numerous disagreements arose. Some saw it as a necessary strategic 
clarification of the libertarian movement; others feared the emergence 
of an overly centralized structure, likely to reproduce, in another 
form, the logic of Marxism-Leninism. During discussions aimed at 
reaching a consensus, the French police burst in and arrested all the 
delegates. Foreign activists were subject to deportation orders[1].

There was no immediate follow-up to this project by the Diélo Trouda 
group, but this police repression did not extinguish the desire to build 
an International. Several decades later, in 1954, the Libertarian 
Communist Federation (FCL) initiated the Libertarian Communist 
International (ICL), but it collapsed following the destruction of the 
FCL by the French state. Today, there is no Libertarian Communist 
International. The Libertarian Communist Union is part of an 
international coordination of organized anarchism[2].

An International unites and structures organizations around a common 
political project, while a coordination organizes their cooperation 
while preserving their autonomy.

Hugo (UCL Grenoble)
The Failure of the Spanish Revolution
Makhno, after his group Diélo Trouda's attempt to organize anarchism 
worldwide, reaffirmed this idea during his clandestine meeting in July 
1927 with Buenaventura Durruti and Francisco Ascaso. For him, the 
conditions for a libertarian revolution were more favorable in Spain 
than in Russia because there was a proletariat and a peasantry with a 
revolutionary tradition, and because Spanish anarchists possessed a 
sense of organization that was lacking in Russia. Makhno promised that 
if a revolution broke out in Spain, he would join it. However, he died 
in poverty in July 1934, two years before the 1936 libertarian 
revolution in Spain, which he had predicted.

Buenaventura Durruti (1896-1936) was a revolutionary anarchist activist. 
He is an emblematic figure of Spanish anarchism.

Joel Bellviure

The Spanish Revolution itself demonstrates the limitations of a 
revolutionary movement that is insufficiently coordinated globally. This 
remarkable revolutionary experiment in land collectivization and factory 
self-management, led by the CNT-FAI, was politically encircled by the 
Francoists-aided by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy-the Social Democratic 
Republicans, and the Stalinists-supported by the Communist International 
(Comintern). The Spanish Republic attempted to undermine the 
revolutionary momentum in order to maintain diplomatic relations with 
the European bourgeoisies and secure material support. Indeed, why would 
the government of Léon Blum, despite being left-wing, support a 
libertarian revolution that could have spread rapidly across the Pyrenees?

The International Workingmen's Association (IWA)[3], an 
anarcho-syndicalist international, was not sufficiently structured and 
coordinated to confront the Stalinist machine. Because of this 
ineffectiveness, the Spanish CNT attempted to compete with the 
counter-revolutionary apparatus of the Comintern by creating 
International Anti-Fascist Solidarity (SIA) in 1937. This international 
organization was primarily intended to establish a non-partisan 
humanitarian aid network. To confront centralized adversaries operating 
on a global scale, what was needed was not simply a collection of 
anarchist groups, but a true libertarian communist International based 
on the organizational principles of the Platform.

SIA headquarters in Barcelona. Photo taken during Emma Goldmann's visit 
in 1938.
Valentin Frémonti
An International, Not a Coordination
The social revolution cannot remain confined within national borders 
without ultimately being strangled economically, militarily, or 
politically. A libertarian communist International could not only 
exponentially increase our offensive capacity against Capital, but also 
strengthen revolutionary organizations where they are still weak or 
marginalized. Such an International should not be a centralized "world 
party" reproducing the authoritarian hierarchies of Leninism. 
Theoretical unity does not imply mechanical uniformity. It would allow 
for the circulation of experiences of struggle, activist resources, 
strategic analyses, and concrete forms of solidarity. The Russian 
platformists foresaw this necessity after the defeat of the Soviet 
revolution. Their intuition remains urgently relevant in confronting the 
imperialist ogre that is ravaging our planet and transforming it into a 
battlefield.

Zhong Hua (UCL Alsace)

Submit

[1]"Ba Jin and the 'Archinov Platform'," À contretemps no. 45, March 2013.

[2]"Since 2000, the Anarkismo Network: Coordinating Libertarian 
Communism Worldwide," Alternative libertaire no. 363, September 2025.

[3]This refers not to the International Workingmen's Association (IWA) 
of 1864, but rather to the one created in 1922 in Berlin by 
anarcho-syndicalist organizations.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Internationalisme-L-echec-de-l-Internationale-communiste-libertaire
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