A-Infos (en) Holland, VRIJ: Federation of Free Socialism - Founding Manifesto (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

INTRODUCTION 3
OUR POLITICAL PRINCIPLES 4
WHAT WE UNDERSTAND BY ANARCHISM 4
WHAT KIND OF ANARCHISTS WE ARE 5
WHAT IS FREE SOCIALISM 6
HOW WE UNDERSTAND SOCIETY 7
THE CAPITALIST-STATE SYSTEM 8
ECOLOGY 10
IMPERIALISM AND NATIONALISM 11
INTERSECTIONALITY 12
RACISM 13
PATRIARCHY 14
OUR ORGANIZATIONAL PRINCIPLES 16
THE ROLE OF THE ANARCHIST ORGANIZATION 16
THE FUNCTIONING OF THE ANARCHIST ORGANIZATION 16
OUR GENERAL STRATEGY 18
BUILDING PEOPLE'S POWER 18
REVOLUTIONARY SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION 20
THE TRANSITION TO THE FREE SOCIALISM 22
OUR JOURNEY 25
OUR MILITANCE 28

Introduction
We are a revolutionary anarchist organization in the Netherlands.

We strive for an ecological society built from the bottom up, in which 
people decide together about their work, their communities, and the land 
on which they live. A society that revolves around the needs and desires 
of everyone, not the privileges of the few. To achieve this, we must 
break the chains of class society.

The current system sows destruction and ruin everywhere: war and 
militarism, rising nationalism, white supremacy, Zionism, patriarchy, 
climate disruption, economic instability, existential insecurity, and 
unlimited exploitation. This is no coincidence. These are the 
consequences of a system of domination that does exactly what it was 
designed to do. And it can be dismantled and replaced.

It is from this conviction that the Federation for Free Socialism (FVS) 
was founded, which will launch its first federated chapters in Amsterdam 
and Rotterdam The Hague in 2026. It is the result of accumulated 
experience and study. We stand in the tradition of specifically 
organized anarchism, related to platformism and especifismo: anarchists 
need an organization of their own, with shared ideas, theory, and 
practice, that participates in the broader struggle of the oppressed.

Unity cannot rest on empty slogans. We must build it together, test it 
against our successes and failures, and let it take root in the lived 
class struggle of the past and present.

This manifesto is our starting point. It explains what we stand for, how 
we organize ourselves, and how we intend to fight. From here, we build 
further.

Our political principles

What we understand by anarchism
It is important to make clear what we stand for. Only then can our unity 
rest on genuine consensus and not on false assumptions. The word 
"anarchist" is used so broadly nowadays that it covers positions that 
directly contradict one another. When one combines those positions, what 
remains is an organization based on little else than criticism: the 
members agree on what they are against, but not on what needs to be done 
or why. If anarchism can mean everything, it soon means nothing anymore.

This is why we are specific about what we are: we are anarchists and 
understand anarchism as a left-wing political ideology, a libertarian, 
revolutionary form of socialism. We want to strategically organize the 
oppressed classes so that they fight for their own material interests 
and bring about a social revolution that establishes a free-socialist 
society.

For us, anarchism is not a lifestyle or worldview that must be guarded 
with puritanical zeal, but a pragmatic political project to change 
society. The definition we employ is rooted in the actual history of 
anarchism: in how it originated and in how anarchists have used the word 
over the past century and a half. From that history, we derive the core 
principles, and we reject definitions that we deem too broad, too 
narrow, or inherently contradictory.

Underlying anarchism is an ethics that opposes every form of domination, 
whether economic, political, or cultural. This includes class 
domination, but equally patriarchy, racism, imperialism, colonialism, 
ableism, and every other form of oppression. The ultimate goal of 
anarchism is the establishment of a free socialist society.

That future cannot be won without class struggle. By class, we do not 
mean income level, but a relationship of domination: who owns and 
manages the means of subsistence, from housing and food to workplaces, 
wealth, political institutions, and the reproduction of ideas. To 
overthrow the current system of domination, an independent, organized, 
and militant power of the oppressed is needed.

What kind of anarchists we are:
We believe in the necessity of organization. It must be disciplined and 
formal, and willing to be accountable. The idea that any structure leads 
to tyranny is a myth, and isolated individuals or scattered affinity 
groups cannot sustain a revolution. A revolutionary struggle can only 
endure through large-scale coordination and shared responsibility.

We fight for reforms as a path to revolution, not as a replacement for 
it. Real achievements currently being secured help, provided they are 
pursued as part of a broader revolutionary strategy, to build the 
popular power needed to win more. We reject the purism that dismisses 
any interim victory. The power of the oppressed is forged in the class 
struggle: by people who organize themselves, take direct action within 
social movements, and thus draw more and more others into the struggle 
and into revolutionary consciousness. We want to wage the struggle as 
humanely as possible, but we are not pacifists. We also reject the 
"propaganda of the deed," as well as the delusion that a few dramatic 
acts of terror can bring a movement to life. That has never happened.

We are here to build, not merely to tear down. Merely tearing down and 
resisting what currently exists is not a sufficient plan. We must 
develop a detailed strategy and a real alternative to the 
capitalist-state system.

We organize ourselves on two levels simultaneously. We maintain our own 
anarchist organization, united in ideas and strategy, while 
simultaneously standing at the heart of the broader social movements of 
ordinary people: in the workplace, among tenants, in the neighborhood, 
in the fight against patriarchy or climate change-wherever people fight 
for a better life. We call this the specifically anarchist tradition of 
organizational dualism. The anarchist organization is a dedicated 
minority: a determined cadre that advocates and organizes anarchist 
ideas within the social struggle. This tradition has been upheld by 
working people for more than a century and a half.

We reject the "big tent" model of organization, which brings every 
self-proclaimed anarchist under one roof based on the assumption that 
more people automatically mean more strength. Numbers without a shared 
direction constitute no strength. Strength stems from consensus on where 
we want to go and from effectiveness in execution.

What is free socialism?

Our goal is a free socialist society, based on a simple principle: from 
each according to ability, to each according to need. It promises 
abundance, well-being, and the greatest possible freedom, supported by a 
common-owned economy and a self-governing society free from domination. 
At its core, it is a classless society.

We reject the individualistic view that freedom amounts to doing 
whatever one wants, without any obligations to others. That "freedom" is 
nothing but the door back to a class society. True freedom demands 
solidarity, mutual responsibility, and accountability to our communities.

In a free socialist society, there are no rulers and no owners. 
Economic, political, and cultural resources belong collectively to 
everyone. Whoever can work, works. Labor is a societal function: it 
serves both the community and the worker. We decide together how work is 
organized, with an equal voice for everyone. Where there is abundance, 
goods are freely available to all. Where there is scarcity, we 
distribute according to need based on collective decision.

People govern themselves from the bottom up through councils and 
associations. What can be decided locally is decided locally. What 
requires broader coordination-across a region, a country, or 
internationally-is regulated through federation: free, autonomous groups 
joining together for common goals, by mutual agreement and for mutual 
benefit, never by order.

Three convictions hold this social contract together.

First: autonomy. People and communities can manage their own affairs and 
have the right to do so, as long as they do not violate the freedom of 
others. Whoever exploits, oppresses, or dominates breaks that contract, 
and resistance to this is justified. This rests on a simple trust in 
human dignity: the belief that people can govern themselves and that 
self-governance makes them more responsible, not less.

Secondly: decentralized power. Hierarchy breeds subservience, apathy, 
and careerism. Those who do the work and experience the circumstances 
firsthand are best placed to judge. Spreading power prevents anyone from 
appropriating it and enables genuine participation, rather than forcing 
people to obey a minority.

Thirdly: federalism, the free association between groups. This does not 
mean that coordination is lacking. Where broader bodies are 
needed-regional, national, or international-they exist, but they remain 
directly democratic. Representatives receive a strict mandate and can be 
recalled at any time. They carry out what they are instructed to do; 
they do not rule.

We are clear on one thing: rejecting top-down governance does not mean 
rejecting collective decision-making, nor the shared responsibility to 
implement decisions. What we reject is hierarchical decision-making by 
order and coercion: the power that some exercise over their lives 
against the will of their fellow workers. We are speaking here of 
disproportionate acts against others, acts that cannot be considered 
resistance.

The federalist model is diametrically opposed to command; it is based on 
direct democracy and free association. Coordination on a large scale 
requires formal administrative structures, but the decision-making power 
remains at the grassroots level.

How we understand society

The theoretical approach with which we attempt to understand reality and 
society is called libertarian materialism and social theory. It is 
rooted in classical anarchist thought and further developed by the 
Organização Socialismo Libertário (OSL) and the Institute for Anarchist 
Theory and History (IATH).

It assumes that a real, material world exists that is the same for all 
of us, and that we can come to know that world through inquiry and 
testing. That knowledge is never definitive and always remains open to 
correction. Philosophically, it falls under critical realism and stands 
apart from orthodox Marxist, liberal, positivist, and postmodern movements.

Society is part of material reality, shaped by its conditions and 
institutions. We reject the notion that a single factor would suffice to 
explain everything in society, but equally the notion that all 
explanations are equally true. We seek the explanations that best fit 
the facts and reveal genuine causal connections. Yet, ultimately, theory 
remains no more than a lens: it shows us how we can achieve our goals in 
the world as it truly is.

The capitalist-state system

With the aid of libertarian materialism and social theory, we understand 
contemporary society as a capitalist-state system: a structure of 
enduring domination that shapes the entirety of social life.

To get a grip on this, we divide the system into three spheres: the 
economic, the political, and the cultural. Each sphere has its own 
institutions. The spheres can be distinguished separately but are 
interdependent, and together they function as a single whole. The same 
logic unfolds in all three spheres: the continuous accumulation and 
monopolization of capital, or power. Capitalism must be understood as 
more than just an economic system. It is inextricably linked to the 
organized coercion that sustains it and to the cultural ideas and norms 
that legitimize it.

The general form of society stems from the class struggle, the social 
conflict between classes. It is the central contradiction of the system: 
the class struggle draws other conflicts, rooted in other forms of 
domination, towards itself and reforms them.

Class is determined by relations of domination, by the question of who 
owns or controls the economic means (workplaces, raw materials, land, 
and production), the political means (laws, courts, police, and state 
decision-making), and the cultural means (education, media, religion, 
and the principal sources of "common sense"). Class is therefore not 
merely an economic relationship. The ruling classes include capitalists, 
large landowners, the political-bureaucratic elite, knowledge 
monopolists, senior managers, and other ruling strata. The oppressed 
include workers, peasants, indigenous peoples, and so on.

In the Netherlands, as in all of Western Europe, the urban and rural 
working class constitutes the most important revolutionary subject. Its 
capacity for self-organization and collective struggle is the basis upon 
which we build popular power and social change here.

The economic sphere encompasses the capitalist economy: commodity 
production for profit, and a social relationship between those forced to 
work for wages and those who own, manage, and reap the fruits of that 
production. Because the capitalist class keeps the means of production 
in private ownership, concentrated in a few hands, it denies the working 
class democratic control over the economy and the workplaces. The 
working class, alienated from this control, constitutes the vast 
majority and must sell its labor to survive. Workers create enormous 
wealth, a portion of which capitalists appropriate as capital to 
reinvest and thus increase their profits and power.

The capitalist economy cannot function without the state, which enforces 
the rules of the system; without those rules, private property could not 
exist. Workers occupy a unique place within the capitalist-state system. 
Because they are indispensable to keeping production running, they have 
the power to halt it and reorganize it on a new basis.

The political sphere encompasses the state: a hierarchical institution 
of concentrated class rule by a minority. The modern state developed 
alongside the capitalist economy. It claims a monopoly on violence 
within its defined territory and maintains an apparatus of repression to 
defend that claim: the police, the courts, the prisons, and the army. 
Every class society relies on the state to reproduce the domination of 
the ruling classes over the oppressed.

To speak of a "workers' state" or a "democratic state" is an internal 
contradiction. A state is not governed by the population, but by a 
ruling political-bureaucratic minority with privileged access to 
organized coercion, regardless of how that minority is appointed and how 
it justifies itself. A non-hierarchical administration built from the 
bottom up, or institutions that fulfill their societal tasks through 
federated direct democracy and strictly mandated, revocable 
representatives, cannot be called states, for no privileged minority 
stands above the population. States are hierarchical administrations, 
but not every administration is a state.

In the cultural sphere, the system acquires our consent and determines 
what counts as "normal." Class rule largely hides behind constructed 
consent: people are led to accept the system as legitimate, without 
constant coercion being involved. Through education, the semblance of 
democratic governance, the nuclear family, and the mass media, the 
ruling forces build a broad consensus, causing the oppressed to view 
capitalism and the state as natural and inevitable. Coercion and consent 
work together: where consent fails, the system falls back on repression.

By making the logic of hierarchy their own, people reproduce class 
society in their daily lives. The state reinforces this. It "mediates" 
in the class struggle, provides services such as education and 
healthcare, channels conflicts through regulated procedures, and creates 
the impression of neutrality through reforms and concessions. However, 
the services provided by the state are not merely a product of class 
struggle, although struggle can shift them. They often serve the 
capitalist-state system: they reproduce and maintain the workforce and 
smooth out business cycle fluctuations, with each state actively 
co-determining how labor is composed and organized.

Ecology

The capitalist-state system is a major source of environmental 
destruction. Climate disruption, collapsing biodiversity, poisoned soil, 
air, and water: these are not simply consequences of flawed policy. They 
stem from the logic of the capitalist economy, from endless accumulation 
and production for profit. A system built for eternal growth cannot live 
in balance with a finite planet. The two are irreconcilable.

The prevailing narrative points to human nature as the culprit for the 
ecological catastrophe, or our consumerism, or overpopulation. All 
scapegoats. The real driving forces are capitalist extraction, 
militarism, industrial agriculture, and fossil capital. Workers do not 
determine what is produced or how it is produced. That is done by the 
ruling classes, who subsequently blame the workers for the outcome.

Their solutions repeat the same lie. Emissions trading, recycling 
campaigns, "a different lifestyle": all three turn the crisis into a 
matter of personal responsibility, while the system remains untouched. 
Worse still, these narratives all too often justify austerity measures 
at the expense of the oppressed and even more protection for those who 
are already privileged.

The consequences of ecological collapse hit marginalized communities 
hardest. Ecological justice must be anti-imperialist, anti-racist, 
anti-sexist, and class-conscious; otherwise, it means little.

Society is part of nature and does not stand above it. An ecological 
society must take the interdependence of all living things, human and 
non-human, seriously and organize production in such a way that it 
serves ecological balance and human needs, rather than profit and 
accumulation.

Imperialism and Nationalism

Imperialism is the international expansion of the capitalist-state 
system across borders. Through powerful states, the ruling classes 
plunder weaker nations and their oppressed classes to keep the flow of 
raw materials, cheap labor, and capital going. Capital cannot sit still. 
As it accumulates, the ruling classes must constantly find new markets, 
new raw materials, and new people to exploit. In this way, they push 
outwards and reform entire regions in the service of capital.

This happens not only through military intervention but also through 
economic coercion: debts, sanctions, unequal exchange, and corporations 
dictating wages and laws to peoples who are sovereign only on paper. If 
a colony is "liberated," the real power over policy and trade often 
remains exactly where it was, while local elites all too often 
collaborate with that order to enrich themselves. The "Caribbean part of 
the Kingdom" is a direct continuation of Dutch colonial rule.

Imperialism cannot be separated from racism. Capitalism is built on 
genocide, slavery, and conquest, and that same logic still shifts the 
most dangerous, humiliating, and lowest-paid work onto racialized 
populations worldwide.

The Netherlands has historically been part of the imperial core. Some of 
the ruling class's imperial spoils trickles down here: relatively higher 
wages, better social services, and greater stability for parts of the 
working class. However, the capitalists keep the lion's share for 
themselves, yet the crumbs are enough to induce some workers to 
prioritize the interests of the ruling class over those of workers 
worldwide. That comfort, however, is fragile and constantly under pressure.

Always on the hunt for cheaper labor and higher profits, the ruling 
class is eroding wages and social security here as well. When this 
happens, nationalism and racism quickly rear their heads to pit workers 
against migrants and other societal "outsiders" rather than against 
those who are truly responsible. To break through this division, 
internationalism and a willingness to give up comfort based on the 
exploitation of others are necessary. The capitalist-state system is 
international; our class struggle must be so too.

We reject nationalism, including its decolonial variants, wherever it 
places a so-called "national unity" above class antagonisms. Nations are 
not natural and not fixed: they are made, often violently. We stand 
without reservation behind the absolute right of oppressed peoples to 
resist colonial and imperial domination. But exchanging foreign rulers 
for local ones, who are absorbed into the same system, changes too 
little. Therefore, we place no trust in "sovereign" states as a path to 
emancipation.

We also reject campism: the tendency to divide the world into an 
imperialist and an anti-imperialist bloc and subsequently applaud the 
lesser evil. The ruling classes of a state can resist foreign 
imperialism while simultaneously suppressing their own workers, 
minorities, and dissidents. Consistent anti-imperialism stands on the 
side of the oppressed classes, not on that of the regimes that dominate 
them. True anti-imperialism makes no compromises with class enemies.

Intersectionality

Patriarchy and racism are older than capitalism and the state, but it is 
the capitalist-state system that has absorbed, reproduces, and reforms 
them today. Abolishing this system will not in itself put an end to all 
other forms of oppression. Yet none of those forms will end as long as 
the system perpetuates them. Class is not merely one identity or 
prejudice alongside another: it stands central to the struggle against 
every form of domination.

We want to avoid two common mistakes. The first reduces oppression to 
personal prejudice or a lack of representation: make ruling institutions 
somewhat more diverse, and the oppressive structure remains unchanged. 
The second treats anti-racist, queer, and anti-sexist struggle as a side 
issue alongside the class struggle, whereas racism and patriarchy are in 
fact tools to divide workers and uphold the capitalist-state system. 
These forms of oppression exist within our own movements and 
organizations as well, and they cannot be eradicated through education 
alone. Therefore, we proceed from their presence and build structures to 
combat them, rather than relying on good intentions alone.

Our most difficult task is building genuine unity among the oppressed 
classes, from a class-conscious perspective that brings together the 
shared interests of all the oppressed. The class struggle must be 
simultaneously internationalist, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, and 
anti-sexist, and each of these struggles must, in turn, remain rooted in 
class. Our real enemies are the ruling classes, not the workers from 
imperialist countries, not white people, cis men, or heterosexuals, and 
not a single other group within the oppressed.

We hold fast to the old feminist truth that the personal is political: 
that oppression in the so-called private sphere is interwoven with the 
larger structures that must be dismantled. But we reject the reversal of 
that truth, namely the notion that changing one's language, behavior, or 
lifestyle is in itself political action. That shifts the focus from 
structural change to performative individualism and essentialist 
identity politics, and comes at the expense of the collective struggle.

Racism

is a system that categorizes people by race, ethnicity, or ancestry and 
uses dividing lines to perpetuate unequal treatment, exploitation, and 
violence. Here, as everywhere in the West, the dominant form is white 
supremacy: an order that favors "whiteness."

"Race" was invented to justify conquest, slavery, and imperialism, and 
subsequently disguised as "science." To this day, it determines who is 
surveilled and who is protected, who is pushed into the worst work, and 
who is considered inferior.

Whiteness, too, is a fabrication. Over time, it expanded to include 
groups that were initially excluded, such as the Irish and Italians. 
What holds it together is privilege: better social services, more stable 
jobs, greater state protection. That privilege does not abolish class 
domination, but it does buy off parts of the white working class. It 
aligns them with the interests of the ruling class and divides the 
oppressed along racial lines.

Race is also an instrument of profit. The system reproduces it because 
division pays off: people of color and migrants are forced into the 
lowest-paid, most insecure, and physically most demanding work, while 
borders and violence against migrants discipline entire populations. The 
hyper-exploitation of migrant labor sustains entire sectors of the 
global economy.

Racism exists within our own movements and organizations as well and 
must be combated there just as much. Racialized comrades are often held 
accountable more harshly for their mistakes or their "tone." Decisions 
are made without the people most affected by them being at the table. 
White members are accumulating ever more influence, while others are 
pushed aside or saddled with "diversity work" without actual say.

Patriarchy

The patriarchy is a system that favors men, particularly heterosexual 
cis men, and gives them structural power over women, LGBTQ+ people, and 
gender-diverse people. It reproduces itself through our institutions, 
through emotional control and violence, and is perpetuated by the 
division of labor.

Strict gender roles are imposed from birth. The family, the school, the 
church, the doctor's office, the media, the workplace: they all teach us 
what a "man" or a "woman" is supposed to be. None of this is natural. 
These are learned and enforced rules, and whoever breaks them is 
punished. In its cruelest form, this system manifests itself in 
gender-related and sexual violence: assault, intimidation, rape, femicide.

The capitalist-state system benefits from this division. It operates the 
family as a private factory for the reproduction of workers. In this 
system, women and gender-oppressed people bear the largest share of 
unpaid care work and emotional labor: cooking, cleaning, raising 
children, and caring for family members and other loved ones after a 
paid workday. Moreover, when employed, they are often channeled into 
underpaid "women's work".

This system favors cis men. Yet violence comes from people of every 
gender, wherever patriarchal rules are enforced against those who do not 
fit the script. The patriarchy also disciplines men themselves. Dominant 
masculinity demands toughness, control, and the rejection of 
vulnerability and expression, and rewards violence as proof of status. 
Ordinary human needs thus become a source of shame, resulting in 
violence, addiction, depression, and suicide. These are not personal 
shortcomings, but the traces of a system that mutilates people to 
perpetuate itself.

The patriarchy also lives within our own movements and must be fought 
there. It manifests itself in who speaks and who is interrupted, whose 
ideas are considered "serious," and who is quietly steered toward 
administration and care work while men appropriate the visible roles. 
Our spaces must be arranged so that people can participate without being 
sexualized or pressured, and that respecting consent and boundaries is 
simply camaraderie, not a private matter.

Our Organizational Principles

The Role of the Anarchist Organization

Without organization, we cannot seriously strive for revolutionary 
social transformation. The specific anarchist organization is an 
association of workers committed to anarchism and in agreement on clear 
principles, goals, and means to achieve them. Its task is to participate 
in social movements and help build them, not to stand above them.

The specific anarchist organization acts like yeast in the dough: it 
does not become the bread, but helps the whole rise. By organizing, 
awakening class consciousness, and advocating a clear strategic course, 
it helps transform the divided power of the oppressed into a genuine 
popular power.

We reject authoritarian vanguard methods that seek to direct the social 
struggle or substitute themselves for it. No party should lead the 
people from above or speak in their name. The revolution is the work of 
the oppressed themselves; our task is to strengthen them in their role 
as protagonists, not to act in their name.

Our relationship to social movements is one of equality: mutual 
influence and mutual learning, never coercive control. We reject every 
form of command, financial pressure, demands for obedience, manipulation 
from above, the splitting of a movement for party interests, and 
entryism aimed at takeover. We equally reject the reverse: blindly 
following movements, regardless of the direction they take, even when 
this runs counter to our principles or strategy.

We bring an anarchist perspective to the social struggle and strive to 
develop these movements into genuine spaces of popular participation, in 
which we build the relations of the future in the present and intensify 
the class struggle.

The functioning of the anarchist organization

We draw inspiration from the anarchist traditions of platformism and 
especifismo. We organize ourselves on two levels simultaneously. On the 
social level, we work within social movements, in the daily struggle for 
wages, housing, and living conditions. On the political level, we 
organize ourselves ideologically as anarchists, around shared ideas and 
a common strategy.

The organization is structured as a series of concentric circles, in 
which militants assume more commitment and responsibility as they move 
closer to the center. Each layer of the organization has rights and 
duties commensurate with the level of commitment, ensuring that people 
only make decisions regarding what they themselves will carry out. The 
organization must be closed enough to ensure that militants are 
well-prepared, committed, and politically united, yet open enough to 
attract and incorporate new militants.

We are not a mass organization and not an electoral party. We are a 
dedicated minority, a cadre of militants. We do not participate in 
elections and we do not seek state power.

Our goal is to unite militants around a common political line and a 
program for our actions. We do not claim to be the only true voice of 
the oppressed, but merely state that, in our conviction, our proposals 
form the firmest basis for a practice that truly serves them.

Four principles give the organization its structure:

* First, self-governance and federalism: we are non-hierarchical and 
directly democratic, and our branches coordinate from the bottom up 
through representatives who are strictly mandated and can be recalled at 
any time.

* Second, unity of ideology and theory: a clear political and 
theoretical line, jointly determined and subsequently publicly defended, 
never imposed but always built through joint practice, study, and honest 
criticism.

* Third, unity of action: shared goals and agreed strategies and tactics 
to pursue them, laid down in a program that every militant helps to 
draft and subsequently implements.

Fourth, collective responsibility: each of us bears responsibility for 
our own tasks and behavior; the organization bears responsibility for 
the well-being and functioning of every activist.

We do not deny that there will be disagreement. Different viewpoints are 
permitted and often inevitable. On smaller issues, the minority 
willingly submits to the majority to keep us united and decisive. On 
larger issues, we continue the dialogue; if we still cannot reach an 
agreement, both viewpoints continue to exist side by side, or the 
minority goes its own way. As soon as a decision has been taken 
collectively, the entire organization defends it and acts accordingly.

What matters is that we act in unison according to what we have decided 
together. We always strive for the broadest possible consensus and 
refuse to rush decisions that we can make with care. Haste leads only to 
division, resentment, or a hollow unity in which people comply without 
anything being settled. True unity is built carefully through shared 
work and consultation in which viewpoints can be tested before they are 
finalized.

Our general strategy:

Building People's Power

. The foundation of our general strategy is the building of 
self-governed people's power. This means strengthening the power of the 
oppressed classes to such an extent that they can carry out a social 
revolution, overthrow the current system, and replace it with free 
socialism.

This work begins now. In the Netherlands, this begins with involving the 
working class-in the cities and in the countryside, including the 
working-class intelligentsia-in the active struggle through social 
movements. At present, the vast majority of workers are unorganized and 
stand outside the class struggle. The minority that is organized 
primarily proclaims positions that perpetuate the system or are aimed at 
minor reforms at best.

This brings us to two tasks. First, we must organize as large a part of 
the working class as possible into mass social movements, so that 
workers can intervene in their own social reality. Without organization, 
their power remains dormant and does not manifest itself. Second, we 
must give these movements a strategic, programmatic, and revolutionary 
direction, for organization alone is insufficient. Due to the hegemony 
of prevailing ideas and institutions, a social movement without 
direction usually manages only the symptoms of the system, rather than 
building power against it.

Our means must align with our goals, and class consciousness develops 
best through participation in the class struggle itself. Therefore, we 
defend a number of characteristics within social movements.

First, they must be broad and non-partisan. They must be open to anyone 
who experiences the problem in question firsthand and is willing to 
fight, be based on shared material interests rather than political 
affiliation, and be capable of developing into mass organizations. For 
this reason, we also reject the strategy of formally anarchist or 
socialist trade unions. Nevertheless, these movements must acquire a 
class-conscious perspective. Whatever their immediate demands may be, 
they must promote revolutionary class struggle and exclude any alliance 
or reconciliation with class enemies.

Second, they must be class-independent. Class independence means 
autonomy vis-à-vis the companies, institutions, and actors that serve 
the interests of the ruling class, including those directly responsible 
for the problems against which the movement is fighting. It equally 
means autonomy vis-à-vis electoral parties and vanguard parties, which 
treat movements as foot soldiers for their own authoritarian projects. 
We also do not recognize Parliament as a legitimate arena for 
emancipatory politics. You do not abolish the state by electing 
politicians, any more than you abolish capitalism by promoting workers 
to boss.

Thirdly, they must be combative and committed to direct action, with a 
lasting willingness to confront. Workers ought to enforce their demands 
themselves by exercising social force, not by relying on politicians, 
trade union bureaucrats, or NGOs. Both pacifism and violence detached 
from the people have serious limitations, and militant action that does 
not build organized social force is of little value.

Many movements are hierarchical, with leadership disconnected from the 
rank and file. That is why we work from the grassroots. We build bonds 
with ordinary participants and steer movements through internal currents 
and groupings. In this way, we guide them toward formal organization, 
direct democracy, self-governance, federalism, collective 
decision-making, and accountability, with strictly mandated 
representatives who rotate, are removable, and remain under control from 
below. We handle leadership positions with caution at all times.

We are breaking with reformism as a goal, but continue to fight for 
immediate improvements that increase the fighting power of workers. Such 
a struggle mobilizes people and, where won, improves their real living 
conditions. But won or lost, its deepest value lies in its formative 
effect: the development of class consciousness and the stoking of 
radicalization.

The more militant and class-conscious society becomes, the more likely 
it is that social movements will coalesce and transform their direct 
struggle into conscious, revolutionary practice. Thus, the struggle for 
reforms becomes a path to revolution, and the merging of movements, 
through joint struggle and federalism, becomes a force for revolutionary 
mass organization. That is what we strive for: the construction of this 
united workers' front and of this people's power.

Revolutionary social transformation

Our practice is aimed at social revolution: ending and replacing the 
capitalist-state system. This means dismantling the foundations of class 
society and putting an end to both private and state ownership of 
production, political decision-making, and cultural power, so that the 
way is cleared for free socialism. A social revolution differs from a 
political revolution in that it does not merely replace the rulers of 
the state or nationalize property, but fundamentally transforms the 
underlying social relations of society itself. For this reason, we 
reject the strategy of Marxism-Leninism and of "real existing 
socialism," such as that of the Soviet Union. Whatever their intentions 
may have been, they replaced one ruling class with another and 
concentrated power in a party bureaucracy instead of with the oppressed.

The revolution is not a one-off moment of rebelliousness that settles 
everything in one fell swoop. It is a long-term process in which the 
oppressed organize themselves, build popular power, and dismantle and 
replace the institutions of the system. Within that process, faster, 
socially disruptive moments occur, stemming from crisis or accumulated 
strength, such as riots, strikes, and uprisings. A social rupture-a 
moment when the normal functioning of the capitalist-state system 
falters and alternatives become viable-is the opening for anarchists to 
put their program into practice. But what such a moment yields depends 
on what has been built up beforehand. Hardship alone does not make a 
people revolutionary; that can only be achieved by a self-governing 
socio-political culture, developed over time through daily class 
struggle, direct democracy, and direct action.

We do not have to wait until everyone is an anarchist. We cannot 
convince everyone at once, and it would be naive to think so. Therefore, 
as a minority, we must put as much of our program into practice as 
possible together with people who only partially agree with us, and seek 
to win their trust in the joint struggle. We speak of a gradual advance 
towards free socialism.

Between rupture and consolidation lies a transition in which our 
achievements must be defended and a practical program adapted to actual 
circumstances. We will not destroy anything that satisfies human needs 
as long as we have nothing better to replace it.

Emancipation cannot be forced. Free socialism is only possible when the 
people understand and desire it in a broad sense, based on an awareness 
of their own class interests; imposing it would betray our goal. If new 
forms of domination or attempts to restore the old order arise during 
the revolution, they must be combated. There is no path to freedom 
through nationalized state property, militarized labor, or the rule of a 
party bureaucracy.

We can cooperate with non-anarchist forces against a common enemy or for 
shared goals, but as soon as they seize power and deploy the state, only 
resistance remains for us. If we fail to prevent the emergence of a new 
state, we will fight for the weakest possible and most libertarian form. 
We defend our achievements against external reaction, while the monopoly 
on violence and the decision-making power of that state are 
redistributed as far as possible into the hands of the oppressed. 
Meanwhile, we stand with the masses and urge them to take further 
possession of their own lives and lead them in self-governance, in order 
to continue the revolution.

This is a narrow path on which class independence must be preserved at 
all times. Every form of transition must prefigure the ultimate goal: 
rooted in federated self-governance and constantly aimed at free socialism.

The

transition to free socialism will take a long time, perhaps generations: 
a moral and cultural change that fosters relations of solidarity and 
loosens the grip of capitalist-state ideas. We cannot move in a single 
leap from capitalist statism to "everyone according to need" and expect 
production and distribution to arrange themselves overnight. The fact 
that the road is long does not make starting it any less urgent. What 
follows is provisional, intended as a model open to revision, not as a 
blueprint.

In general, workers' councils and associations, organized by workplace 
and by neighborhood, will govern social, economic, political, and 
cultural life. Decisions are taken from the bottom up in councils; where 
broader coordination is needed, the councils elect representatives whose 
positions rotate and whose mandates are revocable. In this way, local, 
regional, and national decisions can be coordinated without 
decision-making power leaving the base.

Economy. The transitional form is a planned economy built from the 
bottom up. At the base, a council manages daily operations at every 
workplace through a meeting of workers. Councils federate by sector to 
align capacity, needs, and resources, while retaining their autonomy.

An Institute for Statistics and Coordination collects data on what can 
be produced, what is available, and what people need, and converts this 
into clear overviews that guide the distribution between sectors. It 
informs but does not command, and is governed by representatives of 
federations, communes, and consumer associations.

Municipal communes organize consumption and local services. They 
determine local needs, align production accordingly, and direct 
collectively managed finances toward real, needs-based consumption 
rather than profit-oriented use.

Money continues to exist as a unit of account for some time, but its 
role as capital diminishes. All banks are expropriated and merged into a 
single federated social bank with local branches, which allocate 
resources systematically and according to need, as decided by the 
communes. As workable cashless models emerge in practice, money is 
phased out and the banking system shrinks to simple administrative 
accounting under societal control.

Land and dwellings belong to the communes, while people have certain 
rights of use over their homes and land: they may live, work, and make 
improvements there, but not sell, mortgage, bequeath, or speculate on 
them. If a user leaves or dies, the commune reallocates. Autonomy in 
daily use, without landlords and without a land market.

Politics: The state is replaced by self-governance of the people. 
Through their federated councils and communes, the workers decide on and 
organize everything necessary for public life: education, healthcare, 
transport, housing, water, energy, and so on.

Law and the administration of justice are socialized and transformed 
from punishment to prevention, restoration, and non-violent conflict 
resolution. Decisions remain with the directly involved parties wherever 
possible; mediation or jury proceedings only come into play when 
agreement fails to materialize. By crime we understand any deliberate 
act that increases human suffering, violates the equal freedom of all, 
or impairs the material and mental well-being of others.

Social defense replaces the police. The first response to an offense is 
to identify and eliminate the causes, so that crime decreases to rare 
and truly pathological cases. Violence is employed exclusively-and then 
proportionally-against those attempting to impose domination or 
inflicting material damage. All of this does not become a fixed 
professional institution, for that would produce precisely the dangers 
of the police it replaces. Instead, social defense takes on a rotating 
form as civilian service, under the strict control of the communes and 
with particular care for the protection of minorities.

A people's militia, locally rooted, under societal control, federated, 
with elected, rotating, and recallable officers, replaces the standing 
professional army. It defends the revolutionary achievements against 
external reaction and never projects power for a state or faction.

Culture. All of this rests on a profound cultural change. Communication 
and education are socialized and foster a self-governing culture of 
solidarity, based on autonomy, decentralized power, and federalism.

Such a society protects freedom of speech, assembly, belief, movement, 
sexuality, and lifestyle. Upbringing and education are public and 
multifaceted, developing people intellectually, practically, and 
physically. The media serve diversity, critical thinking, entertainment, 
and open debate.

Our trajectory:

To rebuild the specific anarchist tradition of organizational dualism in 
the Netherlands, FVS sets itself five tasks.

First: to transcend the cultural sphere and perform sustainable work 
within social movements, such as trade unions, neighborhood unions, 
student unions, and tenants' unions. We want to help shape social 
struggles and win them over to a revolutionary, free-socialist 
orientation with our own program, thereby contributing to a left-wing 
movement that is independent of parliamentary parties, built from the 
bottom up, class-conscious, combative, committed to direct action, 
self-governing, federalist, and revolutionary.

Second: to build a genuine political force, a force that not only 
contributes to the struggle of the oppressed but is also recognized by 
other actors and movements, can forge alliances, and knows how to 
attract workers. We want to restore the historical role of anarchism as 
an active instrument in the workers' struggle, with a project of popular 
power that can transform Dutch society.

Thirdly: breaking with the purism that paralyzes and isolates anarchism 
because it refuses to face reality as it is. We must learn to navigate a 
social reality marked by contradictions and class struggle. As long as 
we lack strength, this sometimes means strategic alliances with forces 
outside our own camp. Our principles remain our horizon, but we must 
know how to influence the world to reach them. An inward-looking 
anarchism, limited to "lifestyle" and seeking only to carve out 
subcultural niches, is not a political project and must also be left behind.

Fourthly: definitively abandoning the synthetic "big tent" 
organizational model in favor of a specific, programmatic organization, 
united in theory, ideology, and practice, underpinned by collective 
responsibility and discipline. This means breaking with individualistic 
and non-committal tendencies, even when they call themselves anarchist, 
and focusing on those who genuinely share our principles and our 
commitment to the class struggle.

Fifth: moving beyond the fixation on informal consensus decision-making, 
which so often paralyzes our movements or leads to undemocratic 
outcomes. Formal consensus has its place as one method of voluntary 
decision-making, but it is not the only one. We strive for the broadest 
possible agreement, without shying away from a majority vote when 
practical limits require it.

In addition, FVS takes to heart six lessons from the history of 
anarchism in the Netherlands.

First: this is a long-term endeavor. Real progress requires patience and 
maturity, both individual and collective, and the steady accumulation of 
experience through commitment. As a young organization, we start modestly.

Second: unity arises through collective learning, not through the 
magnification of minor differences, nor through a disjointed pluralism 
that tolerates everything. We must build a culture free from mistrust, 
hostility, and the constant threat of division, without condoning 
inconsistency or unethical behavior. Freedom of thought, respect for 
minority viewpoints, and reparation before punishment must be the norm.

Thirdly: our organization must reach beyond a handful of cities 
scattered across the country, where groups operate in isolation. This 
means leaving behind the culture of small, personal affinity groups and 
building theoretical and strategic unity through shared training, 
experience, and collective action. This must be rooted in grassroots 
self-governance and federalism, where the whole emerges from the parts, 
but the parts are not separate from the whole.

Fourth: national growth means that the necessary conditions must be 
created: a sound accession process, organized in concentric circles, so 
that activists remain rather than flowing in and out, with actual 
political formation, so that lessons and debates are passed on to 
newcomers. Growth in numbers must never outpace sustainable collective 
development.

Fifth: we do not progress without learning from the past and planning 
for the future. People's power is built through social insertion, that 
is to say, actual involvement and anarchist influence in mass struggle, 
and by analyzing reality and putting theory into practice. Good practice 
requires good theory, and good theory requires good practice; they are 
inseparable. He who rejects practice changes nothing; he who rejects 
theory acts blindly and serves the goals of others forever without 
knowing it.

Sixth: responsibility and discipline are indispensable, not as slavish 
obedience, but as a voluntary commitment to fulfill what we decide 
together. Every militant reliably fulfills their part, or indicates in a 
timely manner when this is not possible, so that the organization can 
adapt without disruption. Everyone is jointly responsible for the 
well-being of the organization, and the organization for that of its 
members. Tasks are distributed fairly and borne collectively, and anyone 
who fails to meet their obligations is held accountable.

Our Militancy

We are looking for a specific type of militant, both within our own 
ranks and among those who wish to join us. Militants are workers with 
their own lives and obligations; they do not need to study anarchism as 
intellectuals. What they need is a genuine interest in organized 
anarchism and the willingness to participate regularly and seriously in 
the internal work of the organization and in the social work within the 
movement.

In general, we seek militants who are already active in trade unions and 
social movements and who also wish to engage within our organization.
Our militancy is rooted in the principles of the organization and 
requires that we advocate certain behaviors and reject others.
We expressly reject informality, individualism, and the shirking of 
responsibility; harmful criticism and lack of respect; moralism that 
distracts us from political work; cultures of permanent internecine 
conflict; arrogance, elitism, and claims of superiority; the condoning 
of unethical behavior; punishment that goes beyond our libertarian 
principles; and the spying on or monitoring of the private lives of 
militants.

We stand for organic development, unity, and self-discipline; for 
constructive practice, not merely criticism or inward-looking discourse; 
for working collectively, reasonable debate, and developing a respectful 
attitude of criticism, self-criticism, and continuous learning. We stand 
for ethical relationships based on trust and respect, for strong bonds 
between activists and in the places where we do our social work, and for 
adhering to the values we have defined together.

-----------------------------------------------------------
We carry a new world in our hearts.

https://vrijsocialisme.nl/manifest.nl.pdf
_________________________________________
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