Constitution of the AnarCom Network

Ratified at founding conference on 18th December 2022

1: Intro:

We are a revolutionary anarchist communist working-class organisation that advocates the abolition of the State and capitalism in favour of a horizontal network of voluntary associations through which everyone will be free to satisfy their needs.

We oppose all forms of discrimination, and we believe all human beings should be equal.  We support the right for everyone to express who they are as long as it doesn’t dehumanise anyone else or any other group of people in society.

Note on Identity commodification and class struggle:

Individuality is key to community and it’s collectively, our strength. The individual and autonomy are central to anarchist communism. The power of identity forged in struggle and uniting in solidarity is an engine of revolutionary social transformation.

The State has every interest in subverting this as in every other struggle. It tries to pitch us against each other. As a class they try to fragment us on sex; race; age; sexual orientation; birth gender and gender identity; health status and disability.

They offer us false solutions other than liberation from class oppression in angry cross-class alliances that treat our identities like a partisan tug-of-war.

We need to believe the authentic ‘lived experience’ voices of our class. Our identity is not a commodity to be consumed or sold.

Identity is political because it is personal, not to be defined by others (either sociologically or by the state). We are who we say we are, but reject the illusion that our liberation is compatible with capital.  We support the fight for every oppressed person to live without repression or discrimination.

Consequently, we reject the agendas set by people from outside our communities or cross-class alliances.  It is not for them to dictate, direct or speak on behalf of our class.

The Culture-War has a body count too!  Fuck the hypocrisy!  From grief to resistance!

Class:

The world is divided into two mutually antagonistic classes bound together in a non-consensual and hostile relationship.  The tiny exploiting Capitalist Class, them, and the vast numbers that comprise the producing Working Class, us.

The Capitalist class are those who own and/or control and direct the means of production, including the labour of others, and benefit, govern and self-perpetuate through that ownership, control, and direction.

The Working Class, the vast majority and sole producers of value and wealth, are exploited and excluded to preserve the power and privilege of that tiny minority of capitalists.

Our future survival, that of humanity, will only be assured by the abolition of capitalism and the system of exploitation and destruction it perpetuates.

2: Aims and Principles:

Class Struggle:

  1. The liberation of the working class is the task of our class itself through its autonomous self-activity expressed and directed by its own organs of class power. Historically these have been through mass assemblies and/or revocable delegation in one form or another. We are committed to this class struggle.

The State:

  1. It follows that we reject the state, political parties, and leaders of every persuasion. All are the source of our organised repression and subjugation.

Parliament:

  1. It follows that we oppose parliamentary democracy and the sham of elections as a deliberate deception to paralyse and subdue working class choice and action. The idea that the ballot box makes us equal, that the banker and the beggar somehow share power in the voting booth is a spectacular deception.

Religion:

  1. It follows that in refusing hierarchy and power, we reject the god concept and religion. While hope, faith and spirituality are humanistic qualities, their organised manipulation is not. We seek a truly human community free from delusion or fantasy.

Trade Unions:

  1. Trade Unions are the organisational arm of social democracy and can only ever support the left wing of capital negotiating the rate of our exploitation and selling the bosses austerity programs back to us in one form or another. Therefore, it follows that while we recognise the limited value of Trade Unions in bringing some legal protections and communication opportunities for its rank and file, we are opposed to the action limiting role of trade unionism and its labour aristocracy.

Nationalism:

  1. The capitalist class divides and exploits us internationally. Consequently, we must struggle for its overthrow through resistance and solidarity across the globe. It follows that we reject illusory ‘national’ solutions and the concept of national liberation.

Internationalism:

  1. We are revolutionary internationalists. We reject sectarianism and work for principled cooperation with other class struggle revolutionary activists, groups, and Internationals at home and abroad.

Reformism:

  1. It follows that we refuse piecemeal reformism, single issue focused politics and cross class alliances, fronts and collaboration that seek ultimately to divide our class and dilute our struggle.

Resistance:

  1. We recognise that violence is neither desired nor wanted, however, from resistance to revolution not to end in bloody slaughter, it is inevitable and unavoidable. We therefore do not shy away from confrontation and support the right of working people to defend themselves. This is a historical reality that has nothing to do with blood lusts, vendetta, random acts of violence or terrorism which we thoroughly reject.

Revolution:

  1. Our struggle is both practical and urgent. The fiction of capitalist social peace is collapsing all around us. The catastrophic threat of environmental degradation and climate emergency now competes with global war to threaten our existence. The generation that may witness our extinction is probably here. We face a binary choice of capitalism’s war against us in all its forms, or its revolutionary abolition.

3: Membership:

Membership is open to individuals and groups (also known as affiliates) resident in the UK who agree with our Aims &Principles, Constitution and are in broad agreement with the basic historical revolutionary positions above.

Certain workers have roles and interests that are incompatible with the aims and principles of anarchist communism and are barred from membership.

Where individuals are unable to be part of a local due to distance etc we will try to create a “regional” contact area which may be attached to an existing local, or a group of “isolated” individuals.

As this is a loose network where there is not a local we will put people in touch so they can support each other on a regional level with the aim to building a local group.

The following groups of people may not become members as their roles and interests are incompatible with the aims and principles of anarchist communism.

These include:

    • Police and prison officers

    • Those who have the power to restrain or imprison in detention centres of all varieties

    • Bailiffs

    • Full-time trade union officials- We define a full-time trade union official as one who is employed by the union and accountable to the union bureaucracy rather than the rank and file.

    • Officers or holders of executive positions in political parties

    • Scabs

    • Those who have ultimate power to hire and fire or those whose primary role in the workplace is to hire and fire.

    • Those who have the ultimate power to remove benefits

Subs:

Subs are payable, the amount is based on a minimum amount as decided by the individual considering their own personal circumstances.  The suggested minimum is £1 per month. Subs allow members to feel part of an organisation as well as committing to the organisation and will be used to pay for publicity and other costs incurred by the network. 

Local groups may want to raise subs and pay a group “fee/donation” as an act of membership to the network.

All members have the right to:

    • Free expression of their ideas

    • Have their ideas and morals respected as long as they remain in line with our constitution

    • Attend all events organised by the organisation and its affiliates

    • Have full access to information about all AnarCom Network decisions and activities

    • Remain in disagreement with decisions and activities of the Anarcom Network, so long as they abide by the Constitution.

    • To distribute or not all materials produced by the network.

Decision making:

All decisions will be made by the membership.  Members accept responsibility for updating themselves on current discussions and information updates on our network threads.

Local/Regional:

Local operational decisions will be made by local membership by consensus or majority as long as they are in line with the constitution and Aims and Principles.

National:

Operational decisions (publications, actions, relationships, meetings etc) will be decided ad hoc by consensus or majority via our network threads, on appropriate time sensitive deadlines, in accordance with our constitution and Aims and Principles.

Policy decisions (constitutional changes, Aims and Principles, mergers, or disassociations etc) will be discussed appropriately on our network threads and by agreement, with decision by consensus or majority, by deadlines given at least 14 days in advance.

If consensus or majority decision is unable to be reached, this process will be referred with one months’ notice, to a national conference (online or in person as agreed).  The quorum for such a meeting will be 1/3rd of paid-up members, requiring a simple majority to decide an outcome.’

Contacts:

Due to the spread-out nature of our members most contact will take place on our Discord Server.  We strive to carry out face to face contact where possible and will keep members updated via email or other preferred method if not able to access Discord.

National Secretary (NS):

The members will select a National Secretary who is responsible for membership enquiries and replying to other contacts and maintaining relations outside the organisation.  The National Secretary can delegate tasks to other members as needed.

4: Complaints and disciplinary:

Complaints:

Where a complaint is brought by a member then a “panel” of 3 members not associated with the complaint will be convened in order to investigate and action the complaint.  All complaints will be treated as strictly confidential.

A full written investigation, decision and action which is anonymised will be made available to any member upon request.  Where sensitive information is included this can be left out unless deemed absolutely necessary to the complaint decision.

Disciplinary:

Where a member has deemed to have breached the Constitution or as a result of a complaint it is felt further action is needed then a panel of 3 members will be convened in the same way as a complaint to investigate and decide if any action should be taken.

Appeals:

All members have a right of appeal. An appeal will be looked at by another member not associated with the complaint/disciplinary or the decision panel.

    • Future Changes:

As the Network grows we will change the make-up of the above allowing more member democracy in all decisions. We may also want to make additions and revisions as both the organisation and the world around us changes.