On Organization

Camatte, Jacques; Collu, Gianni
http://www.connexions.org/CxLibrary/Docs/CX6468-OnOrganization.pdf

Year Published:  1972   First Published:  1969
Pages:  40pp  
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX6468

The authors argue that political groups, whether large or small, formal or informal, hierarchical or not, can only be a hindrance to revolutionary developments.

Abstract:  Originally published in the French journal Invariance (Annee V, Serie II, No.2), 'On Organisation' is an open letter written in 1969 by Jacques Camatte and Gianni Collu to explain why they felt revolutionaries had to reject the form of political groups and organisations that had normally been their home. Camatte is part of a tradition of left communism that has existed alongside, and fiercely criticised, the better known tendencies of Leninism and Trotskyism, arguing that the ideas that are usually passed off as communist or Marxist are in fact neither.
The essence of their argument in 'On Organisation' is that political groups, whether large or small, formal or informal, hierarchical or not, can only be a hindrance to revolutionary developments. For Camatte "capitalism is the triumph of the organisation, and the form the organisation takes is the gang." At all levels of society the whole social fabric is based on competing organisations and rackets, and with the state as "a gang mediating between different gangs and between the total capital and particular capitals." Even groups which aim to go beyond this society become trapped by it, acting as just another gang or racket. Groups and gangs tend to hide the existence of their ruling cliques (formal or informal) to appear more attractive to outsiders, and try to distinguish themselves from all the similar rackets around. "Once within the gang (or any other type of business) the individual is tied to it by all the psychological dependencies of capitalist society".

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