Tāmaki Makaurau Anarchists
Tāmaki Makaurau Anarchists supporter Henry Laws provides an Anarchist Communist perspective for our special edition of 'The Commonweal: What is to be done?' Publishing in March 2025.
What Is To Be Done By Socialists In Aotearoa/New Zealand Today: An Anarchist Communist Perspective
It has been over a year since a right-wing convergence government was formed in Aotearoa.[1] Throughout this period, it has been implementing a neoliberal, tough on crime, anti-environmental, anti-Tiriti and pro-American imperialist agenda.[2] Its efforts have been opposed through various forms of collective action like strikes, working to rule, university occupations, the Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, rallies, marches, blockades and more.[3] However, socialists in Aotearoa today are a subculture that is scattered across sects, infoshops, publishing houses, informal networks, media outlets and single-issue/single-area community groups.[4] The political practice of these sects and other groups consists of engaging in defensive and reformist forms of action. This is because such action is disconnected from systemic theoretical analyses which can produce visions of socialism and theories of revolution that can be implemented to abolish the capitalist system and build a socialist society. This article provides an anarchist communist perspective on addressing these issues.[5]
My perspective is informed by my participation in Tāmaki Makaurau Anarchists/TMA.[6] The group’s formation began in 2017, when four anarchists met and decided that a social anarchist organisation was needed due to there being none in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland in the late 2010s.[7] A reading group and a public meeting resulted in a two-year process of creating the group’s principles and constitution. While this was being done, it organised reading groups, demonstrations, board game nights, film screenings, day schools, education sessions, parties, the Anarchy Camp in 2019 (the first nationwide anarchist gathering in Aotearoa in a decade) and other events. By May 2019, it had reached agreement on its principles and constitution and publicly launched as Tāmaki Makaurau Anarchists.[8] Post-launch, the group continued to organise the kind of events that it had prior to launching, with some members also helping to organise the 2023 Tāmaki Anarchist Bookfair, the first anarchist bookfair in the city in decades. Like many other socialist groups, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, it went through a cycle of growth, stagnation and decline. As a result of this, and due to the group not having agreed on a strategy, I am writing this article in an individual capacity.
The first reason why socialists in Aotearoa engage in a reformist political practice is that such practice is not informed by theory and analysis. More specifically, socialist groups that have education sessions on theory do not develop members' theoretical and analytical skills so that they can create theory and analysis relevant to their situation. As a result, they cannot effectively change the world because their organising is not grounded in an understanding of our society, its historical origins and future possibilities. This can be addressed through several measures. First, socialists should teach their members critical thinking skills so that they can evaluate the merits and issues with ideas.[9] Second, socialists should develop their theory through evaluating which elements of historical and contemporary socialist theory should be accepted, rejected or changed based on whether or not there is evidence for it and if it is logically consistent.[10] Third, socialists should use their theory to understand society through engaging in a structural analysis.[11] Fourth, socialists should use their structural analysis to understand the current political situation through engaging in a conjunctural analysis.[12] This will allow them to understand our society, which will enable them to more effectively decide on actions that will change it.
The second reason for the reformist political practice of socialists in Aotearoa is that their practice is not guided by a theoretically-grounded and practically-oriented vision of socialism. To clarify, although some socialist groups have a vision (while most do not), they are so vague and disconnected from a structural and conjunctural analysis that they are not helpful in guiding discussions and decisions around which tactics and strategies to use and are unpersuasive to non-socialist workers. This can be addressed through socialists using the structural and conjunctural analysis they have developed to create a socialist utopia. This utopia should not be seen as a blueprint for a perfect society, but instead as a provisional conception of a socialist society that is a method for critiquing society today and guiding tactical and strategic discussions and actions to abolish it.[13] Such a utopia should be informed by historical and contemporary theorisations of what a future socialist society could be.[14] It should also be grounded in previous attempts to construct a socialist society during social revolutions and worker’s uprisings as well as analyses of these.[15] By creating such a utopia in the course of intersectional class struggle, socialists will have clarity regarding their ends.[16]
The third reason why socialists in Aotearoa engage in a reformist political practice is that their practice is not guided by a substantive and context-specific theory of revolution. While many socialist groups here identify themselves as revolutionary, most conceptions of revolution are limited to general statements that are not situated in Aotearoa’s context. As a result, they are unable to orient these groups’ political practice so they can effectively help prepare workers to either make a revolution or be ready to act when it happens. This problem can be addressed through creating a contemporary theory of revolution. This can be done through using the structural analysis, conjunctural analysis and a vision that has been developed previously to evaluate historical and contemporary socialist theories of revolution,to see which elements of such theories should be incorporated, rejected or modified for a theory of revolution today.[17] This theory can be enriched through using structural and conjectural analyses as well as a vision to critically evaluate the successes, failures and limits of historical and contemporary social revolutions and uprisings in order to avoid repeating past failures and mistakes.[18] Ultimately, creating this theory will allow socialists to orient their practice towards a revolutionary horizon.
The fourth reason for the reformist political practice of socialists in Aotearoa is their tactics and organising methods. As they have not developed an interconnected theory, tactics, strategy and vision, when the state and capital attack workers, socialists engage in collective actions like rallies, marches and isolated direct actions. When these fail, socialists learn organising methods from unions and non-governmental organisations that aim to reform capitalism, not abolish it. As a result, socialists are stuck in a self-perpetuating cycle of reformism. This cycle can be broken through the following measures. First, the structural and conjunctural analysis, vision and theory of revolution should be used to criticise these organising methods and tactics.[19] Second, this critique should be used to develop organising methods and tactics that are in unity with revolutionary socialist ends.[20] An integral part of doing this will be learning about and developing socialist theories of practice, which argue that society is reproduced by people’s practice and that workers consciousness, drives and capacities can be transformed through revolutionary practice like strategically-grounded direct action and prefiguration.[21] Through such revolutionary practice, workers will learn how to be driven to and become capable of abolishing the capitalist system and creating socialism through revolution.[22]
The fifth reason why socialists here engage in reformist political practice is that most socialist groups are not doing what has been proposed above. More specifically, most Marxist groups either focus on defensive actions or have inward-looking meetings, while the only such group anarchists have here is TMA, which is in one city and is not currently accepting new members.[23] This can be resolved through creating socialist political organisations that are devoted to creating, interconnecting and applying revolutionary theory, vision, strategy and tactics. Among anarchists, since the 1860s, there has been the organisational dualism tendency, which argues that because unions and other workers organisations are necessary but insufficient to achieve revolution, specifically anarchist political organisations should be built. These should unite anarchists to develop theory and practice, coordinate joint action among themselves and within social movements and push the intersectional class struggle towards a revolutionary direction through persuasion and engaging in direct action that inspires fellow workers by example.[24] However, there are disagreements over how to do this, as expressed in tendencies like platformism, synthesism and especifismo.[25] Through creating such groups, socialists will be able to develop and interconnect revolutionary theory and practice that is rooted in intersectional class struggle.
In conclusion, while building socialist political organisations is important, such organisations in Aotearoa have up to this point failed to transcend the sect-form.[26] A possible pathway to addressing this could be for socialist political organisations to create a formal process where they have regular sessions in which they discuss historical and contemporary forms of organising and their ongoing activity, reflect on what has worked and what they have learned from their failures and then apply their reflections through continually iterating their organisation’s structure and practice so that they can develop an organisation that is suited to their local context.[27] While there are many other important issues for socialists in Aotearoa to address, this article has focused on theory, vision, strategy and tactics in particular because we cannot change the world if we do not understand it, know what we want to change it into or how to effectively change it.[28]
Henry Laws,
Supporter of Tāmaki Makaurau Anarchists
[1] Right-wing convergence is a concept developed by British anti-fascist theorist and lawyer David Renton in order to describe two political phenomena: 1. Cooperation between the centre-right and far-right and 2. The centre-right being politically radicalised by the far-right. For an overview of this concept, see this article: https://counterfutures.nz/10/CF%2010%20Barton.pdf, a review of this book: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745338156/the-new-authoritarians/
[2] The right-wing convergence government’s agenda is detailed and critiqued in this article: https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/story/placing-the-current-new-zealand-government-into-context/ although, for the reasons that are outlined later in this article, I disagree with the reformist politics that it espouses.
[3] Examples of such collective action can be found in these articles: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/537717/hui-protests-kotahitanga-and-a-new-kuini-a-historic-year-for-maoridom, https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/536160/nurses-begin-rolling-strikes-in-auckland-today, https://www.1of200.nz/articles/hey-david-leave-those-kids-alone, https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/act/march-for-nature/, https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/25-10-2023/thousands-take-part-in-pro-palestine-demonstrations-across-aotearoa, https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/lyttelton-port-christchurch-pro-palestine-protest-four-men-charged-after-clashes-with-police/L3FIDK2VHZEKJDG4KZTM54RCGY/, https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/536880/thousands-of-mbie-workers-begin-strike-action-after-0-pay-offer
[4] The most up-to-date article analysing the political composition of contemporary socialism in Aotearoa can be found here: https://notessouthfromnowhere.wordpress.com/2022/06/26/a-sectological-survey-of-nz-2022/
[5] An overview of anarchist communism can be found in these articles: https://libcom.org/article/anarchist-communism-introduction and https://libcom.org/article/libertarian-communism-introduction
[6] For more information on Tāmaki Makaurau Anarchists, see these websites and social media pages:
https://tamakimakaurauanarchists.org.nz/
, https://www.facebook.com/AucklandAnarchists/, https://x.com/AKLAnarchists, https://www.instagram.com/tamaki_makaurau_anarchists/
[7] For more on social anarchism (an anti-authority, anti-state and anti-capitalist form of anarchism that supports establishing a collectivist or communist economy through a social revolution in order to realise individual autonomy through establishing a non-hierarchical community) and how it differs from individualist anarchism, see section ‘A.3.1 What are the differences between individualist and social anarchists?’ of this book: https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionA.html#seca31 For more on the history of anarchism in Aotearoa, see the following books, chapters and Masters dissertations: https://libcom.org/article/rabble-rousers-and-merry-pranksters-history-anarchism-aotearoanew-zealand-mid-1950s-early, https://www.academia.edu/7438430/Carnival_and_Class_Anarchism_and_Councilism_in_Australasia_during_the_1970s and https://notessouthfromnowhere.wordpress.com/2018/03/08/left-out-the-extra-parliamentary-left-in-aotearoa-nz-from-1999-to-2008/
[8] For more information about Tāmaki Makaurau Anarchists’ formation and early years, see this interview that the group did with The Commoner: https://www.thecommoner.org.uk/an-interview-with-the-tamaki-makaurau-anarchists/
[9] For more on anarchist pedagogies (the methods and approaches of teaching), see this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/robert-h-haworth-anarchist-pedagogies
[10] This is discussed in greater depth in ‘Chapter 11: Conclusion’ of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc51 My theoretical standpoint is outlined through a critique of Dutch council communist Anton Pannekoek’s formulation of historical materialism in my review of the book The Workers' Way to Freedom and Other Council Communist Writings by Pannekoek: https://buttondown.com/Fightback/archive/a-telescope-to-a-communist-future-review-of-anton, while a selection of articles, books and videos on this topic can be found in footnotes xxxix, xl, xli, xlii and xliii of that review.
[11] For more on an anarchist conception of structural analysis, see the ‘Structure/Structural Analysis’ section of this article: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/coordenacao-anarquista-brasileira-for-a-theory-of-strategy#toc5 For an example, see the ‘2. Structural Analysis’ section of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation’s program: https://www.blackrosefed.org/about/program/2-structural-analysis/
[12] For more on an anarchist conception of conjunctural analysis, see the ‘Conjuncture/Conjunctural Analysis’ section of this article: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/coordenacao-anarquista-brasileira-for-a-theory-of-strategy#toc6 For an example, see this article: https://www.blackrosefed.org/conjunctural-analysis-2025-crises-and-collective-action/
[13] This conception of utopia as a materialist method to create a socialist society is discussed in further depth in this article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00380261221079115
[14] I have sketched out my conception of a future socialist society through a critique of Anton Pannekoek’s conception of workers’ councils in my review of The Workers' Way to Freedom and Other Council Communist Writings: https://buttondown.com/Fightback/archive/a-telescope-to-a-communist-future-review-of-anton, while a selection of articles and books on this topic can be found in footnote li of that review. In addition, there has been a substantial increase in discussions about how to envision socialist planning in the 21st century and beyond since the late 2010s. An informative article that provides an overview of the current state of the debate can be found here: https://www.exploring-economics.org/de/entdecken/rethinking-democratic-economic-planning-an-overview/ The following websites are devoted to discussing and compiling resources on this topic:
https://www.indep.network/
,
https://www.democratic-planning.com/
and
https://www.planningresearch.net/
[15] For more on this topic, see the following books: https://libcom.org/article/ours-master-and-own-workers-control-commune-present, https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/alternative-labour-history-9781783601547/ and https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2368-they-can-t-represent-us
[16] For more on intersectional class struggle, see this article: https://roarmag.org/essays/intersectional-class-struggle/, this talk:
and this book: https://www.akpress.org/intersectional-class-struggle.html
[17] A reconstruction of the theory of social revolution that was developed by anarchists in Europe and the United States from the 1860’s to the 1930’s can be found in the ‘Social Revolution’ section of ‘Chapter 4: Anarchist Strategy’ in this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc17 I have outlined the theory of social revolution that I support through a critique of Anton Pannekoek’s theory of revolution in my review of The Workers’ Way to Freedom and Other Council Communist Writings: https://buttondown.com/Fightback/archive/a-telescope-to-a-communist-future-review-of-anton, while a selection of articles, books and videos on this topic can be found in footnotes xlvii and xlviii of that review. A book on this topic will be published in late April 2025: https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/977-the-future-of-revolution
[18] A non-exhaustive list of examples include the 1871 Paris Commune, the 1917-1921 Russian Revolution, the 1917-1921 Ukrainian Revolution, the 1918 German Revolution, the 1929-1931 Shinmin/Manchurian Revolution, the 1936-1939 Spanish Revolution, the 1945-1949 Chinese Revolution and 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution there, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the May 1968 uprising in France, the 1974 Carnation Revolution, the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the 1994-present Zapatista uprising, the early 2010s Occupy Movement and Arab Spring, the 2012-present Rojava Revolution and the 2021 Black Lives Matter uprising. Books and articles on these revolutions and uprisings can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Massacre-Life-Death-Paris-Commune/dp/030021944X, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/mitchell-abidor-voices-of-the-paris-commune, https://libcom.org/article/russian-revolution-1917-reading-guide, https://libcom.org/article/german-revolution-1918-reading-guide, https://libcom.org/article/spanish-civil-war-1936-39-reading-guide, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/francesco-dalessandro-the-forgotten-anarchist-commune-in-manchuria, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/dongyoun-hwang-anarchism-in-korea-book, https://libcom.org/article/china-reading-guide, https://chuangcn.org/resources/, https://libcom.org/article/hungary-1956-reading-guide, https://libcom.org/article/france-1968-reading-guide, https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745338576/a-peoples-history-of-the-portuguese-revolution/, https://illwill.com/iran, https://roarmag.org/essays/a-community-in-arms-the-indigenous-roots-of-the-ezln/, https://freedomnews.org.uk/2024/08/19/explainer-new-zapatista-autonomy/, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-75620-2_40, https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/kurds-of-northern-syria-9781788314831/, https://www.unityandstruggle.org/2022/07/big-brick-energy-a-multi-city-study-of-the-2020-george-floyd-uprising/
[19] Examples of such critiques can be found in these articles: https://www.unityandstruggle.org/2019/03/new-tools-needed-community-organizing/, https://jacobin.com/2017/05/saul-alinsky-alinskyism-organizing-methods-cesar-chavez-ufw, https://jacobin.com/2017/07/community-organizing-staff-professionals-social-movements and https://theecologist.org/2018/jul/10/rethinking-alinsky-community-organising
[20] Examples of developing such organising methods can be found in this toolkit and the resources listed below it: https://www.unityandstruggle.org/organizer-training/ as well as in this two-volume book: https://fullspectrumresistance.org/the-book/, a review of which can be found here: https://roarmag.org/essays/full-spectrum-resistance-review/
[21] For an anarchist formulation of the theory of practice, see the section of ‘The Theory of Practice’ in “Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework” of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc10 For a Marxist formulation of the theory of practice, see ‘Marx’s Theory of Practice’ in this article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-8675.12319 For more on strategic prefiguration, see the ‘Unity of Means and Ends’ and ‘Prefiguration’ sections of ‘Chapter 4: Anarchist Strategy’ in this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc19, this video:
and this book: https://www.wiley.com/en-be/Prefigurative+Politics:+Building+Tomorrow+Today-p-9781509535910 An overview of the theory and practice of direct action be found in the ‘J.2 What is direct action?’ section of this book: https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/sectionJ.html#secj2
[22] For videos, articles, book chapters and books on revolutionary practice in relation to union organising specifically and strategy more broadly, see the resources contained in footnotes xxxiv, xlvi, xlvii, xlviii and lv of my review of The Workers Way to Freedom and Other Council Communist Writings: https://buttondown.com/Fightback/archive/a-telescope-to-a-communist-future-review-of-anton
[23] In contrast, over in so-called Australia, there is a growing number of anarchist political organisations such as the Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group:
https://melbacg.au/
, Geelong Anarchist Communists:
https://geelonganarchists.org/
, Anarchist Communists Meanjin:
https://www.acmeanjin.org/
, and ARC Up Anarchist Communists:
https://arcup.org/
, as well as the anarchist union the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation:
https://asf-iwa.org.au/
For more on the relationship between anarchism and trade unionism, see chapters 8 and 9 of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc39
[24] An overview of anarchist organisational dualism and its historical development can be found in ‘Chapter 10: Organizational Dualism: From Bakunin to the Platform’ of this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc47
[25] An overview of platformism and synthesism and their historical development can be found in the ‘Platformism and Synthesism’ section of chapter 10 in this book: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/zoe-baker-means-and-ends#toc50, while this book compiles debates between early 20th century anarchists regarding synthesism, platformism and other issues within organisational dualism: https://libcom.org/article/constructive-anarchism-debate-platform-gp-maximov In addition, further information regarding especifismo and its historical development can be found in this book: https://www.akpress.org/anarchist-popular-power.html, which is based on this PhD: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/88j5w64v Other introductory articles and manifestos about especifismo include: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/carl-eugene-stroud-how-do-you-say-especifismo-in-english, https://especifismostudies.org/2023/02/17/the-january-document-from-militant-kindergarten/, https://www.redblacknotes.com/2022/07/30/foundational-concepts-of-the-specific-anarchist-organisation/ and https://socialismolibertario.net/2024/09/04/our-principles-and-general-strategy/
[26] The failure of socialists in Aotearoa today to transcend the sect-form is discussed in this article: https://notessouthfromnowhere.wordpress.com/2022/12/01/supplementary-notes-on-sectology-the-current-state-and-political-composition-of-the-socialist-left/
[27] Part of this process should be learning from the successes and mistakes of veteran organisers as well as reflecting on the lessons and advice that they have to offer. This book collects some of these: https://www.interruptingcriminalization.com/resources-all/let-this-radicalize-you-organizing-and-the-revolution-of-reciprocal-care I wish this book had been published when I began organising so that I could have learned the lessons and heeded the advice that this book contains back then instead of learning much of it the hard way in the course of over a decade of organising.
[28] A non-exhaustive list of other important issues that socialists in Aotearoa have that need to be addressed include: the dominant position of white cisgendered heterosexual able-bodied middle-class men within many socialist groups and the composition of such groups not reflecting the entirety of the working-class in Aotearoa (which is critiqued in this article: http://www.freedomshopaotearoa.nz/2023/09/class-war-in-21st-century-new-zealand.html?m=1); the continued reproduction of classist, racist, cisheterosexist, ableist and ageist social relations, ideology and culture within many socialist groups; socialists mainly being based in Aotearoa’s largest cities and having a minimal presence in smaller towns as well as in rural areas; the geopolitically reformist theory and practice that many socialists have in regards to international matters, which has led to the rise of a campism that supports one bloc of capitalist states against another (which is critiqued in this article: https://newpol.org/issue_post/internationalism-anti-imperialism-and-the-origins-of-campism/ and by the group People Not States:
https://peoplenotstates.wordpress.com/
) instead of supporting and organising on the basis of a revolutionary, anti-imperialist, intersectional and working-class socialist internationalism; the high levels of burnout and turnover of socialist activists and organisers; the formation of cults of personality around some socialist activists and organisers; a lack of developed formal processes and organisational norms in many socialist groups that can effectively distinguish between and respond to political disagreements, interpersonal conflicts, social harm and all forms of abuse; a lack of historical memory about socialism in Aotearoa (which this archive seeks to help address: https://nearnsfn.wordpress.com/about-this-project/) as well as minimal knowledge transfer and dialogue between different generations of socialists.