On 1 May 2025 we are announcing the formation of the Anarchist Communist Federation in Australia.
As anarchists, we recognise that it is more important than ever that we get organised. The planet that we rely on for every single part of our existence is dying; choked by capitalism’s relentless expansion of environmental destruction. Donald Trump is leading a fascist movement in the United States. Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, fully backed by the US. And tension between superpowers edges higher. The threat of global conflict – including nuclear war – rises with it.
Here in Australia, Indigenous people have never ceded control of the land. The long genocide against them has never stopped. Dispossession, police violence and cultural erasure continue. The Australian Government merely pretends to act against climate change, while the fossil fuel industry expands at an alarming rate. It assists in the genocide of Palestinains by exporting parts for the F35 fighter-bomber. And it presides over a rapidly worsening distribution of income and wealth, which is experienced as a crisis in the cost of living.
The power of organised labour has been consistently attacked and eroded, leaving many workers without the ability or knowledge to fight collectively. Our only hope lies in rebuilding the labour movement from the ground up so that it is capable of meeting the challenges facing the working class and humanity in its entirety.
We aim to establish anarchism as a serious tendency in the labour movement. The Anarchist Communist Federation utilises the theory and methods of anarchist communism to help foster a climate of class struggle, while spreading our revolutionary ideas and vision of a free society. As communists, we aim to build a society based on production for use, not profit. We will collectively decide what work needs to be done, and how we can best meet everyone’s needs.
As anarchists, we recognise that a free communist society can only be achieved through the empowerment of every person in working class organisations controlled by their members.
While acknowledging our humble status in a deteriorated labour movement, we want to return anarchism to its working class roots, and contribute to rebuilding a revolutionary workers’ movement.
Where has the Federation come from?
Anarchist Communists Meanjin, Geelong Anarchist Communists, and the Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group have become the founding branches of the Federation. We have been in dialogue for over four years, discussing our political work, advising and co-operating where possible. This process has allowed us to build our skills and capacity for further collective work, including successful conferences in 2024 and 2025.
Since forming, each of our founding branches has intervened in numerous campaigns, including Palestine solidarity work, tenant organising, antifascism, and migrant struggles. Our members have led strikes and protests. We have engaged in rank and file organising in several industries. Through this, we have developed a solid theoretical basis, drawing inspiration from the best of historical anarchist organisation, as well as Marx’s critique of political economy. The insights and reflections of each organisation have been disseminated internationally and in multiple languages.
We are not the first to attempt this. Anarchist organising in Australia has a long record of false starts. Groups have formed and collapsed, some drifting into subcultural isolation, others unravelling before they could take root. The largest attempt at federation, fifty years ago, was a spectacular failure and an object lesson in what not to do.
We have studied these efforts seriously to understand what was missing. They made clear that building a revolutionary organisation requires more than energy. It demands coherence, strategy, and a long view.
What do we stand for?
The working class is the bedrock of society. Our labour is used to keep the planet fed, clothed, housed, transported, and entertained. We make everything that sustains society, and every luxury that people enjoy. And yet, we are exploited by an economic and political system built to extract value from the work that we do and place it in the pockets of another class, capitalists, in the form of profits.
It is in our interests to overthrow capitalism. Yet we are also relied upon to reproduce it. This reliance gives us power. If we are organised, we can use our position to tear down the old order and free ourselves. Together, we can build a world where we control our labour and ensure that every single person’s needs are met. With this in mind, we analyse social oppression through the lens of class struggle. No form of oppression can be eradicated without ending capitalism, and capitalism cannot be abolished while the working class remains divided. This is why we say, ‘Touch One, Touch All’.
To change society we need a revolution. There is no legal road to socialism. Capitalists won’t allow themselves to be simply voted out of existence. This shapes the methods we use to organise ourselves and the strategies we employ. We don’t run in elections or endorse candidates, nor do we advocate these as methods of struggle.
Out of the suffering that capitalism creates, our predecessors developed both a vision of a better world and the methods needed to achieve it. We have taken on that vision and continue to build upon it. We want to bring about a future where everyone can share in the means to live well, regardless of race, gender, sexual identity, or place of birth – a society free of exploitation and domination. That is anarchist communism.
For an Anarchist Communist Federation
History has taught us three lessons. First, that a lack of organisation, coherence, and shared strategy weakens the ability of workers to effectively fight or defend their gains. Second, that anarchism can only be relevant if it stays true to its origins as part of the workers’ movement. And third, that the means we use determine the ends we can reach. Top-down organisation, elitist vanguardism, and pursuit of State power (which can only ever maintain class society) will always corrupt or co-opt a workers’ revolution.
The Anarchist Communist Federation aims to participate in the class struggle, not by leading from above or outside, but side by side with our fellow workers. By putting our politics into practice, we contribute to working class self-organisation and demonstrate the validity of our ideas. In turn, our theory and strategy is sharpened through this experience. The adoption of anarchist methods develops the capacity of the working class to conduct class struggle, and anarchist participation in these struggles grows our effectiveness as an organisation.
We formed the Anarchist Communist Federation because we want to be effective. That’s why we demand a high level of theoretical and practical agreement between members. If we can’t agree, then we can’t work together. And if we can’t be specific and purposeful in that work, we will waste our revolutionary energy.
We understand that our position is a minority one amongst anarchists in Australia today. We are likely to remain a minority for some time. Some will reject our method of organisation. Some will admit it in principle, but remain committed to their own small group projects. And some will accept it, but disagree on this or that point where we judge agreement to be essential to long term work. We hope to patiently demonstrate the superiority of our means over theirs. To the wider labour movement and the working class as a whole, we will also be patient. But we won’t withhold criticism where warranted.
Anarchists with inadequate understanding, and sometimes mere frauds masquerading as anarchists, have often acted ineffectively. Some even live up to the caricature of anarchism as destructive individualism. We reject that this is representative of the historic anarchist movement, but it is a reputation we need to live down. ACM, GAC and the MACG have gone some way to doing this. As a federation, we will complete the job.
Time grows short. The world is in danger. We are determined to snatch victory from the jaws of disaster. If you agree with our politics, join us. If you are interested in learning more before you decide, contact us. The struggle needs you.
For workers’ power, and an end to all forms of domination.
The Anarchist Communist Federation