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I felt the my original symbol was far too vague and didn't really communicate the tenants of Platformism enough, so I made a new one.
The Red/Black Star is commonly uses to represent Anarcho-Communism, and emphasises that Platformism is a current within Anarcho-Communism, it also emphasises the "General Union of Anarchists" that is central to the idea of Platformism.
The same coloured Stars and dots surrounding the Red/Black star are supposed to represent Theoretical or Ideological Unity, where all members of a Platformist Organisation must come to an agreement on the theory upon which it is based. In other words, that members of the organisation must agree on a certain number of basic points, such as class struggle, anti-capitalism and anti-statism, and so on. (Eg. All members in an AnCom organisation must specifically be Anarcho-Communists, It's not enough to just be a Communist or Anarchist/Libertarian.) This is so that time isn't wasted on infighting or conflict between people of differing beliefs.
The meeting hands that make up the horizontal line in the "A" , as well as the Arrows facing inwards, stands for Tactical Unity, which is that the members of an organisation should struggle together as an organised force rather than as individuals. Once a strategy has been agreed by the Union, all members would work towards ensuring its success (even if they initially opposed it). In this way resources and time are concentrated in a common direction, towards an agreed objective.
The dots surrounding the circle all represent Collective Responsibility, meaning that each member should support the decisions made by the organisation and that each member should take part in the process of collective decision making process. Without this, argue Platformists, any decisions made will be paper decisions only as individuals and groups would ignore the agreements made by the federation (the Platform calls this "the tactic of irresponsible individualism" [Ibid.]). However, with "Collective Responsibility," the strength of all the individuals that make up the group is magnified and collectively applied. However, as one supporter of the Platform notes:
And finally, the black lines connecting the dots/stars represents the principle of Federalism, which is defined as "the free agreement of individuals and organisations to work collectively towards a common objective" and allows the "reconcil[ing] the independence and initiative of individuals and the organisation with service to the common cause." [Op. Cit., p. 33] However, the Platform argues that this principle has been "deformed" within the movement to mean the "right" to "manifest one's 'ego,' without obligation to account for duties as regards the organisation" one is a member of. [Ibid.] In order to overcome this problem, they stress that "the federalist type of anarchist organisation, while recognising each member's rights to independence, free opinion, individual liberty and initiative, requires each member to undertake fixed organisation duties, and demands execution of communal decisions." [Op. Cit., pp. 33-4]
As part of their solution to the problem of anarchist organisation, the Platform suggested that each group would have "its secretariat, executing and guiding theoretically the political and technical work of the organisation." [Op. Cit., p. 34] Moreover, the Platform suggests that "a special organ [must] be created: the executive committee of the Union" which would "be in charge" of "the execution of decisions taken by the Union with which it is entrusted; the theoretical and organisational orientation of the activity of isolated organisations consistent with the theoretical positions and the general tactical lines of the Union; the monitoring of the general state of the movement; the maintenance of working and organisational links between all the organisations in the Union; and with other organisation." The rights, responsibilities and practical tasks of the executive committee are fixed by the congress of the Union. [Ibid.] This suggestion, unsurprisingly, meet with strong disapproval by most anarchists, who argued that this would turn the anarchist movement into a centralised, hierarchical party similar to the Bolsheviks. Needless to say, supporters of the Platform reject this argument and point out that the Platform itself is not written in stone and needs to be discussed fully and modified as required. In fact, few, if any, Platformist groups, do have this "secretariat" structure (it could, in fact, be argued that there are no actual "Platformist" groups, rather groups influenced by the Platform, namely on the issues of "Theoretical and Tactical Unity" and "Collective Responsibility").
The Red/Black Star is commonly uses to represent Anarcho-Communism, and emphasises that Platformism is a current within Anarcho-Communism, it also emphasises the "General Union of Anarchists" that is central to the idea of Platformism.
The same coloured Stars and dots surrounding the Red/Black star are supposed to represent Theoretical or Ideological Unity, where all members of a Platformist Organisation must come to an agreement on the theory upon which it is based. In other words, that members of the organisation must agree on a certain number of basic points, such as class struggle, anti-capitalism and anti-statism, and so on. (Eg. All members in an AnCom organisation must specifically be Anarcho-Communists, It's not enough to just be a Communist or Anarchist/Libertarian.) This is so that time isn't wasted on infighting or conflict between people of differing beliefs.
The meeting hands that make up the horizontal line in the "A" , as well as the Arrows facing inwards, stands for Tactical Unity, which is that the members of an organisation should struggle together as an organised force rather than as individuals. Once a strategy has been agreed by the Union, all members would work towards ensuring its success (even if they initially opposed it). In this way resources and time are concentrated in a common direction, towards an agreed objective.
The dots surrounding the circle all represent Collective Responsibility, meaning that each member should support the decisions made by the organisation and that each member should take part in the process of collective decision making process. Without this, argue Platformists, any decisions made will be paper decisions only as individuals and groups would ignore the agreements made by the federation (the Platform calls this "the tactic of irresponsible individualism" [Ibid.]). However, with "Collective Responsibility," the strength of all the individuals that make up the group is magnified and collectively applied. However, as one supporter of the Platform notes:
"The Platform doesn't go into detail about how collective responsibility works in practice. There are issues it leaves untouched such as the question of people who oppose the majority view. We would argue that obviously people who oppose the view of the majority have a right to express their own views, however in doing so they must make clear that they don't represent the view of the organisation. If a group of people within the organisation oppose the majority decision they have the right to organise and distribute information so that their arguments can be heard within the organisation as a whole. Part of our anarchism is the belief that debate and disagreement, freedom and openness strengthens both the individual and the group to which she or he belongs." [Red and Black Revolution, no. 4, p. 30]
And finally, the black lines connecting the dots/stars represents the principle of Federalism, which is defined as "the free agreement of individuals and organisations to work collectively towards a common objective" and allows the "reconcil[ing] the independence and initiative of individuals and the organisation with service to the common cause." [Op. Cit., p. 33] However, the Platform argues that this principle has been "deformed" within the movement to mean the "right" to "manifest one's 'ego,' without obligation to account for duties as regards the organisation" one is a member of. [Ibid.] In order to overcome this problem, they stress that "the federalist type of anarchist organisation, while recognising each member's rights to independence, free opinion, individual liberty and initiative, requires each member to undertake fixed organisation duties, and demands execution of communal decisions." [Op. Cit., pp. 33-4]
As part of their solution to the problem of anarchist organisation, the Platform suggested that each group would have "its secretariat, executing and guiding theoretically the political and technical work of the organisation." [Op. Cit., p. 34] Moreover, the Platform suggests that "a special organ [must] be created: the executive committee of the Union" which would "be in charge" of "the execution of decisions taken by the Union with which it is entrusted; the theoretical and organisational orientation of the activity of isolated organisations consistent with the theoretical positions and the general tactical lines of the Union; the monitoring of the general state of the movement; the maintenance of working and organisational links between all the organisations in the Union; and with other organisation." The rights, responsibilities and practical tasks of the executive committee are fixed by the congress of the Union. [Ibid.] This suggestion, unsurprisingly, meet with strong disapproval by most anarchists, who argued that this would turn the anarchist movement into a centralised, hierarchical party similar to the Bolsheviks. Needless to say, supporters of the Platform reject this argument and point out that the Platform itself is not written in stone and needs to be discussed fully and modified as required. In fact, few, if any, Platformist groups, do have this "secretariat" structure (it could, in fact, be argued that there are no actual "Platformist" groups, rather groups influenced by the Platform, namely on the issues of "Theoretical and Tactical Unity" and "Collective Responsibility").
Similarly, most modern day Platformists reject the idea of gathering all anarchists into one organisation. The original Platform seemed to imply that the General Union would be an umbrella organisation, which is made up of different groups and individuals. Most Platformists would argue that not only will there never be one organisation which encompasses everyone, they do not think it necessary. Instead they envisage the existence of a number of organisations, each internally unified, each co-operating with each other where possible, a much more amorphous and fluid entity than a General Union of Anarchists.
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