Federico Ferretti
federico.ferretti@ucd.ie
Abstract
Elisée Reclus (1830-1905) argued that ‘anarchy is the highest expression of order’. This
assertion, clashing with the bourgeois interpretation of anarchy as chaos, perfectly captured the
theories that were being elaborated by Reclus and other anarchist geographers including Pëtr
Kropotkin (1842-1921). At the centre of these theories lay the conviction that societies organised
around mutual aid and cooperation would be infinitely more rational and empowered than
societies organised under the State and capitalism. Then, militants like Errico Malatesta (1853-
1932) and Luigi Fabbri (1877-1935) advocated the need for formal anarchist organisation – to put
in practice the principles of a horizontal and federalist society in daily life – and prepare the
grounds for revolution. Acknowledging the importance of better understanding the past to inform
the present, this paper first shows the link (generally overlooked by anarchist historiography)
between Reclus’s and Kropotkin’s idea of order and Malatesta’s and Fabbri’s idea of
organisation; then, it presents the model of anarchist organisation as a possible resource for
present-day social movements, which often act as spontaneous networks of activism without a
deep reflexion on organisational issues. According to the tradition of organisational communist
anarchism, represented today by the International of Anarchist Federations, organisation is a key
point, being not only a necessity, but the method for social transformation: without clarity on this,
social struggles are likely to fall either in reformism either in Jacobinism. Finally, I show how
present-day anarchist geographies can contribute to these points through their effort to prefigure
new spaces for new societies.

Full PDF Available: Organisation_and_formal_activism_insigh