A-Infos (en) Turkey, Yeryuzu Postasi: The Great Garden: Theory, Ideology and Political Practice - Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Category: Revolution, State, Reform , Articles , Organization ---- 
Foreword of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation ---- Huerta Grande, or 
"The Great Garden," was written in 1972 as an internal discussion 
document of the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (Federación Anarquista 
Uruguaya) after the failure of the Tupamaros, a Guevarist group, in 
their armed strategy known as Focoism 1 , and immediately before the 
brutal military coup of June 1973. This text addresses the nature of 
theory and strategy, arguing that a fundamental aspect of revolutionary 
political organization is having a deep understanding of material 
reality, nourished by practical theory and political praxis. This may 
not seem like a new or original idea, but its implications have since 
had a profound impact on Latin American anarchism, and the text has 
become one of the foundational documents of the Especifismo movement.

The Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (Federación Anarquista Uruguaya), 
known as FAU, was founded in 1956 and was the first organization to 
advocate the organizational concept of Especifismo (for more information 
on Especifismo, see "Building a Revolutionary Anarchism" and 
"Especifismo: The Anarchist Praxis of Building Popular Movements and 
Revolutionary Organizations in South America"). The FAU saw the purpose 
of its organization as coordinating militants toward strategic "social 
articulation," meaning mobilizing militants to work together with a 
common strategy both within mass organizations and in building them. The 
medium-term goal was the construction of the social power of mass 
organizations; the ultimate goal was the creation of a broad-based 
libertarian movement capable of achieving a break with the state. In the 
1960s, the organization played a significant role in the founding of the 
Uruguayan CNT, a national trade union confederation bringing together 90 
percent of organized workers; the Workers-Students Resistance (ROE), a 
federation of militant workplace and student groups with approximately 
12,000 members; and the FAU's armed wing, OPR-33. More recently, over 
the last two decades, the FAU has helped establish numerous similar 
anarchist organizations in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, and has 
inspired other anarchist organizations worldwide.

Note: The use of the term "party" here is consistent with Errico 
Malatesta's use of it synonymously with political organization: "By the 
word 'party,' we mean everyone who is on the same side, that is, who 
shares the same general aspirations and who in some way fights for the 
same goals against common enemies and adversaries."

Huerta Grande

To understand what is happening (the current situation), one needs to 
think correctly. Thinking correctly means organizing and appropriately 
handling the enormous amount of data being generated regarding reality.

Correct thinking is an indispensable condition for accurately analyzing 
what happened at a particular point in a country's history, or in the 
history of any other country. This requires tools. For our task, these 
tools are concepts, and to think coherently, a set of concepts expressed 
in a consistent manner is necessary. Therefore, a system of concepts, a 
theory, is necessary.

Without theory, there is a risk of examining each problem separately, in 
isolation, from perspectives that may differ in each case, or examining 
them based on subjectivity, assumptions, or what is presented to us.

The party managed to avoid serious mistakes because it was able to think 
on the basis of concepts possessing a significant level of consistency. 
However, it also made serious mistakes because our theoretical thinking 
as an organization was not sufficiently developed.

To propose a program, we must know the economic, political, and 
ideological realities of our country. The same is necessary to formulate 
a sufficiently clear and concrete political line. If we have 
insufficient or incorrect information, we cannot have a program; we will 
only have a very general line that is difficult to implement wherever 
the party is involved. If there is no clear line, there will be no 
effective political practice. Then the political will of the party risks 
being diluted; "voluntarism" in action results in doing everything based 
only on good intentions, but does not determine the outcome of events 
because it is based on false predictions. We are determined by events 
and act spontaneously according to them.

An organization without a theoretical working line, no matter how large, 
will be helpless in the face of conditions it cannot influence and 
comprehend. A political line requires a program conceived as goals to be 
achieved at every stage. The program shows which forces are friends, 
which are enemies, and which are merely temporary allies. But to know 
this, we need a deep understanding of the country's reality. Therefore, 
acquiring this knowledge now is the top priority. And to know, we need 
theory.

The party needs a clear picture to think coherently about the struggles 
of the national, regional, and international workers' movements 
throughout history. We must have an effective framework for organizing 
and categorizing the ever-increasing mass of data concerning our 
economic, political, and ideological reality.

We must have a method for analyzing this data, determining which is more 
important, which is prioritized, and which is secondary, so that we can 
correctly mobilize our forces on this front of intervention. A 
conceptual scheme that allows us to connect one thing to another in a 
systematic and coherent order is vital to our goals as militants of the 
party. Such a scheme should be able to offer examples of how to act 
using these concepts for others operating in different realities.

However, we must undertake this work of understanding our country 
ourselves, because no one else will do it for us.

We are not proposing to invent theoretical frameworks from scratch. We 
will not create a new theory and all its consequences. This is because 
of the general backwardness of the environment and its specialized 
institutions, and our lack of competence to undertake this task.

Therefore, we must accept theory as it is and analyze it critically. We 
cannot blindly accept any theory, devoid of criticism, as if it were a 
dogma.

We want to bring about a complete transformation of our country, and we 
will not adopt the theories produced by the bourgeoisie as a way of 
thinking. We will think with the bourgeoisie's concepts in the way the 
bourgeoisie wants us to.

We want to study and think about Uruguay and the region as 
revolutionaries. Therefore, among the elements that are part of 
different socialist currents, we will always adopt those that will help 
us to do precisely this: as revolutionaries, we will think about and 
analyze the country, the region, and other regions and experiences.

We will not adopt a theory simply because it is fashionable. Repeating 
"quotations" that others have said elsewhere, at other times, about 
other situations and problems is not theory. Only charlatans do that.

Theory is a tool that serves a purpose. Its existence is to produce the 
knowledge we need. The first thing we want to know is about our country. 
If theory cannot produce new and useful information for our political 
practice, it is absolutely useless; it then becomes merely the subject 
of empty talk and unproductive ideological debates.

Someone who buys a large, modern machine instead of working on it, and 
spends all day talking about it, is playing a bad role, he is a 
charlatan. Just like someone who, despite owning a machine, prefers to 
do his work by hand, saying, "That's how it used to be done"...

Some Differences Between Theory and Ideology

It is important to highlight some differences between the concepts 
commonly referred to as theory and ideology.

Theory aims at developing conceptual tools used to rigorously consider 
and deeply understand concrete reality. In this sense, we can 
characterize theory as equivalent to a science.

Ideology, on the other hand, consists of non-scientific elements that, 
while related to objective conditions, do not necessarily stem from 
them, but rather add dynamism to actions based on those conditions. 
Ideology is conditioned by objective conditions, but it is not 
mechanically determined by them.

A deep and rigorous analysis of a concrete situation, based on fact and 
objectivity, is, to the extent that it is scientific, a theoretical 
analysis. The expression of motivations, the articulation of goals, 
aspirations, and ideal aims - all of these belong to the realm of ideology.

While theory examines and defines the determining elements of political 
action, ideology motivates, mobilizes, and shapes its "ideal" goals and 
forms.

There is a very close connection between theory and ideology, since the 
propositions of ideology are based on and supported by the results of 
theoretical analysis. The effectiveness of an ideology as a driving 
force for political action is proportional to how firmly it is based on 
the results of theory.

Scope of Theoretical Studies

Theoretical work is always based on and supported by real processes, 
events in historical reality, and occurrences. However, because this 
work belongs entirely to the realm of thought, no concept is more real 
than another.

It is important to state two fundamental propositions:

On the one hand, there is the distinction between existing reality and 
real, historical processes, and on the other hand, between the processes 
derived from the knowledge and understanding of this reality. In other 
words, it is necessary to emphasize the difference between being and 
thought, between reality as it is and what we can know about it.
The supremacy of existence over thought, of reality over knowledge. In 
other words, the sequence of events is more importantit carries more 
weight as a determining factorin terms of what actually happened, rather 
than what we think or know about that reality.
Starting from these fundamental assumptions, it is important to 
understand the full scope of theoretical workthat is, the pursuit of 
knowledge driven by rigorous and scientific

methods of acquiring information. Theoretical work always relies on a 
predetermined raw material.[Theory]does not arise from concrete reality 
itself, but from information, data, and concepts about that reality. 
This primary material is processed in the process of theoretical work 
using specific useful concepts and specific tools of thought. The 
product of this processing is knowledge.

In other words, there are only real, concrete, and singular objects 
(determined by historical situations, specific societies, specific 
times). The process of theoretical work strives to know these.

Sometimes theoretical studies focus on abstract objects that do not 
actually exist, but only in thought; however, these are indispensable 
tools and a prerequisite for recognizing real objects (e.g., the concept 
of social classes, etc.). In the production of knowledge, raw material 
(a superficial perception of reality) is transformed into a product 
(rigorous scientific knowledge about reality).

The term "scientific knowledge" should be defined in relation to social 
reality. When applied to reality, this term refers to its comprehension 
through rigorous terminology, which is the closest approximation to reality.

It should be noted that, like all other objects of real inquiry, the 
process of comprehending social reality possesses infinite theoretical 
depth. Just as physics, chemistry, and other branches of science can 
infinitely deepen their knowledge of the realities that constitute their 
objects of study, so too can the social sciences infinitely deepen their 
knowledge of social reality. Therefore, waiting for "complete" knowledge 
of social reality is insufficient for taking action to change it. Trying 
to change it without a deep understanding of it is equally insufficient.

Sound scientific knowledge of social reality and social structure can 
only be obtained by working with information and statistical data, using 
more abstract conceptual tools that are formulated and shaped in theory. 
Through the practice of theoretical work, we aim to produce these 
conceptual tools, which become more precise and concrete each time; this 
leads us to knowledge of the concrete reality around us.

Only through a sufficient, deep, and scientific theoretical 
understanding can ideological elements (aspirations, values, ideals, 
etc.) be developed that constitute the appropriate tools for effectively 
transforming social reality into consistent principles and political 
practice.

Political Praxis and Knowing Reality

Therefore, effective political practice requires: knowledge of reality 
(theory), its integration with the objective values of transformation 
(ideology), and concrete political tools to carry out this 
transformation (political practice). These three elements unite in a 
dialectical whole that constitutes the transformative effort targeted by 
the party.

The question may be asked: Should we wait for the completion of 
theoretical development before taking action? No. Theoretical 
development is not an academic problem; it does not start from scratch. 
It is grounded, motivated, and developed by the existence of ideological 
values and political practice. Whether more or less correct, these 
elements historically precede theory and motivate its development.

Class struggle existed long before its theoretical conceptualization. 
The struggle of the exploited did not wait for the elaboration of a 
theoretical work. Its existence precedes knowledge about it; it was 
there before there was knowledge about it, before a theoretical analysis 
of its existence was made.

Therefore, starting from this fundamental observation, taking action, 
developing a political praxis, becomes a vital and indispensable 
necessity. Only through[praxis], that is, through the concrete existence 
of its development within the existing conditions, can we construct a 
useful theoretical framework. This framework should not be a worthless 
collection of abstract statements that, while possessing internal logic, 
have no consistency with the development of real processes. To theorize 
effectively, action is essential.

Can we set aside theory under the pretext of practical urgency? No. 
Let's say there can be a political praxis based solely on ideological 
criteria, and therefore lacking sufficient or inadequately based on 
theoretical analysis. This is a common situation around us.

No one can claim, or even come close to claiming, that in our reality, 
or in the reality of our[Latin]American region, there is sufficient 
theoretical analysis, that is, a sufficiently concrete understanding. 
This observation also applies to other parts of our reality. Theory is 
still in its infancy. However, struggles and conflicts have been going 
on for decades. This understanding should not lead us to underestimate 
the fundamental importance of theoretical work.

We must answer the previously asked question as follows: Primitive 
action is paramount, but the effectiveness of this praxis depends on a 
deeper understanding of reality.

In a reality similar to ours, in the social structure of our country, 
theoretical development, as everywhere else, must begin with a set of 
effective theoretical concepts that operate on the broadest possible 
data, forming the raw material of theoretical development.

When data is examined in isolation, without sufficient theoretical 
conceptual processing, it does not adequately reflect reality. This data 
only embellishes and conceals the ideologies it serves.

Abstract concepts, while providing sufficient background information on 
their own, do not reveal more about reality.

Theoretical studies in our country generally oscillate between these two 
false extremes.

1. Foquismo is a revolutionary strategy of Latin American origin that 
argues that a small and disciplined guerrilla group can incite the 
people to revolution through armed action and overthrow the regime.

https://www.yeryuzupostasi.org/2026/04/08/buyuk-bahce-teori-ideoloji-ve-siyasi-uygulama-uruguay-anarsist-federasyonu/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en