How do insurrectionists see a worldwide revolution occuring?

Question

I'm interested to find sources of insurrectionist theory that talk about how they believe revolution will happen. Some of the stuff I've seen (killing king abacus, Bonanno, fire to the prisons, etc) seem to indicate that revolution is close and their methods are merely aimed at hastening that process through actions that inspire the widening of already existing discontent.

Tiqqun and the Invisible Committee seem to indicate at least that revolution may not be so close, and more than just mere attack may be necessary. I'm curious if there's discussion of how communist ideas develop in the proletariat and what correspondence that has to activity, or if they just believe spontaneous struggle + some actions will create those ideas.

Comments

Wait, so … are we talking about the insurrectionists, the Tiqqunistas, or the communists?

Answer 1

1. Much of insurrectional anarchism does not argue that revolution is close but rather that it is more fun and effective to act now than to wait for something to arrive. Common approaches involve attack (not usually with the idea that this will spark insurrection but more often because these attacks can generalize, and because attack is appropriate to fighting a social war) and intervention in partial struggles, which IA theory suggests may lead to insurrection.

2. Tiqqun/The Invisible Committee argue that the insurrection is close, not temporally but metaphysically (they are influenced by millenarian ideas, the coming of the kingdom of heaven which is Tiqqun and is always accessible). This is unfortunately understood by many as if the insurrection is imminent (about to happen) rather than immanent (the kingdom of heaven is at hand). This is probably their own fault for using so many "omg it's about to happen!!!" statements in The Coming Insurrection and leaving out much of the complexity of Tiqqun. (Though Tiqqun is full of the idea that capitalism is drawing its last breaths...)

3. The debate about how communist ideas develop in the proletariat and how this corresponds to activity is a very involved one, within which the above two strains are both minoritarian. Commonly the answer is that these ideas develop in some combination of:
a) natural response to conditions (e.g. knowing you're getting fucked by your boss or the rich or the system in general)
b) coming together around conditions (e.g. realizing that others are also getting fucked)
c) struggling against conditions (e.g. realizing you have some power & ability to fight back)
d) failure in struggle (e.g. realizing the systems set up to meet your demands are busted and some kind of revolution is necessary)
e) success in struggle (e.g. if we can win this, we can win more)
f) propaganda
g) cadres
h) parties
i) programs
j) revelation
k) in a mysterious way that is not worth trying to predict or implement

and I could go on...

The debate which may be the most important within this is whether or not communist ideas can produce revolution, or a communist revolution, at all. You could read Monsieur Dupont/Frere Dupont for more on the negative answer.

I'm afraid the whole question you asked is simply too huge and vague for me to really tackle.

[edited for italics]