Anarcho-syndicalism

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Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. Syndicalisme is a French word meaning "trade unionism" – hence, the "syndicalism" qualification. Anarcho-syndicalists view labour unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the State with a new society democratically self-managed by workers. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Anarcho-syndicalism remains a popular and active school of Anarchism today and has many supporters as well as many currently active organizations. Many contemporary anarchists argued that Anarcho-Syndicalism is more of an anarchist organizational structure than an economic system in and of itself. Anarcho-syndicalist trade unionists differ on anarchist economic arrangements from a Collectivist anarchism type economic system to an Anarcho-Communism type economic system.

Contents 1 Features of anarcho-syndicalism 2 History 3 Quotes 4 Criticism 5 References 6 Organizations 7 Books 8 Trivia 9 See also 10 People 11 External links 11.1 Some anarcho-syndicalis organizations 11.2 Other links

[edit] Features of anarcho-syndicalism

The basic principles of anarcho-syndicalism are:

1. Workers’ solidarity
2. Direct action
3. Workers' self-management

Workers’ solidarity means that anarcho-syndicalists believe all workers, no matter what their gender or ethnic group, are in a similar situation in regard to their bosses (class consciousness). Furthermore, it means that, in a capitalist system, any gains or losses made by some workers from or to bosses will eventually affect all workers. Therefore, to liberate themselves, all workers must support one another in their class conflict.

Anarcho-syndicalists believe that only direct action — that is, action concentrated on directly attaining a goal, as opposed to indirect action, such as electing a representative to a government position — will allow workers to liberate themselves.

Moreover, anarcho-syndicalists believe that workers’ organizations — the organizations that struggle against the wage system, and which, in anarcho-syndicalist theory, will eventually form the basis of a new society — should be self-managing. They should not have bosses or "business agents"; rather, the workers should be able to make all the decisions that affect them themselves.

Rudolf Rocker was one of the most popular voices in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. He dedicated himself to the organisation of Jewish immigrant workers in London's East End and led the 1912 garment workers strike.^[1] He outlined a view of the origins of the movement, what it sought, and why it was important to the future of labour in his 1938 pamphlet Anarcho-Syndicalism.

In his article Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism, Rocker points out that the anarcho-syndicalist union has a dual purpose, "1. To enforce the demands of the producers for the safeguarding and raising of their standard of living; 2. To acquaint the workers with the technical management of production and economic life in general and prepare them to take the socio-economic organism into their own hands and shape it according to socialist principles." In short, laying the foundations of the new society "within the shell of the old." Up to the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution, anarcho-syndicalist unions and organizations were the dominant actors in the revolutionary left.

[edit] History

Hubert Lagardelle wrote that Pierre-Joseph Proudhon laid out the fundamental theories of anarcho-syndicalism, through his repudiation of both capitalism and the state, his flouting of political government, his idea of free, autonomous economic groups, and his view of struggle, not pacifism, as the core of humanity.^{[citation needed]}

The earliest expressions of anarcho-syndicalist structure and methods were formulated in the International Workingmen's Association or First International, particularly in the Jura federation. The First International, however, split between two main tendencies within the organization; the libertarian wing represented by Mikhail Bakunin and the authoritarian wing represented by Karl Marx. Adherents of the former would go on to influence the development of the labour movement in Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands, while orthodox Marxists would form mass-based labour and social democratic parties throughout Europe, with major strongholds in Germany and England. Some Marxists, notably Rosa Luxembourg and Anton Pannokoek, would formulate positions remarkably close to anarcho-syndicalism through council communism. (See main article Anarchism and Marxism.)

In 1895, the Confédération Générale du Travail in France expressed fully the organizational structure and methods of revolutionary syndicalism influencing labour movements the world over. The CGT was modelled on the development of the Bourse de Travail (labour exchange), a workers' central organization which would encourage self-education and mutual aid, and facilitate communication with local workers' syndicates. Through a general strike, workers would take control of industry and services and self-manage society and facilitate production and consumption through the labour exchanges.

The International Workers Association, formed in 1922, is an international anarcho-syndicalist federation of various labour unions from different countries. At its peak, the International Workers Association represented millions of workers and competed directly for the hearts and minds of the working class with social democratic unions and parties. The Spanish Confederación Nacional del Trabajo played and still plays a major role in the Spanish labour movement. It was also an important force in the Spanish Civil War. Another Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union, the Confederacion General del Trabajo de España, is now the third largest union in Spain and the largest anarchist union with tens of thousands of members.

The anarcho-syndicalist orientation of many early American labour unions played an important role in the formation of the American political spectrum, most significantly of the Industrial Workers of the World. The United States is the only industrialized ("first world") country that does not have a major labour-based political party. ^[2]

[edit] Quotes

Rudolf Rocker wrote in Anarcho-Syndicalism:

Political rights do not originate in parliaments; they are rather forced upon them from without. And even their enactment into law has for a long time been no guarantee of their security. They do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace.

[edit] Criticism

Anarcho-syndicalism is viewed as an anachronism by many contemporary anarchists.^[3]

[edit] References

1. ^ Fermin Rocker eastlondonhistory.com retrieved 8 September 2006
2. ^ Lipset, Seymour Martin and Marks, Gary. It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States. ISBN 0-393-32254-8
3. ^ Heider, Ulrike. (1994) Anarchism: Left, Right and Green, San Francisco: City Lights Books, p.4

[edit] Organizations

• International Workers Association (IWA-AIT)
• Associação Internacional dos Trabalhadores - Secção Portuguesa (AIT-SP) Portugal
• Anarho-sindikalisticka inicijativa (ASI-MUR) Serbia
• Awareness League Nigeria
• Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT-AIT) Spain
• Confédération Nationale du Travail (CNT-AIT & CNT-F) France
• Direct! Switzerland
• Federace Sociálních Anarchistù (FSA-MAP) Czech Rep
• Federação Operária do Río Grande do Sul - Confederação Operária Brasileira (FORGS-COB-AIT) Brazil
• Federacion Obrera Regional Argentina (FORA-AIT) Argentina
• Freie Arbeiter- und Arbeiterinnen Union (FAU) Germany
• Konfederatsiya Revolyutsionnikh Anarkho-Sindikalistov (KRAS-IWA) Russia
• Norsk Syndikalistik Forbund (NSF-IAA) Norway
• Priama Akcia (PA-IWA) Slovakia
• Solidarity Federation (SF-IWA) Britain
• Unione Sindacale Italiana (USI) Italy
• Workers Solidarity Alliance
• FESAL (European Federation of Alternative Syndicalism)
• Confederación General del Trabajo de España (CGT) Spain
• Ελευθεριακή Συνδικαλιστική Ένωση (ESE) Greece
• Freie ArbeiterInnen Union Schweiz (FAUCH) Switzerland
• Industrial Workers of the World (not explicitly anarcho-syndicalist: see above)
• SKT Siberian Confederation of Labour
• Swedish Anarcho-syndicalist Youth Federation (Syndikalistiska Ungdomsförbundet, SUF) Sweden
• Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation, SAC) Sweden
• Antiauthoritarian Movement (Αντιεξουσιαστίκή Κίνηση) (ΑΚ) Greece

[edit] Books

• Rocker, Rudolf, Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism (full text)
• Rocker, Rudolf, Anarcho-Syndicalism (full text)

[edit] Trivia

• Anarcho-Syndicalism served as a short, famous gag for Monty Python in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). In the scene, King Arthur (played by Graham Chapman) asks a group of peasants (played by Michael Palin and Terry Jones) who their lord is; one peasant explains that their community is an autonomous collective as part of an anarcho-syndicalist commune, while Arthur continues to assert he is their king. Among the peasants' responses is "Well I didn't vote for you!"

[edit] See also

• General strike
• Syndicalism
• Council Communism
• Libertarian socialism
• CNT
• FAI
• Trade Union
• Trade unions in South Africa
• List of federations of trade unions

[edit] People

• Rudolf Rocker
• Buenaventura Durruti
• Noam Chomsky
• Lucy Parsons
• Big Bill Haywood
• Joe Hill
• Federica Montseny
• Fernand Pelloutier
• Georges Sorel
• Sam Dolgoff

[edit] External links

• A comprehensive list of Anarcho-syndicalis organizations

[edit] Some anarcho-syndicalis organizations

• International Workers Association - IWA-AIT
• Confederación Nacional del Trabajo - CNT-AIT
• (Italian) Unione Sindacale Italia - USI-AIL
• Anarho-sindikalisticka inicijativa - ASI-MUR
• Freie Arbeiter- und Arbeiterinnen Union - FAU-IAA
• Confédération Nationale du Travail - CNT-AIT
• Solidarity Federation - SF-IWA
• Konfederatsiya Revolyutsionnikh Anarkho-Sindikalistov - KRAS-IWA
• Federace Sociálních Anarchistù - FSA-MAP
• (French) Direct!
• Antiauthoritarian Movement/Αντιεξουστιαστική Κίνηση (ΑΚ)
• Workers' Solidarity Alliance
• Ελευθεριακή Συνδικαλιστική Ένωση (ESE)
• IWW Retail Workers

[edit] Other links

• Anarcho-Syndicalism 101
• Libertarian Communist Library - Contains Many Anarcho-Syndicalist Texts
• Anarcho-Syndicalist Review
• Syndicalism: Myth and Reality
• The Ghost of Anarcho-Syndicalism A criticism by Murray Bookchin
• The Bourgeois Roots of Anarcho-syndicalism by Feral Faun
• Daily Bleed's Anarchist Encyclopedia Hundreds of anarchist-syndicalists with pages/links