Founding of the IWA-AIT in 1922

[Frank Little]

?

[Stranger Than Paradise]

The congress of Syndicalists met in 1922/3 in Berlin where they decided upon founding the International Workingmens Association, these were the groups that were represented at the congress.

FORA - Argentina
Industrial Workers of the World - Chile
Union for Syndicalist Propaganda - Denmark
Freie Arbitrer Union - Germany
National Arbeids Sekretariat - Holland
Unione Sindicale Italiana - Italy
Confederacion Generale de Trabajadores - Mexico
Norsk Syndikalistik Federasjon - Norway
Confederacao Geral do Trabalho - Portugal
Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation - Sweden
Comite de Defense Syndicaliste Revolutionaire - France

The CNT of Spain didn't send a delegate but they reaffimed their adherence in a secret conference in Saragossa in 1923.

[syndicat]

Also, Russian anarcho-syndicalilsts in exile. Other groups that were affiliated to IWA in early '20s: FORU in Uruguay, FORB in Brazil, anarchist groups in La Paz, Bolivia and Paraguay.

[Искра]

syndicat can you tell me why WSA is no longer in IWA?

[syndicat]

We were expelled at the 2004 congress by vote of 3 to 2. The IWA secretariat will give bullshit bureaucratic reasons for this, not the real reasons, which have never been officially communicated to us.

It is possible that it was because we endorsed the 1999 international syndicalist conference in San Francisco. Perhaps certain people in the CNT in Spain viewed us as too ecumenical, not sectarian enough. At the 1988 Congress in Bourdeaux, where I was a delegate of WSA, we proposed various changes in the IWA principles to deal with structural gender inequality and the ecological crisis but these were not agreed to.

So I think WSA was deemed by certain worthies as being too independent minded. We have always had our own political perspective, not limited to the IWA principles, codified in our Where We Stand principles, which you can read at:

http://workersolidarity.org/?page_id=78

[Искра]

I heard that you split into two groups and there can be only one national organisation in IWA.

Will you apply for membership again?

[syndicat]

I'm not sure how much patience you have for the gory details here. But this is a more detailed account.

The late '90s were a difficult period for WSA. A number of older members had gotten burned out, and we lost the ability to continue putting out our magazine, ideas & action. So we lost visibility. Thus we went thru a period where the membership dropped from 50 to half of that. Around that time, in 1998-99, another anarcho-syndicalist group decided to take advantage of WSA's weakened condition to do an entryist takeover. This was mainly a small group in Duluth with a few scattered friends elsewhere. It went over the years under various names such as Syndicalist Federation of Minnesota or Blackbird Syndicalists. They joined as individuals which means they were saying they agreed with WSA's line, as laid out in our "Where We Stand" statement, which is our basis of membership. But it would soon be clear they didn't really agree.

They hid their own politics, made nice, and got elected to the national committee. Once they were the majority on the national committee, they started expelling long time members. This was in violation of the WSA constitution. In WSA a member can be expelled only by a national assembly and only after they are given 90 days notice and allowed to defend themselves. These requirements of our constitution were not followed.

The Blackbird Syndicalists then proceeded to dump the WSA name, and our original politics, renaming WSA "The US Section of IWA." Except that this move was not done validly. Our consitution would require a mail ballot of all members to do this, but they refused ballots to the people who they had expelled bureaucratically, in violation of the constitution, so their name change was invalid.

What was going on was that Blackbird Syndicalists had decided to capture WSA because they wanted for themselves the IWA franchise in the USA. The IWA statutes do not allow for two affiliates in one country unless the first affiliate agrees. So rather than try to get our agreement, they decided to seize WSA, expel older comrades and change the name.

It served the purposes of certain people in the CNT in Spain and in the IWA to go along with this takeover because they already had disagreements with WSA, and the Blackbird Syndicalists in 1999 were involved in a steel strike in Minnesota that involved working with IWA affiliate in Italy,USI, on solidarity, so they had been trying to develop relationships with certain people in IWA in Europe.

But the members of WSA fought to re-gain control of the organization and toss out the entryists. As it became clear the WSA members would win in this fight, the group in Duluth decided to bail out. They then sent a letter to the IWA secretariat saying they were disaffiliating from the IWA.

The IWA Secretariat to this day will tell you WSA disaffiliated from IWA. This is not the case. A vote of the 6 members of the branch in Duluth couldn't disaffiliate the whole WSA from IWA. That would have required a mail ballot of all the members, by our constitution, and that never happened.

This was eventually appealed to the 2004 IWA congress. The question of recognizing the WSA as still a member was brought forward and 3 sections voted no...that is, to expel WSA...and 2 sections voted Yes (FAU and USI), to recognize us. FAU had always been a section in IWA with which we had had good relations.

After that, WSA was left for dead and had only about a dozen members. Since then the organization has been rebuilt and is about up to 50 members as we were in the early '90s. A few of the older members who had left returned, but mainly the membership is now made up of younger members.

We will not apply for admission because that would be to agree that we disaffiliated, which we deny. It is up to the IWA to recognize we never left.

[Искра]

Wow... fucking soup opera... (No hard feelings it's not directed to you)

It really pisses me off when people like those Blackbird Syndicalists, do such things. Aren't we - the anarcho-syndicalists - "preaching" solidarity?! What the fuck was this?

This kind of behaviour depresses me.

So, will you try to enter the IWA one day?
Have you hear for MASA? I'm their international secretary. :) I hope you heard for us, since we are in contact on official level.

[syndicat]

yes, our corresponding secretary distributed to the members the letter from MASA in solidarity with the jailed people in Serbia.

These days WSA is pursuing an alliance with other working class struggle oriented social anarchist groups in the USA. We have had two successful Class Struggle Anarchist Conferences, attended by about 100 people each time. There was a large degree of agreement. There are about 300 to 400 activists in the various groups who participated. There is also talk about the possibility of a regroupment into a larger unitary libertarian socialist group throughout USA.

[Искра]

yes, our corresponding secretary distributed to the members the letter from MASA in solidarity with the jailed people in Serbia.

These days WSA is pursuing an alliance with other working class struggle oriented social anarchist groups in the USA. We have had two successful Class Struggle Anarchist Conferences, attended by about 100 people each time. There was a large degree of agreement. There are about 300 to 400 activists in the various groups who participated. There is also talk about the possibility of a regroupment into a larger unitary libertarian socialist group throughout USA.
Nice. Should we transfer discussion about WSA on PM? I think that this discussion is off topic, but I'm really interested in many things about WSA.

[syndicat]

Sure. PM me if you have questions.