RGacky3
11th May 2011, 14:40
Just a couple thoughts,
Syndicalism is one of the few ideologies whose main elements are not the model, or the finished product, but the process, the same goes for some strands of Marxism, I think this is extremely appealing and important. When you have a vision, or a model, its like going shopping for a very specific pair of shoes, a pair of shoes you saw someone else wear, you'r going shopping, but its not the shopping that is important, its finding the shoes, you'll pass by many great pairs of shoes, that might get the job done just as well, but when you just know you need shoes, you'll go shopping differently, its the process thats important.
Thats one of the great things of syndicalism, its applies to everything, in a Leninist society, in a capitalist society, in a social democracy, whatever, the principles stay the same. Your not working towards a goal perse, its a constant revolutionary process.
I'll give a couple of modern day examples, although none are explicitly or entirely syndicalist movements it will illustrate the point. the examples are the Socialism of Bolivia under morales, the Zapatistas, and Scandanavian social-democracy.
The Bolivian socialist movement started with the water wars, the goal was to resist privatization of water, this was a singular goal, it was not revolutoinary in a communist sense, but after they won it kept going, the poor indigenous population realized they had power, once they realized they could change things, they kept going, next came a damn near socialist uprising, with electoral victories, labor victories, socialization and so on, NONE of this was the vision, none of this had to do with the goal, origionally it was just resisting privatization, but the process of mass mobilization worked.
The Zapatistas were not communal communists, they were not anarchists, their goals always changed, from re-instituting land reform, to autonomy, even to Mexico-wide revolution, however as the revolution progressed their commitment to a democratic process, armed resistance as well as international support, ended up producing a highly democratic socialist society.
Social Democracy in Europe (in many parts being dismantled now), whether moder social-democrats want to admit it or not, was made my communists, marxist-lenninists, anarchists and other anti-capitalist socialist revolutionaries. It was not made by people whose goal it was to create mixed economies and welfare states, it was made by people wanting to overthrow Capitalism. Syndicalism was a large part of that, the labor movement.
All of these examples, and much more were movements where the goal was either unclear or much different than the outcome, but yet the outcome was extremely positive.
Syndicalism is NOT an idea of organizations such as Unions being a balancing force in Capitalism, its about overthrowing Capitalism, its about overthrowing anything that is the power structure, Capitalism, the State, whatever. But the important part is the process, the idea of collective power, cooperative resistance and democratic decision making is ultimately what wins the victories, not having the vision out perfectly.
Some people criticize the IWW, and more broadly the left, for not having a replacement for Capitalism, not having a specific replacement. I think that is a misplaced criticism, Marxism talks a lot about antagonisms, thats what this is all about, Capitalism is market i.e. monied control of the society, that control should be attacked everywhere, on every front, its not about convincing people that there is this other utopia we should choose, its about fighting against monied control, people power, and taking everything we get.
That is one reason syndicalism focuses a lot of unions, a union is a group of workers, organized to fight for a bigger slice of the pie, and have their say, this along with things like tenants organizations, are really direct threats to power, they are tools to fight Capital, they are not innately ideological, thats not the point, the point is they are tools workers can use to try and get what they want. Unions also will NEVER loose their value as long as people are paid wages, because they are not tied to a specific ideology.
The thought should not be what are we gonna build, the thought should be how are we fighting Capitalism, thinking the former leaves you inflexible and impotant, what is built is going to be defined not by your vision, but how you fight Capitalism. Revolution is a continual process, fighting for your interests all the time, against anyone that fights against them.
Anyway, I hope I got my point across.
Syndicalism is one of the few ideologies whose main elements are not the model, or the finished product, but the process, the same goes for some strands of Marxism, I think this is extremely appealing and important. When you have a vision, or a model, its like going shopping for a very specific pair of shoes, a pair of shoes you saw someone else wear, you'r going shopping, but its not the shopping that is important, its finding the shoes, you'll pass by many great pairs of shoes, that might get the job done just as well, but when you just know you need shoes, you'll go shopping differently, its the process thats important.
Thats one of the great things of syndicalism, its applies to everything, in a Leninist society, in a capitalist society, in a social democracy, whatever, the principles stay the same. Your not working towards a goal perse, its a constant revolutionary process.
I'll give a couple of modern day examples, although none are explicitly or entirely syndicalist movements it will illustrate the point. the examples are the Socialism of Bolivia under morales, the Zapatistas, and Scandanavian social-democracy.
The Bolivian socialist movement started with the water wars, the goal was to resist privatization of water, this was a singular goal, it was not revolutoinary in a communist sense, but after they won it kept going, the poor indigenous population realized they had power, once they realized they could change things, they kept going, next came a damn near socialist uprising, with electoral victories, labor victories, socialization and so on, NONE of this was the vision, none of this had to do with the goal, origionally it was just resisting privatization, but the process of mass mobilization worked.
The Zapatistas were not communal communists, they were not anarchists, their goals always changed, from re-instituting land reform, to autonomy, even to Mexico-wide revolution, however as the revolution progressed their commitment to a democratic process, armed resistance as well as international support, ended up producing a highly democratic socialist society.
Social Democracy in Europe (in many parts being dismantled now), whether moder social-democrats want to admit it or not, was made my communists, marxist-lenninists, anarchists and other anti-capitalist socialist revolutionaries. It was not made by people whose goal it was to create mixed economies and welfare states, it was made by people wanting to overthrow Capitalism. Syndicalism was a large part of that, the labor movement.
All of these examples, and much more were movements where the goal was either unclear or much different than the outcome, but yet the outcome was extremely positive.
Syndicalism is NOT an idea of organizations such as Unions being a balancing force in Capitalism, its about overthrowing Capitalism, its about overthrowing anything that is the power structure, Capitalism, the State, whatever. But the important part is the process, the idea of collective power, cooperative resistance and democratic decision making is ultimately what wins the victories, not having the vision out perfectly.
Some people criticize the IWW, and more broadly the left, for not having a replacement for Capitalism, not having a specific replacement. I think that is a misplaced criticism, Marxism talks a lot about antagonisms, thats what this is all about, Capitalism is market i.e. monied control of the society, that control should be attacked everywhere, on every front, its not about convincing people that there is this other utopia we should choose, its about fighting against monied control, people power, and taking everything we get.
That is one reason syndicalism focuses a lot of unions, a union is a group of workers, organized to fight for a bigger slice of the pie, and have their say, this along with things like tenants organizations, are really direct threats to power, they are tools to fight Capital, they are not innately ideological, thats not the point, the point is they are tools workers can use to try and get what they want. Unions also will NEVER loose their value as long as people are paid wages, because they are not tied to a specific ideology.
The thought should not be what are we gonna build, the thought should be how are we fighting Capitalism, thinking the former leaves you inflexible and impotant, what is built is going to be defined not by your vision, but how you fight Capitalism. Revolution is a continual process, fighting for your interests all the time, against anyone that fights against them.
Anyway, I hope I got my point across.