Do Unions Represent Ideal Worker's Revolutionary Group?

[Waffles]

Are Unions organizations which allow workers to organize against the Capitalists, or are they worthless because of their association with Capitalist groups?

Thoughts and opinions?

[thefinalmarch]

Unions, as they presently exist, are something of a mixed bag. Many of the larger unions are blatantly pro-establishment and often work in concert with the state and the capitalist classes against working-class militancy by condemning or even suppressing strikes and occupations. The more independent unions are much more militant, but unfortunately they typically have much less members.

I have very strong doubts that the syndicalist ideal of mass unions and collectivised federations of these unions will ever come in to being, as I personally regard the workplace/shop-floor struggle as becoming increasingly less important in the context of the wider class struggle -- today the working class mobilises against a wider range of the effects of modern class society which are becoming more visible, including but not limited to the cost of living, massive spending cuts (especially those that come as a result of austerity measures), and unemployment.

The labour front is slowly dying and I think this creates some challenges for the workers' movement when we consider that proletarian revolution necessarily entails the overthrow of the capitalist mode of production (along with the seizure of political power by the working class -- of this there are numerous examples throughout history), which takes place at the level of individual workplaces.