what is syndicalism?

[Nas]

i like to educate my self on left ideologies and terms, so the other day i read a paper and it was talking about different systems and i saw syndicalism which i never heard before , it sounded good but when i searched the definition , i didnt understand it , so can someone explain to me what is syndicalism?

[SonofRage]

http://www.anarchosyndicalism.net/

[Nas]

Thanks, there is alot to read but it is worth it.

[Guest1]

Anarcho-Syndicalism is one of the bridges between Anarchism and Marxism in my opinion. It's got alot of strong economical analyses of class dynamics that are very similar to Marxist analyses.

[SonofRage]

That's a good point to bring up. Here's something about that from Marxists.org (http://www.marxists.org/subject/anarchism/index.htm)



Anarcho-Syndicalism

During the last decades of the 19th century the socialist movement progressed well while anarchism became marginalised and generally reduced to terrorism and sabotage. However, while tranforming itself into vast working-class parties, the socialist movement also became somewhat “respectable”. The conflict between Rosa Luxemburg and Eduard Bernstein and between Lenin and Kautsky illustrate the divergence between reformist and revolutionary wings of socialism. Doctrinaire socialists such as Henry Hyndman also criticised the mass socialist parties from the left.

At the same time, a dynamic new movement grew in the working class, particularly in the trade unions, which merged features of Marxist theory with the best traditions of anarchism. This current became known as Anarcho-Syndicalism.

¤ Anarcho-Syndicalism. (http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/a/n.htm#anarcho-syndicalism)

Anarcho-syndicalism was especially strong in the English-speaking world where the trade union movement had its own traditions independently of the political parties and in Spain and Italy, where anarchism had a long history among the peasantry before the advent of anarchist theory in the workers' movement.

The founders of Anarcho-Syndicalism in the English-speaking world were socialists before they were anarchists, and looked to Marx not Bakunin for their theory. However, their focus on the independent development of the trade unions and their suspicion of parliamentarians provided the stimulus for the development of the vibrant and anarchic Industrial Workers of the World.

[bayano]

i would just like to point out that not all syndicalism is anarchist. much of it, in fact, is socialist or communist, some even leninist (which might seem like a contradiction)

it is about revolution thru unions, and for some about a new society organized thru mass unions, rather than thru a party-controlled state

[STN]

Syndicalism refers to a set of ideas, movements and tendencies which share the avowed aim of transforming capitalist society through action by the working class on the industrial front.

try searching stuff on: www.wikipedia.org (http://www.wikipedia.org)