I know, of course, that syndicalists don't want trade unions, I was a syndicalist for a long time, and an IWW member. But the reality is, that the union, as it actually functions (regardless of its stated goal) is to represent workers in negotiation with the bosses, so they will always head down the path of recuperation. In periods of high class consciousness we are going to see the self-organization of the working class into bodies that best represent their ideas and most effectively see to their needs. I don't pretend to know the future and what these will be, but for the most part I think the past dictates that they will be some sort of soviet/workers & residents council/strike & workplace comittee.
I didn't mean they were tools to teach how to organise. But the revolutionary organisation I talk of isn't like a trade union today, whose stated goal is to bargain with the bosses, it is self organised and based in direct action with the goal being revolution. What I'm trying to say is think we're getting stuck on semantics. What organisational model do you envisage in a period of high class consciousness.
The union exists as tool to bargain with the bosses, even radical unions, this is what they do day-to-day. So the radical rhetoric is just that, unions have never made revolution, nor are they necessary to "teach" workers how to organize.
I have read the Bonano leaflet and I identify with his ideas. I think my idea of tactics would be similar to yours. What is your objection to working within unions; working class organisations. I don't see today's established unions (even the IWW) of possessing revolutionary potential they are merely bases for agitation and workplace organisation for which later, in a time of high class consciousness the revolutionary union will develop. The structure of this union is often lumped in with all unions when it is stated that "unions are an instrument of the state to consolidate class rule through concessions". Definitely this analysis is valid but the structure of the revolutionary union is not the same (of course in my Anarcho-Syndicalist theories).
