Anarcho-Syndicalism for dummies

**Искра** · 1st November 2009, 18:47

Attempt of this thread is to introduce anarcho-syndicalism to people who may be interested in it. I'm not very good with words (especially when those words are in English), so here I'll try to collect as much as I can sources about anarcho-syndicalism. If you think that this thread is useful I would really like that some one stick this

Ok, so we should begin with: What is anarcho-syndicalism?

Originally Posted by Brighton SolFed:
Anarchism is a revolutionary political current that declares "freedom without socialism is privilege and injustice and socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality."

Syndicalism is the workers’ movement. Deriving from the French word for Trade Unionism (Syndicalisme), it seeks to unite workers on an economic basis to fight for their interests.

Anarcho-syndicalism is anarchism applied to the workers’ movement. From small educational groups to mass revolutionary unions, libertarian organisation grows and is controlled from the bottom up.

"Anarcho-syndicalism unites the political and the economic
and opposes representation in favour of self-organisation"

Anarcho-syndicalists seek to organise with other militant workers who agree with their revolutionary aims and principles. Initially, this takes the form of local groups and industrial networks, but as these grow in size and influence they can begin to take on union functions such as advising fellow workers and initiating direct action like work-to-rules, strikes and occupations.

The role of anarcho-syndicalist networks and unions is not to try and recruit every worker, but to advocate and organise mass meetings of all workers involved in each struggle so that the workers involved retain control. Within these mass meetings anarcho-syndicalists argue for the principles of solidarity, direct action and self-organisation.

In this way anarcho-syndicalism is completely different to Trade Unionism, which seeks to represent workers on an economic basis, and the so-called ‘Workers Parties’ which seek to represent workers on a political basis. Instead, anarcho-syndicalism unites the political and the economic and opposes representation in favour of self-organisation.

By organising this way, workers learn to act for themselves, exercising their power without being led by union officials or political vanguards, calling into question the way society is organised and prefiguring the world we want to create, without bosses or rulers: libertarian communism.

"The history of political parties and trade union bureaucracy
is a history of sell-outs and betrayal"

Anarcho-syndicalist aims and principles

Anarcho-syndicalists aim to promote solidarity in our workplaces and outside them, encouraging workers to organise independently of government, bosses and bureaucrats to fight for our own interests as a class. Our ultimate goal is a stateless, classless society based on the principle of 'from each according to ability, to each according to need' – a system of free councils made up of recallable delegates from workplaces and communities. This is libertarian communism.

We see such a society based on our needs being created out of working class struggles to assert our needs in the here and now. Our activity is therefore aimed at promoting, assisting and developing such class struggles locally and internationally, which both benefits us now and brings us closer to the society we want to create. We do this according to the following three principles:

Solidarity. As individuals we are relatively powerless in the face of bosses, bureaucrats and the state, but when we act collectively the tables are turned.
Direct action. We do not make appeals to political or economic representatives to act on our behalf, but organise to get the things we want for ourselves.
Self-organisation. Workers should control their own struggles through mass meetings, both learning how to act without bosses or leaders and ensuring they can't be sold out or demobilised from above.

What do anarcho-syndicalists do?

Anarcho-syndicalists are engaged in a wide range of workplace and community struggles, some very immediate and others more long term. These include:

Workplace organising – on issues from pay to working hours to working practices and conditions.
Community organising – from public services to housing to the environment.
Strike and occupation solidarity – staffing picket lines, raising funds and bringing in supplies.
Worker support – organising demonstrations, pickets and direct action in support of individual victimised workers.
Networking with other militant workers – for example through the National Shop Stewards Network and the Education Workers’ Network.
Organising public meetings – on the economy, war, climate change and other issues that affect the working class.
Producing and distributing propaganda – from regular free-sheets and magazines to one-off leaflets, spreading the ideas of solidarity, direct action and self-organisation.

There's also interesting text called: Anarcho-syndcialism - an introduction.

I think that this link shoves very good (and on the simple way) what's anarcho-syndicalism. If you want study more about anarcho-syndicalism there's anarcho-syndicalist FAQ.

Here you can learn about interesting stuff like:
1a. Where does the term "Anarcho-Syndicalism" come from, and what does it mean?
1b. Why do anarcho-syndicalists oppose the wages system?
1c. Why do anarcho-syndicalists oppose participation in statist politics?

1d. What are the basic principles of anarcho-syndicalism?

Originally Posted by Anarcho-Syndicalism 101:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]The basic principles of anarcho-syndicalism are workers' solidarity, direct action and self-management. They are the manifestation in daily life of the application to the workers' movement of the libertarian principles of anarchism. The anarchist philosophy which inspires these basic principles also defines their purpose; that is, to be a tool of self-emancipation from wage-slavery, and as a means of working towards Libertarian Communism (see section 5). [/FONT]

1e. What are the basic strategies and tactics of anarcho-syndicalism?

Originally Posted by Anarcho-Syndicalism 101:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]The basic strategies of anarcho-syndicalism can be broken up into three parts: agitation, education and organisation. Each aspect follows from and builts on top of the previous one on the scale and depth of activity. The classic tactics of anarcho-syndicalist unions include forms of direct action carried out while still on the job, and -- at particular flashpoints in history -- general strikes. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]The basis of all anarcho-syndicalist strategy, however, is collective action. If most of the problems in the world can be traced back to blind worship of the money-god at the expense of any other value or principle, and if the money-god has financial power and the support of state power, individual attempts at resistance will be, are, have been and always will be totally annhiliated. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]Therefore, the only thing that can defeat the formidable power of the money-god is the people power which they themselves make when they organise themselves into a common, collective resistance. [/FONT]

Symbols of anarcho-syndicalism:

Originally Posted by Anarcho-Syndicalism 101:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]The red and black flag is the primary symbol of the international libertarian labour movement. [1] Its colours symbolise the basic principles and goals of anarcho-syndicalism -- red for material and social equality and the black of the anarchist flag for freedom and solidarity. To that extent the colours of the anarcho-syndicalist flag are a constant reminder both of the libertarian means by which the anarcho-syndicalist fights and the goal of freedom from statism and wage-slavery that she or he fights for. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]Originally the red and black were placed vertically, one of top of each other. A later innovation placed the red and black diagonally along a line running from bottom left to top right, with a red triangle placed on top and a black one below. This crossing of the flag represents the internationalist aspect of the anarcho-syndicalist movement through the nullification, in a sense and with a purpose similar to that of the pure black of the anarchist flag, of all other flags. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]The direction of the diagonal line holds important symbolic value also, and tends to be strictly adhered to. If red symbolises the economic struggle that the anarcho-syndicalist union takes on on a day-to-day basis, the black symbolises the anarchist principles and goals which inspire the desire to fight the authoritarianism of the present, and to resist collaboration and itegration into the system of class oppression. The direction of the diagonal line, with the anarchist black rising from underneath to its fullest area at the right, symbolises the growth of a revolutionary temper alongside the growth of the movement as a whole -- a decline in activity based (for lack of a better word) only on an animalistic knowledge of one's own immediate needs and a growth in activity based on idealism, knowledge and education, and a desire to struggle for liberation from wage-slavery. In a nutshell, the direction of the line is a statement against reformism and the reduction of the union to an instrument of class collaboration and a mechanism controlling and taming the workers, as opposed to performing its proper role as one of liberation. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]Like the anarchist flag the red and black flag of anarcho-syndicalism is used by libertarian labour activists around the world in place of their national flags. The use of the flag is a statement against nationalism, the lie which enslaves and victimises the majority of a people to a minority of exploiters and oppressors from amongst their own ranks, which makes patriots out of those with no patrimony. By the same token, use of the red and black flag is a statement in favour of internationalism, and the unity and solidarity, undivided by made-up lines on maps, of all humankind. [/FONT]

Originally Posted by Anarcho-Syndicalism 101:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]The Sabcat symbol was designed by Ralph Chaplin, a prominent figure in the IWW in the United States, and is used throughout the world as one of militant unionism (the picture of a wild cat suggests -- unsuprisingly -- a wildcat strike, or one undertaken by a local or locals against the wishes or commands of a union bureaucracy or boss). [/FONT]

Today (and in the past

) anarcho-syndicalists are gathered in organisations around International Workers Association (IWA-AIT). That is anarcho-syndicalist international which is consisted of anarchist syndicates (unions) and anarcho-syndicalist organisations.

The major IWA's document is The Statutes of Revolutionary Unionism.
The most important part of The Statutes are The Principles of Revolutionary Unionism which are principles of anarcho-syndicalism itself.

Originally Posted by IWA:

Revolutionary unionism, basing itself on the class struggle, aims to unite all workers in combative economic organizations, that fight to free themselves from the double yoke of capital and the State. Its goal is the reorganization of social life on the basis of Libertarian Communism via the revolutionary action of the working class. Since only the economic organizations of the proletariat are capable of achieving this objective, revolutionary unionism addresses itself to workers in their capacity as producers, creators of social wealth, to take root and develop amongst them, in opposition to the modern workers’ parties, which it declares are incapable of the economic reorganization of society.
Revolutionary unionism is the staunch enemy of all social and economic monopoly, and aims at its abolition by the establishment of economic communities and administrative organs run by the workers in the field and factories, forming a system of free councils without subordination to any authority or political party, bar none. As an alternative to the politics of State and parties, revolutionary unionism posits the economic reorganization of production, replacing the rule of man over man with the administrative management of things. Consequently, the goal of revolutionary unionism is not the conquest of political power, but the abolition of all state functions in the life of society. Revolutionary unionism considers that along with the disappearance of the monopoly of property, must come the disappearance of the monopoly of domination; and that no form of State, however camouflaged, can ever be an instrument for human liberation, but that on the contrary, it will always be the creator of new monopolies and new privileges.
Revolutionary unionism has a two-fold function: to carry on the day-to-day revolutionary struggle for the economic, social and intellectual advancement of the working class within the limits of present-day society, and to educate the masses so that they will be ready to independently manage the processes of production and distribution when the time comes to take possession of all the elements of social life. Revolutionary unionism does not accept the idea that the organization of a social system based exclusively on the producing class can be ordered by simple governmental decrees and maintains that it can only be obtained through the common action of all manual and intellectual workers, in every lianch of industry, by self-management of the workers, such that every group, factory or lianch of industry is an autonomous member of the greater economic organism and sistematically runs the production and distribution processes according to the interests of the comunity, on an agreed upon plan and on the basis of mutual accord.
Revolutionary unionism is opposed to all organizational tendenciesinspired by the centralism of State and Church, because these can only serve to prolong the survival of the State and authority and to sistematically stifle the spirit of initiative and the independence of thought. Centralism is and artificial organization that subjects the so-called lower classes to those who claim to be superior, and that leaves in the hands of the few the affairs of the whole comunity -the individual being turned into a robot with controlled gestures and movements. In the centralized organization, society’s good is subordinated to the interests of the few, variety is replaced by uniformity and personal responsability is replaced by rigid discipline. Consequently, revolutionary unionism bases its social vision on a lioad federalist organization; i.e., an organization organised from the botttom up, the uniting of all forces in the defense of common ideas and interests.
Revolutionary unionism rejects all parliamentary activity and all collaboration with legislative bodies; because it knows that even the freest voting system cannot liing about the disappearance of the clear contradictions at the core of present-day society and because the parliamentary system has only one goal: to lend a pretense of legitimacy to the reign of falsehood and social injustice.
Revolutionary Unionism rejects all political and national frontiers, which are arbitrarily created, and declares that so-called nationalism is just the religion of the modern state, behind which is concealed the material interests of the propertied classes. Revolutionary unionism recognizes only economic differences, whether regional or national, that produce hierarchies, privileges and every kind of oppressions (because of race, sex and any false or real difference), and in the spirit of solidarity claims the right to self-determination for all economic groups.
For the identical reason, revolutionary unionism fights against militarism and war. Revolutionary unionism advocates anti-war propaganda and the replacement of standing armies, which are only the instruments of counter-revolution at the service of the capitalism, by workers’ militias, which, during the revolution, will be controlled by the workers’ unions; it demands, as well, the boycott and embargo of all raw materials and products necessary to war, with the exception of a country where the workers are in the midst of social revolution, in which case we should help them defend the revolution. Finally, revolutionary unionism advocates the preventive and revolutionary general strike as a means of opposing war and militarism.
Revolutionary unionism recognizes the need of a production that does not damage the environment, and that tries to minimize the use of non-renewable resources and uses, whenever possible, renewable alternatives. It does not admit the ignorance as the origin of the present-day environmental crisis, but the thirst for earnings. Capitalist production always seeks to minimize the costs in order to get more earnings to survive, and it is unable to protect the environment. To sum up, the world debt crisis has speeded up the tendency to commercial harvest to the detriment of the subsistence agriculture. This fact has produced the destruction of the tropical forest, starvation and disease. The fight for saving our planet and the fight for destroying capitalism must be joint or both of them will fail.
Revolutionary unionism asserts itself to be a supporter of the method of direct action, and aids and encourages all struggles that are not in contradiction to its own goals. Its methods of struggle are: strikes, boycotts, sabotage, etc. Direct action reaches its deepest expression in the general strike, which should also be, from the point of view of revolutionary unionism, the prelude to the social revolution.
While revolutionary unionism is opposed to all organised violence regardless of the kind of government, it realizes that there will be extremely violence clashes during the decisive struggles between the capitalism of today and the free communism of tomorrow. Consequently, it recognizes as valid that violence that may be used as a means of defense against the violent methods used by the ruling classes during the struggles that lead up to the revolutionary populace expropiating the lands and means of production. As this expropiation can only be carried out and liought to a successful conclusion by the direct intervention of the workers’ revolutionary economic organizations, defense of the revolution must also be the task of these economic organizations and not of a military or quasi-military body developing independently of them.
Only in the economic and revolutionary organizations of the working class are there forces capable of liinging about its liberation and the necessary creative energy for the reorganization of society on the basis of libertarian communism.

Today IWA is consisted of these organisations:

Other anarcho-syndicalist organisations you should take a look are:

Anarcho-syndicalism, history and revolutionary practice?
Anarcho-sydncialism is well know, because of Spanish revolution which was influenced by anarcho-sydncialists from Spanish CNT and FAI.

Regarding history of anarcho-syndicalism you should cheek this up:

Originally Posted by Infoshop.org - An Anarchist FAQ:
[FONT=Verdana]A.5.3 Building the syndicalist unions.[/FONT]

A.5.5 Anarchists in the Italian Factory Occupations.

[FONT=Verdana]A.5.6 Anarchism and the Spanish Revolution.[/FONT]

Who were the famous anarcho-syndicalists and what are their important writings?

1st I would like to mention Georges Sorel who wasn't anarcho-syndicalist but his writings helped to define revolutionary unionism and later anarcho-syndicalism[FONT=Verdana].

Émile Pouget

Rudolf Rocker
[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Anarcho-Syndicalism[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The Tragedy of Spain[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism[/FONT]

Fernand Pelloutier

G. P. Maximoff

Syndicalists in the Russian Revolution
[FONT=Verdana]Constructive Anarchism: the debate on the Platform[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Conter-revolution and the Soviet Union[/FONT]

Diego Abad de Santillán

Other writings:

etc.

Is anarcho-syndicalism too old method or is it possible in the 21st century?

Strategy & Struggle: Anarcho-syndicalism in the 21. century

I'll continue to update this.
I hope it was helpful.

**Искра** · 16th December 2009, 22:47

I added ZSP to "IWA's link place" because they are in IWA now.
Also, I added WSA in "non IWA's link place".

**Bitter Ashes** · 17th December 2009, 13:17

Originally Posted by Frank Little

The title is provocative. Ignorance and stupidity are not the same thing!

I've noticed you're from Finland, so I'm not sure if they publish the "- For Dummies" guides out there. They're a popular brand of books in the English language that explain stuff that's usualy quite complex in an easily understood way. The title is a refference to that line of books, not towards the members of the forum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Dummies

By the way, Junko, didnt this thread used to be stickied?

**Thirsty Crow** · 17th December 2009, 18:53

Originally Posted by Frank Little

I have never heard of any such books is published. And hopefully will never publish any.

"For Dummies" = written simply, aimed at people who are aware of the term, but not familiar with the idea.
Actually, it's a preety good start if you want to see the outspread of socialist ideas since working people may not have nor enough time to engage in a serious study of "fat books" nor enough energy or competence to deal with complex theoretical issues. Of course, this model would function so as to develop the abilities of working people in order that they become competent in the sense of the word I already explained.

**Искра** · 17th December 2009, 23:46

This wasn't sticked. It's in Frequently Discussed Topics.

Title is not provocative. Title is just a joke, which Ranma42 explained.

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