Syndicate

This article is about an association of people or groups. For other uses, see Syndicate (disambiguation).

A syndicate pronounced Syn-di-cate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies or entities formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest.

In the case of criminal activity, it is there to promote, and engage in, organized crime. The term is also associated with anarchist theory, specifically anarcho-syndicalism, in which it forms an alternative to both the nation state and capitalist corporations.

The word syndicate comes from the French word syndicat which means trade union (syndic meaning administrator), from the Latin word syndicus which in turn comes from the Greek word σύνδικος (syndikos) which means caretaker of an issue, compare to ombudsman or representative.

Crime syndicates

Crime syndicates are criminal organizations 'running common illegal big businesses'.

Media

In media, syndicates are organizations by name and credit.

Finance

In finance, a group of banks lending, for a specific purpose and to one single borrower, a usually large amount of money is referred to as a bank syndicate or often only as a syndicate.

Worker-managed enterprise

Anarchists, syndicalists and other libertarian socialists use the word "syndicate" to refer to an enterprise democratically managed by its workers. Such an enterprise is governed by a face-to-face meeting of everyone who works there, in which each worker has one vote. Either there are no managers, or the managers are democratically elected and recallable. In either case, the most important decisions are made collectively by the whole workforce. This is known as workers' self-management.

Lottery syndicate

People sometimes play the lottery in a syndicate to increase their chances of winning.

See also

• Syndication
• Syndic