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{{Anarchism}}
{{Anarchism}}
'''Anarcho-syndicalism''' is a branch of [[anarchism]] which focuses on the [[labour union|labour movement]]. ''Syndicalisme'' is a French word meaning "[[trade unionism]]" &ndash; hence, the "[[syndicalism]]" qualification. Anarcho-syndicalists view labour unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing [[capitalism]] and the [[State]] with a new society democratically self-managed by workers. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Anarcho-syndicalism is viewed as anachronism by many contemporary anarchists.<ref>Heider, Ulrike. (1994) ''Anarchism: Left, Right and Green'', San Francisco: City Lights Books, p.4</ref>
'''Anarcho-syndicalism''' is a branch of [[anarchism]] which focuses on the [[labour union|labour movement]]. ''Syndicalisme'' is a French word meaning "[[trade unionism]]" &ndash; hence, the "[[syndicalism]]" qualification. Anarcho-syndicalists view labour unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing [[capitalism]] and the [[State]] with a new society democratically self-managed by workers. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Anarcho-syndicalism is viewed as an [[anachronism]] by many contemporary anarchists.<ref>Heider, Ulrike. (1994) ''Anarchism: Left, Right and Green'', San Francisco: City Lights Books, p.4</ref>


==Features of anarcho-syndicalism==
==Features of anarcho-syndicalism==

Revision as of 13:40, 29 August 2006

Anarcho-syndicalism is a branch of anarchism which focuses on the labour movement. Syndicalisme is a French word meaning "trade unionism" – hence, the "syndicalism" qualification. Anarcho-syndicalists view labour unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, replacing capitalism and the State with a new society democratically self-managed by workers. Anarcho-syndicalists seek to abolish the wage system and private ownership of the means of production, which they believe lead to class divisions. Anarcho-syndicalism is viewed as an anachronism by many contemporary anarchists.[1]

Features of anarcho-syndicalism

The basic principles of anarcho-syndicalism are:

  1. Workers’ solidarity
  2. Direct action
  3. Workers' self-management
Flag used by Anarcho-syndicalists.

Workers’ solidarity means that anarcho-syndicalists believe all workers, no matter their gender or ethnic group, are in a similar situation in regard to their bosses (class consciousness). Furthermore, it means that, within capitalism, any gains or losses made by some workers from or to bosses will eventually affect all workers. Therefore, to liberate themselves, all workers must support one another in their class conflict.

Anarcho-syndicalists believe that only direct action — that is, action concentrated on directly attaining a goal, as opposed to indirect action, such as electing a representative to a government position — will allow workers to liberate themselves.

Moreover, anarcho-syndicalists believe that workers’ organizations — the organizations that struggle against the wage system, and which, in anarcho-syndicalist theory, will eventually form the basis of a new society — should be self-managing. They should not have bosses or “business agents”; rather, the workers should be able to make all the decisions that affect them themselves.

Rudolf Rocker was one of the most popular voices in the anarcho-syndicalist movement. He outlined a view of the origins of the movement, what it sought, and why it was important to the future of labour in his 1938 pamphlet Anarcho-Syndicalism.

Hubert Lagardelle wrote that Pierre-Joseph Proudhon laid out the fundamental theories of anarcho-syndicalism, through his repudiation of both capitalism and the state, his flouting of political government, his idea of free, autonomous economic groups, and his view of struggle, not pacifism, as the core of humanity.

The earliest expressions of anarcho-syndicalist structure and methods were formulated in the International Workingmen's Association or First International, particularly in the Jura federation. The First International, however, split between two main tendencies within the organization; the libertarian wing represented by Mikhail Bakunin and the authoritarian wing represented by Karl Marx. Adherents of the former would go on to influence the development of the labour movement in Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, and the Netherlands, while orthodox Marxists would form mass-based labour and social democratic parties throughout Europe, with major strongholds in Germany and England. Some Marxists, notably Rosa Luxembourg and Anton Pannokoek, would formulate positions remarkably close to anarcho-syndicalism through council communism. See main article Anarchism and Marxism.

In 1895, the Confédération Générale du Travail in France expressed fully the organizational structure and methods of revolutionary syndicalism influencing labour movements the world over. The CGT was modelled on the development of the Bourse de Travail (labour exchange), a workers' central organization which would encourage self-education and mutual aid, and facilitate communication with local workers' syndicates. Through a general strike, workers would take control of industry and services and self-manage society and facilitate production and consumption through the labour exchanges. As Rudolf Rocker points out in his pamphlet Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism, the anarcho-syndicalist union has a dual purpose, "1. To enforce the demands of the producers for the safeguarding and raising of their standard of living; 2. To acquaint the workers with the technical management of production and economic life in general and prepare them to take the socio-economic organism into their own hands and shape it according to socialist principles." In short, laying the foundations of the new society "within the shell of the old." Up to the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution, anarcho-syndicalist unions and organizations were the dominant actors in the revolutionary left.

The International Workers Association, formed in 1922, is an international anarcho-syndicalist federation of various labour unions from different countries. At its peak, the International Workers Association represented millions of workers and competed directly for the hearts and minds of the working class with social democratic unions and parties. The Spanish Confederación Nacional del Trabajo played and still plays a major role in the Spanish labour movement. It was also an important force in the Spanish Civil War. Another Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union, the Confederacion General del Trabajo de España, is now the third largest union in Spain and the largest anarchist union with tens of thousands of members.

The anarcho-syndicalist orientation of many early American labour unions played an important role in the formation of the American political spectrum, most significantly of the Industrial Workers of the World. The United States is the only industrialized ("first world") country that does not have a major labour-based political party. See It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States, Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks, ISBN 0-39-332254-8.

Rudolf Rocker wrote in Anarcho-Syndicalism:

“Political rights do not originate in parliaments; they are rather forced upon them from without. And even their enactment into law has for a long time been no guarantee of their security. They do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace”

Organizations

The "London Social Centre" [1], a squatting action by anarcho-syndicalists in Russell Square.

Books

Trivia

  • Anarcho-Syndicalism served as a short, famous, gag for Monty Python in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). In the scene, King Arthur (played by Graham Chapman) asks a group of peasants (played by Michael Palin and Terry Jones) who their lord is; one peasant explains that their community is an autonomous collective as part of an anarcho-syndicalist commune, while Arthur continues to assert he is their king. Among the peasants' responses is "Well I didn't vote for you!"

See also

  1. ^ Heider, Ulrike. (1994) Anarchism: Left, Right and Green, San Francisco: City Lights Books, p.4
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