What is Anarcho-Syndicalism?

Anarcho-Syndicalism is a form of revolutionary industrial unionism which has its philosophical roots in the principles and goals first elaborated during the nineteenth century by indiivduals such as Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Anarcho-Syndicalism draws on many of their theoretical observations, as well as the practise of revolutionary unionism developed in France and Spain at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, by organisations such as the Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT) in France and the Federacion Obrera de la Region Espanola (Workers Federation of the Spanish Region), and later the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), which played such a pivotal role in the heady days of the Spanish Civil War and Social Revolution of 1936-9. The CNT was responsible for much of the experimentation in workers' self-management of production which took place during this period.

The basic principles of Anarcho-Syndicalism are Workers Solidarity, Direct Action and Self-Management. The principle of Workers Soldiarity dictates that the workers must recognise their common economic interests as producers of social wealth and as subjects of boss domination and control, and that they must act accordingly, in a spirit of cooperation and mutual aid.

The principle of Direct Action dictates that means must be consisent with ends, and that those who would be free must take responsibility for their own self-emancipation. No one has ever been freed by being trained in the habits of slavery and deference to a higher authority. Such an idea is anacronistic and contradictory in the extreme. All action taken towards the goal of liberation from capitalist domination and exploitation must be carried out according to the old maxim of the International Workers Association: "by the workers themselves." The meaning of this is that no one can liberate the working class but those who compose it. Freedom cannot be given, but must be taken. Action is therefore taken without the dubious benefits of third-party intervention, such as by a professedly Socialist political party, or by a capitalist parliament.

Finally, the principle of Self-Management dictates that all decisions within the Anarcho-syndicalist, revolutionary union must be collective; that is, that every member must retain day-to-day decision-making power within the organisation over things which affect her or him.

For more information, visit the Anarcho-Syndicalism 101 website.

Short Introduction to the IWA

The IWA, or International Workers' Association, is an international organisation of revolutionary, anarcho-syndicalist unions and propaganda groups. The role or purpose of the IWA is to unite workers without regard to borders, languages, race or nationality, on the basis of their common interest as producers of social wealth and as those exploited by the neo-aristocrats of multinational, corporate capitalism. The IWA seeks to organise workers for struggle on an anarcho-syndicalist basis; that is, directly and democratically, without recourse to leaders or institutions of political power, in such as way as to make possible the development of the powers and abolities of each individual. Where heirarchal organisations disempower the individual, the anarcho-syndicalist, revolutionary unions which affiliate to the IWA aim to empower each individual, as part of the overall project of breaking the chains of wage-slavery.

The IWA was formed in 1922 in Berlin by the anarcho-syndicalist and revolutionary unions existing at the time, in an attempt to maintain the traditions of the famous International Workingmens' Association (the "International") of the nineteenth century. At this time the IWA was able to claim a million members, but was tragically all but destroyed with the coming of the Second World War. In the last twenty to thirty years the IWA has experienced a revival, with a marked rise in activity and new sections affiliating in the last five to ten years.

With the advent of Globalisation and the establishment of organisations such as the World Trade Organisation, the type of global solidarity that the IWA has been advocating since its formation in 1922 has come to be accepted more and more as a basic prerequisite of continued resistance to capitalist exploitation and the trouncing of individual freedoms by national states. This is particularly true in countries such as Australia which have traditionally relied on electing Social Democratic "labour" parties into government. If such activities carried dubious benefits in the past, they have certainly reached their use-by date now. The actions in Seattle, Davos, as well as the September 11, 2000 actions in Melbourne have shown that resistance must be as global as capital, and there lies the rationale for the International Workers Association - a means by which the class stuggle and resistance to capitalist globalisation and global exploitation can be organised and coordinated on a global scale, on a cooperative and non-heirarchal basis.