France: Revolutionary syndicalists call week of debates to ‘kill the ostrich’
Activists with the Comités Syndicalistes Révolutionnaires (CSR) have announced a major new initiative to “kill the ostrich” of failing industrial unionism with its head in the sand, planning a week-long series of debates and training for the summer.
The training and debate days from July 10th-16th will be open to international militants. Their main themes will be industrial syndicalism and workers’ sociability. Organisers say it will… Continue reading
France: How union leaders destroyed the movement against El Khomri
A militant reflects on the struggle against the Socialist Party’s El Khomri law attacking working rights, which brought 1.2 million workers into the streets last year and sparked widespread resistance.
Unions played a key role last spring in the movement against the “work” law. But their political gymnastics of collaboration with the government cost us the fight. Let us organise ourselves now, autonomously, to control our political… Continue reading
Germany: FAU welcomes challenge to law attacking small unions
Anarcho-syndicalist union FAU has welcomed legal action from the German Association of Journalists (DJV) and pilot’s union Cockpit as the campaign to try and knock down a controversial Bargaining Unit Act designed to shut down small unions, known as the Tarifeinheitsgesetz (TEG), grows.
The Act, which was passed in 2015, says that in an industry with more than one union agreements made with the largest… Continue reading
IWW picket against White and Case and outsourcing company Mitie against sacking of union official latest in actions against harassment of organisers
IWW Picket of White and Chase Source @LondonIWW
The London branch of the Industrial Workers of the World today staged a picket of the offices of law firm White and Case LLP against the sacking of Yolanda, a shop steward for the IWW. Mitie, the outsourcing company, claims that Yolanda’s conduct was the reason for her firing however she had never received any complaints against her from Mite’s client.… Continue reading
‘North of the Watford Gap’: Resistance beyond Central London
The Rebecca Riots of 1843.
You are holding a black-and-white photograph. It shows a woman holding a union placard. It shows a picket line, scab vans, Labour politicos, a man dirty and tired from his work. You are holding the narrative of industrial working-class struggle. You put down the photograph and pick another history.
The struggles of non-London working-class communities are condemned to history. We are all miners still on… Continue reading
Students, Class and Wildcat Strikes: Why free education must have a basis in working-class struggle
Reaching its second day on Friday, the wildcat strike and picket at the School of Oriental and African Studies was successful in putting further pressure on management to lift the suspension of union representative Sandy Nicoll.
The suspension comes in response to Nicoll’s alleged support for the occupation there and its resilience against increasing repression from university management. Two days ago director and former cabinet member Valerie Amos escalated the… Continue reading
Anarcho-syndicalism
Rudolf Rocker
Historically one of the most prominent forms of social anarchism, anarcho-syndicalism is a school of thought that views labour unions as a potential force for revolutionary social change, capable of replacing capitalism and the State with a new society democratically self-managed by the workers. The basic idea behind anarcho-syndicalism is to create an industrial workers’ union movement based on anarchist ideas, aiming eventually to abolish the wage system… Continue reading
