Laure Akai, secretary of the International Workers Association (IWA), will be giving a presentation on the practice of anarcho-syndicalism this month. The IWA was founded in 1922 in Berlin and has sections around the world. The series of events around Australia is being organised by the Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation (ASF), the Australian section of the IWA.
BRISBANE : Friday, FEBRUARY 5 (11am, The Boundary Hotel, West End)
SYDNEY : Saturday, FEBRUARY 6 (3pm, Jura Books, Petersham)
MELBOURNE : Wednesday, FEBRUARY 10 (7pm, Victorian Trades Hall, Carlton)
PERTH : Saturday, FEBRUARY 13 (Noon, 43 Below Bar & Restaurant, Perth)
See also : The Relevance of Anarcho-syndicalism: Noam Chomsky interviewed by Peter Jay, The Jay Interview, July 25, 1976 | A history of Anarcho-syndicalism (Solidarity Federation, UK, 2001) | Anarcho-Syndicalist Review : “an independent syndicalist magazine, published since May 1, 1986 (originally Libertarian Labor Review). ASR is a forum for non-sectarian, critical, informed and constructive discussion of anarcho-syndicalist theory and practice.” | “The Solidarity Federation’s book, Fighting for ourselves: anarcho-syndicalism and the class struggle, aims to recover some of the lost history of the workers’ movement, in order to set out a revolutionary strategy for the present conditions. In clear and accessible prose, the book sets out the anarcho-syndicalist criticisms of political parties and trade unions, engages with other radical traditions such as anarchism, syndicalism and dissident Marxisms, explains what anarcho-syndicalism was in the twentieth century, and how it’s relevant – indeed, vital – for workers today.” [2012]
No discussion of anarcho-syndicalism in Australia is complete without mention of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Network and its paper, Rebel Worker (www.rebelworker.org), both of which exist solely because of the super-human efforts of R.W.’s hyper-ornery editor-in-chief. The paper has been continuously and regularly published since 1984.
Futilitarian: “No discussion of anarcho-syndicalism in Australia is complete without mention of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Network and its paper, Rebel Worker.”
Yes, no discussion would be complete without that. Given the role that Rebel Worker has played over the years as the organ of no less than three different organisations, and the (ahem) complex role its editor-in-chief has played in the movement, an incomplete discussion has its attractions. You don’t go airing dirty linen in introductory meetings.
Certainly the editor-in-chief can be a very difficult individual to have relations with, and I myself have been persona non grata in his eyes for a few years now, but facts tend to be stubborn things, and the fact is that that crazy guy has consistently been successful in helping to catalyse workers’ self-defense efforts and keep an informative (though poorly edited) industrial journal going for many years, and shows no sign of letting up, and that’s a lot more than can be said for other groups that proclaim themselves to be anarcho-syndicalist.