About FAU

What is the FAU?

The FAU is an association of independent, democratic grassroots labour unions.

What are our goals?

As a workers’ organisation, our goal is to improve the conditions under which we live and work – and much more besides.

How does the FAU work?

The local unions act independently on the basis of the FAU principles, statutes and resolutions, and cooperate on a nationwide basis.

How can I participate?

Membership is open to workers of every sector and industry. You can also become a member if you are still at school, a college or university student, self-employed, or unemployed.

The FAU. Who we are and what we want.

The FAU is an anarcho-syndicalist federation of labour unions. It is made up of independent local unions called syndicates. We are a grassroots organisation: all decisions are made from the bottom up .

As a workers organisation, our goal is to create the conditions for a better tomorrow. FAU is fighting to overcome the current system of exploitation, destruction and oppression of human beings and  the environment, and to replace it with an economic and social order based on solidarity and self-government, in which everyone can live a good life.

As workers, we have the power to disrupt the smooth flow of wage labour. We prefer to achieve our goals by direct means. This means using tactics that exert direct pressure on employers and businesses. We call these tactics "direct action".

Capitalism is not inevitable. It is not a force of nature, but a power relationship. It was created by human beings, and it can be abolished by human beings by means of collective worker action.

For this struggle for a better society to be successful, it has to be international. The FAU has therefore joined forces with other unions with a similar outlook and approach from around the world to form the International Confederation of Labour (ICL).