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Title: Anarcho-Syndicalism Outlined Author: Workers’ Solidarity Federation Language: en Topics: syndicalist Source: Retrieved on January 1, 2005 from http://www.cat.org.au
Briefly stated, Anarcho-Syndicalism is a working-class political
ideology that opposes all forms of exploitation and domination. We think
that all people are fundamentally equal, and should have the freedom to
live their lives as they see fit, as long as they do not harm the
freedom of other people. We oppose capitalism because it is a vicious
profit system that is based on the exploitation of the workers and the
poor to the benefit of a small class of bosses and top government
figures. We do not think that the government (courts, army, bureaucracy)
is there to look after everyone, instead its role is to keep the ruling
class in power. Racism and other forms of special oppression are
primarily the product of capitalism and the State. In South Africa,
racism was created to “justify”, strengthen and deepen the exploitation
of the Black working class in the mines, farms and factories.
This unjust social system, which impoverishes and oppresses the majority
of the world’s population, must be resisted and defeated. It cannot be
reformed away. As long as this system exists, there will be poverty,
repression and racism. The only people who can fight and overthrow
capitalism, the State and all forms of oppression, are the working and
poor people. Only these people — the working class and working peasants
— can manage the job because only they have no vested interest in the
system, because they have power in their ability to organise
(particularly in the workplace), and because they produce all the wealth
of the world. Only a productive class can make a free,
anti-authoritarian society because only such a class is not based on
exploitation.
In place of capitalism we want a free socialistic economic system in
which the workers and peasants directly control the land and factories,
and use these resources to produce for the benefit of all. In place of
the State, we want to manage our own affairs through grassroots
workplace and community councils, united at the local, regional,
national and international levels. We call this system “anarchism” or
“stateless socialism” or “libertarian socialism”.
We do not think that the State can be made to help ordinary people. The
only language the bosses understand is the language of mass struggle
from below. This is the only way to win any gains in the here and now,
and definitely the only way to smash the system in the long run. Relying
on the State to make the revolution is a recipe for disaster, in every
country where a “revolutionary government” got into power the result was
a social system at least as oppressive as the one that got overthrown.
Russia was not socialist, it was a one-party State in which a Communist
Party — bureaucratic elite ran a “State-capitalist” system.
Instead of using the State, we believe that the struggle and the
revolution must come about through mass democratic movements of the
workers and the poor. In particular, we emphasise the revolutionary
potential of trade unions. The trade unions can organise the workers to
fight the bosses in the here and now, we all know that. The unions can
also provide the vehicle for the workers to take-over, and directly
manage, the factories, mines, farms and offices. The role of an
organisation such as the Workers Solidarity Federation is not to make
the revolution “for” the masses. It is to help to organise and educate
the masses to march to freedom in their own name. We are opposed to all
forms of oppression and support all everyday struggles to improve the
conditions under which we live. We promote the self-activity and
revolutionary awareness of the masses.
This set of ideas is not something invented by a few philosophers.
Instead, Anarcho-syndicalism was created by the working class itself in
the course of its struggles. It first emerged in the 1870s in the First
International Workers Association, an international federation of trade
unions and workers societies. Since then, it has had a magnificent,
proud fighting history as a mass movement of the working and poor people
in all continents of the world. Our movement has historically attracted
millions of workers and peasants because it serves their needs, not the
needs of power-seekers and exploiters.