Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence in broader society. The goal of syndicalism is to abolish the wage system, regarding it as wage slavery. Anarcho-syndicalist theory generally focuses on the labour movement. Reflecting the anarchist philosophy from which it draws its primary inspiration, anarcho-syndicalism is centred on the idea that power corrupts and that any hierarchy that cannot be ethically justified must be dismantled.
The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front, formerly known as the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZabFed), is a platformist–especifista anarchist political organisation in South Africa, based primarily in Johannesburg. The word zabalaza means "struggle" or "active rebellion" in isiZulu, isiXhosa, siSwati and isiNdebele. Initially, as ZabFed, it was a federation of pre-existing collectives, mainly in Soweto and Johannesburg. It is now a unitary organisation based on individual applications for membership, describing itself as a "federation of individuals". Historically the majority of members have been people of colour. Initially the ZACF had sections in both South Africa and Swaziland. The two sections were split in 2007, but the Swazi group faltered in 2008. Currently the ZACF also recruits in Zimbabwe. Members have experienced oppression in South Africa and Swaziland.
Maria Lacerda de Moura was a Brazilian teacher, writer and anarcha-feminist. The daughter of spiritist and anti-clerical parents, she grew up in the city of Barbacena, in the interior of Minas Gerais, where she graduated as a teacher at the Escola Normal Municipal de Barbacena and participated in official efforts to tackle social inequality through national literacy campaigns and educational reforms.
Anarchism was an influential contributor to the social politics of the First Brazilian Republic. During the epoch of mass migrations of European labourers at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, anarchist ideas started to spread, particularly amongst the country’s labour movement. Along with the labour migrants, many Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German political exiles arrived, many holding anarchist or anarcho-syndicalist ideas. Some did not come as exiles but rather as a type of political entrepreneur, including Giovanni Rossi's anarchist commune, the Cecília Colony, which lasted few years but at one point consisted of 200 individuals.
The Argentine anarchist movement was the strongest such movement in South America. It was strongest between 1890 and the start of a series of military governments in 1930. During this period, it was dominated by anarchist communists and anarcho-syndicalists. The movement's theories were a hybrid of European anarchist thought and local elements, just as it consisted demographically of both European immigrant workers and native Argentines.
Uruguayan Anarchist Federation is a Uruguayan anarchist organization founded in 1956. The FAU was created by anarchist militants to be a specifically anarchist organization. The FAU was the first organization to promote the organizational concept of Especifismo.
Maria Angelina Soares (1905-1985) was a Brazilian feminist, anarchist, and writer. Her work appeared in anarchist journals, such as A Lanterna, El Libertario, A Voz da União, A Plebe, and A Voz dos Garçons.
Anarchism in Portugal first appeared in the form of organized groups in the mid-1880s. It was present from the first steps of the workers' movement, revolutionary unionism and anarcho-syndicalism had a lasting influence on the General Confederation of Labour, founded in 1919.
Anarchism in East Timor has its roots in the country's history as a penal colony, when many anarchists were deported there. The movement eventually evolved into an anti-colonial struggle against succeeding occupying powers: first the Portuguese Empire, then the Japanese Empire and the Indonesian New Order, before the country finally achieved independence in 2002.
Domingos Passos was an anarchist and syndicalist activist from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A black man, he was a son of two ex-slaves freed right after the abolition. His birth date is unknown and there is almost no records about his early years. Working as a carpenter, he became involved with the civil construction workers union and was converted to anarchism. Soon, Passos stood out for his activism and rhetoric, becoming one of his union's leaders. He was also elected to represent the civil construction workers at the Third Brazilian Workers' Congress, in 1920.
The 1918 Rio de Janeiro anarchist insurrection was an unsuccessful attempt at overthrowing the federal government and the establishment of a self-managed society, based on the anarcho-syndicalist models of decentralized organizations and trade unions. It was inspired by the events of the Russian Revolution.
The Brazilian Workers' Confederation was the first national trade union center in Brazil, founded in 1908, under the basis of agreement of the First Brazilian Workers' Congress of 1906. Through its newspaper, A Voz do Trabalhador, it allowed a certain coordination and exchange of information within the Brazilian worker movement at the national level. The COB was formed by national industry and craft federations, local and state unions, unions isolated in places where there were no federations and non-federated industries.
The Battle of Praça da Sé was a conflict between anti-fascists and integralists in the city center of São Paulo, Brazil, on October 7, 1934. Brazilian Integralist Action (AIB) had scheduled a rally for that day to commemorate two years of the Integralist Manifesto; as soon as they learned of this intention, antifascists in São Paulo tried to prevent the event from taking place. Wit no central leadership, left-wing forces in São Paulo took part in the conflict, which resulted in seven deaths – those of an anti-fascist student, three Integralists, two police officers and a civil guard – and around thirty were wounded.
Elvira Boni de Lacerda was a political activist and strike leader. She defined herself as the "lady of the last century". She was the daughter of Italian immigrants from Cremona, Angelo Boni and Tercila Aciratti Boni. She had her first contact with socialist ideas at home, with her father who was a metal worker, and her brothers. At the age of eight, she moved with her family to the city of Rio de Janeiro in the Cordovil neighborhood. Elvira had to leave school to take care of one of her siblings who fell ill and, therefore, did not complete primary school. At age 12, she started working as an apprentice in a sewing workshop. She married Olgier Lacerda, one of the founders of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), in which she also participated in its activities, but without joining.
Neno Vasco was a poet, lawyer, journalist, anarchist, writer, and ardent revolutionary syndicalist activist born in Penafiel, Portugal. He emigrated to Brazil where he established a series of projects with the anarchists of that country. He was the author of the Portuguese translation of The Internationale, which is more widespread in Portuguese-speaking countries, and was said to have been one of the most important figures of Anarchism in Portugal.
Jaime Cubero was a Brazilian intellectual, journalist, educator and activist linked to the anarchist movement. While still in his teens he founded, with the help of friends, the Youth Center for Social Studies. He participated in numerous activities in cultural centers in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. As an active anarchist militant, he maintained critical of the Estado Novo of Getúlio Vargas and the military dictatorship in Brazil.
The First Brazilian Workers' Congress was a meeting of workers that took place between 15 and 22 April 1906 at the headquarters of Centro Galego, in Rio de Janeiro, then the Federal Capital of Brazil. The Congress was the first initiative in the sense of organizing the working class at a national level in Brazil, and was attended by 43 delegates representing 28 workers unions from different parts of the country, but mainly from the states of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The congressional resolutions showed an evident influence of revolutionary syndicalism among the delegates present, who endorsed the political neutrality of the unions, federalism, direct action and the general strike. The Congress also laid the foundations for the agreement of the Brazilian Workers' Confederation, the first union institution of national scope, but which would only begin its activities in 1908.
Abílio de Nequete was a Lebanese-Brazilian barber, teacher and political activist. Born into a family of Orthodox Christians, he immigrated to Brazil at the age of 14, in 1903, settling in the city of São Feliciano, a district of Encruzilhada do Sul. There he became a peddler, working together with his father, with whom he had a conflicting relationship, even politically, since his father was a federalist and Abílio joined the Republican Party.
A Plebe was an anarchist and anticlerical periodical published in Brazil by Fábio Lopes dos Santos Luz and Edgard Leuenroth, first released on January 9, 1917, until 1951, with some interruptions. In the beginning, A Plebe was published weekly, bringing subjects about strikes and libertarian demonstrations that it supported.
The Adolfo Gordo Law was a measure to repress labor movements in São Paulo at the beginning of the 20th century. Among other provisions, it proposed the expulsion of foreigners involved in strikes with the objective of repressing anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist militants. It was suggested by Adolfo Gordo, a federal deputy from São Paulo, and approved in 1907. According to historian Claudio Batalha in his book O Movimento Operário na Primeira República, under this law, 132 foreigners were expelled in the first year, a high number compared to the 556 expulsions between 1908 and 1921. Later, in 1919, came the Law on Accidents at Work, which guaranteed compensation for workers, laborers or apprentices in the event of injuries in services using machinery.
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