Related Research Articles
Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the labour movement that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes, with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of production and the economy at large through social ownership. Developed in French labor unions during the late 19th century, syndicalist movements were most predominant amongst the socialist movement during the interwar period that preceded the outbreak of World War II.
Anarcho-syndicalism is an anarchist organisational model that centres trade unions as a vehicle for class conflict. Drawing from the theory of libertarian socialism and the practice of syndicalism, anarcho-syndicalism sees trade unions as both a means to achieve immediate improvements to working conditions and to build towards a social revolution in the form of a general strike, with the ultimate aim of abolishing the state and capitalism. Anarcho-syndicalists consider trade unions to be the prefiguration of a post-capitalist society and seek to use them in order to establish workers' control of production and distribution. An anti-political ideology, anarcho-syndicalism rejects political parties and participation in parliamentary politics, considering them to be a corrupting influence on the labour movement. In order to achieve their material and economic goals, anarcho-syndicalists instead practice direct action in the form of strike actions, boycotts and sabotage. Anarcho-syndicalists also attempt to build solidarity among the working class, in order to unite workers against the exploitation of labour and build workers' self-management.
Industrial unionism is a trade union organising method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in bargaining and in strike situations. De Leon believed that militarized Industrial unions would be the vehicle of class struggle.
The Solidarity Federation is a British anarcho-syndicalist political organisation. It advocates for the abolition of capitalism and the state through industrial action, which it agitates for in industrial networks and local groups.
The International Workers' Association – Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores (IWA–AIT) is an international federation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions and initiatives.
The Swedish Anarcho-Syndicalist Youth Federation, is a youth-based group in Sweden that supports independent working class struggle.
Anarchism in South Africa dates to the 1880s, and played a major role in the labour and socialist movements from the turn of the twentieth century through to the 1920s. The early South African anarchist movement was strongly syndicalist. The ascendance of Marxism–Leninism following the Russian Revolution, along with state repression, resulted in most of the movement going over to the Comintern line, with the remainder consigned to irrelevance. There were slight traces of anarchist or revolutionary syndicalist influence in some of the independent left-wing groups which resisted the apartheid government from the 1970s onward, but anarchism and revolutionary syndicalism as a distinct movement only began re-emerging in South Africa in the early 1990s. It remains a minority current in South African politics.
The Central Organisation of Swedish Workers is a Swedish syndicalist trade union federation. The SAC organises people from all occupations and industries in one single federation, including the unemployed, students, and the retired. The SAC also publishes the weekly newspaper Arbetaren, owns the publishing house Federativ and runs the unemployment fund Sveriges Arbetares Arbetslöshetskassa (SAAK).
Arbetaren is a Swedish syndicalist newspaper. Founded in 1922, it has been published by the Central Organisation of Swedish Workers (SAC), an anarcho-syndicalist trade union federation, first as a daily newspaper, then as a weekly magazine since 1958. The editor-in-chief of Arbetaren sits on the administrative body of the SAC.
The General Confederation of Labour was a Portuguese trade union confederation. Established in 1919, as the successor to the National Workers' Union (UON), the CGT was the only national trade union centre in Portugal throughout the early 1920s. The organisation was led largely by anarcho-syndicalists, who declared the CGT to be independent of all political parties and proclaimed its goal to be the abolition of capitalism and the state. Opposed to Bolshevism, it refused to join the Red International of Labour Unions (RILU) and instead joined the International Workers' Association (IWA), which was aligned with anarcho-syndicalism. An internal schism between the syndicalist leadership and members of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) followed, as unions aligned with the latter broke off from the CGT. Following the establishment of a military dictatorship in Portugal, the CGT led a workers' uprising against it, but they were defeated, the organisation banned and many of their members exiled to Africa. After the establishment of the fascist Estado Novo regime, the CGT attempted to resist the creation of a corporatist economy and led a general strike against it, but this too was suppressed. The CGT's secretary general then attempted to assassinate the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, but was unsuccessful. The CGT was ultimately driven underground and eventually disappeared, as the fascist regime was consolidated in Portugal.
Anarchism in Sweden first grew out of the nascent social democratic movement during the later 19th century, with a specifically libertarian socialist tendency emerging from a split in the movement. As with the movements in Germany and the Netherlands, Swedish anarchism had a strong syndicalist tendency, which culminated in the establishment of the Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (SAC) following an aborted general strike. The modern movement emerged during the late 20th century, growing within a number of countercultural movements before the revival of anarcho-syndicalism during the 1990s.
The Norwegian Syndicalist Federation is an anarcho-syndicalist group in Norway. Established in the 1910s, the NSF worked within existing Norwegian trade unions in order to radicalise them towards revolutionary syndicalism. It was a founding member of the International Workers' Association (IWA) and historically maintained close connections with the Central Organisation of Swedish Workers (SAC). The NSF was politically repressed during the German occupation of Norway and, in the wake of World War II, experienced a dramatic decline. In the 1970s, the organisation was reconstituted as a propaganda group and continued its activities into the 21st century, with a much smaller membership.
The Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL) was a British syndicalist organisation which existed from 1910 to 1913.
The First International Syndicalist Congress was a meeting of European and Latin American syndicalist organizations at Holborn Town Hall in London from September 27 to October 2, 1913. Upon a proposal by the Dutch National Labor Secretariat (NAS) and the British Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL), most European syndicalist groups, both trade unions and advocacy groups, agreed to congregate at a meeting in London. The only exception was the biggest syndicalist organization worldwide, the French General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Nevertheless, the congress was held with organizations from twelve countries participating. It was marked by heated debate and constant disagreements over both tactics and principles. Yet, it succeeded in creating the International Syndicalist Information Bureau as a vehicle of exchange and solidarity between the various organizations and the Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste as a means of communication. It would be viewed as a success by almost all who participated.
The Syndicalist League of North America was an organization led by William Z. Foster that aimed to "bore from within" the American Federation of Labor to win that trade union center over to the ideals of Revolutionary syndicalism.
The Industrial Workers of the World (South Africa) or IWW (SA) had a brief but notable history in the 1910s-20s, and is particularly noted for its influence on the syndicalist movement in southern Africa through its promotion of the IWW's principles of industrial unionism, solidarity, and direct action, as well as its role in the creation of organizations such as the Industrial Workers of Africa and the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union.
Folke Ivar Valter Fridell was a Swedish writer of the proletarian school and syndicalist.
The history of anarcho-syndicalism dates back to the anti-authoritarian faction of the International Workingmen's Association. Revolutionary syndicalism as a tendency was constituted in the 1890s by the French General Confederation of Labour (CGT), which became a model union for other syndicalist organisations to base themselves on. Anarchists were involved in the syndicalist movement from the outset and a specific anarchist tendency developed within the movement over the subsequent decades.
The Trade Union Opposition Federation was a Danish trade union federation. Established in 1910 by syndicalist opponents of the social-democratic dominance over trade unions, the FS pursued a strategy of dual unionism and worked within existing trade unions with the intention of radicalising them. The membership of the FS consisted largely of industrial workers in Copenhagen, where they carried out a series of strike actions, including wildcat strikes, to improve working conditions.
The Industrial Workers of the World (Chile) (IWW-C), also known as the Chilean IWW or Chilean Wobblies, was a Chilean trade union center. Established in the late 1910s by dockworkers in Valparaíso, the tenets of industrial unionism were quickly adopted by maritime workers throughout the country. The IWW organised strike actions to demand of the eight-hour day and the implementation of workplace safety standards. Before long, its membership spread to industrial workers in Santiago, gaining particular strength among construction workers.
References
- ↑ Engblom 1980, pp. 60, 87, 163; Persson 1990, p. 96.
- 1 2 3 4 SAC Syndikalisterna. P. J. Welinder
- ↑ Erfurth 1987, p. 76.
- 1 2 3 Persson 1990, p. 96.
- ↑ Blomberg 1995, p. 176; Persson 1990, pp. 96–97.
- ↑ Blomberg 1995, p. 176.
- ↑ Engblom 1980, pp. 60, 87, 163; Persson 1990, pp. 96–97.
- 1 2 Persson 1990, pp. 96–97.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Persson 1990, p. 97.
- 1 2 3 Engblom 1980, pp. 60, 87, 163.
- ↑ Andersson 1936, p. 112.
- ↑ Bergkvist & Arvidsson 1960, p. 95.
- ↑ Andersson 1936, p. 112; Persson 1990, p. 97.
- ↑ Engblom 1980, pp. 60, 87, 163; Persson 1990, p. 97.
- ↑ "Fridell, Folke 1904-1985. Textilarbetare, författare, resetalare och syndikalistisk teoretiker". SAC (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 29 May 2022.