Syndicalism


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Syndicalism is a type of economic system proposed as a replacement for capitalism and state socialism which uses federations of collectivised trade unions. It is a form of economic corporatism that advocates interest aggregation of multiple non-competitive categorised units to negotiate and manage an economy.[1]

For adherents, labor unions are the potential means of both overcoming economic aristocracy and running society fairly in the interest of the majority, through union democracy. Industry in a syndicalist system would be run through co-operative confederations and mutual aid. Local syndicates would communicate with other syndicates through the Bourse du Travail (labor exchange) which would manage and transfer commodities.

Syndicalism is also used to refer to the tactic of bringing about this social arrangment, typically expounded by anarcho-syndicalism and De Leonism, in which a general strike begins and workers seize their means of production and organise in a federation of trade unionism, such as the CNT[2] Throughout its history, the reformist section of syndicalism has been overshadowed by its revolutionary section, typified by the Spanish Syndicalist Party during the Spanish Civil War

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[edit] History

Syndicalisme is a French word meaning "trade unionism". More moderate versions of syndicalism were overshadowed by revolutionary anarcho-syndicalism in the early 20th century, which advocated the abolition of the state in addition to capitalism, feeling that syndicalist economics would replace the need for one. Anarcho-syndicalism was most powerful in Spain in and around the time of the Spanish Civil War, but also appeared in other parts of the world, such as in the US-based Industrial Workers of the World. [3]

The earliest expressions of syndicalist structure and methods were formulated in the International Workingmen's Association or First International, particularly in the Jura federation. In 1895, the Confdration Gnrale du Travail (CGT) in France expressed fully the organizational structure and methods of revolutionary syndicalism influencing labour movements the world over. The CGT was modelled on the development of the Bourse de Travail (labour exchange), a workers' central organization which would encourage self-education and mutual aid, and facilitate communication with local workers' syndicates. Through a general strike, workers would take control of industry and services and self-manage society and facilitate production and consumption through the labour exchanges. The Charter of Amiens, adopted by the CGT in 1906, represents a key text in the development of revolutionary syndicalism rejecting parliamentarianism and political action in favour of revolutionary class struggle. The Central Organisation of the Workers of Sweden (SAC) (in Swedish the Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation), formed in 1910, are a notable example of an anarcho-syndicalist union influenced by the CGT. Today, the SAC is one the largest anarcho-syndicalist unions in the world in proportion to the population, with some strongholds in the public sector.

The International Workers Association, formed in 1922, is an international anarcho-syndicalist federation of various labour unions from different countries. At its peak, the International Workers Association represented millions of workers and competed directly for the hearts and minds of the working class with social democratic unions and parties. The Spanish Confederacin Nacional del Trabajo played and still plays a major role in the Spanish labour movement. It was also a decisive force in the Spanish Civil War, organizing worker militias and facilitating the collectivization of vast sections of the industrial, logistical, and communications infrastructure, principally in Catalonia. Another Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union, the Confederacion General del Trabajo de Espaa, is now the third largest union in Spain and the largest anarchist union with tens of thousands of members.

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), although not explicitly anarcho-syndicalist, were informed by developments in the broader revolutionary syndicalist milieu at the turn of the twentieth-century. At its founding congress in 1905, influential members with strong anarchist or anarcho-syndicalist sympathies like Thomas J. Haggerty, William Trautmann, and Lucy Parsons contributed to the union's overall revolutionary syndicalist orientation.[4] Lucy Parsons, in particular, was a veteran anarchist union organizer in Chicago from a previous generation, having participated in the struggle for the 8-hour day in Chicago and subsequent series of events which came to be known as the Haymarket Affair in 1886.

An emphasis on industrial organisation was a distinguishing feature of syndicalism when it began to be identified as a distinct current at the beginning of the 20th century. Due to a still-tangible faith in the viability of the state socialist system, most socialist groups of that period emphasised the importance of political action through party organisations as a means of bringing about socialism; in syndicalism, trade unions are thus seen as simply a stepping stone to common ownership. Although all syndicalists emphasise industrial organisation, not all reject political action altogether. For example, De Leonists and some other Industrial Unionists advocate parallel organisation both politically and industrially, while recognising that trade unions are at a comparable disadvantage due to the lobby of business groups on political leaders. Syndicalism would historically gain most of it's support in Italy, France and particulary Spain, where the anarcho-syndicalist revolution during the Spanish civil war took place, it was here that the viability of syndicalist organization was shown, the revolution resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and more broadly socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country for two to three years, primarily Catalonia, Aragon, Andalusia, and parts of the Levante. Much of Spain's economy was put under worker control; in anarchist strongholds like Catalonia, the figure was as high as 75%. Their eventual defeat and WW 2 lead to the formerly prominant theory being repressed, as the three nations if formally had the most power were now under fascist control, their support never fully recovered to the height of it's support in the early 20th century.

A resurgence in anarchist and more broadly syndicalist thought has occured since the 60's and more noticably since the collapse of the Soviet Union (see: Contemporary anarchism )

[edit] Theory and Practice

Syndicalism is one of the three most common currents of socialist economics, together with Market socialism and socialist planned economies. It holds, on an ethical basis, that all participants in an organised trade internally share equal ownership of its production. By contrast, socialism emphasises distributing output among trades as required by each trade, not necessarily considering how trades organise internally. Syndicalism is non-governmental and while some people[who?] say it is privatism, unlike communism, others[who?] maintain that it is more accurate to associate it with the civic sector. Communism rejects government-sanctioned private ownership of the means of production in favor of ownership by the class of individuals who actually use such property (i.e., the workers or proletariat, who under most variants of communism would have control of the state as well, muddling the distinction between state and proletarian ownership). In syndicalism, unions exist independent of the state rather than needing the state's micromanagement and central planning. As with businesses in capitalism, labor unions in syndicalism would likely share a complicated relationship of co-operation and opposition with the state (with the obvious exception of anarcho-syndicalism, under which there would be no state).

Syndicalists state that society is to be organised bottom-up based on direct democracy, confederation, workplace democracy and decentralized socialism, and that to get to such a society they may either initiate a general strike through direct action and workplace occupation or - in the case of reformist syndicalists - develop the syndicalist economics alongside the state, in competition to it.

Syndicalists state that delegation - the use of proxy representation - will facilitate direct democracy and that each commune/region would be independant in the confederation. Syndicalists typically support homosexual rights and womens rights, prominant anarcho-syndicalist Emma Goldman was among one of the first to speak out for homosexual rights explicitly. see Anarcho-syndicalism for a more indepth look at syndicalism.

Related theories include anarchism, socialism, marxism and communism.

[edit] Prominent syndicalists

[edit] American syndicalists

[edit] French syndicalists

[edit] English syndicalists

[edit] Scottish syndicalists

[edit] Welsh syndicalists

[edit] Irish syndicalists

[edit] German syndicalists

[edit] Italian syndicalists

[edit] Spanish syndicalists

[edit] Swedish syndicalists

[edit] See also

Syndicalism.svg Organized labour portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ Wiarda, Howard J. Corporatism and comparative politics. M.E. Sharpe, 1996. pp. 65–66, 156.
  2. ^ Principles of Syndcicalism, Brown, Tom. Retrieved July 06, 2010: http://libcom.org/library/principles-of-syndicalism-tom-brown
  3. ^ syndicalism - an introduction http://libcom.org/library/syndicalism-introduction
  4. ^ Salvatore Salerno, Red November, Black November: Culture and Community in the Industrial Workers of the World (State University of New York Press, 1989), pp. 69-90, ISBN 0-7914-0089-1

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

  • Lenny Flank (ed), "IWW: A Documentary History", St Petersburg, Florida: Red and Black Publishers, 2007.
  • Dan Jakopovich, "Revolutionary Unionism: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow", New Politics, vol. 11, no. 3 (2007).
  • James Joll, The Anarchists, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1980.
  • James Oneal, Sabotage, or, Socialism vs. Syndicalism. St. Louis, Missouri: National Rip-Saw, 1913.
  • David D. Robert, The Syndicalist Tradition and Italian Fascism, University of North Carolina Press, 1979.
  • Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism, London, 1989.
  • J. Salwyn Schapiro, Liberalism and The Challenge of Fascism, Social Forces in England and France (1815–1870),New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1949.



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