Anarcho-syndicalism in the 21st century

In January 2009 we produced a pamphlet entitled "Strategy and struggle - anarcho-syndicalism in the 21st century" as a clarification of the meaning of anarcho-syndicalism in the 21st century, and as a contribution to the debate over strategy and organisation.

Central to anarcho-syndicalism is the revolutionary union through which workers organise themselves to fight for their interests, including ultimately the expropriation of the means of production to be managed democratically without bosses. The revolutionary union functions according to the priciples of solidarity, direct action and rank-and-file control. In our pamphlet, we ask how such a revolutionary union can arise in a 21st century context, in the light of historical experience, contemporary anarcho-syndicalist successes and criticisms that have been made of anarcho-syndicalism. We argue that the revolutionary potential of workers organisations is tightly linked to the wider class struggle, and that organistions should be distinguished according to several characteristics: permanent organisations that are uncoupled from the level of class struggle vs. non-permanent organisations that are an expression of workers' self-organisation in militant class conflict ; mass organisations that are open to all workers vs. minority organisations that unite workers on the basis of shared politics ; and revolutionary organisations that are actually capable of making a revolution vs. pro-revolutionary organisations that only advocate social revolution. We argue that the revolutionary union is a non-permanent mass organisation that can only arise in the context of militant class-struggle, and we explain our interpretation of the Solidarity Federation's industrial strategy.

Our pamphlet is available in the libcom.org library, where it has also been discussed.