Posted by Phil Dickens on 19/07/2011 · 2 Comments
I’ve written a number of pieces now on anarchist activity within the trade union movement. In particular, I’d point to Trade unions, worker militancy, and communism from below, What is anarcho-syndicalism: revolutionary unionism, Anarcho-syndicalism and the limits of trade unionism, and my most recent post on Building the rank-and-file. However, these have all focused primarily on the difference between … Read more
Filed under Debate and discourse · Tagged with 4themembers, anarcho-syndicalism, Anton Pannekoek, association, boring-from-within, Buenaventua Durruti, building the new world in the shell of the old, CGT, CNT, DAM, direct action, Direct Action Movement, FORA, Independent Left, Joseph Kay, left unity, militant workers, PCS, rank-and-file organisation, representatives, revolutionary union, SF, SolFed, Solidarity Federation, trade union, Workers Solidarity Federation, Workers Solidarity movement, workplace committee
Posted by Phil Dickens on 13/02/2011 · 4 Comments
One statement that I quite often make is that I’m not a trade unionist. This can confuse those who know me, because I am a member and active rep within the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). However, though I believe in worker organisation as a part of class struggle and the challenge to capitalism, … Read more
Filed under Anarchism · Tagged with anarcho-syndicalism, Anton Pannekoek, bottom-up organisation, bureaucracy, Capitalism, class unity, class war, closed shop, collective decision making, CWU, full time officials, industrial peace, labour power, leadership, mass participation, mediation, militancy, partnership with bosses, PCS, rank-and-file, reformism, regulating class conflicts, revolutionary unions, scab, self-organisation, SolFed, trade union, trade unionism, union reps, union scab, worker assembly, working class
Posted by Phil Dickens on 31/12/2010 · 3 Comments
The seventh and final part of a series exploring anarcho-syndicalism, its aims and principles, and the practicalities of enacting them in the real world. The basic foundation of anarcho-syndicalism is that ordinary people, through solidarity and direct action, have the power to improve our own lives. We do not need bosses, bureaucrats, or political parties … Read more
Filed under What is anarcho-syndicalism? · Tagged with activism, anarchist communism, anarcho-syndicalism, community organising, democratic centralism, dictatorship of the proletariat, from each according to his ability to each according to his need, Industrial Workers of the World, IWW, libertarian, mass participation, organisation, rank-and-file control, revolutionary leadership, revolutionary unionism, self-organisation, social centres, SolFed, solidarity, Solidarity Federation, solidarity networks, squatting, strike, trade unions, unions, vanguard of the proletariat, workers' assemblies, workers' self-organisation
Posted by Phil Dickens on 31/07/2010 · 3 Comments
The second part of a series exploring anarcho-syndicalism, its aims and principles, and the practicalities of enacting them in the real world. In The Union Makes Us Strong? the Anarchist Communist Federation (ACF, now Anarchist Federation) offered “a critical analysis” of “syndicalism, including its anarcho variety.” In it, they painted anarcho-syndicalists as “dismissive of the … Read more
Filed under What is anarcho-syndicalism? · Tagged with Anarchist Communist Federation, Anarchist Federation, anarcho-syndicalism, CNT, community organising, Gaston Leval, Hannah Kay, industrial unionism, Industrial Workers of the World, industry, International Workers Association, IWA, IWW, LibCom, revolutionary syndicalism, Rudolph Rocker, Sam Dolgoff, SolFed, Solidarity Federation, Spain, syndicalism, unions, Wobblies
Posted by Phil Dickens on 28/06/2010 · 9 Comments
It has been my intention, for some time, to write a series of articles exploring various issues and ideas within anarcho-syndicalism. This is not a purely academic exercise. I am a member of the Solidarity Federation (SolFed) – the British section of the International Workers’ Association (IWA) – and its Liverpool local. Now, anarcho-syndicalism is … Read more
Filed under What is anarcho-syndicalism? · Tagged with activism, anarchist communism, anarcho-syndicalism, Brighton, CNT, from each according to his ability to each according to his need, IWA, libertarian, Liverpool, philosophy, practical, puerto real shipyard dispute, SolFed, Solidarity Federation, thoery, worker self-organisation, working class
