the relevancy of anarcho-syndicalism
Jul 15 2007 23:06
#32
catch22:
Quote:
I think the focus on especifico tactics can be useful when there are already existing mass campaigns with libertarian potential. However there aren't too many of those around to be honest. Most mass organizations in the US/Canada have been pretty well co-opted and are thoroughly hierarchical. Attempts to democratize and radicalize them seem resource intensive with little return on investment. Especially as many of these groups-eg unions-loose members with every year.
Why do you assume that the espificifista emphasis on presence within, and influence on, mass organizations is limited to the established mass organizations such as mainstream unions? Why wouldn't it be just as necessary to have left-libertarian influence within new mass organizations that we form? even if a mass organization is initiated by left-libertarians, if it is successful at becoming an actual mass organization, it will have a diversity of people with diverse views within it. there is no such thing as an "immaculate conception" that immunizes against conservatizing or bureaucratizing tendencies, or against infiltration by authoritarian left tendencies (tho that danger has shrunk in recent years). WSAers were involved in initiating the formation of an independent union among employees of the University of Tennessee but that union later affiliated to the CWA, even tho WSA members in it argued against this, and has developed a tendency towards oligarchy (executive committee tending to grab more control).
*shrugs* Well I think anarcho syndicalists have a responsibility to push mass organizing and mass struggles. I think the focus on especifico tactics can be useful when there are already existing mass campaigns with libertarian potential. However there aren't too many of those around to be honest. Most mass organizations in the US/Canada have been pretty well co-opted and are thoroughly hierarchical. Attempts to democratize and radicalize them seem resource intensive with little return on investment. Especially as many of these groups-eg unions-loose members with every year.
If we're serious about winning then we need to start making the move necessary to win. That means building power through struggle on a mass scale. Any anarcho-syndicalist organization in US should be doing exactly that. What form that takes is a bit of a different matter. I would agree with the WSA in that we need to build self managed institutions of struggle. I see myself involved in this via my participation in SDS and the IWW. I know some think that these groups are flawed and don't have mass revolutionary potential, but I don't see them organizing any physical alternatives so I feel that these critiques seem a bit still born.